Questions Answered and Updates

I promise that this will not have spoilers. I will mention a number of things that we have in mind, but there is no way that anyone could see into the twisted minds of the writers and actors and figure out exactly where this story will go. So, read on with confidence and enjoy the ride.

Q & A

First, let me get to the questions from fans.

Yes, you can still donate to the production. It can be done one of two ways. You can donate directly to the production company or to one of the vendors supplying goods and services for the web series. For instance, you could help pay for extra prosthetic make-up directly with the vendor. That could free up our committed resources for something else that would be nice to have. You could help pay for a location or for catering. The level of contribution will be awarded the same kind of perks we did on the Indiegogo campaign. Just email me privately, and I can set it up anyway you like. My email address is deborahlwarner@gmail.com. We are keeping copious records of everything and are willing to open the books to any contributor at the end of the production.

No, thankfully, the lower budget will not mean that the series will lose its sense of humor. I believe that the series has gotten even funnier in a macabre kind of way or in the 'that's so wrong' kind of humor that came from our actors. But there won't be silliness. The characters take what's happening in their lives very seriously. It's just that some of the things happening are seriously screwed up. It's like if Buffy the Vampire Slayer met film noir. As I've said, I don't there is a way to stop Garett Maggart from being funny. We've just found some really different ways for that humor to show itself while keeping the tension and sometimes the horror.

Yes, this script does have elements from the second half of the novel, Demon Under Glass. But it also has themes from stories that appeared in the Demonspawn: On the Run anthologies. Once the script has been finalized, we'll notify the authors whose works are represented. I'm sure they'll be jazzed about getting credits on IMDB.com. Half of the script, however, is completely original. The discussions we had during the Nosferatu TVpodcast really did open our minds to some possibilities we had not considered. We've spent the last couple of weeks fleshing out the arc with what we have for resources. We'll have a draft to put in front of the actors by next weekend. I hope to finalize the remaining cast shortly after that. I will be sharing the character breakdowns on the blog. We're always looking for casting ideas.

Frugal Film Making

I posted this link on the Demonspawn Facebook Page. I found this Youtube Channel, the Frugal Filmmaker  and blog while looking for options to solve audio recording issues we were having with the teaser, my documentary other shoots we were doing out of pocket. I realized that it was the same site we used to find plans and instructions to make a stabilizing rig for the camera with PVC pipe. You can kind of see it in this photo. This fabulous man puts up a video almost every week that has something useful for a filmmaker with no money. In fact, his motto is basically that poverty is no excuse to not make a film. We did find a few options to solve our sound problems. I even tried them when I recorded a cooking video this week. Jon also decided to wear a wire for most of a day. They are very clear mics with their own digital recorders that are also thumb drives. We have enough for our leads and some spares while spending far less than we would to rent the same equipment. We really don't want to rent any equipment. It was inexpensive enough for us to invest in the equipment on our own like the stabilizing rig. Well, he has dozens of ideas for Demonspawn's equipment needs. He even does a video on craft services that was quite helpful. Most important of all is that he will answer questions on matters not covered in the videos in a very timely manner. That is very refreshing in a city where everyone has a hand out for any little bit of information.

That's it for now. I'll have more next week. Keep the questions coming. And we really appreciate the words of support.

Vampires and Costco and India Ink

We have established that Simon Molinar enjoys the Christmas season a great deal. The advent of 24 hours shopping has made it really enjoyable for him. Thus, He's been on my mind while I hustled and bustled about getting the last of my gifts. However, he isn't just on my mind as a writer doing an exercise with a character. I was also thinking about what clothes and household items he would buy that would be seen in the web series. Shopping must continue even as the fundraiser rages on. We'll have to hit the ground running to gather everything in time once the campaign is over.

Where Vampires Shop

We've found some really groovy second hand shops for costumes and props and set dressing. I could see Simon being drawn to the eclectic goods in the window displays late at night and then returning in the final hours that they are open. Shops like these are great for a characters whose tastes would reflect many eras of fashion and style. Everything was very reasonably priced, and that sort of store is likely to buy everything back.

However, for consistency of look and feel, a vampire on the move cannot beat places like Target or Costco. Target is great for basics, but Costco is the place to find some surprising luxuries. There were Italian suits, cashmere sweaters with an incredible softness. There were sheet sets with incredible thread counts. There was even a $1500 bottle of cognac. I don't think Simon would buy a bottle of that, but I think it should be clear that he and Joe shop at these sorts of places. It makes their homes seem more real. Of course, until we can get a product placement deal, we'll have to make labeling that mimics those stores – but not too closely.

Strangely, the place where we found a number of special props that will be very personal mementos for Simon was at a comic book convention. I can't imagine Simon attending one of those as most are in buildings where there are windows in the venue where sunlight can stream in. Although, Bent-con's location last year was in a basement ballroom. The location this year had a lot of light in the lobby and corridors. He could have gotten in an hour or two in the Dealer's room, I suppose. And the parties do start well after the sun goes down. But I digress. One of the dealers had an array of well crafted personal items for very fine prices. They could easily pass for items owned by a wealth gentleman from as far back as the 1800s. He even had leather bound, gilt edged journals. Journals and letters with a custom seal loom largely in the flashbacks for the web series. Actually, I'll have to have our Simon and whomever is love interest is from yesteryear do quite a bit of journal and letter writing with a dip pen. That should be interesting. All I can see is India ink everywhere. Practice is in order.

Rehearsals

Speaking of practice, the podcast interviews brought this topic up. We've decided to have a table read long before the script is locked. There were so many interesting ideas that came out of that Q&A that we thought we'd workshop the script with the cast to sharpen the dialog. That'll be a very interesting exercise. If it's cool with the cast, we'll record some or all of it.

That's it for now. If you want to support this web series, share this link: http://igg.me/p/282567/x/126025 ! Of course, donating would be a huge help!

Campaign and Blog Update

Forgive us for not posting in some time. Our other projects and assignments along with Thanksgiving obligations have kept us crazy busy. I'll have a new blog up this weekend about shopping for wardrobe and prop pieces. We stumbled across some great finds at astonishing prices in some unexpected places.

New Trailer
We'll be putting up the HD version of the Demonspawn trailer by the weekend. There isn't any additional content. It's just that the images are much sharper and richer. Besides, we shot on HD, we want it seen in HD! I'll put the link up when it goes live.

Funding Campaign
We're off to what is considered a good start in the funding campaign. More importantly, we off to an excellent start for traffic to the page. According to Indiegogo.com, we should hit the front page of the site within the next week or so. Keep sharing and keep visiting! Here's the link: http://igg.me/p/282567/x/126025

Big Endorsement

Jane Espenson of Battlestar Galactica and Buffy the Vampire Slayer took a look at our campaign and then sent this tweet to her 80,000 followers! That has done wonders for our traffic! We've also gotten some interesting queries from actors she has worked with. This could be interesting!

Size Matters Except When It Doesn't

My all time favorite analogy for what it is like to work on a film project is from Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park 2. Basically, he says 'First there is the oohing and aahing. Later comes the running and the screaming.' This captures the arc of film making perfectly. And this is true no matter how big or small the shoot is. I hear stories from $150 million sets that make our losing a queen size mattress on the 405 freeway look like genius. Did you know that due to some logistical mix ups, the leads in Pirate's of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest had to wear wet costumes on more than one occasion? I don't mean the costumes got wet, and they had to stay in them. No, they were never cleaned and dried from being wet the day before. This means that Depp, Bloom and Knightley were in soggy duds. On the other side, I'm in forums with a number of web series producers who are reporting problems with SAG or problems with locations to problems with equipment that are the same as any fully budgeted shoot. When it comes to snafus, shoots cannot be judged by their size. However, size can matter a lot. How does that make sense? Read on.

Size and the Home PC

We were thrilled to get our groovy new Toshiba camera that records 1080p video and need minimal lights. What we hadn't thought about was just how big each file is and how that would impact the editing program. To saw that it did not run smoothly in Jon's editing program is an understatement and a half. It ran in a really jumpy manner – not good for finely editing scenes – and it clog the ram on the PC something fierce. I tried to run it in the editing program on my faster laptop, but that editing program (which is newer) had to convert it to a much lower rez to even run clips. Jon had to consult a film making forum he's in to find the answer. We needed a program to re-render all the clips to a lower resolution. He can do the edits on those and then cut the original clips by mating the time codes from the low rez edit. All of this finagling burned up a lot of time. Normally, it would only burn up a few hours. That wouldn't really matter a few years back. However, Jon now has a demanding day job, and we are working on a few other things at the same time. He doesn't have much more than a few hours a week to give Demonspawn. This surprise set us back at least a week. And that was right before Yaoi-con. Sigh. On the bright side, I really like the screen grabs on Jon's machine. I'll be putting some up throughout this blog. I only had time to grab a few this time around.

Size, Locations and Star Perks

While being too big was not ideal for editing, being too small is proving a bit problematic with locations which will impact our shooting schedule. Hangover 3 can close down a California Freeway. That shoot has the bucks to do that and weather the withering criticism of the most dangerous of Los Angeles creatures – an inconvenienced driver. We are too small to get my local library to close early on its shortest day of the week. The library and the groovy gazebo both have to be shot on a Sunday – and not the same Sunday. Some locations are only available mid-week when they are less busy. The sound stages are fine at the moment, but that could change on a dime if a bigger production wants the same space at the same time. Being small is definitely an issue in scheduling. All of my actors are professional and will fulfill their commitments to the production and work hard doing it. However, it's always best for set morale to make sure that actors are treated well while dealing with budget constraints. For instance, actor trailers or Honey Wagons are a great perk if the production can afford it. This gives them a place to be away from the shoot until they are needed and be comfortable. Good food is another perk that we will have at whatever budget level. I plan to get a good caterer that will follow us from location to location. Luckily, there is a lot of competition out here for Craft Services. There will be one that fits our budget. While I will not mention company names of our vendors and locations, I will post photos in this blog and in the info on the fund raising campaign on what the money is going for. In most cases, I can include photographs. And then, there are the scheduling considerations for the actors. Lower budgets means a higher level of consideration of an actor's schedules when we plan the shoot. They may have other commitments we'd have to keep in mind. Also, at that time of year, there are football playoffs and the Super Bowl to keep in mind. Our leads and the producers are avid football fans. It's less stressful for all of us, if the shooting schedule keeps these games in mind.

Size matters in so many things, except when it doesn't matter at all. No wonder there is a lot of running and screaming in the end.

Next time, I'll have a firm date for the release of the teaser trailer and the launch of the fund raising campaign. Also, there will be a preview of the podcast interviews.

Podcast, Locations and Teaser Update

While there still isn't a lot of hard news to report, I thought I'd bring everyone up to date with the progress we've made toward the shoot.

The Teaser

Jon Cunningham, director and co-writer on Demon Under Glass, is editing the short. He's started only a few days ago as we had other obligations that kept him from that task until now. He shot the scenes in a very precise manner with editing them in mind. We are planning on the video going live on the fund raising site Indiegogo.com two weeks from today. At this point in time, we are not sure if it will be cross posted on Youtube. We want as many people as possible to visit the fund raising page, thus cross posting is unlikely. However, we will be shooting an interview with Garett and Owen and possibly other cast members for a Gothic horror pod cast. We will also have an interview about the web series specifically for Garett's fans that will be forwarded to the people who run his web site. Links to those interviews will be posted here. I have some great questions for the podcast. If you have any, pleas ask in the comments or contact us by email. Our contact lists are in the menu on the right hand side of the page. The script for the teaser was approximately six pages. I think the teaser will be somewhere around five minutes. We hope to convey a mix of humor and horror on par with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Web Series Script

The script is still in the works. However, since it stems from two short stories that will appear in the next Demonspawn: On the Run anthology, we know what will be in it. The only addition to those stories is an opening with Simon being very, very naughty and incredibly frightening. We needed an introduction of that part of his nature to establish how much potential danger Joe McKay is in and how much danger the characters who threaten them are in. I plan to have the script done shortly before we do the podcast, in about two weeks. I want the cast to know what's in store for them before we do the interviews. Incidentally, the next anthology will be released shortly after the fund raising campaign goes online.

From the storyline we have, there are ten sets/locations: Operating room (nightmare/flashback scenes), downtown loft apartment, two downtown alleys, city street, public library, gastro pub, fancy hotel suite, town square gazebo, and a downtown roof top. We have priced all of these locations save for the downtown loft apartment. I plan on doing that sometime next week. That is the last unknown to be solved before I can complete budgets. I say budget because there will be an optimal, a minimal and an in between. Indiegogo.com allows it's participants to keep whatever is raised. The amount that we will be shooting for in the campaign is the optimal budget that gives us all the crew and the bells and whistles in post that will make this web series rise above the din and find the widest audience possible. All of these bells and whistles will be covered here, so our readers will completely understand how the production will work. We will reveal some of the clever ways we've found for saving a ton of money while keeping the production values high. And, of course, we will be answering any production related questions fans may have along the way.

That's it for now. Next week, I'll have a firm date for the teaser, updates on the podcast and other goodies!