Dance Moves, Vampire Noir and Updates

Yes, that was our very own Jack Donner aka Dr. Richard Bassett in that hilarious Taco Bell ad during the Super Bowl. He's been holding out on us, it seems. We did not know he had any dance moves! We're now trying to figure out how to incorporate this knowledge into something fun for the web series. For those of you who missed it, here it is: http://youtu.be/KvxZcULxfKw

Naturally, we got very little done because it was Super Bowl weekend. That is, we didn't get together with the actors. Jon and I were working even during that Sunday. We're at the stage in the re-write where we talk through dialog to each other. The new treatment is done. Next we go episode by episode and scene by scene constructing the dialog between the characters. We're having a bit of a squabble over a new character and how far to take him during the story arc. Jon has a tendency to go over the top where I tend to like my drama to be more subtle. In this case, it's a dispute over whether a new character should be as powerful as the Terminator in Terminator 2 or he should be more like Jason Bourne – dangerous but killable. I'm getting ahead of myself though. I have to set up a little background for the new script. Don't worry. There are no spoilers. Those were just metaphorical examples.

Some of the great things that have happened as a result of the fund raiser is that we had to come up with script solutions for the budget that resulted in a longer web series by a few episodes. We also created a new character that has long been desired by those who followed Demon Under Glass. The drama had to be more character driven than action driven. We needed to cut down on the number of smaller parts. This solution is really logical and it is a great source of humor and terror. I love writing parallel characters to show how one decision can dramatically alter the course of a life. We have two sets of parallel lives in this web series. I really loved what we had originally planned for a young woman we called 'the Twilight girl.' We are keeping some of those scenes, but I'm really enjoying what we've come up with in its stead. It is very easy to mock the romance in the Twilight Series. We still plan to do that. This girl's timing is almost tragically comedic at times. However, rather than just going for the laugh, we want to hold a mirror up to this poor girl and how terribly sad and dangerous her life choices have become. The Company Man and the Twilight Girl are completely new characters to the Demon Under Glass universe. Casting them will be an interesting process. We do plan to publish a character breakdown on this blog. Please, feel free to make suggestions.

Practical Updates

Since we have a new treatment and a firm idea of our locations, I'm going to make appointments to discuss the permit and insurance costs and application process with the proper authorities. Our budget is so low, that there aren't actual cost categories that cover our web series. It looks like everything will have to be a custom deal.

Donor Bonus

If any donor wishes, we are willing to share the scripts once they are written. We will require that a the signing of a non-dislcosure agreement before sending it.

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!

Teaser Shoot Field Notes

As I've said in previous blogs, in a larger shoot, there are department heads who have their own lists to check, double check and final check. For this one, there were three of us. There was Sunshine Lliteras who had some makeup and half of the set dressing. There was the Home owner who lent us the location. He had to sign for the furniture we rented. Then there was my lists which was everything else. Jon Cunningham, the director, had the shot list and the camera rigging. Everything had be be cross checked the Friday before the shoot. We had everything staged for quick car loading before turning in for the night.

The call time for the location was 7am. Jack Donner (Bassett) and Donal Thoms-Capello (Saybrook) had a call time of 8am. We planned on rolling camera on them no later than 9am. Garett Maggart (Joe) and Owen Szabo (Simon) had a call time of 9am. The first glitch of the day was that Sunshine got hung up in traffic and would be late. My first executive decision was to take a cab with most of the items on all of our lists to the location which was ten minutes away. I had not planned to unpack the car and begin setting up everything on my own, but stuff happens and the clock was running. Once the clock is running on a production, a producer cannot let anything stand in the way.

In the cardboard container is that danged sandwich.

Of course, Jack was early. I had him come inside and hang out with Garett who is also always early. I suspected Donal was early, too, but I couldn't spot him in any of the cars parked nearest to the house. I set up the makeup station and put away the food first. I had just finished setting up the mike stand and the one light stand when Jon and Sunshine arrived. Since Jack was there, we had him get into his costume and makeup first. Jon and Garett set up the first room by rearranging the larger furniture. We don't dragoon actors into helping on set. I have had some volunteer on occasion. Scott Levy, for example, was very helpful with the military aspects of Demon Under Glass. Typically, I prefer actors focus on their lines and relaxing. But Owen wasn't due for a while, and Garett is a very handy guy, so his helping was welcomed. Donal had arrived by the time we needed a lighting stand in. We were delighted that he played chess often enough to help us set up the board. By the time Owen arrived, at just before 9am, we were ready to start the Bassett/Saybrook scenes. We rolled camera at 9:15am. A little later than scheduled, but not too bad considering how small a crew we had.

These new digital cameras are a marvel. They look like consumer cameras yet can shoot video at 1080p with ambient light. We had one light that was more for portrait photography than for film. It was enough. The lack of need for light and the camera's lightness made it easy to move from angle to angle without stopping to tweak light levels. That can take as long as twenty minuets per change in camera position. We were able to move from shot to shot almost without stopping. The actors never lost momentum nor got tired. We were able to wrap the room and dismiss both actors by 11am. Unheard of in our previous experience.

During the shoot, I had to dash out of the room to retrieve props like a pastrami sandwich and container of soup. During that time, I got a good earful of how Garett and Owen were reading their lines. I was really pleased at what I was hearing. They also seemed to be bonding on a personal level. That's always great when actors get on personally, especially when they will be spending a great deal of time together. [for more on the food props and on the actor bonding that happened on set, you can read my personal blog about the shoot here: http://dlwarner.blogspot.com/2012/08/pastrami-epiphanies-and-actor-bonding.html. While we were shooting the Bassett/Saybrook scenes, Sunshine was helping Garett and Owen turn into Joe and Simon. As soon as we wrapped the prison breakroom set, Jon and Sunshine started set dressing Joe and Simon's living room. We had black out curtains to put up along with alternative artwork than what was on the walls. The sofa also had to be moved and the sound and lighting equipment placed.

Our small crew moved from one task to another. The routine was familiar enough that instructions weren't necessary. We walked Jack and Donal to their cars after they changed out of their costumes. It's a custom on some sets that when an actor is wrapped – they have completed the job – that the director or producer takes the time to say goodbye and thank them. Sometimes they discuss their acting choices and how they will make the film better. We like to do that no matter how small the production. I think that gesture is more important to smaller projects. Jon was very happy with the first part of the shoot, and he wanted those actors to know why.

The second half of the shoot was all Joe and Simon. It was more complex than the first. There is way more movement from the characters. Rehearsal of movements as well as dialog was necessary, so Jon could figure how to move the camera around the actors' movements. At this point, we could have broken for lunch, but that would have really slowed down the momentum of the shoot. The actors wanted to press forward. We had snacks and fruit for in between takes. Sunshine and I started heating up the meal while the guys rehearsed. We figured that even if none of the actors ate (Jack and Donal opted to head on with the rest of their schedule), the food would be a nice gift for the owner of the house.

The Joe/Simon scenes went much the same way as the Basset/Saybrook scenes with the actors moving from shot to shot with very little time in between. As always, Garett adjusted some of his lines and made them funnier and more 'Joe.' There weren't many blown takes that didn't involve a technical adjustment (moving a light or the microphone). Sometimes, our set doggie got into scenes without anyone realizing it. He was really interested when it looked like everyone was going out the front door. He thought it was time to go bye-bye. We've always had luck with sweet set doggies. I'm glad that held true. Jon was able to experiment with camera angles and the actors experimented with a few different readings of the lines. I was pleased that the blocking caused a physical intimacy between the characters while solving some editing dilemma for Jon. It is clear that these characters have a close relationship. Despite the fears of Agent Saybrook, it is very clear that Joe does not fear Simon at all. It is also clear that, despite the razzing from Joe and the mayhem that follows, Simon is content with their situation so long as no one tried to separate him from Joe. We got what we needed for the teaser by the time that part of the shoot was done. [See Teaser Gallery1 in the MENU to the right for images of Joe and Simon together.]

We also had one more set to dress before we could wrap the shoot and eat. There was a quick photo shoot on a greenscreen that was to be the final shots of the day. This was to be a taste of the flashback scenes that will be a big part of the web series. We had to find a way to hang the green screen fabric that didn't damage the walls. In the end, we used the same 3M Command Hooks that we used to hand the black out curtains in the living room. There we used a thing curtain rod that fit nicely into the hoot. All of those items were deeply discounted at Target which was having a back to school sale. The two windows cost around $15 to dress. We had extra hooks and tabs from our Christmas decorations to use on the green screen. All of the hooks came off without any damage to the paint on the walls. The authentic Japanese table was on loan from Lucy Doty and Central City Studio. Lucy was our medical consultant on Demon Under Glass. She now owns a studio in Downtown Los Angeles. The tea set was a wedding gift. The men's kimonos are mine. I've embraced many aspects of Japanese culture in the last few years. The kimonos had yet to find a use at home. I had to make the sash or obi. Getting them into those kimonos was the silliest part of the shoot by far. The dialog reflects the absurdity of the scene.

As I said in my personal blog, the speed that the shoot finished was astounding. We had the house back to the way we found it and were largely packed three hours earlier than expected. Owen had to move onto another appointment, but the food was enjoyed by the rest of us. The home owner reports that he enjoyed the leftovers immensely as did our set doggie. Most importantly, we have the right kind of footage to give potential viewers and supporters a clear idea of what the web series. We also know that we need more crew including a photographer for the behind the scenes photos. I also must schedule the pod casts we'll do during the shoot in January so that we aren't trying to cram them in between shots.

Next up for Jon is editing. Meanwhile, I have begun actively scouting for the web series and talking to potential crew and cast. But all of that is for next time.

Lists and Piles and Other Fun Stuff

We are less than a week from the teaser trailer shoot. Thus, today is all about lists. There are lots of lists necessary for a shoot. There is even a list of lists. That is what I'm working on right now. The Master List has items like:

• Cast List (contact information, clothing sizes)
• Crew List (contact information)
• Equipment List (every piece of rigging and the support items like batteries, gaffing tape, etc)
• Wardrobe List (listed by character and by scene)
• Prop List (listed by character and by scene)
• Set Dressing List (listed by scene)
• Make-up list (items listed and character make-up schemes, fangs, blood, etc.)
• Shot List (ever scene that is to be shot and who and what is in each scene)
• Still Photo List (the must have images)
• Podcast List (questions that must be covered)
• Craft Services list (food, beverages, snacks, plates, cups, trash bags, etc)
• Miscellaneous (First Aid Kit, cough drops, mints, gum, cigarettes, toothbrushes)

Every production, regardless of size, has lists like these. On large productions, it is the responsibility of the department heads to make sure that they have everything they need and to check off everything on the list. On our feature, it was the line producer and the 2^nd AD who made sure that all the department heads handed in their lists with everything check off. On this shoot, it will be my job to go over each list and make sure all the items are where they are supposed to be.

To make filling everything out easier, it's a good idea to have a timeline during which all the items on the list are checked off. For example, I have either ordered all that I needed for the shoot, or I have a shopping schedule that allows for a leisurely and sane acquisition of everything. The timeline also has tasks that must be completed by certain dates. For example, last week, I scouted the location for the photo shoot and made a list of props and set dressing that was on hand and a list of what was needed. Today, I contacted all of the actors to make sure they had kept their availability open. I also needed to verify clothing sizes and find out if anyone has been getting very tanned in the summer sun. This was of particular concern where Simon was concerned. Adjustments in make up would be necessary If Owen turned up in shades of George Hamilton. Tomorrow, Jon and I will scout the location for the teaser. Then, we can complete the prop and set dressing lists. The scripts go out tonight (Saturday), so there is ample time for questions and, possibly, adjustments.

This all sounds very reasonable and trouble free. However, I know from experience that on the Wednesday before the photoshoot and the Friday before the teaser shoot that I'll be running around all day. There is something staring me in the face that none of us can see right now. It's happened with not just every shoot of mine, but every one I've seen from ringside. There is always someone running around looking desperately for something that got missed on a list. As of now, I am not planning on running around too much.

A spoiler free pile. That was difficult to put together.

Once there are lists, soon there will be piles about our home. Piles are inevitable as the items on the list are acquired. They can be inconvenient and even a safety hazard, but piles are far preferable to leaving something behind. Following this sentence was a fifteen minute, mildly intense search for a set of fangs. As it turned out, they were in a bag with some of the items that arrived earlier this week. Turns out, we're more on the ball and far early than is the norm. I still think we need an extra set of fangs. At any rate, it is preferable to move the piles to a staging area at the location as soon as possible. However, that's often not practical. If the location is being rented by other productions, we would have to rent the place from the moment we put down a single bag. And even if that weren't the case, stuff gets lost at a soundstage. Things get moved to make room for other people's things. Then, there is the fact that one producer's bag of props or set dressing is another producer's bag of trash, and out it goes. The move from home to location is a chore, but it's far better than discovering that items on the list have gone missing. The great box and bag relay is just part of the gig like the gallons of coffee and dozens of bottles of water.

That's it for now. There will be some photos posted of the shoots next week, but it won't be a full blog. There will be a blog about the shoots the following week. If all goes well, there will also be a podcast with the actors from the set.

If there are any questions that you want asked during that podcast session, you can submit them in the comments below or via the contacts listed in the menu on the right side of this page. 

Until next time.

M is for Miscellaneous

Usually this catch all topic is left for the end of a given process. But I'm not doing these blogs in any particular order, and I'll likely come back to a topic more than once. Today, I am driven by questions from some very kind readers. As you will see by my detailed response, I am open to questions – even if I've covered something before.

Improv vs Scripted

One very fine question was about the script. Since web series are not as formal affairs as film or television, and some web series have mentioned that much on the screen is improv, why are we taking such painful care in writing the Demonspawn scripts. The question is especially relevant when we have a lead actor who is a very fine improv actor. Were I to hazard a guess on why other shows use improv is that they are not paying for sets or locations and they have unlimited access to them. The number one reason I can't even consider improv as the main method of acting in Demonspawn is that it takes a lot of time. Ten minutes of dialog per episode is a lot to come up with on the fly even when everyone is on the same page with their characters. It can take hours before one frame is shot. Time is the biggest enemy in any shoot, because it is very expensive. We will have one shot at each location for under the typical 12 hours of time. I'd say that we'd have 8. We may have as much as 10 if we're lucky. Some of that time will be eaten up with setting up lights, make-up and wardrobe. The clock starts the moment we all arrive in the parking lot.

That said, we aren't adverse to improv at all. One of the best moments in shooting Demon Under Glass was standing in the rain with Garett Maggart and Jason Carter re-doing the whole scene where Simon snatches the caduceus (oh, yeah. We need a new caduceus). And then there was re-writing the fight in the isolation tank between Joe and Simon. We were in their trailer firing ideas back and forth. It was really fun and very satisfying creatively. I don't thins could have happened until the actors were really familiar with their characters. That takes time with a script. To refine the script and give the actors an opportunity for input on the dialog, part of the budget will be allocated for table reads (sometimes known as pizza reads) where we just see how the dialog sounds being read by actors. Usually we find out there is too much dialog. We also want to have rehearsals after the script has been refined. This familiarity with the material will speed up the actual shoots, but it will also make improv easier and more effective. The actors will really know their characters having had more time in their heads. It's great for the actors and makes the shoots run as smoothly as possible. Contrary to popular opinion, actors don't like to wing it. A lack of a script or the barest sketch of a script indicates that the production doesn't have a clear idea of where they want to go or how they are going to get there. SAG certainly won't grant signatory status to a production that doesn't have a real script.

Music

Another question has been what music will we use for the series. Will we use the music from the film? Jon says that each new project is an opportunity to do something different. Thus, we will not be using the compositions written for Demon Under Glass. In doing the cooking videos and chatting with other web producers, I've discovered sites like http://freesoundtrackmusic.com that allows for the purchase of a limited license to original music. Searches of this site can be made by composer, mood of the scene or style of music. These licenses are specifically for Youtube. If we take the project to a higher level of distribution, we can pay an additional fee to keep those selections. There are several sites like this. Each one has hundreds of compositions.

Miscellaneous

While searching for the music sites, I ran across another kind of asset that we may make use of during the Demonspawn shoot. There are companies that offer licenses to use virtual sets. They are 3D computer generated environments into which actors can be realistically composited. The licenses for these assets are very reasonable (from $75 to $450). Fortunately, we are connected to talented people who can do these kinds of composites seamlessly. This gives us some options we hadn't considered for sets and some vampire type FX.

One more question that has come up often is are the actors reading this blog. As of this date, all the actors currently involved in the web series have the link to the blog. I notify them when I put up a new post.  Judging from the questions I've gotten back from them, they are reading the blog.

Until next time.

Plots and Casting Part 1/?

This will be a frequently talked about subject. This is the bare bones beginning.

It is an often quote bit of advice that one should never write a script with particular people in mind to play the parts. It's fine to be inspired by a particular actor or performance. Whatever it takes to make the characters real and the dialog easier to write. However, there are reams of stories about how a film was developed with specific actors in mind but produced with the 12^th choice in the role. This rule applies when a film goes through normal development and is funded before the casting call is placed. For most indie films, raising what is needed for the budget depends on what actor is attached to the project. Lead actors from network series of the 1990s can raise as much as $1 million dollars in the horror/scifi arena. Lead actors from the 2000s can raise as much as $3million in the horror/scifi arena. For a while ten years ago, Jeff Fahey was hitting that arena hard in the 2000s until his career righted itself. Persuading an actor to attach themselves to a project before it is funded is not easy. The best and most inexpensive way is the script. But how?

A casting director had some interesting advice. He said that we had to figure out what kind of actor they were. If they were adventurous types that are always looking stretch themselves, the best way to them is to write something for them that they have never played before. Comedians are always lamenting not being considered for dramatic rolls. Dramatic actors often want to cut up. For some, the enticement is playing a particular type of character like a hooker or a vampire or a cowboy. Or perhaps a hooker cowboy who is also a vampire. I shouldn't say things like that in this town. It'll be a series on the CW.

We have a broad canvas on which to create the Demonspawn web series. Simon Molinar has a history that spans centuries. He has known every type of person from peasant to royalty on both sides of the law and every side of politics. We decided that it would be foolish to not take advantage of that history. And between the Highlander and Forever Knight, we had a template to follow. In present day, there is a situation plaguing Simon and Joe. Sometimes, Simon finds a corresponding theme in his long and active past. The past informs the decisions made in the present. Actually, with Joe in his life, Simon is forced to look at his past decisions and choose a different path – in some cases. I say sometimes, because Simon likes to talk about his life. There may be no corresponding situation at all. He may be just in the mood to spin a yarn. At any rate it gives us a lot of latitude for characters that are not only fun to watch and fit the story but also can attract the actors we are after.

But that isn't the only way we plan to attract actors and, hopefully, viewers. Star names of all sorts like to do parodies of major films and TV. They do such skits on shows like SNL. The website Funny or Die http://www.funnyordie.com/ is full of celebrity driven parody. We have a couple of names that are interested in the parodies we have in mind. Hopefully, from that interest, we can attract more. The parodies are all films, TV shows or commercials that Joe and Simon are watching. It can be anything from crime dramas, to reality shows to scifi and horror. Of course, we will thoroughly lampoon Twilight, but there are many other fun topics to explore. Not all will be brutal lampoons. Some will be loving send ups – like the way Young Frankenstein did with old horror films. There will be glee amidst the thrills and chills.

Now, how do we get these fun scripts to the actors we're after? We have a couple of options. The direct approach involves running a Breakdown(TM) or casting call. Since web series are more common and often fall under a SAG contract, managers are more likely to heed a client's request to look at them and pass them along. To hedge that bet, we can mention a specific actor in the Breakdown as a prototype for the character. We have connections to a few names through routes so serendipitous that no one would believe me if I laid them out in a diagram. We believe that at least one and possibly two of them would go for the parodies.

Now, to the basic plot for the web series. There are minor spoilers ahead.

The series will begin a few years after Simon and Joe [the full backstory to these characters can be found on the menu to the right under Backstory] go on the run from Delphi 2.0. The events in Demon Under Glass and how Joe came to be on the run with Simon a year later will be covered in the opening sequence of each episode in a voice over by Joe with images matching the narration. Then, Joe will do a voice over bringing viewers up to speed on where they are at that particular time and why. In this arc, Joe and Simon are in a new town keeping a low profile. They've had a close brush with capture (there will be flashbacks). Something about how they were discovered makes them paranoid. While Simon tries to figure out if they are being tracked, Joe is analyzing the data they got. After a while, Simon becomes convinced that they are being watched by someone not associated with Delphi. It has happened to Simon before, but this time there is the internet to intensify the attention. Joe is skeptical at first, but he soon realizes that there are women who believe in vampires watching him and Simon. Mayhem ensues. All the while, the pair are going about their usual routines which includes a lot of TV and movies, shop, do chores and argue.

'Till next time.

Scripts and Budgets

When we first moved out here in the mid- 1990s, the best advisors on film production told us to write what any given story needed for it to be told well and to not worry about how much it cost. However, back in those days, general wisdom was that a writer would pitch a script either directly to a studio or to a production company with a studio production deal. That is what we did for a number of years. These entities have the deep pockets to make anything written on a page a reality. Times have radically changed.

As we considered developing this web series, the first thing we had to look at was what assets we have, what assets we could obtain for free (or close to it), and what do we absolutely have to lay out money for. The easiest place to save money is the script. For example, One gunshot – from a blank pistol – requires an expensive rider on the production's insurance policy, the presence of a fire marshal (at $80 and hour with a four hour minimum) and a stunt coordinator certified in the use of firearms ($800/day). One gunshot! We would love to have Simon scale walls that are three stories or more tall in this web series. I'm sure that Owen Szabo would love to strap on a wire rig and scale a building. It may be hard to keep him from doing something like that, but the insurance rider for that cost more than the basic policy and requires a coordinator and a whole lot of safety equipment. I'm not saying that there won't be breathtaking action in this web series. It's just that everything we wrote had to be run through a lot of research and asset acquisition. It took a lot of creativity that was well beyond spinning a story.

Then, there are sets and locations. We have access to a location that will make a suitable home for Joe and Simon for this season. We had to be assured at we can film all the scenes we need to (no problems from neighbors with parking on the block, that sort of thing). Luckily, it's written into canon that Joe and Simon move frequently. I wouldn't expect to come back to the same location from one season to the next. LA neighbors can be fairly hard nosed when it comes to any kind of shoot. We could be the best neighbors in the world, and someone may still get a bug up their but about the content or not getting to have some of the catering. They could want a fee for their 'inconvenience' or complain to the permit office and block us from the location. It's best not to push one's luck. 

We are fortunate that the city, county and state are pro-film. We have found some wonderful locations owned by various government entities that we can shoot at without a fee. One of them is this great, old timey gazebo that we can make look like it's from the turn of the last century for one of the flashback scenes. We have to hire an LAPD officer to watch over us, but that's cool. We'll need someone to keep the homeless regulars out of the shots. They won't sit still for make-up, so we'll have to move them along for a while. We'll be shooting in a library where a vampire romance novel club meets, and at a really plush community auditorium that will double as a movie theater. All of these are free of fees. They also have plenty of parking and places for wardrobe, make-up and meal breaks. Yes, these things must be considered – along with where the bathrooms are – while I am writing the action in the scripts. If any location is lacking in these basic amenities, rental of trailers has to be considered. That brings with it the headache of where it would be parked and the cost of the fuel, water and the teamsters to drive it ($30/hour, 8 hour minimum and we need two – even for one vehicle – and I'd have to feed them).

Speaking of food, that has to be factored into the scripts as well. For lower budgeted projects, good food is a must. That is one of the elements that we have to pay for. And I mean paying for a caterer. We've had experience trying to feed a crew by preparing everything on our own. It is a hat that comes with too many headaches. We won't even try to do craft services http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craft_service snack table. We have to make sure that they are good and reliable. As the price of food tends to be per head, we have to keep an eye on how much cast and crew we have each day. Throngs of extras may be free (you can always find people who want to be on camera in LA), but that's a lot of mouths to feed. Trash is also something that we have to keep track of. More people make more trash. Some of these folks can be really slovenly about where they dispose of food and drinks. I've been on big productions where instead of nagging cast and crew about where they were putting empty containers or napkins, a cleaning service is hired. Honestly, it can come down to that. But that won't happen with us. I really insist that if I'm not working with children, I shouldn't have to pick up after anyone or pay someone to do it. Keeping the numbers down diminishes the problem.

So, on top of the terror for writers in looking at a blank page, indie filmmakers have to keep in mind myriad constraints to the budget. This can be daunting on the one hand. On the other hand, these constraints can be an interesting creative challenge. The very elements that made film noir fascinating to critics and audiences were born from some very tight constraints on content and budget. It wasn't easy to have sexually charged, hard boiled crime dramas drenched in violence under the Hays Code http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code. On top of that, noir was considered on the B list at studios by and large. The budgets were not so big. All this made writers work harder. Many times, magic was created. Actors tend to thrive in this setting, because their skills are leaned upon more heavily when there isn't the cash for big FX and not everything can be laid out and spoon fed to the audience. It's become a fascinating puzzle for us.

This brings us to how to write a script to interest well known actors enough to work for tens of dollars and some great catering. That's for the next blog!

Welcome and Why Blogger?

Welcome to the website and blog for the web series, Demonspawn -- Tales from Demon Under Glass, a web series about a two thousand year old vampire who is on the run with a physician to escape government sponsored medical experiments and the adventures they find along the way.

It is our plan to be as transparent as possible during the development and production on this project. We will show you as much as you can stand about the nuts and bolts of this modest production. To that end, I will first explain why the website is on Blogger. I know there will be some or maybe many who ask why not Tumblr or a dedicated website? It's easy. Blogger is owned by Google. Among the many splendiforous things that Google provides its users is priority in Google search results. In fact, anything mentioned or any image put up on a Google powered blog will come up high on a search. That drives readership and, hopefully, viewership. Additionally, I can easily cross post the blog on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ at the time I post this. I know that the url seems cumbersome. If I want to have a customized url, I can do that as well. I won't be doing that for a while though. And, the price is right -- as in it's free. Price is the paramount concern in most of the decisions made for the web series. I may get a Tumblr account to cut and past the blog for those who insist upon that. I will not, however, get a Facebook page for the site. It's just too much to keep track of on top of all the other social media that I have to manage. However, I am not adverse to someone else doing a fan page. But I don't expect that to happen until sometime after the show starts running online.

My current plan is to update this page as things develop. I will not be posting more than once a week even when we're fully in production (this post will not count as a weekly post ♥). I will put photos up on separate pages that will under the LINKS section of the right hand menu under the Gallery. The photos may be passed to any interested parties, but I'd like them to be credited. Likewise, I don't mind segments of this blog being cross-posted elsewhere -- jut attribute the source. We also ask that you label all spoilers and be civil in the comments section. We plan on bringing in the cast for Q&A here and for podcasts on another site. That can only be done in a relaxed setting where everyone is having a good time.

That's it for ground rules. We hope everyone enjoys the ride!