we’re doooooing it! i’ve moved past the writing phase, and have landed in the real pre-production goodness – planning, casting, and so on. there are a lot of particulars of this story that are going to require more work than the typical film up front, specifically within the realm of prop-making. which is quite unusual for me (outside of francis’ fairy tale and the ill-fated 70s porn star movie). fun work, but it will be a challenge.
right now i’m tied up in the casting process. i followed through on my threat to reach out to people and not just act in it myself, and i’ve gotten a much better response than i anticipated! i almost regret reaching out in such an open-ended manner, because now i’m going to have to put a few people “on hold” that i can’t cast here, but who i really want to work with. my next project will likely be built around these actors, and hopefully they’ll be patient enough to wait for it.
starting to schedule things with people is making this whole thing feel a lot more real than it did about a week ago. now that i have a better idea of where things are, i’m thinking filming will be complete within a couple months (which doesn’t leave me all that much time for the aforementioned props). the ball is really rolling now.
the script itself is in good shape. following some feedback on draft two, i churned out a third and (mostly) final draft. response has been really encouraging, and i am still feeling good about where everything is in the story. there may be a bit of massaging once i get the actors locked down and i work with them on the parts, but it wouldn’t be much, and that may not even be the case.
so now that i have a solid script to work with, a story that i like, and things are beginning to take shape, i’m starting to get a voice in the back of my head that is afraid of messing it all up. when i finished writing it and realized i liked it so much, i thought maybe i should try to pass it off to someone else to film. i’ve thought about turning it into a stage play for someone else to produce (not impossible, but there’s one major hurdle that would take some doing to get around). i have a fear that i won’t do the script justice in film form. i just have to push past that concern and believe in the story. once i really get into visualizing the shots and putting together the storyboard, everything will start to become more clear.