Tohubohu Is Seeming More Appropriate by the Day

Yes, I am still here. But between preparing for this weekend’s 48-Hour Film Project and the mind-boggling workload that built up during my vacation, I haven’t had time to make even a quick note here. Still, since the event’s this weekend (holy crap), I thought I should at least check in with all of you with an update.

I’ve handed over the official “Producer” reins to Geoffrey Long, which leaves me free to concentrate on the “Director” end of things. So far, I think we’ve got a pretty good division of labor established, with me in charge of the creative side, and Geoff handling the practical. Not that he’s completely out of the creative loop, as he’ll also be joining us as a part of the writing team.

Yes, that’s right, team. On the one hand, writing by committee doesn’t usually produce the most artistically coherent work, but given our time frame, we’ve opted to go with more of a television model than a cinematic one. Another concession we’ve made to time constraints is to use a script outline rather than a complete script, leaving it up to the actors — a largely improv-trained group — to work out the details on the fly. I must confess that I’m not sold on this idea, but I think we’ll be better able to extract credible performance by allowing our cast to work naturally as opposed to trying to conform to a hastily cobbled-together screenplay. In all likelihood, there will be elements scripted in more detail (particularly the requisite “line of dialogue” we’ll be assigned), and we’ll have to run multiple takes (not to mention two cameras) to keep things tight, but I’m optimistic that our approach will work. Kori Lusignan — my fellow team Tohubohu leader — will be in charge of “wrangling” the actors and directing the improvisational aspect.

Rounding out the core crew are Adam Young as our D.P. (and storyboard artist) and Ginny Filer as our editor (who will no doubt have a bear of a time matching those improv takes), with my wife Pam joining us at the writing roundtable. In front of the camera, the actors will be lead by Kori, Courtney Davis, and Nello DeBlasio, and it looks like we’ve got a pretty good array of talent lining up along with them.

By the way, if anyone else will be in the area and wants to join us — even if just for a portion of the weekend — drop me a line ASAP. If you’re unable to join us, but would like to help in some other way, we do have several areas in which we need assistance. One, we need to find interesting or unusual locations — offices, rooms, apartments, cells, what have you (and, of course, we need releases for anywhere we shoot). Two, we need whatever additional video equipment we can get our hands on; we’ve got a decent assortment, but could always use more, particularly the more high-end stuff. And three, we’ll need props and costumes; because we don’t know what genre we’ll draw, we could need anything from a detective badge to a medieval sword.

We start work Friday evening at 7 p.m., with shooting tentatively slated for Saturday and “post-production” on Sunday. In reality, there will be a lot of overlap, but our deadline is set in concrete. In addition, we’ve gotten our screening slot — next Friday evening at 9 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre, no less. Even if you’re not able to join us for the production, we’d appreciate your coming out to support us then — particularly since there’s an “audience award” portion of the competition; the more friendly faces in the audience, the better our chances. Tickets are $7.50 apiece, and are available online via the AFI Silver Theatre site (just click on “Film Information” and look on the list for our “48 Hour Film Project” screening time).

Almost showtime...

We’re In!

Just got a notice that — even though the applications period for the 48-Hour Film Project hasn’t closed yet — team “Tohubohu” is guaranteed a slot in the competition. Sometimes it pays to be prompt: Because our application was one of the first ten received, we get in. Anyone whose entry is received after those first ten goes into a random drawing for a chance to compete.

So now I’ve just got to send in the remainder of our entry fee — another $100 — and start making preparations. Sure, the creative part all has to be done in that one weekend (May 7th through the 9th), but there’s still a lot to accomplish in the meantime. First of all, I need to assemble our team — so if you want to join us (and can be in D.C. — or help out remotely — for at least some portion of that weekend), either make a note in the comments for this entry or send me an e-mail.

The Game Is Afoot

I know, perhaps it’s a little premature for me to start thinking about abother competition while Greenlight is still in full swing, but they’ve just announced the dates for the 48-Hour Film Project here in D.C.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Project (and haven’t heard me go on about it), here’s a quick rundown. Teams gather Friday night (May 7th) and draw a film genre out of a hat (a different drawing for each team) — horror, comedy, romance, western, etc. Then, the competition as a whole picks out some specific elements — for example, a prop, a character, and a line of dialogue. From that point, your team has 48 hours to make a short movie (between four and eight minutes in length). All creative work (well, with a few limited exceptions) must be completed within that period; the finished project is delivered Sunday evening (May 9th).

Monday evening (the 10th), the finished entries are screened, and afterward, the winner is announced (in the past, that screening has been at Visions Cinema, but this year it’ll be happening at the new AFI Silver Theatre). The competition takes place in cities around the world, and the winning pictures go on to compete with each other for Best of the 48-Hour Film Project.

We’ve got the entry form (PDF), and we’ll be sending it in before the end of the day — while there’s an April 9th deadline for entry, there are a limited number of slots available (and historically, it’s first-come, first-served). There will be a financial commitment, but the more people we have, the lower (per person) that will be (a non-refundable $25 per team for entry, and $100 per team for competition). I know a lot of you out there have expressed interest in joining in, so drop me a line (handy-dandy link over on the left there) and we’ll add you to the list!

Update: The entry forms have been sent off. Our team — hereby dubbed “Tohubohu” — is now in the actively-seeking-participants stage.

No Turning Back Now

Thanks to the glory of package tracking, I can see that my videos arrived at Project Greenlight. I’ve also uploaded at least a preliminary draft of my Holding Pattern screenplay; I’m still planning to do some final edits before Saturday’s deadline, but this way I can at least be sure I’ve got something entered.

I remember the first PGL, when — thanks to network overload — folks had a bear of a time getting their stuff sent in at the last minute. I really don’t want to be that guy.

Well, It’s Off

Just sent out the Project Greenlight tapes. The Director’s Contest is now out of my hands. I still have to finish my feature screenplay, but since that’s an electronic upload, I’ve got some time. Well, a couple of days, anyway.

I’ve started putting together a “Loose Ends” DVD — which will have a pretty sizable chunk of supplemental material. I won’t be offering it for sale — licensing agreements prohibit it — but at some point, I may put a QuickTime version of the movie on-line.

If you’re interested in updates, drop me a line.

Well, It’s Official: I’m Entered

Just finished the final audio mix last night — for both the “Director’s Cut” and the “Project Greenlight” versions — for “Loose Ends.” And this morning I filled out the official entry forms.

So all that’s left to do is send it out. And by my original reckoning, I’m a day early. Of course, the prudent course of action would be to use that extra day to make any last-minute fixes, changes, etc., but a part of me just wants to get the thing out the door. We’ll see.

Eventually, I’ll probably post a version of it on-line, but for now, I’m going to hold off until I see how things go in the contest. The first hurdle — the announcement of the “Top 250” scenes — is scheduled for March 25th. Assuming I make that cut (and for the record, I’m not assuming anything just yet), I’ll have until April 12th to submit a “Fimmaker Video,” a sort of bio piece that’ll have to grab their attention. Given some of the videos I’ve seen in years past, that’ll be a tall order.

But one step at a time, eh?

I want to thank everyone who helped out with this piece — and there are a lot of you. Let me make special thanks to my co-producers Adam Young and Ginny Filer; I really couldn’t have done it without you. To my stars — principals Nello DeBlasio and Wallace Garner, and featured players Richard Wilt, Courtney Davis, and Collin Klamper — let me say the scene would not have been nearly as polished as it was without your invaluable creative insights. And Tom Bridge, thank you for the use of your camera — some of the most dramatic shots in the finished piece would not have existed without your assistance (which just goes to show you that some of the best material results from “happy accidents”).

I’ll keep everyone posted on the results, and we’ll all just have to see what happens. In the meantime, I’ve got to get back to work on the screenplay competition part...

One Night Down, One to Go

Well, I’d call last night’s shoot a success. Granted, we didn’t come close to hitting our planned 11:00 wrap time — well, unless you consider 1:00 a.m. (not including breakdown time) “close.” On the plus side, though, we got some fantastic material, in most cases better than I could have hoped; and this despite the increasing fatigue of folks going through the scenes for what seemed like the millionth time. Both cast and crew were unbelievably helpful and dedicated, particularly given my own frequent uncertainty. We also managed to get all of the shots at that particular location finished, which makes today’s stuff a little less stressful, as we won’t have to go through the whole setup/breakdown there again.

So one more quick shoot this afternoon, and a couple of scenes this evening, and we’ll be finished with principal photography.

And with luck, I’ll get more than the four hours of sleep I managed last night. Before editing begins bright and early on Saturday.

Waiting for the Other Shoe

Am I crazy to think that things are actually going well on this Greenlight scene? I mean, I know we still haven’t completely locked casting decisions, but given the success of this weekend’s location scouts, I’m feeling irrationally optimistic.

Not that I’m planning to get any sleep for the rest of the month, you understand...

Last Call for Stardom

I didn’t want to spam everyone in my address book — a lot of folks just plain aren’t interested — but assembly of cast and crew for my Project Greenlight director’s scene is well under way. In fact, despite its being a holiday weekend, we really need to get most of this stuff finalized by the beginning of next week. Right now, it looks like we’ll be shooting either Thursday or Friday evening (or both, depending on how well we keep on schedule), with editing (and maybe some pickups or even second-unit photography) over the weekend.

So if you want to participate, let me know now! For those of you with my direct contact info (which I won’t post here, obviously), the best way to get me is via my cell phone — I’m largely “off-line” today and across the weekend (I think there’s some holiday or something tomorrow; I really should do something about it). Still, I’ll check e-mail periodically, so if you want in — believe me, we can use all the help we can get — drop me a line and I’ll pass along what details I’ve got.

Okay, so participation might be a little tougher for those of you not actually in the greater D.C. area, but I’m open to suggestions.

And... Action!

This just in: Project Greenlight is back! Not the series (yet, though it’ll be airing on Bravo this time around), but the contest behind it all. I’ve entered twice before, and I’ll be doing it again this time.

This year, however, I’ll be entering both the screenwriting and directing contests (as of last season, the contest was split in two). I’ve already put together a working script for my three-minute directing scene (entitled “Loose Ends”), as well as a potential shooting location (casting will be a little tougher). The feature screenplay (Holding Pattern) is coming into shape, though the mandate this year is to go with more of a “genre” film — so I’ve still got more work to do to be able to (realistically) think of it as a “romantic comedy.”

Hey, if anyone wants to offer a critique (as opposed to just reading for fun), let me know. And if anyone wants to help out with the scene — a far more collaborative effort than writing, to be sure — I’m more than happy to have you.

But at the very least, I recommend that everyone head over to the PGL site and take a look. You don’t have to be an aspiring filmmaker — you can sign up as a reviewer, which means you’ll have a chance (but not an obligation) to read and critique submitted screenplays. Chosen at random, naturally, so I won’t be able to game the system by having my friends all give me glowing reviews.

Though if I figure out a way to do that, believe me, I’ll let you know.

Time to Break Out the Keyboard — and the Camera

Hot damn. First I get a message that the 48 Hour Film Project is gearing up for the 2004 competition, and today I see that Bravo just picked up Project Greenlight for a third season. Yeah, it’ll suck having to be censored for basic cable, and it sure as hell won’t be the same without über-antagonist Chris Moore, but still...

They’re looking to start taking submissions in just a few weeks. And this time I damn well plan on entering both the screenwriting and directing contests (I missed out on the directing one last time around — I just couldn’t put together a scene in time). So if folks don’t hear from me across the next couple of weeks, that’s why.

And by the way, if anyone wants to help out — either by critiquing my screenplay (yeah, in the interests of time, I’ll probably be dusting off the old standby, Holding Pattern) or helping put together a director’s scene — let me know A.S.A.P.

(And by the way, that goes both ways — if anyone wants help, let me know. There are some things it’s worth taking time to do, even with my own schedule in mind.)

An Unhappy Realization

I screwed up royally. I’ve been going on at length (in the real world, anyway) about participating in next spring’s 48-Hour Film Project. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the project, production teams are given one weekend to produce a short film, starting from a randomly drawn genre — say, “film noir,” “romantic comedy,” “musical,” and so forth — unique to each team, and with a mandatory character, prop, and line of dialogue, drawn also at random but applying to the entire competition. All creative work — writing, rehearsals, casting, shooting, editing — must be completed within that 48-hour window, and the completed films are shown at a screening at Visions Cinema the following Monday evening. The competition doesn’t take place just here in Washington (though it originated here), but in cities around the country. “Best of” shorts go on to compete nationally.

I’ve been spending my off time working out a lot of the details to make this happen, from assembling a team to arranging for equipment. But one thing we realized was that it’d be a great idea to do a “practice run,” a test to iron out the kinks before the real thing. Of course, not having a real deadline makes it a little less exciting, less urgent, but at least it’d be something. Well, in my lack of attention (well, more like my emphasis on my real life), I never noticed that there was a fall event! Aparently, they’ve got an affiliate competition, the National Film Challenge. Imagine the exact same competition but on a nationwide scale. Everybody does it simultaneously; instead of hand-delivering your finished tape, you FedEx it to the national competition site. You don’t have the local screenings, but you’re still competing.

And it happened the weekend of October 17th through the 20th. We missed it. All because I couldn’t be bothered to keep on top of things.

I am so not happy right now.