Mike Z and Draft 3

I spoke with Mike Z the other day on AOL instant messenger and he officially accepted the part of Brandon. I told him he’s got some research to do and he said he was looking forward to it. I want him to spend some time with the real Brandon so that Mike can get a better handle on the character. I also asked him to do some research on the culture of urban explorers. Brandon was dabbling in this culture and ultimately it’s what led to Brandon exploring the tunnels, elevators, and buildings. I gave Mike a few websites and he’s gonna play around with them in the next few months.

I had a very productive weekend as far as writing the script is concerned. I’m on page 83 of the printed out second draft and am on page 67 of the 3rd Draft. I think I’m gonna finish it today. I’ve got a lot of time this afternoon that I’m gonna devote to it. As you can see I’ve already cut 16 pages of the second draft. As I write I can really see the screenplay getting better and tighter. I’m really looking forward to finishing and starting the board and budget.

Elevator to the shoot

I emailed this company today called Schindler Group. The Maintenance department of the MU had me email them about shooting in an elevator shaft, which happens in the movie. I basically emailed them and asked them to contact me with information about how I would go about making something like that happened or give me the contact person with that information. I’m very interested to see what they have to say.

I talked to Brandon Hannifin on Tuesday about playing the role of Matt. I had originally wanted Josh Smith to play the role but he’s not going to be in town during the shoot. I’ve worked with Brandon a few times and we work well together. I really think he can play the role well, but it’s going to require him cutting his hair. Right now he’s got hair down to his shoulder. I would require him to cut his hair in down to finger length. I’m gonna photo shop a picture of him and see how it looks.

I still have yet to get into writing the re-write yet. My computers pretty much built. I’m gonna really hammer it out this weekend and finish the script. It needs to get done.

New Lap Top YAY!

So here I am posting from my new Laptop, of which i'm in love with. I'haven't had a chance to write anything for the Screenplay because i've been building this computer. As soon as i'm ready i'll finish the draft. I went last thursday to the computer lab where the scheduling software is located and asked them to take a look at it because i was going to be coming in at in the next few weeks to do the schedule and last time i used the software, back in december, the save function didn't work. doesn't that suck. so i'll check tomorrow and see if they fixed it. Chris LaMont started to read my screenplay and stoped at page 10. he called me to tell me he wouldn't read anymore cause the spelling was so bad. ha. well i told him i'm sorry but that's just something he's gonna have to get over with me. My dislexia (i think that's how you spell it) completely inables me to be able to remember how to spell and do grammer. as you can see i spell everything fonetickly. that's a joke, well the misspelling is. so i'll get him a new copy and have molly spell check it. a minor set back. but nothing to bad.

Ashton Vs. Navarro

So I've been writing as much as I can this weekend. As of right now I’m at page 56 of the Printed out second draft and page 46 of the new re-write. I've already cut 10 pages and am confident I can find 20 more. I'd like to get it in between 100-110. Friday I didn't get anything done at work and Friday night I had to attend a screening for a film in which I’m apart of. Well I really worked on the sequel but I had to make an appearance at this screening for one because I wanted to see it, and two we wanted to see the people I had worked with on the second one. You can check it out at http://www.thefaceoffreedom.com/. I worked on 14 days in Great Britain. Anyway. Saturday I had to finish that wedding video, which is done, and then I was supposed to go to a movie with my DP but I thought it better to work on the Screenplay, which I did. Today I worked on the screenplay all day with the exception of a 3-hour detour when I discovered a nasty huge patch of mold and muck growing under the burners of the stove in my apartment. A bucket of bleach, 3 roles of paper towels, and 3 hours later we were airing out the nasty stench. But before that all happened while I was writing the script I had another epiphany. When I was talking to my friend last Thursday he was asking me about the central conflict in my story and I realized it was Brandon and Officer Ashton's conflict that was central. So I needed to beef up Officer Ashton's character and involvement in the story. While I was writing I realized that if in the first few acts I switch the characters around a bit so that Officer Ashton took Officer Navarro's role on it would one, get officer ashton more involved in the story and more central to the plot and two give him a nice character arc. So far it's working out good. Navarro has stayed who he is but as fallen to the background and Officer Ashton has come forth. I should be getting my lap top tomorrow so writing should be a lot easier.

An Amazing Epiphany

Work has been so fucking busy that I haven’t been able to what I consider Real work. I guess I am earning a pay check. Anyway, on Wednesday I was only able to get to page 13 of the re-write and page 15 of the printed out draft. Yesterday I didn’t get to write a thing cause work was so busy, from work I went right to dinner with an old friend, and then went to a screenwriting class I’m auditing that didn’t get out until 9:30pm, of which at the end of the day I was exhausted. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some writing done today. I ordered a lap top on Tuesday. It’s just a dell piece of crap, cost me 500, but I think it will be great so that I can write and work on the script from anywhere. That’s really why I got it, to be able to write and work online anywhere.

So I had a dream last night and I think I’m going to turn it into a bad movie some day. I had a dream I was skiing a sniper on the slopes started taking people out. It’ll be Die Hard meeting Phone Booth. It’ll be awesome. A total Michael bay bad action movie. Anyway, the dream really surprised me because it was so vivid. I can remember it perfectly. I was in the shower this morning working out some of the plot points for this terrible movie when I started to think about Freshmen (which I’m thinking of changing the title by the way). I started trying to find a way to strengthen the terrorist plot story of the film and I had an epiphany. Yesterday I was talking with my friend about the screen play, he’s got a lot of experience writing for film so he helps me out here and there. So he asked me what the central conflict of the film was and I had to think about it for a bit. I wasn’t sure. Then it dawned on me that the conflict between Brandon and Officer Ashton is the key conflict in the film. It’s what sets all the other events in motion and ultimately what wraps everything up at the end. This realization will really help me strengthen the screenplay. So while I was in the shower this morning I was trying to think of ways I can hammer in Officer Ashton’s assumption. I kept searching for events and things I remembered from freshmen year, to stay true to the “based on true events”. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks! The Flag! The fucking Flag! Why hadn’t I thought of it before?! It’s perfect. Absolutely perfect. Freshmen year Brandon was always ordering things online. One day he gets this package. He opens it up all excited and wont tell us what it is till he can show us. He opens it to reveal a red cloth. He shakes it out and holds up for us to see a full size authentic Soviet Union Flag. He’s so weird. He ordered it online, still has it today actually, hanging in his room. Well in the dorm he hung it right up. In the screenplay I think I’m going to have him get a Flag from a Middle Eastern country and hang it in the room. When the cops come looking for Colin, they’ll find it. Just another puzzle piece in a crazy night. I’m really excited to write the scene. I’m going to have to revisit the first few pages of the screenplay to establish it. Then I’ll write the scene when I get to it. Ooooo I’m excited. Haha!

Busy Bee

I didn't make any progress on monday like i thought i would. i'm doing this wedding video for a friend and it ended up takeing up a lot more of my time then i thought it would. i'm almost done with it though. about two more hours and it should be done. i'm going to wait till saturday to do it thought. tonight i'm gonna spend on the Screenplay. i wanna get the draft done by next week. So yesterday was the first day of school and at work it was so incredibly busy. like the busiest i've ever seen it working there. and i've been there for two years. i got one page done at work. School is going to be easy this semester. which is good so i can concentrate on pre-production. I had a good friend tell me that he really didn't like the script and didn't find it interesting at all. this surprised me but i respect his ability to be honest with me. it's interesting how some people don't like it and some are willing to movie to another state to work on it. I also had a ex-student tell me he'd be willing to donate some money to the project. anyway... so i'm officially on page 6 but i hope to get to at least 20 or 30 by the end of the night. i think i can do it as long as a i concentrate.

Opening Scene

So I pumbled into the re-write this morning and it took me a lot longer than I thought it would. well i should say that i didn't get as much done as i thought i would. i only got to page 5 sheesh. but i added a scene and cut a lot. the opening scene i added after the credits i think ads alot to the film. i atually go right from the credits to meeting the officers. it used to go from the credits to meeting Jared, Colin, and Brandon. but i think this works better as the cops essentially interact with everyone. right now i'm about even with the two lengths. five in the re-write and five in the second draft. i'm gonna put a couple hours into it tonight.

A lot of Progress, A lack of Posting

So.... haven’t posted in a long time. My apologies. A lot has happened in the last few days. I’ll try and keep things chronological.

On Thursday I was taken down into the tunnels by facman for a location scout. It was awesome. Not only were the guys that took us excited about helping us but also they were always suggesting places we should check out. Doing the little breakdown sheets and having a little list of props, sets, etc was great to have in advance. it made things run a lot smoother. I went down with my DP, Dan, and my hopefully on set sound mixer, Daniel swier. Dan brought a 3chip camera and got 35min of footage. It looks great. We found some really cool places that will work really well for the film. Daniel took a digital camera and took about 15 pictures. They’re pretty cool. Maybe we'll put them up on the website. I’m not sure. The facman guys told us we could contact them to do another location scout if we needed. Which we might do depending on the screenplay and the changes that take place in the next few months. Not sure yet.

I’m starting to get feedback by potential crew, friends, and actors about the screenplay. It’s interesting the split between the dialogue. Some people love it and some people hate it. I like it so I’m not sure if I’m going to be changing too much just yet. We’ll see what other people think.

A friend in Texas, whom used to go to school with me, read the script and liked it so much that he's gonna try to come here to help film it. I told him to be careful because I would hate for him to come here and us not make the film. Not that I think that's going to happen but there’s still a lot of details that need to be worked out. Like reslife and the police for two.

I had a meeting with Chris Lamont yesterday. It went really well. Chris is the head of the phoenix film foundation and he founded the phoenix film festival and is the executive director. Chris and me have a history of a couple of years from projects and me taking some of his classes at school. I wanted to meet with him for a few reasons. One I wanted him to read the script because he's a friend with an actor I want to play officer Navarro. If I approached the actor outright I don't think he’d read the script because it's a student film that he wouldn't get paid for. I figure that if Chris reads it and likes it then the actor might read it. Hopefully if he reads it he'll like it and take the part. That’s the plan at least. The other reason I met with Chris is I wanted to start a dialogue with him and let him know I’m taking on the project. I’d like to use him as an advisor and I’d like him to find out about the project form me rather than someone else. I’m really excited that he's willing to read the script and give me notes. It will be really valuable when attracting people to the project to say that Chris Lamont approves of the project and liked the script. That is if he likes the script right? One of the things he told me right of the bat is that I need to cut 45 pages from the screenplay. He said that movies over 90min with out any names attached are unattractive to distributors. We’ll see what he says after the he reads the 135page version. I mean I know it needs to come down but 90 pages? Jeez. That’s a lot. 45 pages?

I’m going to start working on the next rewrite diligently tomorrow. It’s the most important thing to get done next so I can get a board and budget ready to meet with reslife and the police. I need to secure those things to officially green light the picture. I’ve also got to email the scenes to ihop to see if they'll let me shoot in their restaurant. If not I’ll have to find somewhere else and quick.

Camera into the Abyss and Financial Aide!

I talked to the facman people so i'm going into the tunnels for a locations scout. i'll be going in with in the next few days. i have a date and time locked but i don't want to publisize it like this. sorry. but i am bringing two cameras when i go down there. this will be the scond time i bring a camera down there. the first time was when i got arrested for being down there. they used the camera to find my other two friends which is in the script. but i'll let everyone know how the location scout goes once it's over.

i got my financial aide for school yesterday. yay! i got the internet back at my house! i got a Cell phone! i paid all my bills! yay! i'm mostly excited about my cell phone cause that means that pre-production (when it starts) is going to be soooooooo much better.

i got a tour yesterday of the mu frieght elevator. there's a scene in the script that involves brandon and a frieght elevator and the people at my work were talking about the mu elevator so i asked if i could see it. i actually might use it. not sure. they told me that to get into the shaft (which is one of the things we need to do) we have to talke to facman. i'll do that a little later. right now the tunnels is more important and i don't wanna scare facman or ask too much.

Mike Z as B Wells

I offered the role of Brandon Wells to Micheal Zduniak. Mike played the part of Dildo in LOTD and I liked working with him a lot. he showed a lot of care for his craft and even though it was a small part he really showed deication. He emailed me back yesterday telling me that he was 85% sure he'd do the part. he said only 85% because he has yet to finish the script. I did a lot of thinking about who i wanted to play this part over the last few years i've been writing the script. i dont' remember when it came to me to ask mike but when i thought of it i knew it was perfect.

As i was writing the above i got an email from facman about the tunnels locatio scout. it looks like they want to take me down on the 12 of january. I'm not sure if i can do it because i have to work. hopefully i can get it off. the reason it took so long for facman to get back to me was because i emailed the wrong larry last week. i sent an email to an actor named larry about when we could go into the tunnels. his reply was as confused as would be expected. i'm pissed i made that mistake because facman was expecting and email from me and i don't want to give the impression that i'm forgetful or irresponsible. the email i recieved sounded like facman wasn't mad though so that's good. it's interesitng that this guy told me to call some one else and that that person would set me up with another staff member who will take me and the rest of the guys on the tour. so far since i've been in contact with facman i've been handed off to 6 people. i started at the very top with the director of facman and i think i've tricked down through the ranks. i've never climbed down a buisness ladder. it's interesting.

Freshmen Production Binder

In my last post I mentioned my Production Binder and realized I never posted anything on this diary about it. It’s something I put together before I started this diary so I never talked about it. So in this “special” post, I’ll explain my production binder.

In front of me now is my Production Binder for Freshmen. It’s a black, 2 inch, 3 ring binder that I keep all papers relating to the film in. I have eleven Divider Tabs in the binder that are as follows:

Screenplay
Shooting Schedule
Budget
Locations
Crew
Cast
Costumes
Props
Website
Marketing
Releases

-Under the Screenplay section I keep (surprise surprise) the screenplay it’s self.
-The Shooting Schedule tab will change once I’ve scheduled the shoot. It will probably end up being 3 separate 2-3inch binders. But for right now I have a monthly based calendar that goes from December of 2005 all the way to December of 2007 so that in case I need to see what day a particular date falls on I can check really fast. I’ve got all the dates I posted on this diary back in February highlighted in the calendar. Including the still tentative shooting dates of October 6th through October 29th of 2006. I also have the reservation receipt for the rooms for the auditions next to the month of April. Yes I already have a room reserved.
-Under the Budget section there is nothing as I have yet to budget the film. I need a shooting schedule fist.
-For the locations section I have all the contact info for the people from each location I want to use who can give me permission. I also have bird’s eye view maps, either drawn in paint or taken from the internet of the locations and sets I want to use. For example I have a diagram of Colin and Brandon’s dorm room that was made in paint under this locations tab. I will eventually give this diagram to a set designer, and/or production designer so they know what I’m looking for.
-Under the crew tab I have nothing yet as I have no crew except for Dan and Kenny.
-Under cast I have another copy of the receipt for the auditions reservation, as well as a copy of the prospected cast list of the actors I offered parts to and a sheet of paper containing a key for the fictitious radio code that the cast of offices will use to communicate to each other in the film.
-Under costumes and props I don’t’ have anything yet as I haven’t done the shooting schedule or the budget.
-Under the website tab I have a copy of the receipt for the internet domain name www.freshmenthemovie.com (the website is still under construction)
-Under the Marketing Tab I have a printed out copy of a sort of synopsis/tagline/pitch kind of thing. Probably something that might be used as narration during a trailer of some sort. It’s as follows: Rehman just wants to be with Rachel. Rachel just wants to feel better. Wayne just wants something better to do. Jared and Colin just want to go with Brandon. Brandon just wants to explore the tunnels alone. Alaska just wants Jason to stay out of a fight. Mike and Jeff just want to get drunk. And the campus police just want a break from having to deal with all these freshmen.
-Under the Releases tab there is nothing yet as I haven’t printed any and haven’t’ had anyone sign a release.
-At the back of the binder is some lined paper for notes or anything I need.

This Production Binder is always changing and helps me organize everything I need for the production as well as makes it portable. I keep my production binder with me as much as possible so if you’ve seen me sometime in the last three months I probably had it on me. I’ve used this format for tool for all my films since LOTD.

Pink and Yellow Post-Its

So I’ve only had like 3 replies so far concerning the script. Dan said he was glad to have it. Arthur Trout, of whom I offered the role of Aric too, stated he would like to be involved (whether he has read the script or not I’m not sure) and Josh Smith declined as he will be moving out of the state before production begins. I had my web designer read it so it would give her a better understanding of what the movies about that way she can design a website that fits the film (which should be up in the next few weeks). Kris Kauffman thanked me for considering him and told me he would read the script. Colin said he'd do it but I’m not sure if he's going to because he's might not be in the state. He did say that if we scheduled the film so that his stuff was on weekends he might be willing to commute. We’ll see. I think it's very important that Colin play himself. For one he's a good actor and for two it's another prospective who lived in the dorms with me. Having him on set and knowing exactly what I want from him or a scene will make things allot easier for me. Plus he's fun to work with and a good friend.

Over the weekend I printed out a new copy of this draft and replaced the old draft with this one in my production binder. I then went through and put a yellow post-it on every page that had a scene in the tunnels. I then did the same with pink post-its for any scene that had Officer Navarro in it. I did this for two of the same reasons. One reason is so that I can start a mini-production schedule for just the things that need to be shot in the tunnels. I know for a fact that the scenes in the tunnels will not change with the exception of dialogue and length (and when I say length I mean they'll only get shorter). I need to have the mini-production schedule so that I can do an adequate location scout with facman. With this schedule I’ll be able to know exactly how many days I’ll need to be down there (except for the fact that it could be less which is always a good thing). I'll also know exactly what kinds of locations I’ll need down there, for example I’ll need a portion of the tunnels that runs into a dead end, or grated door, etc. Being prepared for the location scout will also help with my relationship with facman. I want to give the right impression and make sure they don't think I’m some dumb kid, or that allowing me to shoot down there will pose as a risk down there. I did the scenes with office Navarro so that I can make a mini-production schedule with his characters scenes as well. There is an actor I want to offer the part but I’m very skeptic on whether he'll do it or not. I’m leaning toward the not and not because he won’t like the script but because I can't pay him and working with students is always hard for professionals. I want to approach him as prepared as possible as well as being able to answer any questions he has quickly and truthfully. I want to make sure he knows the full commitment it will take. No sugar coding or things could end very badly. And frankly if he doesn't want to do it then I don’t' want him too either. So my job is to get him to want to do it.

I also started my own biography for the business proposal. It’s a little hard because I have to sell myself as a director and producer but I don’t’ want to sound vain. We’ll see.

I haven't done any more writing recently but I’m going to start tonight. I know I said Monday but I’ve got some time right now so why not? I guess my post wasn't that slim.

Done and Tired

Man am I tired. I went from vacation where I could get up any time I wanted to having to work 8-5 for two days in a row only to go to two more days that are 7-5. Not to mention Molly started nursing school and is so scattered and stressed it's rubbing off on my. But I can't complain. I finally finished the re-write of freshmen. It was a trial let me tell you. If you had visited the MU yesterday around 10am you might find me with 15 pages of script lined across the large information desk trying to work out how to intertwine the stories at the climax of the plot. I wrote all day yester day. All day. I finished around 8pm last night and then spent the next two hours doing maintenance on the script. Spell check and some re-writes of earlier scenes that don't match the plot of the rest of the screenplay. I even did a little touch ups this morning. But I sent it out to Dan and Miguel as well as the actors I offered the parts too. No I just wait. I had stated I was going to start working on the second re-write today but I’m exhausted of writing. I need to take a break. These last for days have been pretty intense. The screenplay capped out at about 135 pages. I only wrote 35 pages in the last week but it was exhausting because these 35 pages were pretty intense. I’m gonna take a break from the screenplay till Monday. I'm gonna wait and see what people think of the script over the weekend. Maybe I can work in their suggestions and comments when I do the re-write. That is if I like the comments and suggestions. My posts will probably be slim for the next two days but we'll see.

One More Day

I got to page 112. I seem to be on a role so I'll finish this draft today. i have yet to revist the scene with Ashton however but i'll get to it before the end of the day. Facman has yet to get back to me aswell. so not much happeneing in the last day.

Nearing the end...of this draft that is.

Yesterday was fairly productive. i got to page 109. i'll finish tonight or tomorrow with this draft and send it out to the actors and crew. I'll definelty be starting on my next re-write friday. I woke up this morning and realized that the scene where officer ashton reveals his true feelings isn't going to work the way i wrote it so that's something i'm going to have to revist today or tomorrow. hmmm. i emailed facman today about the tunnels location scout and have yet to recieve a response. oh well. it's only been a few hours. we'll see how things go tomorrow.

Working at Work

I was able to finish that scene with Officer Ashton. I'm not sure if it's going to work or not. Some of it I like and some of it is ok. I'll see what other people think when they read the script. For now it serves its purpose and I'll revisit it in my next re-write. Which is actually coming up. I hope to start it by Friday or Saturday. I think I'll be able to get this draft done by the end of the week. I know what your thinking..."I've heard that before" but I'm confident cause I'm working full time at my job and ironically enough that's where I get the most work done on the script. I rearranged some stuff with Brandon in the tunnels. Things look pretty good.

Back on Track

well...long time no see. it's been a week and a half and i've done virually nothing for the film. however this does not go unexcused, it was christmas!...and new years. I was able to do a little bit of writing the day we left for Texas but i got stuck. i'm at the crutial turning point in the second act, where officer ashton comes to the conclution there are terrorists in the tunnels. but how do you write that? every time i thought i figured it out and wrote it i hated it and deleted it. sigh. we ended up having to leave before i could get anything written that i liked or felt comfortable with. this seems to be my task for today, as i did not get a chance to write at all in texas. i kind of ment not to though. i decided to really give my self a break and just enjoy being there. which i did. but now that i'm back and it's time to get back on track. i'll email facman about the location scout in the tunnels tomorrow.