New England and a Red Pen

Well, I’m in New England. Nashua NH to be exact. I’m here for few days then going to a a camp up in north NH to water ski with some family. Maybe this trip will be more fun than I thought. I’m still going to be doing stuff for the movie though while I’m up here.

So I talked to Miguel on Monday. He called me and we spoke. Over all it was good. I’m not so worried. Below is an email I sent to the crew this morning outlining how our conversation went:

Team:
I spoke with Miguel and it went very well. He had some very constructive criticism. The one thing he wants me to do is cut down the script. He said it's too long. He said, from a producing view point, we're going to be traffic cops trying to manage chaos. He said if the film is shorter and more concise then it will be easier and we'll get to concentrate more on making a good product then on just making a product. So, I'll grant Miguel's wish and go through the screenplay and see what I can cut and condense. He did have good points in saying sometimes there are 7 lines of dialogue that could be condensed to three lines and have the same point and content. I also think this is good because it's something we'll all face in the industry. Good Practice you know. So, while I'm on the plane I'll see what I can find from there. Have a good week everyone.

So while I was on the second plane from Cincinnati to Boston I used a red pen I had bought and started going through the script. Surprisingly enough I got to page 60 and was able to cut roughly 7-8 pages. I might actually get it down to 100 pages if the pace keeps up like this. I haven’t really gone through the screenplay in a few weeks and it’s amazing what I find that can be condensed or simplified. I feel it’s better already. I’m glad Miguel put his thumb down. Thanks Valenti! I’m gonna keep working on it tonight.

I am supper stoked! I’ve gotten four responses from actors so far about parts and they’ve all accepted the roles! I was a little worried about Alicia De La Vega, well… I should say I was worried what any actress would think of the role of Alaska. Because of the scene where she gives head. I don’t know, some people are weird about that stuff and I really really wanted her to play the role. But she accepted so it’s all good. Steve Murphy also accepted the role of Officer Price which I’m happy about. I wonder if he’s figured out that he has to shave his head. Well, I think he reads these posts so Steve, guess what!? Well nothings permanent so we can talk about it. I’m also a little concerned about him living in Sedona. Not sure how that’s going to work (it’s about 3 hours away from phoenix). David Aslan and Katie Pengra also accepted their roles. Yahoo! Like I said. I’m excited.

Just out of curiosity I opened up all my past production diary files and found out that so far this thing is 56 pages long in word. Cool. Book deal, hear I come! Haha. With this speling?