In-World War

Arab Film Festival benefit screening of Salt of This Sea

Just a quick plug for our friends at the Arab Film Festival. This is a benefit for their upcoming 13th annual festival:

Salt of This Sea -- starring Suheir Hammad and Saleh Bakri
Cannes - Official Selection
International Critics Award (FIPRESCI Prize) 2008
Best Screenplay, Dubai International Film Festival, 2008
Special Jury Prize, Osians Asian & Arab Film Festival

7pm - May 7, 2009
California Theater
2113 Kittredge Street, Berkeley, CA
$10 Students  -  $12 Adults
More info and tickets.

Progress is being made

Making some fantastic progress on both cast and crew fronts. No announcements yet, but we're talking to some amazing people. Regardless what happens, they're already helping make this a better film.

Feeling the pressure of time, which is helpful since it presses us on. It forces me to sort out my priorities and look to delegate, so I can focus on directing and the overall big picture.

The sad thing is that there just isn't enough cash. When is there ever? If we only had a bit more, it would jump the project up a whole other level of professionalism and production value. We'll start seeking pre-orders and donations soon. With luck, that will help us out.

Either way, the project is going to happen and the doors are opening.

It feels good.

Looking for producers, co-producers and an AD

During production on Quality of Life, Ben kept saying that he needed us to take over as much as possible so he could focus on directing.

I get it.

I'm swamped just working on the casting, script-refining, getting up to speed on working with actors and seeking out DPs -- to say nothing of major future tasks like storyboarding and approving locations.

It's time to bring on some management to take care of business. Otherwise, I'll end up doing all of that other stuff (hiring crew, managing the schedule, breaking down the script, finding locations, organizing fundraisers, etc. etc.) -- and then the film itself will suffer from lack of a director.

So spread the word -- I'm looking for upcoming producing talent that want to show they can take on a leadership role on a feature film.

Producer
Partner with me in all major planning and management oversight of the project, including help with fundraising events and distribution. This is a major role -- basically what I did on Quality of Life. Extremely hands-on and will include hiring and managing crew. Related experience is necessary.

Co-Producer
Similar to the Producer role, but focused on phases or portions of the overall film. For instance, you might only be working on pre-production or production or fundraising events.

Assistant Director
Same as any other AD: breakdown the script, help determine the production schedule and run the set.

The shoot begins June 29 and goes for 3+ weeks in the Bay Area. Pre-production has started, so we need people available now (or very soon).

In-World War is a low/no budget project, so these are all deferred payment roles, but with credit/copy (and the pleasure of working on a great project).

This is a great opportunity for someone who wants to work on a narrative feature film and get it on their resume.

Get in touch with me: [email protected]

In-world music gigs happening already

Musicians are already playing "live" gigs in Second Life and -- at least one -- is bringing in a nice stream of cash on the side:

CNN: Artists visit virtual Second Life for real-world cash

It seems strange today (one of the ever-popular "can you believe what people do online?!?" stories) -- but this will become increasingly common. Personally, I'm not sure we've seen the tipping point for virtual worlds yet, the numbers of visitors is so small.

The skeptics need to realize that fundamentally the Internet is a medium for connecting to other people -- and that applications like Second Life are just the next generation of online chatting and web broadcasting. With a healthy dose of open-ended play too.

The real question is whether these networked technologies are really anything new or just an extension of the mechanized social interactions of modern life? Guess what I think.

Screenplay draft 4.0 is complete!

Hell yes.

Weighing in at a fleet 117 pages, we have a screenplay.

Already started sending it out to key team-members.

It's not finished (won't be until fine edit of the film is locked, technically), but this is a major milestone.

It's the first version of the script I feel that's ready for prime time and proud to show people.

Damn straight, we're making a movie.

Stand aside.

Or get on board for the ride.

Draft 4.0 to be completed today

Granted, I'm about a week later with this than I wanted, but I got feedback from a screenplay contest and then needed to chop some pages out on top of those changes.

It had ballooned from 104 pages (Draft 3.0) to 121 pages, so now I'm back down to 118 and hopefully able to cut out a bit more (my target is 115). Fingers crossed.

I'm learning the art of brevity - cutting out unnecessary action or dialog. A lot of these are minor edits of cutting a line with an "orphan" -- a single word on a line at the end of a paragraph or bit of dialog. Eliminate enough orphans and you eventually lose a page of length on the screenplay as a whole. Even condensing each page by just one line saves over 100 lines, which makes the screenplay two pages shorter. Most pages can be cut a lot more than that, so the reduced pages add up.

Anyway, today is it. I've incorporated all the most recent feedback and I'm at 118 already. I'll cut another page (or three if I'm lucky) and release this next draft.

I'm setting up a table read in a couple weeks, to see how it sounds all together. I think I'll be tweaking it straight until production.

But at least I'll feel okay about distributing it to cast, crew and others finally.