Well as it seems to happen to me all my life I am horrible at correspondence and a blog which is basically am ongoing letter to your friends and fans is just that. I've not written to you in over two months and for that I am deeply sorry. I have not been idle in that time, which consequently is why I have not posted more.
The aforementioned trip to California in April was a marvelous success. We filmed some great footage for the sci-fi series that my partners and I have been developing for over a decade and now have a presentation that we can show to investors to hopefully get a pilot made. The trip was great. We were at the soundstage on Friday for about 6 hours or so doing prep work. The set dressers were dressing. The camera and lighting crews were working out shots for the next day, and I was making revisions to the pilot script in the producers office.
Saturday came and it was a long day. We had a dozen actors and over twice as many crew on set that day and we shot for 17 hours. It was really great to see something I had created come to living breathing, make up covered life. The most surreal bit was sitting across the lunch table with my characters some of which were in fantastic alien make up and talk about their characters, their backgrounds and motives. It really was amazing to watch as things I had conceived of a decade earlier and some that I'd come up with the night before emerge from the page and walk and talk, shoot plasma rifles, fight space pirates, and fly off through subspace.
A week later I got to see the 4 minute rough cut of the footage and I cried. Yup, I'm a gushy, mooshy kind of guy when it comes to my projects. I think it was partly the beauty of the way the 4 minutes were crafted by the director, editor and all the rest of our cast & crew, but more I think it was that it was a validation of 20 years of effort. Basically half of my life I have been working toward getting a television show or film made that I had written. I was watching 4 minutes of footage that represented all that effort. It was very emotional.
I think I watched the rough cut a dozen times and kept pinching myself because I could not believe it was real.
Two weeks after that I got the final version and was blown away. Yes it still included temp CG spaceships and music, but the emotional gravity of the thing and the performances of our cast were astounding. I'm so proud of that 4 minutes of footage. I wish I could post it here, but it is limited to "investor eyes only" at this point. We need to find money to make the pilot and then we talk to network and distribution folks again to see about making this show a full season thing. Fingers, toes, eyes, etc. all crossed.
With any luck we'll be shooting the pilot before the end of 2014. So as you can see I've been busy. I'm sorry to have neglected all of you for so long, but I hope when I can finally share this Sci-Fi series with you and the rest of the world you'll find the silence worthwhile.
On a completely different note, Pact with the Wood Witch will be finished this summer. I've been sidetracked by co-chairing a fundraising auction for my son's school. The auction is tonight so I'll finally have some of my time back to write the last 1500 words or so and get it to my first readers soon. Thank you all for your patience and I'll write more soon.
The aforementioned trip to California in April was a marvelous success. We filmed some great footage for the sci-fi series that my partners and I have been developing for over a decade and now have a presentation that we can show to investors to hopefully get a pilot made. The trip was great. We were at the soundstage on Friday for about 6 hours or so doing prep work. The set dressers were dressing. The camera and lighting crews were working out shots for the next day, and I was making revisions to the pilot script in the producers office.
Saturday came and it was a long day. We had a dozen actors and over twice as many crew on set that day and we shot for 17 hours. It was really great to see something I had created come to living breathing, make up covered life. The most surreal bit was sitting across the lunch table with my characters some of which were in fantastic alien make up and talk about their characters, their backgrounds and motives. It really was amazing to watch as things I had conceived of a decade earlier and some that I'd come up with the night before emerge from the page and walk and talk, shoot plasma rifles, fight space pirates, and fly off through subspace.
A week later I got to see the 4 minute rough cut of the footage and I cried. Yup, I'm a gushy, mooshy kind of guy when it comes to my projects. I think it was partly the beauty of the way the 4 minutes were crafted by the director, editor and all the rest of our cast & crew, but more I think it was that it was a validation of 20 years of effort. Basically half of my life I have been working toward getting a television show or film made that I had written. I was watching 4 minutes of footage that represented all that effort. It was very emotional.
I think I watched the rough cut a dozen times and kept pinching myself because I could not believe it was real.
Two weeks after that I got the final version and was blown away. Yes it still included temp CG spaceships and music, but the emotional gravity of the thing and the performances of our cast were astounding. I'm so proud of that 4 minutes of footage. I wish I could post it here, but it is limited to "investor eyes only" at this point. We need to find money to make the pilot and then we talk to network and distribution folks again to see about making this show a full season thing. Fingers, toes, eyes, etc. all crossed.
With any luck we'll be shooting the pilot before the end of 2014. So as you can see I've been busy. I'm sorry to have neglected all of you for so long, but I hope when I can finally share this Sci-Fi series with you and the rest of the world you'll find the silence worthwhile.
On a completely different note, Pact with the Wood Witch will be finished this summer. I've been sidetracked by co-chairing a fundraising auction for my son's school. The auction is tonight so I'll finally have some of my time back to write the last 1500 words or so and get it to my first readers soon. Thank you all for your patience and I'll write more soon.