No chance I am sorry. The producer like to keep everything in his own hands and we still are trying to persuade one actress who has not yet signed a no claim. The producer was not experienced so didn't wait for it before shooting.

I could send you a script after translating it.

Well guys, it's been an exciting/depressing up and down year so far.

High -- was a staff-writer on a TV show last fall.

Low -- The show was scheduled to start last week, but production kept getting pushed back. Then I just got the official word that the show won't be going into production. Ever.

High -- The head writer of the show I worked on and I hatched out a new TV show pitch together.

Low -- The head writer's manager didn't like the pitch. Convinced him to come up with another show idea without me.

High -- I earned enough points to join the WGA. Went to my first WGA meeting on Thursday.

Low -- WGA meeting was depressing. Listened to a bunch of professional writers moan about never finding any work.

High -- Got some initial good buzz from the industry on a small little sci-fi spec I wrote.

Low -- The producer who started the buzz, decided he didn't want it. Everybody else lost interest, too.

High -- My short film is complete and had my first screening last week. Response was awesome. My production team and I are now poising ourselves for a festival run.

Low -- Now I'm filled with pre-festival anxiety. It's the moment of truth. What if, like most shorts, nothing comes of this? I'll find out soon.

High -- The DP who shot my short called on Friday. He wants to do a feature starting from the ground up. I said I'm game. So far there are no lows related to this.

It's a crazy business. Hope everybody else is having a productive year so far.

Very!

Got in with some guys and put together a nice comedy that is making the rounds. We'll follow that up with a dromedy on immigration.

Have an action making the rounds, as well as a number of shorts in pre-production.

Been writing almost full time now, and have the spare tire to show for sitting on my butt 8-10 hours a day.

A

This message has been edited. Last edited by: alex whitmer,

Screened my short film at the Laemmle's Sunset 5 on Saturday.

Awesome, awesome, awesome. There's nothing like seeing your work up on the big screen.

The response was great, too. The projectionist for the enitre Laemmle's chain asked for a copy of the film so he can use it as an example of a digital film that looks as good as 16 mm.

Congratulations!

- Bill

I am curious about Wendals scripts. Maybe you can send one. You don't have to translate it for me.

Do you only make short movies? Have you ever thought about writing TV series?

Stuur me even je e-mail adres dan krijg je wel een scenario van me. Mijn adres is jonte@tele2.nl

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mr Wendal,

Done

Monday I have a appointment with a producer. the script is almost accepted and we only need to go through some details. Only a miracle could make the deal go down the drain.

Hey Everyone

Just a quick update on my "Unglued" project. We just wrapped principal photography. We have about 7 hours of footage to edit down to 20 minutes. Fun fun fun.

Troy

Good luck, Troy!

Wow, lots of footage. We only had 4 hours worth for my 16-minute film.

Yeah, lots of footage. It's unfortunate that we got so much that's gonna end up getting cut. It's coming out too long so there are a couple scenes that will be completely cut. Thank god we weren't shooting on film. I'm trying to edit it down to around 20 minutes but I'm already at 30 minutes and only 3/4 through the assembly. Ouch.

For the most part here's how I shot every scene. I shot 2 masters from 2 different angles straight through the scene. If the actors flubbed a line but kept going I wouldn't cut. But if they strarted laughing or somthing then I'd shoot it over. But for the most part the masters we're single takes. After the masters, I shot 2 different angles of each actor (1 medium and 1 CU) Then, depending on the scene, I'd shoot dollys, over the shoulders, 2 or 3 shots, or extreme close ups.

At the end of they day we'd shoot tons of cutaways. I didn't want to go into post and find I didn't have enough footage to make the scene the way I wanted it. Oddly enough I'm still finding lots of missing shots as I edit. Oh well, I guess that's the fun part of editing.

Optioned! (Contracts pending.)

Woot!

Congrats!! Lots of Luck

Thanks Troy.

They're talking about a January shoot. Hope it happens.

I just posted a rough cut of my 20 minute short if anyone wants to check it out.

It has a temp sountrack right now and is about 5 minutes longer than it will end up. Also, the conversion to the web looks like crap. It's way too dark in many places. It still needs work.

It's called Unglued

Comments welcome.

troy@palatiampg.com

Woah! Troy, I can't believe I missed your post for two months.

Anyway, watched the short. Great job! Have you made it into any festivals?

I almost forgot that I even posted that message. I haven't seen much activity here lately.

Anyway, no we haven't sent it out yet. We were working with rights for the music and then we recut it to exactly 20 minutes. We should have the final ready just in time for the Slamdance deadline.

Well, I haven't been having much luck with my festival run. When I first started out, I had what I thought were pretty realistic expectations. That I would show in a lot of festivals and maybe win the shorts category in one or two of the smaller fests.

CUT TO: Six months later.

I've applied to 11 festivals, I've been rejected by 8 of them. I still have yet to hear back from the remaing 3. Although, I'm not terribly optimistic about those anymore.

So what happened? I really don't know. But some of my friends who have made shorts and gone to festivals offered me this: It's too long (17 mins) and too quiet. I made a two-character "talking" movie. (A damn good one, in my opinion, but I'm pretty biased...)

At anyrate, even though I got rejected by Palm Springs, my main actor and I decided to attend, just to see what made it in and to experience a festival in general.

First, I absolutesly loved the festival experience. It was so kinetic. I can only image what it would've been like to have something screen.

But, looking at the program, 350 short films were selected -- Palm Springs is a shorts only festival -- and of those, I counted more than 200 with running times of less than 10 minutes. In fact, I only found 30 films in the program that were longer than my film. That's 1 in 12. So my friends were right in this case. Shorter films get preferential treatment in the shorts category. There's no way for me to cut my movie shorter (nor would I want to). It takes 17 minutes to tell my story and that's all there is to it.

I also noticed that films for Palm Springs were grouped thematically. I found three blocks of ten films that I thought mine could have been included in. So all in all, out of 2,400 films submitted, only 350 were accepted, but actually, based on theme, I was really only competing for one of 30 spots.

Moving forward, I'm probably going to tweak the movie a little. If it drags anywhere, I'll cut it down as best I can. I'm also going to be more selective which festivals I submit to. Just to get in one, any one, could open doors for another festival. Programmers attend each other's festivals looking for films. I also plan to submit only to early bird deadlines. First of all, it's cheaper. And with a long movie, like mine, it helps to get screeners to look at it before they get burned out. Something to consider for your own submission.