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Photo by Curtis Schultz

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Wow what an amazing year so far!!! Guess who is directing a movie?

It is now mid to late march... Which means that I should be finishing up on my third blog post of the year, but instead I am just starting my second... Im sorry guys, but this year has been insane already...

Lets play a little catch up shall we?

I am packing every second of my schedule. I am day playing on several TV shows and doing lots commercials (Its also pilot season right now so I may or may not be working on a super huge pilot that is really cool and fun that I am not allowed to really talk about yet...)but I am trying to keep the lighting and gaffing work down to just 4 or 5 days per week. I know thats already a lot considering we work 12-16 hour days, but on average last year I was working 6 days a week so right now it feels like I am giving myself plenty of free time. now that free time isn't really free time...  I am packing in as many meetings with Directors, producers, agents, managers, etc trying to network and set myself up for progress. Its been pretty amazing.

So Back to directing work. Part of the title of this blog is "Guess who is directing a movie" well the answer is me... There are actually several things in the works, and here it goes...

1. I have been asked to direct a movie. It's not normally a genre or script that I would be really excited about but what the producers want to do with the movie, and the networking, advertising, etc., its pretty cool. So I agreed to start working with them on a script. I haven't 100% signed on to direct the movie yet, but if we get the script to a place I like it during this development time, then I will sign away. That's pretty cool right? I am actually really excited about this opportunity, flattered that I was asked to direct, and almost positive that I will end up getting the script to the right place for the project and directing it.  

Next, I actually just finished writing my first screenplay of this year. I know it's only march but I wanted to knock it out fast. I actually knocked it out really fast and spent a day or two coming up with the idea and then powered through a rough draft of the script in just a matter of days. 4 days to be exact. Which is amazingly fast. I plan on spending the next week or two working on a second draft and then start getting feedback and going into the testing faze. Only like 3 or 4 more rewrites and the script will be ready to shoot.  Now that being said... there is a very good chance that if all goes right, this will be the first full length movie I direct. Pretty exciting!!!!

I also am in the works of polishing up a script I wrote a few years back and getting it sent off for people to start reading in hopes to either sell it, or get the money to direct it.

As always I am working on at least 3 or 4 other projects I cant talk about.

I also want to talk about a project that I have been working on for a while now.  As some of you know, I have been working on a movie, a horror movie, an anthology film with a specific idea. Well i have been working on this project for about a year. I personally have some friends and acquaintances that have worked on anthology films in the past and either had terrible times, or made a product that they were not happy with. I didn't want this project to have the same outcome as that, so I have been working hard over the last year to really hammer out the details. This project will have almost no budget so it's very important to get all the i's dotted and the t's crossed. I wanted this to be a really great experience for everyone involved and make a project that we can all be proud of. Recently, about December or January, I signed on a producing partner to come on board and work with me.  We had everything figured out, and were working on drawing up paperwork and hand selecting the directors. On February 2nd we had a big meeting and were excited to start getting others involved. we were finally at the point where everything was figured out to the smallest detail and we were pushing forward. On February 3rd, Variety Magazine, Hollywood Reporter, Bloodydisgusting.com, Fangoria, and all the industry news sites I read launched a big news story. The story is Kevin Smith, Gary Shore, Scott Stewart, Eli Roth, and more are announcing they are all working on a horror anthology film titled Holidays. Sure the name of our anthology was going to be Holidays of Horrors, but still that news happening the day after our big meeting seemed to not be real. There is no way we could go up against Kevin Smith and the gang with a non existent budget, and without any names anyone would recognize. I was devastated. If you read my blog posts, you know that I look up to Kevin Smith as a film maker, and he has inspired me several times over to become a film maker. He even personally gave me some advice I follow and that is helping me become a director. So for my movie to be in serious trouble because of one of his movies, what was I to do?  The second I read the articles I called my producing partner for this film and we decided to put the film on hold and think about what to do. The way we saw it, we had 2 outcomes. People will think we copied them and it made us look bad, or we compete head to head with them and lose. We each contacted friends, people in the industry, mentors, etc. I even contacted some of the producers I know that have produced Kevin Smith movies. We seemed to get one resounding answer. "What would Kevin Smith do if he was in the same situation? Make the movie. Don't let this scare you it can't hurt you, in fact if his movie does well, chances are your movie will do well." So we thought, "You know what?  You're right." After a week of being completely ruined, we pulled ourselves up by the figurative boot straps and we would like to announce that We plan on making our movie Holiday of Horrors.
I of course have some new music videos coming up, and some more commercials coming up, as well as many more projects in the works...

So there you have it, it hasn't been an "everything is awesome" kind of year for me thus far, but it has been insane. It has been crazy and exciting, and I think the rest of it will pretty much continue to get crazier and more exciting. So please keep reading more.


One last update!!!!!!!!

So... I have been getting a new Directors website built for me, and I was really hoping to release  it with this blog post, but my mac book actually crashed on me... which is why there are strangely few pictures on this post. So that has slowed it down. I will have a new Demo reel and a new website up soon, and you will hopefully see it the very next blog post, if not sooner.

Thanks again everyone for being super awesome!!!!! Sorry if I wrote the world's longest blog post. There is just so much happening I want you all to know about...

1 comment:

  1. Great post Wess!! I love to hear your progress. Keep up the great work.

    ReplyDelete