I Ran Against Us [COMPLETED]

[ntbullock]

Jared Hopkins and I just finished penning a feature length script about a modern day Jesse James. That's two feature lengths in a row for me, and Jared and I are about to start yet another. This third one Jared and I are going to truly produce ourselves. We learned a good deal with Big Boy, and this one should be cheaper and more manageable. [ We say that now. ;} ]

[ntbullock]

Jared and I banged out an outline in a 20 hour marathon; talk about tiring. We've started writing on the third script. I've had "diarrhea of the keyboard" according to Eric. ;]

**started production journal**

[ntbullock]

Well, we're making some real progress now. We're on page 48. Getting to around page 30, near some inciting incident, can be a little "uphill" to establish characters and fit everything in.

We hope to be to about the halfway point in a matter of days, which will put that at a little over a week for the first half. The second half will probably go slower as we hit snags and have to deal with ripple effects in the story.

Some days I only churn out four pages, and when I'm on a roll I've shot out 14 pages before. Those are good days. ;] Then again, sometimes I think I might've crapped out 14 pages of crappiness. ;]

[ntbullock]

Well, yesterday was my new record for "most pages in a day." Apparently, my new record is 19. I didn't even realize I'd done that much. I hope it's workable. Jared's going to read it today, and we're going to try and get a little more done today.

Oh, and since I haven't mentioned; this script we're writing is to be shot in black and white. It's a sarcastic, romantic comedy. More to come.

[ntbullock]

Jared dug the pages I sent him and made some good suggestions. We're making those changes and moving on. I wrote four to five pages this evening, so we're definitely past the halfway mark with over 70 pages.

I plan on going back down to New Orleans to write some more there in the next week. We are going to try and produce it in New Orleans.

[ntbullock]

I just got back from New Orleans. We wrote solid for the past two days and knocked out a first draft. 115 pages. He's coming up Sunday, and we're going to read through the whole thing and make alterations, clarifications, and grammatical fixes. This has been the quickest script EVER! ;]

My brain is a little mushy, so I'm going to give it a rest for the night.

[ntbullock]

We've got the read through tomorrow and then we'll send it out to a few comrades for opinions. I typed up a really rough synopsis today that we're going to work on tomorrow, too. I'm terrible at those sorts of things.

[ntbullock]

The synopsis has a good start, and Jared is going to do a little work on it in his spare time. We finished reading through the whole script today. We made some changes and fixed a couple small holes in the plot. We both feel like we pretty much got everything in that we wanted, minus a few small items that are negligible. We ended up with 116 pages. We're going to send it out to a few people for once-overs. It takes quite a few read-throughs to catch all the misspellings and grammatical errors, so getting other people to be on the lookout definitely helps.

This has been the quickest script I've been a part of, which is the third lately!!! We got this done in an exhausting 3 weeks basically; outline and all.

More work to be done...

[ntbullock]

We worked on the synopsis. It's almost finished. A synopsis is always boring to do. You feel like you're giving away everything that your story has without any of the "charm." You get the "what," but have to skip a lot of the "how." And the "how" is a lot of the meat.

A couple of scripts have been sent out to friends for feedback.

I don't even want to give the title out because we don't have it registered with the WGA. There's that little writer's strike thingy going on. Maybe you've heard of it. ;]

The initials of the title are I.R.A.U.

[ntbullock]

We decided the synopsis completed a couple days ago. I stated that the script had been sent out to a couple people. Those people are the grammar nazis. They'll give us thoughts on the story too. We're just waiting on those corrections/responses first before we send it out for further feedback. Maybe I'll post a heavily truncated version of the synopsis after we get it registered...

[ntbullock]

We got the corrections back from Eric. He said he liked to the script, too. That's good to hear considering how fast it was written. Anyway, now we'll send it out for some more feedback.

[ntbullock]

Some early reviews from people that haven't finished the script yet are claiming quite a bit of the LOL-ing. Yes, that's right - laughing out loud. That's a really good sign. We've written scripts before that our "feedbackers" told us it was funny, but we never got so much LOL-ing.

OMG! How Xciting! I just hope those laughs transfer to the screen.

We wrote this one based more so on how we interact and not as much like "other people" interact. So, it's a little darker and sarcastic and definitely dirtier. It'll most definitely be rated R.

[ntbullock]

Got the script back form the other "Grammar Nazi," and I've corrected our master copy. We've also gone back and cleaned up some other small elements that were questionable. I need to do a little massaging to one element in the script, but it's very minor and isn't a plot point or anything. Just massaging. I'll get that done in the next couple days. No biggie.

We've gotten a few more comments from people and so far it's all positive. The good thing is that the appeal seems to hit both genders, which is good for a romantic comedy. Our romantic comedy is a little darker and sarcastic in theme, but romantic comedy nonetheless.

[ntbullock]

We've been getting a little more feedback trickling in and have made some very minor changes. Jared is busy breaking down the script and trying to come up with a budget. We're hoping we can do this on a small budget [anywhere from $20-$50K]. We're going to have to start trying to get financial backing. Here's hoping.

We want to shoot in New Orleans starting in the middle of the year.

We just registered the script with WGA, so I'll release the title and our current "logo."

[ntbullock]

I've been sick with 101 fever for the past few days, and it finally got back down to normal just in time for me to shoot down to Baton Rouge for some meetings Jared had set up. We met with someone about a Varicam HD rental and also met with a local casting agent. The meetings went well.

[ntbullock]

I'm going to try and go down to NO early next week so Jared and I can try and make some more headway on the project. I'm going to call a few contacts I have about possibly laying the ground work for some financing.

[ntbullock]

I decided to wait on mentioning anything to "my people" about financing because Jared and I might have a business dinner coming up pretty soon. Hopefully that'll happen when I go next week.

I've been looking into some storyboard software. I used to draw quite a bit, but I'm sure it'd be horrible to look at by now.

[ntbullock]

I purchased StoryBoard Quick 5 the other day. Once I got it I wasn't really pleased to find out that you've really only got a few posable characters to work with. The only differentiation between them is the coloring at that point. I'm wanting black & white storyboards to match how we're shooting, so this is a problem. I called and complained a little and they were nice enough to help me get a couple more characters. Hopefully, this software will be useful somewhat and I haven't wasted my money.

Still no word on the business dinner. Jared has been working on the budget and scheduling - a daunting task indeed.

[ntbullock]

Both Jared and I have been busy with "real life" for a month, but I'm now in New Orleans and we're working again on getting things going. Last night we had a production meeting with Kim and Ashley. It was a good start. Today Jared and I are doing a little location scouting, etc. We're going to shave down the budget and have a couple rewrite issues to take care of.

[ntbullock]

Quick update: I recently moved to Hattiesburg and have been dealing with that while Jared has been working quite a bit. We recently started looking into doing this thing ultra-low-budget. We want to shoot this regardless and it's really hard to raise money when you've never done it before, don't have a feature track record, and you're trying to sell the idea of a black and white sarcastic love story. It's difficult, son!

The new Panasonic HVX200a has been purchased and we're looking into 35mm adapters. Jared is pulling in a lot of favors from experienced crew members.

Who knows if this'll get off the ground but we're going to try regardless.

[ntbullock]

The Panasonic came in, and I spent a couple days tweaking it and reading up on it. We ordered a Brevis35 so we could place 35mm lenses on the camera. Lastly, I've ordered some Nikon lenses after much research. The past weeks have been nothing but tons of research and testing. I think I may've taken a day and a half off in there just to give my freakin' brain a rest.

Jared has secured a location for auditions and has been working on the LLC for the movie. He's also been looking into getting the script cleared [as in copyright issues, etc.]

Our plan is to shoot the first two weeks of August. Let's see if we can do it. Now I've got to learn how to use all this new equipment!

[ntbullock]

Got the Brevis in last week and finally got the Nikon lens situation settled after a couple send backs. I ordered some filters and just got in my second P2 card today. Jared ordered a matte box. We're slowly getting our equipment together and learning how to use it. He came up last weekend and we did some tests. I just got back this morning from New Orleans from the first round of auditions and a meeting with our DP. We should have some more auditions next Sunday.

We also have to re-read the script and tighten it up. It's been long enough that we should have a sense of detachment from the material, which is good.

[ntbullock]

Matte box came in a we ordered some hand grips and a shoulder mount. We're almost done with the camera aspect. We started revising the script since. More auditions Sunday. We should have a few people locked in for roles on that day.

[ntbullock]

Auditions went well and we feel like we've got four or five of our main roles filled.

Jared and I went through the rest of the script [70 pages last night!] and finished the re-write. Exhausted. Now I drive home...

[ntbullock]

Slowly getting some pieces together. I go back to NO late Friday night and we're supposed to do some location scouting Saturday and auditions Sunday - maybe Monday night, too. Pretty soon here I'll need to start mapping out all these scenes shot-wise. I've been so caught up in the technical/camera aspect for weeks.

I also started www.iranagainstus.com

It won't be an extensive site because I have too much to do, but it'll have some content eventually. I wanted to go ahead and get that set up.

[ntbullock]

I started making a detailed shot list of the entire movie. The script is down to 113 pages, so it'll take me a second to complete. I'm in New Orleans now and today we're doing some location scouting and planning. Jared has been busy with a ton of other things that make my eyes roll up in the back of my head.

[ntbullock]

We settled some location business today and are getting a grasp around about 20 locations. It's not as bad as it sounds, but in some ways it is. That doesn't make sense, anyway...

We're getting close to having our six main principle actors cast. By the time I leave Tuesday morning we may have that, hopefully.

I've been working on this shot list for a few days now. I'm almost halfway through. We've got some more auditions Sunday afternoon and a callback Monday night.

[ntbullock]

Loooong day. I worked on the shot list most of the afternoon. Trudging through it. We had a couple small meets with some peeps and had a recall for an audition. We also cast our lead guy tonight. Brain dead now. I go home in the morning. I've got a lot of client work to do when I get back, but I'm going to try and get this shot list out of the way this week. I've actually got a small, acoustic gig this weekend that I need to find time to practice for. Ug.

[ntbullock]

I'm trying to get my commercial work out of the way this week before I head back down to NO for the weekend. Jared seems about beat to hell and back. We're getting close to wrapping up casting. His casting director friend, Liz, has been a great help lately. We're filling in the gaps. Still a ton to do. Right now I'm trying to find time to get the shot list complete and out of the way. I'm on page 77...

[ntbullock]

Page 94. I should be done tomorrow with the shot list. Heading to NO Friday evening and we have a lot of meetings Saturday - wardrobe, auditions, etc. We're getting VERY close to completing the entire cast.