I looked up today and realized I haven't written a thing on my Acting Blog in Quite a while. In my defense I have been pretty damn busy, but that is no excuse. Once we wrapped my scenes of the Indy film "Face First" which has now gone through a title change to "Jack Knifed Wolves", don't ask me what it means.. ask Ben.. he "splains" it so much better than I, anyway once we wrapped, I started working on my screenplay, which, came to a screeching halt, don't know why it just did. I got this great idea for a "sitcomy" type show. I pitched the idea to Ben and we worked up a short treatment for it, after about two hours of sitting on that, I started writing the Pilot, then an episode, then another, then Ben wrote a couple, so here we are with this pretty good little comedy which should be funny as hell. it is to us anyway. Three days ago Ben called and told me about this guy shooting a reenactment of the killing of John Dillinger here in Belton. come to find out the guy had a great idea, and a pretty good knack at getting people to donate equipment, time, energy, and effort, so we "signed" on with them to help them out. Once we got started we realized just how much of an "idea" it was. He had no Storyboards, no shot List, get this He didn't even have a SCRIPT!!! He had 30 period cars, had permits to shut down main street in belton overnight, permits to discharge live pyro (gunshots) but not a word written for his actors to recite.
Sooooo, Ben in typical Ben Green Style, jumped right in the middle of that fire and started pissing on the flames..... He wrote a great little script and then he and I took to the task of setting up shots.. what camera angles to use, when, how, etc. where to use a track shot, where to use a steadycam, where are we going to use the crane or Jib shots..how deep of a shot, how wide...where did our lighting need to come from, typical DP (Director of Photography) work. it was A LOT OF WORK, and I mean ALOT!, in a very short amount of time. We went from Conceptual idea (all this in the producer's head) to an established shot list, time line, and screenplay in a matter of 22 hours. it was a FEAT.. but last night (this morning) when I laid my head down on my pillow and looked at my trusty Iphone at 3:27am, I was pretty proud and very happy with our accomplishments.
This morning, Ben called and the first words out of his mouth were something to the effect of:
"ok, so we are basically cut out of the film", now keep in mind this was about 9:30 or so.. i was working on about 6 hours of sleep, which for those of you that know me, know that is about 8 hours too little.. so I said.. huh? and Ben began to describe to me that the Cinematographer was taking Creative control of the project and would be setting up the story boards, shots, scripts etc. Needless to say, WE WERE PISSED. Mainly because, someone could have told us this was the plan in the first place, but the producer was so "excited" to have someone working on his project he "failed to remember" what he told the cinematographer. WHATEVER! they did however want to keep us on to help wrangle the extras and direct traffic during the 14 hour shoot.. we declined. They also mentioned that they liked Ben's Script, however didn't think they could give him Screenwriters Credit. Let me just say, I have been in the music business for over 15 years now... I understand copyright law pretty well... Ben is in good shape, we have already spoken with my business attorney, and taken the appropriate steps to protect him and his creative works.
Now, those that know me know I have been on the set of Friday Night Lights more than a couple of times, (GREAT CREW BY THE WAY) Been on a Showtime set, Been on set with Oak Films and Bobby Moresco (Crash, Million Dollar Baby, 10th & Wolfe). Real professionally run, scheduled sets. This little adventure in Belton Texas was a NIGHTMARE! We wish them all the luck in the world with this production, and hope it goes off without a hitch, I just wanted everyone to know exactly why we were not on set anymore.
Ben asked me to direct a short film that a young lady by the name of Claire Romano wrote and I am really psyched to do so. It will give me the opportunity to be creative behind the camera. And, since Coby is attached to it, it will give me a chance to get back at her for slapping the crap out of me and treating me like, you know what, on the set of Jack Knifed wolves. She is in for it, she just doesn't know it yet!! insert evil grin here. We are "planning" for an August shoot, and have all the filming done by the end..hopefully!
So once we get that in the can, Ben and I can begin to work aggressively on our sitcom, we have an In at a major network and we are intending on pitching it to them as soon as we get the pilot filmed, which should be in the next three months or so.. If you are looking to do something, we can use all the help we can get from extras, acting, grip work, to PA work, and WE WILL GIVE YOU CREDIT, as well as a pretty nice package on the back end if it should get picked up.
