Revised To Do

Once I approach the actors I want everything to seem in place. If someone asks a basic question, I need the answer.

So - I am adding to my to do list:

Continue to hunt a location (so I can be sure of what the location and art budget are)
Schedule the movie (within 80% accuracy)
Schedule the preproduction necessary so I know a real shoot date
Budget the film (within 80% accuracy)*
Decide on backend share division. (Will the supporting chars get as much as leads.)
Decide on any cast that will be from friends and attach them.

I would also like to do a reading of the script. I'm not going to make that a requirement before approaching actors because it's been rewritten a few times already. It would be fantastic if I could get my real cast to record a reading of the script so that I could build my previs** to that. Doubtful. But I do want to hear it so that I can work on any potential weak points in advance.

I want all of this done by the end of this week, so that at the beginning of next week I can make my calls to talent. That will be my cut off. If I can make the calls by the end of this week - so the scripts go out this weekend. Even better.

By having a set of things to do, I'm hoping to avoid letting any other distractions derail me.

It's January 21 today, if I make January 31 the deadline for contacting the cast, then allow 2 months of preproduction. I will be shooting April 1.

This would work as it would mean the film would be totally completed with effects and sound by July. This won't be a difficult movie to edit and the effects are totally reasonable. The only reason I'm even giving 3 full months is that I may end up having to do so many things on my own for cost considerations. I think the first edit would be done in 4 weeks. Final edit by 8 weeks with most effects. Then music and sound for the last 4 weeks. I want to keep the finishing process quick because for me, time spent on this movie is paid in "opportunity cost" - an economics word to describe the phenomenon that something has a cost by the fact that you are not making money from another opportunity.

This whole time I want to be developing and packaging another project (most likely "The Other Project") such that I can launch into preproduction the moment this project is completed. I am adamantly not going to be waiting to sell this project before doing my next film. There are so many directors who have done even fabulous first efforts and then don't direct again for four years. I've done all my waiting.

I'm sure there will be distractions and challenges. Some of the may be good ones - like what if the TV show actually gets buzzing. What if my "day job" gets a huge and high profile account? Many things like this - but I think they are all manageable.


*(Budget - At somepoint to determine the budget I will have to address the issue of what format to shoot on, 35mm, HD, S16, HDV. I'm making it a priority to NOT overly concern myself with this issue at the moment because that's a huge trap with such a simple answer based on a balance between budget and preference. I'll make a post about this at some point.)

**(Previs is the process of "previsualization" for a movie. This can include story-boards (pictures of each shot), animatics (animated sections which are usually done with computer animated characters today), vocal tracks. It's everything that helps a director to determine how the story is going to play out for the film and helps everyone understand what needs to be shot.)