Call Me Cecil…

…Well, just for a 24 hour period or so.

Why? Well, it’s just that one of the many projects I’ve not yet had time to report to you about is inching along, growing ever more involved, has been sucking up a huge amount of time recently, and is going to go really large this week.

What’s “going large”?

Ok, here goes. I’ve been taking a turn at being a filmmaker, on and off, for over a year now. I hope that the products of this will be coming to a theatre near you one day soon (probably your computer), but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What is it? Much more later, but I’ll just say now that it’s got science, and it is educational and – I hope – fun.

So far, what have I been doing? Writing a script, sketching storyboards, waving my arms about trying to explain the concept to actual filmmakers (you know, ones who know what the hell they are talking about, as opposed to interlopers like me), learning from same…. emails, emails, emails…. finding a cast… engaging a composer to produce a score… worrying about things like insurance, liability, shoot permits… having my people call my other people… meetings, meetings, meetings… having conversations about lighting, jibs, and smoke machines with my producer and cameraman, calling theatres and studios in search of various kinds of spaces… phone calls, phone calls, phone calls….worrying that the cast might not show up… negotiating fees for various things… dealing with payroll issues…

… and today, more of the key thing to nail down: Location, Location, Location. Spent a great deal of time scouting locations, taking pictures and making short video clips, editing them together into a little movie to send to my producer and cameraman for their thoughts. (Found some sites I’m excited about….) Sent that off…. just as the composer sent in their rough of their music by email. Listened to that and it sounds great – one thing fewer to worry about on the list… Confirmed with most of the cast that we have indeed got a rehearsal and test shoots on Wednesday night, when I turn into Director (apparently I’ve been kind of Executive Producer these last few weeks….last year I was writer and…?)…

Sigh.

Yeah. Big production. Huge production. Huge. Know roughly how long the film is, for all this effort?

3 minutes.

More later.

-cvj