El Director
Veteran
Saturday, February 21, 2009
A few months ago, I finished my first feature film, a $600 slasher flick called WULF. The movie came out okay, but I encountered many problems just trying to finish the production. Everything from actors dropping out to equipment malfunctioning. But, I persevered and finished the thing. I decided that I was going to do a sequel, another horror flick about the same characters. This time, I was going to try to raise funding and make it a $25,000 movie. For a while, things were going well. I wrote the script in a few months, and even scheduled the entire movie. I had almost a full cast and a makeup effects guy. That's when the troubles started on the new movie.
My lead actress, who is related to Rita Hayworth, told me that she was planing on moving to California this spring. We planned on shooting this summer. I told her it was okay, that I would find something else shoot, maybe another horror flick I was working on called CRYPTID. My initial reason for this was because she made the character in my first movie and I refused to make the sequel without her. However, I soon started to realize that maybe there was another reason to cease production on WULF II.
I'm a born and raised Christian. And yes, I love horror films. But what I was starting to realize is that God was telling me to move in a different direction. I started to realize that God was telling me all throughout my first movie, with everything that was going wrong. Now, the same thing was happening again. I prayed about it that night, in fact, it was a very emotional prayer session. I cried for the first time in years. I asked God that if it is his will that I make movies, let me make movies for Him.
The next morning, it was put in my heart to make a movie about two things that I have a passion for: the end times and parkour. I made a list of prophecies to include as well as issues I wanted to address, such as good people don't go to heaven, only believers do. My plan, I decided, was to write a script that I knew some of the large churches in my area would want to be a part of. The concept I was running with was to have a group of college kids that train parkour witness the end times unfold around them. By telling the story from their point of view, rather than a political one, I could keep the budget low.
I wrote a two page outline for the movie in a day, and have since been working on the script. My first feature was written with a script template for Microsoft Word called Drama Dog. The sequel was written with Final Draft 7. This movie, I'm writing with an open source program called Celtx. What I like about it is that it's an entire pre-production suite, and it's free! After the script is written, I can break down each scene, labeling stunts, props and effects. Then, I can schedule the movie and print off weekly or daily schedules. All from this one program! I hope to have the script finished by the end of the month. If the script turns out the way I think it will, I should have no problem raising funding from the churches. This movie will have a message. I hope to be able to get a new camera and editing system. I can easily make this film for under $200,000. And that even includes insurance, seeing that parkour can be dangerous if done incorrectly. Which brings me to actors. I'm going to try to find Christian actors who are willing to go through eight weeks of personal parkour training with me to get them ready for the movie. I want to actually see the actors doing the stunts.
So that's where I'm at right now. This film will do one of three things: Bring people to God, bring people to parkour, or both.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
I just finished the script! That was definitely the fastest I've written a movie. I'm getting better! My next goal is to get the breakdowns and schedule done so I can start raising money for this thing. Fortunately, I don't have a job right now, so I have nothing but time to get this movie prepped. I pray that this movie does what it's supposed to and bring people to Jesus.
A few months ago, I finished my first feature film, a $600 slasher flick called WULF. The movie came out okay, but I encountered many problems just trying to finish the production. Everything from actors dropping out to equipment malfunctioning. But, I persevered and finished the thing. I decided that I was going to do a sequel, another horror flick about the same characters. This time, I was going to try to raise funding and make it a $25,000 movie. For a while, things were going well. I wrote the script in a few months, and even scheduled the entire movie. I had almost a full cast and a makeup effects guy. That's when the troubles started on the new movie.
My lead actress, who is related to Rita Hayworth, told me that she was planing on moving to California this spring. We planned on shooting this summer. I told her it was okay, that I would find something else shoot, maybe another horror flick I was working on called CRYPTID. My initial reason for this was because she made the character in my first movie and I refused to make the sequel without her. However, I soon started to realize that maybe there was another reason to cease production on WULF II.
I'm a born and raised Christian. And yes, I love horror films. But what I was starting to realize is that God was telling me to move in a different direction. I started to realize that God was telling me all throughout my first movie, with everything that was going wrong. Now, the same thing was happening again. I prayed about it that night, in fact, it was a very emotional prayer session. I cried for the first time in years. I asked God that if it is his will that I make movies, let me make movies for Him.
The next morning, it was put in my heart to make a movie about two things that I have a passion for: the end times and parkour. I made a list of prophecies to include as well as issues I wanted to address, such as good people don't go to heaven, only believers do. My plan, I decided, was to write a script that I knew some of the large churches in my area would want to be a part of. The concept I was running with was to have a group of college kids that train parkour witness the end times unfold around them. By telling the story from their point of view, rather than a political one, I could keep the budget low.
I wrote a two page outline for the movie in a day, and have since been working on the script. My first feature was written with a script template for Microsoft Word called Drama Dog. The sequel was written with Final Draft 7. This movie, I'm writing with an open source program called Celtx. What I like about it is that it's an entire pre-production suite, and it's free! After the script is written, I can break down each scene, labeling stunts, props and effects. Then, I can schedule the movie and print off weekly or daily schedules. All from this one program! I hope to have the script finished by the end of the month. If the script turns out the way I think it will, I should have no problem raising funding from the churches. This movie will have a message. I hope to be able to get a new camera and editing system. I can easily make this film for under $200,000. And that even includes insurance, seeing that parkour can be dangerous if done incorrectly. Which brings me to actors. I'm going to try to find Christian actors who are willing to go through eight weeks of personal parkour training with me to get them ready for the movie. I want to actually see the actors doing the stunts.
So that's where I'm at right now. This film will do one of three things: Bring people to God, bring people to parkour, or both.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
I just finished the script! That was definitely the fastest I've written a movie. I'm getting better! My next goal is to get the breakdowns and schedule done so I can start raising money for this thing. Fortunately, I don't have a job right now, so I have nothing but time to get this movie prepped. I pray that this movie does what it's supposed to and bring people to Jesus.
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thx a lot.