Gay Lightning

Ugh, that was painful...

2010-03-14T21:49:00.000-04:00

Saturday's Craigslist casting call was officially the longest hour of my life. No one showed, and I spent the whole time evaluating if people were approaching my table to actually talk with me about my web series or not. Sadly, I struck out, completely.

Well, I guess the lesson to be learned here is that you can't get actors to show up at a mall food court with a post on Craigslist. I guess it is on to the Triangle Film Club to see if they can help me. Here's hoping that option 1B works at least a little better that 1A did!

Actor/Actress Ad Posted

2010-03-10T23:58:00.000-05:00

My ad just went up on Craigslist for actors and actresses: http://raleigh.craigslist.org/tlg/1638597871.html

I'll be spending two hours in the food court of our local mall waiting for folks to "audition". Hopefully it's not the longest, loneliest two hours of my life!!! :)

Slight change of plans

2010-03-08T21:12:00.000-05:00

So...

My previous plan is out the window after a weekend of battling a nasty little stomach virus. Since the weekend was lost completely, along with about 12 pounds, I'll work up the Craigslist postings early this week and shoot for spending an afternoon interviewing next weekend. Same plan, new date.

Until then, it's back to the script!

Cast and crew search starts this weekend

2010-03-03T21:54:00.000-05:00

I've reached the point where I am ready to set this beast loose. But first, I need help. As mentioned in earlier posts, my first plan of attack for finding help (acting talent & people who know how to shoot video) will be via Craigslist.

So, I will craft the ads and post this weekend. Who knows what kind of response I will get, but I plan to set up shop at a local park and see who comes to my first "casting call". Needless to say, it will be an interesting afternoon. I'll be sure to blog all about it, so stay tuned!!!

Quick update

2010-02-19T08:54:00.001-05:00

It's been a little over a week since I posted, so I figured a quick update was due. The script is coming along, even though I am stuck on the end of episode 1.3. I'll fight my way through it, but I moved on to subsequent episodes while I work out that little issue. Even with my struggles in the third episode, I figure I'm just past the half way point of season one, which is kind of exciting.

I planned on starting the recruiting process (actors, actresses, people with film experience, etc.) this week, but after going through some scenes in my head as I scouted locations, I realized I should wait until our area greens up. I'm not real keen on shooting scenes with brown grass and leave-less trees. It's only a month away so I can't wait too long as I hope to get this up and running as soon we are back to green down here.

In the meantime, I've been learning some budget film making techniques on http://www.wonderhowto.com/movies-film-theater/. I need to thank my friend Victor for pointing me to the Jack Black series on this website. Those videos were my entry point and are very good, but there is a surprising amount of good content on that site. If you are as crazy as me and want to whip a web series together, this is a good place to start.

Reviewing the reviews

2010-02-05T09:30:00.001-05:00

It's been a week, and about half of the reviews are in. I can pester those who haven't sent feedback, but I'm not gonna bother. The ship will sail without them.

Overall, the feedback has been a very positive experience. That isn't to say that everyone is in deep, dark love with my web series, but it has energized me a little. The two biggest things it confirmed were:

1. My belief that I can actually make this happen
2. Some of my concerns about things like "cliche" characters and joke timing were relatively accurate

So that's all warm and fuzzy, but where do I go from here you ask?

I plan on wrapping up episode 1.3 this weekend, and hope to knock out 1.4 and 1.5 next week. The family and I are out of town next weekend, so progress will slow a little, but right after I get back I plan to start recruiting folks. That should be an intersting phase as I start to "sell" the script as a real opporunity for folks to be a part of something special. Oddly enough, I am very excited about that part. I guess it will seem more like a reality once others are on board. Who knows...

And they're off!!!

2010-01-30T22:00:00.000-05:00

Mental hurdle number one, taken care of. I just sent out the first two episodes to be reviewed by some of my closest friends. This is the first time my silly little idea will be read by anyone but me (yeah, that includes my wife). I am excited and scared all at the same time. I read it through a few times and it makes me chuckle and puts a smile on my face, so I guess that is all that really matters right now.

Where did the second episode come from you ask? Episode 1.1 proved to be massive once I put it into a real screenplay format, so I basically got episode 1.2 for free. That was a nice little bonus. After a little editing to disect it into two pieces, I stumbled onto some good ideas for episode 1.3. That really helped as my outline was a tad vague on episodes two and three. The rest of the season was already pretty much mapped out, but getting all of the characters introduced was giving me an unsually difficult time.

On a planning note, I am starting to think I may need the whole season written before I start actually putting people in front of a camera. I don't like that idea as I would like to get to that as quickly as possible, but it may be the best thing.

Regardless, this feels like a milestone. So I plan to celebrate with a little video game time tonight. Yeah, livin' large!! :)

Competing script editors. Ugh. :(

2010-01-25T23:08:00.000-05:00

I've known for quite some time that my script, currently kept in Google Docs, wasn't exactly in the "official" screenplay format. It never bothered me as I knew I would slam it into some screenplay editor at some point so I could ship it for review. Well, that day as come, and it brings some bad news.

As I copied my dialog (it's a very dialog heavy script), into the screenplay editor Celtx, I started making edits along the way. I didn't think anything of it as I was in sort of a groove. Luckly, I caught myself as I was proof reading some of the new stuff and realized the mess I just created. Two slightly different versions of the same script in two different files and two different formats. And to think, as a professional in the software business who has dealt with version control software since day one out of college, I let this happen. Very sad.

So, here I sit, trying to figure out which tool to use. On one hand, I have the slick screenplay-specific editor of Celtx that makes formatting an afterthought. You just type, and it gets out of the way. On the other hand, Google Docs gives you ultimate portibility. I can read and update my script, in its ugly and unofficial format, from anywhere in the world (even on my iPhone). Yuck.

I hate points in a project like this that require you to make a decision that you know you will get wrong. Not only do you know you will undoubtedly choose the wrong technology, but you know that you will spend countless hours trying to covert everything to the techonolgy you should have originally chosen. Oh well, I'll sleep on it and see what happens...

Kicking it out of the nest

2010-01-20T21:47:00.000-05:00

I have sufficiently coddled episode 1.1. It's been re-written, re-worked, re-everythinged as I am, as discussed in a previous post, insanely paranoid about not setting the world on fire with our first outing. So, in order to force my hand in getting this web series off the ground I am committing to getting an initial review next week from some friends. The key is picking the friends that I can trust to be completely honest with me. It won't do any good if folks just nod, and say "Yeah, that was great!" when it may just be a big steamy load. All in all, I am really excited to see what folks think, good or bad.

On another note, I read an interview by Felicia Day where she says "My hope is also to be producing other people's web series, and other people's content, because I feel like there haven't been enough web series to break out..." I wonder what I need to do to get on her radar of promising web series. One episode shot and on the web might be a good place to start, eh? If your reading this Felicia, sign me up!!! :)

Decisions, decisions...

2010-01-13T18:47:00.001-05:00

Alright, so I am making progress, but I am certainly struggling with a couple of things as I write these first few episodes. Here are my top two:

What rating do I aim for? - Yeah, I know web content isn't exactly regulated, but I want to have some sort of target that I keep my writing in. It really boils down to PG-13, R, or NC17. Based on just my sense of humor, the dialog ends up in the upper end of that rating list, but do I dial it back, just a little, to make it more palatable for the masses? If you forced me to make a call right now, I would tend towards R. Maybe I should go clean up a few "fucks" in my scripts... :)

Is it all or nothing with episode 1.1? - I'm quite worried that if I can't hook people with the premier episode, that all is lost. On the other hand, if I keep tweaking and re-writing just the first episode, I will never get this thing off the ground. And so the balancing act continues, eh? Maybe I give myself one more week before I put episode 1.1 in front of a few folks and get some feedback.

Thoughts?

The "Plan"

2009-12-31T22:25:00.005-05:00

Where I've already done:
* Setup website - your on it.
* Setup Twitter account - http://www.twitter.com/GayLightning
* General outline for at least three seasons

What I am working on:
* Finishing edits on episode one
* Initial draft of episode two

What I need to do, and how I plan to do each:
* Find actors - I plan on seeing who I can get via Craigslist. Some filming may happen at my house, which makes Craigslist a little scary. I plan on meeting every one who shows interest personally before I agree to bring them on board. Plus, I have no money to offer folks, so I may need to sell the whole idea/dream of Gay Lightning. I figure I need at least three episodes written and finalized as "ammo" for my sales pitch. My hope is that there are some college kids that are looking to break into acting/modeling. It's not exactly a Thursday night sit-com, but it is at least some exposure. Besides exposure, it is an easy way to work on their trade and will let them see if their dream is as exciting as they thought it would be once they are really doing it.
* Find someone who knows something about shooting video and making it look decent - Same as actors. We'll see what Craigslist gets me. Another option is a local meetup.com group (http://www.meetup.com/trianglefilm/). It seems like a good resource, especially for a newbie like me.
* Figure out what I don't know that I should know - Hopefully some of you kind folks our there will feel a little pity and share some handy tidbits in the comments. Pretty please?