“The worker must work for the glory of his handiwork, not simply for pay; the thinker must think for truth, not for fame.“ – W.E.B. Du Bois

I like this quote from W.E.B. Du Bois about working for the glory of the craft because there’s very little money out there for indie film. It represents what were trying to do in finding collaborators who want to  be a part of a unique film based on an emerging voice.

Why would we do that?
1) Because the work gives not just me, but all collaborators the rare opportunity to become better at what we do.
2) Success with entrepreneurial endeavors like this one spreads market power around to more people and results in better films that reward the audience for showing up to the theater and spending $12.

VISUAL EFFECTS (VFX)
My initial efforts to find a VFX artist was unsuccessful so I did a deep dive and tapped some of my professor connections at the university.  They were kind enough to put out feelers for us with former students and we got one taker! Our artist has now had the footage for a week and we’ll be reconnecting tonight to discuss the workflow.

RADIO CHARACTERS (VOICE-OVER)
After writing the new radio script, I sent it to another friend from the film school days to see if she’s interested in a collaboration.  She has experience producing live stand-up at a local business and as personal assistant to a Hollywood producer.

Since receiving initial notes, I did a minor re-write to add clarity.  I’ll be following up with her to discuss the radio parts with her by this weekend.

WRITING
Some of you may remember that my jobby-job is in a 4 month hiatus and I go back to work in mid-October.  During the summer, this is a great time for me to work on new material.  Over the last 10 weeks, I’ve been taking another writing class through UCLA and wound up with a full three act outline for a sci-fi feature script that I plan to write. Nice!

TARGET COMPLETION
My last, best guess on a completion date was early September.  After spending that time trying to bring in new people, it’s clear that I underestimated.  Hopefully I’ll get some good news in the coming days firming up production details, but for now it’s too early to tell, so I’ll wait until I know more to give you a new target completion date.

FINAL THOUGHTS
To stay productive a a writer, you have to do it every day.  I could look for additional paid work for these four months but to make it as a filmmaker, developing my voice through writing is necessary and having this free time to write is a blessing.  So that’s what I do every day for about 4 hours. Along with that, it’s necessary to watch movies and read lots of screenplays, so this is all part of the job this summer as well.

That’s it for now. We’re close to producing these final elements so I’ll have another update soon!