Monday, March 22, 2010

Nearly there

I am currently waiting for Ted to deliver the 10th draft of the script. After much soul searching, chest beating and gnashing of teeth, we've finally settled on a much simpler (yet visually complex) version. To me it actually recaptures the essence of the tale that Lee Killough originally wrote and we've left a lot of the back story to the viewers' imaginations.

In the next week or so, we will settle on the crew and begin production design and location sourcing. Shoot is planned for May, so we'll be starting to rehearse as well. I'll put rehearsal photos up as soon as we have some.


Thursday, January 28, 2010

Hey! What's the donate button on the top right of screen

Folks,

All of my films so far have carried a budget of $2000.00 per shoot. This has been generally to cover lighting and camera hire and refreshments for the cast and crew on the day of the shoot.

For "A Cup of Hemlock", I have already raised my usual $2000.00, so if I want it to be like all my other films, we can do it. I really want to take it to the next level, which means set design, better cameras (RED or 35mm film), effects, a gaffer with a light truck etc.

Initial estimates are that I need an additional $5000.00 if I want to give this project the production values it deserves.

If you are a fan of short films and would like to help out, press the "Donate" button on the right of the screen. Every dollar counts. Every person who donates will get a credit on the film and if you send me your details, I will mail you a DVD with the final film when it is completed.

This project is going ahead as I have already raised the minimum amount for me to get a fair result. The more I can raise, the better the final product will be.

If you can help out... please do so.

thanks,

Joel

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The journey so far


I have been carrying around "A Cup of Hemlock" for 25 years. I read it while at high school and something about it resonated strongly. When I started to become interested in film making 18 years later, it was definitely something that I wanted to make at some point... but science fiction is not something that I wanted to do first up. In 2005 (after 4 shorts), I felt I was finally ready to do the story justice, the only problem being; I had forgotten the title and author as well as the title and editor of the anthology (although I was sure it was classic sci-fi - Asimov or Bradbury or Heinlein).

I started local; bookshops, libraries, friends with Sci-fi collections but without any success. It didn't help that Asimov wrote a short story called "Death Sentence" which led me down the wrong path. In the end (after 3 years), I finally tracked it down by asking on a Bradbury book forum. It then took a further 6 months to find a physical copy (via the Book Nook in Illinois via ABEBooks online). And then it sat on my desk for 6 months.

During a particularly fulfilling period at work, I finally decided that I would start developing the project and the first step was to contact the author, sci-fi novellist Lee Killough. She was on Facebook (of course) and we became 'friends' and after a short period of negotiation, settled on a very fair price for the rights.

So now I have until June 2014 to finish the project and pre-production is underway.

Ted Janet is developing the screenplay (and producing) and we have commenced auditions for the cast. Dominic Thomas (www.domthomas.com) will be doing the cinematography.

All going well, we plan to raise funds to be able to shoot during the Easter weekend April 2 - 5 2010.

Very exciting stuff indeed.


Sunday, January 24, 2010

First next steps

Folks,

This blog is being created as a place where I can share with everyone the progress of the film projects on the go at Mudgee Productions. It has been nearly 5 years since we finished shooting "Death of a Real Estate Agent" and whilst I haven't been idle, it was certainly time to start something new.



And so...

"A Cup of Hemlock" is officially in pre-production... in the next post, I will discuss what a journey this project has been for me so far (and we haven't even completed the script). This will be my most ambitious project so far.

Check back soon.

Joel