Over the weekend, Eric and I travelled to Sudbury, Ontario to meet with the other 2 producers of the upcoming short film Strings. This new film is nearly 80% music and completely different than anything we’ve ever done.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Did I mention I’m addicted to this stuff?

I’m a massive fan of getting together with the ‘brass’ of a project to plan out the production.  (See my earlier post for details on a similar meeting we had for The Climb) We went over every single aspect of the film and I’m beyond pumped to see how the next few months play out.  We are now equipped with a plan to pull this film off with the goal of creating a truly memorable short film.

It begins with the script.  I think it’s important as a screenwriter to understand that the script is merely a starting point for a much larger collaboration to take place.  I think it’s absolutely vital to be open to changes.  Going into the meeting, we all felt the concept, story and characters were strong.  Yet still we went over every detail of the story and constantly challenged ourselves to make it better. 

I love talking about stories in general.  Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you to clear your schedule if you plan to ask me about anything related to film.  Add more people and the conversations become hall of famers. 

Sitting around talking about character motivations and questioning every single word is a really nerdy thing to be addicted to.  I feel I’ve named my blog accordingly.

What I love about the process as a writer is listening to the suggestions that are being made using them as inspiration to come up with new and better ideas.  The movie is better as a result.  I’m now armed with a small but significant list of changes that will improve the script immensely.  It’s the tiny details that count and I can’t wait to get started on the rewrite.

From there we went over budgets and logistics to make sure Director Mat Cousineau will have everything he needs on set to shoot the movie he wants to make.  It’s a process that will take a few months but we now have a solid starting point to build on.

Here is where Producers Ian MacDonald and Eric Gamache become MVPs.  Both are extremely dedicated and are huge assets to the production.  Now that our plan is in place we have begun operation ‘make it happen’.  It sounds relatively straight forward but there are always curve balls that producers must face.  Forgive the analogy (and the cheese) but our producers can hit the curve.

We all have fairly detailed lists of tasks we need to accomplish in the coming weeks.  So far we’re way ahead of the game in terms of planning and setting goals.  This film has an extremely talented cast of actors and singers on board and the only real concern I have left is having to endure the long wait before we get to shoot this film.

As Mat famously said back in college:

“There’s a process!!!”

Ahh the process.  I love making movies.

PS: The above quote has absolutely nothing to do with movies.  Ask me another time and I’ll explain why it’s one of the funniest things he’s ever said.

PS #2: I’m trying to keep this blog clean so I omitted the F-bombs associated with the quote.