"Missed" is done, writing is fun, and I'm hanging in there

On any given day, a good indication of my mental state can generally be gaged by the amount of emails in my inbox, as I use my Gmail account as sort of an ad-hoc to-do list. Less than ten messages, and I've got a good handle on my life. Less than twenty, and it's a typical day. More than twenty? Oy.

Right now, I'm at 18 and climbing fast. Need to sort things out. While I do so, though, let me check some items off my list and tell y'all that:

• I've agreed to cover this season of Survivor for Variety, and my first two pieces have already gone live. Come see me mock and summarize! It should be a fun assignment. I like hating people in public.
• I also wrote a freelance article for NYC Midnight, about the Los Angeles participants in their 2008 Short Story competition. It was a really pleasant experience -- got to talk to a bunch of writers about writing, and then write about it. Article came out alright too. Go team.
• And, finally, for those who have ever cared about that short film of mine, "Missed" -- well, after a long wait, you can now watch it on the YouTube.
  
  
  However the final product might have turned out, a lot of people helped me make this happen and deserve the chance to see it. To them, I say thanks. To anyone watching blind, well, I hope you enjoy.

Labels: projects:missed, projects:writing

posted by Liz  # 8:17 PM 2 Comments

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I'm only a little bit boring

But you know, the blog posts must roll on...

• The past two weeks have been really busy. Like, look at your Google Calendar and feel really confused as to how all that stuff ended up on it. But it's also been nice. The blog has suffered, but worry no more! Things should start getting dull again any day now.
• Missed update: We have sound! We're mere days away from being all done with sound! Oh, kalloo-kallay. Then it will be time to enter festivals. Yay opportunities for rejection!
• I finished my one-act play about time travel. At least, I finished a vaguely complete draft of it. Now to see if it'll be produced. I have my hopes. But they are fragile little tendrils.
• Saw Wicked at the Pantages this weekend, which was interesting -- my incredibly low expectations were almost met. I am currently planning Operation: Avenue Q, which will have to meet my incredibly high expectations, but I am confident it's got a chance.
• I went to Palm Springs this weekend, for a whole day and night! It was really hot, and we played board games. It was really really nice.
• I don't want to talk about how hot my apartment is. I really really don't.
  • Margaritas have been my teddy bear for the past few days. This is not a healthy way to live. But they are COLD and they make me SLEEP. Sigh.
• Oh, so if you are not watching Mad Men, then why the hell not? This is seriously fine television. Plus, nerds can enjoy the fact that Connor from Angel, Zoey Bartlet from The West Wing, and YoSafBridge from Fireflly are all interacting in fun and interesting ways. Nerd team-ups go!
• I got a new iPod. Well not new. Used, courtesy of my local iPod doctor, and a very good deal it was. It is a slim black Nano, much like a ninja. Except that I couldn't call it "Ninja" so I called it "Kunoichi," which is Japanese for "lady ninja."
• This is about the level I've been operating on all week. Did I mention that it's HOT at home?

Labels: in which our heroine, projects:missed, projects:writing

posted by Liz  # 3:50 PM 0 Comments

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MISSED: Pre-Production

So over a year ago, I spent a weekend directing a short film for festival distribution, with the help of a number of very nice and talented folks. It was a fun, if exhausting, process and I loved most every second of it -- the chance to bring to life an idea close to my heart, yet hopefully appealing to others, was really kind of rad.

Then a combination of my own problems and other difficulties meant that I didn't have picture lock until this June. This has been one of my great embarrassing secret shames of the past year -- but now, dear reader, we are on track! There is picture! Soon, there will be sound! And by the end of the month, I will be able to prove that when I said I could make a short film, I wasn't just joshing. Whether or not it was worth the wait remains to be seen. But I remain optimistic. So optimistic, in fact, that I'm finally going to talk about the process publicly, in preparation for having to write up notes for Without A Box and all the film festivals I plan to submit to. So please enjoy the story. It's not over yet, but nothing wrong with a work in progress.

How it started is simple: nearly two years ago, I saw a short film written and directed by a friend of mine, and thought to myself, well, self, that looks easy. Sure, it's been a few years since film school. But you could probably do that.

The idea itself took a little longer to generate, but in the end I drew upon one of my favorite themes -- romantic comedies are really stupid -- and added an exciting twist that (I hoped) gave it some freshness. I wrote the first draft of Missed in November 2005, and over the next six months rewrote those six pages no fewer than nine times. Originally, the script took place in the 1980s, would have been shot in my apartment and my hometown video store, and had three pages of extraneous dialogue. These were, needless to say, absolutely awful ideas. But most of them were fixed when the time period moved to the 1970s. Because the 1970s were much much cooler than the 1980s. FACT.

The script also had a lot of really funny lines, but when I started showing it around to people, the main note I got was that the tone was inconsistent. So I cut all the funny lines. Then people thought the tone was fine. And really, those lines weren't too funny anyways.

At the time, of course, the whole thing was incredibly in the abstract -- until that spring, when I filed my tax return for 2005 and found out that despite all the freelance work I'd done, my many months of temping meant I'd actually be getting money back from the government. I looked at the numbers on the bottom line, thought about my sad little savings account for approximately two minutes, then started hunting around for a producer.

Jillian and I met through a friend, and she liked the script enough to tell me what was wrong with it. If the twist of Missed works at all, it's because Jillian kept on me during the rewriting process, forcing me to push the double meaning to its limit, until in theory you can watch it backwards and forwards with no conflicts.

Pre-production on this scale mostly consists of "what is the bare minimum of stuff we need, and what's the cheapest way to get it?" Luckily, the big stuff -- camera and actors -- come pretty easy. In the case of camera, I ended up reconnecting with Maya, who I knew vaguely well in film school but never worked with until I sent out a mailing list query for a DP. Maya had several sterling recommendations -- talent, niceness, and her own camera -- plus the same enthusiasm for getting back into the filmmaking game. We became great friends as a result. (This is by far one of the nicer things to come from the production of Missed.)

Actors, meanwhile, worked out pretty easy. I really enjoy the casting process, because actors are insanely fun -- and it finally begins to feel real at that point, because people who aren't your friends are actually interested in being in your movie and that's just weird. One girl sent her headshot with a very simple cover letter: "I know I don't have a lot of experience, but if I suck, you can punch me in the face." Damn right I brought her in. She was just okay. Not great, but not quite worthy of physical abuse. Ah well.

The first actor we cast was Kathleen, as the best friend with a secret, in large part because she could do a French accent. (The character wasn't actually French at that point, but Jillian suggested we try it and I loved how it played.) Men are always much easier to cast than women, because there are simply fewer male actors, but Joachim made it even easier. True story -- he originally auditioned for the part of Sergei using an accent he'd perfected for a performance of Dracula. As I am a cultured and worldy young woman, I could not tell the difference. And Bonnie, our lead, just brought it every time, giving each run a new twist... Casting is all about experimenting and possibilities and finding out what people can do. It's always a pleasure.

The one big missing piece was location, and that was all Jillian, who tracked down a just-opened coffee shop that would be happy to let us in before they opened. The problem with coffee shops and cafes is that they often like to be open during daylight hours -- but this place didn't open until 11, which meant we could sneak in before they opened and get the scenes we needed. All we needed to do was wake up at 4 AM. Um. Easy.

I tell you all these details because it's fun to remember them, the work that went into this. It's also fun to remember that it really happened, that it was actually possible. Just a matter of saying you're doing it and digging in.

Notes for myself, for the thanks: D. and Dad and K. for reading drafts, JS and Aimee for reading with actors, JG for the audition space. Plus all the usual suspects.

The story of production a little later. Right now, I have to listen to composer reels. Slamdance early deadline is August 27th. Sundance is September 7th. Dig in. Get it done.

Because it can be.

Labels: projects:missed

posted by Liz  # 11:16 PM 0 Comments

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An update on Project Liz

Gah! Who's behind on the times? That would be me. But it's not like I've been lazing about, doing nothing! No sir! Been writing lots for Daily Reel, and my latest Bookslut column also just went up. LizWriting, all over the web! Dig it!

What else to report? Well, the Canadians are totally for sure buying "Hand Of God" -- I received the contract and their copy-edits this week, which were so polite. No idea when it will be on Alberta newstands, but I'm still very psyched. Aimee and I are damn close to finishing a readable-by-others draft of our Office spec, which is exciting as can be, because it means that we finally have the necessary samples to start showing around to agents and managers. This is actually pretty impressive, when you realize that Aimee and I have only been writing together for about a year, and in that time have written many drafts of four different scripts. Go team!

Too Little Too Late news: we have money! Full financing is being provided by a fine little commercial production company that I shan't mention by name. We are still incredibly on the cheap, but now the things that need purchasing can actually be purchased! There is still an absolute ton of work to do before shooting (which is now scheduled for the first two weekends in March). But it is still exciting!

Missed news: we have a new editor! This is not very exciting, I suppose, but the sheer fact that there is any news about Missed should be good enough for you.

Other news: It's Valentine's Day! It's Eric's birthday! It's Wednesday! It's the day I read about this!

So. A good day, I think. Punch someone you love tonight! I know I will.

Labels: in which our heroine, projects:missed, projects:too little too late, projects:writing

posted by Liz  # 5:41 PM 5 Comments

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