Going to work on a promotional photoshoot with some of the lead actors from The 4400 tomorrow. I'm going to be a production assistant ensuring that the location is taken care of and cleaned up properly when the crew pulls out. It's taking place in a mansion just a few blocks away so I don't have to go far at all. I really like the show so it'll be kind of fun to work on just for a day. If you haven't seen it the first season is available on DVD. If you like dark sci-fi you might like The 4400. It's a lot like X-Files which also shot it's first 8 seasons here in Vancouver (I was a security guard at some of the locations for that show). Remember how season 9 sucked? That's because the light was so different having moved to L.A. Anyway, off to bed... 5:45 am comes early.

BCIT : : FilmFLEX Technology Professional: Part-time, BCIT/Industry Partnership Certificate

I do wish I could afford to take this course. You get a boat load of equipment for your $28720.00 in tuition and fees for the 12 month course. It's only part-time so I don't think EI would pay for it. Not to mention the fact that we have to keep a roof over our heads and pay off our debts. So let's see we'd need another $25k or so from somewhere. There's always a part time job, but there's no way we're doing the student loan thing again. Those are the debts we're currently paying down.

Hey can anyone spare $50k. Ugh! I'm a panhandler now.

This particular Development Hell is of my own making, but there's a lot to be learned here. I had some hard desicions to make over the weekend and having made them it feels much better.

The more I write of this story the more I realize that a backstory should remain just that. Zone 63 started life as a little story to support an idea for a faux reality show that I had and I thought, "Why not make a movie out of that too?" Some stories don't need to be movies and this is one of them. Taken alone it's just not that filmic. However, as a supporting story to a more interesting premise (my original intent) it works fantastically. So we're taking another tack here.

No I'm not throwing the baby out with the bath water. The work that I've already done, specifically the short contained within the Zone 63 story structure, is still solid and a viable piece that will go far to help promote this other project, the name of which I'd like to keep on the QT for now.

Where does this leave me? I have an awesome backstory for my mock reality show. Also, I just now completed the third draft of the short. That's right third! And am ready to let some people in the know have a look so I can polish it and shoot the darn thing. That's right shoot! I'll be posting a bit about what I need cast, crew and equipment wise once the breakdown is done.

Looks like we'll be shooting this far sooner than I expected. Cool!

Thank goodness for Syd Field and this little gem.

Added a little progress bar to the site on the right. It will measure this current writing project and those subsequent. It might be cool to show one through the actual production of a film too. Finding the time might be slightly difficult then with 18 hour days. The idea was baltantly stolen from another screenwriter's blog - Man Bytes Hollywood - he 'borrowed' it from someone else who did likewise and so on. NucleusCMS had a plugin all ready for uploading to my site. Nice!

Lots of screenwriters with blogs, even Vancouverites. Like Jeff O'Brien's Magnificent Iguana Productions. Clicking links on Jeff's site brought some odd information to light. Jeff was born on August 5th (see his IMDb listing). Me too (mine).

As it turns out there are other people who have August 5th birthdays on IMDb as well. For example: Bob Clark - director of such films as Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, Porky's and of course, A Christmas Story. Three favourites for sure. Word on the street is Mr Clark will be remaking Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things here in Vancouver. Oh to play a shambling un-dead dude in a remake of such a genre classic. Dare to dream. He'll be receiving an email shortly. Hopefully the project is still a go.

Strangely, Chuck Campbell, an actor working on Stargate here in Vancouver of late was born on August 5th, 1969... where? Halifax, Nova Scotia! Perhaps we were in the same nursery at the Grace Maternity. Weird.

From the look of this list we could put together quite the cast and crew of August the 5th babies.

There's even a porn star. Although some were rather amusing I'm not going to quote the names of any of her films. Ew!

Although it looks like two pages it's actually about 6 as some re-writing got done today. Friday was a "day off" as I needed time to think about some story problems. Some other things needed attention. Websites, for example:

• zombiefreak.com my horror portal


• redcritter.com the home for my entertainment company, Red Critter Productions

Neither are anywhere near finished, especially Red Critter but they've been started all the same. I've also started bashing around some ideas for promotional sites for Zone 63.

Creativity Tip 1: When you're having trouble coming up with a solution to a creative problem do something mundane and mindless: Go for a walk in the fresh air. Have a shower (A lot of problem solving seems to occur for me in the shower). Fold laundry (don't tell Carol about this one). Just taking one's attention away from the pressure of the actual creative project, even for a little while, allows a person to work through some things you can't seem to get through otherwise.

Check out director Wim Wenders 50 golden rules of fimmaking in in MovieMaker Magazine's issue #61 My Golden Rules. I was going to type them out after reading them in the past month's issue, but found them already online. Funny stuff, but educational at the same time. This one is a favourite:

12. Don’t shoot a western if you hate horses. (But it’s okay to not be fond of cows.)

Started writing later in the day and didn't want to stop. Only got three pages written, but a good three if that makes sense. Looks like turning off MSN messenger, the phone and ignoring email would be a good idea. I'm like a friggin' crow... "Ooh! looks something shiny! Let's go over there."

Is it ADHD? Could be. Perhaps I should be eating these in the morning:


Actually not entirely true. Once I get my teeth into a project its hard to get them out again. Especially if its something like this.

Farting around with my time machine and decided I go pick up the newspaper from a year from now. Look at what Daily Variety had to say!


Things really are going to get better.

You too can get a message from the future here.

We're just about a third of the way there. The average low-budget screenplay should be between 90 and 100 pages. Each page represents close to one minute of screen time so we have a 28 and a half minute movie so far. Kind of cool. Characters are truly taking coming to life on the page. I'm going to expand on a few of their backstories tonight by writing a more detailed biography for each one. It's a little trick I used to get into character when acting.

The story is headed in an interesting direction and is shaping up nicely. The need for a second draft is becoming apparent as well. As we've heard it said, "nothing is ever written, it's re-written". How right that is.

The first draft of the short contained within the feature is sitting here on the desk in front of me. Printed out and formtted with a nice title page. Now that gives me a sense of accomplishment. One step is complete and here in the real world. Cool!

I'm also reading The Six Day Horror Movie by Indie movie director Michael P. DiPaolo. He took $5000 and six days to make his feature zombie film, Daddy. We're hoping to have a little more than $5k and 6 days with which to shoot this movie, but it helps to see that it's possible and read about how it was done.

Buy The Six Day Horror Movie Book Here