pre-pro Your Next Project

Some of you I know of old, some of you are new to me. Anyhow, I did a similar thread to this years and years ago and found it a good way for people to articulate what they were working on and what they want from their next project.

So...

– What are you thinking about? Or writing? Or applying for?
– How does it fit into your current work? Something different? A progression? More of the same?
– What do you want from it? Fun? A career? An Oscar?

Let's talk about what we're planning, however sketchy, and how we hope to actualise it.
 
I'll go first:

So, I now work professionally in the media, albeit audio storytelling rather than visual storytelling. It's business, so most of the work that I do isn't anything that I'm passionate about, although I make a lot of interesting shows. I do have my own little podcast, Establishing Shots, where I interview filmmakers including Morgan Neville, Zoe Kazan, Yann Demange and Tim Blake Nelson.

I'm working on a couple of podcast projects, funding dependent, which will utilise a lot of the narrative skills that I learnt from filmmaking. One is a story about doctors and cancer, a very personal family story really, and one is a non-fiction podcast that could best be described as 'Britain's Twin Peaks'. I think both could be really interesting, I just need to scoop together enough money to make them without huge professional sacrifices.

In terms of film... I'd really like to work on something, probably just as a writer. I have an idea for a short and an idea for a feature, which are semi-related, but am struggling for the time to make/write stuff at the moment that isn't career related. I also want to make a short documentary about Britain's post-war house building, but not sure whether that will materialise (I've been talking about it for years).
 
My primary focus is screenplays that I'm hired to write. Some are adaptations of books while others are simply 2 to 3 page story ideas.I recently finished a pilot episode & series bible that I adapted from a book. I've just finished a proposal for another book adaptation.

I'm selective about what I take on, as it's a ton of work. But I really enjoy doing it, and it pays pretty well. The down side is that I have no control over whether or not any of them get produced, but I'm OK with that (at least for the moment).

I have several ideas of my own rolling around in the back of my head, but I'm putting them on hold for the moment.
 
My day job is currently working as a VFX sup at a small house, but my heart is in making my own projects. I just wrapped a week of filming in Montana for my fourth feature film called, "Surviving the Wild". It's based on my time being homeless in the mountains. We have one more week of shooting to go, but it's more local and I'll be using matte paintings to make St. Maries, ID look like Eureka, MT
 
My day job has absolutely nothing to do with film/video, but I'm hoping to finally get a short-short completed as a stepping stone to another, more collaborative project (more about that some other day) that might partially replace the day-job.

For years, I've been collecting various cameras and other bits of equipment, but have lacked two essential elements: (1) someone genuinely creative to work on the script/screenplay (I'm more of a craftsman - can only work with something that's already there); and (2) actors! But a coincidence of inspirations earlier this year gave me what I hope is the perfect scenario for a 3-minute film that I can shoot entirely on my own. It'll take about a year altogether, as it'll include some timelapse that needs to be shot in the springtime over at least a couple of weeks, and other shots that will require me to dismantle some household equipment that's in near constant use!
 
I work as a commercial director for my day job. I specialize in action-comedy and sci-fi.

Outside of my commercials, I've been working on a web series over the last year called Johnny Wong's Rockabilly Restaraunt Reviews.

It's an action-comedy about food-blogging gangs.

I describe it as; Jackie Chan meets Scott Pilgrim meets Iron Chef.

I've also been sharing my experience on set to other up and coming filmmakers via my email newsletter.

I publish a lot about what it takes to get work as a director as well as a lot of step-by-steps into how I execute each job.

I live right in the heart of Los Angeles.
 
My day job has absolutely nothing to do with film/video, but I'm hoping to finally get a short-short completed as a stepping stone to another, more collaborative project (more about that some other day) that might partially replace the day-job.

For years, I've been collecting various cameras and other bits of equipment, but have lacked two essential elements: (1) someone genuinely creative to work on the script/screenplay (I'm more of a craftsman - can only work with something that's already there); and (2) actors! But a coincidence of inspirations earlier this year gave me what I hope is the perfect scenario for a 3-minute film that I can shoot entirely on my own. It'll take about a year altogether, as it'll include some timelapse that needs to be shot in the springtime over at least a couple of weeks, and other shots that will require me to dismantle some household equipment that's in near constant use!
What kind of cameras and equipment do you have?
 
I finished my first feature on a very tight schedule and there were a few ways it suffered because of that. So I decided that my 2nd feature would have absolutely ZERO deadline. That being said, I thought I would've been done with it by now (a couple years ago, to be honest). But hey, life happens.

Anyway, it's a reggae musical called "Rose". Some of you are already familiar with it. I'm still in the screenwriting phase, haven't gotten even close enough to start thinking of casting. I've got a bunch of dialog written, tons of notes taken, and I've done a 1st rough cut of The Board (for those unfamiliar, think storyboard, except instead of pictures it's detailed notes). I just made a new friend recently who wants to produce his own feature so he's been asking me for guidance and collaboration and by virtue of that it's lit a fire under my butt to re-prioritize this long-gestating project of mine. :)
 
What kind of cameras and equipment do you have?

Nothing very exotic - a Canon 1200D and 70D, a Mavic Pro drone plus a variety of android-device cameras. I also found that my old Nikon pocket digital camera which I'd written off as useless for video (max clip 10 sec @ 640x480px :eek: ) is potentially more useful than I thought. Coupled up to a Raspberry Pi, it's theoretically possible to create HD timelaspes from the 2560x1080 still images. But I don't have a Pi to hand - so for the timelapses I need, I'll just use one of the android devices and a timelapse app.
 
I'm selective about what I take on, as it's a ton of work. But I really enjoy doing it, and it pays pretty well. The down side is that I have no control over whether or not any of them get produced, but I'm OK with that (at least for the moment).

Definitely know (and sympathise with) that feeling of striking the balance between decent work that pays the bills but where you lack an emotional investment, and the more time and energy consuming, risky work that we all want to *ultimately* do. As long as you're happy with the balance though, I think it's all ok. As with comedy, timing's everything.

I finished my first feature on a very tight schedule and there were a few ways it suffered because of that. So I decided that my 2nd feature would have absolutely ZERO deadline. That being said, I thought I would've been done with it by now (a couple years ago, to be honest). But hey, life happens.

Anyway, it's a reggae musical called "Rose". Some of you are already familiar with it. I'm still in the screenwriting phase, haven't gotten even close enough to start thinking of casting. I've got a bunch of dialog written, tons of notes taken, and I've done a 1st rough cut of The Board (for those unfamiliar, think storyboard, except instead of pictures it's detailed notes). I just made a new friend recently who wants to produce his own feature so he's been asking me for guidance and collaboration and by virtue of that it's lit a fire under my butt to re-prioritize this long-gestating project of mine. :)

Glad to hear that you back on the Rose hype! I've always felt like the vomit draft, for me, is the easy thing, and then that painstaking work of revision, editing, detailed world building and practical compromising, is the hard stuff. But it sounds like you have a very unique process which sort of snakes through each of these facets of scriptwriting. Is this how you wrote Antihero?
 
I haven't been productive in a long time. I started antidepressants last week, maybe in time i'll be able to get something accomplished.
In the meantime my downward spiral is continuing and i can feel my conscience deteriorating in this cesspool of society. i think i've lost the power to wield mjolnir but i just want the power to write a script. I've been doing work on an outline for a feature length script.. never written one of those before but i've got some brilliant ideas so far. hopefully i stick with it. I really have a talent for masterminding criminal operations... i should either finish this script or go work for the mafiaa.
 
Keep at it man. Those "brilliant" ideas stoke passion which can lift your spirits overall.
 
IDK what it would take for me to stop feeling so small and insignificant.
That would be nice if one brilliant script did the job but i feel like the more realistic path is that you need like 5 scripts and then you can get an agent.
 
IDK what it would take for me to stop feeling so small and insignificant.

For what it's worth, I think stopping that feeling takes you, not any scripts (brilliant or otherwise).

The reality is that this industry is difficult and competitive, and then, on top of that, we're all constantly fighting internal battles for self-esteem, confidence and happiness. Feeling like your work is either i) not as good as you want to be or, ii) not appreciated by those around you is an almost universal condition! We would all be a lot happier if we could just materialise brilliant work into existence as a cure for feeling crappy, but the likelihood is that the two states are inter-dependent. If you feel down on yourself, you're never going to accept your work as brilliant, or accept the response of those around you as fair or proportionate.

Keep writing, keep using it for some catharsis; but the work will improve if your self-confidence improves. And, at the end of the day, feeling good about yourself is way, way more important than writing, even brilliant, scripts.
 
For what it's worth, I think stopping that feeling takes you, not any scripts (brilliant or otherwise).

The reality is that this industry is difficult and competitive, and then, on top of that, we're all constantly fighting internal battles for self-esteem, confidence and happiness. Feeling like your work is either i) not as good as you want to be or, ii) not appreciated by those around you is an almost universal condition! We would all be a lot happier if we could just materialise brilliant work into existence as a cure for feeling crappy, but the likelihood is that the two states are inter-dependent. If you feel down on yourself, you're never going to accept your work as brilliant, or accept the response of those around you as fair or proportionate.

Keep writing, keep using it for some catharsis; but the work will improve if your self-confidence improves. And, at the end of the day, feeling good about yourself is way, way more important than writing, even brilliant, scripts.

There's an old saying - No work, No food.
You can't just sit around doing no work in the fields and then expect to eat. Same goes for emotional and mental nourishment.

You say it doesn't come from labor or producing something youre proud of but i'm not some stoic figurehead that can live in solitary confinement accomplishing nothing, having no friends and still somehow feeling good about myself. that's not who i am... and having a degree of success or a brilliant quality that others can appreciate can radically change your social life and the way people interact with you.

Oh yeah a second project im considering is to put up a curtain and a laugh track in my room and then pretend im on a stage doing standup comedy... i could film a good 5 minutes written performed and filmed by me and nobody would know there is no audience.
 
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After years of trying to have a ‘sensible’ job in teaching, and trying to ignore my inner voice telling me I should be making films, I decided to finally follow my dreams. I did my masters in screenwriting a couple years ago and planned to go down the producer route working for companies.

Unfortunately, I was very sick last year. I had a sudden cardiac arrest and I was in intensive care for a long time. In hospital for almost 6 months. Almost dying made me realise there’s no time like the present.

I am now a full time wheelchair user. I have a condition called ehlers danlos and my stay in hospital exasperated my condition. I’m resilient though. It’s just made me more determined.

I imagine it’ll be harder for me to get a job in the film industry. But I don’t need to work at the moment. So I’m taking the opportunity to make short films and work towards my first feature film.
 
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