No Exit

It looks like I'm going back into news production again. One of my former supervisors called me up Friday, saying he had a position for a news producer open. It's for a 24-hour news channel. I had done a similiar gig before in Houston, and my experiences there were not all that keen; but the situation at that particular news room is well known in news circles, and it has since been shut down.

In any case, I had an interview today at the local station, and it was great. 3 hours of frank talk about the things that peeved me working in Houston, and about needing an opportunity to change career direction and work on the promotions side of things. I left feeling really great about going back to work there, and can tell this newsroom is not so dysfunctional as their late sister station.

Meanwhile, I am still working on the feature shooting out in San Antonio. We had our second meeting Sunday and did a script read-through. I was bumped up from production manager to assistant director. SWEET! :)

I want a casting credit too, since I found 2 of the actors. One was Jerry Turman, a great guy I worked with long ago on Restaurant of the Damned; a 3 minute short I did in film school. When I contacted his agent, I mentioned this, and Jerry gave me a call saying he was game for the role of the coroner. The other actor is Dale Dudley, a radio jock who does acting on the side. He said he'd be up for the role of the dead father. No speaking lines for him.


Other than the job prospects, and the film, not a lot is going on. My bank account is nearly empty; I hope I get the job.

Water's Edge

The Lake has become Water's Edge Ok, most people have no idea what that means. I'll explain.


I had taken on production manager duties for an indie Digital Video movie called, at the time, The Lake. Yesterday, we decided to change that to Water's Edge for marketing purposes. The director/writer, Robin Nations, felt that The Lake sounded too much like a monster movie title. She really wanted something to emphasize the small town feel of the movie's setting, but in the end it was decided that fans of waterskiing would rather watch something with a more exciting title. After all, Footloose probably wouldn't have been such a hit if it had been titled Podunk or Bible Belt Blues, no matter how hot the girls (and boys) thought Kevin Bacon was.


In any case, I re-broke down the script. The script supervisor's (Mark) breakdown was good, but left out some details I wanted in my stripboard. I can't afford the outrageously expensive Movie Magic Scheduling software, and even some of lesser known programs are beyond my budget right now (read: my cupboard is bare), so I had to use MS excel to create a strip board. Man, it's hell trying to sort and move rows and columns in that program; and despite my efforts, I couldn't figure out a way to generate call sheets with it. Does anyone have any tips, or know of some really cheap scheduling (under $100) software?


Yesterday's production meeting was the first time the crew had gotten together. There's Robin, of course, who has done a lot of film work for the Short Ends project, which really sounds like something I should be into, given my deadline-oriented mindset. Her husband Kevin will be a camera assistant and has access to all sorts of nice things through his job, including post-production equipment.


Russ is the Director of Photography, and has worked with Robin and Mark before. His background is actually in art, and he did some copy writing for HEB. I need to learn everything I can from him, as I've never worked with digital video before.


Our location scout, John, is more than a location scout. He reminds me of my friend Joshua. He's a people person, and can get his hands on just about anything. John is also a bit of a genius, I think, as he dabbles in Theoretical Physics for fun, and holds a few patents. He also has done work on Maverick and Ford Fairlane.


The location coordinator Chris has been making backyard movies since he was a kid, and seems extremely determined to make a real go of it in film. I wish I had that commitment when I was his age. Instead, I was too worried about paying the rent.


Mark, the script supervisor, is just very quiet and observant. I used to be like him. I'm more outspoken these days.


Anyway, it seems like a really great, motivated group. I hope this movie goes places (like Sundance).