The Bluebox Office

LA Shorts Fest hosts the world premiere of IMPULSE on July 29, 2010 at 7:45 PM at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theater, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90068. More details are available here.

Last movie Scott watched: Inception (Christopher Nolan)

This week, Bryan & I cover the fifth day (of six) of production week on our latest project, IMPULSE. We've decided to format our daily accounts as a questionnaire. Behind the scenes pictures are also included below.

PRODUCTION DATE: November 11, 2009

# OF CAMERA SETUPS: 21

SCOTT: Sitting back as Chris Masterson and James Serpento exploited their infinite ability to take words and beats and elevate them into cinematic moments. James really stepped into a darker realm whenever he went into character, and it worked beautifully for the film... regardless of how intimidating it was to approach him before "action" and after "cut".

BRYAN: Loved watching Chris and James go head to head for our climax. It was fun navigating each actor’s very different acting style. Each tore up the scene in surprising ways.

SCOTT: Losing sunlight when we had to execute a pricey on-set special effects shot. The sun had already dipped below the horizon and we literally had minutes before we would be permanently screwed out of getting our shot done. Andrew (DP) did his best to light the scene accordingly, but it still looked too dark through the monitor. We went ahead regardless because, frankly, we had no other choice. Directly after, I thought we had just blown hundreds of dollars on an unusable take... but months later, we were able to resurrect the lighting through our digital intermediate process. So yes, there is a happy ending.

BRYAN: It’s getting harder and harder to name the “worst part of the day”. We’re lucky to be making a movie. It’s all “best”.

SCOTT: Achieving creative satisfaction within the allotted shooting schedule. It's the story of every film production, where you don't have infinite time to get every detail right... you will never been 100% satisfied with what you shot, and you're extremely lucky if you get to 80% satisfaction. This was a challenge every day, and specifically today as we ran out of sunlight.

BRYAN: This day included our first major special FX of the shoot. The Setup: A character in the film is going to be shot. This actor will be wired with squibs and a blood pump. This scene will be shot with a complex dolly shot revealing the FX work. We only have two shirts. Two takes to get it perfect. Two chances for the choreography, performance, and FX to harmonize. The Payoff: We only needed one.

SCOTT: The property owners of today's location... and their graciousness for allowing us to shoot in their home. This farm house was the last location to be locked down after promising leads fell through. We cold-called the owners of this great property and they welcomed us in. All 30 of us.

BRYAN: Our D.P. Andrew and gaffer Jon Van Allen really impressed cast and crew with the hotel lighting setup. Andrew decided to eliminate nearly all practical lighting, achieving a natural and intimate look. The Hotel Pattee is inherently photogenic, but I don’t think anyone’s quite seen it like this before.

Last movie Scott watched: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill)

Last movie Bryan watched: Casino (Martin Scorsese)

This week, Bryan & I cover the fourth day (of six) of production week on our latest project, IMPULSE. We've decided to format our daily accounts as a questionnaire. Behind the scenes pictures are also included below.

PRODUCTION DATE: November 10, 2009

# OF CAMERA SETUPS: 27

SCOTT: Working with our two young skateboarder actors, Drake Hagar & Harvey Roberts. Both were a lot of fun to have on set, as they were not only excited to be missing school, but to be making a movie. Their enthusiasm fueled my own, and they were happy to do numerous takes. This was the third time we've worked with Drake, and it's been fun to see him grow - both as a performer and as a person - in the past six years.

BRYAN: In the interest of time on a difficult day, Scott and I were able to divide directing duties. I worked closely with all-star actors Michael Kennedy and Kim Grimaldi, while Scott tethered himself to Andrew Davis (DP), supervising incoming footage. This is not an ideal way of working, but it can be an advantage to have two directors when you’re racing the clock and the actors and camera are divided by a large amount of difficult terrain.

SCOTT: Feeling like you're the single person causing a delay on set. In one sequence, our main character David goes through about eleven different action beats, and I was to direct Chris Masterson through each in order to achieve the correct pacing. Unfortunately my memorization skills have seen better days. From 100 feet away, I had to recall each action and then yell them out, all while monitoring the pacing. Needless to say, I flubbed my "lines" a couple times. This is why I stopped acting in high school.

SCOTT: Our creek location sequence. Choosing to shoot the sequence in handheld and for coverage may have complemented the nature of the sequence, but it worked against the typical techniques that Bryan & I usually follow, in which we don't shoot coverage and each shot is storyboarded in detail. These challenges resulted in taking a little more time than expected and, while filming, I had painful flashbacks from our delays on Day Two.

BRYAN: Adapting to a new creek location with a few days notice. We originally conceived the scene with a large action beat involving putting some of our actors through freezing creek water - but heavy rains made the water levels dangerous, forcing us to relocate the sequence and replace the action with suspense.

SCOTT: Our unanticipated delays in the creek sequence meant we probably weren't going to be able to shoot the last planned sequence of the day, which took place miles away from our current remote location. We were about an hour from sunset and only held a slight chance of firing off one or two takes. Our dedicated crew wanted to make it happen and our caravan sped to our final destination. It was a magical sight to see a giant grip truck taking dangerously sharp corners at high rates of speed. Thanks to our crew for getting it done!

BRYAN: Our small but crafty Art Department came through big by designing a grave site on short notice at our creek location, helping us amp up the suspense, and tie in a few loose story points.

BRYAN: People falling into the creek trying to fish out the prop boxes used in the scene. Cold, wet, and comical.

Last movie Scott watched: Fight Club (David Fincher)

Last movie Bryan watched: Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich)

This week, Bryan & I cover the third day (of six) of production week on our latest project, IMPULSE. We've decided to format our daily accounts as a questionnaire. Behind the scenes pictures are also included below.

PRODUCTION DATE: November 9, 2009

# OF CAMERA SETUPS: 20

SCOTT: Shooting the final scene in the film at a beautiful farm house in Perry. It was that surreal moment (which probably happens on all sets at some point) where I was watching the live monitor playback and it hit me: we are actually making our movie.

BRYAN: Working with great actors can be euphoric, but often the pressure of moving the machine along distracts you from taking time to smell the roses. Not this day. Scott and I fully appreciated guiding Chris Masterson and Kristen Norwood through a difficult scene. It was one of those days where you get to sit back and enjoy your collaborators have an artistic breakthrough - and then take credit for it later in a blog post by claiming you were “guiding” them through it.

SCOTT: Our schedule change. The original schedule had us shooting the final farm house scene first thing. It's a pivotal sequence that -- while it didn't require the detailed camera direction of the previous day -- demanded a great balance of emotional detail. But since Bryan & I needed to pick-up a few shots in the town square, we had to push the final farm house scene until later in the day with the risk of rushing it.

BRYAN: Sleep deprivation setting in after averaging two hours of shut eye a night for the past week. Didn’t help that we crashed into a deer the night before, rendering sleep out of the game plan. Plus, it seemed like Malcolm in the Middle reruns were on tv every night before I went to bed. I'm not gonna NOT watch it. Lastly, why does Red Bull have to taste so terrible?

SCOTT: Finding the right establishing/reveal shot for our final scene's farm house. Filmmaker Christopher Nolan (Inception, The Dark Knight) speaks on his Insomnia commentary track about the importance of engaging audiences with establishing shots, which in most movies are throwaway frames for the sake of locational information. Bryan & I take this to heart and spent a long time dissecting our plan.

BRYAN: Getting out of the way. Sometimes it’s best to ignore your Auteur Instincts of visionary shots that demand the audience’s attention. Sometimes, a simple scene simply told is all you need. And often, that’s the toughest time to get out of the way and let the magic happen.

SCOTT: Our camera team's work on the final farm house sequence. Andrew, our DP, captured the great nuances of our performers (Chris Masterson & Kristen Norwood) in one particular shot that was supposed to only be a single on Kristen. He skillfully blended a subtle zoom that allowed both her and Chris in the frame, which resulted in a beautiful take that found a permanent place in the end of the film.

BRYAN: Kristen Norwood payed off a risky decision to cast a non-actor in a crucial role by giving a layered, heartfelt performance. We promised her that if she could match the quality of her screen test, we’d have something special. She didn’t match it, she topped it.

Last movie Scott watched: Insomnia (Christopher Nolan)

Last movie Bryan watched: Knight and Day (James Mangold)

This week, Bryan & I cover the second day (of six) of production week on our latest project, IMPULSE. We've decided to format our daily accounts as a questionnaire. Behind the scenes pictures are also included below.

PRODUCTION DATE: November 8, 2009

# OF CAMERA SETUPS: 37... God help us.

SCOTT: Long story short, we were supposed to have a key prop (a hard-to-find phone booth) for the first sequence of the day. In fact, the entire scene revolved around this phone booth. Only hours before we were to shoot the scene, there was an issue getting the booth to set and suddenly we had nothing. Bryan & I had to quickly and completely re-block/re-envision the scene on our 30-minute commute to set. We figured out a new set-up and our art department and camera team easily adapted to the change. It was a successful exercise in improvisation.

BRYAN: It was a good day to have a co-director and a great crew working their ass off to help you up after you fall. I also enjoyed working with longtime Bluebox regulars Justin Marxen, Ian Klink, and Scott Morschhauser during their respective cameos. And it was fun watching our picture dog Grace charm the locals. This was the toughest day of our shoot, and the best part was I didn’t have to experience it alone.

SCOTT: Everything after the first sequence. Bryan & I had been dreading this day, as we needed to get an insurmountable 37 shots, all combined with intricate staging. We ended up falling behind and around lunch-time, our focus was really being tested. Shots weren't exactly how we imagined, townies were wandering out of barricaded alleys and ruining takes, the strong wind collapsed a giant prop tent, and soon our daylight was fading. We had to rush our final sequence which took place in an electronics store. We only had 40 minutes before we had to wrap our lead actor, Chris Masterson, due to SAG's 12-hour turnaround rule. We had to rush our lighting set-up and severely cut shots. Bryan & I basically felt like the scene had been visually gutted. All in all, the day kicked our ass.

BRYAN: Do I have to pick one? Overall, it was an awful feeling watching the movie slip away - Scott and I pushing through compromised scenes that we failed to inject personality into because of the demands of our overloaded schedule. Quite the learning experience, and thankfully NOT a sign of things to come.

SCOTT: Not giving up... and I don't mean throwing my hands up, saying "I quit", and walking off set. What I mean is this: it's so easy to direct on autopilot, especially when you have a full crew supporting you. Bryan & I have always felt the importance of maintaining a voice and opinion about all aspects of production, and making sure the tiniest details are finessed. Today was incredibly difficult to focus on these smaller details, since we were struggling with the larger, overall strokes. We felt the desire to take the easy route and make these sequences simpler (and consequently, more mundane), and fighting that desire was our biggest challenge of the day.

BRYAN: Running over an acoustic guitar with a speeding ambulance was quite the challenge. The shot required complex choreography involving two picture vehicles, extras, a dolly shot, and… we only had three guitars, thus three tries to get it right. Our drivers were experts, and despite the failings of the rest of our day, this was one challenge we overcame.

SCOTT: The crew maintained a level-head when we needed it the most. Specific shout-out to Joel Remke (1st Assistant Camera) whose positive energy made Bryan & I feel like we weren't screwing up too badly. Thanks to Chris Masterson, who accommodated and adapted to our time crunch, and effortlessly hit all of his marks for the final sequence of the day. And very special thanks to our "Desperate Soul" extras (Jay Villwock, Rick Septer, and James Stordahl) for sticking around the entire day and agreeing to come back the next day for a re-shoot due to the tight schedule.

BRYAN: Christy Sullivan being a great producer and treating our hardworking company to pizza pie at Breadeaux Pizza after a brutal day. It helped raise morale. A lot. Thank you, Christy.

SCOTT: I hit a deer on the way home from the shoot. I was driving back with Christy Sullivan and Bryan on the pitch-black highway and we were sooo looking forward to getting home and shaking off the rough day. I barely saw the deer as it hopped into the side of my car going 65 mph. Probably was one of the scariest moments of my life. The deer put a huge dent all along the side of my car, but luckily it was still drivable. Unfortunately we didn't see where the deer went, but there's no way it could have survived. Bryan, Christy & I pulled to the side of the road, dealt with the cops, and calmed our nerves before driving home.

BRYAN: Nothing today is going to top the deer story.

Last movie Scott watched: Se7en (David Fincher)

Last movie Bryan watched: The Karate Kid (Harald Zwart)

This week, Bryan & I cover the first day (of six) of production week on our latest project, IMPULSE. We've decided to format our daily accounts as a questionnaire. Behind the scenes pictures are also included below.

PRODUCTION DATE: November 7, 2009

# OF CAMERA SETUPS: 20

SCOTT: Arriving on set. Streets are closed off. Sets are dressed from the night before. Forty feet of dolly track being laid for the first shot. It's not the brisk 45 degree chill that wakes me up, it's the excitement of a film coming to life.

BRYAN: Seeing the first shot of the movie come together. It was a complex dolly/whip pan, meticulously storyboarded, involving the Dodge Challenger. Our killer camera team pulled it off effortlessly and it was reassuring to see our visual ideas translating well on camera. It’s still my favorite shot in the movie.

SCOTT: Getting into a groove. Lost 40 minutes of daylight before we fired off our first shot. Also, the street control was lapsing at times; our barricades stopped most from wandering into our 3-block closure, but we needed more PAs to properly maintain 100% security. But the ones we had - Nicole Tiernan & Ron Reynolds - did a very, very commendable job.

BRYAN: Trying to pull off the second complex dolly/pan Dodge Challenger shot. It was as frustrating and frightening as the first shot was joyous. Things weren’t clicking. So many planets had to align for this trick shot to work (timing on the car and camera, solid performances, actor cues, blocked traffic) and we were running out of daylight, with two company moves left.

SCOTT: Getting a Dodge Challenger to screech to a stop - on a very specific mark - after going 70+ mph on a residential street - and not hit any actors, crew OR the 12x12 overhead. Thankfully for us - and our insurance - Chris Masterson has raced cars galore and was a pro.

BRYAN: Keeping the world dire and dark. At times, the town of Perry was a little too cute for our dismal story, so location manager Travis Shepherd along with our small PA team, raced to clear streets and backgrounds of any unwanted cars infringing on our apocalyptic tone.

SCOTT: The 70 degree weather. Yes, this is VERY odd for November in Iowa. We lucked out big time... see earlier blogs for my constant concern about the weather.

BRYAN: Our young actress Riley Behr performing her own stunts - brave enough to go along with our car screeching to a halt gag, all while turning in a solid performance and making us laugh along the way.

SCOTT: Also arriving on set. It was soooooo incredibly dark, that Bryan & I could hardly tell who anybody was without shining a flashlight in their face. Either that, or guessing by their voice.

BRYAN: Watching the neighborhood kids marvel at the deer carcass our art department begrudgingly dressed the set with the night before.

Last movie Scott watched: Panic Room (David Fincher)

Last movie Bryan watched: The Man Who Wasn't There (Coen Brothers)

Because Scott and I make movies unconventionally as co-authors, it’s important for us to create a shared vision for each film during pre-production - one that is somehow singular and clear, but also represents our individual tastes and ideas. It is for this reason that storyboarding has become a crucial aspect of our directing style over the years. The process is simple enough: Scott and I independently draw versions of the movie using paneled scratch paper and stick figures. We then share our sketches before committing ink on the final polished boards, bringing together the best of our ideas and tossing the worst.

Pictured below:
1) PRISM (2002) - short film made in high school and the first time we storyboarded something from beginning to end.
2) ANNIVERSARY (2005) - drawn by our talented friend and filmmaker Josh Guffey - based on one of our un-produced feature scripts.
3) IMPULSE (2010) - polished boards from our upcoming film.

PRISM (2002)

ANNIVERSARY (2005)

IMPULSE (2010)

Last movie Bryan watched: The Box (Richard Kelley)

And so my recap of IMPULSE production continues. This will be a story about making an incredibly ambitious short, raising tens of thousands of dollars in a matter of weeks, locking down a notable actor, and encountering and averting dozens of difficult circumstances throughout production. Again, I may weave in and out of journal format and present day reflection, so please bear with me.

October 2, 2009
Still need the rest of our money. Still need a lot of cast. Still need good weather for our shoot. Still need crew... although I think we found our First Assistant Director. Bryan & I drove up to Iowa City today to meet with Travis Kraus, who is currently the first AD for Collapse, a zombie movie by our friends Prescribed Films. Travis - like many of the Iowans working on the influx of in-state larger-scale motion pictures - has had a crash course in filmmaking within the last year. A lot of the crew for these films came from non-film-related backgrounds with nothing but an interest in the craft. Now they're working pros. Awesome to see such development. Bryan & I also met with Kristen Norwood today and I think we're slowly convincing her to take the role.

October 4, 2009
Crunch time. Christy Sullivan (producer) suggests we need to have 100% of our financial commitment by the end of week to continue. I'm still hopeful as we have some more investor meetings this week.

October 9, 2009
Had several great meetings this week, but we're still waiting to hear from some potential investors in order to officially greenlight production. It's frustrating to wait, but there's nothing else we can do. Our entire producing team understands that investing in a short film is a risky endeavor, especially since the return-on-investment doesn't hold the same potential as a feature film. But we've padded our plan with great alternate incentives that hopefully will attract supporters.

October 13, 2009 - 9:30 AM
We've secured about 40% of the budget, but we're running out of options to find the rest of it. As suspected, this Iowa tax credit mess has really hurt in-state investing opportunities. And we can't move forward any further with pre-production until we get the remainder of the money... so at this point, we're also losing very very valuable time and we literally can not do anything more to forge ahead at this point. We've decided we absolutely HAVE to pull the trigger by this Thursday the 15th... and that might mean shutting down the project if we don't have our full budget. I dread making that decision.

October 13, 2009 - 7:30 PM
This is definitely one of the toughest weeks I've gone through in terms of film production. In the interest of trying everything and anything to make IMPULSE a reality, we've cut $6k from the budget. It took FOREVER and wasn't easy at all. We're very weary about cutting "on screen" costs... we need to make sure that whatever we cut in the budget, it won't affect the production value of the picture.

October 15, 2009 - 11:00 AM
As I've said before, there's always the highs and lows during production. In this instance, Bryan & I got some excellent feedback on a video promo pitch that we put together for an entirely separate project. So it looks like even if we don't end up making IMPULSE, we'll get to make this other project... but seriously, we need to make IMPULSE happen. Back to the grind.

October 15 - 8:00 PM
The worst possible decision was made.... the film is basically called off. We just had a conference call, where we went over all of the various scenarios. We determined that we can't make this movie for cheap; it's just too ambitious. The worst thing is, we almost have that amount, but we just honestly can't make it happen for less. We have to concede. From the start, Bryan & I wanted to make this a huge project so that it would benefit everyone involved. We didn't want to make a short film with "two guys talking in a room". Now we just feel like beating ourselves up for trying to do something too grand. Also doesn't help that I watched Synecdoche, New York today... it's stunningly brilliant. But ultimately depressing.

October 15 - 10:00 PM
After we finished our conference call, I kept thinking about the rules we initially set for ourselves: "Have the film shot by the end of the year. No matter how intimidating the project becomes, persist." So with that in mind, I called up Christy and we started playing with the budget... "What if we could do the film for XXXXX amount? What if we could find location/prop/car donations, see if our cast and crew would be able to work for X amount?" We were reckless with every line item in the interest of making this project actually have a realistic chance of happening. So after hours of work, we came up with a revised budget... one cut so drastically from our original, but built out of necessity in order to get IMPULSE off the ground. The only way this will work is if our cast & crew is willing to work for less than originally promised. It's another ambitious prospect.

October 16, 2009
WE'RE GREENLIT! Here's what went down: 1) We locked our revised budget. 2) We secured the remaining amount of money under the pretense of this budget. 3) We asked all of our department heads if they would be willing to work for cheaper and everyone graciously agreed! It's unbelievable. Without their support, this project would never be happening.

October 18, 2009
So I'm still riding on a high, even though we now have a ton of pre-production to finish (yikes, we're shooting in 3 weeks). Today I got to see a number of these Iowa crew members in action, as I visited the set of Collapse. Though somehow - many " thanks" to first AD Travis Kraus - I got wrangled into being a zombie and was smothered in sticky movie blood and dirt up the wazoo.

October 20, 2009
Had a wonderful call with Chris Masterson today to go over the character and all the remaining details. We talked about the beats in the story and all those acting decisions that you hear about on DVD special features. It was a fascinating and inspiring discussion, which makes us even more excited to shoot the film. This call with Chris also confirmed (to Bryan & myself) that we had picked the right actor. Chris totally understands the project, story, and vibe of the film. We also were in touch with a friend and casting director, Kim Busbee, who has tremendously volunteered to help us fill the remaining cast. We can't be happier to have her on board, as we're running short on time but want to make sure our cast is strong as ever. We're also eyeing Des Moines-based actor James Serpento to fill the only other big speaking role of the Business Man. He's fiercely talented and we (may have) written the role with him in mind.

October 22, 2009
Celebrated my 25th birthday today. Spent pretty much the entire day prepping the project. I suppose it's quite a birthday present that we get to finally shoot this film.

October 25, 2009
Had a brief casting session in West Des Moines today. Met Rylie Behr, who is just an incredible actress... and I think she's only 9?! Kim Busbee said it best, when she mentioned that you can direct Rylie and talk to her as if she's an adult. I think Rylie is a lock for the part of Terry. We also had James Serpento read for the Business Man and wow... he was even better than Bryan & I expected. He's a definite lock for the role.

October 27, 2009
This cast just keeps getting better and better!! We stopped in Iowa City today to do a screen test with Kristen Norwood. There's a lot of times that Bryan or I get a creative idea and it doesn't pan out as much as we had hoped. But every now and then, it does. And in this instance, it surpassed any expectations. Kristen was incredible. She's got the role.

The second half of October is frankly too busy to recall. It consisted of numerous back-and-forth trips to Des Moines, Perry, Iowa City, and Davenport, as well as countless decisions in order to find the right picture cars, bracelets, red coats, fire trucks, and lock down street closures and locations. It's really not that fascinating... nor is it worth the stress to relive it again in this blog.

Last movie Scott watched: Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich)

And so my recap of IMPULSE production continues. This will be a story about making an incredibly ambitious short, raising tens of thousands of dollars in a matter of weeks, locking down a notable actor, and encountering and averting dozens of difficult circumstances throughout production. Again, I may weave in and out of journal format and present day reflection, so please bear with me.

September 2, 2009
Shot a teaser for IMPULSE last night... but I doubt we'll be using it. It was quite an impromptu decision, made in the wee hours after editing the newsroom sequence we had shot on Aug. 31. Our loyal friends - Shane Simmons, Travis Shepherd, and Justin Marxen - were our skeleton crew for the shoot. It felt very much like the production of our 2004 feature Her Summer, where we often shot scenes in the very early morning with a cast and crew of four. When all was said and done, I like the teaser but I'm not sure it's really worth a damn... or worth putting on the web. Only took a couple hours; not a big deal. Good exercise.

September 4, 2009
I returned to LA yesterday to continue West Coast prep and to attend my third John Williams concert at the Hollywood Bowl. There's nothing quite like listening to the movie scoring maestro himself conduct his own musical compositions. It's always an inspiring experience that I carry with me on whatever project I'm working on.

September 10
We had to finally lock our shoot dates for November 7-12. I'm still worried that we're going to have a tough time finding crew. There's a couple features shooting in Iowa during November, and I think they'll be eating up a lot of the crew base.

September 11, 2009
Bryan's been visiting LA this week, primarily so we can meet with a production company about another project. Unfortunately our time has been eaten up by prepping our pitch for this other project and we haven't been able to spend much time on IMPULSE. Not happy about that, but there's not much we can do except wish there were 36 hours in a day. At least Bryan's been able to finally meet (in person) our composer and DP. We had a good sit-down with both of them, where we went through some movie clips and music tracks that are touchstones for IMPULSE. We had a nice mix of Lynch (Blue Velvet), Fincher (The Game), and Scorsese (The Color of Money) along with the musical traces of Alan Silvestri and even the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

September 15, 2009
We have a crew base now. This is quite a surprise: one of the Iowa features that was slated to shoot in November had to push their start date, which means we now have access to quite a few crew members... this will really, really help out our production.

September 19, 2009
Yikes. The Iowa film incentive program has been suspended for alleged abuse. And the manager of the Iowa film office, Tom Wheeler, has been fired. Now IMPULSE won't be directly affected by this, since the budget is too low to qualify for the incentives, BUT I'm worried that we'll feel the trickle-down effects... we might have a tougher time finding the rest of our money. We've already made some good connections with area investors, but this tax credit collapse might weaken their interest in area filmmaking. This is nuts... now we might be the only film shooting in November, IF we can find the rest of our money.

September 21, 2009
Starting to feel the pinch of all the unsettled details... money, locations, cast, crew, contracts. This whole process is a constant up-and-down... which means we should be getting some positive vibes coming our way shortly. Reality check: we're only 6 weeks from the shoot.

September 28, 2009
I'm back in Iowa now without a return ticket to LA. The way I see it, I won't be flying back to LA until: 1) we've shot the entire film OR 2) we've failed to get the rest of our budget and I fly back to LA with nothing but a bad taste in my mouth. Good news is, we interviewed several people for the production designer position, and it looks like we might actually hire more than just one of them. Turns out, each candidate also specializes in other crafts (special effects, props, etc.), so we can fill out some of our other positions. Other than that, Travis Shepherd (location manager) and Bryan went on another scout and we've finally begun to get commitments and contracts back from property owners. It's nice to have someone else to knock on stranger's doors and ask them if we can film in their home. I always hated that awkward part of the job.

September 29, 2009
Here's hoping we can convince Kristen Norwood - a former teacher of ours - to fill the love interest for Chris Masterson's character. Bryan & I had Kristen as an instructor for a nonverbal communications class at Iowa. She had seen Bride, liked it, and then we graduated and that was about that last time we were in touch. Two and a half years later, Bryan & I were racking our brains to find the very very very right actress to play the very very very important role of Ashley who appears in the very very very integral final scene. In fact, we weren't even sure we WANTED an actress... perhaps we could succeed with a Soderbergh-ian choice to cast a "non-actor", ala Bubble or The Girlfriend Experience. That's when we though of Kristen. We knew she had a done a couple of plays but, more than anything, she had the perfect look and (non) experience. So we got in touch... but it turned out she's working on her doctorate and has zero free-time, so she had to (politely) decline. But we couldn't take no for an answer. We (politely) pushed a little more and set up a meeting with her next week.

September 30, 2009
Oh, glorious movie music. Corey, our composer, sent over some early demos for the guitar theme, which Chris will need to play on set. I'm quite impressed and I think we've found our musical theme from this first batch. Lately I've felt so drained from pre-production, but it's funny how one mp3 can re-energize.

Last movie Scott watched: The Endless Summer (Bruce Brown)

And so my recap of IMPULSE production continues. This will be a story about making an incredibly ambitious short, raising tens of thousands of dollars in a matter of weeks, locking down a notable actor, and encountering and averting dozens of difficult circumstances throughout production. Again, I may weave in and out of journal format and present day reflection, so please bear with me.

August 2, 2009
This movie's gonna be expensive. We just locked the budget and - even though I knew from the script that this movie wouldn't be cheap - it's more than any of us originally thought... now we just have to track down all the extra money. Luckily, that's what producers are for.

August 4, 2009
Worked on our "Visual Cue" packet today, which consists of visually-inspiring photos and paintings that will serve as a touchstone for IMPULSE. This packet will also help us find a color palette and translate some ideas to our DP, Art Department, and even our composer. We've also included some images from our Iowa homeboy, Grant Wood.

August 7, 2009
Got word from UTA that Chris Masterson has read the script and wants to see our reel. One step closer.

August 11, 2009
Booked my tickets from LAX-DSM for our first location scout at the end of the month. I've put together an itinerary so we can first and foremost figure out which town we'll be shooting in... looks like it's between Perry or Newton, but I even found one area in urban Des Moines that might double for a small town. Can't wait to get back to Iowa. It's been eight months since my last visit.

August 13, 2009
Gary Metivier, news anchor from our hometown NBC affiliate station KWQC, is our first confirmed cast member. He'll be playing himself - more or less - as a news anchor who appears during a newscast that plays on a TV in the film. Will be shooting this when I get back into Iowa.

August 14, 2009
Chris Masterson watched the reel and wants to meet. Monday, the 17th.

August 17, 2009
So Christy, Darren & I just got home from Chris' place. Chris was very, very cool. We talked District 9, which I think we all liked, some less than others (me), but agreed it was a good picture. We talked about short films too... Chris mentioned how much he liked Ray Tintori's work (Death to the Tin Man) which was produced by the same camp that did Glory At Sea, which happens to be one of the films that inspired us to make IMPULSE. It also turns out that it's a small world... Chris knows two of our peers from Bettendorf (both are now in LA; one is restaurateur, the other is a DJ) and he also knows our attorney. Anyway, we talked a bit about the character and the production. Chris really dug the script and how the story unfolded. He also mentioned it was unlike most of the projects he was offered, so that seemed to intrigue him. And when it was time to wrap up, he simply said: "As long as you guys showed up and weren't weird and crazy, I was planning on doing the project."

Finally we had our lead actor, and I couldn't be more excited to have Chris aboard, especially after meeting with him. He was very low-key, extremely friendly, intelligent, and well-spoken. And - as icing on the cake - it turns out he plays guitar AND races cars, both of which are requirements for the lead role.

Needless to say, Christy, Darren & I went out to dinner afterwords to celebrate one more step up the mountain. Now, we just have to negotiate all of the deal points with Chris' agent and attorney. Once again, luckily we have producers.

August 25, 2009
There's good news and bad news. Good news is, we did our initial location scout, and we HAVE to shoot in Perry... it's almost perfect. Bad news is, we HAVE to shoot in Perry... so here's hoping we can get clearance from the city departments or else we don't have a movie. We won't shoot in Newton or Des Moines. They just don't have the same character as Perry. Not to mention, we immediately felt welcome in Perry. We ran into some store owners and residents that were incredibly supportive of having another film come to town (I believe Ticket Out with Ray Liotta was the first). And we found some perfect locations, including the Hotel Pattee... the hotel is so cool I almost want to write a movie that solely takes place in it. There's still several locations we haven't found, so we'll need to do another scout. And there's no traditional town square in Perry, so Bryan & I will have to re-envision that sequence which will be a headache. But the town is golden.

We also have some interested investors that want to talk about the project. Meetings are lined up.

August 31, 2009
Shot our newsroom sequence with Gary Metivier at KWQC tonight. Gary was a pro. Of course he was portraying a news anchor - which he is by trade - but the scene STILL required a solid performance, which he definitely delivered. Bryan & I realized that tonight marked the first thing we had directed since The Bride Wore Blood almost three years ago. It felt good to get back on the saddle.

Last movie Scott watched: The Third Man (Carol Reed)