Busy night..

I ordered yet another book..

While I want very badly to have James be the DP (director of photography) on Heist, I'm not sure if the schedules will work out, so I've gone out and purchased a book and DVD with tutorials on how to operate the Panasonic DVX100A which is the camera that we shot our short film "Alibi Phone Network" on. Anyway, the book is supposed to be the definitive guide on the camera. I need to learn how to operate it. I'm not worried about composition. I think I've always had a decent eye for that, but I need to become an expert on that camera so that I can ensure a decent look on the film if I don't have James with me.

I spent a lot of time on various DV boards and while they're very helpful, they can also drive you nuts as well. So many opinions and it's all sometimes tough to sort through and figure out what might be best for you or your project.

I pulled up the script for Heist which I hadn't looked at in a while. It's quite a bit shorter than I remember (by almost half, so I must have been thinking of another script that I've been working on). Not a problem. It's in pretty damn good shape (what's there is anyway). I did some work on the opening scene and started working a new character into the first act. It felt good because it flowed really well and the two scenes that I added (about three pages) took almost no time to write. That felt good - back in the grove. The new character, Gail, will be a challenge to play - she's sort of complex. Lots of issues, lost soul, but I like her. She could have turned out much differently if it weren't for her childhood. I was once told that when you bring a character into a story, you need to understand everything there is to know about them, even though we're seeing just a small slice of them in the film. You need to know what makes them tick, their history, etc. So it helps for me to think of them as people in my life that I know. Odd I know, but it helps make them more real for me.

I talked to my friend Todd Poudrier tonight, an actor from Boston who was one of the male leads in Alibi. He's moving to LA, but it sounds as if he'd be back to shoot Heist which was a relief because I'd always pictured him in the role of Eddie. I started writing Heist after Alibi and always had Todd in mind when I wrote the part of Eddie. He even came over one night to read one of the scenes that I'd written to see how it sounded. He's Eddie.. It's great.

I've revealed my plan to a few friends now who I think may secretly consider me nuts for taking this on, but what the hell.. I'm convinced that while shorts are great learning tools, there's not much point in doing another one. We made it into a bunch of decent festivals with Alibi. For this next project, I'd rather spend the time and money on something that could teach me more about features which is what I wanted to do in the first place.