Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself in doing this, but I've started researching some of the things that I think will cost a lot in the production of Heist.

I've found some very convincing semi-automatic weapons (8mm) that are blank firing. At $89 each I think that I could buy a few and not break the bank. The only thing that concerns me is safety. Even though I can get away with never having a shot in the film that shows a wide of someone getting shot, firearms of any classification are a safety issue. Since they're 8mm and not 9mm, they can (according to the manufacturer) never be made to fire a real round, but they're purported to have the same look and heft of the real thing, so at least it won't look as though anyone is wielding a toy.. Still, I plan to talk with a friend of mine who is an NRA gun safety instructor, and the local police in the town where I plan to shoot (the movie and the guns.. :) ) so that we're not descended upon by a swat team by mistake..

The stock on this particular model is wood, but that can easily be sprayed black to give it the appearance of a glock or something more modern. I think that they were saying that this model was meant to look more like an older military side arm, but I'm pretty confident no one will know the difference.

As I've said before, the armored car is the trickiest of all the set pieces, but I'm pretty confident there has to be someone out there that owns one that they'd be willing to rent for a weekend. I'm confident that we could get everything we need in terms of coverage in a day, day and a half tops.

Almost at 40 pages, so I'm just about half way there with the script. Thought of some good twists that were inspired by a film that James Tauber turned me on to called "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". While Heist will not have the comedic tone of the LSTSB, I think that the twists may be as effective.

I reviewed my edits tonight from a couple days ago on my reality concept. I like them, but I don't think they're all that well suited for the pitch reel. There is one segment that I will put in which in essence is where this guy had come in, gotten all pissed off at the star of the show, yelled at him a bit, then left. I was off shooting B roll when he was actually doing all the yelling, but I did get a parting shot of him and enough of the star's immediate reaction following the altercation to make a quickie segment work for the pitch reel. I interviewed the star of the show afterwards, and got some great sound bytes about the argument. So while I missed the actual altercation, I think I got enough to give a good indication that this guy has to put up with a lot of crap from the people that he deals with every day. Sorry to sound so mysterious and evasive about the actual events, but I can't give away one of my best ideas!