Heist is out for its first coverage report.

I'm anxiously awaiting the feedback. I kept going over in my head today what I thought the reviewer might come back with... Things like "This is like every other caper movie I've ever seen.", "seriously lacking in depth" "Dialog doesn't feel authentic".

The way I view it, by setting myself up for the worst possible review, I don't have quite as far to fall. :)

I'm planning on sending the script out for a second coverage report this week. James and I discussed that idea of getting three reports on the same draft and comparing notes - so that's what I plan to do.

I'm making great progress with "Rescuing Champ". At 70 pages, it should be pretty easy to finish in the next week or so. Note that I've been working on this concept since early 2003. The first 60 or so pages pretty much wrote themselves, but I've just had a hell of a time getting back to it. The last couple of weeks, it's been undergoing a pretty serious overhaul, and it's finally to the point where I feel I can continue on and finish it.

So far, it feels like a decent, interesting family film even if it is a bit formulaic. I'd sent the early draft (60 odd pages) to Mitch to see if I was headed in a good direction. His basic feedback was that it was full of "great moments" but was lacking a few things. Mostly in the areas of character development and challenges for the hero. I feel like I've made good progress on correcting those flaws. I plan to have Champ ready for its first coverage report by next week, then I'll send it to a story consultant for a real in depth review.

I've found a local story consultant that I plan to try out with "Champ" http://www.su-city-pictures.com/ is the web site. She's located in Exeter, which is about an hour away (and where I grew up actually). The woman that runs the site and the service, Susan Kouguell, appears to have done a lot of work in the industry. She seems appealing because apart from her background and experience in the industry, she offers one hour sessions face to face to go over her analysis which is nice. I've been dealing with LA based people for so long over the phone, it seems as though it would be nice to have at least one face to face meeting from a story consultant.