November 30th, 2010
It appears I've completely lost touch with this blog. As I sit in the terrace in the Union at UWM, I've tried thinking the last time I've sat down to write about what's current in my life. It's been far too long. A lot has happened. I wrote a rejected TV show, made two shorts, lost people in my life, saw some fun movie, did some art, and am producing a series of short films. So much I could be writing about, but, yet it goes unwritten. I wonder why I've gotten so lazy.
So, I guess I should just go back to what I would consider the beginning. Let's talk about that TV show I mentioned. Since it's no longer being picked up for the Fall season, I feel I can freely talk about it. I won't give away many plot points or anything, because I plan to hold onto the pilot and try to sell it later.
It began around the end of September, beginning of October. This time was busy enough. I was then working at both Halloween Express and Humboldt Park Elementary plus I was going to school full-time and trying to be in an artistic field. Needless to say, I was very busy. How I took on another task is beyond me. Anyways, my old friend Nuna (director of indie-horror film “Brutal”) contacted me about a potential TV deal he had in the works with a former NBC agent out in Hollywood. At the time he didn't give me much except a very general premise and the notion of me joining as the show's head writer. I was stoked, to say the least.
I was nervous at first. I never wrote a pilot for a TV show. To have a cut off point would be hard. The closest I've done to a TV script was a web show a friend of mine and I were (and still are) working on. But, those are only 12 to 15 pages each. This has to be an hour. So, that's like, 45 to 50 pages. I was also worried, because I'm not as harsh on TV as I am on film. I find myself taking more chances with TV shows (thank you DVR). Hell, I've even caught myself watching a poor show simply because “it's nothing special, but it's entertaining”. Nuna, on the other hand, is a harsh judge of TV. He doesn't watch it much and he doesn't like most of it. The two other people I would later bring on are about the same, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I was also worried because up until this point I've written for myself. My way of doing things is I finish a draft, then move on to a new project. The chance of me sending something out and selling it as this point is slim, so re-writes aren't essential. The base is there for when I need it and that way I can update it when needed. Also, if the script is for something I'm making, I can make changes on the spot. I have a very impromptu way of shooting that, isn't the “right way”, but works for me.
The problems began when Nuna presented me the idea. We would later find out it's not the idea he pitched to the agent, but whatever. I liked Nuna's idea a lot, but I did have a few concerns. He told me I had the ability to run with it and do my own thing. I got even more excited. Finally, an outlet. The idea he gave me went something like this:
(note, I can't remember word for word, so I apologize)
'It's about two guys. Let's name them Nuna and Keith for now. Nuna is a former priest turned tattoo artist whose looking for the man who killed his sister who was Keith's fiance. It's based on Revelations 11 and the killer may be the anti-christ. I want it to play out like 'Lost' where everything happens from the beginning but with a 'Supernatural' feel.'
I had some issues, mainly the Supernatural influence and the religious undertones. It's about the mythology rather than the ideology, which can be just as hard to deal with because to consider it to be “mythology” can be frowned upon. But, I liked the idea and was given control.
I began to freak out though. How the hell do I begin this? The agent wanted us to write and direct a rough pilot to send to him that he can send out and try to sell during the Fall season. We had until Thanksgiving. That's not a lot of time.
I think I like making things hard on myself because the first person I chose to approach was my good friend, Riley. The issue with this is, as productive as we can be, we argue... a lot. We don't always see eye to eye and we've had some pretty large arguments over some very stupid things (some are still going on today). Luckily, we saw eye-to-eye on this, and Riley has a lot of knowledge about religious mythology, philosophy and what not. I have a huge interest in it and such, so it worked.
We began devising a draft that, to me, felt like Supernatural (reluctantly) meets Twin Peaks with the visual style of No Country For Old Men with some Neil Gaiman flare (a big influence on me).
Before I continue, I feel I should mention why I'm so against Supernatural. Nothing against the show. I'm not a huge fan, but per Nuna's request I checked out a few episodes. My problem is, I felt he was TOO influenced by this show. I was way more intrigued in his Carnivale influence, but I digress. The issue with Supernatural being his influence is, if we aren't careful we could become a clone. No one wants that. I don't want people to go: “Oh! I dig how this is like Supernatural.” Luckily, Riley used to watch the show, but wasn't as invested as Nuna and Greg, who we brought on, but sadly didn't use to his ability besides plot outlining and a well written synopsis, never saw it. So, that way, if something became too much like Supernatural, we can't be blamed because we never watched much of it. For Riley and I, Doctor Who was our Supernatural. So, our views clashed, but it could be fun. It was fun... in a way.
So, pretty much Greg, Riley and I finally got a first draft done. Needless to say... it was short. I'd like to think I was under compensating for something, but whatever. It was only like 25-30 pages, when I need like, 45 to 50. But, it was a good start. I showed it to Nuna and he liked it. Keith, the other dude involved (I guess) liked it. We were set. At this point, since almost every night Nuna was calling me and we were talking about the show and was giving me assignments. Being head writer, I thought I'd be ballsy and ask for an executive producer title to go with my head writer title. I didn't think that was asking too much because, 1) head writer normally is an executive producer anyway, and 2) it's really more of a name than anything else. Now, let me say this now. Had I known how much I would be doing for this damn show, I was have asked for a straight-up producer title right off the back, because, essentially, Riley and I were producers. I started by doing everything and being Nuna's voice. I was Moses and Nuna was the burning bush up on the tippity top of the mountain. Then, I had a slight nervous breakdown and wasn't sleeping, so Riley took over and quickly realized why I had the breakdown. Learning is fun, isn't it?
Throughout the process of writing we were given more and more work. Every time I'd finish a draft there would need to be changes. Usually big changes too that would be cause enough to do a complete re-write. I didn't mind because the story got better and better as it went on and more and more people liked it. We felt it had potential. That, coupled with the pretty intense storyline we were working on, we felt we could have a truly great project.
We were also given the tasks of not only finding an actor to play a silent killer (but we ignored an important character with dialogue), but finding locations to shoot in but a special effects guy. This is where Nuna and I butt heads a lot. He wanted special effects and some crazy insight dreams. I didn't mind that, but I didn't want it in the pilot. I wanted it to be shootable ASAP because our deadline was fast approaching. I didn't want to worry about effects. Plus, I go to an art school where experimental and avant garde rules the program. Finding an FX guy would have been hard. But he was dead set on it, so I did my best. Nuna is a good friend so I thought I should try. Riley found two guys, but we never once saw a piece of work from them, and as far as I'm concerned, they suck. If I could remember their names I'd trash them. But I can't, so I won't.
It was pretty cool that half-way through everything Nuna gave me the title of co-creator. That really made me excited.
Moving on to, I want to say, 3 or 4 weeks before the deadline. We haven't begun shooting. We haven't even decided on the script! Nuna had issues with it. He said he lost his connection with the characters and I had too many locations and blah, blah, blah. Had we had more time, I wouldn't have minded going back and re-working it. I'm he first to admit the script wasn't perfect, but with the little time we had a rough draft had to be a shooting script. At this point Nuna was talking less about Supernatural and more about Carnival and the X-Files. At this point, we shouldn't have been worrying about that. We needed to film something. Get SOMETHING to the agent.
Well, it got down to the point where we had to film. Recruited a friend and fellow film student named Scott to play the killer. He was perfect. Very professional. We had planned to film most of the first big fight scene on that friday. I got to set, and I got excited. Nuna was getting his infamous Joker face tattoo covered with make-up, which, was so odd to see his natural face again. He took a lot of time with his character's look (I described it as being a punk rock Peter Cushing). Keith was just, Keith. No thought into what he was wearing. But whatever. Nuna's house wasn't perfect for what I had written, but it was doable. We'd just go off book and do what had to be done. I got nervous though, when 15-minutes before we start rolling, I asked Nuna how he wanted to direct this scene and he said “Oh, I thought you were directing”.
Needless to say, I freaked. To direct a director and to use equipment you're not familiar with is scary. Even more scary because their's a chance this could be on TV. I kept worrying that if I didn't do the show Nuna's way things would go bad. I eventually got more into the mindset I had to do it my way, but my way of filming is different than Nuna's, which is weird, because I developed my style in part by watching him while working on Brutal. I looked up to him. But, now I felt like we were on different plains and thinking as far as how a scene should be put together. I'm still very guerrilla and he's trying to do things more professional with monitors and multiple camera set-ups.
After the shock of directing wore off, I took a few deep breaths and face my fear. Like my hero, Hunter S. Thompson, once said: “Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed.” I was so ready to do the scene... until our entire shoot was halted... because of a smoke machine...
Yes, I said it. One smoke machine ruined a shoot. Now, this next part is up to some debate. But first, a lesson:
In a film, smoke machines are used to create atmosphere and mood. Plus, it creates rays of light and depth of field. It can be a cool effect.
Now, that being said. Here is where the debate begins. Nuna claims this is used in every movie. I'm not sure if he means every MOVIE or every SCENE within said movie. I'm sure most movies have used this trick at least in one shot. But I refuse to believe it's used in every scene. I'm sure I can go through my 200+ DVD/Blu-ray collection and find at least 10 movies that don't use it. So, to throw an entire day of shooting out the window because of fog really sucks. They only positive thing about this is by shooting Saturday morning, we can set the scene in the time of day I wrote. Early morning.
TO BE CONTINUED... (promise)
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