Mike McCafferty and Jason Makiaris appear in their latest Channel 101 project entitled The 7/8ths Project. Enjoy!
Category Archives: Blog
Paul Ben-Victor Talks Cars
Quick quiz: Can you answer these questions?
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What kind of car does Paul Ben-Victor drive?
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What is Paul’s favorite road trip?
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What is the first car Paul learned to drive in?
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What is the first car Paul bought?
So how did you do? Stumped? Well, just head on over to Paul’s website and read the article “Celebrity Drive: Actor Paul Ben-Victor Has Soft Spot For Old School Cars” from Motor Trend and learn all about Paul’s love of cars.

Paul Ben-Victor and Cowboy
Treatment Progress Report
If I’ve been rather quiet lately it’s because I’ve had my nose to the grind writing, writing and more writing. After four rather intense weeks, the mentorship program came to an end Tuesday. It’s been an interesting experience to work one on one with such an accomplished writer and author.
As I’ve said before, he was very tough about pointing out flaws that needed to be fixed and he really pushed me to make the story better. Looking back over the story, I’m amazed how much it has evolved from what it was originally.
He gave me some nice compliments and told me I was a good writer. For someone who is a beginner at this that was nice to hear. He also said that he liked that I was strong about my piece and that I stick to my guns, but that I’m also willing to change. That was one of the nicest compliments he could have given me because I’m a big believer in standing up for myself when appropriate, but also yielding when the situation warrants it.
So what did I fight for? And what did I concede on?
Structure was a big issue. The structure of my story needed work and he quickly pointed it out. I was introducing the main character (Vince’s character) way too late in the story. Even though I really loved how I started the story, it just wasn’t working. As a writer, you learn that nothing is “precious” and sometimes you have to be willing to let go of really good scenes if they’re just not working. That can be very painful. Fortunately, I was able to figure out a way to pull Vince’s character into the story earlier and still keep a lot of what I loved about the opening scenes.
It really improved the story but, unfortunately, didn’t fully please my mentor. Here’s where we had a difference of opinion. You see, I, in my admittedly limited writing experience, learned to write using the traditional three-act structure. For those of you unfamiliar with that structure, the first act basically sets up the characters and their world, the second act usually starts when the main character is confronted with a conflict, and the third act is the resolution of that conflict. That’s how I learned it. That’s how most people learn it.
However, it turns out that my mentor is a bit of a maverick when it comes to story structure. He doesn’t teach the traditional three-act structure. He wanted me to start with the event that changed Vince’s character’s life. No introduction. No set up. Just have the event happen and go. (Hmm…did I just give out too much info and you were able to guess who he is?)
Problem was I just couldn’t see how to make that work. For one, we are asking you, the I-Man (Invisible Man) audience, to take actors that you’ve seen before on a TV show that you love and get used to them playing different characters. It’s not that I don’t think you’re capable of doing that, not at all. It’s just that I feel you need to have a chance to get to know these new characters a bit. Otherwise, why would you even care about what happens to them?
Also, doing it his way would mean that I would have had to get rid of the introduction of Paul, Shannon, Eddie, and Mike’s characters in the opening. Umm…Last time I checked I was doing a film that features an entire cast, not just one actor. I feel strongly about giving each cast member a vital role, even with Vince being the lead. So while I was trying to explain about how great the cast’s chemistry is and how I want to make sure that that was played up, he was trying to get me to focus more on Vince’s character to the detriment of the other characters. I stuck to my guns on this issue.
As a fan who has been around the I-Man fandom since the beginning, I think I have a pretty good idea of a lot of the qualities that we fans loved about I-Man. Obviously, and unfortunately, I can’t copy the story of I-Man. But I can use some of the those qualities as inspiration for this new story. One of the things that I think we can all agree on was the great chemistry the cast had together. I think it would be a mistake to write a story that didn’t play that up. Don’t you?
I, also, want to make sure there is a mixture of both humor and drama in the movie…what is often called a dramedy. But for some reason, my mentor seemed to always pick on the humor. I wonder if he dislikes comedy?
Another issue we disagreed on was the main character’s arc. I’m a big believer that characters need some kind of inner conflict. Just think how ordinary I-Man would have been if it had focused only on the invisibility and the “mission” of the week. What if Darien didn’t have to struggle with Quicksilver Madness? Or the threat of becoming immune to the Counteragent? Or being forced to work for the Agency when all he really wanted was his freedom? Well, then the show would have turned into one of those bad generic sci-fi shows that are quickly cancelled (Jake 2.0 anyone?). But because Matt Greenberg gave the character such a compelling inner struggle, we cared about Darien.
So I didn’t agree when he wanted me to focus on the outer conflict and strip away all the character’s inner conflicts. Too many sci-fi films and TV shows tend to focus on the cool visual effects, the sci-fi “world,” and saving the day and forget that what we are really doing is following a character through his or her adventures. If we don’t care about what happens to the character, then the story just becomes a series of events. And who cares about that?
One of the challenges when writing sci-fi is the new “world” that is created and how to explain all the rules and “science.” And I’m not just talking about sci-fi that takes place on other planets and involves interplanetary travel and aliens. No, sci-fi is much broader in scope than that. I-Man, for example, had rules about the invisibility, the gland, the Quicksilver Madness, etc. that had to be explained in order for us viewers to be able to understand the story. Likewise, with the story I’m writing there are all kinds of rules and “science” that the audience needs to learn in order to understand what is going on.
Where I fell short was in explaining the “science” behind the story. Upon reading my first outline, my mentor had a ton of questions. I didn’t explain it well enough. But because my mentor doesn’t like a lot of exposition, he also didn’t like it when I tried to put those explanations into the dialog. The challenge has been how to show it instead of tell it and I’m still working on that problem.
So while the story has come a long ways, it still has a ways to go. I’m taking a bit of a break from it because I received the second draft of the first writer’s treatment on Thursday. Now I need to go through it again with a fine toothcomb. But this time I have coverage from two story analysts to help me.
A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Emeryville and sat down with the former Pixar story analyst and a local executive producer and we discussed the story. Getting this kind of feedback is a great check for me. It helps me to see if my newly-honed instincts are correct about the story or if they are off. For the most part, most of the issues I saw with the story, he saw. And, not surprisingly, he saw some things that I missed. So now, armed with feedback from two analysts, I need to get busy and write my notes. They are due by the first of January.
Also due around the same time is the first draft of the second writer’s treatment. After I receive it and look it over, I’ll be sending it on to the analysts for coverage. I also hope to have my treatment ready for coverage at the same time. So I need to get busy and get back to writing. Break time is over!
Treatment Spinning
Right now I feel like a plate spinner. I’ve got three treatments that I need to keep moving so that they don’t slow down and fall off the sticks they are spinning on. Keeping them going at the same time is the trick. So how am I doing so far?
Treatment One
Treatment one is the farthest along. I finished writing the first round of notes last week and now the writer is working on the revisions. If I had to do one thing over again I would have given myself more time for this first round. Why? Because I spent a great deal of my time lining up story analysts instead of writing notes and I didn’t allow enough time to get the analysts’ coverage back in this first round. This means that there is a possibility that the second round of notes could require more changes than the first. That’s not an ideal situation, but we’ll play it by ear and make the best of whatever happens and, thankfully, the writer is very cool about working with me on this.
I’ve got one of the analyst’s coverage back already and expect the second analyst’s coverage in about a week. The first analyst did a good job and I agree with most of his notes, but I’m especially looking forward to hearing what the second analyst has to say about the story. He is a former Pixar story analyst who teaches screenwriting at a local university. He’s excited to be helping me out and I’m just as excited to have someone with his credentials helping me out.
Treatment Two
The producer/writer agreement for this treatment has been signed by the writer and I expect to receive it next week. I’ll then sign the copies and mail the writer back copies for her records. The writing and reading period for this treatment has been compressed into two months. That has me a bit worried because that’s not a lot of time, but we’re going to try to make it work.
Treatment Three
I’m almost two weeks into my four-week mentorship program with the screenwriter/author. Let me tell you, this guy is tough. Nothing gets by him. Everything gets questioned. And I’ve had to justify a lot of my decisions. I’ve, also, had to scrap some of my ideas and try new ones. But he’s pushing me to make it better and that’s what I need…to make the story the best it can possibly be. Because, truth be told, I think I was starting to fall into the trap a lot of writers fall into…falling in love with a story. So getting the flaws pointed out and then having to fix them…while being a somewhat painful process, is also a very necessary process. And the story keeps getting better because of it.
Really, all three stories need to be great. I want to feel good about taking on the task of producing any of them, so I’m going to be pushing to make sure they all are in top shape before I show them to the cast. I won’t submit a story before its time. Doing otherwise would be a mistake.
Season Two of “The Invisible Man” is Online!
I’m so excited to announce that season two of The Invisible Man is finally up on Hulu.com! Finally! So if you’ve never had a chance to see the entire show, now you can. And if you’ve seen all the episodes, you can go watch them again.
I’m hoping this means that we’ll get season two released on DVD soon.
Watch The Invisible Man on Hulu.com
Shoom Zone’s Two-Year Anniversary
Today marks the second anniversary of the online presence of this film project. Looking back over what seemed like a year of rather slow progress, I feel confident saying that this project is finally starting to pick up its pace. It’s about time, eh?
What feels good is the feedback I’ve been getting. In my gut I know this is a really good project, but sometimes it’s important to verify what you think you know to check yourself, so I make it a point to talk about the project whenever I can. I’ve got to say that the feedback I’ve been getting from experienced producers and investors has been very encouraging indeed.
The feedback I’ve been getting from my fellow I-Man fans has been great too. Thank you for the emails of support and encouragement. I’m just as excited as you are at the prospect of seeing our cast together again someday. When I started this website two years ago, it had just over a 100 visitors. This year that number went up to over 1,400 visitors. Now that’s just a drop in the bucket of the millions of people who watched I-Man worldwide, but considering that I really haven’t done any sort of PR yet, that’s not too shabby.
Project Update
I’ve got three, yes three, treatments going at the same time in various stages of development, so let’s talk about where each one is in the stream of things.
Treatment #1—Yesterday I mailed copies of the fully executed producer/writer agreement to the writer. That part is finally done! The next step is for her to send me the revised treatment and then I’ve got to get busy reading it and giving notes back to her.
Treatment #2—Monday I received the first draft of the producer/writer agreement from my lawyer. We made a few changes to it and it is almost ready to send on to the writer for her review. I really need to keep this agreement moving forward quickly so that the writer will have enough time to get the treatment done.
Treatment #3—This is the treatment I’m writing. I’ve put it aside for a while to get caught up on other things, but I’ll be revisiting it in a couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to getting back to work on it, especially since I’m going to be working under the mentorship of a WGA writer who is not only a produced writer, but also the author of two screenwriting books. One of the things I really like about this writer is that, besides having written for both film and TV, he has worked on a couple of sci-fi TV shows. I think it will really help to have someone with that kind of genre background to give me feedback.
The first treatment is scheduled to be finished around the end of January, so the other two treatments will need to be finished around the same time. The plan is to submit all three treatments at the same time to the cast for their consideration.
So that’s where we are with the project. If all goes well, we could start writing the screenplay early next year!
Mike McCafferty News
Our own Mike McCafferty is keeping pretty busy these days. Here are a couple of news items that you will want to take immediate note of.
Changeling
After having been cut from several feature films, including the blockbuster National Treasure 2, Mike’s fortune has finally changed and you can catch a glimpse of him playing the role of a ticket agent in the latest Angelina Jolie film, Changeling, which was directed by Clint Eastwood. The film opened in limited release Friday and goes wide October 31. Congratulations, Mike!
True Blood
Mike has a small part in tonight’s episode of True Blood at 9:00 p.m. on HBO. If you miss it, you’ll be able to catch reruns throughout the week. Be sure to check the schedule.
I remember this show being heavily promoted during Comic-Con. There were signs hanging in several places and they were passing out all kinds of free swag. What I find rather humorous are the marketing websites for this show. There’s a product website for the beverage Tru Blood, a human/vampire dating website, a website for vampire rights, a website against vampire rights, and a blog written by humans about vampires. Pretty clever stuff. You can check out the websites by clicking the links below.
http://americanvampireleague.com/
My First Test Screening Experience
Wednesday I attended my first film test screening. What is a test screening? A test screening is where a movie is shown to an audience before it is officially released in order to get feedback that the producers can use to improve the film. Each attendee is given a questionnaire to fill out with questions asking about the cast’s performances, the scenes, general impressions of the film, the ending, etc.
Screenings like this happen all the time in LA, but they are much rarer in the Bay Area. So when I found out about this screening, I jumped at the chance to attend. This was research for me. I wanted to see what a screening was like in anticipation of perhaps doing one for my film some day. And it was a chance to see an independent movie for free. Can’t beat that price!
The host was one of the executive producers who started the evening off introducing a couple of other producers and the editor. He said that this film was a rough cut and that the final edit might be influenced by the feedback they received. They passed out pens and a two-sided questionnaire that was printed on very heavy paper (thin cardboard), which was a good idea considering that are no tables in a movie theater. Where they fell short was in considering the readability of the questionnaire. The print was too small and, even with the lights turned up all the way, the theater was too dark. This made the questionnaire virtually unreadable for me. I and several others had to go out into the lobby after the movie so that we could get enough light to read and answer the questions.
The producer said he was going to do a Q&A after we filled out the forms, so I admit that I rushed through the questions because I wanted to go back into the theater and listen to the Q&A. I really didn’t give the feedback that I should have. As it was, when I walked back into the theater, the Q&A had already started. I don’t know how much of it I missed, but there wasn’t much discussion going on when I got there. That was disappointing.
The few questions that were asked were story related. I asked a non-story related question, namely, I wanted to know what the budget was. The producer wasn’t willing to give out that info, but he did say it was under a million. I wish I could have gotten a more exact figure from him, but my guess is that the film was maybe in the $400 to $600k range. But if you add on the talent, that might have brought up the number to the quarter million mark. Mind you, this is just a guesstimate. I may be way off.
After the movie, I overheard two women talking in the ladies room. They were quite critical of the movie and one admitted that she didn’t have the heart to write what she really thought about the movie on the questionnaire. I had to smile at that because I had the same problem. It’s really hard to come right out and tell someone that you don’t like their movie and would never recommend it to anyone else, so I found myself soft pedaling what I really thought about the film.
Okay, no soft pedaling here. I’m going to tell you what I really thought of the movie. However, the movie shall remain nameless because my intent is not to tear apart someone elses work for the sake of, well, tearing it apart. No, I have the utmost respect for what the filmmakers accomplished. Heck, getting any movie made is a major accomplishment in of itself. But I want to use this forum to explore what I thought worked and didn’t work in this movie.
It’s vital that producers understand the various elements that go into a film and to be able to differentiate between quality and drek. Of course, everyone in the business will tell you that there is no magic formula for what makes a film successful. It’s virtually impossible to predict ahead of time what the audience’s reaction will be. Regardless, producers are constantly having to evaluate other people’s artistic expressions, starting with the script, and making decisions based on those evaluations. It’s part of the job. In fact, the ability to be able to discern quality over the mediocre, together with personal taste, plays a huge factor in whether a producer will have a successful career or not. So this is good practice for me.
Just to warn you, there are going to be a lot of spoilers in my evaluation. Frankly, I doubt that any of you will ever see this movie. But, to be fair, I’m giving the warning anyway.
Evaluation Time
The story was about a bumbling detective who is in a turf war with a cult leader over the building they occupy. The cult leader wants the detective’s office space. The detective won’t give it up. His ditzy secretary ends up being “recruited” by the cult and the detective must save her and his office space while also trying to find out who is following his new client, a sultry brunette.
A big part of this movie was the storyline with the sultry brunette. I kept trying to figure out where they were going with her. She hired the detective to follow her because she thought someone was following her. But that never went anywhere. Nobody was following her. She was never in any kind of peril.
Then she started to come on to the detective and I got the feeling that she had hired the detective because she was lonely. Okay, possible love interest? Well, no. That never went anywhere either.
Then it was revealed that she was a member of the cult. Aha! She was there to lure the detective away from that valuable office space, right? Wrong. She wasn’t really an active member. So that went nowhere too.
So what was the purpose of this character? Beats me. She seemed tacked on and had no involvement whatsoever in the central conflict of the story.
Speaking of central conflicts, they fell short on this one too. What starts out as an office turf war turns into a “save the secretary” storyline. Why? Because she makes great coffee. But then it is revealed that the cult’s cookies are laced with some kind of mind control substance, revealing that the cult leader’s plans are to turn everyone into mindless zombies who turn over all their assets to the cult. This bigger threat could have been expanded upon to become the main storyline, but they really didn’t delve into it much.
If you haven’t already guessed it by the silliness of the plot, this was supposed to be a comedy, but I didn’t find it all that funny. I laughed maybe two or three times tops throughout the entire movie.
I’ve really got to wonder who they think the audience is for this movie. It’s got a bit of a retro feel with the film noir type detective, but it’s set in our day and has a bit of an Austin Powers type of humor. Even though it would be rated PG or PG-13, it really wasn’t suitable for kids as it had some adult themes.
Its lack of production values pretty much guarantees that it will never get any kind of a wide release in theaters or even end up on TV. At the most it might do a limited release in art house theaters and go to DVD.
Unfortunately, it looked like a low-budget film. Cheap. Real cheap. There are ways filmmakers can stretch their budgets and give their films a bigger look. But this film didn’t bother to employ any of those methods. In fact, my budget estimate above might have been way too generous.
As a comparison, I remember a short 20-minute indie film called Broken. I wrote an online review about it a few years ago. What blew me away was that for only $8,000 the filmmakers were able to create a film that visually rivals a studio film. They set a very high bar for indie films.
This comedy, however, really needed a lot of work. I kept looking for something that would set it apart and make it special. Instead, it wasn’t even average. The lighting was bad. The camera was poorly placed and there were no interesting shots to speak of. The sets/locations were poorly designed/chosen.
I would have loved to see this movie have more of a cartoon look to it—something along the lines of Pushing Daisies would have worked really well for this film and given it more visual charm.
Another thing this movie suffered from was talkitis. It felt like they were trying too hard to make the dialog clever and funny. But it really didn’t work. Parts of it dragged on and on and on.
So how in the world did this film ever get made? Obviously, there were some investors out there that thought enough of it to fund it.
Well, it had a strong cast. In fact, its only strength was its cast. I’m not going to name them, but you would recognize them in an instant. They had some really talented actors in the lead roles and cameos by some even more well-known actors. They all did a great job acting. Unfortunately, the characters they were given to play were just caricatures. Such a waste.
With a cast such as they had, I had to find out who they got to write and direct this movie. So I looked it up and found out that the director and writer is the same person—a soap opera actor who also was one of the producers. Now it started to make sense. This was someone already in the business who had some connections. Still, I’ve got to wonder if anyone bothered to take a look at his previous work to see if it was any good.
At this point there isn’t much they can do to salvage this movie. It needs a page one rewrite and then virtually every creative decision they made about it needs to be rethought. With their budget that is not going to happen. The most they can probably do is try to fix the pace in the editing room, but I don’t think that is going to be enough to save this movie.
So would I have wanted to be involved in this project? Probably not. There are just too many things wrong with it, starting with the script. If I could get it rewritten and hire another director, I would consider it since it does have a great cast. But considering that the writer and director are the same person, that isn’t very likely. My guess is that he attached himself as the director to his own script. In other words, if you want the script, you have to accept him as the director. But in this case, the story just wasn’t strong enough.