Mike McCafferty Announces the Return of “The Invisible Man,” Plus New Projects for Vince and Paul, and an Old One and an Interview

The Invisible Man Returns!

With all the hints and buzz that something might be happening on The Invisible Man front lately, it was very exciting to see this announcement by Mike McCafferty from the other day!

Dear Fans,
Talked to Vinny.
Talked to Paul.
Talked to Eddie.
They’re all on board.
We’re making a little something. Gonna kickstart it in a bit.
For reals this time.
Stay tuned.

What exactly is this little something?  A full-blown movie?  An I-Man short?  My guess is the latter, but we’ll eventually find out.  Even if it’s a short film, it’ll be awesome to see the guys back together again in the roles we loved them in!  And, who knows?  If it’s a short and it does well, we may get more I-Man.  One can dream, can’t one?

Paul Ben-Victor’s New Series:  Vinyl

The very talented Paul Ben-Victor has landed himself a role on another HBO series.  This one is called Vinyl and it’s helmed by Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger.  It’s about the New York City rock and roll music scene of the 1970s. Paul plays the role of music executive Maury Gold.

Vinyl is due to air in 2016.

Paul Ben-Victor in Friends and Romans

Paul Ben-Victor in "Friends & Romans"

Paul Ben-Victor in “Friends and Romans”

Friends and Romans premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival last year as well as the Boston International Film Festival.  Now it is due to be released October 23 in Philadelphia and Providence, Rhode Island, before heading to New York in November. No word yet on if it will get a wider release.

What is it about?  Well, here’s what writer/producer Gregg Greenberg has to say about his film.

Paul plays Dennis Socio in the film.  Here’s a trailer.

Cooper Talk Interviews Paul Ben-Victor

Steve Cooper from Cooper Talk interviewed Paul back in March.  It’s a great hour-long interview and well worth your time.  Steve and Paul talk a little Invisible Man too!  Listen to the interview here.

Vincent Ventresca in Wicked City

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Vince regularly on our TV sets but, now, with his new recurring role on Wicked City, we’ll be seeing him on a somewhat more regular basis.

Vince plays the role of Jimmy, ex-boyfriend of Betty, one of the lead characters.

If you look closely at the following two pictures, you’ll see Vince sitting in the corner at the table read for Wicked City.  Click on the pictures for a better look.

Wicked City Table Read

Wicked City Table Read

Wicked City Table Read

Wicked City Table Read

Wicked City premieres Tuesday, October 27, on ABC.

Stakeout:  A New Webseries Starring Vincent Ventresca

stakeout

Vincent Ventresca and Erik Palladino have put together a little web series that will be coming out in November.  Erik describes the series as basically two guys in a car on a stakeout.  It sounds pretty low budget but, also, sounds like it will be a lot of fun.

Here’s a video promo for the show.

Real Life Unaired Pilot

Finally, here’s an unaired Vincent Ventresca pilot for you.  Real Life is a pilot from 1998 that was never picked up or aired.  Vince has a supporting role in it as a doctor and the husband of one of the main characters.

Maybe it’s a good thing that it didn’t get picked up, because shortly afterward, Vince landed the role of Darien Fawkes on The Invisible Man.

Enjoy!

Vincent Ventresca Co-Stars in “Break Point” and Talks “Invisible Man,” and a Dragon Con I-Man Panel This Weekend

Vincent Ventresca’s latest movie Break Point is out in theaters this weekend. Vince has a small role in it as Gary, the douchebag hair model boyfriend of Amy Smart’s character, Heather.

Hmm…I seem to remember Darien Fawkes from The Invisible Man also doing some hair modeling in his past.

Break Point stars Jeremy Sisto and David Walton.  It’s about two estranged brothers who reunite to make a run at a major tennis tournament. Here’s the trailer for the film.

In this scene, Gary meets David Walton’s character, Darren.

In this interview, Vince talks about the director, the writer, and the relationship between Gary and Heather.

Here’s some behind-the-scenes footage from the film.  Look closely and you’ll see Vince in a couple of scenes.

 

Break Point is getting a limited release this weekend in these cities.  It’s also available on VOD at iTunes and Amazon.

Rama’s Screen recently did an interview with Vincent, which you can read here.  I really love this interview.  Rama starts out revealing that he is an Invisible Man fan and that makes the whole interview even more fun, especially when he comments on the shirtless scene.  Vince gives all you VVSB’rs a shout out when he mentions the Vincent Ventresca Shirtless Brigade!

Vincent Ventresca shirtless in "Break Point"

Vincent Ventresca shirtless in “Break Point.”

But the best part of Rama’s interview was by far when he asked Vince if The Invisible Man could come back. Vince replies saying that he’s been talking about it with Matt Greenberg, the series’ creator.  He doesn’t really give us much information in the interview, but Mike McCafferty has hinted that something might be going on.

Although they are being tight lipped about it, the fact that, at the very least, discussions are taking place, makes the fan girl in me squee with delight.  As some of you may know, years ago I had an entertainment lawyer approach Universal so that we could start a dialog about the rights to The Invisible Man.  I got turned down flat.

My thoughts since have been that if The Invisible Man is to have any chance of coming back, it would most likely happen if the people involved in the making of the original series worked to make it happen.  And even for them, there are a lot of hurdles to overcome.  When it comes to the movie and TV world, getting anything made is hard.  Real hard.

But the fact that there is actually some kind of effort being put toward that goal is so freaking awesome.  How cool would it be to get the cast back in both The Invisible Man and my movie too?  To my knowledge, I don’t think anything like that has ever been done before.

In the interview, Vince mentions his hope for finding a bigger audience.  And that’s going to be vital to its success.  We already have a small loyal audience for the show, but it needs to grow.  With such a huge quantity of media clamoring for the audience’s attention nowadays, it’s hard to stand out and get noticed.  So, from a strategic point of view, getting both the show and a fan-produced movie made could be enough of a tipping point to get us known to the wider audience.

I know I’ll keep working on my end to help make that happen.

I-Man at Dragon Con

Lastly, but by no means least, in commemoration of the show’s 15th anniversary, there is fan-run Invisible Man panel happening this weekend at Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia!

The panel takes place tomorrow evening at 7:00 p.m. in the Marriott hotel, room M303-M304.

If you’re attending Dragon Con this weekend, be sure not to miss it!

The Impossibly Long End of Year and Beginning of Year Movie Update!

I can’t believe that it’s a new year already! Where did the time go? I haven’t been blogging like I should have been this past year and I apologize for that. A lot of personal stuff got in the way. Now I’m not one to talk much about my personal life here on the blog, but because my personal life impacted the project so much this year, I feel I owe you all an explanation since you’ve patiently stuck with me all this time. I wish the news was all good. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. So let’s get the unpleasant stuff out of the way first.

Near the end of 2013, the motherboard on my computer burned out. That immediately stopped all work on the treatment because all my files were on that hard drive. I know, I should have had a backup (I do now), but I didn’t then. Fortunately, I had other options that still gave me access to the Internet, but that was about it. Getting my computer fixed took way longer than it should have because I was given some wrong advice but this past summer I finally got it working again.

This is what I've been living with the past year.

This is what my bathroom currently looks like.

Then a water leak in my only bathroom caused extensive water and mold damage in both my bathroom and bedroom. What a mess. The tub/shower got torn out, along with several walls and carpeting in my bedroom. I’ve been living with no tub/shower for almost a year now and have been having to use the shower at the gym. I’m thankful that the shower is available; but it’s also a pain in the neck to have to leave my home to take a shower. So I’ve been saving my money to get the bathroom remodeled first. Then I’ll save to get the bedroom remodeled. I’ve been wanting to get that bathroom remodeled for years. (I’ve always hated that floor and wallpaper.) Now I’m forced to get it done. It’s been a year since this happened and I only have 1/6th of my budget saved so, unfortunately, I have to live with this for quite a while yet.

Shortly after this happened, I got sick. I won’t go into the details, but it is a permanent condition. Fortunately, I’m managing it and have felt fine since. There’s always the threat that I could have a flare up, but if that happens I’ll deal with it. It’s nothing that will stop me from moving forward.

And lastly, I had my identity stolen. What a headache that was. It took months to get it cleared up, but I eventually did. I wish that was the end of it but, unfortunately, from now on I need to keep a hypervigilant eye on my credit report.

I didn’t tell you all of that to get your sympathy. There are a lot of other people that had a much harder year than I did, such as my cousins who lost their 12-year-old daughter to cancer. And I’m not trying to make excuses, but the reality is that sometimes things happen that throw us off course. It can’t be helped. To deny that is simply unrealistic. But it’s not the fall that determines the outcome. It’s whether you get back up again. So here is me getting back up again.

With everything that has happened, you might be thinking that last year is a total wash. No, not at all! It’s the year the treatment was finally finished! Yep, after years of trying to find the right story, I finally have a story that I love and am excited to make. So let me catch you up on what’s been happening with the project.

Back at the beginning of the last year, Shawna, the writer I had been working with, decided that she wanted to leave and pursue her own projects. I totally get that. She had helped me for several years with my story and was patient beyond belief with this beginning screenwriter. I always appreciated her critiques. She was never afraid to express her opinion and tell me if something was wrong. That’s such a rare quality. And even though we didn’t always agree, we were always able to talk about it. I am very thankful for all her input.  Because of her help the story is so much better than it was. I wish her much success in her new endeavors.

After Shawna left, it wouldn’t be until summer that I finally was able to access and work on the treatment again. This time I was on my own. The majority of the story had already been written, so it was just a matter of finishing up the third act and then giving it a quick once over and making some formatting changes. I reformatted it as a scriptment, which is a treatment with some screenplay formatting in it. By fall it was finished. It turned out to be a massive 56 pages long.

Now it was time to have it professionally analyzed. I sent the treatment to two story analysts. Both of them teach college screenwriting and have read hundreds of scripts over the years. One is located in Los Angeles and teaches at UCLA Extension, among other places. (I’ve taken one of his classes in the past.) He has also been a reader for several major studios. The second one is located in San Francisco and teaches at the Academy of Art University and is a former Pixar story analyst. So both of these guys are very qualified. What’s interesting is how very different their notes were.

Now, I don’t expect the story analysts to like my story. It may not be their personal taste; and that’s okay. I just need them to tell me if there are any story problems. What I wasn’t expecting was how much the LA analyst would LOVE (caps are his, not mine) my story. I had always thought of my story as sci-fi/fantasy. His opinion was that it is a fantasy thriller. He thought the genre was great, the weapon unique, and he loved the world I created and the characterizations. I didn’t tell him about the cast I’m writing this for so he judged it purely on story.

What equally surprised me is what he said needed work. He said the story was only half finished, that it was in the middle of act two, and that I needed to finish act two and write act three. To say I was flabbergasted is an understatement. I thought I had a beginning, middle, and end! He didn’t agree. He said to take what I wrote and add to it. The other notes he gave me was to make the ending bigger and make the villain eviler. He wanted me to keep it in treatment form until I finished writing the rest of it.

The SF analyst didn’t tell me whether he liked the story or not. He just pointed out some rather minor things that needed expanding and/or clarification. His biggest note was that it needed a better ending. I totally agreed with that. After he was finished with his comments, I told him what the other analyst had said about the story only being half finished. I wanted to see if he agreed. He didn’t. He reaction was the same as mine had been. (“What?!”) He said that the story was ready to go to script and he thought I had about 100 pages worth of script. The LA analyst thought I had 75 pages worth of script.

Goes to show you that even the experts don’t agree and it always pays to get more than one opinion. So who is right? Well, the only way to find out how many pages I have is to start putting the story into screenplay format, so I decided to fix the few minor issues they pointed out, call the treatment done, and start writing the script. If I do end up needing to add on to the story, I already have a bunch of ideas on where to go next.

I thought it was interesting that the SF analyst described the story as having franchise potential. I purposely wrote the story with the idea that it could have both franchise and transmedia potential. I’ve got ideas for a webisode, books, toys and other merchandise, a video game, and future movies, as well as a TV show. Seriously, the story world I created is that big! But I wrote it that way because I wanted to set it up for success from the very beginning. How much of those ideas come to fruition only time will tell, but the possibilities are there.

If I had a huge studio budget, we could do some amazing visual effects, but I also wrote the story with the idea that the effects could be scaled down a bit for a smaller budget. But that doesn’t mean I want it to have cheap-looking effects. I’ve been following a couple of other independent sci-fi movies. The first one, Iron Sky, was done with a $10 million dollar budget, but the effects are so good in it that it looks like it has a $100 million dollar budget. The production company that made it is now crowdfunding a sequel to the movie. The second movie, Space Command, is by Marc Zicree, who has been writing sci-fi books and TV shows for years now. His budget is much lower. I don’t know the exact amount, but I know he raised a little over $200k in his crowdfunding campaign. The rest he is raising from investors. From what little I’ve seen, since the movie isn’t finished yet, it looks like he’s got some really great-looking visual effects. So I know that putting great effects into a low-budget feature can definitely be done. These two movies prove it.

Both story analysts thought I was going to try to sell the story to a major studio. I’m not. It’s always been my intention to produce it myself. (I didn’t realize that I would end up writing it too.) I may take on partners, but I won’t just be handing it over for someone else to make. There are a few reasons for that:

  • A major studio wouldn’t hire Vince, Paul, and the rest of The Invisible Man cast. They’d cast A-listers instead, actors that they deem to be bankable. And that would pretty much negate every reason why I even started this project and got into this business.
  • As a fandom, we’ve already felt the pangs of falling in love with a show where we had no say in its future. If I was to simply sell the script to someone else, they would gain control of the project and we’d be back in the same boat as we were with The Invisible Man. The project could end up getting shelved and we would have no say in the matter.
  • They may not get it. An example of this that the SF analyst told me about is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The movie script by Joss Whedon was taken out of his hands and put in the hands of a director that didn’t get it and it was pretty much a flop. However, the TV show was firmly in Joss’ hands and that became a huge success. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people in the business make suggestions that I know would never satisfy an I-Man fan. They don’t get it, but that’s okay, because I do. I know what I loved about the show; and I’ve done my best to put those qualities into my story. So any partners I take on will need to understand that.

In this business it is extremely easy to lose control of a project if one is not careful. From production companies that shelve scripts and never produce them to distribution companies that buy films and shelve them instead of distributing them. Remember what happened to Mike’s movie Idiocracy? So taking on the right partners will have to be done very carefully.

Since I’m making this movie primarily for I-Man fans (the ones who get it), I wanted to get their opinions about it. So I asked four fans if they would read and discuss the story with me and three of them accepted. I’ve already talked to two and I have one more that I need to talk to yet. So far, the response has been very positive. I heard from them what they liked and didn’t like and what they thought needed improvement, which was mostly really minor stuff. I’m not going to name who the fans are that read my treatment, but they are free to come forward if they wish. All three fans have signed non-disclosure agreements, so if they do come forward, please do not pressure them to disclose anything about the story. But they are free to tell you general info that doesn’t give the story away, such as if they think I got the tone right, what they liked about it, etc.

So where am I on the script? I have 40 pages of the first draft finished. I’m shooting for a pace of about a page a day and I’m behind. I should be on page 62, so I’m trying to get caught up.

I’m on page 14 of the treatment. At this pace I’m writing around three pages of script for every page of treatment. If that continues, with a 56-page treatment, I’ll have a 168-page script!  Way over the estimate of both story analysts! At a minute per page that translates to a two hour and forty-eight minute movie! Of course, the page count could come down once I hit the more dialog heavy parts of the treatment. We’ll just have to see what we end up with.

Frankly, I’m more concerned with writing a really good story than I am about page count at this point. When I first started writing the script I was using a great little free program called Trelby. It’s a pretty basic program but it gets the job done. Then I got a free copy of Final Draft, which is considered the industry standard. It’s full of bells and whistles and I still haven’t learned everything that it can do yet. But what’s interesting about the two programs is that in Trelby, I was getting around two pages of script for every page of treatment; and in Final Draft, I’m getting around three pages of script for every page of treatment. Trelby seems to condense everything a little more. So if I was using Trelby, I’d have a movie that was one hour and fifty-two minutes long.  See why I’m not too concerned about page count?

By the way, I want to give a big shout out of thanks to Jim Fleckenstein for the free copy of Final Draft! It just wasn’t in my budget to buy the program, so it was a wonderful surprise to get a free copy of it. Jim, also, has been very helpful when I needed an expert to look at some police radio dialog in my script. His law enforcement background came in very handy. The Invisible Man really does have the best cast, crew, and fans.

Before I make any sort of announcement about the movie’s name, I’m getting it trademarked. I don’t want to start advertising it and then find out that someone else has laid claim to it, so I have my lawyer working on that. I have one piece of artwork already drawn by a fan that will make a cute banner, wallpaper, or t-shirt graphic, but I’m holding off showing it until I get an okay from my lawyer. I’m also working on getting concept art done for the movie. I can’t wait till that is done and ready to show you.

So there is a lot going on. 2015 looks to be a very exciting and busy year! Thank you for being a part of it and supporting my efforts to feature our Invisible Man cast in a brand new story!

Treatment Update and Important Mailing List News

Treatment Update

I’ve been really quiet on the blog for a while because I’ve been putting my focus on writing the treatment.  Here’s a bit about the writing process:

Each time I go through the treatment, I’ll go back over what’s already been written and clean up anything that needs to be fixed.  Then I’ll usually write another page or two.  After that, I hand it off to Shawna who looks at the old stuff again and the new pages and gives me her thoughts and edits.  It may be a slow way of working, but it is making the older pages better and better.  And while Shawna is working on it, I’m thinking about where I want to go with the next scene or two.  I know how the story is ending.  It’s just mapping out how to get there.

The treatment is getting a lot more detail this time around, which I think will help the script writing go a bit easier.  It reads more like a short story than a dry synopsis, which is what it should do.  Synopses are short matter-of-fact summations of a story…basically a condensed version of the plot.  Whereas, treatments are more entertaining—like a story.  Writers use treatments to sell their screenplays to producers.  But in this case, I’m using the treatment to get the details of the story worked out; and then I’ll use it to get cast and crew on board until the screenplay can be finished.

One of the many challenges with this story is making sure that all five of the main characters (played by Vince, Paul, Eddie, Shannon, and Mike) serve a real purpose in the story.  I don’t want any of their characters to be throw-away characters, like Eberts was in The Invisible Man.  As much as we loved Eberts (and there was even an episode about The Importance of Eberts), in reality, the producers could have easily taken the character out of the series and it wouldn’t have hurt the storyline.  I think it’s to Mike’s credit that he connected with the fans early on and endeared himself and his character to us.  By doing this he assured his continuation on the series, even becoming a series regular in season two.  So I really want to make sure that Mike’s character has a role that is vital to the story and I think we accomplished that.

How fortunate for the Veronica Mars fans that Warner Brothers is willing to bring back their show in the form of a movie, even if the fans have to fund it themselves.  I wish Universal had been as cooperative with The Invisible Man.  Instead, I was turned down flat.  Of course, I was not the show runner, so that gives me considerably less pull with them.  In spite of all that, I’ve always kept in mind that this movie is first and foremost for I-Man fans.  While I can’t copy I-Man, I’ve definitely been using it as inspiration.  I’m hoping that this story will be so good that it will get past any disappointment you may have that it’s not I-Man.  Just to be able to see the cast together again will be such a treat!

This last pass through, I ended up writing five new pages and I’m really happy to say that we are sitting right smack at the beginning of act three, the final act!  The end is so close, I can taste it.  I can’t wait until I’m able to share this story with all of you!

Mailing List News

Some of you observant ones may have noticed that there is an email sign-up form on the front page of my website as well as the Shoom Zone Facebook page.  It’s actually been there a few months.  I’ve been experimenting with a new mailing list service so I really didn’t want to say anything about it until I got the kinks worked out.

The mail service has a cool feature that allows one to split up the mailing list by interests.  I really like the idea, but in practice it was a pain in the neck, so I removed that feature.  I apologize to those of you who signed up already and specified their interests because this means that you will now be getting all my blog posts by email, not just the ones that match your interests.  Although I feel that I need to be blogging more, even at this blog’s busiest, you shouldn’t be inundated with email.  And if a subject doesn’t interest you, you can always delete the email.

My plan is to move everyone from the old mailing list over to the new one within the next month or so.  If you want to go ahead and sign up now, please feel free to do so.  You’ll be able to choose whether you want html, text, or mobile format.  If you don’t sign yourself up, your default will be html.

I won’t sell, rent, or share your email address with anyone except in rare cases as spelled out in the privacy policy.  Please read it if you have any concerns.  Your privacy is important to me.  I don’t like it when someone else abuses my trust and I won’t do it to you.  If you have any questions about it, please feel free to ask by posting a question below or contacting me via the contact form.

Click here to sign up for the mailing list and enjoy the convenience of getting blog posts in your email.

Time for a Project Update

In fact, it’s way past time for an update!  Time flies when you’re busy and before you know it you realize that it’s been a while since you’ve written anything about the film project.  Yikes!  So I’m remedying that right now.

Last time I talked to you about the project, I was going to be starting a screenwriting class that promised to “get your treatment done in ten weeks.”  Part of the class was also studying a different genre each week.

Now before the class had started I had told one of the teachers that my treatment was about half done and I explained my project and asked if the class was right for me.  He assured me it was, and since he has a stellar reputation, I enrolled in the course.  At the beginning of the course, I sent him a copy of the treatment and was told that I have a very exciting idea.  Good to hear!  I couldn’t wait to get started working on it.

While it was a good class, it wasn’t quite what I expected it to be. When we finally started working on our treatments, about halfway through the class, I was asked to break my story back down to outline form and send it in.

I was not happy with this news.  I wanted to start where I was and move forward.  My story has not been in outline form for a very long time.  Stripping it back down to the outline felt like going backwards to me.  So I contacted the teachers.

In spite of the initial miscommunication, we were able to come to an agreement.  I would complete the genre part of the class and finish writing the treatment on my own with my writer and they would then analyze it for me.

So where are we with the treatment you ask?  I’d say about half to two-thirds done.  It’s going slowly and steadily, but it’s getting a big rewrite.  A lot of changes are being made and I think I’m finally getting to the point where I’m happy with where the story is going.  It’s time consuming, but worth it to get the story right.

Doritos Super Bowl Commercial Contest

About a month ago, my friend Sandra Myers approached me about joining her in producing a commercial for the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest.

Sandra and I worked together on the Dockers video I produced last year.  She had directed it for me and had done a fabulous job.  We work really well together, and in this business finding people you work well with is important.  It’s why teams like Brian Grazer and Ron Howard work on project after project together.

But the right person is only part of the equation.  You, also, have to have the right project.  Fortunately, Sandra has the right project.  Her idea is fantastic!  I think it definitely could be one of the top, if not the winning commercial.  This made it easy to say yes.

What, also, made it easy to say yes was the grand prize:  One million dollars!  Now, since I’m partnering with Sandra on this project, I only get half of that but, still, that is five times the amount of last year’s contest.  Five times!  I don’t think I have to tell you what winning that amount could do to for our I-Man cast film project.  I would not only have development money, but also a nice chunk of the pre-production budget.

Oh, and did I mention that the winner gets their commercial aired during the Super Bowl?!

Now, I’m not going to say this is going to be easy.  Last year’s competition had over 6,000 entries and the competition is fierce.  Check out last year’s winner:

You may be wondering if entering another contest is the right way to try to raise money for a movie.  Frankly, it’s probably not any harder than any other method.  This whole business is tough.  As a producer, I can’t let that stop me.  Someone once said that in this business expect to hear 100 noes before you hear a yes.  So, I need be relentless in my quest for funding and look at all the methods available to me.

I just found out yesterday that the contest is definitely on this year.  It starts September 19th!  I hear that there may be some new twists and surprises this year, so I’m anxiously waiting to start reading the rules and regulations and getting more info about it.  Hopefully, it won’t change any of our current plans but, if it does, we’ll make any adjustments as needed.

I’ll be blogging here and on a couple of local Patch sites and giving frequent updates about our progress on the project.  This was something I had wanted to do with the Dockers video, but we were so short on time it never happened.  This time we have a bit more time for pre-production.

I hope you’ll check back often and lend your support to our project!

 

2011 to 2012: The Year in Review and the Coming Year

January is a good time to review the past year as well as lay out what the plans are for the coming year, so let’s start with last year first, shall we?

The year started out really promising.  We had barely finished the “Name the Movie Characters Contest” when I found out about the Dockers contest.  I hadn’t planned on entering a contest, especially since I just got done running one, but the prize of $100,000 was definitely tempting and would have provided some much needed seed money for the project.  Competing in that contest was a lot of fun and a lot of work.  All of you were awesome.  You voted your hearts out.  I could have never made it into the semi-finals without you.  And while I didn’t make it into the finals, I got some valuable experience producing my first video.  It wasn’t a cheap education (I’m still paying off the loan and will be for quite a while.), but it was a great learning experience.

Getting all the footage from the shoot has been quite a challenge this past year.    Those tapes have spent many long months going from one place to another without any results.  I finally found out that I had to have the original camera in order to get the footage digitized.  Without the camera nobody was able to transfer the footage from tape to digital.  The last of the footage (the audition tapes) is almost done, so soon I’ll finally be able to show you the fun behind-the-scenes footage and pictures and discuss the whole experience.

The rest of the year was supposed to be spent focusing on getting the story treatment finished.  Unfortunately, it just sort of fizzled.  Health problems got in the way.  You see, a while back I was diagnosed with a severe sleeping disorder.  At first I didn’t want to face the fact that I had a problem, but it became progressively worse and has really affected my ability to function during the day.  I get very little sleep at night and end up feeling like a walking zombie during the day.  I promise I don’t eat people, but I have been known to walk around in a daze and moan and groan sometimes.  But, seriously, if any of you have ever suffered from sleeplessness, you’ve got an inkling of what I’m dealing with.  Needless to say, it’s been a challenge being able to handle one job, let alone two, so, unfortunately, the film project has suffered and progress has been less than a snails pace.  I can’t tell you how frustrating this has been for me.  But the good news is that recently I started treatment for my condition.  It’s going slow, but I’m hopeful and looking forward to being able to function like a normal human being in the near future.

So now we get to this year.  I’ve started treatment for my sleep issues; I’m looking forward to getting a good night’s sleep and my energy back; and I’m impatient with the progress of this film project.  With that frame of mind, I happened to come across a class taught by a prominent screenwriting teacher that promises to “get your treatment done in ten weeks.”  So I signed up for it.  I thought this would be a good way to kick start this project and finally get the treatment done.  Am I being overly optimistic that I’ll be able to keep up with the class schedule?  Well, we’ll see.  I’m assuming that with time my sleep problems will improve; and it’s not like I’m having to do the homework all by myself.  I’ll be giving notes to my writer and the two of us will be working on the treatment together each week.

Class starts next week.  If everything goes according to plan, we’ll have a completed treatment by the beginning of April.  After that I will probably run the treatment by one or two other script analysts in order to get other opinions.  Once we have it finalized, I’ll be running it by one last person:  my lawyer.  When he clears it I will then be able to finally show it to the cast.  If they like it, I will instruct my screenwriter to begin writing the screenplay.  That will be a six-month project, according to our contract, which means we’ll have a completed screenplay by the end of the year!

During those six months when my writer is busy writing the screenplay, I’ll be starting the business plan, putting together a production team, and preparing to raise funding for the project.  Since this is a transmedia project, I’ll, also, be looking into ways to start marketing the project and grow the audience by means of other related media projects.

If everything goes as planned, this year should be an exciting year with a lot of progress being made toward the goal of getting the Invisible Man cast together.  I hope you’ll be here with me to watch the progress!


Transmedia Storytelling

If you’ve never heard the term “transmedia” before, you’re not alone.  There are still quite a few people in the film industry that haven’t heard of it either.  Transmedia storytelling is more than just telling a story on various media platforms. It’s about telling the elements of a story across various media platforms with each of them making a contribution to the whole.  So, for instance, a graphic novel can be used to tell back-story, a video game can be used to explore the story world, and a website can give you more information about a particular character.  With the advent of new digital platforms such as smart phones and tablets, there are even more ways of telling a story than ever before.

Not all stories lend themselves to transmedia storytelling, but at a time when pirating and inexpensive viewing platforms such as Netflix (even with the recent price increase) and Redbox are eating more and more into profits, producers are looking for alternatives to make their projects profitable.  The big studios are concerned about this problem, but for independent producers the problem is even more serious because it can mean the difference between staying and going out of business.  We simply don’t have the cushion that the big guys have.  So, for me, transmedia storytelling is not only a creative decision, it’s, also, a financial one.

As a fan turned producer, I’m excited about the prospect of reuniting the cast of The Invisible Man.  I’m a huge fan of the show and the cast; and even though I’m disappointed that I couldn’t get the rights to the show, I’m still very excited to bring the cast together again and show off that great chemistry that we all know they have.  But I’m hoping that this movie won’t be just a one-shot deal for this cast.  As long as they are willing, I want to see them do multiple movies.  Or maybe a TV or web series.

But in order for that to happen I have to do everything in my power to make this project profitable (or at the very least make its money back).  If the first movie flops, it’s highly unlikely that any investors are going to want to fund future projects with this cast.  But if my investors are making money, then it’s more likely that they’ll want to fund future projects.  How cool would that be?

While a big part of my decision to do a transmedia project is financially motivated, it’s, also, a great way to tell a story.  I recently finished writing the first draft of a new concept section of the story bible.  It’s a known concept that I haven’t seen anyone else use in quite the same way as I am, similar to how I-Man took a known concept—invisibility—and used it in a way that we had never seen before.  The back-story and mythology of my story is so big that it easily lends itself to being a transmedia project.

As I’m writing the story bible, I’m having to think not only of the feature film, but how everything fits together in the bigger story world, which include both past and future stories.  It’s fun, but it, also, makes the project more challenging to write because it all has to fit together and make sense…well, as much sense as a story that is science fiction can make.

The center of the story is, of course, the movie featuring the I-Man cast.  In addition to that I’m considering doing prequel webisodes that delve into the history of the story world.  Depending on how fundraising goes, I may end up having to do some webisodes or perhaps a scene or two from the movie first to help build up the audience to a level that justifies my budget.

Wait a minute, didn’t The Invisible Man have a worldwide audience of millions?  Yes, it did—approximately ten million from what I’ve heard.  The challenge is, however, in reaching all those people and letting them know what I’m working on.  Will all those people who watched I-Man want to watch this movie?  Hopefully they will, but some might not be interested in it because it’s not I-Man.  Although, I do hope they will give it a chance because, after all, I am developing this story with I-Man fans in mind.  So I may have to do the work it takes to find the audience first before we can shoot the movie; unless, of course, I get lucky and find the money right away.  I’ll just have to see what happens and make adjustments to my plans accordingly.

In addition to webisodes, I want to, at the minimum, create a video game, a graphic novel, and several websites to enhance the story experience.  Some other transmedia platforms I’m considering are apps for smart phones and tablets, books, comic books, and blogs, etc.  And, of course, I want to do merchandising.

It’s lot to think about, but right now when I’m in the story development stage is the time to think about and plan for such things.  If there is anything you would like to see developed for this project, let me know.  I’ll consider all suggestions!


Moving Forward

If you’ve been keeping up with my Facebook or Twitter feeds, you know, unfortunately, that we didn’t make it into the finals of the Dockers contest. If you’re reading it here for the first time then, yeah, I’m disappointed too. I put a lot of work and money into that contest and I know you guys voted your little hearts out to get me into the semifinals, but those are the breaks.  Sometimes you win the battles and sometimes you don’t; but don’t believe for a minute that we’ve lost the war.

I’m reminded of something I heard several years ago regarding the film business: Expect to get 100 no’s for every yes.  If one isn’t able to deal with that, then they shouldn’t be in this business.

Like any good story the protagonist must overcome obstacle after obstacle, some of them seeming insurmountable, before reaching his or her final goal. This is just another obstacle in our story. The quest to reunite the cast of The Invisible Man lives on!

I have no regrets about the entering the contest.  I really don’t.  It was a wonderful (albeit exhausting) and much needed learning experience for me and I was able to show that, yes indeed, I can pull together a production.  There is only so much one can learn from books and classes.  One really needs to just get out there and do it.  As a result, I have footage that I can use for other purposes.  Yep, it won’t go to waste.  For example, I can re-cut it and use it to create a crowdfunding video.  Crowdfunding, in fact, is most likely the next step that I’m going to be taking in the future to raise the seed money I need to get this project off the ground.  I don’t have much of a choice.  I’m personally tapped out.  It’ll take me years to pay back that bank loan I took out to fund the video.

But first I need to finish the story.  It’s been sitting idle for far too long and my screenwriter has been infinitely patient with me as I dealt with reprecussions from my auto accident, holding the Name the Movie Characters Contest, my computer dying, and then entering the Dockers contest.  Now I really need to focus on getting the story done because no story…no movie. 

There is one advantage, however, to letting the story sit for so long and that is that I’ve had a long time to think about it.  There’s a bit of screenwriting advice that I heard once and that is that after you’ve written the first draft, put the story away for a month or two or six and then come back to it because, although it may seem perfect when you finished that first draft, you’ll really see its flaws after you’ve been away from it for a while.  I can really see the wisdom in that advice because I see flaws now that I didn’t see previously.  Scenes that I was absolutely in love with will have to go because they really don’t serve the story and its theme.  That’s hard, but it has to be done.

Before I tackle the treatment, however, I need to get the story bible done.  Getting the characters fleshed out, the pseudoscience in place, and the back story done are a vital foundation for the story.  It’s absolutely needed in order to keep everything consistent.

I promised you pictures and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of our video and I haven’t forgotten.  I just need to still get the pictures and footage.  I, also, wanted to wait until you actually got to see the video, which is now posted on Facebook and on the home page of this website.

So go watch it and tell me what you think.  If you like it great, but if not, tell me why.  I do appreciate constructive criticism.  How can I learn and grow as a filmmaker without it?!