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!