The First Day of Stuff

Dear Internet,

How are you? I am well. I've finally got around to creating a blog to share the stuff what I'm doing and that, and here it is. Well, without further ado, here is some of the things I'm working on right now.

Short Film - Revenge (Terrible Provisional Title)

This is a short I'm doing for university about a man whose life is crushingly awful, until one day he finds a monster in his cupboard and everything finally starts to go his way. It's based on true events.

So far I've:

• Written a script (that I'm not completely happy with)
• Basically done a shot list
• Started storyboarding
• Got the locations more or less decided
• Decided what the monster's going to look like

But I still have to:

• Finish the shot list and storyboard
• Find a cast
• Make the monster
• Get some music done
• Finalise the locations
• Film the damn thing
• Edit it
• Enter it into some festivals and the internets and such /Stick it in a drawer and never look at it again

I have to hand in all the planning stuff next Friday, which is achievable assuming I don't spend the whole time sitting around staring into space (which I usually do). I'm aiming to shoot it at the start of March, so fingers crossed on that. 

All the planning and filming parts are my least favorite things about making films. I like the writing and I like the editing, but the rest feels a little bit too much like real work. Still, it's all got to be done, and I'm sure it'll be worth it in the end.

The Toast Ghost

I'm very excited about this one. This is a animated children's series I'm developing with an animation group from Sion Hill, who are almost frighteningly professional. Had a meeting with a few of them today, and they've got ideas and plans and notes and all sorts of proper things. There's even a fancy website thingy with a timetable and 'milestones' of what we're doing when. Frankly, I was impressed.

Apparently everyone thinks it's a good script and they all wanted a character of their own to design, so that's a plus. I really want it to be a proper collaborative thing, and I was a bit worried they might see it as me coming down there and saying 'I've written a script, now do my bidding slaves'. Maybe they do see it like that, and that's just what they're in to?

We're going to be holding auditions for voiceover artists this Friday, so hopefully we'll get a decent turnout of people to pick from. Once they're chosen, we're aiming to record the audio the following Friday so that the animation can get started and I can become increasingly megalomaniacal, making bizzare demands while growing out my beard and fingernails. Should be fun.

Non-Fiction Project: Japan

If everything goes according to plan, then I should be heading off to Japan on the 8th of February to see my good friend Paul and also see the supposedly amazing city of Tokyo. I figured since I'm going there anyway, and I have a non-fiction project to do for my dissertation, I may as well try out some travel writing. I'm currently in the process of stockpiling a bunch of travel books (as I've never really read any before) in order to familiarise myself with the genre. While I'm there I'm going to try and keep a detailed diary to record my thoughts, feelings and bowel movements.

When I get back, I'm going to aim to type it all up into something readable as quickly as possible, so I have the rest of the year to shape it into something good, rather than just pushing to get to the word limit. I think the word count needs to be 6,000, so that's about 1,000 words per day, which seems good. I guess it depends what I do there (and I am planning on doing a lot).

On the downside, it's going to be very expensive, but with Paul living there (which means I don't have to pay for accommodation) and my associate Michael working for Virgin Airlines (which means flights will be cheap), I'd be stupid not to go. When I get back I'll just have to live on old bits of bread.

Film/DVD Reviews

I really need to get into film and DVD reviews because I like watching them, so I want somebody to let me do it for free in return for a few of my words. I wrote a Role Models review which I'm sending to websites and hopefully somebody will like it and send me stuff. That would be nice. Also, good for the old portfolio.

Novel

I just finished a module in writing a novel, which I really enjoyed, and now I have the first 3,000 words of one. Obviously that's pretty much nothing in novel terms, but it's fun to write it when I force myself, so I'm going to try and keep it going. Who knows, maybe one day I will be the next unpublished bitter old novelist!

***

I think that's everything I've got going on right now. Let's take a look at the pop-culture I've been ingesting, just for fun!

Wainy Days

This is a webseries staring David Wain (director of Role Models and the amazing Wet Hot American Summer, a film I once watched three days in a row) on a quest for love. The episodes are between three and four minutes and all just really silly. This is the sort of thing I should be doing, no-budget script driven fun stuff. Need to write something that doesn't involve monsters or ghosts or explosions or locations, just some solid dialogue. I think I rely too much on gimmicks anyway, as a way of hiding incase the actual writing isn't any good. 

Another brilliant low-budget webseries is The Guild, about a group of World of Warcraft players (much better than that sounds). Again, nothing fancy, just interesting characters and decent jokes.

Last night I also watched the pilot episode of The United States of Tara, which was written and produced by Diablo Cody (the striper turned screenwriter behind Juno) based on an idea by Steven Spielberg. It's about as high concept as you can get, Tara (of the title) has a multiple personality disorder, which means if she gets upset she becomes one of her 'Alters', including a 15 year old girl called T and gun toting redneck Buck.

It'll be interesting to see if it holds up as the series progresses, but the first episode is good fun. Not a great deal actually happens because there's so much to introduce, but the dialogue's great and the cast have a real warth between them. I especially like the Dad, but I always enjoy a good TV Dad.

Finally, I just got sent this video which I really have no words for. Just watch and enjoy.

Yours Sincerely,

Jonathan D Melton