So it's been almost three years since we announced to the world our brilliantly over-simplistic four step process of how to make a movie by not making The Movie in your Head. A few short months after that, these vague thoughts solidified in our all important lessons learned and most importantly, our 7 steps to make a movie.

And there was no turning back. Now, a full 30 months later, we're on to step 5:

5. Shoot the Movie.

This is the point where we've gone from talking about making a movie, to planning on making a movie, to actually making the movie.

In just three days, cameras roll. For the first time, we get to see the final images of the movie in our head re-etched into our brains with the finality of the actual images that will make the film, the actual perforamces that pull all our words thoughts and ideas to life.

We film throughout June, and then it's on to step 6...

A group photo from Sunday Night's read through. Note the smiles on everyone's faces that genuinely reflect the true joy of the moment, and have nothing to do with any nearly tragic yet hilarious accident that may have happened seconds earlier from a camera timer mishap.

When we started this blog three years ago, we did so not so much out of the pretension that anyone would actually read it who wasn't already involved with what we did, but based on the idea that we wanted to remember what it took to get there, and that forcing ourselves to write down some sort of detail about every step in the process, we'd have a more or less objective way to gauge what we did and what it took to get there.

But the problem with Blogging as documentation is this: When you're not making progress you have nothing to blog about, and when you are making progress, you have no time to do it.

Fortunately, that's why the good lord invented bullet points.

So without further ado, I interrupt my incessant rambling about how I have no time for incessant rambling to present a nice concise bulleted list of what we've been up to lately:

• New Promotional Videos - The Dead People Making People Dead movie trailer and the Everything Fred Tells Me is True pre-production montage are now available on our flicks page.
• Casting - Casting for is underway and will continue over the next few weeks, so drop us an email at everythingfredcasting@gmail.com if you're interested in starring in our film
• IFP Sponsorship - We're now officially sponsored by IFP, accepting donations, and looking for creative ways of soliciting these donations, in an attempt to push our budget up slightly from our original "Up to and including zero dollars" number.
• Fund Raising Parties - We held our first fund raising party in Brooklyn on Friday, which was a resounding success, and a great kickoff of the sprint through the production phase of Everything Fred Tells Me is True, featuring the world premiere of our new trailers, and the musical stylings of A Halo Called Fred. Thanks to Nancy Mastrotataro and Johnny McAuliffe for the use of their home, and all the hard work. We're planning more and bigger events in the future, so drop us a line atwordspicturesmovies@gmail.com if you want to help out!

So keep your eyes peeled here. We'll keep you (and our future selves) posted as often as possible, whenever there's a compelling enough reason to fight against the forces of the paradox of blogging.

Ok, so things are moving along. Auditions are starting. Things are in motion. Here's our casting notice, as it was sent out on Friday:

**** CASTING NOTICE **** INDEPENDENT FEATURE SHOOTING IN CENTRAL NEW JERSEY

“EVERYTHING FRED TELLS ME IS TRUE” Philip tries to take control over his life, despite the best efforts of his friends – and that guy in his dreams who keeps telling him his future.

SEARCHING FOR ACTORS FOR THE FOLLOWING:

PHILIP - mid-20’s, Male - Intense, but nervous. Artist. Slim to average build. Looking for love and will admit it.

CHRISTINE – mid 20’s, Female - Sad, mysterious beauty. Sarcastic. Cynical. Slim to average build. Looking for love but won't admit it.

TRACY - mid 20’s, Female - Overly exuberant & socially maladjusted. Unaware of potential attractiveness which is destroyed by her scheming. Slim to average build. Manipulative.

DEVON – mid 40’s to mid 50’s, Male - Thinks he's way too hip for the room. Always trying to make a quick buck. Manipulative. Generally dates women in their 20's, refuses to "grow up." Tall. Average build. Looks his age but carries himself as a much younger man.

DREW – mid 20’s, Male - Dirty, disgruntled. Waiting for something better to come along. Easily manipulated. Naive. A few extra pounds. Average height. 4 Scenes, 22 lines

AMANDA – early 20’s, Female - Innocent, cute as a button. Everyone wants to date her. Unaware that she comes across as much younger than she is. Naive. Very petite. A smile that lights up the room. 3 Scenes, 16 lines

DREAM FRED – 30 to 60, Male - A bearded man with an intense, spaced out gaze. Stocky. Short to avg. height. 4 Scenes

REAL FRED – mid 40’s, Male - A large angry bearded man. Very angry. Total jerk. Works out a lot. Tall and in fantastic shape. Possibly suffers from "roid rage." Willing to shave head & appear naked on screen for a few short seconds. 1 Scene, 5 lines

THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO BE IN A GREAT NO-BUDGET INDEPENDENT MOVIE!

ALL ACTORS WILL BE FED DURING FILMING AND PROVIDED WITH A DVD OF THE MOVIE!

EXPECT REHEARSALS!

FILM TO BE SHOT IN JUNE

SEND HEADSHOT & RESUME TO EVERYTHINGFREDCASTING@GMAIL.COM IF UNABLE TO SEND THESE DIGITALLY, REQUEST OUR MAILING ADDRESS AT THE ABOVE EMAIL ADDRESS

So the kiss of death for any blog is to start out with "Sorry, I haven't posted in a while."

I was looking through my iGoogle page with all my RSS feeds, and noticed that about half the blogs on there start with phrases very similar to that, which happens to be the last post I've seen for three years.

So I'll refrain from pointing out the obvious, except to say we've been keeping busy, but mostly doing stuff that's not very interesting to show or write about.

Until now.

Two Sundays ago, Words Pictures Movies completed filming, "Dead People Making People Dead", our last film of the Bush administration.

We don't have any photos of our own yet, or an expected release date, but Neil, the person we most like to kill over and over again, has passed the threshold from dead to undead, and posted an awesome picture in his own blog:

http://www.neilfein.com/2008/11/brains.html

Also, on the same Sunday, photography began on "Everything Fred Tells Me is True", our much anticipated first feature film. At least its anticipated by us.

More information to follow.

One day.

Here's how the process came together:

Bigger pictures here.

The next step is to remove the imperfections, and create a latex on top of the bust.

Stay tuned for the finished mask, and the final dream proof of concept!

Labels: mask making, movie effects

So we've finally moved away from the solitary scripting and storyboarding phases, into the more tangible.

Specifically to figure out if we can do the special effects we need to in order to complete the dream sequences that are the centerpoint of the story.

Here's something incredibly distubing that came out of that session:

More pictures of the whole process (and the mask, still to be finished) to follow

One year ago today, I had a dream. It was about 3 AM, and I had dream that a lion was loose in Penn Station. And somehow, although this lion was running wild, I knew all I had to do was wait it out. The lion was up on the level with the big board. But somehow, this lion didn't know how to climb stairs. So all we had to do is wait one level down by the train platforms, and wait for the lion to pass.

That day, we started writing our script.

It was a long, turbulent year. And today, a year later, the script is done. Storyboards are started. We've moved out of the "Figure out what movie to make" stage and moved into the "Figure out How to make it" stage. Big things are happening.

Last night I had another dream. This time, I dreamt about drinking some very delicious coffee, that had lumps of ice cream, meringue, and marshmallows floating in it.

Ok, this one wasn't quite so profound, but I think it's very significant that there were no lions anywhere.

So on we go. No more waiting out the lion. In 2008, we make a movie.

"Scientists are saying the future is going to be far more futuristic then they originally predicted." - Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Southland Tales

I'm just posting this so you don't think Words Pictures Movies has disappeared. We're still here, we're just doing some of the less exciting work on the movie. Let us know what you've been up to!

Well not much really, sorry if you felt you were mislead by the title. I had to get your attention somehow.

The current draft of the script is inching ever closer to completion. Adam says he's going to be done by his 35th birthday, which is coming up rather quickly. Sorry Adam, I just revealed your age. Fine, I confess I'm 32. Bruce is 117.

Go ahead, ask Bruce about life before airplanes -- he's always happy to share tales of running around, flapping arms wildly, etc.

In other news, Bruce took a one day lighting class. At our meeting last week, he presented a quick rundown of the information they shoved into his precious brain. Lots of good stuff that will make our feature look spectacular. Or at least bearable.

I just finished an acting class that taught me a lot. I think I'm going to be much less of an overbearing director from now on. At long last I think I can speak your language, you wonderful actors!

That is all for now, so keep holding your breath Faithful Reader for soon you will be allowed to exhale and enjoy the beauty of our first feature film.

Labels: Acting, Film, Lighting, Screenplay