Dig: Pre-Production - Part 2

Wow. A lot has been going on these last couple weeks despite my lack of posting. Honestly, that's the best way to know if good things are happening: I stop posting. Not because I don't have anything to say but because I'm usually give my all to something and, as explained before, recapping it seems exhausting and all I want to do is put my feet up and fall asleep.

That's kind of how I've been feeling these last few weeks because I've been devoting all of my time to Dark Prophecy or Dig. Well, you guys saw the trailer (just below this entry) and yesterday we released the first cyber-bridge. We'll be releasing one a day for the next two weeks, leading up to the book launch and I would really love for you to take a look at them. It's been quite a project for me these last few months as I essentially supervised the post-production process, including color correction with James Cohan, the score with the amazing Bill Brown (CSI:NY), and sound mixing and mastering at Todd A.O. Not to mention dealing with all of the encoding and distribution details.

Any time I've had left, I spent working on Dig. Regardless, I've managed to accomplish a lot these past few weeks and I'll tell you that we are planning on shooting in November, that we'll be attaching name talent, and everything is lining up very nicely. I'll try and provide a weekly report on the status of Dig which keeps you, my readers, in the loop and let's me not feel like I'm not updating the blog.

To make it easier, I'll do it by category.

Script:

The script is really getting there. I've done a couple rewrites on it since the 8/10/10 draft, mostly having received notes from people who have read it (that I trust to give good notes) and my own revisions based on reading it over and over. I'll probably be fine tuning it up to and during shooting. Hopefully I can get Travis to come out, huddle up on his computer and do revisions as we go.

I'm liking this whole project more and more the closer I get to it.

Casting:

We've had our first official attachment! Michaela McManus, star of One Tree Hill, Law & Order: SVU and, of course, my film The Beautiful Lie has signed on to play the role of Marie.

Katie Piel, of Piel/Shoai Casting, has come on board as our casting director. We've put together our list of amazingly talent actors to go after for the role of Heinrich and David and we're in the process of approaching them with offers.

Production:

Dan Figur has come on board to produce and has begun work on budgeting and crewing up. Dan produced the W&CK 'Get Your Drink On' music video for Universal Records.

Director of Photography Paul Niccolls will be joining me once again.

Having now laid it all out, I realize it doesn't look like I've done a whole lot. Personally, I don't want to go into every little detail, at least not now, but there have been some significant advancements made that had previously worried me.

One of the big things we need to nail down soon are our two locations. The short takes place in 1962 and we're in need of a coffee shop that matches the era. The desert location is a desert location, doesn't need to match anything but we need to find it regardless. These are two big to dos. If we can nail these down and attach some great talent. We're going to be in really good shape.

And the one thing I'll be doing everything night, whenever I can, is my script analysis. The process of really digging deep down into the script, the subtext, the playable objectives, the beats, all of this stuff that helps me, as a director, do my job. The point of it is not so much to have a list of things you can do on set, but to just mentally prepare me for directing. To give myself things to think about, discuss, ways of making this script come to life.

It's one of my favorite parts of directing because there's no pressure. There's just your imagination.

Of course, it's easy to procrastinate things like this, and with my wife being gone the last two weeks and a dog to take care of, I've been forced to try and work at home -- which is impossible. But now she's back and I can take the evenings to get out, sign off, and get my work done.

I look forward to bring you guys along on this journey. I'll post as much as I can but as I'm full throttle for the next five weeks prepping Dig and seeing Dark Prophecy off, I may not have a lot of time.

But I will try....

At the very least you'll have an abundance of postings following the shoot.