Roll Camera!

Principal photography begins tonight on our short film, "The Other Dog." So for the next few days, I go from writer to writer/director. It's my second try behind the camera and I'm excited and nervous, more nervous than excited. It's these moments leading up to when the cameras start rolling -- well, recording is the more apropos word these days -- when you worry if you've thought of everything, if you're prepared, if the people who are donating their time to you will show up, if you're not completely fucking insane.
And yes, I realize it's Friday the 13th. I bow to the fates. Be good to me.
Needless to say, I likely won't be posting during the shoot. We're trying to fit a lot of pages on a tight schedule -- it's the way we can shoot this without spending too much money - and every second will count.
But I will stop by when I can.
We've raised $1600 so far and I am humbled and grateful though we could use a bit more to finish this thing. If you can help us out, please consider donating to our campaign. Believe me there will never be a bunch of people so grateful. Just spreading the word about our project is worth a lot to us, though.
At the very least, you can get yourself a t-shirt with this logo on it (drawn by my friend Nicole Kaufman who has some very cool characters on her website). And a portion of what we raise will go to pug rescue. The pug insists.

Putting on a show

In 2006, I shot a short film at my house in Santa Monica call "It's A Boy". I did it in part because I thought it might help me move into directing, which I've wanted to do since I was a kid. It was a last-minute crazy, on-the-fly project that in the end, netted a passable 15-minute comedy that I only show to friends now. The directing gigs I dreamed of never materialized.
And my hope of getting the film into festivals fell by the wayside when the editor got a job and couldn't finish what we started and I didn't have enough money to fix all our mistakes in post-production.
However, my directing dreams have not died. I guess I was just waiting for just the right moment to try again. Or maybe the right inspiration.
Well, this month is gonna be that month.
After several weeks of planning, a few friends and I have managed to assemble a great group of creative people here in wine country and we're going to "put on a show".
You might not be shocked to discover that one of my pugs is in it (I'll post more about the story in a later blog).
I've wanted to shoot something in wine country since I moved here at the end of '06 and have always been blown away by the can-do spirit of the people I've met in my little town. Well, I had no idea how great they were, how creative, how ready for anything until I launched this project. I'm very excited about it.
It's pretty easy to make a movie these days, especially if you surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. But it still costs money which is why we've set out to crowd fund a portion of our modest budget.
Our goal is to get our film into the upcoming Healdsburg International Short Film Festival. But first things first - while we start principal photography on July 14th -- we've begun a fundraising campaign to defray equipment rental costs, to feed my crew and also pay as many of them a small stipend as I can. We're also donating a portion of the funds we raise to a local pug rescue called Pug Savers that is in dire need of funds. I wish I could do more for these folks -- it was through Pug Savers that I got my pugs, first Chamuco and indirectly Ulysses who will have a role in the film.

Our indiegogo campaign is up here. Our website is here. If you can't help us but want to help the pugs, you can donate directly to Pug Savers here.

As time permits, I'm going to blog about our film as it happens. I hope you'll jump on the ride with me. In the meantime, I have a novel to finish. You know the one.

Here's a mockup of the movie poster. It almost feels real. Or should I say reel.