October 24, 2024

A FINISHED MONSTER

This is Finish Your Monsters, a weekly blogletter about the creative process. I'm sharing adventures in art and life as well as setting CLIFFHANGER goals for myself, so--

DID I MAKE MY GOAL?

Last week, for the second week in a row, I committed to doing a quick revision pass on the film script for our horror film, DEAD MEDIA.

And this week I succeeded! To keep the budget in a good place, I needed to cut and combine a few characters. This was a great intersection of art and money, show and business.

People love to throw around the little advice bon mot “kill your darlings.” Meaning to sacrifice small things you love in a creative work to benefit the whole. Even though it’s a horror movie, “kill your darlings” feels a little harsh to me. So I like to think of it as “Respectfully allow your darlings to thrive in the golden land known as previous drafts.” I’m so sorry to the character of Bianca. You will live in my heart as well as drafts one through fourteen of the script.

ADVENTURES OF THE WEEK--

I’m late with the blog this week because it’s been a whirlwind of film pre-production back in Minneapolis. Since last week’s blog I finished casting the film, completed SAG paperwork, had a monster movement rehearsal, two monster make-up tests, continued in the journey to hire crew/production staff, bought several squirrel objects for set decoration, hired a payroll company, designed a visual guide lookbook for the cinematographer, continued investor talks, finished building some flats, and of course, the tragedy with Bianca.

As always, it’s helpful to layout for myself what all I get done in a week because it never feels like enough. And yet it’s a lot!

As the film gets closer, I will need to sacrifice more “normal human” time to get all the work done, but it’s important to me to strive for a little balance and spend some time with the people in my life.

So a very fun thing I did this week was go to see The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society’s live performance of Orson Welles’ 1938 radio adaptation of Dracula. It’s a four person troupe of old theater friends—including my brother, Joshua. They do a regular podcast as well as live shows and you can check them out here.

The show was at a place called Crooners. It hosts lots of jazz shows and the walls are covered with artists I adore. In particular, I will never tire of Frank Sinatra glowering at me when I go to the bathroom. When I have a larger home, I plan to recreate this decorating motif.

But one of the biggest adventures this week is taking a quick moment to look back.

This morning, I’m releasing our 22 minute horror short, THE NIGHTMARE ADORABLE, to the world. We shot the film in June of 2023, got it all edited and sent out to film festivals. It had its premiere in late August of 2023, then went on to play a total of 20 film festivals and win 3 awards.

The experience with this film made me decide to make the leap to do a feature. Looking back on it now I remember all the stress and all the hard work to get it done. But I want to focus on the joy of writing it, filming it, editing it, and now finally getting to share it with the world.

That’s what this filmmaking adventure is about for me. I don’t want ideas to just live in little drawers in my mind. I want them to be real, to exist. To share a little bit of the way I perceive the world. And hopefully bring some joy, some reflection, some inspiration, a few moments of escape to anyone who is kind enough to watch.

I love Halloween spooky season, so I’m delighted to contribute my little part to the celebrations:

You can watch The Nightmare Adorable here.

Thanks to everyone who helped make the film—actors, crew, Kickstarter backers, my wonderful wife Sara, the festivals who selected the film, and the unspeakable abomination known only as Bapholeth. Could not have done this without you all. This film is literally a monster I finished.

LIGHT PLUGS—

Speaking of film—we’re reaching a fundraising deadline for the horror feature, DEAD MEDIA!

We’ve got a fiscal sponsorship with the great Minnesota organization Film North. They can accept one-time donations that will go directly toward funding the film! It’s like a Kickstarter where the rewards are A) a tax deduction and B) helping us make the film.

We get monthly checks from Film North so if you’re thinking of contributing, doing so before October 31st would help tremendously!

For full info, please check out the page for the upcoming horror film, DEAD MEDIA!

Or if you have any questions about supporting the film, feel free to reach out to me personally!

MY GOAL FOR THE WEEK--

An isolated goal for the film this week is challenging because so many things need to get done. So my goal is going to be a little different. I’m going to vote. I need to head back to Minneapolis before Election Day and I want to make sure I have time to go over all the local elections as well as vote Harris/Walz. So this week, I’m committing to using the awesome power granted me by our democracy and cast my ballot.

YOUR GOAL FOR THE WEEK--

I would absolutely LOVE to hear what you're working on this week in the comments below. What's your goal? Does it involve old radio? How can I help you literally finish your monsters?

A LITTLE SKETCH--

This week’s sketch is a very fast, very rough sketch of the horrible elder-monster, the beast that ate the dawn, BAPHOLETH saying THANKS FOR WATCHING THE NIGHTMARE ADORABLE. I believe all monsters support independent film. Anyway, I hope everyone has good creative and life adventures and enjoys their monster this week.