Short one today as I’m typing this from LAX airport on the 4th of July, getting ready for a cross-country flight to celebrate with my girlfriend’s family in Miami.
Long flights are great opportunities to do deep focus work, so right after I finish this newsletter, I’m officially starting pre-production on my next short!
The title (for now) is The Lost Fortune of Oliver Brody.
It’s a period piece, which means it’s going to require more research and production design than normal. It’s also an expensive project, so it’s going to require lots of planning and a carefully chosen team to bring it to life.
Fortunately a camera company I love is sponsoring the film, which is the only reason it’s even possible. I’m expecting to put about $10k of my own money into the project on top of their contribution, plus push for freebies and favors where I can, so this is going to be a big swing 😬
Pretty scary, but I. Can’t. Wait.
Just like my last big budget short, Will “The Machine”, this character and story is pulled from a feature my writing partner and I never made. We’ve been referencing this fictional character for over 12 years, and I can’t believe we finally get to bring him to life.
I’ll be documenting the entire process of making the film as a series of videos on the channel, and probably including more nitty gritty details about the process in this newsletter. Hope you enjoy coming along for the ride with me.
While up in the air, I plan on first starting a big brain-dump list of everything that needs to be done for this film.
Then (if I have wi-fi) I’ll search for and collect all the references I can think of into one place – frame grabs from other movies, historical photos, wikipedia articles, etc.
Then I’ll start sketching out the LOOSEST of budget plans for it (since there are still so many aspects of the production that are up in the air). This budget will just be a starting point for me to update along the way.
Then I’ll try to start making this collection of information presentable and pretty so I can share it with the producers and crew I’ll be trying to recruit.
I’ll also be creating a short document detailing the story and production plan that I can share with the sponsor, so they can pass it along to whomever they need to. I think this document will also be useful for the producer/crew outreach.
Expect a full YouTube video about all this early pre-pro work later this month. For now, I gotta get on this plane ✌️
Let’s make some movies.
-Kent