Thursday, March 04, 2010

Speed Bumps

I've been working pretty intensely these past two weeks on putting together a "pitch" video for fundraising. It's shaping up to be a pretty professional bit of "pitch" cinema and I think it gives me a real shot at raising the money I need to make Trigger a reality.

It's also serving as the Trigger prototype that the "trailer for a film that doesn't exist" was originally envisioned as being.

The big shake-up has been the determination that, in order to do Trigger justice, it really needs to be shot this summer. This would give us 4 months to cast the film, crew it, fund it, and generally just prep it into something exquisite. Pushing my thesis back caused a lot of drama with my department and raised the question of whether or not I'd graduate on time or have to wait an entire year when the next BFA exhibition rolled around. We arrived at a compromise with very few arrows loosed in either direction: I'll shoot a 4-7 minute short with the same characters and setting, but on a much more contained scale.

This 4-7 minute short will serve as both my BFA thesis, and as a part of preproduction for the much larger Trigger. It will be a trial run for working with my cast/crew and developing the non-docu "look" of the film. Most importantly, it will give the actors a chance to get comfortable with their characters, collaborating with the other actors, and working with myself. It's exactly what should be done on larger studio films.

Of no small consequence: it will also be a huge tool to use for the last-minute, June fund-raising push.