Mind of Migg

Casting in Los Angeles instead of Phoenix opened up a whole world of options. As I mentioned before, we needed a specific look for the four roles we were casting – i.e. they were a Latino family. Not only did they have to look like a husband, wife, brother, and sister, they also had to be (or look like) a certain ethnicity. That made it tough. In Phoenix, we would’ve had to settle based on the responses we received. In Los Angeles, we had options.

Family Photo at the read-through

It’s so hard to find that impossible combination – someone who has the right look and delivers a good performance. Sometimes there’s an actor who is amazing, but might not have the right look to fit with the rest of the cast. Or, an actor who looks exactly as I imagined when writing, but might have an accent that’s too strong or not be just the right fit. By the time we started holding auditions in LA, we were in a bit of a time crunch before we started shooting. We weren’t going to settle, but it meant the possibly of auditioning right up until the first day of production. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. We were so lucky in being able to find amazing actors for the roles with plenty of time to spare.

When I’m writing a script, I have a vision of the movie in my head. I imagine a certain look for a role, and that was made easier in this case because we had two roles cast as I was writing, Vikram’s and Olivia’s. Unfortunately one of those people didn’t commit and we had to recast that role. It made casting for Olivia even tougher because I wrote the part with nuances of a certain person in mind, so the first thing I had to do was let that go and make sure I imagined those auditioning as Olivia, not as the original actress.

It’s interesting and terrifying to see words I’ve written performed live for the first time. There were two really cool things that happened. First, I saw a part come to life exactly as I had imagined it while writing. It was a relief to see a scene work when the lines were delivered. Second, I saw lines interpreted in a completely different way than I had imagined…and I kind of liked it. I love seeing how one line can be read so many different ways.

The other thing I learned is that what you see in person can be completely different than what you see on video. I went home after the auditions with certain perpections about each performance and I was blown away by how different some of them looked when I watched them on TV, for better and worse. In one case in particular, we were very torn between two excellent choices and eventually it came down to not just the audition, but also their reel and available content online.

The table read was the icing on the cake. We felt really good about our cast and once we were all in a room together, reading through the entire series, it finally felt like, “yeah, we can do this.” Now all we had to do was make sure everything else was set to go for the first day of production.

Next: Part IV – Prep

Script was done, days were requested off work, audition notices were posted. Things were moving smoothly the last week of January, planning to shoot in Arizona the third week of February. First of many lessons I learned – I should’ve scheduled sooner. As soon as I did the math I knew that even if I shot from the moment I arrived, we weren’t getting the series wrapped in a week. It would’ve required at least two additional weekends driving out to Phoenix to get it done. And that’s if I allowed zero days of prep out there. Things were suddenly a lot more complicated.

To make matters worse, we had hardly any submittals for our auditions. I knew resources weren’t as abundant in Phoenix, but I really have a soft spot for my hometown and I really, really wanted to shoot in Jerome. Just look at the place. It’s beautiful.

Part of the problem is that the cast is primarily a Latino family. I wanted to try something different. There’s no Spanish, there’s no cultural references, they just so happen to be Latino. Who says an attractive woman with an accent can’t be an astrophysicist? I wanted to break some stereotypes with my cast, but that meant a smaller pool of possible actors.

We were left with a serious decision on our hands two days before we planned to drive out for auditions. We could go spend a weekend in Phoenix to audition the two confirmed actors even though we had four parts to fill. Or, we could scrap the entire Phoenix plan and shoot in LA. Either way, the clock was ticking. We opted for LA.

The problem with LA is that it’s intimidating. I figured in Phoenix I’d find other hopefuls looking to gain some experience and we could all learn together. I felt if I made mistakes out there, it would be okay. But over here, I knew it was a different pool of people. Everyone has more experience than I do (well, that’s how it felt at the time). I had nightmares of people not even being interested in the project. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

The canceled trip to Phoenix bought us some time to get audition notices posted here, find new locations, and rewrite the script. I pushed my time off from the day job back by another week and we decided that if we were shooting local, we could shoot over consecutive weekends without a problem. That way the first half of my week off could be spent on prep. Those few extra days of prep were so helpful in being ready to go on the first day of shooting.

One thing Arizona doesn't have...a beach

The script changes actually made a huge difference. I really didn’t like the original midpoint episode at all. There was a lame chase scene that instead became a cat and mouse game around a house. I hated to lose Jerome, but we gained access to a local house with character. We hardly had to change a thing in production design. It’s like the house was made for the series. We were also lucky in finding other locations all nearby.

In the end, we realized the perks and resources of staying local far outweighed the stress of shooting out of state - especially when it came to casting.

Next: Part III – Casting

I knew I wanted the web series to be sci-fi. I had an idea floating around that involved doppelgangers and time travel, so I built it from there. I originally imagined a more serious tone, a la Primer. I started researching Einstein-Rosen bridges and related material, wanting it to be more scientific. I soon realized that my natural voice started creeping into the story though, so it became a little quirker and had a little more humor than planned. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that I dozed off when rewatching Primer (in fairness, it was a late night and I still love the movie), but I couldn’t stop watching episodes of Doctor Who or Firefly that I put on for further inspiration.

I started brainstorming possible stories that could be shot with no budget. I worked backwards from this criteria:

• Minimal locations – a house, neighborhood exteriors, places that I knew I could get for free
• Outdoor locations - nobody would bother us in the middle of nowhere and a majority of the scenes lit in natural light since we wouldn’t be renting equipment
• Minimal cast/crew – Even on a low budget, the more mouths to feed each day really adds up. Needed to keep number of people around as low as possible.

My go-to for brainstorming

I tossed around a few ideas between other work over the next few months and then banged out the first three episodes in August. Those first three episodes had an interesting concept, but I had created a complex story with more questions than answers. I needed to figure out the mess I had created and make the rules to the world. This required some more research and a lot of confusing timelines to make sure I left no holes in the time travel. I had many nights staring at a blank screen, many late nights of frustration, a few “a-ha!” moments, and then, finally, I had the story. I mapped out a plan far beyond the initial season, because it was a lot of fun and because there were so many different way to go. Then I sat down and wrote the rest.

The remaining episodes were written in December and January. I gave that completed season 1 draft to trusted readers, revised, and had a presentable version before February. It was only when I switched to Producer mode that I realized I had become so entrenched in the story that I had neglected some of my initial rules. It was a much more ambitious plan than I thought it would be. Further, the entire season came in at 57 pages. What began as an idea to shoot something simpler than a short or feature was suddenly a sci-fi with special effects, action, multiple locations, and a good number of shooting days.

When I thought “web series”, I imagined how short one episode was, without thinking of what a total season looked like. Did that make me reconsider? Not at all. We were filming this.

Next: Part II – Changing states: AZ to CA

I was tired of waiting. Two years had passed since Pá had screened at festivals. There had been a lot of talk, a lot of progress, and even a few more times on sets. But no final products that were mine. I had a lot more scripts and a lot of potential projects that could take off at any moment, but I was tired of waiting for someone else to determine my destiny. So I decided, “why not make a small project in the meantime?” I sat down and created a document titled, “webisode brainstorm.” That was last April. In the last year, the biggest thing I’ve learned is that shooting one webisode isn’t so bad. Shooting an 11 episode sci-fi web series without a budget isn’t much easier than shooting a feature. What was I thinking?

I was thinking I needed to shut up and film – to put my money where my mouth is. Learn by doing. So I committed to making a project and figuring things out as I went. So far, it’s been a crash course in producing – I’ve learned what works, what doesn’t, how many jobs are too many for one person, and which jobs I prefer over others. I wanted this project to happen, so I told people about it. The more people I told, the more committed I was to shooting it.

Every step where I had to make a commitment – buying equipment, holding auditions, casting talent, hiring crew – was an uphill battle to not back out. The closer I came to having a real project, the more terrified I was about not screwing it up. It’s easy to talk about a potential project. It’s intimidating to know there’s real people and money you’re responsible to. I kept waiting for a moment where I was called out as a fraud, until I finally accepted that 1) I wasn’t and  2) I was working with some amazing people, who were committed to the project and to me. When the first day finally arrived, all the preparation paid off. That’s not to say things didn’t go wrong. They certainly did. Everything that can go wrong will on a low budget shoot. But we were ready.

Right now, we’re about halfway through shooting. We started on March 4. I took an entire week off from my day job in order to make sure everything was ready. Since I’m now out of time off from the day job, we’re finishing up our last few days over weekends in April. The web series, “Chutes and Ladders” will premiere this summer. There’s going to be two aspects to the build up of that premiere – internal and external.

This is the internal part. I’m going to document as much of the process as possible. All the ups and downs, what worked, what didn’t, and how exhausting and awesome it has been. I may eventually cross post these entries at the official site (which will go live in the next few weeks), but right now I’m undecided.

The external part will involve the actual world of the story. This is a lot more than a web series. You’ll see what I’m talking about in the coming weeks, but needless to say I can’t wait for the different things we’re going to try and for seeing how some of these ideas play out. I hope it works, I’ll be sad if it doesn’t, but either way, it’s going to be a lot of fun and a great experience. That’s all you can really ask for, right?

Next Up – Part I: The Story

We meet again NaNoWriMo. When last we spoke, I was four chapters into my short stories masquerading as a novel. Then we went our own ways. It’s not that writing a novel in a month is an impossible thing to do. It isn’t. It’s just that it’s a bit overwhelming if you’re not ready for it.

I thought I could do my NaNoWriMo writing as a side project. Let me tell you, a novel is no side project, and a novel in one month is crazy enough as a primary project. Las year, I was juggling a job at Borders, a Producer’s assistant job, helping Tulsea startup and going to AFM representing the company, doing a rewrite of Monsoon, and assignments for a sci-fi writing class. There was little room for sleep in all of that, so there definitely wasn’t room for a novel.

This year is different. I have a sense of what to expect and the highs and lows that will come. I’ve also blocked out my schedule (as best as me blocking out a schedule can go). So besides the day job I always speak so highly of, I’m only working on a little experimental short film this month. The rest of my time is going to NaNoWriMo.

There was even some research put in this time. The problem with research though, is that once you begin, you realize how little you truly know about a subject and then have to immerse yourself further. I will be learning more as I go. I won’t allow the research to be an excuse for lack of writing, but I will be doing both at once.

At first, I thought I’d continue the work I started last year. However, that would be cheating and defeat the purpose of writing the entire thing in one month. So I had to settle on a new topic. I watched a lot more horror movies leading up to Halloween than usual, so they kept creeping up as I was tossing around ideas. I’m still a little uneasy of how long I will be able to stretch the topic and story I’ve chosen, but that’s the fun of it, right? I won’t let this one fizzle after only four chapters.

NaNoWriMo – a day in, and the only writing I have to show for it is this blog post. Procrastinating already. But it’s fine, I can’t wait to get into the zombie story. You heard right: zombies! Introspective zombies. I have a deep explanation of this idea that goes into ideas of consciousness and isolation, but for these early stage purposes, when ideas aren’t fully fleshed out, I’ll stick with, “lots of zombies, lots of blood, a little humor.” On to the writing.

This'll be getting plenty of use the next few months.

Working two jobs isn’t very difficult, especially when they are in entirely different industries. I’ve been able to easily balance life between Tulsea and the day job without one affecting the performance of the other. This only works because I fit production work in wherever I can, responding to emails here and there, reading scripts after work, and staying up late when I need to. The flexibility allows me to do both.

It becomes completely different when I’m writing though. I have a great story that was supposed to be a rough draft script by now. The problem is, I can’t write tidbits of content here and there throughout the day. It really isn’t possible to sit down and write for 10 minutes, walk away, and write for 10 more the way I could with, say, an email.

Now I have the challenge of writing an entire script while working full time during the day. Sure I’ve done some TV scripts for fun since returning to work, but this one is much more involved. I’ve never written a feature while holding down a day job. So I’ve set up a couple rules to make sure I don’t go crazy trying it.

1. Set specific writing times

This should be a given regardless, but when I wasn’t doing anything but writing, I had the luxury of moving my times around. If I wasn’t feeling it in the morning, I’d do something else and then write in the afternoon. No more. 8pm to midnight are my new hours.

2. Set rough deadlines

Writing deadlines are always tough for me. If I know when something is due, I will wait as long as possible before getting it done. But if I tell myself I should finish Act I by the end of next week, it’s a little flexible. Maybe I’ll reach Act II by next Thursday, or maybe I’ll wrap up Act I next Saturday. It’s open, but I still have some general direction.

3. Don’t overdo it

I plan to allow two late night writing sessions a week, where I can write until the crack of dawn if I’m on a roll. I’m not going to force myself to stay awake, but at least on those nights, I can let the story take its time. The other nights of the week I plan to be in bed at a reasonable hour (if we count 1am as a reasonable hour).

4. Take breaks

I’m not going to have a whole lot of time, but if every waking moment is spent working, I’ll go crazy. On my non-late night nights, I plan to get in some good reading and watch a couple of movies (while also catching up on Dexter. I’m halfway through season 3). I’ll also get in some writing once or twice a week unrelated to the script. There are a couple side projects that I’m very excited about working on once this draft is done and getting a head start on those would be nice.

5. Drink lots of coffee Stay healthy and energized

I will limit my caffeine intake as best I can, maybe even try to exercise or go for walks to keep the energy up, but I won’t make any promises. I’ve never written a feature script under these conditions.

These are 5 simple rules to juggle work with writing. Overcoming writer’s block, online distractions, and a swelling fear of self-doubt – those are topics for other blogs. But at least I’m set to take these next two months head on. This may be rough.

Well, you don’t have to be your job, if you don’t want to. A few months back, I was speaking to a friend who had recently been laid off. Here’s how the conversation went down:

Him: “So how’s it going?”

All I need - headset, coffee, and a reminder that the job could be much worse.

Me: “Well, I have a job.”

Aaaaand, cringe. Only I didn’t mean it to be rude. It was a sigh of resignation because I had recently returned to a “day job”. The way I meant it was that things weren’t going so hot for the stuff I truly had a passion for. It was one of those moments where I wished I could hit “undo” on the words coming out of my mouth. (side note: my friend is brilliant and has since found a job that is not only better than his previous one, but he found the time to do some amazing writing work and come up with a great concept for a new feature during his time between jobs.)

Being a creative person who needs a day job to make ends meet is tough. Too often, we are labeled by the positions we have. We allow it to define us. But that’s not fair. I can still call myself a writer, even if the only time I’m writing is when I stay up late, get up early, and spend weekend afternoons struggling to get in writing time because I have to work 40 hours a week in a completely unrelated field.

Many times I would doubt myself. I’d hesitate to refer to myself as a filmmaker or a writer because I didn’t feel I had “made it” yet. That is backwards thinking. You don’t need an external measure to decide who you are and what you do. I write, so I’m a writer. I make films, I’m a filmmaker. I recruit financial advisors (which I do well and don’t mind), so I’m also a recruiter. And that’s not the end of the world.

Even if the job you have is your dream job, you eat, sleep, and dream it through other actions. If all I did was write and make movies, eventually I’d run out of things to share. My life would be confined to such a limited scope. I’ve realized that trying to fit work into every waking hour is counterproductive to my goals. So I travel. I play sports when I can. I cook. I read (scripts and books). I try things outside of my comfort zone because when I look back, I almost always tell myself, “yeah, that was worth it.” Even when it’s not worth it, the experience gained becomes hindsight for later stories to tell.

People are more than the work they do. Having a mundane job, an exciting job, or not having a job at all doesn’t determine personal success and satisfaction. There’s a lot more to it than that. Experience. Share. Cringe. Have fun.

I failed completely in my first attempt at NaNoWriMo last November.  I barely completed two chapters and maybe a few thousand words.  Actually, let me see how sad my word count really was…still looking…saved them as separate documents…there it is…3024.  I also wrote three chapters, not two.  Still, a sad performance.  But I loved the idea of trying to write an entire novel in only one month.  After the poor first showing, I felt the need to redeem myself.  What better way than to return to the familiar – screenwriting.  Yes, it’s time for Script Frenzy!

Script Frenzy follows the same idea as NaNoWriMo, only the goal is to write an entire screenplay in one month instead of an entire novel.  Difficult for some, easier for me.  Okay, let’s be honest, a script rough draft is easier to spit out than a novel.  There’s less pages in a script and the more white space on your page, the better.  Does that really make it easier?

At first I thought it would.  Then I remembered exactly what I enjoyed about branching out to fiction pieces the last few months.  You can wander more and feel your way around a longer piece.  Nobody flips to page thirty of a novella to see if there’s an act break.  Writing a script requires some form of outlining and structure.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get into much outlining.  I’m going to wing it.  I focused more on my new writing playlist than I did on my plot points.  A mistake?  Only time will tell.  I have two characters, a mood, and a few ideas.  And a shade under two hours before April 1 to OUTLINE LIKE CRAZY.  We’ll see what happens.

I thought proclaiming on a blog post that I was ready to get back to work would be enough motivation on its own.  I was wrong.  The thing is, I was healthy again a few weeks ago, but two things happened – 1) lots of rain and I never do well in gloomy weather, and 2) I wasn’t over finishing my TV Pilot.

Finishing any piece of writing is a great thing.  There’s a sense of overwhelming relief and elation, even if it’s something as short as a pilot or a short story.  Page length is not a factor in difficulty of getting word to paper.  The next couple days are an emotional high of satisfaction.

Unfortunately, after that the panic starts to sink in.  What’s the next project going to be?  Is it going to be as good as the one just finished?  What if I can’t even think of a new idea?  That’s one part of it.  The other part is that the writing process might be painful sometimes, but it’s always fulfilling.  There’s an emptiness when a project is complete and it’s no longer with you every day.  It’s a downer.

I thought maybe this time, I could overwhelm myself with other writing.  Dive right in to a new project.  I had plenty to choose from.  But I hadn’t attached myself onto any of them yet.  They were all cool, but I wasn’t excited about any of them.  So I dabbled a little on all of them, not really getting anything done the last few weeks.  I finally accepted the fact that I had to allow some in-between time and also settle on only one new project.  Forcing the issue was only making things take longer.

Trying to convince myself that the period when I was sick a few weeks ago counted as my writing time off fooled nobody.  I’ve settled on the next project (my Doctor Who spec) and finally moved past my period of mourning the ending of my pilot.  It’s full speed ahead, for real this time.

On a side note, I didn’t understand why I felt so sluggish and tired the last two to three weeks even though I was fully healthy.  It wasn’t until I mentioned to Violet that it had been a solid two weeks since I tried to cut back my coffee that I made the connection.  No idea why I hadn’t considered it before.  I’m down to one cup of coffee and maybe one tea a day, which is way down from the 3 plus cups of coffee I was at earlier.  My body is suffering, but I haven’t cracked yet, and I think I’m finally starting to adjust.  I’ll be off my caffeine addiction in no time.

I recently completed the first rough draft of a TV drama pilot I’ve been working on.  Finishing a piece of longer work is strange.  Not only does it feel empty once it’s complete, but it also is a challenge to go back to it.  After all that effort, after all those sweat and tears, reaching “Fade Out” or “The End” is really only the beginning.

The real writing doesn’t begin until the rewrite.  This is a fairly recent discovery for me, mostly because I got away with turning in rough drafts hot off the presses all through college.  In fact, there may have only been one or two papers I actually even read before turning in.  I was lucky to pass, and extremely arrogant in my writing abilities.  I didn’t realize how much that approach hurt my writing potential.  It’s a habit I find hard to break.  Many times I have to force a deadline upon myself to finally get words to paper.

The difficult thing about editing is that the process of writing the first draft is so mentally draining.  Why edit something that already took so much effort?  Add to that the fact that once I’ve stepped away from something for a bit, I can look at it more objectively.  When that happens, my “work of art” quickly becomes a “piece of crap”.  I seriously hate going back to pieces I’ve written.  It’s like going through your digital camera after a drunken night.  You cringe wondering how sloppy those glamour shots you felt you were taking the night before actually look.  I have that same dread when I sit down to edit something I’ve written.  I go through a period of self-doubt and questioning why I keep doing what I’m doing.

At least, that was how it used to be.  Two things have happened over the last year of my writing development.  One, the pictures don’t look so bad, and two, it’s not so hard to fix the ones that do.  I suppose you could say, metaphorically speaking, that I don’t get as drunk as I used to.  Learning how to edit has helped my initial drafts.  I’ve accepted it as a natural part of the process so it allows me more freedom in my writing.

Also, I’m no longer so stubborn and defensive.  I would convince myself that what was already written was not only correct, it was as good as it could get.  Not so anymore.  I won’t hesitate to chop out what was my favorite line or paragraph.  I’ve learned that nothing is written in permanent marker.  I’ve also accepted that just because I didn’t get it right in my first go-round, doesn’t mean it’s a lack of knowledge or talent.  Re-writing is a vital part of the process.  It’s okay to edit.  It took some time to convince the “me” of college of that fact.

Knowing how to rewrite – how to recognize where to edit, what to edit, and how to edit is vital to creating a good piece of work.  I know now that it is one step of the process and not a knock against my writing to edit.