red hands diary

The only drawback of teaching high school English is that if you’ve got a pathetic immune system – like I do – you get sick all the time. It’s no one’s fault – I wash my hands and cover myself in Lysol every day, but still, it’s just one of those things that you deal with.

Which is to say that I have a particularly nasty flu-bug. Throat, nose, aches, pains, shivers, exhaustions. This bitch is real. It’s also the day before we start production on Red Hands. Whatever, I have my over-the-counter cheesy medications, and what’s more I have the fire, the kind Billy Joel so perfectly immortalized in that song of his. Nothing is going to stop me from helping to create cool art.

Been too sick to properly keep you faithful readers posted on all the adventures so here’s a recap. Hired an amazing actor to play GUY. Finalized the production needs and in the process hired an amazing Assistant Director who works at the location and will help us save money big time through his know-how and tenacity. The team made a decision to cut the production days from three to two and instead of shooting episodes 11, 4, and 1, we’ll now be focusing our attention on episodes 11 and 4. This is a good thing since Ed, the director, and me both think episode 1 could be beefed up to make it look less like a super cheap Indy scene, and now we’ll have the chance to investigate that. Nial Lynch, one of our chief investors really came through, and it’s thanks to him that we’ll be able to realize these next two days of shooting.

If you’re interested in viewing the script or investing please hit me up here or send me an email at pacificvagrant@gmail.com.

What else? Had a table read with the actors last night at an Indian restaurant in Atwater which went really well. They’re all money and it just goes to show you – there’s so much talent out there – thank goodness we now have tools like craigslist for reaching it, and thank the Goddess we don’t have to go through the greedy agent/manager gatekeepers!

Tomorrow is a seven AM to seven AM twelve hour day, then the same on Monday. Ed and I have clearly defined our roles as co-directors: he’s in charge of all the blocking and camera and lighting issues and all that, and I’m working with the actors and in charge of the performances. Should help us focus and keep our eyes on the prize and thinking about, why haven’t directors done this sort of thing in the past predominantly? Answer: because they want it all. Hollywood is about having it all at the cost of everything. Red Hands is about telling a story for the price of a used car. Glorious. Tuesday I’m taking the day off because I’ll probably be dead and I’ll have to have the wife get out the voodoo herbs and spices to get me back on my feet again. So be it.