red Hands production Notes

Tomorrow I start up on the old day job again – teaching high school English to apathetic yet still impressionable 10th and 11th graders. I love it. I only do what I love, and you should too, and don’t give me that limp-ass shit that whole “it’s not so easy.” Living with passion should never, ever be easy. The trogs in "the industry" are usually amazed that I choose to work two jobs, writing professionally and teaching. Damn straight. Writing is all about me, so of course, following my Zen Buddhist misunderstandings, I have to do something where I give – otherwise no harmonious balance and all that other tasty shit. Also, I’m not a big fan right now of the big Hollywood unions, so I get dental and vision and health benefits from teaching, which are all fantastic.

Sent out the first word to potential actors who are interested in playing the characters of the BOY, and THE OLD MAN, and THE PAROLE OFFICER, that we’re auditioning this Thursday. Everything about this project has been initiated through craigslist, which is the way it should be. No more middle men. I’ve had two screenwriting managers who worked out of Beverly Hills and managed to do absolutely nothing for me when I didn’t have the current Taster’s Choice kind of hot property they thought they could clear six figures from. I realize though I could very well have a manager again – you never fully get away from the beast once you’ve tangoed with it a few times.

We’re meeting the BOY actors at an Indian restaurant and everyone else at a tavern/lounge in Atwater. We have no money for fancy production offices, nor do we want them. The Red Hands production team are not stuffed shirts, and when we talk about this production with other artists I want to have a pint of stout in my hand (unless of course it’s crunch time, when I’m abstaining.) This movie is being put together in environmenst similar to where the characters would hang out in the Red Hands story. When we interview actors and hear and watch them read in this setting we get a much better sense of how they might play when released into the real shoot.

Oh PS - I just got word that there's a slim chance THE MELVINS might want to do a cameo. Wouldn't that just the fucking tits and the tail.