Friday, November 23, 2018

Speedbump: Feature Film "Floridiana" is Currently on Backburner


TORPEDOED!...
Well, well. This has been a long transitional state into my work on Floridiana and out of it. And I'm not pleased about how hard it has been to find the right help to get this film going, but this hasn't actually been the primary issue. I've been through three (3) different producers, probably five (5) different cinematographers, and a few actors. But ultimately its been about story, a few partnerships lost, and about finding (or NOT finding) some funding.

I have not been interested in seeking crowdfunding due to the nature of the story, which, sadly, doesn't wreak of crowd-pleasing fare. Instead, it was always a personal and intimate story about implanting my own idealistic themes of brotherhood, and community into a wish-fulfillment tale about having the kind of exultant teenage years that I never experienced.

Yeah, so there've been some torpedoes that sent my submarine traveling under the film radar into the depths of a temporary or permanent sea-floor grave. Ok. But I'm actually not bitter about this. I know that these things happen. After all, one of the factors involved is that I'm having a third child, which is going to be great! Also, I'm doing some unconventional stuff with business to try to raise my income level, but this has a time frame which gets in the way for me. A partnership got dissolved due to mutual differences (thankfully, not much money was invested into that, but time was), and another partnership ended up putting some of my investments at risk, but that is being hammered out currently. And, Jonah Hill's "Mid90's" came out which requires me to re-write the script considerably. It is almost identical in its primary foundational elements to the degree that its too obvious. Makes it look like I'm a bad copy. That's not cool. Harumph!




So, "Floridiana" is now being shelved, and I am back to organizing my projects in order of ease of ability to shoot vs. difficulty of execution. My list of projects has only gone up since I started having children, because I've got writing time but rarely do I get shooting time now. And because I am an idea person, I can literally come up with a quality, viable feature movie idea and write out the basic plot points in one day, which I just did a few days ago. But I have to admit that without making serious progress now, I feel somewhat lost and inconsolable. I put a lot into Floridiana, but honestly there's not a lot I can do but to hope for the right one to come along. So, has it?? Possibly.

I have an older project that I was working on but never completed the script. I also felt that I wasn't ready for this project, but I now feel that if I put more prep into it I may be able to make a great crowdfunding project from this because it is based on a public domain property that has been attempted numerous times before, but not very successfully (in my humble opinion). So, it would likely be highly inspired by (but not necessarily directly based upon) this famous English work of literature from the 1600's which I will tell you about soon... ;)

I really want to recommend these kinds of projects to new filmmakers because they encourage an adaptation or a translation of someone else's famous work. And this is a great skill to have in this current film market, but it is also going to give you some really great source material to play with.

Coming up next... my list of films I am currently developing, including this next feature film project.

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