Well, that's a wrap on production on ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE! Saturday was our final day on set, and it was a bittersweet finale. Our entire cast and crew worked really hard, and I had the privilege of developing deeper personal bonds with many of my collaborators. I appreciate all the blood, sweat, and tears they invested in this project more than they will ever know. I'm thrilled with the work we all did, and as good as it feels to be moving into post-production, I'm sad that the production phase is over.

There are so many extraordinary people who worked on the film, but in particular, I have to thank our lead actress Dana Blackstone. I probably wouldn't have even written the script in the first place if not for her, and her performance on set has more than validated my confidence in her talent. She is amazing.

I already have a good chunk of the rough cut edited, and I'm charging ahead full-steam. Thank you all for your continued support!

The big day is almost upon us. Production on ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE begins tomorrow morning -- August 12, 2014. It's been a long journey up to this point, and I couldn't be more proud of the work my cast and crew have done so far.

We finally have all of our locations booked, and after a few upsets, our cast is in place. Yesterday, I spent some time with members of the art department furnishing an apartment where we'll be shooting for several days. It's going to look great.

This project means an awful lot to me, and I'm very excited to be moving into the production phase tomorrow.

I don't know how often I'll be able to post updates during production, but I'll get to it whenever I can. Stay tuned. And thanks for all your support so far!

Well, folks, we've made it to our final one-week countdown. Principle photography for ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE begins on Tuesday, August 12 -- just seven days from today!

The team has been hard at work developing the schedule, scouting locations, and planning for equipment usage and wardrobe changes. I just polished the script over the weekend, and I'm doing one final rehearsal with Bob Ford tonight.

In light of the craziness that has been pre-production, I'm reminded of something I posted on Facebook a couple months ago. I'd like to reprint it (with some very minor modification) here:

I emerged this morning from a long, restless night of serious reflection. I suspect that all artists ask themselves at some time or another why they do what they do. I mean, I'm not solving world hunger or curing terminal illnesses. I make movies. So what?
 
I'm a huge fan of Chuck Jones's Roadrunner/Coyote cartoons from the 1950s. I was recently looking at a screen grab of Wile E. Coyote poised to run headlong into a tunnel he himself had painted onto the side of a cliff face. You may be familiar with the gag. The Roadrunner runs through the painted tunnel, thwarting the intended death trap, but the Coyote flattens like a pancake when he hits the rock. And I thought, that's filmmaking. We paint a tunnel on the side of a cliff and charge into it at full speed hoping against all logic, all probability, all hope, that somehow we'll find ourselves on the other side of the mountain. Some make it, some don't. So why do we put ourselves through all that irrational misery? 

For me, the answer is multifaceted. 

For one thing, I can't help it. I have to tell stories, like a shark that must keep moving forward lest it die. It's what I'm called to do. If I don't make movies, or at least tell stories of some kind, I'll shrivel up and disappear. It's that simple. It's what I'm here for. 

For anther thing, and perhaps more importantly, I've gotten to spend my days with some of the coolest people in this industry: Scott Merriman, Robert William Ford, Diane Kowalski, Ryan Leeder, Rachel Higgins-Bernhardt, Elizabeth Merriman, Phil Worfel (grumble), Charly Lee Bivona, Anthony E. Griffin, Chris Porter, Evan Koons, Jason Lowe, Cort Langeland, Alexie Schneider, David J Gries, Joseph Scott Anthony, Jack Michael Findley, Alicia Deven Clark, Lynn Kay Montgomery, Jess Rogers, Richard Raphael, Alicia Humphrey, and my most recent muse, the magnificent Dana Blackstone. There are so many more … far too many to list here. To these and all my other filmmaker/actor friends and muses, I say thank you. It has been an honor and a privilege working with you. You make me a better artist and a better person. 

I mean, seriously, we create art together. We merge our collective creativity to form something beautiful or funny or sometimes both, and really, isn't that enough? Isn't that why we do what we do? It's the collaboration that truly gives it meaning. At least, that's what it is for me. And I'm going to keep doing it no matter what. Because I have to keep moving forward. 

Now let's charge into that painted tunnel and make some more movies. It's what we're here for.


So that Roadrunner/Coyote metaphor I mentioned … Yeah, that's what I've been going through over the last few months. There have been times I wanted to simply give up. But somehow, for every step backwards, my team and I have managed to take a couple steps forward. And as we make our final plans to charge into that painted tunnel, I am confident that we'll make it through relatively unscathed.

It's been a wild pre-production phase, and I'm eager to get into actual production! Stay tuned for more updates over the next seven days!