You Being You

My next project is you!

Alfonso & Beatrice

Just posted an update about that little children's book I mentioned in my last blog. Swing on over to Kelly's and my The Next Chapter to see how that's going. I'll post more here (you need not worry), but due to the content of the children's book (and the inspiration behind it), I wanted to debut it over there.

Check out that gorgeous Beth Maurer art.

Children's Book Needs Illustrator!

I'm using every social networking tool at my disposal (and this blog) to let you know that I've written a children's book and I'm now looking for an illustrator to team up with to make something truly special. Please contact me if you're interested.

Editing episode 4

I'm putting it together and keep shaking my head.

What were we thinking?

Something Personal

Not to say that The Ruffians and Remnants didn't come from the heart, but the next project I work on is going to be something personal. I've been aching to tell the kind of story that first appealed to me when I got into film. Something small, intimate, raw and deeply personal.

I've begun my first draft.

Crafting Episode 4

Episode 4 of The Ruffians is going to be very Charlie-centric. The original idea for the show was that we would alternate every other episode as an Alexander-centric episode or as a Charlie-centric episode. But once the story began to evolve and the characters became better defined, I realized that every-other-episode wasn't going to be the case. Which really doesn't disappoint me at all. I like the direction the story has gone and the next two episodes are really going to be quite fun.

Episode 5 is basically already written (a first draft at any rate) and it concludes this story. There may be more Ruffian stories down the line, but after episode 5, we'll be done for now. I always knew how I wanted to end the story, so I wrote it before I wrote episode 3 or 4. And there were things that came in episode 5 that are now informing episode 4.

I haven't written episode 4 yet, but I've been feverishly working on it. I actually already have hours of footage that I'm working through and editing that will play a big part of episode 4. Once I see how all that edits together, I'll sit down and write the episode and then we'll shoot it. Quite looking forward to seeing the finishing product on this one. We're going to see Charlie's home life in these next two -- which should prove very interesting.

Exporting Episode 3

In the other room, the laptop is exporting episode 3 of The Ruffians and I really couldn't be happier. I was worried about the light, but it looks great. I was worried how it would edit together, but it all came together. I was worried about the sound, but it sounds great.

This episode has some of my favorite moments so far:

• Alexander switching from tortured soul to man-in-charge
• The moment Ben softens
• Sadie's unintelligible retort to her boyfriend
• Tenika's final scene

This episode might also have my favorite soundtrack so far. I really had to resist using music from Battlestar Galactica (specifically Richard Gibbs' "Goodbye, Baby" from the miniseries' score). It would have been too recognizable to we nerds and would have been too on-the-nose.

It should be up in the next hour or so. Check here and if it's not up yet, check again later!