We’re about six weeks away from going into production on Spectre.

It’s both incredibly exciting, and overwhelmingly scary to be so close to production time where it will come to life. This movie is the most ambitious production I’ve done, but amazingly, I find myself equal to the challenge so far.

If you’ve been reading this blog, or are involved in the production, you probably know that I’ve had the story in mind for about 15 years, and I’ve actively been developing it for the last few years. It’s a tale with a lot of heart to it; it’s about coming back to life and finding faith in yourself and others in difficult times. I only hope the final product does justice to the moral it offers.

Here are some factoids about the project:

- The script has been developed and tweaked for about two years. There have been approximately 9 major revisions to it, with easily well over a hundred iterations between myself and Brad, the co-writer.

- 150+ actors applied for the various roles. We have cast everyone except for 2 roles, both of which we have a couple of leads for.

- Recently, a whole new world of locations and and resources has become open to us. Although not all of the locations are set in stone yet, we’ll be setting up cameras in some pretty cool places both around Sacramento, and the Bay Area.

- We now have a professional make-up artist on board, a professional costume designer, at least one, possibly two sword-fighting choreographers, half a dozen professional actors, several well-respected cinematographers, and a mini-army of PA’s. And none of that is counting the normal list of experienced crew that you find on all of our movies!

- Our list of props is pretty intense: costumes, armor, swords, jewelry, fancy dresses, and more. Amazingly, most of it is on loan, or comes to us at low cost. It never ceases to amaze me at the generosity people are capable of. Which brings me to…

The reason this movie is actually going to get off the ground is because I’ve had A LOT of help so far! From Chris, Brad, and Vicky (my production “leads”) who have put in a lot of hours already, to rising stars on crew like Jennifer, Kristi, Andi, Jen, Jason, and Neil. Thank you for your on-going support!

There is, however, a lot more work to be done. Our shoot days are from May 16 – 25th. We’ll be shooting all day in mostly outdoor locations, and at least one green-screen studio. (Which could either be a “real” studio, or somebody’s garage depending on how the cards fall!) There’s still a need for more help. If you have any interest in helping out in any way, just let me know! Even if you don’t have “movie skills”, you probably have a talent that would be useful to the project: sewing (for adjusting costumes on set), photography or videography (behind-the-scenes stuff), cooking, note-taking, management skills, skill with a laptop, etc. You don’t have to commit to the entire production, of course; we’ll humbly accept whatever time you can give.

After the movie is shot, the long process of doing post production will begin. Editing, visual effects, music, sound design, etc. I intend to take my time and do it right. There’s no deadline that we need to hit, so my goal is to focus on quality rather than speed. (Besides, Jennifer and I are expecting our new baby in in July, so it’s probably a good thing that we’re filming before (s)he comes!)

The Spectre storm is now rising and I’m loving the ride.