The Plan
After coming together with a core group of creatives and working on a dozen-plus projects, I felt it was time to go all in on a few story-driven narrative pieces that would showcase our expertise.
We had the team and the experience but lacked the screenplays to commit them to, not to mention the resources.
We also had a problem… I was moving away from home for a couple of years.
Becoming a Writer
Eager to make the most of my time, I gave my everything over to screenwriting.
I started the process by isolating myself in a small village and getting a painful first draft of a feature out.
With my writer’s muscles well and truly activated, I ingrained myself in all the new online communities that living in a Northern Hemisphere time zone allowed for.
Within a year, I had developed my writing ability enough to run events in the communities that helped grow me.
Moving The Pieces
With my writing skills brought up to speed, I wanted to sink my teeth into 3 sharp short films scripts that could keep us on the festival circuit for a few years.
Low budget so that we could stretch our limited funding, but with three-dimensional stories as the backbone so that we could showcase our creative muscles.
Back To Sydney
All that was left to do was to get the funding and make the films, so I set my sights back to Sydney where my creative collaborators awaited.
With 5 months as a timeline, I set the goal to save as much money as possible and shoot the 3 shorts back to back.
As time passed and production meetings were held, it quickly became apparent that I had bitten off more than I could chew, so I scrapped a script to make our lives easier.
Some more time passed and the funds I was hoping for weren’t coming in, so I scrapped a second script.
I was left with the simplest script from the bunch yet was still struggling to find locations, so I ended up scrapping it as well…
Writing Crossroads
The problem was that even running two locations was sending us into a place of difficulty that we couldn’t afford to take a chance on.
I decided on a single scene set in a single location to play as the short, and got to writing.
The location would have to be isolated to cut down on possible interference.
I decided on a secluded cabin.
Within a few short hours, our first draft was ready.
I stayed up that night for an online table reads session and got all the feedback I needed to get to the finish line.
Pre Production
With our script almost ready, it was time to lock in a location.
We found the cabin we were looking for online, organised a scout and locked our location.
I adjusted the script to fit the space we had and soon had it locked as well.
From there, I had a series of meetings with my Cinematographer and Line Producer where we got into the nitty-gritty of pre-production.
I won’t bore you with the details, but people were hired and documents were prepared.
Casting
With the script locked, I looked to casting and fate quickly pushed me upon the seasoned actor Shane C. Rodrigo.
It was instantly made obvious that he would be the perfect for the lead role of Joey, which was a welcome relief to the Wild West that pre-production had become.
He forwarded the role of the second lead to his colleague Leanne Mauro, and before I knew it, we had the part of Maggie cast as well.
We immediately scheduled a series of rehearsals to flesh out the characters and make sure that when we were on set, we could hit the ground running. A rare fortune that left us all beyond confident.
Production
Production on an independent project is always rough, but it truly could not have gone any better.
My team and I arrived prepared and put the work in.
When the problems that often come up on set inevitably came up, the simplicity of the project meant that we were more than well-equipped to handle them.
A tremendous effort from each and every person involved. I could not be more grateful.
Editing
With Production complete and an international flight awaiting me in mere weeks, I attacked the edit relentlessly between infusions of caffeine.
Thanks to an organised pre-production and crew, I was able to make quick work of assembly and take on the nuanced part of editing with energy.
I managed to finish with less than 24 hours before I was due to fly out. A major relief.
Marketing
A film isn’t completed until it’s released, and sometimes not even then.
That leaves us with this very web page.
As I await my post-production department I work on the marketing, putting together the media required to see Crossroads to its premier. Hopefully at a festival near you.
