fictionsmith

Chapter 3 - Keep It Simple

While writing my first draft, I took a look at what I had around me. I had about 6 local actors I knew I could rely on if they were given a role… I had someone I figured could be my DP if he wasn’t too busy at the time… yeah, that was about all I had.

So I began to write the story with characters based around the actors I knew I could get. I wanted them to come off looking as natural as I possibly could get them, so I wrote the characters fairly similar to their speech patterns, cadence, etc. My best actor of the bunch was SAG, so I knew I’d have to face the paperwork, but I’d deal with that later…

3.1 - Location, location… and begging.

Not knowing exactly how many go-rounds I might get in the local indie film industry (in Tulsa, especially), I decided to not hold any locations in reserve. Any place I could beg, borrow, or steal, I decided to put into the movie. Anywhere from my alma mater to an old warehouse my dad owned before he retired… any anybody who was in the cast/crew’s house was fair game as well. I didn’t want to look like all we had was my house/kitchen/garage and call it neo-noir… I wanted streetlamps, dangerous looking warehouses, graveyards, etc…

And I learned something…

Quite a few folks in Tulsa, Oklahoma get really excited about the idea of having their place/coffee house/diner/warehouse in a feature length movie. Sure, it helps if you know a guy who knows a guy who knows the owner, but everyone has been incredibly helpful thus far (just wait until I tell the story of how we got Tim Russ’ character’s office…)

So far we’ve wound up with about 70 non-extras and 43 locations…

-R