Category Archives: Screenwriting

Back Burner Blues aka Getting Back on the Movie Musical Horse

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Sadly, it’s been over a year since I last updated this blog. A lot has happened since then. Primarily, the musical got put on the virtual “back burner,” because I was hired to direct the short film, Foodie.

Foodie was one of the  biggest films I’ve ever worked on. It had an over $3,000 budget based on a successful Kickstarter campaign. It had the most actors I’ve ever worked with on a film and in one scene(involving 9 people at a table.) It had the most practical special effects I’ve ever had in one of my films. It had the most location shoots of any of my films. There were a lot of firsts on this project and I think it turned out really well.

We’ve already been accepted to 5 film festivals so far and we won our first award, 2012 ConCarolinas Short Film Festival Award for Best Original Fiction. Lots of great stuff happening around our film Foodie. We’re waiting on word from other festivals any day now and we’re also working on a DVD to sell. Of course, all the work surrounding the film does have it’s price. My musical movie went into a limbo state because of it, but I’m back on track again and I’m writing more stuff for it and songs are being created. The Phoenix has risen and I hope to have something finished and ready by the end of the year if not sooner.

Even cooler is that I had a brief chat with Anthony Michael Hall while at the sci-fi/fantasy convention, Dragon*Con, last weekend.

I met Anthony Michael Hall in the Celebrity Hall at Dragon*Con.

He has a new production company and I talked to him about my musical. He’s interested in knowing more about my film as well as my previous projects, so I’ve sent off information to him this week. I’m excited about the prospect of working with him on my movie. An 80′s icon who I grew up watching in such John Hughes classics as Sixteen Candles, Weird Science and The Breakfast Club.

They sky’s the limit as they say and I think there are some great things in store for this project. I feel blessed to be working with so many talented people and to find opportunities to bring my ideas and projects to fruition. Some days it makes me want to break out in song. ;)

Writing The Songs That Make The Whole World Scream!

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My handy dandy idea notebook! Can't leave home without it!

The hardest part about writing a musical has to be the songs, especially when you don’t have the know how to compose the music for them. When writing the outline for the story, I had mapped out where I’d like to have songs and what these songs might be about and the type of music genre they cover. In the process of writing the script, these song ideas might morph into something similar or totally different to fit the story.

The first song I attempted didn’t really depend on the main story. It was the theme song. It gives some basic concepts of the prestory elements, so we understand the underlining evil force that’s at our doorstep and how it got to this point. It’s also a song that I hope will be catchy enough to help me win people over to throw money my way. I want it to be a selling point.

I’ve been working with some talented people to bring this song to life. Although I wrote the lyrics, I have no idea how to formulate the music involved. I have an idea of what I want but I need people who are more talented in the realm of music creation. I originally tweeted and facebooked my need for musicians to help with my song creation. A guy I know, Kevin Darbro, responded and I gave him the lyrics and let him come up with some tunes to back it up. Originally, I wanted something like an 80′s power ballad, but then we went more for an 80′s pop song.

I then needed someone with a voice who could bring attitude and power to the lyrics. I asked Christy Johnson of the rock group, Dreamkiller, and she agreed to sing the theme. She recorded her voice to the track and even though it was more of a test of her voice than a final track, I would’ve been happy to release the song as is. It was that good.

I was pleased with what we had created so far, but I wanted to take it further. I wanted something that could be more of a dance track, so I threw the music and voice samples to my good friend, Rick Burnett. You might know him from more for his camerwork and f/x expertise in the web series hit, Modern War Gear Solid(which also stars my lovely wife, Alena Koch.) He helped me create a kick-ass song for my short film Bursters and he’s currently working on a dance mix of the theme for this film. I’m extremely excited to hear what he comes up with.

One of the things I wanted to do with this picture is make it not your traditional musical. I wanted to incorporate many types of music you wouldn’t normally hear in a musical like a techno song, an 80′s rap song or a hard rock song. Music you might jam to and rock out to and possibly sing along to.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog was a big inspiration for me to make this film. The story of a superhero villain fighting his way up the evil food chain was something you didn’t normally see in the world of musicals. Plus, it had a lot of great songs with fun lyrics.

That’s what I’m trying to achieve with this project. It’s my main objective. I want the songs to be fun. There will be songs about all kinds things in this movie. Many of them humorous but hopefully all will keep the audience entertained.

I recently finished writing the second song for the feature and I’m really happy with how the lyrics turned out. It will be a different approach than the theme song, and I’m already looking into another music contact to bring that song to life.

I’m excited about this part of the process. The songs are such an integral part of the movie as a whole. The acceptance of my film could hinge on how these songs are received. I hope people will be as happy with the songs as I am. I can’t wait to hear them all fully realized.