Thursday, May 28, 2009

Crematorium


A lot of people have asked and want to know what the Cremation Home will look like...well wonder no more. The attached photo is a shot of the place. I like the overall grandeur it gives Stan...almost like a palace of sorts.

Anyway, just wanted to show off...as usual, more to come soon.

-Justin

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Stan's Car

When I pulled up to this thing I jumped... then chuckled. If this isn't Stan's car, I don't know what is. I have to give a ton of credit to our Executive Producer (Ken Hedrick) for scouring the earth to find this thing...even our Art Department gave it the thumbs up!

Check out how it will look on film after we paint and clean it up.

-Justin

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Page One

Well...here it is!

It's a black and white of our page one (thanks to Dave for layout and lettering...fantastic) and I love it! Click on in it to check it out in detail.

The full black and white version of book one should be done by the end of this month and colored version by the end of next month. We're going to ComicCon and passing out a limted amount of book one, so if anyone's going look for us there.

Much more to come soon!

-Justin

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Ball Is In Motion!

Well...I'm sworn to secrecy by my Producer as to who we've cast, but we officially paid and signed contracts with them today. Our project is beginning to feel a lot like the photo attached. It's a good feeling...I gotta say.

-Justin

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Comic Book time


Ok...we are making a comic book and I'm excited.

Today we met with Dave Lanphear (overseeing production on our D & C comic) who happens to work with every major comic book company (he even worked on The Long Halloween for anyone cool enough to know) and is officially on board with us. You have to check out his stuff at - coroflot.com/Artmonkeys now...no right now. The logo attached is from his company...check out some of the books he's worked on when you see the site.

I admit, I'm a nerd...but this is pretty cool. As soon as I get the first page layout, I'm blogging it...so look for it soon.

-Justin

Friday, May 15, 2009

Alecc B. on "Death & Cremation" - Part 2


Living in L.A. can be tough when you want to break into the film industry. To make ends meet, most of us work in reality television. While less fulfilling creatively, for some of us anyway, it pays the bills. Most of the work that has been done on Death & Cremation happened while I was working elsewhere, so past co-writing the screenplay, I missed a lot of the prep work on it. 

However, there were times that Justin and Ross held auditions on the weekend, which was lovely because I was able to go and help out. I read with the actors/actresses and it was actually quite draining, but a very good time. 

I have to say, when women come to audition, they come to audition. A lot of the guys come in and are always hit with this same question from us: Do you have any questions? 80% of them respond with, "No, I think I got it" or "Nope, it's pretty straightforward". Needless to say, the ones who said that weren't that great. Women, on the other hand, mean business. They have questions, multiple interpretations of the character they're auditioning for, etc. It was great! I'm not saying all of the guys weren't good, just that the women stood out during this particular casting process.

You get your method actors, like the guy who read a scene for us that takes place in bed and literally went through his entire audition while laying his head on the table. You also get your seasoned talent that have been doing this for a long time and knock it out of the park. Sometimes, you get that fresh, raw actress that blows you away in the audition and even more so when watching the playback. 

Yeah, casting was plenty-o-fun!

More to come....

- Alecc B.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Alecc B. on "Death & Cremation" - Part 1


Where to begin? This whole process has been pretty crazy. Justin called me in 2007 during the fall to ask me if I had any script ideas for a low budget horror movie that we can write and sell. I had an idea for a dark horror/comedy that I told him about and he liked it quite a bit. So we began writing.

Now, I lived in Florida at the time, so all of the development and writing for Death & Cremation was done via phone conversations and e-mails. After we discussed the original premise, Justin ran with it. The story is completely different now and it's for the better. What was once a comedy has now become a dark drama, and I dig that shit.

Justin wrote the bigger chunk of the script and would send it to me from time to time when he would get stuck and I would take over for a little bit. That was our dynamic, and it worked out very well. We have received nothing but positive feedback from those who have read D & C.  I don't know about you guys, but when people praise something I've worked on, the confidence raises a notch. It makes me better at what I do. It feels like Justin and I are on the right track. 

After we had completed the script, Justin informed me that we weren't just going to pawn off D & C and that he was going to direct it. The journey truly began then. 

More to come....

- Alecc B. 

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Unsung hero


Just like Matt, the detective in our story depicted in the art attached, Alecc Bracero (my co-writer and very good friend since 7th grade...it's true) has been the unsung hero for Death and Cremation. The original premise for the story was his, plus he made sense of a lot of my crazy ideas in the beginning stages. Anyway, I would like to have him blog once a week or so on what it's been like working on the project until now and what is yet to come.

Look for him to blog soon...it'll be a fresh perspective.

-Justin

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

It's a new day

Even though we are still waiting for some answers from actors, a few other things are opening up.
A mobile home we've been wanting to shoot at is starting to cooperate with us. We began generating some interest in potential product placement (for anyone who's read the script, imagine anyone from the drawing attached promoting Trojan condoms or something...ha!) and possible donations. We even began talking to potential colorist/page layout people for our comic.
We're rolling with the punches.
-Justin


Monday, May 11, 2009

One of those days...


If the storyboard doesn't tell you what kind of day it was for me...I don't know what will. After a long day of back and forth with casting, I just felt like posting this shot. They say making a film is 75% casting...I'd love to know what the other 25% is!

The drawing is pretty sweet though, isn't it?
-Justin

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Concept Art


This is an idea for one of Death and Cremation's character movie posters...big thank you to Eshwin Dhir for conceptualizing it for us.

The real thing will be a photo with our lead actor (some of you already know who, but I can't say...sworn to secrecy by my Producer) and the word finder in his glasses will actually be a crossword puzzle. Don't be surprised if you soon see a few of the actual posters around Los Angeles...I have a feeling someone might put them up when no one is looking.

-Justin

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Getting it made


I wanted to use this blog to credit my Producer (Ross Otterman - aka Mr. Otterman or as my investors call him, the Otterman Weekend) for the hardwork he has put into the project. His creative producing got the script into a lot of great casting agencies hands (who we are working with now on casting) and his savy is the reason we're going to make this thing on a such a low budget.


The poster attached is from an animated IMAX film he is working on right now. Check out the website for it at http://www.qqthemovie.com/ and check out the IMDB page for it at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312305/ when you have a chance.


-Justin

Friday, May 8, 2009

Storyboards


By far the most exciting part of visualizing this film was seeing our artist (Saida Temofonte, yes I'm plugging you) illustrate it for the first time. Here is one of my favorite storyboards she did for a scene in the film. The scene number, camera direction, and other basic notes are also off to the side...just click on the drawng if you want to see it enlarged.

As I said in the previous blog, we are using these storyboards as is for the graphic novel we are putting together now. When the page layout for the comic gets farther along, I'll preview that in a future blog too.
- Justin






Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Graphic Novel


Pretty much everyone who has scene our storyboards for the film has said "That's sweet. You guys should turn that into a comic book or something." So, we are creating four graphic novels adapted from our screenplay and storyboards. Our storyboard artist actually is a letterer for DC comics (she should be drawing her own book if you ask me) and will be blogging on our website in the future...so look for that.


Anyway, here is a potential cover for the first of four Death and Cremation books. The artist for this cover lives in Canada (Eshwin Dhir...he's the man) and I hope will be doing all four covers. He has incredible stuff to check out on http://eshwin.blogspot.com/2009/04/sequence.html
and http://www.eshwin.com/ too. I'll be putting up our storyboard art (different artist then above) with camera direction and all in upcoming blogs too.


-Justin

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Urns

One of the biggest props needed in a film about a killer who runs a funeral home (aside all the dead bodies of course) is cremation urns. We have gone to just about every funeral home in the greater Los Angeles area trying to get an idea of what would be good and what would be affordable. In the end, we went to Ross and shopped for less.

Anyway, this is a photo of every "urn" sitting in my living room (from vases to soap dispensers). Check out what we have and look for how we trasform them into urn replicas in the coming film. It should be memorable...one way or another.


-Justin

Monday, May 4, 2009

Blogging on Blogging

Well, here it is...I'm blogging.

Throughout the coming months I'm going to put out a few blogs on the process of making a low budget Indie entitled Death and Cremation. It's a dark comedy/thriller that most people describe as Dexter (on Showtime) meets Karate Kid (yes, Daniel son). If that intrigues you, check out the synopsis below.

The screenplay takes place in a typical American suburb where a lonely 59-year-old (Stan) pretends to contribute to society by offering cremation services from his basement, when in fact he is murdering neighbors he thinks are morally unfit. When a bullied 16-year-old high school outcast (Jarod) lands an after school job in Stan’s Cremation House, the two develop an unusual working relationship. As a middle-aged detective (Matt) in search of an exciting case puts the clues of their murders together, Stan discovers protecting Jarod is a new cause worth killing for.

It'll be the feel good film of the year...sort of. Casting now. More to come in future blogs.

-Justin