Everyone Who Has Ever Worked on this Film

¡ANNOUNCEMENTS!

1) SCRIPT READING Tomorrow (Tuesday) @ NINE PM
2) Locations Update
3) Casting Update

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1) Script Reading on Tues, Nov 27 @ 9 pm

All are welcome (and encouraged)! A small group of actors will read the script, and following will be a final discussion/workshop thereof. The reading will last approx. 30 minutes, and all are invited to stick around and put in their $0.02!

2) Locations Update

Quick update! Pictures will be available soon. Locations manager K. Long has narrowed our search down to two coffee houses, and the search is still underway for the "Lived Here" apartment. Our main obstacle is finding a place that will lease/sublet for only the month of February. If anyone has any information or suggestions, please contact myself of kaleen.long@yale.edu! Thanks. :)

3) Casting Update

Oh, casting... There's really not much I can say that would adequately get across all that is, and has been, casting. At this point we've received 321 responses to our casting call. M. Silverstein (Casting Director) and I began calling our actors today, after spending four hours together last night making decisions (with J. Carballo and N. Rosenbaum, bonding over Yorkside pizza). Everything from Broadway actors, newcomer musicians, a Parisian model, and even a Yale alum. And a few (and by a few, I mean more than a few) ridiculous resume/headshot combos. You have NO idea.

We laughed, we cried, we puked in our mouths a little and swallowed it. Casting is nuts and will continue to rage on until this Saturday, December 1, when we will finally come face-to-face with the lucky 50 guys and gals we have decided to audition. Everyone has their own picks, and I can't wait to see these people perform parts of the script... Excited!


Over and out,

Michael

Casting Craziness

I am officially ¡DONE! with my last paper for the time being, and thus am now on Thanksgiving break (or, as Production Manager J. Carballo puts it, "T-Gives"). Now we can finally revisit the script with Lucas, call one last script session (a reading this time), and cast the five lead roles: Jason, Eddie, Nirav, Joseph, and Eve.

On casting:

Lucas, in typical Lucas fashion, pulled off the impossible... or at least the highly improbable. For a casting call to go into print (on Thursdays), productions usually have to submit by Friday @ 3pm to Backstage (New York's most popular actor's resource), with an extended deadline of Monday @ 3pm. I read this yesterday (Monday) at 5pm, and figured we were screwed as far as being in print was concerned. The office was closed, and I was fighting fatigue while writing this paper.

But fear not! Lucas called Backstage early this morning and wiggled our casting call into this Thursday's print edition. In the first few hours of the online posting, we received a TON of responses. I believe we're up to ~60 folks interested in auditioning for the production. Which sounds great, EXCEPT for one small detail...

Folks, if you're an independent filmmaker looking to produce a short (nonpaying) film, do yourself some good and write for an all-female cast. I, on the other hand, made the mistake of creating four male leads, and only one female. Judging, it's WAY too early to really start worrying about this (the casting call has only been up for a few hours), but the overwhelming majority of our headshots/resumes are coming from females, all of whom would be auditioning for the same role (Eve). I will almost invariably complain about this later. But, on the whole, there seem to be some pretty strong applications in the heap.

It's really bizarre to imagine these actors playing my characters. I get butterflies. So right now I'm basically glued to my computer – even though I haven't slept in days, thanks to paper-writing – refreshing the "Lived Here" Gmail account over and over, wondering why it has been 20 minutes since our last submission, when before they were flooding in every minute or two.

Ack,

Michael

UPDATE: And not just any four male leads – 2 gay guys, a South Asian, and a senior citizen. It's like a scavenger hunt. Difficulty set to VERY HARD.

Brief Update

As I am currently working on a paper (it was due last Tuesday; don't judge me), this update will be brief! Script conference call with Lucas tomorrow evening, casting notices finalized tomorrow morning (you can see the Craigslist ad here, but our focus is on Backstage.com), and production meeting next week.

There, you happy?!

xo Michael

Move Over, Citizen Kane

After what was quite possibly the most productive two hours in the history of the universe (that is, tonight's script workshop), I am about to embark upon the least productive two hours (that is, starting a paper without a real topic).

After three and a half hours slaving over this script (in addition to last night's session), I think we have something we can finally turn into a film. Every single person had really original ideas, and the whole ordeal turned out to be a lot of fun. We all hung out at the Trumbuttery after the meeting.

I'm really liking this collaboration thing; I think we may just have the perfect team working on the film. Which is important, considering that "Lived Here" is becoming just as much their film (and vision) as it is mine. I am slowly learning to trust what has turned out to be a creative, diverse, and all-around fun group of people.

Lucas and I will likely be meeting tomorrow to review what was said at the workshops and churn out a new draft. We should have a final draft ready for casting (tentatively December 1). This is nuts.

Also, I can't wait to have the best blooper reel ever. (You'll just have to wait for the DVD release for that one.)

OMG Movies.

--Michael

Meetings!

After an introductory meeting on November 4, the "Lived Here" crew basically jetted right into action. There are about twenty-five in all, from experienced students at the School of Drama to undergrad frosh newbies.

Last Thursday, the Producer (Lucas) and I met with Lauren, the Production Designer. We figured that the apartment design (the bulk of the film, although there are three scenes that take place outside of the apartment) should be completed by 12 December, but we'll wait on a completed working script to continue with that.

Speaking of the script, tonight I met with Angela, Nick, Molly, Grace, and Jessica in order to workshop the script. It was actually the first of two workshops (the second being tomorrow @ 9), called to break the script down into manageable bits and... well, you get the idea. Right now, I'm typing up notes from the first session for the script advisors. It may take a while, though, 'cuz I'm watching a surfing documentary with Nikki over some pineapple wine she bought in Maui. Mmm...

I can't wait to have a working script, though, because then we can finally get to the utter mayhem that is *casting*. Stay tuned for that, and maybe a bit of location scouting...

We have a blog!

Welcome to the blog for "Everyone Who Has Ever Lived Here," a short film that will be produced at Yale University during Fall 2007 through Spring 2008. I created this blog so that the crew can keep themselves up to date, and so that anyone who's interested can follow the process from beginning to end.




My name is Michael, and I am the writer-director of "Lived Here." I am producing the film as my thesis, and I'm counting down the months to the film's completion and release.

I started putting the film together in March 2007 while in London. I wrote most of it this past summer, and am currently working with an amazing crew to bring this thing to life. Filmed entirely in three-way split-screen, "Lived Here" chronicles the three consecutive tenants of one New York apartment – an old Jewish writer, an Indian medical student at NYU, and a young gay filmmaker trying to produce his first feature. It will run just under 20 minutes... I hope!

Keep track of the production as we write/cast/design/film/edit/struggle!

Excitedly,

Michael