Writing DRY BONES
This week I announced the title of the film I'm producing in the spring, DRY BONES. We'll be going into production one month after SNOW SHARK: ANCIENT SNOW BEAST is released on DVD. I'm willing to bet that around that same time MODEL HUNGER will be finished or close to it, and I can't wait for that premiere. The status of WARD'S ISLAND is completely unknown to me.
About one year ago, Michael O'Hear, an actor friend (He's Roman in the SLIME CITY MASSACRE flashbacks and professor Hoffman, the Ahab like figure in SNOW SHARK) hired me to write a screenplay for him to direct and star in at one of those periodic times when this starving artist faced a financial cliff. Michael had hired me to rewrite a script for him once before; the script turned out well but the film was never finished for many of the reasons that plague indie films - it ain't that easy folks, just ask the myriad people out there who spend two years promoting a film project on Facebook, deluding people into believing they're filmmakers, only to never complete their projects.
Michael had a concept for his project which dovetailed nicely with a concept loitering in my mind already, so I combined the two and wrote the script very fast (I could make a killing as a TV writer). So far I've written about six screenplays for hire, and I was pleased with every one of them on the first draft. This one pleased me even more than the others, though; we decided early on that we wanted to invoke a tone similar to the glossy horror comedies of the 1980s like FRIGHT NIGHT and HOUSE. There's always been a degree of humor in my films, but I've never written an outright comedy before, and I'm happy to report that this one reads funny (and gross and outrageous). It's my belief that for an indie film to generate buzz, and therefore attract a distributor and an audience, it needs to deliver material that an audience won't find in a mainstream flick, and it needs to deliver it well. (SNOW SHARK is an exception; it's fun, straightforward monster movie with a killer title that draws people to it).
Pondering the fates of the other scripts I've written for filmmakers who failed to raise the necessary funding, I told Michael I would produce the film. We've discussed it on and off for the last year; it was always a "go" for us, it was just a matter of clearing other projects (Michael acts in films, I write books and work on films, and we both work on Buffalo Screams). I don't have to direct every film I work on; producing and directing are two full time jobs, and doing both on SLIME CITY MASSACRE was challenging to say the least. I'll be Michael's AD, which is ironic because he was my AD on SCM. I'm also not interested in directing films that cost less than SCM, but I'm happy to produce them, especially for first time directors who need avice; call it paying forward.
DRY BONES is a micro-budget film. I'm hoping to raise $12,000 for it, but will be happy with $10,000. We've already raised $7,500, and without resorting to crowd sourcing or, as a friend calls it, "cyber panhandling." We may yet go that route, but I prefer to raise money the old fashioned way - the best way - which is to offer financiers the chance to own a piece of the film rather than beg them for donations.
To pull off a good movie does not require a lot of money, but it does require a script built around convenience and a primary free location, it requires planning, and it requires vision. I'm confident we have the script needed to make this film special, even at less than 20% of the budget I had for SLIME CITY MASSACRE. In a real return to my SLIME CITY routes, we're going to shoot the bulk of the film in my house, which means that my wife - who created the schedule - and daughter - who has a small speaking role - are in for a whopper of a film education.
The last two films I worked on were hard work, and that hard work is going to result in good films, but they weren't exactly fun (at least from my point of view). DRY BONES is going to be another story. As the producer, I have to make sure everything is hunky dory with cast, crew, locations, and special effects; as the 1st AD, I need to make sure that beyond getting the performances he wants, Michael gets the coverage the editor requires. We'll be using a tiny crew, made possible because the script was written to be shot primarily from one character's POV and most involve only two or three characters; I knew I was writing for a first time director so I kept things simple... for a movie about a soul sucking creature whose lived under a man's bed for 35 years.
Gabriel Lopez, a talented artist who works in small press publishing, created our logo for us; he's also going to do some storyboards. Melantha Blackthorne, with whom I was supposed to work on a film back in. . .2006? is the female lead. Melantha is gung ho for what I think amounts to very challenging work, and she will be the "face" of the film. I wrote two large supporting roles for local actors I know will nail their parts, and Michael is casting now. I'm concentrating on raising the rest of the money ($500 is the minimum buy-in), and then we'll worry about a final schedule, special effects, set construction, crew, etc. Pre-production begins in six weeks! It's going to be fun and I'm looking forward to it.
Here's some press the film generated this week:
Horrornews.net
http://horrornews.net/63020/gregory-lamberson-announces-snow-shark-dry-bones-and-other-slimy-bits/
IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni41761894/
Dread Central
http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/61959/first-word-and-teaser-art-horror-comedy-dry-bones
Hellnotes
http://hellnotes.com/gregory-lamberson-talks-upcoming-dry-bones-film-and-upcoming-books
About one year ago, Michael O'Hear, an actor friend (He's Roman in the SLIME CITY MASSACRE flashbacks and professor Hoffman, the Ahab like figure in SNOW SHARK) hired me to write a screenplay for him to direct and star in at one of those periodic times when this starving artist faced a financial cliff. Michael had hired me to rewrite a script for him once before; the script turned out well but the film was never finished for many of the reasons that plague indie films - it ain't that easy folks, just ask the myriad people out there who spend two years promoting a film project on Facebook, deluding people into believing they're filmmakers, only to never complete their projects.
Michael had a concept for his project which dovetailed nicely with a concept loitering in my mind already, so I combined the two and wrote the script very fast (I could make a killing as a TV writer). So far I've written about six screenplays for hire, and I was pleased with every one of them on the first draft. This one pleased me even more than the others, though; we decided early on that we wanted to invoke a tone similar to the glossy horror comedies of the 1980s like FRIGHT NIGHT and HOUSE. There's always been a degree of humor in my films, but I've never written an outright comedy before, and I'm happy to report that this one reads funny (and gross and outrageous). It's my belief that for an indie film to generate buzz, and therefore attract a distributor and an audience, it needs to deliver material that an audience won't find in a mainstream flick, and it needs to deliver it well. (SNOW SHARK is an exception; it's fun, straightforward monster movie with a killer title that draws people to it).
Pondering the fates of the other scripts I've written for filmmakers who failed to raise the necessary funding, I told Michael I would produce the film. We've discussed it on and off for the last year; it was always a "go" for us, it was just a matter of clearing other projects (Michael acts in films, I write books and work on films, and we both work on Buffalo Screams). I don't have to direct every film I work on; producing and directing are two full time jobs, and doing both on SLIME CITY MASSACRE was challenging to say the least. I'll be Michael's AD, which is ironic because he was my AD on SCM. I'm also not interested in directing films that cost less than SCM, but I'm happy to produce them, especially for first time directors who need avice; call it paying forward.
DRY BONES is a micro-budget film. I'm hoping to raise $12,000 for it, but will be happy with $10,000. We've already raised $7,500, and without resorting to crowd sourcing or, as a friend calls it, "cyber panhandling." We may yet go that route, but I prefer to raise money the old fashioned way - the best way - which is to offer financiers the chance to own a piece of the film rather than beg them for donations.
To pull off a good movie does not require a lot of money, but it does require a script built around convenience and a primary free location, it requires planning, and it requires vision. I'm confident we have the script needed to make this film special, even at less than 20% of the budget I had for SLIME CITY MASSACRE. In a real return to my SLIME CITY routes, we're going to shoot the bulk of the film in my house, which means that my wife - who created the schedule - and daughter - who has a small speaking role - are in for a whopper of a film education.
The last two films I worked on were hard work, and that hard work is going to result in good films, but they weren't exactly fun (at least from my point of view). DRY BONES is going to be another story. As the producer, I have to make sure everything is hunky dory with cast, crew, locations, and special effects; as the 1st AD, I need to make sure that beyond getting the performances he wants, Michael gets the coverage the editor requires. We'll be using a tiny crew, made possible because the script was written to be shot primarily from one character's POV and most involve only two or three characters; I knew I was writing for a first time director so I kept things simple... for a movie about a soul sucking creature whose lived under a man's bed for 35 years.
Gabriel Lopez, a talented artist who works in small press publishing, created our logo for us; he's also going to do some storyboards. Melantha Blackthorne, with whom I was supposed to work on a film back in. . .2006? is the female lead. Melantha is gung ho for what I think amounts to very challenging work, and she will be the "face" of the film. I wrote two large supporting roles for local actors I know will nail their parts, and Michael is casting now. I'm concentrating on raising the rest of the money ($500 is the minimum buy-in), and then we'll worry about a final schedule, special effects, set construction, crew, etc. Pre-production begins in six weeks! It's going to be fun and I'm looking forward to it.
Here's some press the film generated this week:
Horrornews.net
http://horrornews.net/63020/gregory-lamberson-announces-snow-shark-dry-bones-and-other-slimy-bits/
IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni41761894/
Dread Central
http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/61959/first-word-and-teaser-art-horror-comedy-dry-bones
Hellnotes
http://hellnotes.com/gregory-lamberson-talks-upcoming-dry-bones-film-and-upcoming-books
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