The Salsa Files

This production meeting is brought to you by the fabulous homemade salsa from Lisa Holland. It's the salsa that sparks multi-million dollar ideas and spices up conversation at any social or business function.

Liam began the meeting in a deep meditative state. We anticipate big things from him as a result. His first contribution was demonstrating a possible action sequence. By setting off a sequence of events, he showed us how Eric could jump away from the table at lightening speed to avoid a wave of sugar laced, carbonated liquid. It was truly impressive. We aren't quite sure how that will fit into production, but we're pretty sure it will include a giant mechanical spider. Liam and Haaken a calling for a veto.

Eric has produced one scene for Liam's Bionacle movie. Unfortunately filming has not yet begun as the talent is requiring paper copies.

Haaken is working on a new project about a new kid who goes to a new school. He has decided to shelve his original idea. He has finished the script and he's into voice work. He also continues his side project of video reviews on YouTube.

Erica has requested the rights to Triple-H, now that Haaken has discarded it, in order to develop a script. She has put in a request for reference material, aka, Screen-writing for dummies. Eric, the Executive Producer, said he could get her in touch with a guy with industry experience... Still, since Erica is also the Production Accountant, she is pretty confident her requisition request will get approved.

The team is finding that other projects are taking time away from our film-making, but we can't figure out how to eliminate work or school from our lives. Still we are having fun, even if development is slow going.

Holy Bionacle Batman!

Eric dedicated some time to professional development on Bionacle lore this week. Liam tried to explain it. Eric tried to understand it. We're not sure if he has gained enough lore knowledge, but he's begun to craft a story about a dead Bionacle and a regerative mask. It will be interesting to see where this goes. Should I be worried about a Jim Carrey The Mask remake? Anyway, the story will explore the theme of what happens to a person..er..mechanical being when they suddenly can do things they couldn't do before.

Hmmm.... Could this become a giant mechanical spider? 

The Executive Producer is pushing for a Megan Fox cameo. I call veto!

Now I have an assignment - exciting battle music. Hmmm...

Haaken has completed the story board for Triple H, but isn't ready to present it yet. It's going to be a surprise! He has started work on the script. I've volunteered to help with dialogue. Haaken MAY ask for help IF he gets stuck. We're all wondering how the story will turn out.

Kung Fu Fighting

Triple H is well on it's way. Story boarding is completed up to the climax of the movie. 

*** Spoiler Alert*** 

Our main characters have discovered the haunted beast and have barely escaped with their lives. They've gone for help.

Liam did some test bionicle stop motion animation. It's only 11 seconds but it took a long time. I was trying to figure out how to post the video in this blog, but I can't figure it out... Now he just needs a story idea, and a script, and a general idea of what he wants to do with the movie. 

Our Executive Producer was late for tonight's meeting. Apparently he was out schmoozing on the golf course. Hopefully this means he has secured some financing for our little production company. Right?

After discussing business, we had some professional development - the superman production story by Kevin Smith and an episode of the Mighty Hercules... Yes, we're learning from the masters of the craft.

Re-Conception

First week of school, first week of hockey, and first week of....um...no, that was all the firsts this week... brought production to a standstill on Haaken's Haunted House story. However we did make progress as we have dubbed it the Tripple H Project. It sounds so much more legit now. We are practically Hollywood moguls. 

We spent some time bantering, arguing, yelling, screaming, mud wrestling... Okay I might be getting carried away. We did have a lively debate in the chip aisle over which taco chips to get for our production meeting.

Liam is in re-conceptualization over his project story. He felt like the story needed to go in a different direction. 

Our Executive Producer suggested a giant mechanical spider, but that was rejected. Again. 

He is making demands for more resources to make his dream a reality. Apparently he doesn't have enough bionacle pieces.

We talked though a few plot twists for Tripple H. But we don't want to give away too much. No spoilers today! And debeda debeda debeda dats all folks"

Storyboard

Eric, in his role as Executive Producer has made a decision. We will work on two movie ideas. Haaken will pick one of his ideas to develop and Liam will work on one of his. This deals with the basic war of the ideas as well as the classical animation vs stop motion debate that has erupted over the production (aka dining) table.

Now - down to work.

First order of business: titles... Production Accountant - Erica. Lead Animator - Haaken. And for Liam, we have Executive Predator. We're not quite sure what the Executive Predator does, but we are assured that the role is vital to our efforts.

Next: Story development. After a little over a week Haaken has story-boarded the opening sequence of his film. During our production meeting he presented his storyboard and we discussed further story ideas and music, which morphed into you tubing monster mash and other scary songs.

Liam shared some of his idea using bionicles. The meeting broke down into Eric and Haaken doing funny voices for the bionicles while Liam tried not to laugh, unsuccessfully.

I have to say, I am amazed at Haaken's skill at telling a story with various scenes and perspectives. Here are some of his story boards.

Conception

It began with an idea... An idea of what we could do as a family for fun. With divergent tastes in movies, TV shows, and outdoor activities, it was becoming difficult to find a way to connect as a family. Then, the answer - as simple as it was brilliant. Our boys love making movies. Eric and I love watching movies. So what if we made a movie together? What could be easier, right? Right? Right? 

Maybe not. 

The idea was received excitedly by everyone around the table. Yes, of course... Lets make a movie... Or a short... Or maybe a show, or series of episodes... About a haunted house, video game, fantasy battle scenes, music video... 

We started with some basic brainstorming. Write down every idea you have and put it up on the wall. There are no bad ideas. Then each of us explained our ideas, which brought on another round of ideas.

And after sharing our ideas, narrowing them down for common themes and vetoing a few things, we are still no closer to one single movie idea. But we've had a lot of fun so far!