Budgets, Funding and Casting

Last week was incredibly busy. On Wednesday we had a final meeting with Jutta and her boss to see how much we could chop out of the budget. It went well and we managed to get it to almost half the original calculation.

Simon has been taking calls and arranging the casting. On Thursday night I met with an actor who was interested in playing one of the two main characters. He wanted to meet me first and talk about the script which we did and afterwards he said he was still interested. So I turned on the camera and we went through a couple of scenes. He was awesome! It was fantastic to see the words I had written coming to life through an actor. Afterwards he said he is definately interested and I thought he was really great so whatever happens we now have a really great actor for 'Robert'. This also helps us with our application to the FFF because he is quite well known. I am meeting with another potential 'Robert' tomorrow night and our first potential 'Hilmar'. Simon received phone calls from 3 of the actors we approached to play 'Hilmar' and they are all interested. So far everyone likes the script which is nice.

After not being able to sleep much from excitement in finding a great ‘Robert’ I went to the FFF on Friday morning with Simon. We met with Julia Rappold who will be pitching the project to the board for us once we have our application together. She was concerned about one technicality which could make me ineligible for applying. I have to find my reports of the subjects I studied during my diploma or arts to see if I studied directing. I called my Mum in Australia and she found them straight away. There are no subjects for directing in the reports so fingers crossed. Apart from that she seemed to really like the script.
It’s Sunday now and I spent all of today writing character profiles for Robert and Hilmar to include in the application package. Yesterday I was mapping out their emotional journeys through the film and spent half the day on the internet looking up film festival sites to create a Festival Strategy – also for the package. The more stuff that is in there and the more it looks like you are pretty much ready to shoot the better. If we got funding help it would be amazing!

A lot has happened in the last week. Good stuff.

Firstly I met with the other producer who was interested in the film. His name is Jean-Luc. He has a lot of experience and we get along well so he is now on board. He is also pursuing a directing career but thought it would be interesting to help produce a film that isn't one of his own.

We decided to all get together with Jutta so we could all meet each other and Jutta could hand over everything she had so far. Simon caught the train down from Ilmenau (3hours north by car-train took 7 hours! That's commitment, I like it). Jutta and her boss also did the budget calculation and it came to 109,000 Euros. Hmmm... I thought this was a low budget film. Anyway they are doing a cut down version as well which we will use for an application to the FFF for funding. I'm interested to see how that one turns out.

Simon contacted most of the actors I had chosen as my first preferences for the two major roles. Most of them are quite experienced and to my pleasant surprise most of them are interested in the film and at least want to read the script. I always say it can never hurt to ask people if they are interested in your project even if they are somewhat famous. If they like your script you never know. Two are meeting with me this week to talk about the film and perhaps do a screen test. Last night I wrote a rough character profile for the role so they can see where the character comes from if they want to know. Personally I don't think it's all that necessary to know that stuff as long as the character comes through on the day, but I'm not an actor. If it's how they work and what they need then I want them to have it. So, better to be prepared.

On the weekend I found a brilliant location for one of my scenes. It is by the river near the city and has spectacular scenery. I was really happy to come across it and it made me happy to find and put in place one more piece of this huge jigsaw puzzle that is a pre-producing a film. How many more pieces to go?

I have a new producer! His name is Simon and he replied to the ad I posted on the crew-united website. I spoke with him on the phone and he sounds enthusiastic and motivated and he likes the script. He is now on board and so far I'm pretty impressed. I did get another bite as well but I havn't heard back from this other guy so I'm not sure if he is interested. Simon is cool, but he doesn't live in Munich so we decided to look for another producer that is Munich based that can sort out things that require more local attention. The search continues but I am very happy to have Simon on board.

Last weekend I moved into a new flat with my girlfriend so things have been very crazy and working on the film has been on a slight hold. Yesterday was a nightmare. An Ikea nightmare. Things are now pretty much sorted and most of the furniture is put together including my new desk which I am working from right now.

Today I drove around all afternoon taking snaps of potential locations. I visited a restaurant that Markus told me about. It was quite spacious and not exactly what I was picturing in my head. I'll keep looking but it could work if I can't find something better. Finding locations is also not fun. So far I only have 3 locations that I'm really happy with. I might search on crew-united for a location scout :)