I am sorry I have waited so long between entries. The fact of the matter is that we at Ghost Town Productions decided months ago to postpone the making of the third installment in The Blackest Dawn Chronicles, and since then I haven't had a moment to think about BD. This news may come as a surprise (probably not), but we do have some good reasons for our decision.
1) First, our schemes were so grand for the third episode and our story so... perfect, that we felt we would not be able to do it justice at this stage in our careers. I sincerely believe that in fifteen or twenty years, when we are established as successful filmmakers, the time will come for The Blackest Dawn to make a public appearance on the worldwide stage. I truly believe that we are holding onto something special in our story of a zombie killing hero. Yes, there are hundreds if not thousands of "zombie" movies, but has anyone done the perfect "zombie hunter" movie? I don't think so.
2) Second, this was not the movie we needed to make to further our careers. Fun is fun, but we truly want to be taken seriously as skilled filmmakers and sincere artists. We want to focus on making a product that displays our creativity and intelligence as much as our love for a good time.
3) Which leads me to the last reason: we are working on another project. Codenamed "Hermie's Day at the Zoo", our current project is a gritty, street-smart drug-drama about unlikely friends finding commonality in grief. It will have moments of humor and action and intense emotion without gagging the audience on sentimentality. It is set in New Orleans. That is all I can reveal at this time. We have already penned 11 pages of the script, and we feel extremely confident in the story we have created.
Unfortunately, I do not have time to maintain a blog during the writing process of this project. Maybe during production, I will.
Best Wishes,
Johnson T.
Six months later, Dust to Dust is on-line for your viewing pleasure. The story of its creation is almost as epic and ridiculous as the film itself. For Spring break 2008, Cameron and I drove halfway across the country in pursuit of adventure. We spent an evening in a border town in Mexico and slept in a public park in El Paso on our way to New Mexico to take on the Chihuahuan Desert. We spent 3 days hiking and running out of water and getting dehydrated and nearly dying before we returned to civilization. On our drive home, inspired by our near-death experience and the vastness of the West Texas wasteland, we began writing the story of Dust to Dust. I sat in the passenger seat and scribbled in a notebook while Cameron rattled off Joel Pishano's most memorable one-liners. Sorry! I don't want to bore you with my nostalgic rambling...
Some web updates and stuff:
1) We would like to make a newsletter option for you so we can inform you when we add new blogs or make site changes, so stay tuned for that.
2) We have made updates to the About Us page and we created new Synopsis and Music pages. Definitely check out the music page as it is being constructed by the man himself, Kevin Holdiness.
3) Dust to Dust has already started to make its way around the web. We have had mentions on zombie-nation.net and zmdb.org.
4) We have begun to spread our proverbial “presence” around the web. Our blog is now showing up on LiveJournal, Blogger, and Myspace. Soon, hopefully StumpleUpon, Digg, and other bookmarking sites will be pointing back to theblackestdawn.com. We also will be posting the videos on video hosting sites.
Cameron and I held our first spoken Character Study last weekend. Character studies are typically written exercises that writers use to learn more about a character. The writer will write pages and pages of background information on a character: scenes from his past, relationships that have shaped him, objects that have been important to him, habits/rituals, etc. I don't particularly like the physical act of writing, so a spoken, improv character study seems like just the thing to really get the creative juices going. It certainly worked well this time. Cameron and I sat in StrangeBrew coffee shop for 2 hours and recorded our conversation on a handy voice recorder. A few more of these sessions and it will be time to write the script for Episode 3.
Lastly, while things may not be meeting our unofficial preproduction “schedule,” as we have progressed the purpose of this next film has evolved and the need for it to be perfect has become more evident. Therefore, the original “schedule” is really meaningless. Ever since Zombies, I have thought of The Blackest Dawn Chronicles as “fun films”... practice... side projects... throw aways. But I see now the potential for something bigger. Not only can this third episode be a great, well-rounded film, it can be the calling card that all of us here at Ghost Town need to break into the film industry. So, I will continue to post on our progress. It's going to be a fun ride.
LET'S RIDE!
Johnson T.
Hi there.
New news! Hurray! The DVD's came in today! All 50 of 'em, and they look great. The packaging looks really professional. I unpackaged and tested one and it worked fine.I wholeheartedly recommend www.mixonic.com for disc duplication and replication. These DVD's will sell for $10 at the premiere. JUST A REMINDER: all of the money raised at the premiere will be going to finance the third film in The Blackest Dawn Chronicles.
Cameron and I have been cooking up a few goodies for the premiere on Monday. A few of the extras are tightly-kept secrets, but I am glad to say we will have a blooper reel following Dust to Dust. It has been loads of fun going back and revisiting the challenges of being on set as well as the funny moments.
The Winston County Journal ran a piece on the movie premiere in today's paper. You can read the article here.
I've saved the best news for last. Cameron and I met for 2 and a half hours in the MSU library last night and... inspired by our Blackest Dawn iTunes playlist... we finished the plot outline for Episode 3! It was a very exciting moment. The creative juices were really flowing for both of us and we bantered back and forth and pantomimed and imagined until we beat out an incredible ending to the story. This third film will be sooooo different from anything we've offered so far. Hopefully, the ending will set the stage for an epic blockbuster feature in the distant future, but I think the ending we've imagined will be satisfying in and of itself. This story will take the world we've created and the precedents we have established and really give them depth and humanity and feeling. The trick is to continue to not take this world too seriously, because we really do love it.
I will continue to delve into our thoughts on Episode 3 and bring to light some of the actual events and themes of the story in future posts. Meanwhile, Kevin Holdiness, the composer of The Blackest Dawn's original music, will be sharing some of his thoughts on The Blackest Dawn music and the art of film scoring itself. That's all for now.
Carry on my wayward son,
Johnson T.
P.S. In case you were curious, The Blackest Dawn playlist consists of Evanescence, Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, Enya, and of course a little U2.
Monday, September 8th at 8PM is the official date of the Dust to Dust premiere. It will be showing at Northgate Cinema 4 at 432 N. Church Ave in Louisville, MS.
Tickets will go on sale next week for $5 each. They can be purchased at the Cinema 4 box office or directly from me.
The night will consist of a filmed introduction by Cameron and me, then Zombies featuring a brand new original score, a product endorsement featuring Joel Pishano, the world premiere of Dust to Dust, and maybe a little bonus at the end...
We will have 2 new t-shirt designs available as well as DVD's and possibly a few other goodies. Supplies will be limited, so buy them up early!
To follow up on the last blog, the DVD's have been ordered. The t-shirts have been ordered. The showing has been organized. Things are moving along. I'm looking forward to the day when I can focus all my attention on creating the third episode.
I will be posting again soon as well as adding a number of updates to the site. I'd like to move into more thoughtful posts on filmmaking as an art and an occupation and explore the "issues" that surround film and how I might deal with them. I'd also like to share more about the progress on the third episode, but I've been so busy trying to get Dust to Dust shown I haven't had time for it.
Another to-do list (scribbled on the back of linear algebra homework)
* Design tickets
* Print tickets
* Get tickets to the box office in L'ville
* Write introduction
* Film introduction
* Film "product endorsement"
* Edit "product endorsement"
* Post new blog
* Post info to About Us page
* Create bumper stickers on CafePress
* Create "Its zombie killin' time" clock on CafePress
* Record welcome to website audio
* Post audio to website
* Compress video for web
* Send DVD to createspace.com for duplication
* Start blog accounts, bookmarking accounts
* Do Circuits homework, Calculus homework, Acting journal, TV production homework
Hasta lasagna don't get any on ya,
Johnson T.
Dust to Dust To Do List
1) Finish Sound
2) Burn DVD
3) Talk to theater owner
4) Get Kevin to rescore Episode 1
5) Write new blog
6) Make DVD art
7) Order DVD's
8) Organize showing
9) Post blogs, etc. around web
10) Put music on site
Episode 3 To Do List
1) Finish story outline
2) Write character studies on Joel, Zoey, Mom, Zealot
3) Write Script
Hi everyone,
Just because we haven't made many changes to the site doesn't mean we haven't been working. Think of this project as a life-size lego robot. We can't just start stacking bricks, we have to break the project down into modules: the head, the torso, the legs, etc. And when the modules are ready, we will put them all together and rip back the curtain and say "voila!"
So what modules are we attacking now? The to-do lists above were taken from the "minutes" of our first Fall movie meeting one whole week ago on August 18th. You can put a check next to 1-6 on the first list. Tomorrow we will order 50 DVD's from www.mixonic.com. We expect these in some time next week. We have contacted the owner of the movie theater in Louisville, MS and he seems excited to help us show our film. We will post the date and time of the showing as soon as we know.
On Episode 3, Cameron and I have been meeting almost nightly to plot out the story outline. We have really expanded the world of The Blackest Dawn Chronicles in this new episode. I think this episode will feel much more grounded in its own time and place. It will be a painting with more color and texture on a much larger canvas.
I really have too much to say! I need to spread it out over a few entries so that I don't ramble. A few notes of interest: we are designing bumper stickers for The Blackest Dawn that will be available for sale on the CafePress store; also, we are working on a short product endorsement starring Joel Pishano; lastly, we're working with a beard maker in Sweden to make Pishano's beard for episode 3!
Peace and Good Will,
Johnson T.
The Indie Film Showcase was awesome! There really was a lot of variety on display. From documentary to comedy to costume drama, 18 short films/trailers showed and all exhibited a lot of creativity in one area or another. In true Ghost Town Productions fashion, we finished burning the Dust to Dust DVD on the drive to the Fest, only to find out at a critical moment that our DVD didn't really work. Michael Williams, the organizer and MC of the showcase, took quick steps to postpone our film a few minutes and I was able to bring my laptop in and show it off of the laptop. Ugh! It would have been nice to sit back and relax and enjoy the show but technical difficulties kept me stressing until the last minute. BUT, it came off very well. The screen was a little dark and occasionally characters' faces looked like black blobs, but I think the fun factor showed through. I didn't realize how intense this film was! We were trying to make a comedy! What happened?!
From here, the plan is I finish work and sleep for a week straight at my home in Texas and then return to start the school semester at MSU. We're hoping to have an official Dust to Dust screening at the theater in Louisville, MS in 3 weeks but I have yet to make any calls on that. When we do, we will also release the online version of the movie. Yes, you will be able to view the whole movie for free online. However, we recommend that if you like it and would like to see it in its full glory and would like to support us at the same time, you purchase a DVD or a hi-res download of the film. I have yet to finalize prices for those but they will be reasonable. We're also mulling over plans for the third installment. We have a lot of ideas we're very excited about. We'll be sharing those and asking for feedback in the near future. Lots of big things are happening in The Blackest Dawn world, I hope you come along for the ride.
Hasta la vista,
Johnson T.
The rewarding part is finally here. We'll be showing Dust to Dust tomorrow at 7 pm in Starkville, MS at Michael Williams' Indie Film Showcase. But, it has been a grueling 5 months since the lightbulb first lit, and looking back I've loved every minute of it. I can't wait to show this film to the world, and I really hope you like it. I also hope that you'll get on board for the third one. We're gonna need all the help we can get! If you're interested in seeing where we came from in making Dust to Dust, follow this link to the project on Celtx. There you'll find the original script, most of the storyboards, and all of the little details that went into planning this film. Check back soon as we'll be posting the project details for the third episode from day 1. You will be able to follow along and be a part of the laborious but ultimately rewarding process.
Till next time,
Johnson T.
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