“I drew the duck blue because I’ve never seen a blue duck before and – to be honest with you – I wanted to see a blue duck.”

Billy Madison

blueduck

“Billy Madison” | Universal Pictures

Yup. That about sums it up.

The new movie we’re making is a blue duck.

It’s a movie I wanted to see but hadn’t seen before and – to be honest with you – I wanted to see it.

It’s tentatively titled “AK” but I’m fairly certain that’ll change. (For me, a good name usually emerges from the filmmaking process. We haven’t found this one’s real name yet.)

See more behind the scenes photos on Instagram.

See more behind the scenes photos on Instagram.

We spent last week in final rehearsals and jumped straight into production last weekend.

It was a wonderful shoot and everything went pretty well. I’m so grateful for that. Eventually I will share more details about it.

There have been so many lessons learned on this film, so I’ve got some great stuff to share soon.

My approach has always been, “Learn. Do. Teach.”

I don’t pretend to have all the answers; only hard-earned lessons that I’m happy to share so others won’t struggle the way I did for so long. I pay it forward through the TriFilm Society, and I am cooking up some awesome stuff. So stay tuned.

In the meantime, we’ve now moved into post-production.

We had a meeting with our editor today and scrubbed through some of the footage together. We talked through technical decisions that come with every film: color, aspect ratio, coding, resolution, file management, music, motion graphics, visual inspiration, and next steps. It was a really great conversation.

Everyone working on the movie have been asking the best questions about it.

Each time we talk, I get better and better at describing the vision for what we’re making. I’m working hard on getting better because it’s a big part of the job: protecting that vision and communicating it with the people on your team.

So what’s the film about?

It’s about the complexities of relationships, and how we express love as human beings.

It’s about wanting respect and fighting for it.

It’s about being a victim … or not.

More than anything, it’s about your right to personal safety and owning it.

What’s our game plan?

The final version will be pretty short, but the idea is that we can turn it into an episodic exploration of these characters or a feature-length film if there’s interest in it.

We will begin building an audience for the film, submit it to film festivals, and continue working on our self-distribution plan.

WANT TO GET INVOLVED?

Although production has wrapped, we could still use your help.

I shared a few ways to get involved recently (here), including signing up for emails and following along on social. But what we need most is cash.

You can contribute any amount through PayPal here (change $35 to whatever amount you feel is right for you). Every dollar goes towards the film, and you’re name will go in the end credits as a thank you!

Thank you for the support and following along with us.

More details coming soon!