The Movie Deal (which we would have passed on HAD we won) has announced their finalists. Not us. Not even a finalist, though... that kinda stings.

Meh.

Also, Wildsound has fucked us for the second time, still not sending feedback, despite our payment for such.

Beginning to think this is a cursed project.

Ok, not really. It's too awesome for that kind of stigma.

With Kurt's notes - which Chris Smith just went through and agreed he and I are on the same page - I am moving ahead to draft 11. No major changes, just a bit of fleshing out the characters with some revised action and dialogue. Possibly going to re-incorporate some stuff dropped from previous versions and tighten up artifacts from those previous versions.

Also, I've been breaking down the script to get a bead on what we'd be looking at budget-wise. It's an odd beast. It could easily be made for $100,000, but would feel like a no budget film. I think at about $1 million it would be substantially awesome, on par with a film that costs five times as much, simply because of clever filmmaking tricks. That extra money would feed into the actors, obviously, but also one of the most overlooked elements in low budget films: production design.

Still, at this point, even $1,000 is beyond our means. So, I'll keep working on the business plan.

Kurt Rauf gave feedback on the latest draft of Detox. Kurt was the DP on "The Bet" and many other films, including My Name Is Bruce with his buddy Bruce Campbell. Kurt's leaving to go to Michigan next week to catch the tour of MNIB. But he managed to get through the latest draft and make notes.

It'd be pretty much impossible to go into any kind of detail regarding the notes and have it make sense without having first read the script. So I won't - at least not yet. What I will say is Kurt said we went from a mediocre script (draft 4) to a pretty damn good one. He agreed it was a drama that has horrific elements and thriller trappings, but it's not a horror film, nor a thriller. He had absolutely no problems with the story/plot; his comments were mainly on dialogue (we were a bit wordy), artifacts of plot devices removed from previous drafts and some suggestions to punch up the characters a bit.

Still waiting for other responses, but so far, not too drastic of changes.

Oh, and today is the notification date for The Movie Deal. They haven't posted the winners yet, but, based on previous experience, I'd say we'd have known by now if we won.

On Friday, I came across a post from the Director of Development of a production company asking for scripts to be pitched. I sent him an email asking if they were buying the script outright or if they were willing to allow me to develop it for them as the director. They said they were open to all options. So, I figured it wouldn't to give it a shot.

The problem was I had never pitched a script before. And everything I could find about techniques on pitching spent a lot of time covering how to look, how to present yourself and how to interact with the person to whom your pitching. Obviously I wasn't actually meeting them, so all that advice wasn't doing me any good.

I looked through the company's site, saw the kinds of films they had been making. Then looked those films up on IMDb. They had requested low-budget horror/sci-fi/fantasy scripts. What they had done were very low budget horror films. And not something that was straddling genres the way Detox does. There was no doubt these were horror films.

I had already decided they were going to pass on the script, so I didn't feel any kind of pressure writing something up and sending it to them. I decided to approach it more as a proposal in a business plan than an actual script pitch. I didn't want to go through the entire thing, scene-by-scene, and waste their time, when I was pretty sure this wasn't their cup of tea. Instead, I wrote out an introduction, a logline, the theme, a synopsis and then a list of selling points, such as the character of Miss Northrup being an ideal cameo option for a well-known star. The selling points also explained why we would be a good choice to create the film ourselves.

I sent it off last night. This morning I got their response.

Thanks for the very detailed pitch (really like your style of pitching), but we're going to pass on reading the script. Feel free to pitch me any other completed scripts you have.

Like I said, I didn't expect them to go with it, so it's not a letdown. And the comment about liking the style of pitching could be B.S., but it might not.

The whole thing, though, has really reinforced the need to write a straight-up horror script. No questions horror. Not a psychological thriller. Not an enigmatic drama. A horror film. I've got one in mind. All it takes is to get it on the page. Maybe that is what will eventually allow Detox to get made.

A few months ago we submitted an in-progress draft of Detox to the Wildsound Screenplay Contest as they provide feedback on every script submitted - whether or not it "wins" and is given a live reading with live feedback. I never heard anything back from them and contacted them to check on the status. Their records showed feedback had been sent; however, I never received anything. So they said to resubmit, and it would go through the process again. So I did and, not knowing exactly which version of the script I'd sent through before, I sent the final version. That was a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully in about a month we'll hear something.

We also submitted the script to two other contests. The first is The Movie Deal. Their grand prize is getting the script produced. By them. Not exactly my favorite option as I want to direct the film myself, but, if it does win, we have the option of not accepting the offer. So why enter? They can also offer a cash prize in lieu of a production deal. And, really, if it did happen to win, at least we know it's good. Winners will be announced November 15th.

The third contest is the Cinequest Screenplay contest. That one's a bit more appealing. The grand prize is $5000, a consultation with a "seasoned" producer and a physical award (cool!). The top ten finalists (including the grand prize) get a roundtable with producers, agents and experts on the business of writing and some other cool little things. The top ten finalists are notified mid-January and have a month or so to polish the script based on feedback from the judges before final judging.

Fingers crossed on all of the above.

The script has also been sent off to a couple of friends (Kurt Rauf and Dan Kauppi) to get feedback from them as well.

Until we get some outside notes, we're taking a break from working on it and from submitting it to any other contests. Chris and I both think the story is rock-solid, and only anticipate issues with the characters' arcs, motivations, etc. But you never know.

After quite a bit of discussion, draft 10 of Detox is finally done. It is not yet the final final final draft, however it is the draft going to the first contest. There are few minor points to noodle. This is the draft we are going to let people read and get feedback on. This is the draft that will be copyrighted. This is the draft that will be going out to contests and festivals.

There will definitely be a draft 11, but it won't happen without some outside feedback.

So far it has gone to two people, Kurt Rauf and Dan Kauppi - I respect both of their opinions. There are already little bits I could put in, but I don't want to do anything until I have some sort of "this needs this" or "that needs that" - otherwise it's just clogging the script.

I think it's pretty damn tight. And I would be 100% confident taking it into production. I know that, once cast, the actors wil have some input - and I am 100% ready to listen and put that input into the final film. Watching Zak Forsman's "I Fucking Hate You" and listening to how the scripts he "writes" are very much just stories that the actors improvise the dialogue and some of the action, I am very much intrigued and interested in attempting something similar - though on a slightly more controlled level. I think I could handle directed an improvised short, but a feature... I might go insane. I'm not a control freak, but... well, okay, I'm not kidding anyone. I am a control. Hello, My name is Michael Dunn and I am a control freak. I don't have an issue with it. Do you?

Anyway. Now that we have a "final" draft, we are going to submit to a couple of contests and see how that goes. Get some feedback from friends in the industry and see where we can improve it. This is PHASE ONE.

In a few months, if nothing has come of PHASE ONE, we will enter PHASE TWO. That's where we try to get a name actor attached to the script and take it from being a script and making it a PACKAGE.

If we still can't get financing (which, really, is $1 million THAT much to ask?!?) we'll enter PHASE THREE. That's where we sell internal organs and fluids to raise the cash to fund it ourselves.

Stay tuned.

When interviewed about "The Bet," I was asked what it was like to write with a partner. I thought I'd take a minute and explain the process Chris Smith and I go through.

It's not the way many people might imagine, where we discuss and ponder and brainstorm in between turns at the keyboard. Actually quite different. And that's not to say our way is the right way, only our way.

Before any writing was done, we had lunch to discuss the story, the characters, etc. I had emailed him prior with a very rough idea of the story to see if he was interested in collaborating again. When he agreed to tackle this thing together, we had lunch and discussed the story, the characters, etc. Once we were both pretty much on the same page (as it were) in regards to those elements, I banged out a very rough first draft - actually, the second draft as the first was abandoned a few pages in when the location changed from a cabin in the woods to a suburban home.

I sent that draft to Chris. He read it and we, again over lunch, discussed it. I went back with our notes and made changes. This process continued through the fifth draft. That's when Chris really went through and overhauled huge sections of the script. His sixth draft had dropped a number of scenes between the two main characters which I stripped back in for the seventh draft. From there, only minor changes were made to create the final draft. Anyone who knows about writing spec scripts knows regardless of how many drafts are gone through, the final draft of the script is actually the first. So, now we have a finished first draft. This is what will be going out into the world.

Although the process took 19 months, which may or may not be a long time, it was a necessity. He and I both have real jobs outside of writing scripts, so the majority of our day is spent earning a paycheck. We also both have families, so a lot of our free time is spent there. The good thing that came out of the drawn-out process was that it gave us time to think about the script. Even if we weren't at the keyboard working on the script, our brains were, sorting through things.

I felt the fifth draft was pretty much done. Just some minor tweaks. Then, while it was in Chris' hands for just over two month, I started to see major flaws. I sent my concerns to him via email - sometimes two or three times a day - and he took it all in. This lead to a nearly perfect next draft.

The thing I like about having a collaborator is that all the pressure isn't on me. I don't have to stress that every word is perfect, that every scene flows, that every motivation works, that each arc is being handled. In fact, there are many times I would simply write something like "We need something to go here" and leave it for him to deal with. And I knew that if something I wrote sucked, he'd catch it and call me on it. This sort of check and balance works for us.

The other thing I really like about it is I get the chance to read the script as if it were new to me. When I was reading Chris' sixth draft, there were moments when I was in complete suspense, not knowing how things were going to resolve - even though I knew pretty much everything that was going to happen. Reading it through someone else's words is like rediscovering it, and it helps point out where the script is good and where it's failing.

Chris and I have very different backgrounds, different ideas, different views. When he introduced the newscaster puppets in "The Bet," I didn't like the idea. But I stayed with it, respecting his vision, and it worked. There are some bits like that in Detox, where I'm not completely sold. I'm sure there are for him as well. There's some compromise, some hard decisions, but ultimately we agree that if it works for the story, it stays.

I've tried to write a few scripts myself, but, ultimately, if I decide to pursue them fully, Chris will have a go at them. I don't him to do the same, but I like what he brings to my ideas. This is the kind of collaboration I thrive on. If I was deadset on my way of doing things, I would've never been able to get "The Bet" made - nor would it have turned out half as good as it did. Some might think I'm lazy; some might think my "vision" is being watered down. I don't. I think it works perfectly.

For quite some time, I've believed that everything around is an answer, we just haven't asked the question yet. On February 9, 2007 I was at a photoshoot at Francis George's studio. Between shots, I was looking through some of his props on a shelf and came across a huge horse syringe. Francis said I should write a script that we could use the syringe on the poster.

I had already been toying with ideas that might work as a low-budget thriller. But the syringe added an element I hadn't yet thought of. That night, as sleep invaded, an idea was formulating. I was mixing the syringe with the "cabin in the middle of the woods" idea that worked well for Evil Dead. And so I started asking questions:

• Why is there a syringe? Because of drugs.
• Who is doing drugs? I don't know.
• Is doing drugs interesting? Not as much as withdrawing.
• Aha! So who is withdrawing? A loved one.
• Why are the at the cabin? For privacy.
• Why do they need privacy? Doing something illegal.
• So, what are they doing that's illegal and withdrawal-related?

That's when this little nugget pops up - A guy is detoxing his girlfriend from heroin.

From there, it's just adding spice. What if it's his ex-girlfriend? And he's doing it by force. And he's got someone helping him. And that helper is actually acting against him.

Well, you get the point. It took some time to noodle the major points, but it all came down to finding that syringe on a shelf when I should've been paying attention to a photoshoot.

And yes, that actual syringe is the one in the teaser poster.

My name is Michael Dunn (also "The Man in the Planet) and I am a filmmaker.
Shortly after completing my directorial debut, the short film, "The Bet," I had an idea for a feature-length film. My co-writer on "The Bet," Chris Smith, agreed to tackle the project together.

In the next couple of days, I will begin this blog - which will go back in time to discuss how the script was conceived and written and follow it through the submission to festival and contests on its way to being produced. Should production actually happen, every facet of that will be covered here as well.

On the right is a box with "rubberblog Feed." That's my regular blog that covers everything that pops into my head. This blog is dedicated to Detox.

Feel free to comment, question and subscribe.