We have decided to forgo further contests due to a lack of funds for entry fees. Instead, we are polishing the latest and final draft which will be sent for a paid critique (yeah, I said we had a lack of funds) and then we will be packaging it up for presentation to a producer whom we know through a friend. It's doubtful he will toss out a wad of cash to produce the film (we are also submitting the recently finished Under to him as well), but our hope is he might know someone who would be interested in tossing out a wad of cash.

Pretty much all we are doing (and by "we," I mean "Chris," since he's working on the latest draft while I banged out Under) is tightening up the characters' motivations/arc/etc. That's the one thing I felt was missing. And now we've got a handle on it. Otherwise, we (Chris and I) both think it's a rockin' awesome script.

I was so happy that no film had been made (at least according to IMDb) with the title Detox. Until now. Sure, it's a totally different story. Yes, it only cost $10,000 to make. Okay, everyone involved has really only been involved in this one film. But still. Really?!

Fuck.

Well, Cinequest just sent a rejection letter (which, I must say, as much as a rejection letter sucks, it's better than not hearing anything and just assuming you didn't make it). We didn't make it into the top ten finalists. Which kinda sucks because the top ten get feedback to make changes for resubmission into the finals. I'm dying for feedback on this thing. I think it's good. Chris thinks it's good. Kurt thinks it's good. Oh well.

So, I'm now going in and breaking down the script to see how much it would take to shoot it ourselves. Not that we'd be able to get the cash, but, if it were doable at $200,000, then, well... maybe. But I can't see that happening. Still, with a budget breakdown and a business plan, who knows.

Still waiting to hear from Wildsound, but after two rounds with no feedback from them, I think it's a lost cause (and a lost $40).

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.