Day 33: The No-So-Silent Movie Project: CASTING!

I've had several friends whom I have approached about casting for this film (along with one very energetic girl who loves acting).  Of course the conversations can be interesting:

ME: "So, you know that blog that I have? The daily blog thing?

FRIEND: Yeah

ME: Well I was wondering if you would be willing to help me with that?

FRIEND: Doing what?

ME: Well I'm going to be doing a movie with that project and I need some people to act in it.

FRIEND: What's the movie about?

ME: (this is where I pause because I'm trying to figure out how to tell her this a mystery that includes the Grim Reaper.  Think . . . think . . . there's got to be a way to do that without sounding weird . . .) So I'm writing this mystery with a detective who works with the Grim Reaper! (Okay so there's no way to say that so that it doesn't sound weird).

FRIEND: Okaaaayyy . . .

I explain further that this is a comedy and the premise of the mystery and she agrees to help.  But that's just one.  I need a few more.  So I decided to put the following casting call on facebook to see who would respond:

CASTING CALL FOR MY MOVIE PROJECT!
Hello to my Facebook friends!  I'm really going to try to shoot this film.  If you're around the Roanoke Rapids area and would like to help me with and/or take a role in this project, just let me know!  This is just a project for fun, but it should be a lot of fun!  If you want to help, just message me and let me know.

So far I've gotten some responses and some people have agreed to help and some have agreed to look at the script.  I'm super psyched!  I hope we can start soon!

Day 32: The Silent Movie Project: Changing the Project

Part of this project stemmed from the fact that I was really excited to find an app that could turn my movies into old-style movies.  And the likelihood of still being about to do that is possible, but I have realized that this is a lot of script for something that was intended to be silent.  I also really want people to hear the dialog.  So, I'm thinking of re-doing the project to just look old, but will have vocals on it.

Of course that made me start thinking about movies in general and how far we have come.  We're kind of attached to sound now - or at least I know that I am.  It's nice to hear dialog and hear the tone and intent that a film is supposed to have.  But I also wonder how many times the vision of a movie changes throughout the process of writing and filming it?  Do writers and directors often change what they want the looks of their creations to do?  How much is set in stone from the beginning to the end of the project?  Things that I may not find the answer to, but would be interesting to see.  

So. . . for now at least, I'm going to attempt to film in color.  But now I have to deal with my next challenge - casting!

Day 31: The Silent Movie Project: Continuity Issues

Admit it:

When we look at movies, books and television shows, we pick at issues of continuity and whether or not there are things that make sense.

I'll admit it.  I do it all the time.  Especially with mysteries or with franchises such as Star Wars and Star Trek.

Now I know what people go through trying to find and fix them.

I went through those and found that there were quite a few minor problems and a few major problems as well.  I'm going to highlight them here.  If you find any more, please let me know.

The first issue was that of the hairs in the hat.  I knew that the hat would be important, but I was trying to figure out how.  I had to demonstrate through Grimm and Mia's conversation that he had found the hairs so that she could get them to the authorities.  I edited the script to reflect that.  In that scene as well, there is the fact that Grim knew who the donors were based on looking at the file.  I had to make sure that I had them divulge that information in conversation so that Mia wouldn't magically know it at the time of the solution.

The second issue was that of the television.  Hudson Bancroft mentions that he was asked by Daniel Miller to come over and look at his new television.  This was important because while Mia knew he had money, and through questioning he could prove that he had the initial capital to purchase the television.  The fact that, upon further questioning, he could only afford basic cable, he was clearly having money problems.  Mia knew that with the money he should have had based on the style of living he maintained, he could have had anything he wanted.  This confirmed the fact that he had been a major investor in the company and stood to lose everything should Elsa not give the designs to them.

Finally, I'm having to make the fact that Elsa had the designs that she wouldn't sell and that the fact that she wouldn't sell was very important to the business deal.  Had she been willing to give up the designs, Daniel wouldn't have been in the position to lose his money because the buyer that Bancroft had lined up was only interested if he could be the sole distributer of the line.

Those are the major continuity problems that I'm working on, let me know if you see more!

Don't forget to Live Orange!

Day 30: The Silent Movie Project - The Script: Solution

Im BAAAACK! 

Okay, so I needed to take a break and this won't be 365 consecutive days, but I do plan on getting at least 365 in.  Plus, I have this fun movie project ahead of me!

I guess it was pretty rotten to do everything but the solution of the murder over the holidays, but hey, "to be continued" has been a story tradition for centuries!  Well, I'll shut up and let you finish the solution to the mystery.  Just remember that I'm going to be ironing out kinks, so if you see something that needs to be fixed, let me know.  But don't worry, I'll be going back through and checking it out myself.  I hope you enjoy and that you see if you can figure out . . .

Who dunnit!

And don't forget to Live Orange!

THE SCRIPT:

SCENE: Mia, Grimm, Maggie Johnston, Hudson Bancroft, Daniel Miller and the police detective at the house of Elsa Miller.  No one but Mia can see Grimm.

MIA: I would like to thank everyone for coming. 

MAGGIE: It's not as if we really had a choice, now, is it?

MIA: No, it's not, but its polite to say thank you all the same.

DANIEL: Why are we all here, Miss Silverton?  Am I to understand that you have caught my sister's killer?

MIA: Indeed, Mr. Miller, I know who it is and I intend to prove it here. (to Hudson Bancroft)  Mr. Bancroft, you said that you were with Miss Johnston at the time of the murder, is that right?

BANCROFT: Yes, Miss Silverton, I did.  And Maggie has backed me up, has she not?

MIA: She has, yes.  But both of you mentioned that you were headed towards the deal of a lifetime regarding Maggie's designing business, correct?

BANCROFT: (carefully) Yes, but I asked you to keep that to yourself, Miss. Silverton.  We don't want it to get out as of yet.

MIA: Why, Mr. Bancroft?  The people in this room, save for myself and the sergeant here, all know about the deal you had. . . don't they? 

BANCROFT: Technically, yes, but there are still some things that we're working on.  We want to make sure that we have everything before we make it public.  There will be such a demand, we want to make sure that our backers have all the information first.

MIA: Ah, yes, your backers.  We'll come back to that in a minute. It's a rather convenient alibi, for both of you, (cuts to Maggie and Bancroft) is it not?  You can vouch for each other but otherwise you can prove nothing.

MAGGIE:  Wait just a minute!  I can certainly prove that I was with Hudson!  We were there going over our business plan.

MIA: I have no doubt that you were, Ms. Johnston.  In fact, you left one of the files you had at your "meeting" on the desk in your living room. It had a list of your backers on it.

MAGGIE: (gasps) I did not leave it open in my living room!

MIA: glances at Grimm, knowing that he was the one who had looked at the file and told her this, but she had to pretend that it was she who had seen the file legally and continues her description.) You did, Ms. Johnston.  I saw the list briefly.  In fact, all three of you had a motive to kill Elsa Miller and all three of you had the opportunity. 

SUSPECTS: All object emphatically

DANIEL: I certainly had no reason to kill my sister!

MIA: Yes, Mr. Miller, you did.  You were one of the backers for the new project.  You stood to lose as much as anyone if the deal didn't go through.

DANIEL What?!

BANCROFT: I - I loved Elsa, Ms. Silverton!  I told you that I had just drummed up the courage and had intended to ask her out!  I couldn't have killed her!

MAGGIE: Why you lying cheat! (She starts towards Bancroft but the sergeant stops her)

MIA: Thank you, Sergeant.  Mr. Hudson you claimed that you did not know Elsa's neighbors, that you had never seen them, and yet you described Mrs. Kipster's curlers and said that she was always watching.  How did you know she had curlers to begin with and was always watching if you had not observed her?

BANCROFT: I - I live in the neighborhood.  I just misspoke.

MIA: I'm sure you did.  In fact, I firmly believe that Elsa had not one, but two visitors that night.  The first one, was you, Ms. Johnston.

MAGGIE: Me!  Why that's ridiculous!  I told you my alibi!

MIA: Yes, you did, and as I said before, it doesn't hold up. You went to Elsa's house at 5:00 PM on the afternoon of the murder.  In fact, it was you who Mrs. Kipster saw pull up in a blue car, a rental I'm sure, it won't be hard to check.  She saw you get out wearing gloves, a fedora, and a trench coat.  The same fedora that you had in your living room when I came to visit.

MAGGIE: It was not in my living room! - (then gasps, realizing she has just admitted to having the fedora)

MIA: It was, Ms. Johnston.  It might not have been in plain sight, but I have a keen eye.

MAGGIE:  I did not kill Elsa!

MIA: But you do admit to seeing her?

MAGGIE: Sighs, yes, I went there.  I tried to talk some sense into her about selling the designs she had cheated me out of.

MIA: It was more than that, Ms. Johnston, you accused her of stealing your boyfriend.  You knew that Bancroft was interested in more than just getting the designs from her.  He was interested in her and you wanted her to stay away.  But she never let you get everything out.

MAGGIE:  She was in her bedroom when I got there and I went upstairs to talk some sense into her.  But she threatened to hit me with her crutches if I didn't leave.  In fact she picked one up and swung at me with it.

MIA: Indeed?  And you left soon after?

MAGGIE: I was only there for about five minutes, then I left.  I went straight to Hudson's after that.

DANIEL: Sure you did.

MAGGIE: (Shouting at him) It's the truth!

MIA:  I believe you, Ms. Johnston. 

DANIEL: Then who did kill poor Elsa?  She was practically defenseless.

MAGGIE: Not with those stupid crutches she wasn't.

DANIEL: She didn't even have a chance to get them off the wall to attack her murderer - before you killed her!

MIA: That's an interesting statement, Mr. Miller.

DANIEL: Well it's true.

MIA: Not quite, I'm afraid.  How did you know that the crutches were against the wall?

DANIEL: I - well - Maggie just said so.

MIA: No, she just said that Elsa threatened her with them.  She was in her bedroom when she died, and Ms. Johnston just stated that she was in her bedroom when she saw her.  Her foot had only recently been broken and the doctors had ordered bed rest for her.  You knew that.  Everyone did. 

DANIEL: It's just a statement, it has no meaning.  All I was trying to say was that she was defenseless when she died.

MIA: No, Mr. Miller, you weren't.  The only person who could have known that the crutches were against the wall was the killer - who put them there himself.

SERGEANT:  Please explain, Ms. Silverton.

MIA: Maggie's room had a bed and a pair of bedside tables on either side of it.  You saw that from the crime scene photos, Sergeant.  Elsa was working on business in bed when she was killed.  She had her foot propped up on pillows and was sitting to one side of the bed so that she could access the food and drink left on the bedside table she was closest to.  In order to threaten Maggie Johnston, she would have had to have had the crutches near the bed.  Either on it or beside it.  Anyone would have.  There was no possible way that she could have gotten the crutches against the wall and then gotten into bed.  It wouldn't have made sense for anyone on crutches.  The tables are so wide that she couldn't reach the wall unless she hopped from there to the bed.  We know that's not true because I made a call to Elsa's housekeeper who said that she put the crutches against the table herself after fixing Elsa food and drink before she left for the day. Something that Ms. Johnston just confirmed for us with her story.

DANIEL: That doesn't prove that I did it.

MIA: Oh I think it does, but if you'd like more proof, then I have it.  Mr. Miller.  You said that you came home and watched Seinfeld at 6:00.  Seinfeld doesn't come on at 6:00, it comes on at 4:30 and goes off at 5:00.  You also didn't corroborate Mr. Bancroft's story that he came over to your house to see your new TV.  I believe that you called Bancroft to look at it, but when he came over you weren't there.  How did you get a new TV, Mr. Miller?

DANIEL: I bought a new TV, so what?

MIA: You have a nice house and a wonderful new TV, but where do you get the funds?

DANIEL:  I work for a living.  Where else.

MIA: I believe you have earned a good living for yourself, but you're also in a bind financially.  That was because you agreed to back Bancroft and Johnston's business arrangement for a considerable amount. In fact you stood to make a lot of money because you were backing it for so much.  You bought a new TV last week to celebrate and called Bancroft the day before to tell him about it.  You believed that it was a fool proof proposition based on the information that Bancroft had given you, but it would put you over a barrel financially if it failed.  Your sister, of all people, held the key to that success.

BANCROFT: But he didn't know that Elsa was the key, Ms. Silverton.

MIA: Really?

BANCROFT: Of course.  I had told no one but Maggie.

MIA: Which was why you were worried when I mentioned it this evening, because you didn't want Daniel Miller to find out.

BANCROFT: Yes.

MIA: But didn't it make you curious, Mr. Bancroft, that Daniel didn't object in outrage about my announcement?  He took it as if he knew it.

BANCROFT: (suddenly realizes how true her statement is) By George, you're right!  How did-

MIA: It was Maggie who told him.  She became worried that you would be unable to get the designs from Elsa because of your attachment to her and she told Daniel of the problem.  He understood that he stood to lose his entire fortune if the venture failed and he decided to take matters into his own hands.

DANIEL: This is preposterous!  You have no proof!

MIA: (turning to Maggie) You went directly to Mr. Bancroft's house when you were done, didn't you, Ms. Johnston?

MAGGIE: I did.

MIA:  Mr. Miller was there too, wasn't he?

MAGGIE: Yes, he was, but not for long.  He said he was going for dinner and then going home.  He came back about 10 minutes later and said he'd forgotten his coat, took it and left.

MIA: I'm sure he did.  It was in that 10 minute time that he murdered his sister.

DANIEL: (angrily) Again!  Where is your proof?!

MIA: You took the keys to Maggie's rental and borrowed her fedora and drove to your sister's house.  You went to reason with her about the deal.  You begged her to give you the designs but she refused.  Then you left the room.  She thought you had gone, but you came back.  That was why there was no apparent sign of a struggle.  The only thing evident was that the books were displaced and that the crutches were on the other side of the bed - away from where she could have normally reached them.  It was Maggie that Mrs. Kipster saw pull into Elsa's driveway and enter the house, but it was you that she saw leave.  You didn't come back for your coat.  You had it on.  You came back to drop off the keys to Maggie's rental car. You wore gloves so that you wouldn't have prints on the car, but you made a fatal mistake.  It was your coat.

DANIEL: (he looks drawn and concerned, but doesn't give up) Do tell, Ms. Silverton.

MIA:  You had a coat hanging on the rack that still had a dry cleaners tag on it.  I checked with the cleaners.  They remembered that coat in particular because it had a large blood stain on the front of it and a rip near the stain.  They took out the threads and sewed the rip back.  There was blood on the threads.

DANIEL: Aside from the fact that finding the threads won't prove that I was the killer, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

MIA: Oh, I agree, Mr. Miller.  Only, they cross-referenced the cleaner tag that I wrote down with their records.  The coat was yours and they noted on the record that it was a blood stain. There are officers at your house now with a warrant to take your coats, Mr. Miller.  I wonder if the tag is still on it?

DANIEL: (bolts for the door and the Sergeant chases after him.)

MIA: Well, I guess he doesn't really have a leg left to stand on.

GRIMM: (shakes his head and walks out the door)

SCENE: Mia and Grimm in the car, the scythe is sticking out of the roof again.

GRIMM:  You took a chance giving away all that information.

MIA: Perhaps, but he was getting extremely uncomfortable and I was sure it wouldn't be long before he broke down.

GRIMM: All of that evidence pointed to him, but it was still a little light on the solid proof - until the officers got the coat from his house.

MIA: Again, true, but that was a major mistake that he should have avoided.

GRIMM: Well, you can drop me off at the next block.

MIA: Oh?  And where are you going?

GRIMM:  You know I do have a full time job and it doesn't involve following you around all day.

MIA: Awww, you're gonna miss me!

GRIMM: Hardly.

MIA: Well, if you need another expert, just give me a call.

GRIMM: My dear, if I wanted an expert, I'd have gone straight to the police.

MIA: Then why did you look me up.

GRIMM: Desperation - mixed with insubordination  - is an excellent recipe for finding the truth quickly.  I needed a bulldog, not a film noir private eye.

MIA: Thanks.

GRIMM: But if I need another bulldog, I will certainly look you up. . . That is, until I come for you for good.

MIA: Do and I'll haunt wherever I am forever.

GRIMM: (sighs) I truly miss the dark ages.

THE END