The Jon Stokes Blog

Tonight we had our first pre-production meeting for The Last Hurrah. From my corporate days, I set my watch on the table and begin the meeting at 09:00:00 - regardless of if everyone has arrived. This trains Los Angelinos to arrive on time.

I pass out typed agendas because I know that nearly every committee in the history of the world has at least one person who will do everything in their power to pull discussion off topic!

If I’m honest, I still have no idea if a one take movie is technically possible. I need empirical proof. So my first goal - before wasting a lot of people’s time - is to organize a test run. I want to use the exact equipment we will use on set to shoot a five minute trial. I need to know how continuous time will feel, how the character hand offs will work, and if viewing hand held will make everyone carsick!

Assuming the test run works, our team has three weeks to workshop the script, find a location, crew up, and cast the movie.

Oh. And money. We need to raise money.

For posterity here is our first meeting agenda.

June 4, 9:00pm General Meeting - The Last Hurrah
AGENDA

1. Introductions
2. Location - Pooling our Resources
3. Test Run of Shoot
4. Equipment for Test Run and Shoot - What Do We Need?
5. Sound Person - Pooling our Resources
6. Other crew - What Do We Need?
7. Our Production Roles
8. Set Tentative Date for Audition, Briefly Discuss Actors and Cast
9. Set Date for Workshopping script