Besides doing my best to work with and help other filmmakers, one of the most satisfying aspects from last weekend’s Digital Filmmaking Workshops was seeing actors Julia Radochia and Jim McCrackin act out scenes from my screenplay, Searching for Something. This script, written between 1991-1993, originally gathered representation through the Imagination Artists Agency in Los Angeles yet never went much beyond that. However, Searching for Something and its assorted oddball characters (Ski Vukovich, Sheila Cale, Hank Samuel, etc.) has long remained a favorite of mine.

Here’s a brief synopsis of Searching for Something which was circulated to various agencies along with a quote from a New York script consultant:

SYNOPSIS: Ski Vukovich, a disillusioned biographer of blues musicians, travels to Memphis searching for his artist girlfriend Sheila. Due to a prior entanglement with her high school crime partner, a sculptor named Hank, Sheila’s forced to help him secretly exchange his sculpture of Joe Stalin with the one in the city’s art gallery. Ski finds himself assisting in the intricate crime, rescuing Sheila and finding his next book.

“Seraching for Something is an unusual oddball screenplay. Certainly, having someone pull a major art heist has been done before, but having someone switch busts in a museum for his own personal glory is taking that theme and adding an original twist to it. Searching for Something is a really appealing offbeat comedy.” New York Script Consultant Olga Humphrey

As I’ve written here during the past year I remain committed to completing the screenplay to Death & Glory and filming it soon afterwards. The important subject matter in D&G remains vital and the sooner this film begins production the better – there’s definitely an urgent feel behind every aspect of it. My thinking/rationale is simple – as long as the sport of hunting remains legal, not to mention saluted by society and championed by the press, then something must be done – something. No matter how minor of an effort it may end up being, D&G would still be our something.

However, there’s also a lot to be said for having a completed, or nearly completed, screenplay already in hand. This was the case back in the fall of 2003 when we decided to commence production on Dangerous Crosswinds. The fact that the script had been written many years prior greatly expedited the entire production.

Producing a no-budget feature-length film is extremely difficult and taxing no matter which way you cut it. Furthermore, to produce such a film in the correct manner is even more difficult (treating your cast/crew with respect and as you yourself would like to be treated, completing and screening your film, selling your DVD and finally – writing honest press releases which don’t mislead the press and the public, etc.). That said, by the time our crew’s engine is once again up and running again it might not be a bad idea to take advantage of this and attempt to produce as much film content as possible.

Maybe we could shoot D&G and Searching at the same time…

Presented by the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra

Harry Potter, Star Wars, West Side Story, The Wizard of Oz PLUS The World Concert Premiere of music from a movie shot right here in the Seacoast!

This concert by the Seacoast’s own symphony orchestra will be fun for the entire family. The Portsmouth Symphony concludes it’s tenth season in a real pops style featuring hit tunes from many of our favorite movies, the World Premiere concert performance of a Suite for Piano and Strings by New Hampshire resident and composer Jeff Rapsis, featured in Dangerous Crosswinds which was shot right here in the Seacoast! There will be refreshments, merchandise from PSO and A Safe Place and an Instrument Petting Zoo for kids (of all ages) who’d like to meet the orchestra members up close, and try out a few instruments. Benefit for A Safe Place of Rochester and Portsmouth ($2.50 from each ticket goes directly to support this vital service for victims of domestic violence).