Can I first just say that Burn Notice is an awesome show, such good writing and acting, it’s everything a good Spy show should be.
Now onto business, I tried the hourly assessment yesterday so today I’m trying for just a regular round up of the day.

Early this morning (read: 1 AM), Ryan sent me a copy of the first draft of On The Road, it has a ton of potential. I email him back a few suggestions and get on with my day (or, lets say night). The idea is a mix of old horror, mixed with teen horror, mixed with Science Fiction. I really want to push the boundries with this film, I want to make a big splash and the more effects, drama and character development we can crame into this three minutes, the better off we’ll be.

As the day goes on, more and more promotion for Dare rolls in. Trying to get as many votes as possible, but like I’ve always said, it’s not about the peer vote so much as it is about the Jury vote. I feel very confident that I’ll get the peer vote, but I’m very leery on the Jury vote, and that is what determains my future with this website.

After a phone call with Ryan, we come to the conclusion on a few things in the story. My idea was to write for the sky and scale back, his idea was to write for the budget and scale up.  I like his idea better, it’s much easier to pad the story with flashier scenes than it is to completely take out a section of the script which would waste everyones time and money.

After tossing a few notes and suggestions onto the pdf version of the first draft, I send it back to him and await draft 2 or a call from him regarding some ideas.

Welcome to my life, my independent life. Now I noticed something about a lot of film makers that made it in the industry, a lot of them documented their travels and adventures. Something that I’d love to do down the road is take a look back at what I did and did not do.

I’m a big fan of blogs like Coffee and Celluloid (The Bottom), The Thinking Writer (The middle) and John August (The Top). Now there’s a view from the bottom looking in… an independent producer-director with no film school under my belt.

While I’ve thought about it, film school would be nice but I’ve already produced my first short film on a budget, and I’m producing my second. Why go through the hassle of film school when I can already act as a knowledgeable producer-director?

I’m going to be experimenting with various forms of blogging, everything from just a wrap up of my day to an hourly assessment of my day to just anything on my mind. If you like a specific one, let me know in the comments!

I’m also available to answer any questions. How do you get your short film financed? Where do you find a director of photography? How many production assistants do you need? How do you get three Arri Lights (300, 650 and 1000W, with 15 Scrims, 3 Stands a Chimera and some Gels), A sound Kid (Boom Mic, Boom Pole, High Quality Recorder and 25 Feet of cables) and a High Definition Camera (WIth a 35mm lens) all for $350? This is the place to find out!

So, without further ado, I give you: The Independent Life of Tyler Leisher, Day 1.

12:00 PM
Slept in, it’s rare in my line of work but so delicious when you get the chance. I had been freaking out over the fact that I let one of my lead actresses (Jessica Montanez) walk off set without having her sign a Talent Release form. I had been calling her off and on for the past two weeks trying to get her to fax one over to me, I got a wake up call to the fax coming over! I can breathe easily, it’s going to be a great day.

12:30 PM
My next project is being written by Ryan McLeod, a great up-and-coming writer who recently made the move to LA. Last night Ryan sent me an email with three log lines to look over, I chose one and sent him an email back but after sleeping on it I’m rethinking the other two ideas, I’m really leaning towards one of the other ones.

12:45 PM
I finally cave and send Ryan an email, asking him to write a synopsis for both the ideas. If he would rather just write one, that’s fine by me, I love both ideas and would love to make either happen.

1:30 PM
Filmaka.com released the other films for last months contest, I began to watch them and find the ones that I’d like to vote for.

2:30 PM
Voting for Dare has opened up, I’ll spend the next few hours watching the other entries and promoting my film.

4:45 PM
Finally finished promoting it, everyone I possibly know (and some people I don’t) now know about the film, and hopefully will be voting on it. The only thing that really matters is the Jury, they are the ones who ultimately decide if my film earns me the right to the $1,000 and the chance to make a second film. I’ve spent a little while looking over what I could get for that $1,000, I shot Dare for around $300 and that extra $700 could go a long way. I’d be less skimpy with the money when I’m spending OPM (Other Peoples Money).

5:15 PM
My friend Ricky sends me a text message asking about some audio project he has going, I’ll probably just refer him to Stephen (My sound engineer).

7:30 PM
After talking with a friend of mine, whom I worked with a few weeks ago, to find out when I’ll be paid for that work. Looks like I have to wait til the 15th or this month. After racking up all that debt on the Dare, and a ton of other debt (Including rent, and more!) I’m really anxious regarding my money. I’m one that hates having a lot of debt, I never like to owe people.. but right now I owe a lot… Hopefully this check can bring me out of the red!

9:00 PM
Ryan sent me a text message, asking which one I want to make. I would love to make the Science Fiction film that he proposed last night, but I’m curious how effects heavy it is going to be. After a ten minute phone call with Ryan, we decided on the Science Fiction style story. It should be really interesting, and pretty tough at the same time, a great challenge!

Dare is officially completed! No more than a days rest went by before my next project is under way, gotta love being a Producer-Director. Below is the trailer for Dare, as well as the full length film. You can’t vote yet, but I will repost a blog when you can vote, I can use all the votes I can get… the more votes, the more likely I am to win one of the Peer awards.

My next project is untitled as of yet, but is being written for the next Filmaka contest, the topic? “On The Road”. It is being written by an up and coming writer, Ryan McLeod. With almost the same crew as last time, I’m really eager to get started, unfortunately the ball has just started to roll and it’ll be a few days before anything comes my way.

This morning I had a bit of a heart attack, aside from trying to track down a talent release form from Jessica Montanez (Officer Miller in Dare), my bank decided to temporarily delete my checking and savings account, which held my entire life savings in it. After a few phone calls, getting the run around and sitting on hold for 45 minutes.. I decided to become a member of Washington Mutual… screw Bank of America.

Huzzah for putting the final touches on the new design for my blog (http://www.tylerleisher.com).. I think it looks much more sleak and cool. But while I wait to play some Counter-Strike with some buddies from TeamLiquid.net I think I’ll blog.

I went location scouting today for “Dare,” and while I still need to confirm the use the house/kitchen I found THE PERFECT ALLEY. I cannot express this enough, what I saw in my head when I wrote the script is a real place and we’ll be shooting there.

Of course, it’s an alleyway and therefore probably belongs to fifty different people so we’ll be going guerilla on this one. The bare bones, Matthew (Talent) and Rance (Director of Photography) is all we need on this location so I’ll probably have the rest of the crew and cast call later in the day.

I still cannot believe how I found the alley though, I had the idea so I drove around my town and couldn’t find it. I remembered there’s a cool alley in Venice off of Superba Ave so I started to drive that way but got lost. I made a few lefts and a right and BAM saw something out of the corner of my eye. Drove over to it in, and instantly fell in love with it.

The closer we get to Sunday the more excited I get and the more I start to envision the way this film is going to turn out. Like everyone who is going to enter this contest, I think it’ll win. After looking at some of the competition I might be going above and beyond what is needed for this film… but at the end of the day this isn’t just another entry.

This is being made as a teaser for a longer short/feature, it’s meant to tease at the end (So, you’re probably going to say “Oh damnit… how’s it end” once you watch.. but that’s kind of the point.

Even if I don’t win on Filmaka I can still make up a press dossier, and along with this film shop it around like a calling card to try to get funding for a major one.

At the same time, I’m writing my next two projects. One is another contest entry called “Vibrations,” and another which has no name but it’s a feature film being written by my brother, my best friend and myself and pertains to vampires.

Enough for tonight, time to relax. I might post some photos of the alley tomorrow, or make a video on youtube for it.

I’m filming a short film on July 20th, and while we don’t NEED these positions it would be nice to have them.

I need a 1st AC familiar with focus pulling on the HVX 200, slating and helping the DP. We’ll be shooting to digital so tapes wont be an issue.

I also need a 1st AD, someone who can make a schedule and make sure I’m on it (I’m coming from an AD background so I’m usually good, but just in case).

We’ll be shooting at 4 locations, all on Sunday. Hopefully we can make it in 10 hours but we might run to 12.. nothing more than that.

Students are absolutely welcome, if not preferred. This should be a really fun shoot, you’ll learn a lot and get to work with some great people. If you’ve never 1st before and want to, now is your chance!

This is a short film (4 pages) for Filmaka.com, the director is an award winning new media director making the jump to narrative films.

Food will be provided, but no pay, we’re all working for free. I know, it sucks, especially with the SAG strike looming, but if this film is chosen as a jury level winner you will receive a portion of the $500 as well as paid work on the 2nd level project ($1,000 budget).

If you have questions, feel free to email (spam@leisher.net) me and we’ll discuss.

Hey! So, I removed all the pointless blogs on here so that I could make things more organized and more geared towards film, film making and visual effects.

So there is a contest online where this website gives you a topic, you make a film and submit it, and if you are one of the ten chosen you win $500, if you are one of the (I think) it’s five chosen from the owners of the website you get an additional $1000 to make a second film.

So this months topic is “Truth or Dare,” and I just finished working on the script for my film. It’s a story about a troubled teen dared to do something he never should have done, which ends up getting him into a much different life.

Writing it was surprisling easy, and everyone that I have given it to has loved it so far. Shooting is set for July 20th, 2008 so I need to get cracking on the storyboards and location scouting… the script calls for a Cop Car and an interogation room.. which might harder to find than anticpated but worst case I can always through the “I’m a student film maker” (Which I’m not) and they have the chance to be in something seen by millions (Which it doesn’t) but hey, Officer Joe Blow can go home and show his kids that daddy was in pictures.

Once I get it produced I’ll post the script here, it’s a short (4 page, 3 minute) story but I don’t want to give it out to the public until it is produced.