Erin Go Bye Bye

To follow you up on my driver's test. I failed. To put it in a nutshell, I got nervous. Thankfully, I'll be getting another chance on the 25th. Hopefully, this time I'll pass.

I've decided to shut down this blog. I still plan on working on both my movie and my book--however, I'd rather spend less time blogging about myself and more time actually...working. In the past several months, I feel like so many options have opened up to me that the need to promote "Erin Scherer" (if you know what I mean) is no longer necessary.

Right now, I'm working on trying to sit down and focus on a project or two. I know what I want to do, it's just a matter of sitting down and doing it.

In the meantime, please visit granterinswish.com, and click on the Google advertisements!

Location, Location

I've been in hiding the last couple of weeks. I have been in the process of trying to straighten things around with my trip to Austin, exploring new avenues of income, and planning out this movie, among other things.

Well, I made the first step toward the production just now. I sent out e-mails to locations I might be using during production. I haven't even written the movie yet, but I have some ideas visualized as to where I want to shoot. Here are the locations I'm looking into:

Gimme Coffee, Cayuga St., Ithaca
Pixel Arcade, Collegetown, Ithaca
Level B Bar, Collegetown, Ithaca
Olin & Uris Libraries, Cornell University
Kroch Asia Library, Cornell University
Fine Arts Library, Cornell University
No Radio Records, Seneca St., Ithaca

I'm not worried about the last one, because I know the owners well enough that I'll just ask them the next time I'm in their store...or something.

I'm Not Ready

I've realized something.

I'm not ready to make another movie right now. Making a movie is really important to me, but right now I need to get things straightened around. Driver's test aside, I'm working on trying to launch something freelance for myself, and so far, making a movie has mostly been an afterthought. Creating a safety net for myself is important.

My goal was to finish something in time for the 2009 SXSW Festival, but I don't know if that's really going to happen. That I've had to reconcile to this makes me sad, but I have to choose my battles.

This blog is going to go through a major overhaul in the next couple of weeks.

Cocooning After Christmas

Well, I've slated to take off five days at Christmas. We're closed on the 25th, and I requested the 26th through the 29th off. And I have one goal: to get something written.

A script for the movie I want to shoot, hopefully. With my job, it's been hard to make a long term commitment to any project. To go from relative solitude to the chaos of working at a supermarket can be very jarring. Working front end register can be intensely stressful. Hopefully, I'll have my driver's license soon, and from there on out, things should be full speed ahead.

But I'm getting off track. I feel it's a little weird to be working on the script already. For too long, I've been trying to figure out where the money's going to come from, but right now I don't care. I have a feeling that once I have an idea for a movie, in place, the rest will fall into place. I'm actively thinking about the kind of things I want to write. I need to stop worrying about fitting into any mold, drop any pretension, and just WRITE. The audience will be there.

Happy Birthday Eddie Kaye Thomas!

Well, I think I'm ready to start working toward a movie. It would be stupid to do this whole trip, and have nothing to show for it. I'm not talking about wishful thinking; I'm starting to feel a movie.

Oh, and Happy Birthday to Eddie Kaye Thomas! I maintained a fansite for Eddie for four years--until I lost interest and felt it was more important to tend to my own career. He turns 27 today. Yay Eddie!

ahhhhh....

Well, I'm starting to have visions about a movie, and I haven't even had to force myself to have them. It occurred to me last night not to worry about the "real" details--money, where I'm going to shoot it, even what format I'm going to shoot it on. Just write the script, and everything else will come to me on its own.

I'm thinking about getting a grant for equipment, though. There's a lot that I'd like to buy, but I need the money. Maybe the grant will help me buy it.

Just Breathe...and Drive

Today was my first driving lesson. I was very nervous when I got behind the wheel, but as the lesson progressed, I felt better. I just need to remember everything, that's all.

Now that I'm finally working on my driver's license, maybe It's time to set certain things aside. That's not a bad thing, just that those things might need more attention than I can give to it right now.

Earlier tonight, I saw a collection of films by Maya Deren, and I have to say that this is the first DVD I saw since I've started this blog that really got me thinking about what I want to create. Two of those movies in particular: Meshes of the Afternoon and At Land. The latter has some incredible, breathtaking locations shot on Long Island. The opening scene reminded me of the opening scene of something I've seen before. Hmm...

I have a lot to think about right now.

Now I Have It

Last night at work, for reasons I don't know, I began listing the items I will need to include in the budget for my movie. Actually, earlier in the day, I was reading this article, and in particular, the sidebar by Joe Swanberg. It cost him only $2K to do Kissing on the Mouth, minus the transfer to DigiBeta (and a few other expenses).

When I made Are You From Bingo?, I tried to keep those other expenses in mind--namely, the festival submission fees. Of course, it didn't get into any festivals at that time. But whatever. Here's the list of things I came up with:

Camera Rental
Food
Batteries
Tapes
DigiBeta/HD Transfer
Gaffer Tape (?)
First Aid
Festival Fees
Soundtrack Expenses
External HD

This budget is not final. I'm sure I'll think of other things as I go along. I don't even have a script yet, but I do have ideas...

In other news, I watched Inland Empire tonight. I fell asleep about a 1/2 hour or so into the movie, but up until then, it was good. At nearly three hours, I thought it dragged on. I can understand firsthand not wanting to be comprimising, but this movie should have been split into two parts, a la Kill Bill. I liked the closing credits, which had the cast dancing to Nina Simone's "Sinner Man". That was awesome.