Preproduction work on The Animals is gearing up again.  I’m hoping to shoot in August or September, depending on cast and crew schedules.

What’s the film about?  In an effort to clarify:

In a nutshell I think the film is about a couple that either can’t or won’t change, and how that fact affects both those around them and their own marriage.

The two main characters themselves have no clear arch.  That can be disconcerting.  Instead the people around them do in response to the aggressive consistency of the main couple.  This makes for a film that is flipped on its head in terms of plot structure.  The beauty of this is that we are afforded the opportunity to play up characteristics that rarely get seen in film, but are ubiquitous in real life.

Most people don’t change.  Not fundamentally.  Instead, in their remarkable fear of change, they continually make mistakes and cause pain and suffering to those around them in what amounts to a loop of consistency.  It’s in how the peripheral characters react in response to being caught up in that whirl pool that is interesting.

A good friend of mine, Steve Libbey, has just published a new book, The Bloodbaths, and is having a Book Release Shindig this saturday:

Saturday, November 10th at Work/Sound (820 SE Alder, PDX). 8 PM.

Music by the Golden Greats ( www.thegoldengreats.com, Steve’s own funk band!) and DJ sets by DJ Norto and DJ Miss Spent-Youth (the covergirl for the book!).

Be there.

Tonight (Sept. 15th, 2007)  Maria Webster (the best musician in Portland) is playing at the coffee shop on 60th and Stark, PDX  at 6pm.  I don’t know the name of the place, because I’m an idiot.  But, she’s fantastic.  Acoustic Soul.  If you can make it, you should.  Wine, bear, food, etc.

WE had a script reading last night, and it went great.  One of the actors wasn’t able to make it, so Big J stepped in and read the part … only he did it with the voice of STrong Bad!

When I wrote the film (a tragic love story) I hadn’t quite envisioned this particular part to played with such passionate vigor, and with overtones of Mexican wrestling.  Nice.  Very nice.

We also  got to take a look at the apartment we’ll be using as the abode of another character.  Great.  It’s better than I could have wanted.  A basement apartment with a large 2 head shower in the bathroom. very roomy, earthy, but sweet.  Perfect.

Things are going well.  I’m exited.

I put the finishing touches on it today and sent it out to my comrade’s.  Now it’s time to  start rehearsals … and memorizing …

Well, my rewrite of The Animals is going a little slower than planned, but that is to be expected.  I’ve now gotten more than 4/5th’s of it completed.  And in the process I’ve lengthened the original by a good 16 pages already.  It should be completed by the end of Friday (fingers crossed).  After that, we’ll go straight into rehearsals with the actors.

See my new cartoon blog at Stripgenerator.com

Apparently I’m not the only Saij.  There is a Canadian Boy Band/Cover Band with the same name.

SAIJ is a five-man vocal group, with a crowd-pleasing mix of pure harmony, high energy, and dynamic stage presence.
Their repertoire consists of popular music by such artists as The Temptations, Moxy Fruvous, The Nylons, and Boyz II Men, just to name a few. Members of SAIJ have extensive backgrounds in writing, directing and arranging, not to mention ensemble and solo singing, and most of the music is arranged by the band members themselves.

And there is also Isabella Saij, the French “net” artist.  Her stuff is actually kinda cool.

Not such a lonely world after all.

Well, I’m working hard to finish the “final” rewrite of the script for our Film project, “The Animals.”

It’s going well, but the last few days have been hard for me to get into the groove.  I don’t mean “emotionally”, I mean physically.  I’ve been coaching at the gym, and have had a number of projects related to that to finish up.

But I’m hoping to have the script finished by the end of next week.

I’m currently working on a film entitled, “The Animals.” It’s basically a sad love story … like all the rest of my work. A husband and wife deep in the throws of infidelity, depression, and revenge fucking. You know, the good stuff.

I myself am deep into what I hope to be the last rewrite of the script. But, you never really know with these kinds of things. There is always some new obstacle.

One of our lead actors is currently in Europe, but he’s scheduled to return at the end of September. And we’ll start on principle rehearsals then, at least for himself and I, since he’ll primarily be playing opposite me.

We are still on the lookout for a good leading lady. We have a few possibilities, but no one has yet jumped out and slammed me.

I’ve got a meeting scheduled on Sunday, so I’ll update after that. My Producer is telling me he may have found more crew (always sorely needed on a low-budget adventure).

I’ll keep you posted.