While I’ve enjoyed my recent forays into performance (from Site 13 to Glamour in Glitter to my appearance at Texas Comicon), at heart I’m really a behind-the-scenes guy.  I love the process, the work of making movies that most moviegoers may never see.

So I’m thrilled to be getting back to the other side of that camera for PDP‘s next project.

By way of reminder, our prior-to-previous short film, Three Yellow Roses, was the first of six films Nikki, Chadd, and I are developing.  Together, they form The Arrangement, a kind of omnibus film.  Each piece will have its own genre and style and tone, but will be connected to the others through common characters and a common theme: flowers, and how they affect and express human connections.

While we’re putting the final touches on 3 Yellow Roses, we’re moving ahead with the next film, a romantic thriller conceived by Nikki and Chadd, and written by Chadd, as a vehicle for two incredibly talented young actors, Shane Graham and Gabi Walker.  We’ve worked with Shane and Gabi, separately, on a host of projects, but to the best of my memory this will be the first time they’ve appeared onscreen together.  That’s pretty exciting.

This week has brought us back into the PrimaDonna production frenzy, beginning with Sunday’s production meeting, where we met with most of the cast and crew and had our first read-through of the script.  From there, it’s been storyboards and production forms, working on scheduling and locations.

Our first rehearsal happened today, as Chadd brought Shane and Gabi together with two of their co-stars, actor/writer/radio guy Kareem El-Dahab and make-up master Sergio Guerra, to work on the choreography for an action sequence.  I was there to help Nikki make sure our forms were up to date and gave us an easy overview of the production.

Nikki’s photo, good as it is (I love the accidental shaft-of-light effect – it’s almost Wellesian), doesn’t quite do justice to the work our actors did today.  Shane has some pretty impressive skills, and it was great to catch this brief glimpse of them.  It’s going to look even better when you see it onscreen.

But there is still some work yet to be done, of course, before filming on Magnolia (our working title) begins next month.  And I’ll continue to post my usual dispatches throughout the process.  So you’ll get to meet the rest of our cast and crew as they join us on set.  Some will be new faces, some will be names you’ve heard before, but together, I think we have the makings of a really, really good film.

Thanks as always for following along.  Until the next post, “be seeing you…”