Archive for category Film
Current Affairs
Posted by J.S. Lewis in All, College, Film, Life, Sedition, Writing, preordained on February 7th, 2009
It’s been a long time since I updated my blog because I really haven’t had anything to write about. I’ve just about finished my fourth week of college and currently have a 4.0 which I’m very happy about; however, this could easily slip away if I don’t study for my upcoming math test on Wednesday. Right now I’m taking three classes, all of which I find interesting. My Human Development class is fascinating. We learn about human interaction in the work place. My math class is just as interesting as it always has been. But the best thing I’m taking right now is my Web Authoring class. Programming is perfect and logical in every way. Sadly it’s only twice a week, but it’s still lots of fun.
Starting earlier this week, a friend of mine and I starting working on a few songs. He fiddles away, and I tickle the ivory keys. We’re still sounding rather rusty but in his words, “Perfect practice, makes perfect.” Yeah yeah, i know, millions of people have said it before, but it’s very true.
Now, I regret to turn my thoughts towards filmmaking. I had a movie planned for this years film festival; however, things fell though and I’m not going to be able to make the film “Sedition” which more recently was renamed to “Laws of Anarchy”. The idea was, we were going to put in a prequel called “The Order of Anarchy”, but not all of our plans are meant to pass. By no means does this mean my filming career is over, I plan to return to the melancholy feeling of writing a script, filming with friends, and editing long nights for weeks straight. I wish I could say when, but I have no idea when I shall return to this place of creativity.
In the mean time, I plan on working on my book, which is still untitled. I’ve decided to change a few things around in the beginning. For starters it’s going to be set on the border between Sequim and a world of magic. For those of you who have not heard the synopsis here it is…
Drostan, a twenty-three year old college student, currently living in Sequim, WA, lives a normal life. One day, when trying to inject some sort of fun into is otherwise dull existence, he follows some friends up into some woods where there is said to be ghosts. From there he is sucked, unwillingly into a world of war. Magic is present but not so prevalent. Worried more about his grade and spouse on the other side of the time boundary, Drostan tries to find some possible way to get back to his small town; however it will be a journey that will send him through a war of immeasurable proportion.
A little cliche I know, but I’m working on that, I just haven’t had enough time to work on it. I’m hoping when I get more settled into my college routine, which has been fluctuating day to day for the last four weeks, ugh! I’ll get around to it sooner or later. I still have my previous book (Preordained) I need to rewrite the beginning too, and sum it up in two to three chapters instead of just two pages. I’m hoping to have it completed by summer when I take English 101. This way I could hand it to my teacher for reading.
On the topic of books, I just finished the most amazing audio book series, Star Wars:Legacy of the Force. I’m telling you, the audio book was like a movie, just with out the moving images. Sound effects, Music, actors (well just one guy reading the book, but he was so good you would forget that their were not two dozen different actors playing his own role). If I ever get a massive amount of star wars fans together and about $30,000-$100,000 I would most certainly attempt to make the first movie of this nine book series. It would have to be turned into three movies, and someone would have to do an amazing job of rewriting the books into script format, and then their is the issue of not having the original actors, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher. But these problems could probably be worked around. I would even drop $150,000 to make this film if there were enough people out there willing to make it. It would be a massive undertaking, BUT THE TALE IS JUST SOOOO EPIC!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone, please, I’m begging you, listen to the audio books! Right, I know I’m just going nuts here, but If I found 50 committed people, and I mean committed. I would definitely save up $250,000 to make this film. Sure it would take a long time but if we could pull it off, in a quality fashion. It would be extremely worth it. This is a semi-possible concept, because the job I’m going to be doing when I graduate will pay quite well.
Alright, I’m calming down now. Well, I think I just about summed up what has been going on in the last few weeks, nothing particular save but for college. So, talk to you in another month? Nah, just joking. I think I’ll have some stuff to post on here in the next week or so.
Yours,
J. Lewis Simmons
Another day, Another actor, Another Draft
Posted by J.S. Lewis in All, Film, Sedition on November 21st, 2008
So today, my co-director and I spoke with another actor and figured out props and locations. This is the first film that I have every made, that has been so organized. Every day we are getting more actors, and each one of them is gold. This film is going to have about a 23-30 people in it, making it the largest film I have every done.
Last night my co-director and I were at Applebee’s until closing, working on another draft of the script. Each time we get closer and closer to a final product. Today, I think we have nailed it. It’s the fourth draft. This is very good news, because we can start figuring out props, locations, and most importantly, story boards.
Well, I’m off to bed. We’re meeting with another actor tomorrow.
Yours,
Jack
Sedition
Posted by J.S. Lewis in All, Film, Sedition on November 20th, 2008
Never before have I put a film together so quickly, and I have a good idea why. Normally, I usually just write a script and I have people help, but this time, my Co-director and I are both working on the script. This has enabled us to start from scratch to a third draft in 1.5 weeks. Also, I must credit the story to my Co-Director. All this week we have been meeting with potential actors. All of which are superb! It’s as if we are on top of it all every day, hitting every target, which is near imposable while making a film.
One problem that has haunted us every year: TIME!!!!!!!
We have to cut the script down to five minutes, and it’s possible, but every time you cut - you cut quality and you end up with an incomprehensible short film.
Anyway, the pre-production phase of the film has been going smoother than ever.
More updates tomorrow!
Yours,
Jack
Filmmaking again? Addict.
Posted by J.S. Lewis in All, College, Film, Writing on November 14th, 2008
Yeah, yeah I know, I was going to put filmmaking down and never pick it back up again until I graduate from college with a bachelor’s of science (computer science to be precise) approximately five years from now. However, as things would turn out, that is not happening. From the pure genius of my friend and co-director, comes a new film from Lewis Pictures, unlike anything you have scene before. It takes place around the end of 2029. America is no longer a free country and has become the United Federation of Soviet States (U.F.S.S.). In case your wondering “soviet” means: it often does refer to the Soviet Union, however it’s main definition is: an elected governmental council in a Communist country. America has not been taken over, it has more less been handed off to a corrupt leader who wishes the complete annihilation of all freedom on the planet. There is a small resistance that is lead by two courageous brothers. We cover their last fighting chance to bring peace back to the world. So my friends (I’m getting so sick of that phrase) I shall be returning to Sequim High School this coming semester to upgrade my tech knowledge with computers.
Concerning my book that of which I was writing. I have placed this on hold until I finish this Movie, and after I finish this movie I probably will not have very much time to work on it because I will be tackling High School and College at the same time; however, I think of new ideas for the story nearly every day. This also means that I have dropped out of NaNoWriMo, but their is always next year.
Yours,
Jack
Filmmaking, High School, College
Posted by J.S. Lewis in College, Film, Life on October 10th, 2008
Well, I have been extremely busy for the last month, Spent about two weeks in Tacoma, spent a few days in Vancouver Canada, visited Western Washington University (Which far surpass any other college in Washington, I’ll explain why later) and have had two really great movie ideas flowing through my head one of which actually made it to the page (four pages to be precise).
So a friend of mine called me up about a month ago and gave me his idea for a really great film. At first I kind of shot it down, because I thought it wasn’t really possible, however I started to think about how we could change a few things to make it perfectly plausible. So I quickly wrote three drafts of this five minute film; however, soon we realized that it would cost too much money, and too much money for us is about $125-$200. That budget would have been just fine if I was able to get a job, but sadly, that didn’t happen. So, while I was watching this TV show a few days ago, it gave me this idea (more less it was the complete concept). It’s about this guy who has schizophrenia to such a degree that he is living two completely separate lives.
Here comes the problem with entering a film in the 2009 student film festival of Sequim High School. I currently don’t go there anymore, so I personally don’t qualify to enter a film; however, I still know a few people who go there of which could enter my film, if and only if I keep them thoroughly involved in the filmmaking process.
So, I visited WWU and found that to be the best college in Warshington (as foreigners from Washington pronounce it ha ha.) This is why, the average class has about thirty students. This is amazing in contrast to most colleges where the average class can have about 50-250 students. This really makes it harder, because you will probably never be able to actually speak to the Professor on a regular basses, which is one of the keys to getting A’s. What’s so important about getting A’s you say? Well this is why, everyone goes to college these days, so when you go to apply for a Job your going to be compared to several other college graduates, but if you have an A then your going to be the college graduate that stands out among the other college graduates.
Yours,
Jack