Adventures in Filmmaking: Progress Report on Our Movie’s GoFundMe Campaign & Other Related Topics

Hi, everyone!

I’m taking a break from working on “The Big Screenplay” – I officially started the first draft today after I posted my Star Wars Collectibles & Toy Review sometime before noon today – just to do a quick update on our GoFundMe Campaign.

Since my friends Juan Carlos and Adria Hernandez set up the campaign on March 9, we’ve received 13 donations for a total of $775 (out of a target of $50,000).

As I wrote in our campaign update this morning:

Today was our best day yet for donations: two kind souls contributed a total of $250. Way to go, friends! We really are humbled and grateful for your kindness and generosity.

Both donations come from long-time friends of ours. The biggest contribution we received today was $200 from one of my friends from the now-defunct review site Epinions. (Indeed, several of my Epibuddies have donated to the campaign!) The other donation, the $50 one, was from Juan’s high school drama teacher in South Florida.

Of course, we still have a long way to go, both in reaching the $50,000 goal and in completing the film, but, as they say, every journey begins with a single step, and every movie begins as words on a page – or, in the 21st Century, a computer monitor.

As I mentioned earlier, I started the process of writing the screenplay. I didn’t reach my target of five pages of script (which basically translates to five minutes of screen time), but I did get some stuff written. Knowing me, I’ll probably read it tomorrow – hopefully with several cups of coffee coursing through my veins – and rewrite most of what I wrote today.

But that’s how writing often goes, don’tcha know?

As with the budget, I have a target to reach, too. Whereas the producer side has to worry about raising $50,000, I have to worry about writing a 90 minute script in three acts.

That’s not an unrealistic target to shoot for, especially if I break it down to “bite size” segments. Something like, three to five pages a day.

In my younger days, I might have attempted to plow through the screenplay in as brief a time span as possible. I probably wouldn’t have done a good job then, but I’d have tried to get it done ASAP.

I’m older now, though, and I can’t imagine pulling a college-type all-nighter to try and finish the screenplay like, oh, yesterday. I mean, I could, but then I’d email Juan and Adria a sloppily-written script that no one in their right minds would want to read, much less produce.

So, this is not going to be a quick dash to the finish line. It’s going to be more like doing a marathon. Both on the financial side and on the creative side.

And that, folks, is where we are on this Monday, April 5, 2021. As always, if you’re interested in contributing to our campaign, you can do so here. If you’ve already donated, all of us thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And if you know someone who might be interested in helping us out, let them know about our film and its GoFundMe campaign.

Well, I’m gonna close for now, so until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things!