Location, location, location
Topic: Pre-production
Today was my first ever location scouting. We drove up to a place in Angelus Oaks, California, called Seven Oaks cabins. We had heard that they were rustic and a bit rundown, perfect for our film.

Please know that I have knocked on wood in order to protect myself here, because the place was absolutely perfect. It will change a few things in the script but not too much. The cabins looked great (for what we want), the proximity of each cabin to the next is ideal, and there's even a scenic creek. Six cabins and we wanted all of them. We expected to just look, but they were so perfect for the script that Barb negotiated pricing for four weeks. First, without weekends, but once we found out that we would have to be out on Fridays by 11am, we decided to get them for the weekends, too. Except for one weekend, which was already booked.

A four week shoot, September 26th through October 22nd (the extra day for packing everything up and getting the hell out of Dodge). About an hour and a half's drive from home, which means I can go back home on the weekends and might even have Jasmine and Logan drive up for a weekend. He would love it ... a creek, big bugs, the whole deal. Well, maybe not a whole weekend, because of the sleeping factor (we might have up to four people in one cabin), but possibly a day long trip to watch the film being shot for a few hours.

The place is pretty much a done deal. The guy marked it on the calendar and asked for a small deposit to hold the cabins. Rob's getting that from his brother in the next couple of days. Wow ... it looks like we're actually making a movie here. Knock on more wood.

After looking around the cabins, we stopped by a local restaurant for a bite to eat. The restaurant was perfect as well, so we'll be talking to the owners about renting out the place for a day. But that will come later.

And finally, we stopped by Forest Falls to check out a waterfall, because a waitress at the restaurant had told us about it. Luckily, it was less than perfect which kept our karma in check ... I don't think we could handle another miracle like the waterfall being exactly what we were looking for. It's workable, but the finale would have to change to a certain extent. So we'll hunt around for a better waterfall.

Only one bad thing for the day -- Rob's brother wants to see a one page treatment. Damn ... I hate writing treatments. But I gotta do what I gotta do. For the cause.

Rob still doesn't know that I plan to have the first draft of the script done by July 22nd, about three weeks ahead of schedule. He'd probably shit himself.