Boyd Morrison, one of the lead actors in Whiskey Dreams, is also a novelist. One of his books, The Adamas Blueprint is ranked #24 in its Kindle download category. Boyd is a great actor and apparently a damn fine writer, to boot.

The past few weeks were spent filming “Whiskey Dreams”. We had a shoot in a bar, an apartment (my apartment, actually), a house, another apartment, a warehouse, and in the sound stage at school.

This was my first experience directing as a part of a large crew, with real auditioned actors, and I really enjoyed it.

What most impressed me was the patience of my actors.  Acting in film is much harder than on stage.  Scenes are shot out of sequence, and there are long periods of waiting in between shots, during which the lights, dollies, and camera must be moved around and set up again.  I had the privilege of working with some wonderful actors who waited around for hours while we figured out what we were doing, and still gave a great performance during the few seconds film was actually turning.  And all for free, too.  Well, there was pizza and beer.

My excuse for going to film school was that I wanted to be a Production Designer.  The logic was, since I’m a graphic designer, a lot of the same skills apply.  However I must say, writing and directing is really fucking fun.  Certainly it’s stressful.  Trying to keep track of what everyone was doing and all the props and locations and details that have to be nailed down and trying to express to the actors what I’m looking for in the scene and dealing with everyone’s (cast and crew) unique personality quirks and oh shit we don’t have enough extras and and and and and… And you bet I’d love to do it again. 

To my production team: The script is downloadable here.
To everyone else: Feel free to read and comment.

The most important location in Whiskey Dreams is the bar.  This is also the one that could have been the most difficult to arrange.  In my experience, businesses and venues hear the words “film location” and they want to charge money.  Fortunately, I’ve got connections.  I’ve got access to a bar.  The film crew and I will have complete, unfettered, free-reign in this location.  And it’s all free.

Here are some pictures: