The Creature From The Blog Lagoon

Imaginary audience, hope you've had a fantastic week and a good Easter!

Also, I was really torn between the title I used this week and "Love lift us up where we b-log". Just sayin' :-)

Things around here have been awesome , and that's putting it mildly. We have some extremely BIG news to throw at you guys really shortly, as in the next week or so, so keep checking back, invisible friends, you're gonna be excited.

Extraordinary tidbit aside, the writing and developing have been going really good. It's been a really busy week but well worth the sweat.

Okay, no sweat, but well worth the hand cramps and blurred vision headaches.

The script we're currently working on is coming together so well. We've been able to take a story that's close to our hearts and character's that are like old friends and revisit them, giving them a bigger and better, funnier and more heartfelt experience. It's a great thing.

What an incredibly freeing feeling to be able to tear down something you care about, knowing you're gonna build it back up better than ever.

I think you'll agree, when you see it.

In other news: Eric and I finally have the website locked down (Cheap plug #1: www.MakeBelievePictures.com) and it's looking really good. We've got the first ten pages of three different scripts up, which is a pretty cool deal seeing as how potential business partners (friends and imaginary audience members too) can click the logo, download the .pdf and enjoy!

If you happen to do so, hit us up and let us know what you think of them, or anything, really. We're open for conversations with you guys about whatever floats your collective boats: how the website looks, scripts, Lindsay Lohan, etc. We're easy like Sunday morning.

Well, I just thought I'd stop by and check in on you sexy beasts, throw out a drive-by update and get back to the grind.

Cheap plug #2: Come dig around on our newly opened Facebook or come hang out with us on Twitter. We don't bite ... much.

I hope you guys have a great and productive week and we'll see you back here soon.

Kyle

Refueling My Creative Camel Hump

Hi again!

Good to see you all so jovial tonight. I am too. I just got back from Joshua Tree National Park. It's such an awesome place. I really recommend that you go.

If it wasn't etched in stone before, I just etched my "I's" and chiseled my "T's" on what really helps fuel me creatively. Nothingness!

We can all relate to the day-in-day-out grind that life becomes. Even in a creative industry like Kyle and I work in, life can sneak up on you and syphon out some creative gas.

All of life's stress can build up; car payment, rent, forgetting to move your car on street sweeping day, etc.

Joshua Tree is in the middle of the desert in SoCal. There is nothing there, including crowds of people. Just you, nature and untouched land for as long as the eye can see.  Being out there is really inspiring.

The quietness makes it really easy to self reflect.

I hiked up a mountain in the middle of the park. At the summit I was over a mile high and felt like Simba in the Lion King when he talks to Mufasa. I felt like the center of the universe. A little selfish, yes. But isn't that what everyone does occasionally?

I believe that much of the human story is fueled by man (or woman - equal opportunity here) yearning to belong.

While on that mountain I posed myself these questions: Do I belong? What do I belong to? hmmmmmm ... My answers...

Yes, I belong to something special. A creative duo that happens to work on creating movies. A cool gig. More importantly, we work on channeling the human story in a way that is relatable and laughable.

How do going to the desert edition of BFE and our creative duo relate to one another? Simplicity!

Ok, I'm calling it a night. The peyote is starting to wear off. Plus, this pink and purple camel in my bedroom won't quit nagging me about why the title of this blog doesn't relate to what's in the blog.

Until the next hallucinogenic cactus, more shameless self promotion.

Go to www.makebelievepictures.com and tell us what you think.

UnExpected UnExpecting Blog

So... that was quick.

Today is a hugely bittersweet day for me.

#1 Abraham Lincoln died today, and being my favorite President, that sucks. (However Robert Redford's The Conspirator looks pretty enticing, sorry Abe.)

#2  I ALMOST died today in 1998. Back in high school one of my best friends and I went in his new truck to go pick up the tag for said vehicle. Well, instead of going to one town (genius) we wandered into another opposite of it.

Upon figuring out this mistake, we turned around and headed towards the right town. However, seconds later and one over-correction from going into a median, we were FLYING upside down over the road in a small truck, smashing the ground opposite the median (nice air, eat it Dukes of Hazzard) and sliding upside down towards a six foot deep retention pond.

Swimming in your clothes isn't much fun. Swimming in your (now tattered) clothes upside down in a pitch black pond wondering if you're dying (I was, but I didn't ... obviously) REALLY sucks.

So yeah, we swam out of his truck, scared to death, beat to hell, but we both got a pretty fun story out of it right?

The fact that I was starting production of my independent debut on April 15th wasn't lost on me, and that brings us to:

#3  Began filming, the as of two years later today, unedited UnExpecting.

This is part of our painful back story, I wrote about before.

I won't get into a mindblowingly long list of details about the production and cast.

What I will say is this:

I learned a lot about myself during that little journey into independent guerrilla film-making (my personal film school, as I now call it.)

I learned that making a film was something that could be done. It wasn't just an abstract dream that wasn't for me. Late nights and early mornings, heart and a lot of work can make anything happen. Especially when you have ten or twelve other people that fully believe in you and what you are trying to do. (Thanks guys, you're an amazing group of people and I love you ... well 92% of ya.)

I learned that if people really believe in something or someone, they'll do anything for them: Work for free, bust ass doing eight different jobs or more, stay up until 3am shooting scenes when they have to wake up at 5am to go to a real job that pays, donate amazing songs for a writer they've never heard of for a movie they may never see, and a million other little and big things. Those guys and girls never ceased to amaze me and I'm thankful for everything.

The human spirit wants to have something to believe in and it wants to come together to help themselves and others realize their dreams. It showed me (ever the pessimist) that there's a lot more good in the world than I previously thought.

I learned that with enough determination, anything in this world is possible to anyone.

"I feel good about the good things, bad about the bad things, but I wouldn't change a thing." - Dave Grohl

And other than a few issues, that's a very true statement. I certainly don't regret it, I learned so much and had a great time doing it, and without that foray into the independent film world, I would've never met by best friend and partner, Eric.

Good things are often times disguised as bad, it seems.

I could easily go on (... and on ... and on) about UnExpecting, the trials and tribulations, the amazing cast and crew, the good times and bad, but I won't. Not today.

And speaking of today: Today, I'm writing another script, with at least two more fleshed out and waiting in the wings, each better than the last. We've got projects a plenty, things we can be very proud of, and things to BE very proud of at a later date.

I'm continuing that dream. Following through on that dream. And some day SOON, I'll have realized that dream with the help of a few more amazing people.

Then we'll start a new one, bigger and better than the last.

I'm glad you guys are riding with us on this. It'll be fun.

One more time.

@MakeBelieveKyle

Oh and #4  Titanic sank today too. I love me some April 15th and come to think of it James Cameron probably does too.

Keep on Bloggin' in the free world...

And we're back ...

Okay, it's Kyle, and it's just me that's back, I'd have to assume you've been here all along, but welcome to blog adventure number two!

Well, number 2 for me. Yes, I know it's the third blog, I know that, you know that, but it's my second.

Why do you have to be so technical, imaginary audience?

Geez.

Lots of good things to cover on this end, writing is on track and going well, which is always a good thing after a WrestleMania-esque battle. I'll just go ahead and say I won, since I'm writing and not staring at a blank screen but don't ask it or it'll just start the fight all over again.

In fact,  not only is the writing going well, but we've got even more exciting projects to tackle soon. When it rains, it pours, and I'm starting to see that can be said in a good way and the traditional craptastic way too.  So, yay for that.

I'm extremely happy to have so many good ideas in different stages of development. I can't wait until you guys can see that too.

The website is starting to come together quite nicely, I think. It's taking shape and beginning to be what we've envisioned so that's pretty amazing. It always makes me smile to see something that came from somebody's head (especially The Make Believe Picture Company's collective noggins) to a reality.

(Cheap Plug #1:) Go check it out at http://www.MakeBelievePictures.com!

Even if it's just a logo, logline or pages of dialog with characters that have taken up residence in your conscience for a bit, it's an amazing feeling to see something you brought into the world actually COMING into the world.

With that said, your input (oh, invisible readers) is greatly appreciated so if there is anything you can think of that you'd like to see or that we're missing, let us know, we'll see what can be done about it.

Hopefully in the next week or so we'll have it so you guys can check out even more of what we do here at Make Believe as well.

Okay, so it's time for me to go back to my Charlie Sheen induced media coma now ...

Wait.

I meant to say, it's time for me to get back to writing again, so I'll have to catch you guys later. Let's say next week?

Oh, and invisible audience? Bring some friends, we can always put out more chairs. We'll be good hosts.

Kyle
(Cheap Plug #2:) @MakeBelieveKyle

They call me Suit

Hi electronic reality.

Before I begin, can you thank Al Gore for making this possible? He shouldn't be hard to find, just check the green Prius with the bumper-sticker that says "My honor roll student has a better lock-box than yours."

Hi again! I'm back from 1996.

Like my partner Kyle, I would like to say HI to this empty room. 

I'm Eric from the Make Believe Picture Company. I'm the suit-wearing half of the Make Believe creative duo. And when I say creative, I mean we can eff up some construction paper with finger paint. 

Red paint aside, I love stories. That is why I love producing. 

For me producing isn't just sitting behind a mahogany desk rolling calls all day. It's about finding good ideas and moulding them into the best stories possible.

Producing isn't as glamorous as most people think. It takes thousands of hours to get one idea in front of millions of people. Right now, that is mine and Kyle's story. 

We would like to have you in the passenger seat on our journey ... unless you are under 5. If so, please feel free to make the baby seat in the back your home. 

No citations on this one-way road to success.

There's tons of backstory and history and you'll get it all at some point. I really just stopped in here to introduce the other 1/2 of The Make Believe Picture Company to you.

Hi. 

I'm Eric. Half of The Make Believe Picture Company. 

Bloggy McBlogerson

So, this is blogging.

Nice place you got here.

I'm just gonna go slip into something a little more ... comfortable.

But really ... Hi, readers we don't have but hopefully will at some point, it's very nice to meet you. You're a very clean bunch.

I'm Kyle from The Make Believe Picture Company. I write. Or in today's case, I fight with writing.

My partner, Eric, and myself are trying to break into the entertainment industry, his dream is to produce, creatively develop, and make quality films that people will love, laugh because of, and identify with.

I write.

His job is clearly the hardest one because what exactly does a producer do? Everything it seems.

Again, I write.

But today, oh boy, today was I not writing. I wasn't exactly doing the opposite of writing, which one would assume would be erasing, but I was doing anything but. It was a struggle.

I tell people that I write, and rightfully so, they think that you sit down and just start punching out a product (to be produced!) and on the best days that's exactly how it works. Today wasn't the best day. It wasn't the worst day either, where you stare at a blank screen cursing your lack of creative juices and wondering if you shouldn't have become a carpenter. It was definitely in between the two though.

Here at Make Believe, we've got a stable of projects in a variety of different stages, from finished and ready to sell/make to the makings of the new stories and fresh characters.

Today's battle was with a finished product that we've decided to break down and build it back bigger, better, faster & stronger.

Honestly, I think it'd be easier to write one of the many new stories we have in development, but I'd like to do right by this script, get it as good as it can be, and basically kick it out of my house like a child that just turned 18.

I'll always love it, I'll think of it fondly, but it needs to get out and start doing stuff on it's own (like selling itself, making movies and producing income.) Maybe an 18 year old prostitute you're kicking out of your house is a better analogy?

Regardless, I fought with it today, I struggled and eventually it got the best of me. Today wasn't my day. It happens. I'd like to tell you it happens to the best of us, I sometimes wonder if Charlie Kaufman has these problems, but I can't do that. I just know me.

And hopefully by the time this journey really starts getting underway you'll know me too. For good or for bad, better or worse, we're gonna be roommates on this journey to conquer the entertainment world. Just to let you know though, I don't do windows, laundry is gonna stack up, and it's always your day to cook.

I'll be writing.

There's tons of backstory and history and you'll get it all at some point. It's not always pretty but hopefully it'll be pretty entertaining. I really just stopped in here to introduce 1/2 of The Make Believe Picture Company to you (you, sexy non-existent readers) and say "hi."

Hi. 

I'm Kyle. Half of The Make Believe Picture Company. 

Now go home. It's my bedtime and I've got a script to battle with tomorrow.

;-)