Writing a screenplay is a long and time-consuming process! I'm happy to report that the third draft of The Adventures of Victoria Clarke is wrapped up, and is currently being evaluated for notes by an independent Hollywood reader.

I find that it really helps to get feedback from a source that is not emotionally attached to the project (or me!). This draft of the script is the direct result of an extensive evaluation from the same service, which I feel helped immensely to clarify the plot line and strengthen the characters.

As someone who has largely spent my career bringing the vision of other writers and directors to life, it has been a fantastic experience crafting a story that I want to tell, and having the freedom to do so without regard to limited that vision by a pre-imposed budget or schedule. I just wrote the story I wanted to tell.

Each draft of the script has been an improvement over the previous (which seems obvious, but isn't always the case). I feel like the big story issues are sorted out, and now it is a matter of refinement and polish. I keep thinking of small things that will enhance character, and once I have notes back I will launch into another draft--hopefully one that will be ready to start sending out to studios and agents.

The other milestone has been the completion of the first set of concept paintings. I now have eight pieces of terrific concept art that really communicate the scope and look of the film (all eight are featured here).

Getting a movie of this scale into development is a huge undertaking, but one that is unbelievably rewarding. Thank you for sharing in the adventure!

Welcome to the Victoria Clarke production blog. This is a teaser post--future posts to the blog will require a password, as this blog is reserved for backers of our Indiegogo Campaign. Our project's supporters will have exclusive access to everything that goes into the development, and ultimately the filming, of The Amazing Adventures of Victoria Clarke.

If you would like to read future posts but didn't get in on the Indiegogo Campaign fear not! We will soon have the ability for you to make a small one-time contribution to the project, which will gain you access to the blog and all future updates.

WIth the initial draft of the script complete, we have commissioned the creation of a series concept art pairings. About a dozen scenes from the script have been identified as key scenes for enhanced look development. The goal of these concepts pairings is to demonstrate the scope and look of the movie, showcasing a variety of locations that. as a whole, clearly communicate the aesthetic vision of the movie.

I thought it might be interesting to demonstrate the process of developing the concept painting above. This is pretty typical of how I approach concept art development in general, and it might be interesting if you have not been involved at this stage of the filmmaking process. It will also reveal how terribly bad I draw, which is why I hire out concept art.

You have to start somewhere, and for me that is the script. I provided our concept artist at Solid State Images (SSI) an excerpt from the script so that they could get a sense of the action and environment as described in the context of the scene.

With the scene description and some reference images in hand, the concept artist quickly turned around a first pass layout. This is just meant as a very rough layout for basic composition.

Upon receipt of the layout, I made my notes back to the artist with comments about things that I would like to revise.

Revisions based on these notes was then turned around a couple of days later.

To which I added more notes (of course!).

Which resulted in the (almost) final image...

The final touch was to add bubbles streaming from Victoria's dive suit, which I felt brings a human element and movement to the piece, bringing the viewers eye back to the foreground.

I hope you found the process interesting! Our next concept painting is already underway and we will share it's development on the production blog as well.

It’s a common misconception – if you can call obscure film trivia common – that sound first came to films with Warner’s 1927 blockbuster The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson. While The Jazz Singer can fairly be credited as the first commercially successful talking picture, the history of sound in film reaches back a full 40 years to a string of developments in sound recording that actually pre-date the invention of the moving picture itself.

As a visual effects specialist hard at work on a visually fulfilling film project of my own, I sometimes forget that there was a time when sound was at the forefront of film special effects. It may be hard for modern entertainment enthusiasts to imagine watching a movie without sound effects, or even talking, but it is well understood that early films had neither. This was not, however, due to a lack of effort on the part of sound engineers and inventors. The story is a fascinating one, intuitively enmeshed in the very history of Europe and America through the involvement of notables such as Thomas Edison.

Often referred to as an American Wizard, businessman Thomas Edison is credited with commercializing a number of modern inventions such as the electric light bulb, the telephone, and – more importantly to our current discussion – the phonograph. First developed in the late 1870s, sound recording devices were a quick hit among visionaries who saw their true potential. The December 22, 1877 edition of Scientific America – written just a few months after the invention of the phonograph – proclaimed that the marriage of sound and moving pictures was inevitable, notable for the fact that the motion picture part of the equation wasn’t developed for another 15 years.    

While Edison truly invented the phonograph, he did not invent the first movie – though he did try to take credit. In 1891 the first motion picture prototype was displayed by The Edison Company – with synchronized sound! 

One of the primary factors involved in killing early attempts at combining film and sound was the advent of projection technology. The first projected film was actually an American piece, now relegated to historical obscurity. The much more successful French debut of projector technology took place in 1895. This development essentially broke motion picture sound achievements of the time. Audiences were simply unwilling to sit through the numerous mechanical difficulties inherent in early attempts and no commercially viable opportunity arose. Not to be denied, a great number of inventors on both sides of the Atlantic dumped their fortunes into attempt after attempt to develop synchronized film sound. 

The earliest attempts at wedding sound to film were actually somewhat successful; however the length and depth of the films were severely limited. The early picture boxes were good for a mere 30 seconds or so of entertainment and the novelty quickly wore off. No efforts at storytelling were even attempted. Short musical pieces, novelty shows, and dance routines were the norm. However, the contained nature of the devices on which these films were displayed allowed for a rudimentary form of mechanical synchronization between the soundtrack and the film. While techniques varied from inventor to inventor, the general idea was to place two rotating drums on the same axle (or on linked axles), one containing the picture and one the sound. Because they were physically linked, the drums turned at the same speed and timing could be approximated during design.

The invention of the projected movie made this physical linkage at first impossible and later unreliable. Belts, gears, and manual synchronization, were all attempted but the results were weak and often depended entirely on the skill of the operator. In the United States, union contracts required that theater equipment could be operated exclusively by local union members, individuals who often lacked the training necessary to create a viable user experience.

Additionally, large theater audiences were unable to properly hear a simple phonograph recording and no functioning amplification technology existed. When a technique was finally developed, synchronization became even more difficult due to the addition of a third layer in the process. As a result, audiences were unwilling to sit through the films as the sound was more annoying than entertaining.

For a few years from about 1908 to 1912, acting troupes were engaged to travel with a series of films and reenact the script live during the theater presentation of the associated movie. This approach added flare but was ultimately not effective. Large scale presentation was very difficult and hiring the acting troupes was expensive, cutting into the profits of the theatres and film studios. 

As the 1920s approached, advances in synchronization techniques, along with the dropping costs and improving quality of phonographic technology, allowed inventors to develop plausibly functional film sound tracks. Unfortunately, by this time the studios were no longer interested. Many, such as Edison Motion Pictures, had been early investors in sound technology and had lost a lot of money. The silent film era was booming and the money was flowing, as such executives grew more conservative and no longer saw any need to take big risks on new technologies, content to merely improve the filming process they were already using.

Arguments even began to crop up suggesting that adding sound, especially talking parts, to films would actually make the movies less popular. Concerns about language limitations and the difficulty of translation were the norm with studios that were used to an open and easy international market for their films. 

By the later part of the 1920s, studio profits – which had seemed unstoppable in the early days – were beginning to slow. Desperate to keep the good times rolling, the studios were once again interested in trying something new – and this time the sound technology was ready to compete.

Enter The Jazz Singer. However despite the new commercial success of sound in film, a number of technical hurdles remained, some of which were not sorted out for many years. In particular, the flow and motion of early talking movies were severely limited by static recording technology – no one thought of using a boom microphone until much later; but more on that in another article.    

A special thanks to our friends at Lindsted Composition for their great research for this article.

I thought it would be fun to share a scene from "The Amazing Adventures of Victoria Clarke" feature script. This is a scene in which we meet the young Victoria and her father, Byron, at their home in London.

This week we had the pleasure of visiting music composer Tim Jones at his studio in the charming town of South Pasadena, CA. Tim is best known for his music on the television series Chuck, but he has also scored feature films and numerous other television shows.

Tim has graciously agreed to write music for Victoria Clarke, and we are really excited to have him on board helping with the development of the project.

Here is a short clip from the longer interview with Tim. The full interview will be posted when the Indiegogo campaign goes live.

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As we gear up for our upcoming crowd-funding campaign (I’m still debating whether to run with the tried and true Kickstarter or give Indiegogo a chance to shine), I’m starting to flush out some of the great shared opportunities available to independent artists. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be posting regularly about the many exciting connections the Victoria Clarke project shares with the art, artists, and stories all around me; both from within the Steampunk/Deiselpunk and 1920s genres and the larger world of independent film.

With crowd-sourcing on my mind, I want to take just a moment to share some of the exciting ways in which public participation in the arts is helping to shepherd a whole generation of projects like mine; both in the physical world and the digital and to encourage you to get involved, not only in the exciting Adventures of Victoria Clark but in the larger world of public patronage for the arts. 

An Ambiguous friendship Art and society have always shared an ambiguous relationship. The cliché of the starving artist rings as true for me as it did for Van Gogh and Edgar Allen Poe; both of whom join a long list of artists who died in extreme poverty despite producing some of the greatest artistic masterpieces in history. We all consume large quantities of artistic talent whether in the form of a favorite movie, stylish coffee mug, or decorative painting. Yet despite this widespread acknowledgement that artistic endeavors provide great value to our culture, support for the arts generally falls far behind other more “practical” pursuits.

However, I believe this trend is changing. Another cliché, this time contemporary, deals with the impact of new technology on old industries. The ability to connect with likeminded individuals from around the globe, as opposed to geographically limited regions, has begun to empower the starving artist. The secret lies in our emerging ability to share resources towards common goals. Programs like Kickstarter are making public participation in indie art a very real possibility, in some cases incubating projects which rival major studio productions. But while most people have heard of Kickstarter, there is much more going on behind the scenes of this resurgence of “local” art.

 In communities everywhere, artists and consumers are working together to bring their shared interests to life. Such initiatives, which take a variety of forms which in addition to the obvious resources like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, include: low cost live/work space for artists, shared arts space, free or low-cost art oriented classes, and support programs designed to help emerging artists engage with the public (follow the links for examples). Driven by ingenious business models or donations from patrons-at-large, sustainable programs enjoy a common feature; shared stewardship.

Often wedded with an environmental or social justice consciousness, these programs are successful largely because they drive individual investment in community outcomes. Motivated both by artistic sensibilities and a mutual understanding of the vital contribution the arts make to society, participants and project leaders work together to develop, fund, maintain, and promote these endeavors for public benefit. 

By making creative use of social media tools such as crowd-funding opportunities, project founders are able to capitalize on their own artistic experience to develop resources aimed at incubating local talent while simultaneously entertaining the public. One such project provides an excellent case study in progress.

Themed event creators Gemini and Scorpio are tapping the power of Kickstater to raise both funding and community sweat-equity for an upgrade to their New York City venue. Concerned about the diminishing availability of affordable underground arts spaces in the city, Gemini and Scorpio are building their own. And, they’re using Kickstarter to raise the resources they need to pull off the project. Rather than attempt to replicate their story here, I’m simply recommending that you check out their project for yourself. 

Start a conversation As I mentioned in my last blog update, one of the biggest challenges facing projects like this is starting the dialogue. Mutual responsibility for the arts only works if artists and consumers are willing to communicate their goals and experiences to each other. In this vein, I’d love to hear from other independent artists. Use the comments below to talk about your projects. Feel free to post a link to your arts website or crowd-funding campaign (stay on topic please). Everyone benefits from every additional member of the public who learns about independent projects like ours. 

Stake your claim by participating in crowd-sourced projects like these, you, the art consumer, become a stake-holder in the art you want to see developed. Participation in the arts through resources such as local arts spaces or Kickstarter-funded productions gives you a personal stake in the future of entertainment. Rather than sit back as a passive viewer, you have an ever increasing range of options for personally engaging with and connecting to new projects. How have you been a patron of the arts this week? 

Use the comments to tell us your story.