Two Elevators
Wed, 04/14/2010 - 00:47
I had a dream last night that Jentri and I were in some sort of race or chase that led us to a hallway with two elevators. We waited and waited for either elevator to open so we could get inside. Finally, the one on the right opened. It was very narrow and a little spooky looking, but we hopped inside, hoping the door would close quickly behind us. It began going up, and we were anxious about what awaited us at the top. We girded ourselves for any surprises as best we could. This race/chase had been full of surprises so far.
We reached the top. The elevator rested a moment. We braced ourselves for the door to open. But, instead, the elevator began to move again, upward – and then completely around until the whole car was upside-down and advancing back down. We scrambled to fix ourselves in place between the narrow walls so we wouldn’t fall heads first onto what had been the ceiling of our lift.
When the door finally opened again, we were back where we started.
Only now there were a couple other racers/chased folks there, too, scrambling to decide which elevator was “the right one.” When ours opened, one guy headed for it. We tried to dissuade him, but he thought we were trying to mislead him for our own benefits. He took off. Wizened, we headed for the elevator on the left, even though it was so slow to open that we might get “caught” in the meantime by the chaser pursuing us.
Finally, as much as I try to recall the specifics, I can’t
remember why Nathan Fillion was in this dream, but he was. 
I spent a good deal of time this weekend doing and looking at math. I’ve wondered, can we do LIS for less? What do those numbers look like? And, can we do it for more? How much more?
To do LIS for less, I wanted to evaluate whether we could shoot it under a different SAG contract than we’ve been planning to shoot under. FYI – SAG contracts dictate pay scales for actors, based on films’ production budgets. This lowest contract, Ultra Low Budget, stipulates that a production’s budget can’t exceed $200,000. This weekend, I realized there’s no way we can make LIS for only $200,000 – unless we all work as volunteers, or we make material changes to the script and its story, characters, and locations.
Hm.
I also looked at making LIS for more money. If we shoot it under a SAG Low Budget agreement, and I have money to cast recognizable actors in more roles, how much money are we talking about? To shoot the movie, I came up with $830,000. Plus, it’s always been essential to our strategy to have money raised to support the marketing and distribution of LIS, so I’d want to raise $500,000 additionally. So, I have a number - $1.33M.
Hm, again.
To wrap up, I don’t know what’s next. I guess I’m waiting on the elevator on the left.
Maybe Nathan Fillion can help?
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