A Much-Needed Update

I haven't updated in a week. Bad, bad Zaid! I should have done that a very long time ago.

Thing is, I couldn't help it! It's been such an exciting week in terms of casting and location scouting that one gets caught up in the excitement of the whole thing to the point of being overwhelmed! Hehehehe

Well, first of all! Casting on Monday was fantastic! We had close to 30 actors and actresses coming in for these three parts. Some carried themselves with a great deal of talent and others, well...you could tell they were new to the acting thing! Nevertheless we are happy to confirm that we have succeeded in casting the roles of Vicky's Mom and The Dealer.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Anne Shepherd and Michael Woodley:



So now all that's left is having a second reading for the two actresses that we've narrowed our choices down to for the role of Vicky: Saffron Cassaday and Claire Duncan. They'll both be reading on Wednesday April 21st with Michael and Anne and a decision will be made then. It's gonna be tough, but it's also gonna be great.

Also in the fantastic zone of news! HAH! You're gonna like this, we've been negotiating with the Metropolitan United Church of Toronto for the use of their sanctuary area for the filming of the final scene of the movie. Kar Wai, Eric, Michael and I went for a location scout the past Wednesday to all three locations in the film (Regent Park, the house, and the Church) and we've got some fantastic prospects on the table.

We've also got a new CGI expert working on another draft of the work for the film, Mark Alberts comes to us recommended by producer Eric Weigand and has some great ideas for the CGI effects used in the film.

We're also happy to welcome veteran sound engineer Valentin Pricop (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0697233/) to the team as on-location sound mixer.
It's rather fantastic to know that someone who's worked on $10m movies and productions before can spare some time to work on a small little thing like this that's about 1% of the budget of his other work.

The support I've been getting for the project from friends and acquaintances is great. There's no doubt that friends are an important factor in spreading word of mouth about the film, but it's rather overwhelming to see the support go in such directions as attempting to help with entities such as the Dubai International Film Festival or the elusive Royal Film Commission of Jordan. My thanks and appreciation goes out to all of you who help out constantly.

It may interest some of you to know that I am also currently extending a short screenplay that I have into feature length in anticipation of sending it to the RFC in Jordan to see the potential for finding investors for it there. It'll be an interesting story, I'll promise you that. So if you're interested, keep watching the blog ;-)

See you all later, god bless!