Wind in our sails

The annoying thing about a blog is that you blink and it's time to write another one. Well, I blinked. 

In two days time - this coming Wednesday - we are shooting the movie poster, up on St Catherine's Hill here in Winchester. Like I mentioned last time, the poster is going to be an image of Father Morpheus in his full-length burgundy cassock standing on a windswept hillside holding a machine gun. "THE ELDER" above. "LIFE IS PRECIOUS. YOU'VE GOT TO KILL TO PROTECT IT" - our tag line - below. And beneath it all, the movie credits in the tall spindly font you always see on film posters. Bingo. 

So I bought a cassock online from cassock-makers of distinction, Vanpoulles. It cost about £60. I also bought a dog collar and dog collar cufflink, or should that be necklink? The cassock arrived two days later and was brilliant. I put it on straight away and blessed my whole family who, it must be said, were very ungrateful, so I had no choice but to cast them all into a burning pit of hellfire, brimstone and feathers. That same night I was due to go out for another plot-storming session with my friend the accidentally-brilliant-at-plot-storming Richard Cross, and had to be firmly talked out of wearing the cassock up to the pub. Just think of all the fascinating theological conversations I could have incompetently blathered through whilst stacking up the free pints from well-wishers. Next time I'm simply going to sneak the cassock out in a plastic bag and put it on a little further down the street. And wear nothing underneath, just like Catholic priests, only perhaps not the stockings and suspenders. 

Richard and I had another very fruitful session whilst enjoying the kind hospitality of the redoubtable Polly Perry at the Black Boy public house on Wharf Hill here in Winchester, Hampshire. As a result of this session, look out in the final movie for skeletons in pews and an old Jag driven by a crazy white haired old priest. We also discussed how to make Blackwell himself as visually distinctive / disturbing / memorable as possible. Everyone always remembers Frank's mask in Blue Velvet, right? We need something equally iconic visually, and we have a couple of ideas. 

Owen (who has had a super-proactive couple of weeks) has sourced the machine gun for Wednesday, from a company called History in the Making Ltd in Portsmouth. For his weapon of choice, Owen has selected every good terrorist's friend the AK-47, a genuine, de-fatalized one too, not a replica. For this we have also had to contact the local police station and request an incident number, which Owen has now sorted out. So we now have a police incident number for Wednesday. This is rather cool, I reckon. (I am looking forward to playing with a real machine gun. In front of the mirror, natch. I'm also a little nervous about it. Machine guns are pretty heavy shit. They have immense, intense physical and symbolic power. The only time I've ever held a real gun was when I was 17 - it was just some old revolver, but it still felt terrifying, yet also strange, magical, DEATH SEX. It's not rocket science - you give some poor disenfranchised street kid gang member or poverty-stricken, warlord-drafted African teen a firearm: INSTANT POTENCY. It's like a drug. Death drug. Erm, close brackets.)

All this is going to be filmed for the documentary by Steve Webster. In fact Steve and I are going off together early Wednesday morning to buy an HD camcorder for him to make his film with. And a tripod. And maybe a microphone. Then we will figure out how it works. And then go and shoot the movie poster as soon as Owen arrives with his machine gun. For the photoshoot I'm going to be using our script editor Simon Nicholson's SLR camera (thanks Simon). Then after we're done we email the photos over to our art director David Bailey who will create both landscape and portrait versions of the poster. 

Then on Friday Owen and I have a meeting in London with a potential movie production company who have kindly offered their services. More on this in the next blog. But it's very cool and potentially extremely exciting. 

The screenplay is still going well. I am on page/minute 82. Flying along now. 

After we've sorted out the poster, and started on the subsequent branded merch (from the poster we'll officially have a LOOK, an AESTHETIC, a LOGO, a goddamn BRAND), the next big thing is filming a trailer short. This will give us experience shooting stuff; give us editing experience; get a real grip on our visual language and of course provide us with a crucial promotional and fundraising tool. The trailer short must SELL the film, SEX-UP the film, and perhaps most importantly LEGITIMIZE the fact that we're making THE (albeit currently unauthorized) MOVIE of KISS's 1981 concept album (Music From) The Elder. Lots of visual signifiers, in other words - the door, the table and chairs, Morpheus, Blackwell, the Order of the Rose, the Boy, the island, which will be escaped from, etc etc. All in a 3-5 minute trailer. This is our next challenge. And it's an exciting one! I'm going to be taking a brief diversion form the script proper to write this trailer (and its voiceover) in a few weeks' time, and we'll hopefully shoot the trailer as soon as we can, and get it up and viral here, there, everywhere.

And in EVEN MORE exciting news, the Elder movie is now confirmed to be exhibiting at the London Film & Comic Con 2012 (July 6-8, Olympia Grand Hall). Yes, we officially have a stall!

Phew, lots of cool stuff. 

We have momentum. 

Believe in us. 

Support us. 

Give us your fucking money.