And we got all our shots.

In a couple weeks I’ll be starting post-production, but for now I have a few other items of business to attend to—things I neglected for the last several weeks so I could focus on getting a film made.

I’ll try to be here, and on Facebook and Twitter, more frequently in the meantime. But for now I’m just here to say a big collective Thank You, in no particular order:

To all the people who supported me and the film with encouragement and word of mouth; to everyone who contributed financially; to the local restaurants and businesses who donated food, gear, supplies, props and costumes; to all the people temporarily widowed or orphaned by spouses and parents who for nine days only came home to crash into bed; to my amazing and inspiring crew, who worked 16- and 18-hour days for over a week and stayed on their A-game the whole time; to the stellar cast, who tried their hardest to make choosing the best takes as difficult as it could be; to Grace College and its staff—they bent over backward to accommodate our demanding schedule and needs….

Thank You.

Without you, there’d be no movie.

Because even “no-budget” movies actually do have budgets, I’ve launched a Kickstarter project for the film.

For those who’ve never checked out Kickstarter, here’s how it works: You decide to back a project by pledging money to it. If the project reaches its pledging goal, hurray! The project receives your money and moves forward. The project also gives you a pre-decided reward, based on the amount you pledged. If the project doesn’t reach its goal, it gets no money at all. That’s right: you’re out a whopping $0.

So please consider supporting Murder! A Love Story on Kickstarter. All of our budget is going to hard costs like food and equipment and travel; we promise we won’t spend your money frivolously.

And if you want to go the extra mile for us, spread the word! We need all the help we can get.

Thanks! Hopefully you’ll hear soon about our success in raising the funds to complete the film.

A couple weeks ago I shot a teaser trailer for the film. It stars my wife (and the film’s stylist) Sally and a Pentax K1000 borrowed from my mother. The teaser was shot with a Nikon D7000 on loan from Chris and Evie Jones, and it took about three hours to shoot, quick-and-dirty-like. I hope you enjoy it.

It’s 4 a.m. on the morning of Friday, July 22, which means that tomorrow is the first day of production.

Our Kickstarter project was unsuccessful, so we don’t have as extensive a budget as I was hoping. On the other hand, many of the people who pledged funds to the project just went ahead and sent me a check through the mail, which was almost more encouraging.

We also found some other ways to cut corners, so I think the movie is going to cost less than anticipated. Which is good, because… see above.

Let’s see: what else do you need to know at the last minute?

We have a cast. I never updated the cast page (until tonight), but we found some fantastic actors, and I rehearsed them over the past couple weekends, so that I’m feeling really confident about the level of performance we’ll see in the film.

I was planning on doing a behind-the-scenes podcast once every two weeks, starting with the one I posted a few months ago. The fact that the total is still at one should tell you how much I’ve had to do since then. Hopefully when we hit post-production I’ll be able to slow down a little and put up some more posts.

I’m amazed by my crew. They’ve put in tons of work and thought leading up to this week, trying their utmost to make this movie a success. I can’t wait to see them go into action tomorrow.

I can’t wait to see me go into action tomorrow. It probably never entirely comes off, but I’m hoping to at least push the Producer’s hat pretty far back on my head and start focusing on being a director.

Deep Breath.

And in.