Busy, but mad exciting week ahead. Many of our keys start work today and, as a whole, we need to kick it into that next gear. This is most true in our location hunt. Planning on spending the afternoon with production designer Shane Valentino and director of photography Matt Jensen in our desired interior location for Lincoln Rec. We will walk through our plan of attack down there and sign off on the gym for shooting. If we are able to agree, it is a major piece of the puzzle solved. Then we’ve got to agree on an exterior vision of Lincoln. Unfortunately, we haven’t found one location that can serve as both so we must search for the perfect interior and the perfect exterior in separate locales…

Should get a clearer picture on the cast front this week and I hope to share exciting news on our acting troop soon. We will be casting again and deciding on some roles mid-week. All very exciting. I can’t wait to work with a cast that is deep and rich with talent. Extremely thrilling for a director. So, big things are going down this week. If I can keep up, we’ll all be good.

If you don’t know…

An image shot on Lincoln by our title designer, the skilled Nick Haas… Lincoln is Venice’s main artery, its pulse - Sticky’s storied grounds…

Yesterday was a great day. Spent the morning with Matt Jensen, our DP, building and am feeling good about our visual strategies for this film. We really came up with some exciting ideas. It’s great to be in this space. There are few elements of filmmaking that are filled with purely innocent creativity: The writing process before you start showing it around, meeting and thinking on the creative in a vacuum before the reality of budget, time and schedule forces compromise, working with actors in auditions, and seeing dailies and a rough cut for the first time. These things are untainted by reality and are so pure in one’s artistic thought process that there is nothing quite as exhilarating as these moments in the journey of making a film.

Things are hectic as we start to really ramp up on this picture, so my blogs may start to read like quick journal entries, but hopefully that’ll actually means we get more up on the site…

We find ourselves in an interesting position as we are now real and have a date. Actors’ schedules are suddenly becoming a hurdle… We are trying to get folks signed up and are working with their other commitments, but it’s proving to be a challenge with some.

Ball… B-ball…
Hollywood, not the city, but the institution, is a hustle. Well, the city is, too, now that I think on it. A hustle… Straight and up and down. That’s why hip-hop heads

Word is…This film might be my last shot…

Word is…

We’re sitting on something folks know is hot…
Word is…

de la’s book almost couldn’t get published…

word is…

The great thing about this film is its story. The story of Sticky. That is what attracted me to de la’s book in the first place and is the thing that drives me as we prep and ramp up for our shoot. Sticky’s story is one of many just like it. The story of foster kids lost in a system that is too big and too overwhelmed to always do right by them. When they hit 18 and are spit out of the system, foster kids are statistically more likely (by huge, huge numbers) to get knocked and be behind bars or wind-up on the streets, homeless than the rest of us. Foster kids are inherently forced to navigate very treacherous waters . Moving water. Sometimes dangerous waters. They can’t always swim. Sticky’s tale is one of caution, warning.

We are excited to be partnering with NATIONAL CASA (read up on them in our partners section), an advocacy group for real foster kids, to help bring real connection between our story and the real world. National Casa aims to help step in on a life like Sticky’s and change by offering stability. I urge everyone to visit this organization’s website and see how you can help those stuck in the foster system. Those like Sticky.

A big shout out to LRG for getting down with our cause. We met them in Vegas at the All-Star game and they immediately were feeling this project (met them on a Saturday, samples were in our hands Tuesday). LRG is going to lace us and they are a perfect fit for several of the characters in our world because, as a brand, they are authentic to those characters and this world. It’s exciting to develop partners like LRG on this. I know there are more to come. C’mon, people, we’re ready for you.

Grayson’s been working hard with my man Ben on crafting his acting and slipping into the skin that is Sticky. Together, we been building his acting chops and readying him for this role, this experience. Understand that we’ve come a long way since we shot the teaser and the screen-test and an even longer way from when we first talked about doing this film together. I’m excited for him because I know he is up to the challenge and will rock Sticky. There will be no more Professor - Just like Ray Allen is still Jesus Shuttlesworth, I know that Fess will be Sticky once he does this because he will be Sticky through-and-through. If you see him, call him Sticky. That’s what’s up.