The way we work, there’s not a clear line between real life and the movie. Discussion flows all around, and out of various tangents and digressions, a story slowly emerged, raw ideas evolved into specific characters who got names and backstories as we went on. "Girl God" became Morning, "the Han Solo character" became Zinone, "scientist leader guy" became Jerrod. This was the process.

As we talked about the story, it became clear that it was a pretty big tale, at least feature film length. Looking at a project so large, I began to think about ways to make the project work. I didn’t want to labor for a year with no finished product. I also realized that most of the people who see my movies watch them on the web, so why not run with that? I came up with the concept of the webseries, serializing the work online in a series of five minute episodes and then putting out a collected feature version at the end.

With this structure in place, the project became a bit more manageable. It’s still a huge thing, but it’s easier to conceive when it’s broken up into episodes. The webseries concept gave us a jumping off point, and by the end of the summer, we had a pretty solid conception of the whole story, as well as the various characters involved. But, there was still more work to do.

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about filmmaking today is the idea that to make something you need to max out your credit card, quit your job, and devote your life to a project. Yes, this project takes up a ton of time, but I'm able to fit it in around a full time job, and not spend that much money in the process. Digital cameras have totally changed the game; the movie that used to cost $30,000 in film processing alone now costs virtually nothing. It's a welcome democratization of the medium, but it also means there are a lot more films out there. How can you make your film stand out against the mass of content available? Why should someone watch your movie instead of a multi-million dollar Hollywood production?

There's no easy answers to these questions, I certainly don't have them. Ultimately, I'm just trying to tell the kind of stories and make the kind of films that I'd like to see. If I'm happy with the final product, does it really matter if anyone sees it? I go back and forth on this. I don't want to put all this time into something and have it go nowhere. Hopefully I won't have to face that, but even giving your film away, it's still an uphill battle.

Next time, I'll discuss the audition process, and how we were able to find a great cast of actors despite having little to no budget. In the meantime, check out this trailer for the series.