We’ve gotten a few in-person responses to Monday’s blog entry - one of which was represented by a “sugar shame” kind of finger wag from my mother. And that finger wag was most certainly deserved, because (as she pointed out) one very important cast member was mistakenly left out of the post.

And to him, The Incomparable Dan Myrtle, I apologize.

Although there’s no excuse for forgetting to retro-announce Dan’s casting, I probably made the mistake because casting Dan was so easy…and because his is a role too closely tied to some major plot points for me to go into too much detail regarding his contributions.

What I can tell you is that Dan already appears in my first film, Over Easy, as an extra. We needed to fill a similarly important extra role for Sex and Justice, and Dan fit the physical description pretty well. I called him, asked if he wanted in (he did), checked to see if he was okay with semi-nudity (he was!), and that was it. Months later, he waited, on call while watching his Celtics beat my Lakers in the NBA finals, for his scene to be shot (which we didn’t end up doing until some wee hour of the morning). He was awesome.

So I’m sorry, Myrtle. Know that you are valued and that my mother, at least, is looking out for your career. I hope you can forgive me in time to make an appearance in the next project. Assuming I survive this one.

I must begin this Retro-Blog post, our first since the last one, with an admission wrapped in a disclaimer tied with…a string made of thankfulness?

Well…the point is that we would never have ended up with the kick-ass cast that we’ve been boasting about for the past several months (to anyone who will listen) without the many and invaluable contributions of my co-producer Rebecca, who incidentally doubles as the female lead of the film. She’s an exceedingly talented  woman and before we get on to the particulars of her work as an actor/producer I’d like to formally thank her for all her help -  and for being patient with me while I learned many parts of the professional casting process.

Because you see…one thing I learned while casting this film…actors have it rough, hombres. I don’t mean to suggest that being a director is a basket of beer and cookies, but still…

You see…most actors don’t work all the time…and not for lack of trying. Maybe that’s no revelation, but I think people lose sight of the hard work and sacrifice that on-screen (and on-stage) talent put into their craft. Again…it’s not as if we writer/directors are sitting at home grooming our beards in front of the television…but we do get to work alone during 50% of the production cycle, after which we get to bark orders at people the rest of way home. In other words, I don’t have to stand in front of a “panel of judges” with the extremely difficult challenge of convincing everyone in the room 1) that I’m somebody else and 2) that I’m the somebody else that is needed more than the 50-100 other versions of that person coming through the door before and after me.

No thanks. I think I’d rather try to hit a major league curve ball.

Anyway, here, with Rebecca’s help, is how we approached the casting duties for our ultra-low budget indie featurette…

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Voting ends tomorrow for the final round of AMC’s “You Could Be On Mad Men” contest, and if you haven’t yet voted for our very own Rebecca De Ornelas…shame on you!

Go watch the video. Vote. Comment on how great it is. Help her win a much-deserved spot on a much-watched and fantastic show. Then some day you can say you knew her when she was a chain smoking vigilante ex-prostitute.

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Uhh…just to be clear…Rebecca isn’t really a chain-smoking vigilante ex-prostitute…she just plays one in your favorite independent neo-noir featurette!

Vote! And come back soon for more Sex and Justice news and goodies!

Hey Sexies.

As promised, we have uploaded some stills pulled from the film for your viewing enjoyment. You can see a few of them on the About page, but the whole sampling can be found on the page titled “Footage Stills” in the Blog section of the site.

Go. View those stills. Titillate yourself, for your self needs titillation.

Also feel free to stop by the Guestbook section of the Blog to leave a general comment for us (The Producers).

Also-also, these same pictures are available on the Facebook and MySpace pages for the film.

No more alsos.

Promise.

The script for my first film, Over Easy, was adapted from a very silly story that I had published in a very small free literary magazine at the good old Alma Mater. And the story of the genesis of that story is pretty simple.

It all came out of a writing exercise: Throw two people at each other, give each person a name and a gender, and base the outcome of their story on a set of conflicts determined by chance, by playing cards.

Because it was a short exercise, I decided on a short fight. Each character had six or so cards and I set them against one another in a game of War. The tighter and more agonizing the victory, so would it go in the story. Whoever came out on top after the last two cards had been played was the winner of “the conflict.” Not the best way to come at your first film, and not even a very good writing exercise, but hey, it worked at least a little.

Now…Sex and Justice. “The Script” for Sex and Justice. Not as simple a story.

In fact, the ideas and through-line that would become Sex and Justice sort of just appeared one day out of nowhere. I was working on another script at the time. Actually, I was more than working on one script, I was about ready to go into production on two other scripts, both short character-driven pieces about “young moody people in modern forms of conflict.”

But those babies weren’t ready - still are’nt. And to be honest, I wasn’t sure that I could direct them yet. And then things were further complicated by the sudden realization of what would become our business model for the film, which kind of sorta came along in my head at about the same time as the idea for Sex and Justice.

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