Happy Valentine’s Day!

Now comes the best part, our gift to you – the entire Road Less Traveled Trilogy online and ready for your eager lil’ peepers!

Snuggle up close to your loved one and watch…

The Original Road Less Traveled:
http://vimeo.com/9315299

Road Less Traveled: Episode 2 – Path Not Taken:
http://vimeo.com/31793502

Road Less Traveled: Episode 3 – Vanishing Point:
http://vimeo.com/31547137

and the Road Less Traveled Webisode:
http://vimeo.com/1764465

There’s no better way to tell someone “I love you”, than by quoting Damian Locke (“I don’t kill!”), or Samuel Merchant (“Locke can’t just be killed… a progenitor has to want to die.”) or even the loveable Major Graves (“What?!” *SPLAT* and then he’s killed, horribly). (Side note, and I just realized this, there’s a lot of killing in these movies, apparently… maybe you’ll want to watch them if you just broke up with someone…)

Wherever you’re at, whatever you’re doing, it can’t be as awesome as watching more than THREE HOURS of vampire goodness (and badness) (and badass-ness)… FOR FREE!

Then stop on over at our Facebook page and let us know what you thought…

– Enjoy folks, and Happy Valentines from everyone at Man on the Run!

Enjoy! And let us know what you think via the comments on YouTube!

Enjoy! And let us know what you think via the comments on YouTube!

The first FX I’ll go over is the “Jumping out of a glass window” scene at the start of Road Less Traveled 3.

Enjoy! And let us know what you think via the comments on YouTube!

Thanks to everyone who made it out last weekend to our Road Less Traveled Premiere night!

Fans new and old were treated to nearly 2 hours of vampire intrigue, action and drama. Damian Locke finally chose his path; Samuel Merchant finally got what was coming to him; and the Phoenix Sanctuary immortals were forever changed.

There were times when it felt like this day would never come (well, not this day, today’s just a Friday), where I wouldn’t have some scene to tweak, or special F/X shot to approve or give notes on, or a million other little things that go into making a movie. But it’s done. Complete. Fin. And we couldn’t be happier.

Here are a few shots from the event, and the after party at Canteen on Mill. Thanks again to everyone for coming out! We couldn’t have asked for a better set of actors, crew and fans. You guys make this all worthwhile.

Did you miss the Premiere? Want to see the movies at home? They’re now on sale in the Get Stuff section! We even have a combo deal if you buy Episodes 2 & 3 together – and it’s cheap. Cheap like Patrick looked at me and said “How much?! Seriously?” Yes, seriously. Buy your copies today and let us know what you think!

Also, look for the Road Less Traveled Wiki coming soon. It’ll detail all the ins and outs of our mythology, and give a breakdown on characters, events and the untold stories of our production and future episodes that will never see the light of day.

Stay tuned in and on the run!

But that’s not all… are you ready for the Road Less Traveled – Episode III: Vanishing Point Trailer?

Shot almost entirely in Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding cities, Vanishing Point is the final chapter in the Road Less Traveled Trilogy – and you’ve got a front row seat!

Which leads me to our big announcement: Mark your calendars, folks — we’re premiering Road Less Traveled: Episodes 2 & 3, plus the Webisode at 7:30 pm on Saturday, October 23rd at the MADCAP Theater in Tempe, Arizona.

That’s right, two 1-hour Episodes, plus the 12 minute Webisode — all for just $7. And, the first 100 people to arrive get Episodes 2 & 3 on DVD for FREE! Tickets are available on the MADCAP website and at the door that night.

Plus, if you want to meet some of the cast and crew, we’ll be holding a short Q&A after the movies, and having a wild after-party on Mill Avenue immediately following. So stick around, ’cause it’s gonna be a blast!

(If you can’t make it to the premiere night, but still want to purchase the DVD’s, Episode 2 is currently available in the Get Stuff section of the site and Episode 3 will go on sale October 23rd. Thanks!)

One final note… if you find yourself asking, “But I haven’t seen Episode 1 yet, how can I see 2 & 3?!” Fear not – it’s now available online for your viewing pleasure on the Road Less Traveled page!

Enjoy, and we’ll see you on October 23rd!

I don’t even think I hesitated, “Yes!” spilled right out of my mouth.

Scott and I have been fortunate enough to find not only success in writing together, but friendship. When we write, it’s an interesting mix of perspectives and life experiences that emerge. And it’s always enjoyable. How often can you say that? “Yes, I’ve worked with this person for months on end, and each time we get together, I have a great time.” That’s pretty few and far between for me.

We began meeting with Dave Rich, the producer of the project and all-around awesome guy. Dave was the one who came up with original premise for Margarine Wars, and acted as our sounding board for some of the crazier ideas we came up with.

Scott and I began to meet once a week over a two month period. The first month was all set up, getting the story, characters and structure down. the second month was all writing. It had been a while since he and I had seen each other before our first meeting, so there was a lot of catch up involved. but when we finally started to talk about the project, one piece of information became invaluable – we were both ready to Save the Cat.

If you’ve never heard of Save the Cat, get ready to be enlightened. It’s not my idea though, it’s Blake Snyder’s book.

Appropriately subtitled, “The Last Book On Screen Writing You’ll Ever Need”, Save the Cat is just that. It lays out in beats, or moments in your script, that absolutely need to be there in order to fully resonate with your audience. Trust me, the author, Blake, did his homework.

Scott and I pulled out Save the Cat books out at the same time and sat in surprise looking at each other. “You know Save the Cat?” we asked in stereo. While the book doesn’t save lives, it honestly gave us 90% of the road map we needed to complete the script for Margarine Wars. So we set about creating our Logline for the movie.

The Logline needs to encompass the feel of the movie, the plot of the movie and the promise of what the movie will offer audiences. Coming up with it proved harder than we thought due to the irony of our main protagonist, an African-American Jewish Hippie.

Yeah, you read that right.

The Margarine Wars Logline:

Conservative small town America and the sixties’ Psychedelic Counterculture clash during the “Summer of Love” when an aspiring hippie Afro-Jew from New York dupes the son of a Swedish dairy farmer into smuggling outlawed margarine into butter-rich Wisconsin.

The feel of the movie, a bit silly, a lot of fun, and a throwback to the 60′s.  The plot of the movie, an aspiring hippie Afro-Jew suckers the simple son of a Swedish dairy farmer into smuggling illegal margarine into a conservative, small town in butter-rich Wisconsin. The promise of the premise, we’ll see a hippie battling “The Man” in small town America, as he smuggles illegal substances under their noses to make a quick buck and get the heck out of town.

Whenever we ran into a situation while writing that may have taken us away from our Logline, we redoubled our efforts and stuck to it. It proved to be extremely fruitful. We had a read through of the script recently with a fantastic cast, and after we were all done laughing and taking notes, the changes we had amounted to one additional half page scene, and minor tweaks to two other scenes. It was the shortest amount of re-writes I’ve ever had to make on a script. And I think we owe it all to that book.

Update: September 21st, 2010:
I saw Scott last night, and he and I already ramping up to write another script together. Dave emailed me earlier today to let me know he just got back from location scouting and signing paperwork in Michigan. That’s where the film will be shooting in April of 2011.

I’m still in shock that these guys brought me in, got me paid, and I’ll be able to see our movie on a big screen in a couple years. I’ll update with more progress as the start date approaches. In the meantime, screenwriters, if you’ve read Save the Cat, let me know what you think. If you haven’t, buy it, and thank me later. Hahaha…

So I called Gino Calabro last night to bat around the idea for a bit. Gino’s a great local actor – one of Phoenix’s best, and also my good friend. He asked me some fairly tough questions about the TBA idea… you know, like, “What’s it about?” and “What does the team actually do?”

Geez, Gino, like I’m supposed to have ALL the answers. Hahaha…

But it got me thinking… where the hell was I going with this idea? And that’s all it was when I called him. An idea. At best, an interesting premise. But it lacked everything. Plot, characters, backstory, dialogue. You know, things that are kind of important in a movie.

Well, I spent a few hours brainstorming last night and lo and behold…

Man on the Run now has Wild Cards in its back pocket.

The premise is simple:

It’s about a team of highly specialized operatives from all different branches of government, who either knew something they shouldn’t or did something they weren’t supposed to, and ’died’ or were listed as ‘missing’ in the line of duty. That’s how they came to be on the team — the Wild Cards.

There are five members in the group:

• King, the leader (Seals/DEVGRU)
• Queen, the spy (CIA)
• Ace, the weapons expert (Special Forces)
• Joker, the joker
• Jack, the new guy

There have been many Kings, Queens, Aces, Jokers and Jacks over the years. This is just the latest batch (the average life expectancy of a Wild Card isn’t very high). The team members can only get their lives back if they do what the Dealer tells them to.  Oh, did I mention the Dealer?

They get their orders from the Dealer, a high level government official. Though no one has ever met him/her and he/she disguises their voice, it is the Dealer that offers the promise of advancement or release.

I see the Wild Cards being a six episode series, where each episode is told from a different character’s point of view, and features their own unique voice over and style:

• Episode 1: Jack of Hearts – Jack joins the team and we learn about the Wild Cards through his eyes. Who they are, where they came from.
• Episode 2: Queen of Diamonds – Queen talks her way into a huge gala in order to steal blood diamonds back from the host.
• Episode 3: Joker’s Wild – Queen and Jack end up in a hostage situation; Joker comes to their rescue.
• Episode 4: Ace’s High – The Wild Cards world is turned upside down.
• Episode 5: Royally Flushed – The villain is revealed.
• Episode 6: Suicide King – All bets are off as the team confronts an enemy from the past and sets the course for their future.

I’d love to see another story arc start after these six, as well as a couple of one-off episodes. I think something where the Wild Cards come up against another team… Maybe a U.K. team? Based around chess pieces. So there’s a King, Queen, Knight, Bishop, Rook… and maybe even a Pawn (the totally expendable one). The Wild Cards end up on the same mission, but protecting the guy their supposed to kill. I can see Jack and the other team’s Queen getting along well at a mixer, looking for the target, not realizing their both undercover… then they both get a radio transmission to their ear mic that the target is spotted… They both whisper, “Roger that, King” at the same time… then they slowly look at each other in a “do we fight” kind of moment…

Anyway, I’ll have to see where that goes. But that’s where the idea started. Something small, like a snowball, that just keeps getting bigger and bigger as it rolls down a snow covered hill. Then, BLAM! I start getting somewhere.

How about you? How does inspiration strike you and do you have any ideas in your back pocket that could use an hour or two of thought?

Fire At Will Idea Board Craziness

It’s where I keep most of my Fire At Will notes. Haven’t heard of Fire At Will? Don’t worry, you will… Point is, I need a place to capture all of my crazy ideas in the moment they come to me because other wise, brother, they’re gone. And I will NOT, I repeat, NOT let myself believe “I’ll just remember it later.” Again. *groan*

My latest idea Trapper Keeper®? My phone. I have a little program on it called MemoPad, where I can store small amounts of typed text and tons of potential movie ideas. In the ever-so-subtly named file, “Plots,” I have a host of delightful brain-explosions, like:

“Team Bad Ass Series – where each episode is told from a different character’s perspective. Final episode has different pieces from all… maybe a villain episode as well?”

Or…

“Sherlock Holmes-type hero vs. science in the modern age, like John Henry. Uses reason and deduction, not merely forensic evidence.”

And, oh yes, one of my favorites…

“Time travel goes into light source! Flash of light!”

I don’t even remember what I was thinking when I typed that into my phone. I think I was watching a movie, or a TV show (probably something J.J. Abrams did…). Anyway, I have an idea for a time travel story I’ve been working on for a few years now, and I may work backwards, but in some instances I have to figure out HOW something happens before I can figure out WHY it happens. The “flash of light = time travel source” thought hit me square in the face. And while I can’t remember my exact train of thought, I remember enough to progress the story forward with a HOW.

The “Team Bad Ass Series” came from my deep, unquenchable desire to make a real action movie, or series, on a local budget. I’m convinced it can be done, and not just done, but done well. Jon and I had come walking out of the theater last week after watching The Losers and I was thinking, “That movie needed some bad ass VO work. Some gruff voice and… or you know what, what if it was Chris Evan’s playful character instead and–” and that’s when I busted out my phone and started typing. I could see different parts of a series told from the perspective of each of the characters.

The “Sherlock Holmes” idea came out of my love of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a post “Sherlock” interview with Robert Downey Jr. Also, a love of debunking shows like MythBusters and sites like Snopes.com. Could a Sherlock Holmes-type character exist today with all we know about modern science? He was such a cool character because he was before his time. Would it work to bring Sherlock into today’s time? And not just make him a forensics expert or something akin to it, but put him at odds with those kinds of people? Maybe he’s an ex-expert (did I just make up a word?) and now works on his own with his “radical ideas.” Nothing may ever come of it, but the question still seemed interesting to me, and may be worth pursuing some day.

I have tons, literally TONS (if you pile all of my notebooks up) of ideas that come out of questions about the world we live in, the way people interact, the things we go through on a daily basis and the things that I only WISH would happen (still waiting for the Zombie Apocalypse). And while they may never see the light of day, I indulge most of them, giving each a little bit of time and some space in my notebooks because you never know when you’re going to write that thing, that one thing that inspires a generation.

Ask George Lucas what he wrote the first idea for Star Wars on. Probably a scrap of paper he had in his pocket.

What about you? Where do your ideas come from? And how do you keep track of them? Share in the comments!

– Joe Holt

“Previously… on Road Less Traveled…”

“Hmm… Can you try it slower and with less emotion?”

“PREVIOUSLY. ON. ROAD. LESS. TRAVELED.”

(laughing) “Not like a ROBOT!”

That was Jon and I, in my car, trying to record the “Previously” voice over for the opening of Road Less Traveled: Episode 3 – Vanishing Point. After several previous attempts to record the audio months ago, Jon and I finally found an opportunity to try again. In the parking lot of Tempe Marketplace.

We had headed out for a night to celebrate Jon’s 31st year (Happy Birthday, Jon!) and, after a great dinner and seeing The Losers (great movie, bee-tee-dubya), we went back to my car for some VO work. You’d think it not an ideal place to record sensitive voice over dialogue, but surprisingly, my Mustang is a fantastic isolated acoustic chamber. Though, if Jon had said “I think we’re gonna get jacked,” one more time, people would have heard me screaming obscenities at him.

Determining who would get the privilege, nay, honor (hahaha… yeah, right) of speaking the opening dialogue for the final movie was a challenge. Choose Samuel Merchant, the villain of the series to counterpoint Locke’s VO in Episode 2? Not to mention that Patrick, who played Samuel in the trilogy, has been working doggedly right along side me for 4 years now, and you’ve got a pretty good case for having him be the right choice. But what did it say about the film? Episode 2 – Path Not Taken ends with the re-emergence of Samuel Merchant, bigger, badder and smarted than ever. Episode 2 is our Empire Strikes Back, ending on a down note, an all-is-lost moment. The Webisode centers entirely around Samuel and his quest to destroy Locke once and for all. If we opened Episode 3 with Samuel in the lead, would it start the film off on the wrong foot? Who then to choose?

Enter Curtis McMillin, Jon’s character. I’ve made it no secret that I think Jon’s character is the heart of the trilogy (Curtis is the heart, Thomas is the soul), and I think opening with him gives the movie a bit of hope. The last time we saw him, Curtis was refusing to help Locke, choosing instead to go his own way and take the rest of the Phoenix Sanctuary with him. He played a major part in Locke’s virtual “You need to change” bitch slap, but he was the also Locke’s best friend; if the movie starts with him, does it give us a sense that we may see the two friends together again? Does it create a tension in the audience to want to see those two friends connect again?

You’ll have to be the judge of that.

Jon’s voice over performance, even in my car in the Tempe Marketplace parking lot, was spot on. With a lot of laughter, a few outtakes and even a Spanish version for the Bloopers, we got the take we needed. And we’re that much closer to being done.

DVD menu creation has started, FX are wrapping up… it’s close, people. Real close.

Stay on the run and we’ll see you all very soon at the Premier Night!

– Joe Holt