Welcome / Wall of Text.

Hello, and welcome to the production diary for No Budget Productions' "Our Story." My name's Jonathan, I'm a very nervous first-time director, and here I hope to bear my heart and various other organs to you. Don't worry, I'll keep it clean.

I've been writing since I was 11 years old, but I didn't really pick up a camera until my junior year of high school, and even then I didn't really know what I was doing. A friend and I plunged into a project with a 4:3 Digital8 camcorder, an iMac, and a script that reeked of Zach Braff and neophyte funk. It was a great idea, but as a young writer I didn't really know how to hold a project like that together. From where I sit, I can see the Hi8 tape with all the original footage on it. It was called "Bloom."

Despite the project failing due to a number of factors, it is still very near and dear to my heart. Perhaps some of it is nostalgia: I still remember how exciting it was for us, how I watched the first three minutes on repeat (the only part we ever edited) and bubbled with joy. I remember people in school actually telling me they watched it and liked it! It was crazy.

However, the real reason for the project's special spot is how personal it was. I had written all kinds of stuff before: fantasy, fantasy, and even a bit of fantasy. This was the first time I had ever tackled something real: a love story. More importantly, it was a story and a concept that I feel I understood very well. "Bloom" was about unrequited love, separation, loneliness, and how they intertwine for one boy...perhaps just a bit autobiographical given my situation at the time. I didn't even try to hide it, really.

However, there was a problem with "Bloom" and the message I sought to depict: it was too "cute" for the subject matter. I'm not one to linger on doom and gloom, but at that time in my life I was hurting. A lot. I was a good kid, but I was also unfortunately overanalytical and perhaps delusional. "Bloom," while it was a reflection of that struggle, was tuned to be more of a romantic comedy. The script was solid, the characters were well-developed, and the dialogue was okay...but it was missing something.

That something was bite.

Years later, I grew up. College happened. I changed. To this day I'm not sure about exactly what sort of switch flipped in me when I moved to my lovely little school in the mountains: I got some confidence, gained some perspective, and seriously mellowed out (for the most part.) I had written two full-length scripts since then, both of which were pretty dark, and also worked on a great deal of comedy after hooking up with the Student Filmmakers' Organization at ASU. Finally, my creativity had found a raw faucet from which to flow from.

Eventually, me and the fellow Organization members started to work on stuff outside of the club, namely our "Stalin and Hitler" shorts about the eponymous dictators as post-war college students. Chances are, many of you reading this have seen those videos or our recent short film based on them. The series was great fun to work on, and taught us a lot about organization and teamwork.

However, we're not always goofballs, and this is where "Our Story" comes into the picture. The idea came to me in September 2008 while we were filming "Clocks," a short of ours, and it met with good reception from the cast and crew. However, it was just that: an idea, and we had bigger things to work on, namely the then-musical Stalin and Hitler film. So I stashed it under my belt, and with the rest of the team, went to work.

January comes around. Boone winters are harsh, and the weather is bitter, cold, and strangely beautiful. Perhaps this atmosphere is what persuaded me to finally pick up the project again. I remembered "Bloom" and, now older, finally realized what I wanted to do with this project. I was going to give the "Bloom" concept what it needed: edge.

Wordsworth, of whom I'm not a fan, once said something I do like: "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of emotion...recollected in tranquility." In many ways, "Our Story" was very painful to write. It is just that: a young man's insecurity, fear, and depression remembered later, after I'd grown up a bit, gotten my thoughts together, and prepared myself to finally bleed it onto the paper. Like a few years of maturity, writing "Our Story" was therapeutic and gave me perspective on a person I used to be and, to a degree, how people worked.

So that's it: "Our Story" is a film about unrequited love in what is hopefully the most realistic, unflinching way possible. Hopefully, that's what it will shape up to be as production progresses. But regardless of the final product, "Our Story" will always be a gem for me because, quite frankly, it is my story, my teenage years, and my hurt...recollected in tranquility.

However, it's not just my story. This one also belongs to the rest of the production team: my No Budget brethren, the Broumvirate, and my two fabulous actors Lily and Nathan. They're going to all help me bring this'n to life, and hopefully make it good...and I hope you all will stick around too as the diary is updated!

As production progresses, I'll be revealing some story details, production stills, and details about the shoot. I'll talk about the actors, my fellow production crew, and muse on the project and its progress.

"Our Story" is scheduled to shoot in late August and early September this fall, and will premiere somehow (haven't quite figured that out yet) before Christmas.

Thanks for the support!

-JD