How does one prep without a director?

Here I am, the first week almost complete and our director / writer is back in LA trying to wrangle our "big name" actor. Don had to visit him on the set (behind the scenes) of Larry King the other night so they could have a conversation about flushing out a few scenes. All good ideas but god, it takes a lot of work to land a name. The funny thing is that we have other amazing actors in the wings, ready to sign on once our big fish does.

Hopefully all of this will come to completion in the next week. It's been valuable to be here and get up to speed on the town, weather, time change, food, crew, etc. I've made an incredibly detailed database that will aid communication and organization. What's that quote by Matisse, or someone French, "Be orderly in your life so you can be violently original in your work". I subscribe to that!

So, we've pushed shooting by one week and that gives me 5 weeks of prep. Never have had so much time to second guess myself. Being a film-monk is not that bad, I have my guitar, mandolin, bike and cameras.

I did a "stereo camera" test today. I've been dreaming of this shot for about a month and it didn't pan out the way I thought it would. I got depressed and then lost my patience. Fuck. The boulder is at the bottom of the damn hill again and I have to push it back up. What else is a life for?

Back to the drawing board tomorrow. A few revisions will help.

Last night Grand Rapids had the 2nd largest lightning storm on record. I awoke to a flash and a bang and thought about going outside to shoot. I fell back asleep before I could motivate myself. Probably best I didn't. I can't help but think that it was a welcoming from all of the elements. It can't be a curse right?

And away we go. Who will read this? Okay, nevermind..my insecure voices are not welcomed here. My first full day in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I'm here to shoot a film called "Touchback". It's a highschool football movie with a time-travel twist. The story is amazing and I hope that we can make a great film. We are still trying to lock down actors, big ones, really big ones. More on that later.
Grand Rapids as a place...well it's beauty is not such that hits you over the head once you see it, more on that later.

Today I'm going into the office and plan on doing a list of small organizational tasks so that when all of the information that comes, script notes, shot ideas, etc. I 'll have a place to put them.
Don, our director has flown back to LA to have a meeting with one of our huge actors, more on that later. Don will try and convince him to be in the movie.

GOOD LUCK Don!