Hiatus

Due to funding issues, Leave is now on indefinite hiatus. We will keep you updated.

Jon here in an edit/addition made 10/15/09 at 6 PMish...

I feel like people following this flicks progress need a little more of an explanation...

Sometimes things don't go as planned when making movies. And Leave seems to have a curse on it for that type of thing. The funding was off, the locations fell through and casting was tougher than we thought it would be. So we're sitting on this for the winter. We're gonna play with the script, work with the cast and keep scouting for new places to shoot this motherfucker. We don't (at least I don't) want to do this half assed and half baked and Leave needs it's ass bigger and a little more time in the oven before we can shoot this the way it should be done. We've had a great year though at Elmwood, shot some shorts and finished up the bulk of Josh and Todd, and ruled Connecticon, so it's not like we haven't been making things happen. We just couldn't get Leave to happen. As they say; shit happens...

Although I'm not happy about this, I'm OK with this, it will make the flick better once it's done.

Keep coming back, we'll keep the blog going with monthly updates as to the progression, and as the cast gets more solidified we'll share them with you.

So with this note I'm going back to the script to see what I can do to it to piss off the other guys, hahaha....

Have a good nite and see ya next time!

JB

Casting Has Begun

Jon here-
Just a little update here on the casting...
We've seen a few people and we're very close to completing our cast and starting rehearsals!
For those of you that follow Elmwood Productions you'll be seeing some familiar faces among the cast, so that will be fun. And even more fun, a whole bunch of new faces will be victimized (I mean acting) in Leave.

Stay tuned for the cast announcement soon!

JB

Jon in the House Of Leave

Jon here...
For those following us on the journey to Leave you may notice on Josh's bio on the blog it now states Producer, where before he was listed as Associate Producer.
I'm not going to get into the semantics of what a producer does and doesn't do, it's really different depending on the project.
But Josh and Mark Elsinger (bio coming soon) are defiantly above Associate at this point.
So I quietly promoted them without even telling them. I just changed Josh's bio here, and Mark my be reading this going "Sweet!" or "Oh shit."
These two guys are going above and beyond what I was hoping for from them and deserve this. And it takes some of the weight off me. Which is also nice, as I hold up Elmwood on my shoulders daily.
And if these guys keep it up I may end up getting demoted to "Mook Who Gets Them Coffee And Bitches"

What does this mean then, having three producers?
It means the three of us and the director, Chris, will at time have to stand with our backs facing each other and our fists out to protect the film and ourselves in order to make Leave the way we see it.
This excites me.

Soon here on this site we'll be posting information on auditions for actors and actresses for the film. So if you're between 18 and 30 and wanna be in a horror flick then keep checking back. And if your not, keep checking back anyway. You're gonna wanna be able to say to your friend; "I was following that production months ago, where have you been?"
And no one likes to be the last person in on a good thing...

On a personal note now...
This past month would have been my mom's 62nd birthday. She passed away in 2000 form a combo of lung cancer and emphysema (don't smoke kiddies) and she was the person who turned me on to horror flicks.
She would let me read Stephen King books when I was way to young to read them, and take me to see movies I shouldn't be seeing at ten years old, like Nightmare on Elm Street, and was one of the first people I saw Evil Dead 2 with. She was hip, and fun. My love of the genere is directly because of her influence on me, and I wouldn't even be involved in making a horror flick if it wasn't for her. And I want to thank her here for that.
So... Thanks mom - you made me weird and twisted.

So let's get on with it! I wanna see this movie!

Scripting

Good morning,

We know its been a while since an update, but we wanted to let you know how things are coming. Scripting is nearing complettion and going through its last drafts to become an actual shooting script.

Location scouting has begun and dates are being set for casting. All in all we hope to begin rolling in the next few months. Once production seriously begins, expect this blog to be updated more frequently as a, well, production blog.

-Josh Tanner, Producer

Where we are...

Josh here -

Good Afternoon, our readers. I know its been a little more than a month since our last post here. I just wanted to give a status update.

First of all, please welcome Mark Elsinger to the Leave creative team. He has come onboard doing some rewrites on the script and adding a few new scenes. In addition he has agreed to help the project as another Assistant Producer and may even appear in the film. Our first round of script rewrites should be done in mid-February and we will begin pre-production in the spring with principal photography to begin in late summer.

Additionally we have brought our wardrobe person on board who will be working with us in the near future. Sarah Gabbey has generously agreed to begin working on costuming in concert with our director and producers. She has worked on stage costuming in the past, primarily through Franklin Pierce college, as well as several local companies.

More to come...

Photo - Jan. 22 Production Meeting - Left to Right: Associate Producer Josh Tanner, Associate Producer Mark Elsinger, Writer/Director Christopher A. Lemanski, Executive Producer Jim Williams, and Producer Jon Bristol

Note from the Director

I'm considering changing the name of the film to "Stay For" because it would make the web address for this blog less repulsive.

-chris

Christopher A. Lemanski - Writer/Director/Producer

I'm going to break the mold here. I was asked to write a biography for myself and since I have to write it, I'll be damned if I'm going to write it in the 3rd person.

I joined Elmwood Productions a few years back at the beckoning of fellow Director Jim Williams. He told me it would be another great creative outlet for me and that Elmwood was looking for creativity in writing and fresh ideas. One of those ideas was Jon wanting to do a classic horror movie full of people, not felt.

As a writer, Leave was an idea I cooked up around the time I was in middle school. It started as a much different concept. It was actually about two children, 10 and 8, trapped in their house by a psycho who was killing people in the neighborhood and burying them in the front yard of the children's house. The idea never really took form until I re-imagined the idea for the script that is Leave.

As a director, I am admittedly novice from a film perspective, but I have many qualities that make people want to follow my direction and listen to what I'm saying. These qualities include, but are not limited to, I'm big, I'm scary, I have a gun. Only one of those things is true. Personally, I hope it's the gun thing.

As a producer, I'm organizing a lot of the pre-production right along with Jon and Josh. This, by definition, makes me a producer of the film. It really makes a lot of sense considering I'm writing and directing the film. Joss Whedon gave some good advice when he said you should write what you direct. I admire Joss Whedon as a creative force in modern pop culture. I also mention his name so people using Google to find Joss tidbits will accidentally stumble here and read this blog out of morbid curiosity. (Hi there all you Browncoats and Buffy-philes!)

In addition to Leave, I've done work with Elmwood on the Steve the Vampire series. In fact, I take credit for turning it into a series instead of a one shot. I'm also working on a new short series with puppets, a feature with puppets, and my dream/pet project "Dan's Not Cool".

Outside of Elmwood I run the corporate wheel in a staff development role. I also enjoy role playing. I run a LARP, I play in LARPs, I enjoy acting in any form I can. I also greatly support the Green Street Arts Center in Middletown, CT. My favorite writers and directors include Jane Espenson, Bryan Singer, Christopher Nolan, and Brian K. Vaughn. I also think J.J. Abrhams is a production genius.

Away from all things media, I enjoy spending time with the darling Gwenevere, (seen with Josh below) cooking, and occasionally visiting the casino. I also seem to have a minor crush on Amanda from the Josh & Todd cast even though the bitch is headed for Arizona.

Live on.