The Joy of Puzzle of Liken's Jonah

Making a movie that is going to be simultaneously be produced on stage is rather an interesting challenge. I don't recommend it if you like a life that is like clock work. It is more like one of those puzzles that is made up of a 3-D image that you must solve first to complete the puzzle, but you can only see the 3-D image once the puzzle is completed. A regular conundrum wrapped in an enigma.

I thought I'd start to discuss how I see movies getting made. The stage production is a whole other set of challenges and you'd think that a bunch of individuals (okay, the three of us) that are directly now involved in Liken (one of us actually getting paid) would realize how foolish we are to try both. But, we are and here goes on the film part.

As I see it, there are about 12 primary areas in making a film:

1. Cast--This is the people that make the project look good. Each have to be hired by an agreement, schedules work out and about 100 other details.
2. Crew--gets broken out a lot) into every thing that doesn't get its own category but includes people like the script supervisor, 1st AD, Camera crews, etc. All the people that make the project look good, but don't necessarily have to look good themselves (if you know what I mean).
3. Administration--the truly boring stuff like insurance, which is rather expensive.
4. Hair and Make Up--the people who frequently make others look good (and bad when wanted) and, interestingly enough, are often quite good looking themselves.
5. Costume--On a show like Jonah this area is amazingly complex.
6. Equipment--includes lighting, cameras, jibs, and bunch of other things that I hardly begin to have a clue
7. Locations and Travel--getting there and getting it set up
   
8. Craft-people have to eat
9. Sets--includes the designer and the guys that build it
   
10. Marketing--you have to try and actually sell your product
    
11. Post Production--well, this has so much to it where do you begin.
    
12. Music--in a musical, well you guessed that this is a important, but there is a lot more than just the songs. You've got score and foley and ADP.
    

So, those are the main areas. Each involves a few 100 aspects with their own negotiations and steps to resolve and each requires an individual or group of individuals to coordinate and manage. I have always felt that Liken has been tremendously blessed with department heads over those 12 areas who truly care. That is kind of the blessing of a film. Film people actually seem to care about their product. As a Producer of the series, I have the extreme pleasure of trying to bring a team together to make, literally, a miracle. A movie, even a small Liken movie, is a bit of a miracle. We're progressing on this miracle and hopefully, we can actually see it to completion. If you're also a part of it and you're somehow reading this blog, thanks for your efforts to make the miracle.

With the above basis established, I think I'll be able to discuss what is going on in our world of Jonah and how we're progressing. I think we're progressing quite well, but really, a few more miracles are going to be needed.