A Taste of SkyChasers

Here's an excerpt from the SkyChasers novella I've started writing:



Imagine, if you can, a massive blue whale. Back on Earth, this whale is leaping majestically out of the water while spectators point and snap cameras from a passing charter boat. Suppose, for a moment, the whale’s name is Wylie. When Wylie the Whale hits that water, the splash will be humongous. Everyone will clap. It’s going to be grand.



Now imagine that the sun explodes. In an instant, fire and radiation sweep out into the solar system and demolish Mercury and Venus like a firehose blowing through cheap tissue paper. Millions and millions of years from now, little alien boys living billions of light years away will point their telescopes at Earth and think this explosion is cool – but as Wylie the Whale leaps out of the water and stares straight up into the flaming solar doom that, one instant from now, will smash through her world like dynamite blasting through a sand castle, all she can think is “Oh.”

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Wrapping Development on Sam Bailey

Dear Friends of Sam!



Our casting and financing efforts near their conclusion. Every day, Sam Bailey inches closer and closer towards some very exciting announcements. With all that going on, I felt it was time to revisit the script with the perspective of the last few months in hand.



What emerged is a much tighter, much funnier movie that creates a unique feel for the world Sam lives in. After all the work and effort, the tone and style of the film is veering back towards where I'd originally envisioned it - a little mystery wrapped in quirk and fantasy.



That's very good news for the production team, the actors, and the audience, because while there's never telling whether I'll go back to the script or not, we're ready to shoot.



Sharing this development process with you has been a real pleasure, and I'm excited to get into pre-production! If you'd like to read the script, you can find it on the 8 Sided forum - here.



Yours truly,

Tennyson E. Stead

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History and Rememberance

I was just watching the first episode of X-Files, Season 3 - and I loved this quote.  Here's a truth for every storyteller:



"There is an ancient Indian saying that something lives only as long as the last person who remembers it. My people have come to trust memory over history. Memory, like fire, is radiant and immutable while history serves only those who seek to control it, those who douse the flame of memory in order to put out the dangerous fire of truth. Beware these men for they are dangerous themselves and unwise. Their false history is written in the blood of those who might remember and of those who seek the truth." - Floyd Westerman, The X-Files

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Geekachicas writes up 8 Sided Films!

One or two months ago, Pearce Holland from geekachicas.com interviewed me on genre and independent film, as well as the future of the industry as a whole. From Sam Bailey and Stormcrow to how and where filmmakers will be finding their audience in the new millenium, we wound up on the phone for well over an hour. Today, her report goes live: http://bit.ly/bPSQes



Check out www.geekachicas.com, and thanks to Pearce Holland and the Geekachicas for taking the time!

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"I'm Here" - a short film by Spike Jonze

Thanks to Roger Ebert's blog at http://blogs.suntimes.com, I came across Spike Jonze's new web movie about sad robots falling in love. Wonderful!



Here's the movie in three parts:















Definitely check it out. This is a wonderful piece of genre art, and it had me feeling sick to my stomach and totally emotionally connected at the same time. This is great short filmmaking! Please, please watch.

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