I just turned in final drafts for "Ragged Isle" season two and season three, completing the story and the series. The writing is done, finally. Oh, there will probably be a tweak or two over the next few weeks, but we're pretty well locked down.
These episodes have gone through a significant revision process since we began. The first draft of the first season-two episode was completed in mid-February 2010, and since then, there have been dozens and dozens of drafts of all the episodes in season two, which eventually expanded and split into season two and season three.
While the spine of the story (and the ending) have remained constant throughout the process, adhering the vision cooked up by the original "hive mind" writers group -- Barry Dodd, Karen Dodd, Rick Dalton, Jacob Lear, and myself -- there have been enormous changes to individual episodes, scenes, characters, motivations, and plot reveals. I am so excited to share it all with you, but there is so much work to be done before that happens. Like for instance, all the shooting, scoring, and editing. You know, stuff like that.
It's exciting and strange to be done with this part of the process, after fiddling around with the writing for a year and a half. Now I'm now looking ahead to the acting, as I play a new character to be introduced next season. Excuse me while I throw up out of nervousness.
Stick around. We have lots of surprises in store. We'll see you on the island!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Location scouting begins again
Karen and I have officially begun searching for new locations for Ragged Isle today! I have to admit this is one of my favorite parts of doing this series. Exploring this beautiful state is an adventure in itself and we are so lucky to live in such a picturesque part of the world. This morning we headed down to Kittery which is at the very edge of our state and New Hampshire to check out Fort Foster as a possible spot to represent the yet unseen "off limits" end of our island. As with all spots like this it all depends on the kindness of the folks that run the place but we'll do our best to be charming as we believe this could very well be perfect!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Three Seasons of Ragged Isle
It's official. We are excited to confirm that Ragged Isle will be three seasons long. The first season was 10 episodes and the second two will each be 6 episodes long. Season Two will be released in the spring / summer of 2012 and Season Three will be released in the fall / winter of 2012. Why three? It had originally been a three season story. We are embracing that reality and running with the challenge. A lot needs to be told to complete this story and we want to take our time and not cram it all down people's throats at warp speed in one season like we were planning. Both seasons will be shot in the summer / fall of 2011. Just around the corner!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Random Image 6/4/11
Summer is in the air! Time for a bike ride on the island with our own Deputy Dan.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Episode Ten... and behind-the-scenes writer's commentary
The Season One finale of "Ragged Isle" is up. After you watch, read through to the rest of the post for a behind-the-scenes perspective from the head writer
WARNING: The rest of this post will contain spoilers for the entire season, so don't read any further if you haven't watched every first season episode.
At a very early writers' group meeting, back in January of 2010, we decided that we wanted the first season of "Ragged Isle" to climax at a lobster festival. We weren't sure what was going to happen, but we knew it was going to be catastrophic, involving several deaths.
A couple of problems presented themselves almost immediately:
1) How were we going to stage a lobster festival? I mean, we all have friends, but could we entice hundreds of friends to show up for a fake lobster fest? Probably not, but...
2) Could we convince a real lobster festival to let us shoot there if we had several characters dropping dead amid the crowd? Probably not, but...
What if we combined 1) and 2), shooting footage at a real lobster festival, but also staging a fake festival at another location on another day for the gaudier mayhem we had in mind.
And that is what we did. In August, Barry and some of our actors headed up to the Rockland Lobster Festival to get some authentic festival footage. A Tarot card reader at the festival was nice enough to let actress Kat Morrison (Madame Clelia) sit in her booth long enough for Barry to get some shots of her. And April Joy Purinton (Rachel Moody) got to do her spooky zombie shuffle through authentic festival crowds.
Then in September, we all headed down to Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth to stage our "fake" lobster festival, to be intercut with footage from the real deal. That day was not without difficulties, but we persevered, guided by the cool professionalism of Karen and Barry.
More than any other episode this season, I think, this one was really found in editing. If you pay attention to the dialogue, you'll notice there isn't that much. And when bad things start to happen, they happen very, very quickly. The script as written was only three or four pages, which usually translates into about three or four minutes of screentime. But Barry crafted a ten-minute episode out of the footage he shot. Bravo, dude.
A note on cliffhangers. Cliffhangers can be frustrating, can't they? But we're asking you to trust us that we know where this is going. We're only half-way through our story, and there is so much more story to tell. We can't wait to share the rest with you.
WARNING: The rest of this post will contain spoilers for the entire season, so don't read any further if you haven't watched every first season episode.
At a very early writers' group meeting, back in January of 2010, we decided that we wanted the first season of "Ragged Isle" to climax at a lobster festival. We weren't sure what was going to happen, but we knew it was going to be catastrophic, involving several deaths.
A couple of problems presented themselves almost immediately:
1) How were we going to stage a lobster festival? I mean, we all have friends, but could we entice hundreds of friends to show up for a fake lobster fest? Probably not, but...
2) Could we convince a real lobster festival to let us shoot there if we had several characters dropping dead amid the crowd? Probably not, but...
What if we combined 1) and 2), shooting footage at a real lobster festival, but also staging a fake festival at another location on another day for the gaudier mayhem we had in mind.
And that is what we did. In August, Barry and some of our actors headed up to the Rockland Lobster Festival to get some authentic festival footage. A Tarot card reader at the festival was nice enough to let actress Kat Morrison (Madame Clelia) sit in her booth long enough for Barry to get some shots of her. And April Joy Purinton (Rachel Moody) got to do her spooky zombie shuffle through authentic festival crowds.
Then in September, we all headed down to Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth to stage our "fake" lobster festival, to be intercut with footage from the real deal. That day was not without difficulties, but we persevered, guided by the cool professionalism of Karen and Barry.
More than any other episode this season, I think, this one was really found in editing. If you pay attention to the dialogue, you'll notice there isn't that much. And when bad things start to happen, they happen very, very quickly. The script as written was only three or four pages, which usually translates into about three or four minutes of screentime. But Barry crafted a ten-minute episode out of the footage he shot. Bravo, dude.
A note on cliffhangers. Cliffhangers can be frustrating, can't they? But we're asking you to trust us that we know where this is going. We're only half-way through our story, and there is so much more story to tell. We can't wait to share the rest with you.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Random image 5/6/11
Dedicated to Ragged Isle fans swampyankee1 "If I don't get the t-shirt can I have the shackle??" and Indie Intertube's Destini "That opening shot was so pretty, it hurt."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)