Monday Movie Meme - Plan B

As I work to complete a final version of my “Abyss” movie -- one that is suitable for film festival submissions -- the deadlines for (festival) review continue to fly by. Coming up against setbacks such as exporting files that don’t play properly, crossing off potential festivals to submit to and being in a frenzy over the steep learning curves of features within post-production software programs, I find myself having to constantly readjust my end goal for this project. That brings us to the theme of this week’s Monday Movie Meme: Plan B.

Share on your blog or in the comments section, movies where the main characters have to make one or more backup plans. They are in a situation where their first plan is either no longer available or it has become a liability that will put them at risk for undesirable results.

Here are my selections for this week’s Plan B theme.

World War Z

When one man and his wounded guard are abandoned by their private aircraft, they board a commercial flight to remain safe from zombies in this action horror starring Brad Pitt and Matthew Fox. It’s one of those situations where you have no time to compare and contrast alternative options – you have to be quick on your feet or else…it won’t be pretty!

Heat

A bank robber makes last minute changes to his itinerary, after believing that his initial getaway plan might be compromised. I recently watched this crime thriller, starring Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Ashley Judd, Val Kilmer and Amy Brenneman, in its entirety and know of few other movies where the characters are so thorough that they can put together a Plan B, C -- and D if necessary -- at a moment’s notice.

Bad Boys II

A detective instructs other members of his squad to “Go to Plan B,” after realizing that he and two other law enforcement agents won’t making it back to an escape tunnel in enough time to ensure everyone’s safety. His decision seems like a good strategy, except for one important factor -- the squad is not aware of any existing Plan B. In fact, one of them asks “Plan B? What the hell is Plan B?”

What movies, featuring characters who need a backup plan, would YOU add to this list?

What Freaks Me Out – Playing the Waiting Game with My Movie #indiefilm

One of the things I’m most afraid of is not finishing my movie in enough time to make the deadlines for any of the 40+ film festivals where I want to submit it for a premiere screening; and completing this flick at all.

Post-production is taking longer than it took me to shoot this project, partly because I’m currently trying to shorten it up and make a version that meets my vision for it as closely as possible within the right amount of time. In the last few days, I’ve been back and forth through that old mindset of wanting to just throw a project aside and move on to the next thing – but -- there likely won’t be a next anything if I don’t first finish the one I’m working on now.

Speaking of the next best thing, there’s also nothing else for me to do if I’m not involved in some capacity of filmmaking. I mean, I went to school to study it, then started writing about it on the path to becoming one – or so I thought. No one can be a filmmaker without having made one, which means, until I actually have a movie in my hands that I can show to people, I suppose I’m just a writer – after all – that is what I do.

Today’s post is a mash-up of two prompts from Jenni, who wants participants in the 'Blog Everyday in May Challenge' to answer the question “What do you do?” and share the thing(s) you’re most afraid of. I could’ve just as easily written about other fears such as watching “Requiem for a Dream” or witnessing animals -- or people -- get hit by cars in oncoming traffic, but those things didn’t come to mind until I finished writing this post.

What do YOU do and what are the thing(s) you're most afraid of?

Production Updates, Announcements and the Monday Movie Meme

After a brief hiatus, The Monday Movie Meme will return in two weeks, on January 28th. I’ve also narrowed the potential editors for my short film down to two guys, so one will hopefully be selected by this weekend. I’m currently logging (hours of) footage -- a tedious and sometimes frustrating, but necessary, task so as to aid in a smooth post-production process.

I’ve been assigned to devour the Oscars for The Lamb sometime between now and February 24th. I have to cover the Best Original Score category, so that should be fun.

Also, remember when I participated in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge last spring? Well,  a few months ago, I accepted an invitation to become a host for this year’s A to Z Challenge! That means I am among the 12 co-hosts for the 2013 Blogging from A to Z Challenge headed by the main host and founder, Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out. There are lots of administrative, organizing, developing, monitoring and general oversight duties that goes along with the hosting position but rather than bore you all with those details, I’m going to sum up the fun and most important part of this event...

The Blogging from A to Z Challenge is an annual blogathon that takes place in April where bloggers here and abroad post a blog every day centered on a different letter of the alphabet. Since its inception, the A to Z Challenge has been growing by the number of participants each year. There were well over 1,700 participants in 2012 and this year is expected to be bigger than ever. Anyone (yes, including YOU) can participate. More details can be found at the A to Z Blog. The sign-up list opens on January 30th.

Here are the Co-Hosts for the 2013 A to Z Challenge:

Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out
Tina Downey at Life is Good
Alex J. Cavanaugh
Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs
Jeremy Hawkins at Retro Zombie
Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse
Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs
DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude 2.0
Matthew MacNish at The QQQE
Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought Too Small
Nicole Ayers at The Madlab Post
Livia Peterson at Leave It to Livia
L. Diane Wolf at Spunk on a Stick

Last but not least, I will be introducing you all to the cast (and maybe a few crew members as well) of my short film, in the coming weeks. I also realized that the King Dong series slipped my mind over the holidays, so we will be revamping that as well. If there are any actors who you would like to nominate for a spotlight, let me know and I will get on it as soon as I can.

As always, thanks for reading. You guys (and gals) rock!