I’ll be honest, I didn’t think “WISP” was going to happen this year. As the scope of the film got bigger, the budget drastically inflated, and we found ourselves in the unenviable position of having assembled all the makings of a fantastic film but only about half the money we needed to actually make it. After a relentless marketing campaign and a fund raiser that fell embarrassingly short, we were seriously looking at ‘Plan B’ options.
The money we did raise for “WISP” was dragged in on the heels of “Inked in Erie”, the TV Reality Show I’ve been producing for the I AM TV Cable Network. I’m proud to say, while the network is regional (they reach about 300,000 viewers in the Erie County PA area), the show has been very well received and has built a substantial audience.
Right now, independent networks like Hulu, Amazon and Netflix are all in a race to produce their own original series and I AM TV is no different. So when they talked to me about doing “WISP” as a TV Series with an offer to let us slow it down, and get into the back story and characters, and play out the suspense over 13 weeks… well, it wasn’t a tough decision to make.
Writer A.D. Moore has done a top to bottom re-envisioning of the story, adding even more twists, turns and icky tingle sensations.
We begin principal photography on July 29th, when we’ll be shooting the Pilot, plus three more episodes. The show will begin airing this fall on I AM TV.
Since no one is going to be able to wait for glimpses of “WISP”, I AM TV will have a camera crew following around the production for their show “Erie on Set”. The show’s Executive Producer is Jeremy Korwek, and he’ll be documenting the production “Project Greenlight” style. Very cool.
In other news… the GMD Films web site is currently under a massive reconstruction. More than just a facelift, it will be a new site that reflects the new direction the company is heading in. I’m about halfway done building it, so please be patient.
I’m also knee-deep in pre-production for “WISP”, so I’ll be updating the production blog more often in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.
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