Working on film short, help needed

I've been very busy lately. I have two projects that need to be wrapped up soon. One is the video slideshow I've been working on about my trip to Japan. The other is a screenplay for a 10 minute film short based on a true story.

I started out working the Japan slide show like gangbusters after returning. I stalled, in part because my technology and software keep failing me. Also because I wanted to strike the right tone with the earthquake and all.

About the same time as the Japan trip started to be a real possibility I paid to take a screenwriting short course. As it worked out, literally the first day I'm back from Japan was the first of three 4-hour classes at Access Sacramento. (I missed that one.)

I made the next two. The beginning of the second class Ron Cooper from Access Sacramento came in to talk about the "Place Called Sacramento" Film Festival. I stumbled upon my topic after the second class. It was a case former Bee editor Bill Menton and I talked about some years ago.

Here is my tagline: A landmark obscenity trial, set in Sacramento, takes a sexy twist after Judge Earl Warren, Jr. agrees to move the trial to the club where the girls were arrested, the Pink Pussy Kat. 

After reading the newspaper clips I knew the basics of the story. The challenge has been to imagine those conversations in my head and then to allow myself to fill in the gaps of the story.

I don't know that my script will be selected, but the application process asks what assets I have in hand. This is when you artisans email me offering to help. I'll need help with music, sound, costumes, makeup, hair, lighting, videography, editing, catering, and I'll need actors. So yeah everything.

Meanwhile, I liked to wrap up the Japan slide show. It has video clips, audio clips, music and now I'm adding a voice over track. I don't want to build it up to be something great, regardless its given me a chance to work my way though several new applications and web-based apps. It's been a real learning experience.

Here is to growing experiences.