Jamal goes anime!

Okay...so I have this idea in my head that in the final ten pages of the script when Jamal is climbing the beanstalk...it's going to be kind of hard to effectively film that with the limited technology I have access to. What I have decided is that I will turn that last part into an animation! I'm very excited about that...especially seeing as how I love cartoons. When the first episode is published it will begin as a regular book with one to two pages of color illustrations dispersed throughout. However, when it gets to the scene when Jamal sees the leaf sticking from out of the concrete...it becomes a graphic novel written like a comic book! This is a dope idea because it coincides with how the film will be shot. I have been working with an illustrator...Ronald Jones from AIU. He is a talented 2D artist and is doing my pre-production for me, which entails designing the characters, giving them different expressions, and eventually making a storyboard. I am also going to have him illustrate the graphic novel portion of the book. That way the cartoon images will be the same as the book images. He has come up with a few faces that I thought were cool. I narrowed a few down to what I liked, and then he focused on those with new expressions. He also redrew the body of Jamal and gave him some clothes. This is an awesome experience! P.S...I chose number 2 Enjoy the pics. Q. Kalique

Jamal and the Pawnshop!

It's been a year and a half since I actively filmed on THE BEANSTALK. Balancing a school life, work life, personal life...with that of my dreams and passions has been a challenge, but one that is worth the struggle! That said...filming on Feb 9th at the corner of Blvd. and Monroe in Atlanta, GA was an experience to be remembered. For this scene Jamal, the main character, is heading to the pawn shop to get some cash for an old TV and some clothes for his mom. Things are getting tight in the Bullard household and it's time for Jamal to step up. I also wanted to film the opening in which the old homeless man holds the sign telling everyone that the world is going to end. I was able to shoot both on the same day which is awesome, considering I've been trying to get this shoot done for some time now. My first and second choices for the pawn shop fell through. God bless Robert Barber at Step Up Thrift Store. He was so accommodating..he allowed me to film in his store, allowed me to use some of the clothes off the rack and even agreed to act in it as the Pawn shop owner haggling prices with my main character! That was such a blessing. Having Mr. Tony on the corner with the sign obviously caused a lot of staring. People looked curiously from their cars in passing, but he stayed in character and even began to yell directly to them that "The World is Coming to an End!" The shot came out very funny and entertaining...I was impressed by his "4th wall". The result was a believable shoot that will fit very well into film. Antwain, my main character, did an excellent job as well. He is 15 and I've been working with him for about as long as I've been trying to film this. Initially, he said he was a little nervous about pushing the shopping cart down the street with the TV and clothes in it...and then haggling the prices in the store and talking to the homeless character on the sidewalk. However, I think Mr. T's performance showed him he could be free and really engage in the character while ignoring all that was going on behind him. I literally had to take like 100 video shots of the scenes. It was a long process, but in the end I got a very good collection of footage to work from with my video editor. Check out the photos...let me know what you think! Peace y'all! Q. Kalique