Blood and Stone
The Idea	(return to Page 1)
	Coming home from the movie Shadow of the Vampire.  We (Jason and Tony) talked about what a shame it was that no one made silent films anymore. We talked about how the silent film format forced one to think visually. We had long discussed making a movie, but by the end of that drive home we had worked out an outline for an idea. Tony turned to me and said "We're actually going to do this aren't we?" and so it began
The Script
	Now one of the funniest thing in the world is watching people with no fiction writing experience try to write a screenplay. We began with the series of ideas and images:  A graveyard, a statue, a sculptor, a wedding, and started writing. Innumerable late nights(and cups of coffee and cigarettes for Jason) later, we had a script. We realized for this script to work there was one thing we needed. A specific actress, As we visualized this film we early on locked onto her and gradually the script became written around her to such a degree that it could not be made without her. We also wanted to cast a good friend of ours named Vikas Adam.
Showing Vik the Script
	I met with Mr. Adam in a Starbucks, and more or less talked him through the plot, an update of Pygmalion, and the visuals, at the end he not only agreed to appear in the film, but asked if he, and his company ProgreXssive Arts, could co produce, since we could greatly use his experience(and additional funding) this was quickly agreed to.  Now the main stumbling block was......
The Lead Actress
	So, how does one approach an actress and say "How would you like to work in a movie for free, it's a silent film, with no revenue potential, and you will need to appear nude a lot. And spend half your time in full body makeup as a statue. Well if you are very lucky an opening will come up like it did for me. I was doing sound design, and sound engineering for a play, called L-play , directed by Vikas Adam. Audra Oakley, the actress around whom the film was written, played a major role. During one of the rehearsals she and I stepped outside to smoke. She began telling me a story in which her boyfriend said "you are so beautiful, you look like you were carved from marble." "Funny you should say that," I said, and a few minutes later we had her agreement.
	(Continued on Page 6)