In January, 2010, I went on a meditation retreat, led by local spiritual guru Betty Jones. Sandwiched in between the production of a short (“Winner Takes All“) and a webseries (“Dumbass Filmmakers!“), it was designed to be a much-needed break from the demands of the material world and, especially, Los Angeles. And I can honestly say that all the meditating…and sleeping…and gentle contemplating…restored at least a portion of my sanity. Of course, I also walked away from the weekend with a killer idea for a feature-length movie.

A little over two years later, I’ve written the screenplay of “Inside-Out, Outside-In.”  This January, after some drama, we workshopped the climatic scene of the piece in Ivana Chubbuck‘s master acting class (more on this in a future post).  And I’ve managed to do some rewriting based on that experience. We’ve already had interest by some private equity investors. One of my investors for the webseries saw a rough cut of that project and immediately expressed interest in signing up for the feature.  That was a fantastic feeling…and a moment when my brain started generating things-to-do-lists and attempting to re-trigger an addiction to coffee. So I’m simultaneously refining the script and putting an investment package together while interest remains high.

But, for now, a huge part of the process is purely creative.  Jotting down ideas for shots.  Mindmapping the characters and scenes. Brainstorming about everything from character names to color palettes to costumes. And rewriting, rewriting, rewriting. That may bring you to the question – so what is the script about anyway? Well…I’m not ready to tip my hand on the story just yet…BUT…I will include a trailer here of one of the two films that have inspired me in the development of the film. I absolutely LOVE Bob Fosse’s brilliant take on a choreographer’s descent into that great twilight set against the backdrop of the fast-paced, experiential task of putting together a Broadway show. I’ve seen it easily 25 times and if you realize later on that I stole a shot or two from it…well…you read it here first.

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Hunter Lee Hughes is a filmmaker living and working in Los Angeles and the founder of Fatelink. His current feature film Guys Reading Poems is touring film festivals and this blog is dedicated to the process of making his second feature film, “Inside-Out, Outside-In.” If you enjoy the blog, please support our team by following us on Facebook, Twitter (@Fatelink) or Instagram (@Fatelink).