February 2014 Update with Matt Busch

February 14, 2014By Aladdin3477Production News

From the desk of Director Matt Busch, here’s a new ALADDIN 3477 update!

Hi everyone! The Aladdin 3477 train is chugging along at a steady pace! Barring my obligations at Macomb College, every waking moment is spent propelling the machine forward. Lots going on, so here are some random tidbits.

**The 3rd draft of the screenplay is complete! The story is locked, and I couldn’t be happier. Barring minimal dialogue changes and improvisation that happens during principal photography, the script is set like glue! If everything goes as planned, this movie will make you laugh, cry, and keep you on the edge of your seat. Fingers crossed!

**Another facet I’ve immersed myself with is creating an animatic timeline for the movie. I literally have the entire movie already running as a working editing file, complete with music, concept art, and in some cases, footage! A lot of the music is temporary, but this helps gauge the emotion and pacing. The footage that is already in place is a lot of what Lin Zy and I have already filmed around the world in places like India, Hong Kong and Cambodia. Some of this serves as establishing shots, others are background plates for key scenes that will be completed later. It’s a work-in-progress, and everything is rough, but I can tell you now that the movie is 2 hours, 5 minutes and 45 seconds! Of course this will change dramatically as we go, and it will likely get longer before it gets shorter.  The plan is that the final product will be under 2 hours.

**I’m continually churning out concept art, solidifying the looks of these characters, vehicles, robots, sets, weapons, and props from 1,500 years in the future.  Can’t wait to share more!

**Right now we are in the middle of auditions for all of the characters! We have already auditioned dozens and everyone is absolutely amazing! We have a total of 38 characters (with speaking parts) in the movie, and currently 10 of them are cast. We are on schedule though and hope to have the other 28 locked by the end of the month.

On May 19th, we begin shooting desert scenes for Aladdin 3477!”

**March is when we will start announcing our cast. We are very excited about who we have, but don’t be expecting any big names. We are purposely casting unknowns for 2 reasons. For 1, by not spending a fortune on ‘names’ we are able to put more funds into expensive sets, costumes, equipment and everything else that will make this larger than life. For 2, when I look back at some of my own favorite films (including Star Wars by the way) many of them had a cast of unknowns, which to me adds a sense of believability when you’re focused on big characters instead of big names.

**By this point in March we also hope to have a large industrial/commercial space secured to begin building sets. We’ll also be doing initial actor screenplay read-throughs, as well as getting actors/actresses fitted for costumes.

**April will continue with lots of building, and will also be jammed with physical rehearsals and fight choreography.

**On May 19th, we begin shooting desert scenes for Aladdin 3477! It’s rumored that Star Wars: Episode 7 begins filming that same day, so I’m really excited that I’ll be able to follow along with the buzz and scoops of J.J. Abrams’ movie while making my own film. Star Wars is obviously a huge inspiration for this, so while the shooting schedule was not planned to coincide, I feel like the stars are aligned!

**I’m hoping next month to begin having help with continuing the Aladdin 3477 Production Diaries to keep them going. Hopefully we’ll have a new one soon!

Thanks so much for the interest and support!  I can’t wait to show you more!

-Matt Busch, February 2014