I have been horribly remiss in not staying current on this blog for "Plunge of Icarus." It has been due the immense workload of bringing the world's first CineNovel to fruition.

We are now heavily into post-production, compositing the photography of our actors/characters with the various background plates we shot. The novel was endorsed by the U.S. Air Force, which granted us unlimited access to Edward's Air Force Base near the Mojave Desert. As you can imagine, the scope of the plates we captured has served to make "Icarus" look larger and more impressive than ever imagined.

The artistic side has been clammed up a bit by the realities of finance. We are currently in our 2nd round of financing, chasing down contacts to finish the book. We're entertaining a good deal of interest from various sources, especially since we are now considering releasing the CineNovel as an e-book as well as traditional print. Nothing like the prospect of high-tech to prick the ears of investors.

The pages we have produced have served as a proof of concept, working beautifully as a marriage of images with literature.

I will try and do a better job of keeping this blog updated.

Jeff Buchanan

CineNovel

Mother's Day

It's may 10th. We wrapped principal photography for the CineNovel, "The Plunge of Icarus," Friday, May 8th. A great production, a whole new arena. We learned a great deal to apply to the 2nd book which will titled, "The Rise of Icarus."

In the coming months we will be selecting final shots, doing the CGI and compositing and working toward an inventive lay-out that will do the book justice. from there we will be meeting with printers in order to get the final book published and then we're into distribution.

Everyone involved has been wonderful and supportive, and their hard work is reflected in amazing images that will used to illustrate the first ever, coffee table science-fiction picture book, hereafter called, CineNovel.

Jeff Buchanan

Director/Publisher

Production Continues

It's May 3rd and cast and crew continue to experiment, to discover the philosophy behind a CineNovel. We have completed seven days of principal photography, with four remaining. There is something to this, crossing the basics of photography with cinema, with literature and storytelling. The actors, in general, didn't waste time or energy memorizing lines, as all they need to do is get through the emotional range within a scene. 

We're shooting "limbo" (primarily an empty stage, with actors being placed to fit into previously shot plates from locations at a church and the famous Ennis House in Los Angeles, as well as an air force base. We've learned a great deal which will certainly be put to use in the sequel, and the third and fourth and so on.

Once we wrap I will certainly be better prepared to create a continuing blog on the edit process, post production, printing and marketing.

Jeff Buchanan    

Plunge of Icarus

4/14/09

This is the inaugural post for "The Plunge of Icarus" CineNovel project. Under advice from a number of people, including my literary agent, I decided to keep a journal to track the production of CineNovel's first book, "The Plunge of Icarus."

This project is the gestation of some twelve years of work. The Plunge of Icarus began life as a feature film script that made the traditional rounds of Hollywood, garnering a good deal of interest and a great deal of talk. However, Hollywood is an industry of "No," and the project never came to fruition. The screenplay languished as I continued to direct commercials for the video game industry, and then when I did a major career change into motorcycle journalism.

For some strange reason I began to work nights adapting the screenplay into novel form. What resulted was not merely a manuscript, but the discovery of a new passion for me. As a screenwriter and journalist I already had a livelihood as a writer, however, I had yet to publish a fiction novel. 

The process took some two years of work, as I was limited to nights. In the end, I was quite happy with the manuscript and began to approach publishers. Timing was not good, the economy was turning and publishers echoed the words of Hollywood; "No."

However, perhaps it was serendipity, but I'm glad none of the publishers took the book. Because I began to envision a way to publish the book with pictures–so as not to lose the visual aspect of the story. That was the first real gestation of CineNovel. I began to conjure a way to combine the elements of my various passions; story telling, pictures, directing, and fine publishing. And CineNovel was born. 

The concept is quite simple; hire actors, put them in wardrobe, photograph them acting out the scenes of the book, and then illustrate the manuscript so that the end result is a picture book, with visuals to help usher the reader into the writer's realm of what they had intended for visuals. The trick we're learning, is the balance of pictures to text, to give the reader enough visuals to entertain, but leave them plenty of room for their own imagination to create their own interpretation.

We are one week out from shooting the book. There will be periodic updates as time allows and I will track the progress from production, through lay-out, and into printing.

End of the initial blog for "The Plunge of Icarus."

Jeff Buchanan

Director/Publisher

CineNovel