2015 had a lot of surprises, which is why I haven't been posting as much as I originally believed I would, and I won't go into great detail on them, only to say that some have been good/okay, some bad, and others absolutely delightful.
About six years ago I wrote a screenplay for a short film titled "La Fee Vert" which evoked the folklore centered around the centuries old liquor that is absinthe and the myth of the green fairy who lived in the absinthe, the muse of many a great artist or author such as Vincent Van Gough, Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allen Poe. Absinthe had, since 2007, become legal in the U.S. again, the rumors of its maddenning properties greatly diminished after much scientific study, but I still had a scenario in mind. What if there was that one very special, mystic bottle out there? The one that started all of the hype. The one around which the myth was more reality.
The script, both psychological and/or paranormal horror depending on individual interpretation, follows Darien Bishop, a grieving artist who has lost the love of his life and will do anything to have her back. It garnered some interest from a few film maker friends, but rather than make a move yet, I shelved it. The past year being a long one full of new trials and learning experiences, I was in dire need of doing something especially creative so I pulled it again and approached one of the previously interested parties, my friend Troy H. King, an extremely talented guerrilla film maker from La Grange, Kentucky, who is very passionate about what he does and about film.
He responded positively and we discussed recruiting Louisville actor John Wells, whom Troy had worked with before. Some time passed, and during a discussion with John on Facebook, I enquired if Troy had ever spoken to him. Troy had, but John had yet to see the script, so I sent it to him, and to my surprise, within the same week, John told me that he'd spoken to Troy and they were making the film. In the following weeks, we had three-way discussions, making some new changes to the script to freshen it up, evolving it through the collaborative process.
Cut to around three months later and La Fee Vert is, on my end, being converted into a short story that will expand on the events in the screenplay, but the film, titled Viridescent, is over two thirds of the way shot and soon to go into post. More talented names have filled out the cast and crew, and I have had the priviledge of visiting the set for the second shoot and contributing art works for the set as well as designing the absinthe bottle. Everyone of us involved is proud of this little passion project - "Our baby," as John says - and the experience has been nothing short of magical for all of its serendipitous moments, for how well cast and crew have gotten along, everyone so easily on the same page. For those reasons, in my mind, this story definitely has a life of its own and didn't want to be told or made until precisely the right time, like a butterfly pupating. And soon, we'll show this lovely, terrifying, sweetheart to the world.
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