Danny Daneau
Writer-Director

Today began my week and a half long trip from Los Angeles to Kanab, Utah and ending up in Moab, Utah for a western film conference in which I will be paneling. The goal of the trip is to meet with the actors, lock and spec our shooting locations, and pitch the project to potential Utah based investors.

Last night I arrived in Los Angeles after spending most of the day flying the friendly skies with Southwest Airlines. Co-writer Eric Ernst picked me up from the airport and we spent most of the evening having dinner with LA based members of the production team. Besides my producer Erica Harrell and my cinematographer Scott Uhlfelder, we were joined by post production supervisor Natalie Sakai and production accountant Melanie Sims. It was nice to get everyone in one place, face to face, and talk about all the many trials that lay ahead of us. It was also nice just to laugh and enjoy each others company.

Today I had a really exciting morning. Although we haven’t announced our cast yet, we have cast the lead roles of Caroline and Darrell. Today I sat down with both actors and we read through the entire screenplay, word for word. It was the first time I was able to be in the same room with both actors at the same time and I cannot tell you how excited I am to begin this project. They are both tremendously talented and I think they have a very natural chemistry.

Hearing the words read out-loud was incredibly enlightening. As a writer I could tell where dialog could use some tweaking. As a director I could tell what sequences would prove most challenging to direct. We didn’t do much rehearsing as the goal of the reading was to work through the text and answer any questions the two actors might have.