Hold My Beer Status Update

Last week I introduced - or reintroduced, really - readers of this blog to a project called Hold My Beer (in case you haven't read that post, scroll down or click here.) In the coming weeks, you'll probably see more posts devoted to it as things progress. Or not! Anyway, this is one such post.

As I mentioned last week, the original script - which was about a middle-aged man who, after losing his wife and job, turns to beer-brewing as his new direction in life - has been completely rewritten. The impetus for this was an upcoming grant that we (meaning me and the guys in Second Player Score, who are serving as the executive producers of this project) are considering applying for, which requires that the recipient of the grant be a nonprofit entity. Since Second Player Score is not such an entity (even though we're currently not making any profits on anything), and creating one from scratch would be too difficult and time-consuming, we decided that it might be a good idea to apply for the grant through Autism Empowerment, the organization that I serve on the board of directors for.

Following that train of thought, I figured that if we were to go that route, it would also be a good idea for the story to be more autism-centric, since the original script only contained one character who was autistic in my mind but was not explicitly identified as such. And so, I rewrote the whole thing, changing the lead character into an autistic young adult who tries their first beer on their twenty-first birthday and subsequently makes beer and the brewing of such their special interest. At the same time, I made the overall story more inclusive, with four young adult characters (including the lead) who could be any race, gender, or sexual orientation depending on who we end up casting. I also made it easier and (probably) cheaper to film, and as a nonprofit project (original indie films like this almost never make money anyway), it could potentially make greater use of volunteer efforts along with attracting more grants and donations.

The story retains its original themes, like confidence and finding one's direction in life. It also retains its Vancouver-ness, which, as you will recall from last week's post, was a major goal of the project in the first place. Our hope at this point is that these changes will make for a stronger overall film/episode while increasing the possibility that it can actually get produced. So, that's where we're at right now. Stay tuned for more updates!