3.30.2006

Phase one of our investor search has begun. What this means is that I have been posting information about Cowboy Smoke on a variety of websites announcing that there is an investment opportunity with the project. We are not relying too heavily on this method of fundraising but figured the response we received would be a good indication of what people would thought about the story. So far the response we have received has been overwhelmingly positive. So far, so good. On Monday we will begin mailing out investor’s packages and phase two will begin. In this phase we will begin contacting people who have expressed an interest in investing in the project.

I would like to send out a congratulations to Matt Johnston - who will be playing one of leads in Cowboy Smoke. Matt’s show on the Discovery channel, It Takes a Thief has been picked up for another 40 episodes. He’ll be leaving us for New York in late May. Catch a new episode of It Takes a Thief weekdays at 4pm CST on the Discovery channel.

3.27.2006

I spent the weekend going over the investor agreement and the LLC paper work with Ryan and Fagan. In addition to this Fagan had taken extensive notes on the script and we spent most of Saturday working through them. Fagan had some great suggestions and seeing as how he is an experienced cowboy Fagan’s involvement with the project is invaluable. Funny story, or disgusting depending on how you look at it – when Fagan was in his twenties he worked on a cattle ranch for his grandfather. One day while they were roping cattle Fagan got his thumb caught in the rope just as he lassoed a calf. Well - the rope tightened and severed his thumb clean from his hand. Fagan said he was screaming bloody murder but his grandpa, who was present at the time, remained calm. So calm that he insisted on returning the horses to their stables, removing their saddles, and cleaning up before driving his grandson to the hospital. Fagan now only has a quarter of his thumb. That’s cowboy tough.

3.21.2006

Ryan (our attorney) and Fagan will be meeting this morning to go over the investor memorandum. Ryan feels that it will be ready to go by the beginning of next week which means we can begin seeking out investors. We could not present our project to investors until this extremely important piece of the puzzle was finished so you can understand my excitement. We are only a few days behind schedule as of right now which is fine by me.

Everyone involved with the project has begun working on a product placement list. Each person is coming up with about ten companies that they think might be receptive to the idea of either supporting the project financially or by donating product to the production. If you know of any companies that might be interested please email their contact information to Fagan Patterson at fagan@bandwagonfilms.com.

3.14.2006

I’ve been spending a lot of time putting the business plan together. I’m hoping to have it finished by the end of the week. I’m also hoping to have another draft of the script finished by Sunday night. My goal was to begin the investors push by next Monday (3/20) and in order to do that I need to have the script, the business plan, 8×10 copies of the poster, and a cover letter all ready and packaged ready to ship by then. I’m confident that I’ll reach my goal… I’ve got no choice.

3.6.2006

Drove down to Fagan’s ranch and did some location scouting. We also looked at the houses that some of the cast and crew will be staying in. So far we’ve got about 15 beds. I’m not sure how many beds we will need yet but I’d be happy with 20-25. I’m sure that on our bigger shooting days we can have people stay in Victoria. I really want everyone to stay out at the ranch because it will help out with gas, plus when you’ve got everyone staying together it helps keep everyone accounted for.

3.4.2006

What if… The beginning of the movie opens with a trailer, of “Wesley Cash”… based on a true story, the trailer does it’s thing then another commercial comes on, we pull back and realize that we haven’t just seen a trailer, but the beginning of the movie… and Wes is watching the trailer on TV. The way the movie begins now, Wes is introduced on about page 4 and he is watching TV. I got the idea because I was trying to think of a way to make the beginning of the movie eye catching and interesting while explaining Wesley’s situation as quickly as possible. Wesley is not the central character in this story and I wanted to introduce the audience to his past, at least to those of you out there who have not seen WC.

3/2/2006

Wendy emailed me a link to the web page she’d worked up for the cowboy smoke website and it‘s mind blowing. I mean it’s better than I could have ever imagined. Wendy’s so talented and we are lucky to have her on the team. She worked off a poster that Chris designed, which was equally brilliant. I’m so excited, this is going to be such a great project.

3/1/2006

Watched Pale Rider and took notes. Finished the 2nd draft of the script and emailed a copy off to Fagan, Chris, my dad, Chad, Mike, and Matt… the key players. The script is running 102 pages. Not too bad. I’d like to have the finished film at about an hour and forty minutes.