Category: Development

Production Update #14

27 August 2026

I am pleased to announce that the novelization of the film script is complete. It has been exhaustively edited and uploaded to Amazon KDP. There will be a slight delay before the novel is available for purchase, as I accidentally omitted the production website information at the end. I’ll post an update when the eBook is available.

I also intend to make the book available in print – as both a paperback and hardcover. That will take slightly longer, but they should both be available to purchase by the end of the September.

The novel was edited far more than the film script was, so I’m going to go back and edit the film script to sync it up with all of the revisions made in the novel before we proceed to producing the film.

To celebrate the release of the book, the website is currently undergoing an overhaul. Please bear with me while I get everything cleaned-up and updated.

Production Update #13

26 July 2026

It is with enormous pride and relief that I am able to announce this morning that the final draft of the film script is COMPLETED.

It has been a very long journey. My intention to write this story began approximately 9 years ago in the midst of my post-retirement road trip. For years, I tried to make it a nonfiction account of my experiences and my values, but I was never satisfied with what I wrote. Then, approximately four years ago, a bizarre bit of happenstance inspired a fictional version of the story that I could adapt for the stage.

While it didn’t take too long to produce a first draft, there were significant obstacles, delays, and interruptions that stalled the revision and editing process. And when I had the time to sit down and work on the draft, the challenges were formidable. Transforming a random collection of philosophical beliefs into a coherent and structured argument. Choosing every word deliberately to make the most convincing argument while allowing the characters to remain authentic and natural.

None of it came easy.

The final draft sits at 75 pages and 18,968 words.

The next step – I regret to inform you – is NOT advancing to production. The next step will be to re-write the film script as a novel so that can be published first.

I am cautiously optimistic that I can accomplish this in just a couple months’ worth of weekends. The story is already written. Now I just have to add the descriptive filler that comes with a novel. That shouldn’t take long. I hope to have the novel published by the end of the year.

Production Update #12

9 June 2026

This will be my final “non-update” update. I swear!

I’ve had this film project on the back burner for well over a year and made very little progress on it during this period of time. There are several reasons for this extended hiatus – including dread over how the story would be perceived in the current political climate, my struggles to raise money and expand my network, and debating the best way to go about producing the film.

But another reason why the film has been stalled so long is because I’ve always had a queue of other projects to work on. “Socks” has always been my most important project, but it’s also been the biggest project. I always wanted to get the other smaller projects done and out of the way before proceeding on to “Socks”. Problem was – all my life, I’ve had this bad habit of coming up with new ideas for projects faster than I could complete older projects. So my queue was ever-present and always growing.

Until a few months ago, that is. I finally snapped that habit. I’ve been able to stop inventing new projects to work on, and I’ve been plowing through my older projects to finally get them done once and for all. Accomplishing this has been the first phase of a six phase plan to get me = ultimately – to retirement. Phase II is going to be finishing both the film script for “Socks” and the novel version, which I hope to have done by the end of the year. Phase III will be producing the film, which I hope to have done by the end of 2027.

As for the production… I suck at fundraising, and given current economic conditions, I think it would be unwise for me to spend my life savings to do a proper film shoot. So the film will be an animated slideshow, and I’ll hire a handful of people to voice the characters.

So… this “update” is to announce that I am done with Phase I. I have cleared my project queue and have no further distractions to impede this film project. No more excuses. No more delays. “Socks” now has my undivided attention.

Production Update #11

20 April 2026

Relatively quick update today.

I have made no direct progress on finishing the script since my last update. I know that sounds really bad, but all is not as bad as it seems.

I wanted to clear some other creative projects off my plate, first, so that I could give my undivided attention to this film project. The danger in that approach is that I might find other projects to distract me, indefinitely postponing progress on the film. And for most of my life, that’s how it’s been. I keep coming up with new ideas for creative projects faster than I can complete them, resulting in a never-ending, always growing queue of projects.

To my credit – for the first time in my life – I’ve stopped adding to that queue. There are two major projects that I am working on presently – they are the last two I wanted to get done before I focused my attention on “Socks”, and there’s light at the end of the tunnel. I can confidently say that both projects will be finished before the end of June. At which point, there should be nothing left to distract me from working on the film.

Here is the game plan…

Phase I

  1. Finalize the film script.
  2. Adapt the film script into a novel.
  3. Publish the novel to Amazon KDP.

Estimated Completion: end of year, 2026

Phase II

  1. Generate AI Images
  2. Record Narration Audio
  3. Assemble and Edit Videos
  4. Release to YouTube (will be an episodic release)

I don’t imagine this will take all that long, but I’m giving myself until the end of 2027 in case there are unforeseen complications. July 2027 is the 10 year anniversary of my road trip where I first met my hitchhiker friends, so there would be something poetic about having the story uploaded by then.

Production Update #10

18 January 2026

It has been nearly eight months since my last production update. I apologize for the lack of updates during this time period. Progress on this film project stalled due to three main factors. Let me catch you up.

First. Just a few weeks after my last production update, I suffered a minor medical issue. I say minor now, but at the time it was pretty traumatic. Worse still, I had been gambling for years on not needing health insurance, and my luck finally ran out. The medical bills were a huge setback, and almost all aspects of my life came to a screeching halt as I tried to focus on my health and recovery, as well as my financial recovery.

Second. What I described in my last production blog hasn’t gotten any better. In fact, I’d argue the political climate is worse now than it was a year ago. I fear the general public lacks the minimum necessary empathy and compassion for the story of “Socks” to resonate. I fear that the message of the film will fall on deaf ears.

Third. Despite this being a microbudget film, the bar to entry on this film project is still too high for me. To do this film right, I would have needed to raise at least $67,000. That price tag doesn’t count (1) hiring more experienced crew members in key positions, such as a cinematographer / DP and a sound mixer on set, and a colorist and sound designer in post, (2) publicity costs, and (3) distribution costs.

I managed to save up a little over $40,000 for the film, but the bulk of that came from my own savings and the sale of my house last year. At $40,000, I would have had to ask the cast and crew to work for free or – at best – hope for residual income from distribution of the film. I loathe asking people to work for free.

In another reality, I might have been happy to sink my life savings into this project. But given the current political and economic environments, it would be unwise for me to do so. Setting aside my own life savings, I have managed to raise a whopping $70.

I suck at fundraising. It has always been my Achilles’ heel. I hate asking for money. I hate asking for favors. It’s just baked into my psyche. Even if I could somehow overcome this problem and raise the money needed to fund this film, it was always going to represent a significant delay in forward progress on this project. Similarly, trying to network and assemble a crew – given the significant commitments necessary – was also going to be a challenge without money to pay them with. My friends who would probably volunteer their time have their own responsibilities and commitments.

So what does this mean for the future of this film project?

I assure you that I am not giving up. This project is too important to me.

But I need to lower the bar to entry on this film project. I need to reduce or eliminate this project’s dependence on my ability to raise money or assemble a crew. If I don’t, this film project will continue to stall in Development Hell. The longer it takes for me to produce the film, the more likely it is that I’ll get hit by a bus before this story sees the light of day. And even if I don’t get hit by a bus… there are other things I want to accomplish in my life. As important as this project is to me, I don’t want it hanging around my neck for the rest of my life.

So… in the interest of forward momentum, I’m going to make some compromises. Painful compromises.

Rather than produce a live-action, feature-length film, using real actors, real locations, real sets, real costumes, and real props… I’m going to animate the film using… Open AI.

(Excuse me while I throw up in my mouth a little.)

It turns my stomach to use AI in a creative project, and I never thought I would ever resort to doing this. But it’s a low-cost way to produce the images of this film. Not only does it save tens of thousands of dollars of pre-production, production, and post-production costs, but I don’t have to negotiate access to filming locations, I don’t have to coordinate the schedules of a dozen members of a cast and crew that I can barely afford to pay, I can avoid some of the very real hazards of filming in the desert and filming a dangerous knife fight, and so much more.

I still hope to hire voice actors to read the script. But the commitment in both time and resources will be considerably less. And then I’ll distribute the film on YouTube. Going this route, I should be able to complete the film with just a fraction of the money I already have saved.

I will also be converting the script into a novel and self-publishing that to Amazon. That was always part of the plan. But people don’t read as much as they used to, and I’d rather not have the legacy of “Socks” be dependent on a shrinking literate population.

By the way, none of this precludes the possibility of “Socks” being turned into a proper film someday. In fact, producing it in this animated form and getting it out there in front of the eyes of potential investors and producers might be what gets the influx of funding and personnel that the film project needed. And if it doesn’t? Well, then, the story is still out there – and that’s what’s important.

With all of that in mind, I have overhauled this website and relocated it from https://leathertrampproductions.wordpress.com/ to https://socksfilm.wordpress.com/. The YouTube channel has also been rebranded, and a new Facebook page has been setup.

Next steps… I’m working on a third (and hopefully final) version of the script. The first draft was done in July 2024 and the second draft was done in April 2025. So my goal is to have the third draft done by no later than June 2026.

Production Update #9

28 May 2025

I’m having what you might call a crisis of confidence.

“Socks” is not an overtly political story. However, its message unavoidably touches on both economic and social policies.

I feel that we have a very solid story and script. I’m proud of what has been developed. But of late, I’ve been concerned that the story cannot rise to meet the occasion that is our current political climate.

The story assumes that the audience has a basic capacity for compassion and empathy, even if we differ in how we apply it… It assumes a shared sense of justice, even if we interpret it differently.

Over the past several months, it has been evident that a segment of our population takes perverse pleasure in outright cruelty and a much larger segment is indifferent toward casual cruelty. Fundamental American principles such as due process, separation of powers, and checks and balances have been tossed to the side because they represent an inconvenient obstacle toward political goals. Corruption is not just tolerated – it’s celebrated.

Certainly not all Americans feel this way. I don’t even think that a majority of Americans feel this way. But the number of Americans who do feel this way is disturbingly high, and this minority has been granted power by the indifference and ignorance of many more Americans.

I always knew that “Socks” would be somewhat controversial. But now – as we near the end of the Development phase and inch closer and closer toward Pre-Production, I am forced to wonder if our nation doesn’t need to have a reckoning first before a story such as this can resonate with a general audience.

Production Update #8

27 April 2025

At long last… the second draft of the script is completed. The script now stands at 18,912 words and 76 pages. I’ll have to do some time tests some other day, but it’s safe to say this will be a feature-length film.

For the most part, the second draft is the final draft – locked in. There’s an 1100 word section in Scene 10 that I don’t absolutely love yet. I need to revisit it later with fresh eyes to see if I can’t polish it up a bit further.

I’m kind of embarrassed that it took me about 9 months from the conclusion of the first draft to the conclusion of the second draft. But there have been a number of unique challenges with this script.

Writing a stage adaptation to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” was so much easier because the source material was already there. I simply had to translate it. In contrast, “Socks” is an original story of my own.

In “Frankenstein”, I kept the 19th century dialect. While some people might consider that a challenge, it actually made my job easier because old English is more formal, a lot like writing political rhetoric – a style of writing I’m particularly good at. With “Socks”, I had to write casual dialogue, peppered with small talk and minor distractions to make it sound more natural. I’m not particularly good at small talk in real life. I prefer to get straight to the point. So teasing out the script in this manner was especially challenging for me.

“Socks” is a persuasive story. The challenge in writing a persuasive story is to avoid beating the audience over the head with your message, but rather to make it subtle. If your audience accepts your argument, you want them to think that they reached that conclusion on their own rather than being dragged there kicking and screaming.

Finally, I’m not a professional writer. I’ve studied Robert McKee. I know good writing when I see it and I know bad writing when I see it. I know the difference between plot and story, the difference between character and characterization. I know the importance of strong character development and the importance of conflict. I have no delusions that I’m producing a work of Shakespeare, but I’m making every effort to ensure that this script – this story – is as strong and as professionally written as I am capable of. That meant not being content with “good enough” but constantly going back over the script again and again to polish it and bang out as many imperfections as I could find. That was a very time-consuming process.

And there’s a lot of me in this script. A lot of my own story is laid open bare in this script, and so now I move on to the next step – allowing a select group of friends to read the script and give me feedback.

Production Update #1

24 April 2024

Today I completed the story outline.

Technically, I began work on a script about two years ago, while I was busy with other projects for the Machickanee Players. But since I was too distracted back then to give it the attention it needed, I decided to start over from scratch with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. Also, two years ago I was writing a script with the intention of adapting it for the stage, not a feature length film.

With the outline completes, I can begin re-writing the script.