A Quick BLESS ME FATHER Update
Possibilities for bringing Bless Me Father to life!
I was on vacation last week and didn’t get to do as much writing as I’d hoped, so no regular Bless Me Father installment this month. Instead, an update: I’ve submitted a pitch for the Renaissance Rising Short Film Contest, a joint project of EWTN and the Napa Institute. The winner of the contest gets a year and up to $100,000 to make their short film. Obviously I’d be thrilled to get to make a project with that kind of money.
My collaborator Sam Morales brought the contest to my attention and suggested pitching some version of Bless Me Father. I was initially hesitant, since I don’t even have a complete draft of the script yet, and I didn’t know what parts of the script to draw from. Then, after some thought, I figured out what to use for the plot of a short film - mostly scenes from the third act with some necessary backstory as well - and I submitted a pitch to the contest.
Here’s some of the information I conveyed in my submission:
Based on: Bless Me Father (feature screenplay, parts of acts 2 and 3)
Characters: Fr. John Salvatore - a young, zealous Italian-American priest; Ian O’Malley, a ruthless Irish-American mobster
Elevator pitch: Fr. John has to take down Ian alone.
Genre: Crime drama, thriller
Setting: New Jersey in the 50’s
Theme: “The anger of man worketh not the justice of God.” (James 1:20)
Filming location: Cincinnati, OH and/or Waterbury, CT
Cinematic influences: On the Waterfront, The Godfather, In Bruges, Wake Up Dead Man, The Maltese Falcon
With the help of my friend Jay I was able to put together a pretty sweet pitch video, including music, concept art, B-roll footage from the 50’s, and some of my script pages. If I advance to the next phase of the contest, I should find out within a week or so - please say a prayer for me!!
Like I said, I’d be thrilled to make the short for $100K, but it’s also the kind of project that could be done pretty feasibly even on a budget of next-to-nothing. So we’ll almost certainly be making the short film whether we win the contest or not. From there, a completed short film would serve as a proof-of-concept for the full feature film to be produced, God willing! Stay tuned for more updates, as well as the usual round of Bless Me Father at the end of each month.