A Fringe Documentary?

I spoke with my cousin Bryce Wagoner last week about an idea we have been kicking around for a couple years now: A documentary on the creation of the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

Bryce is a good guy to have on-board: His documentary just received funding and it’s starting production with Oxymoron Entertainment and the producers of Entourage, Punked, American Psycho, and the Emmy Nominated The Flight that Fought Back.

The idea for a documentary first emerged as we started production on our last endeavor: The Hatchery Festival . Theatre/Arts festivals are such bizarre creatures and attract such a freakish array of characters, how could it not translate to film? Note that I use the term “freakish” with all love, respect, and self identification.

Bryce and I (along with Dave McKeever, the Producing Director for the Fringe) are just now beginning to bounce around some serious ideas that, so far, sound pretty entertaining.

The production of the Fringe itself would be the major through line…along the way, we may:

• Adventure through the history of past Fringes and why they matter
• Field trip to Scotland, Minneapolis, and/or Tortonto to see Fringe in action
• Interview various theatrical luminaries in the land of Fringe
• Follow artists as they create, develop, and produce their Fringe projects
• ..and of, course, lots of footage of Fringe week and all the madness therein

Of course, we would set the Hollywood community on center stage; presenting the modern Hollywood as a fascinating and unique place complimenting its role as the spiritual capital of the entertainment world.
As my cousin says, the best thing about shooting a documentary are the unknown gems you film…the wild characters that stand out. I imagine we will be pretty open to new experiences (that’s the story of this Festival thus far).

In a few paragraphs, that’s the general idea. Looking forward to making some real progress on this particular project…very excited to see where it goes.