Hey Drew. Whatever happened to that screenplay thingy you did last year? You know, the one where you were one of the five finalists in the Atlanta Film Festival’s Southeastern Media Award? Did you make that thing yet?
To paraphrase Joe Garelli, handyman for New York radio station WNYX, when asked by his boss Dave Nelson if he had any additional comments to make to the staff regarding people stealing other people’s special brand of chocolate gelato which can only be purchased at Carducci’s on Prince Street, after repeatedly interjecting his own comments throughout the entire lecture on theft and why it is wrong:
“No.”
But then, I’ve probably muddied my point by more than just a little.
Let me start over.
I love it when people ask me questions about stuff I’ve done in the past because it means they like me, Sally Field style. It’s like when people would ask me if I would ever make another issue of The LowTide for a show. It made me want to go make another one, even if they were only really trying to move me around to the other side of the craft service table so they could get to the coffee and the styrofoam bowl full of miniature Hershey bars.
I’m entirely willing to work off the misperception that people like my work – you take what you can get.
And so goes “Love & The Dragon”…. the kind of movie the judges decided was too big to be made for $100k in like-kind services from local equipment houses, but should be too small to have anything other than minor threat actors in the lead roles. A trillion tons of potential energy just waiting to blow…..
One of the regular directors of ‘Charmed’ talked to my friend Joe Connolly, the propmaster on ‘Seventh Heaven’, about shooting it, but they wanted to shoot whatever they did on their summer hiatus in Kansas City for some strange reason (glad that deal didn’t happen, no offense to Kansas City). A friend of mine at New Line had me send the script out again this past January because they were calving a new division and she thought my story might be a good one to toss into the fodder – no dice, so far anyway. And then there was this whole “got to make myself a new website” incident of ’04-’05 that took me offline, combined with the fact that I agreed to take on a full-time job at a start-up construction program management firm. Stepping off into the corporate world for a year has bought me some perspective on indie films and the folks who make them.
At this point I’d likely be happy to sell the screenplay, but would be unable not to participate in some way in the production. I can’t imagine having worked twelve years on-set and then not being there to see this movie being shot.
So for now we’re talking about shooting a trailer for it later this summer, not sure where or why we’d pitch a trailer for the show but what else are you going to do while you’re here planetside? I mean to have me some fun while I’m here.
If the trailer shoot is anything like the rehearsals for the Southeastern Media Award performance it will be a damned silly treat for me. To watch people inhabit characters you’ve written touches you on many levels.
Make-believe is awesome.
And so is movie-making. Unless you’re the one who has to make it happen, which is what really, really worries me because I’ve watched enough of my friends venture off into the world of independent film with no great results and no solid plans. Making a movie sucks down every ounce of your time and your energy and there’s no sure reward at the end. You have to know that you’re fighting the fight because you’re compelled by heart and soul and love and vanity and naturally a touch of mercenary greed. That last one is important because it keeps your feet on the ground and your hand hovering near your wallet.
What could be better than an unconventional romantic comedy about the world of science fiction conventions? A sleeper-bomb for people who don’t even admit to their friends that they’re sci-fi fans, a sweet story for those who’ll never be one of those fans. I promise you ladies that I’ll make you cry. Or whoever directs this thing will make you cry. They’d better.
So that’s the update. If you see me standing behind someone working a 24p camera at Dragon*Con this September you’ll know that I’m chasing me some stardust.
Hope I’ll be able to sprinkle some in your eyes one day~
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