Finally...

So the trailer for my first film is (you said it) FINALLY up online.

You can check it out at www.thestormiscoming.com then select 'THE FILM' then 'TRAILER' and it's all yours.

The thing about it that's both incredibly satisfying and deeply humbling at the same time is just how friggin' long it's taken to get from 'there' to 'here'.

I wrote the film October 2005.

We set it up November December 2005.  Shot it February, March 2006.  Cut it summer 2006. Finessed it fall 2006.  Screened it for the first time February 2007.  Took in the reaction and tweaked some things March 2006...

Then we ran out of money.

The rest of 2007 was about the most insecure, difficult, 'beats taking' year I've ever experienced.

Throughout it (and in the midst of trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do about that pesky little thing called 'feeding your family'...) I kept working on it, little by little, pushing it ahead one inch at a time.  My business partner (everybody needs one of those, f'real...) kept pushing too, working like a madman to try and get our tax credits back from the government.  

Three audits later, we got the money and I was able to get people working on the thing again.

That was fall 2007.

Between then and now we've had the site built and launched, and have toiled through three versions of the trailer (from concept, to rough cut, to final cut, to sound design, to scrapping it, to new concept, to rough cut, to final cut, to sound design, to scrapping it, to third concept, rough cut, fine cut, mastering cut [where it really started to come together], to the final two passes at a sound design that would make my business partner AND my wife happy).

Now that's a tall order.  Anyway, I sat them down (one at a time) to watch it.  And they liked it. Felt that we finally had something worth proceeding with.

That was two weeks ago.

And today it went out to a bunch of folks in 'the biz', real decision makers who were going to decide whether or not to work with us in helping to take the film to market based on whether or not they liked the trailer.

Can you feel the tension?

It's about the craziest, most prolonged period of uncertainty and stress I can remember.

Then tonight, sitting with my wife watching 'American Idol', I popped into my office to check my email and there it was.

A response from L.A.

(let's let the anticipation build a moment...)

And...

They LOVED it!

Want to take it into their contacts at two major studios.

How awesome is that?

Trust my wife to be a 'wife'.  She's like; "Why can't they just say 'yes' and cut us a cheque already?"  Poor baby, this whole journey has been so hard on her.  She looks at me.  "You always knew, didn't you?  You knew the trailer would be the thing."

How can you do this if you don't 'know'?

If you don't believe in your story (and your 'belief' is double-minded at best 'cause you doubt then believe then doubt then believe at least seven times a day)  If you don't love it.  Nobody else will.

Keep in mind now (all you would-be filmmakers out there) that I'm not saying that the thing I love is the best thing ever.  I love my kids.  When they're good.  When they're bad.  I love them just the same.  I love my movie.

My simple, humble, not all that it could be... (or as my outspoken script supervisor told me on set night 17 of principal photography; "Good enough but far from good...")

--Yeah, thanks.  I needed that.  On second thought.  SHUT UP!--

...Movie.  I love it.  For what it was going to be.  For what it isn't and, most of all, for what it is and for all the people who made it that way.

I love it and I love them.

And L.A (in the first small, but oh-so-important way) loves it too.

Can you believe it?

Cool.

So, having passed that first (after so many) test, we get to live to try and fight another day.

Day 775 of deciding to make a movie.

Oh boy.

T