i just like stuff like this…this is a polaroid picture/accidental misfire. i want a giant print of this. 

meeting with people you don’t know is always, on some deep level, hard to do. mostly, i think, because you risk rejection. rejection from being unimpressive, rejection from being misunderstood, rejection from being something so totally out of your control that you just can’t even pinpoint it.

when james and i met with Senator Champion and Bucky Bowman of the Arts Patronage Initiative, we really didn’t know what to expect. our biggest hope was that we could just start a dialogue and go from there. we were introduced through the artistic director of a local theatre, and the lunch was very casual. feeling out all parties involved, we spent the meeting mostly exchanging pleasantries. when we got down to the nitty-gritty of why we were actually meeting, it was hard to keep the rejection of the past few weeks separate from our expectations of rejection here. we talked with the Senator about the need for a film commission in the springfield area, and how that would help not only us, but everyone around us too#–other filmmakers, local businesses, tourism, etc. she seemed excited about the prospects, and mr. bowman was more interested in the artistics merits involved#–working with the local arts council. his primary interest was in cultivating aritistic endeavors of any kind. but somehow, we never really got around to how any of these things could help get ozark mile made.

as august started to bloom and the heat became unbearable in southwest MO, our contracts arrived with an apology from our legal team. it was with both elation and more than a little foreboding that we began preparing the documents for circulation. if you’ve never dealt with these kinds of documents, they can be fairly dense and formidable in length and scope. of course neither james nor myself had ever read anything like it, and even the extensive research i had done on producing couldn’t prepare me for the lessons in legaleze we were about to learn.

we hit missouri with only one aim in mind: get the funding in place for our film. we had made some preliminary contacts about money people before leaving NY, and we were confident that once we got our contracts, there would be no stopping us. we set up dates to meet with investors in both branson, MO and little rock, AR and we set about getting ourselves legally sound. we formed an LLC, drew up operating agreements, printed business cards, created shooting schedules, budgets, you name it#–we did it. we were incredibly excited, and incredibly organized.

then the middle of may hit.

it’s summer…and my mom’s neighbors like windmills 

when do you decide you’ve banged your head against a brick wall and call enough enough? i’m trying to decide. my contracts to produce ozark mile are about to expire (in its present state) and i’m frustrated as all hell. james and i are trying to figure out how to make the best of the contacts and progress we’ve made so far#–which is a lot really. but at some point, you’ve got to make decisions too. when is that time? when you’ve painted yourself into a corner? or when you see you’re about to?

we’re working on a solution. for the time being, it would be so nice to know that when we finish this (a) movie, people will want to see it. and by people i mean friends and family. because at this point, even that would raise my spirit.

whether you are a republican or democrat, just go see this. please

http://www.fahrenheit911.com/