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.

bad news:
our contracts, while almost finished, were going to be delayed. when you’re working as an indie film, you have to expect that you’re not the tallest man on the totem pole…and when the guy above you needs special attention, he’s going to get it before you do. apparently, a major client of our legal counsel had run into problems with an SEC filing, and with this being right in the middle of the "let’s punish corporate america" lawsuits, it was a major hassle. our legal team was cutting us a major deal on the work they were doing to create our private placement documents (the documents you give to investors), and because of that donated time, we couldn’t complain about the delays. but it wasn’t a big deal#–we were only talking about two weeks delay. so we put off our meetings with our investors, and while it killed a little of the momentum we’d built, it wasn’t too terribly discouraging…just a lesson in the persistence it takes to be an independent producer (with little or no money).

in the meantime, we kept making contacts. we met a guy in branson who had worked with the Osmonds on a lot of their projects, and he was really interested in helping us out. he promised to get the script into some hands and make some connections for us as far as branson entertainers and theatre owners were concerned. and, of course, we kept making promises: "we’ll have contracts to show you in a week. we’ll meet for coffee and go over them. we’ve got a great legal team working out the kinks right now." as our two week delay stretched into three, then four…we started to feel the backlash#–"if you guys have everything together, then what’s taking so long?" we did our best to dispell the unease that started to grow among the people we had interested so far, and kept plugging away at building relationships with folks in branson. at one point, james and i even helped out by participating in an Osmond family HDNet special. it was actually kind of funny, because we got to see glenn campbell sing rhinestone cowboy (before the infamous DWI). it was cheese-o-rama, but good clean fun. plus, we were doing some favors and (hopefully) getting to meet some people that could help us with our film. we didn’t know it then, but apparently that kind of favor does not necessarily need to be repaid, or honored in any way (but i’m not bitter#–really).

worse news:
by the beginning of middle of June, we started to face the facts: our contracts weren’t arriving any time soon. we went from a definite game plan to a holding pattern. our director, heather coker, had already approached a great dp (director of photography), yasu tanida, and he loved the script#–but we couldn’t throw any dates at him for the beginning of principal photography, because we still didn’t have a single investor. we started to freak out. we could no longer approach investors, because we looked silly putting off meetings#–it made no sense to get someone excited about the project because they would just have to get in line behind all of the other people we’d made a promise to meet with "later" about the contracts, and we couldn’t approach crew or cast either. james, heather, and i started the only work we could really do#–we started scouting for locations.

we drove around branson taking photos and talking with business owners#–and they responded incredibly well. we had open promises from several property owners to shoot on their locations, but again, we couldn’t tell them when. that’s when we realized how superflous our "work" was becoming. until you’ve raised the money to shoot, there’s no point in moving ahead: you can’t reserve locations, equipment, people, or anything else. we had to get those contracts and meet with investors.

tough decisions:
when i made the choice to come back to MO, i knew it was only going to be for a small period of time, and i knew how much money it was going to cost over that period. so i had budgeted my savings to last through the end of august#–after all, once the film began production, i would have money  coming in through the film. but with the contracts dragging on, and no shoot date, things were getting grim. plus, as if i weren’t having enough trouble, my girlfriend and i broke up. this would be terrible enough, emotionally, but since i was living with her, it caused a slew of other problems. i went from having a home in NY to return to after the shoot, to having no clear plan, and a bunch of bills to pay. i made the only decision i could and pulled everything i had out of savings and drug myself out of a financial mess. but that still left me in MO with no movie happening, bills to pay, and a lot of time on my hands to sit and wait for something to happen. i don’t do well with waiting.

i drafted an email and begged our legal team to send us our contracts. i was getting desperate. i must have been pretty convincing, because finally#–at the beginning of august#–the wheels started to roll
again.