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.

something was missing from that meeting. and in retrospect, i think it was our fault. what was missing was a direction and a timeframe. we left the meeting with no clearly defined goals, and no real idea of how our newfound connections would lead to anything in the future.

i met with bucky several days later to tour the arts center in spfd, and we talked about the importance of film as a cultural and social commentary. i revealed my desire to see an art-house theatre in town, and we discussed the possibilities of creating one#–even examining the structure of available space to see if something could be done in the arts center. i left a script, with a promise it would be read, and refocused on finding investors.

the fog:
what do you do when you’ve exhausted your resources, found yourself floundering in unfulfilled promises, and have no money and nowhere to turn?

in our case, we delayed. our contracts allowed us until the end of june, 2004 to find investors, and james and i both agreed that it was worth it to wait a little longer. heather was shipping back to california for school, so she would be occupied for the next several months anyhow. the only problem was low funds. i had no choice but to get a day job#–working part time and still seeking out investors. not a positive arrangement. it’s hard to find motivation to go to a day job when you’re working on a film. and it’s equally hard to work on a film when you have to go to a day job. so somewhere in the mix, something is going to get poor attention.

and since i needed money, it turned out to be the film.

the acting coach:
over the summer, many people told me about this great acting coach from LA who had moved to the area after retiring from "the biz". he had a class that met weekly, and he was someone i just *had* to meet. i went to his class, introduced by some of his students and people he worked with on local theatre, and we hit it off immediately. just a really nice guy with a positive attitude. i told him about our project, and he offered to read the script. no promises, no big deal#–just said he would read it.

his history included a stint as the president of the talent manager’s association, and as an acting coach (i audited his classes) he was very good at crafting real performances. i liked him a lot. after reading the script, he was adamant that he was going to help us out. he wasn’t sure how, but he felt like film was ready to invade the ozarks, and he was going to make sure we were a part. finally having someone within the industry who gave us some attention, we felt confident our newfound ally would give us a second wind.

with the job strain i was now in, it was nice to have someone who could make some of those calls to money people, and feel out how we could proceed. plus, he had an idea: why not get a star for one of the roles? he assured us it was entirely possible, and the more we thought about it, we agreed. why not? especially since there were so many people originally from this area who would be perfect for some of the roles. with that in mind, james and i bowed our heads and started to grunt forward towards the fall.