My life up to now. Part 11: "Nah. I'm done with that. Can you pass the salsa?"

Because I was free from filmmaking, I had a lot of extra time to think and even more time to continue my self-misery depression. I decided to get on medication to help with all that, and it seemed to work but one of the big side effects was that it blew my creativity. Since my job at NewTek paid me to sit and be creative all day, that was a huge no-go. So I just took it day by day. Finally one day, in all seriousness, Robin sat me down and told me that I should think about being happy again. I thought, yeah… I could probably do that, so I did. Was it that simple? Strangely enough, I think it was. I dunno, but it seemed like the push I needed so it ended up working out.
         Not long after that, the CEO of NewTek called me and said that he wanted to take me out to lunch. Jim Plant had been a friend of mine for quite a while. He had also been following my films, being a fan of The Water's Edge and Leftovers. We sat down at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants at the time, ordered, and started some small talk. We finally got our food, and that's when the real conversation began.

"I think you should do another movie", said Jim.

"Nah. I'm done with that. Can you pass the salsa?". "No really. I see an upwards trend with your films. The Water's Edge was OK, good but had problems. You fixed those problems with your next film… Night and day difference. I'm betting your next one will be night and day difference again." Jim passes the salsa. "Thanks. But I'm happy now. I've got a really good thing going here. Really. I'm helping my church with their video stuff, doing some visual effects on the side. It's really rewarding. No really. I'm good."

"What if I pay for it?", said Jim.

I stopped chewing my Jalapeño Enchiladas and my eyes became locked on the specular edge of my cheap porcelain dinner wear. After several beats I looked up at him and said, "I'm listening". "You've got another one in you. I know it.", he said. "And I believe this one is going to be 100 x better than the last."
         When I got home that evening, I had a long talk with Robin. Do we want to do this? Do we want to jump back into this game? Yes. Of course we do! But how can we adapt and do it differently? Robin and I remembered our conversation with Mr. Distributor, "No one wants to watch a bunch of women sit around and talk about their feelings". Ok, but what do people want to watch? Wait a minute. Are you telling me that we actually make movies for people to watch? It's not just movies for ourselves? Not just stories that we feel like telling?

SIDE BAR------
At a party, someone asked me advice once. They told me they had a great script idea and they were going to write it and spend the next year developing and producing their movie. They asked if there was any advice I could give them before they got started. The first thing I said to them was, "Awesome! That's quite an undertaking and to make a commitment like that has to be commended!" The next thing i said went something like this. "Before you start writing your script, you need to make a decision on what path you will take. There are three paths, each are very different from one another:

Path one: Your passion project. The movie you've always wanted to make. You know, that movie you've been kicking around in your head for years and never got around to doing. That movie you've dreamed about in your Oscar speech dreams. The movie that will define you as a director or producer.

Path two: Your fun project. The movie that you make because you love making movies. You know, the movie that you invite all of your friends to act and crew in. You all have a blast doing it and after post production, you buy out a theater at the Alamo Drafthouse and you show up with your friends, friend's friends, relatives and neighbors to all drink beer and reminisce the awesome times you had during production. You probably even have a 10 minute behind the scenes reel that runs after the credits showing how silly everyone can be.

Path three: Your sellable project. The movie that you spend months researching hot genres. Is Action in? Horror? Family? Western? Which independent films have the best DVD/VOD numbers and what genre were they? Which independent films have the best Theatrical numbers? Which actors are hot in the UK? Latin America? France?

In a perfect world, we could all make movies that incorporate ALL THREE paths. It does happen. But who wants to risk their investors money on that? Not me. Someone has offered to fund my movie and the last thing I want to do is let them down by not being able to pay them back. I want them to fund my next movie… and my next movie… and my next one. See a trend there? When you've made a name for yourself and people throw money at you because everything you touch is gold, then it's a good idea to tackle that passion project.
END SIDE BAR------

         Anyway. So back to Mr. Distributor and his advice which sparked a revelation. Because Jim Plant believed in us, we owed it to him to do our homework. Research led to the realization that Family movies were hot sellers in the independent film world that year. We were delighted to find this out because Robin and I have two young children and this meant that our kids could finally watch our movies!
         It was nearing Christmas time, 2009. Robin and I loaded up the family truckster and headed to Louisiana for the holidays. We end up doing a lot of quality thinking on road trips. While driving, Robin told me of a day dream she had the other day. She was driving the kids and the dogs to the dog park. She had a crazy terrible day dream and thought, what if we got into a wreck and were all killed! Even the dogs! Morbid yes, but her real thought exploration was if the dogs weren't along for the ride then I would have them to help me through the terrible tragedy. Animals, dogs in particular, help tremendously in times of extreme loss.
         We arrived at my parent's house. After about 30 minutes of hugging and chatting, Robin took her laptop into our bedroom, shut the door, and didn't come out for 4 days. On that 4th day, she emerged with with the first draft of what was to be our very next film and very first family movie, Angel Dog.