B&B Production Journal Installment #1

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Ok. I am know killing any chance of this film being made. I know that I should wait until we actually have a green light, but so much has happened already, that if I don’t start writing some of it down now, it will be lost for ever. That being said, if it all falls apart, some of you just might be entertained by this little glimpse into the sinister world of Independent Film.

So this is the first installment of my production journal for my next feature film "Beds & Breakfast". You can check out the production details at http://imdb.com/title/tt0403870/. They won't all be this long.

Welcome to my own personal Hell.....

The Players:
Me – Writer / Director
“P” – Writer /Producer (My Biz Partner, Best Friend, Godfather to my daughter, the guy who keeps me out of jail …)
“TC” – Executive Producer in New Orleans
“L” – Executive Producer in NYC

I am told that on April 14th we are going to have a $1,000,000.00 (yes that’s one million for those of you who get blinded by zeros) assurity bond in place that will guarantee a loan, that will finance 75% of our film. The other 25% will come from a secondary source which is called gap financing. If the stars align and this actually happens, we could be looking at a June shoot in Asheville NC.

Now, this point has been a long time coming and it hasn’t happened over night, I will do my best to make the backstory brief.

Our original Executive Producer down in North Carolina tried very hard to get this film financed but just did not have the juice to get it done. This is not unusual. Funding a film at any budget level is no easy task. She tried but failed. Around the time it was looking like we had run clear out of funding possibilities down in North Carolina, I got a call out of the blue from a guy who I had not heard from in years (Literally 5 years).

“TC” is a mover and a shaker in and out of the movie business and he is based out of New Orleans. He was flying into NYC the next day and was wondering what I had been up to. He still had two of my old scripts with him and was trying to get a slate of movies financed. As if sent by the hand of God to assist us and lift us out of the muck that is Independent Film Finance Implosion, he jumped right on the Beds project (as we had everything in place and could pull the trigger immediately).

So, the next evening, after a few poolside drinks downtown on a trendy West Village rooftop and a superb Steak Dinner at Smith and Wolensky (all on “TC” I might add, which is a good thing because I had about 12 bucks in my pocket if I remember correctly) we had a new Executive Producer who basically threatened to get this movie made one way or another. Some things did change though.

In the time between the drinks and dinner (roughly 45 minutes) the budget had jumped from $500,000 to 1.3 million and all of a sudden it looked like “P” and I might be able to pay some of our bills and maybe even make a buck or two. I went home after dinner and implemented the changes into the budget that “TC” had recommended. “TC”, I believe went downtown to meet a major blonde with huge …. Well you know….

Fast forward to October. “TC” has brought “L” on board also as an Executive Producer and together they are going to take Beds (as well as Atlantic City Serenade) to AFM. So, we rush around getting materials ready for the market and “TC” and “L” head off to LA. Lots of talk lots of interest, then begins the waiting game. Who wants to be the first to jump into this pool. We have interest from the HERE Network. They are the new Gay Network on the block and as we have a gay couple prominently featured in our story, they are very interested. Which is quite a change as we lost money last year because of our gay couple in the story. “TC” and “L” meet with other potential investor types and basically get the project out there.

As it turns out, the HERE Network passes on funding the project because there isn’t enough “Gayness” for them. Go figure… But, they are interested in possibly acquiring the film after it is made for broadcast on their network. Ok, it’s not what we wanted but it’s something.

This brings us up to where we reside right now. We had been waiting since mid December for “TC” and “L” to speak with the Mysterious “B” (not so mysterious, as I understand he is a friend of “L”’s I was told by “TC” that “B” is very interested in financing not just Beds but a number of our projects. So, we have been waiting patiently for them to get together. Well … Last week they did. “B” has said that he will have the bond for us on April 14th. We shall see.

If I have learned anything in this business, it's that nothing is certain until the money is in your bank account. And it ain’t …Not yet anyway …