Although it took a bit longer than we had hoped, Berka and I finally got a firm "yes" from Quan and the Edgewater Beach Cafe! It's really exciting for us and Berka did most of the work to make this happen. He kept calling and texting and emailing Quan. We have a very unique relationship--he does the things I don't particularly like to do and vice versa. He's great at picking up the phone and calling people and not getting emotional and hanging up, like I would do. I'm good at more of the organizational side of things, contacting press, etc.
But this feels great--another item checked off our checklist. People don't realized, at least I never did, what goes on in order to get a film made. The script and shooting are the fun parts. It's the preproduction, post production, securing locations, securing talent, getting commitments, getting props, organizing a shooting schedule, writing a shooting script to go with your actual script, dealing with egos (including your own), getting the final script registered as well as a copyright, getting food for the cast and crew for the long shooting days, rewriting the script, sticking to budgets, developing a web presence, casting and securing a world-class chef, getting insurance, figuring out what O +E means, talking with investors, contacting studio executives, revisiting your list to see what you've forgotten, replacing talent who have to accept paying gigs, spending quality time with your wife, staying healthy and not getting sick, sleeping...
But it sure beats office life. I was going to say it beats a 9-5, but the hours are much, much longer.
Oh, and we finally found our Courtney! It's all taking shape.
27 days until we start principal photography
I am embarrassed to say that I have just read all of Jay's blogs. My name is John Berka and I am Jay's business partner. Its amazing when you are in pre production, production, then post one gets so caught up in everything and forgets to do the one thing that really matters. Reflect. So two years later and at the advice of our marketing and web designer Karin I am now reading blogs that Jay so smartly published. A few things struck me by these posts. Wow GMF has come a long way. What started out as one film quickly became two. After our second film we shot a pilot for comedy central, and shot a documentary in Uganda. We have been cutting up various segments of the documentary footage and sharing it with people that are helping us in our community development work in central Uganda.
ReplyDeleteWe really took our time with post for Trubadeaux. Making the necessary edits takes time. It is easy to fall in love with moments in the film that might not help tell the story but one cannot imagine the film without them. If one is not careful the story might be lost. Over time these moments become more visible and find there way to the cutting room floor (or in our case erased from Doug's hard drive.)So after two years from the time we wrote Trubadeaux we finally have the final cut of the film. Jay set up a great screening two weeks ago in Andersonville and we were really happy with how well the film played. We have decided after the success of American Legacy that we are going to self distribute our film. We have a marketing and design team that is helping us make sure our film gains a presence online. Thanks Jay for all of these posts! Sadly it took to long to read them and I look forward to more updated information and I promise not tho hijack your blog.