Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Naturalmente

These past few days I've been wondering if I should succumb to a more conventional occupation to support my family. I've asked myself if the path I'm on is tenable and wise. If I should perhaps reassign my filmmaking aspirations to the realm of hobby.

There has been much self-examination. Attempts at a thorough inventory of my achievements up to now. Their viability as a demonstration of sure-fire talent. Assessment of potential profit of future projects. Consideration of methods and skills. Direct questioning. Cross-examination. Re-direct. Re-cross. I was moving toward closing arguments. Finalizing an assessment along the lines of dedicating an hour a day to screenwriting, a weekend every other month to directing and one night a week to teaching scene study. The rest of my hours dedicated to making an honest living with regular paychecks and health insurance.

Before I go off half-cocked in pursuit of real world legitimacy, perhaps an evaluation of my skills that I've built in all my years in the entertainment world is in order. I booked a job on a commercial as an actor next week. Should I try to get representation and more work as an actor? The money can be quite good and it might generate more interest in my acting studio. The fact is these gigs are few and far between, especially for a big lug like me. Besides I don't really want to run around trying to get jobs on corporate industrials. Nor do I want to do theater for very little money working for directors that I don't respect and that I'm fairly certain I could do a much better job than he or she. It may be hard to believe that I'm not putting it down, but, truly, I'm just expressing my lack of interest in such endeavors. Seems like a giant step sideways at best. What about doing some assistant directing or producing, maybe even some directing? The woman directing the commercial spot I'm in has done no more than direct a few short films. I tried to do some commercial work in NY. In the end I decided that I was better off focusing my energy on developing my chops with actors and writing. This is a smaller market certainly. I have a meeting with a local insider later this week to discuss potential commercial production opportunities locally. We'll see.

I presented a co-development opportunity to an actor friend today for a low-budget thriller to be shot in the next summer or two. It seemed as good a place as any to direct my focus for the next several months.

And then, an hour or so later, I got a phone call. Naturalmente. It was Michael Cassidy. He was short of breath. "I've got good news." Music to my ears. Of course he has good news. Why else would I be subjecting myself to such a survey?
His agent Larry Taube read Original Glory. He likes it. He says: It's quirky. The writing is excellent. What do you want me to do with this, Michael?
Michael says, I want to be in it and I want the writer to direct it. Larry says, Let me see what I can do. Tell Neal to have a list of all the actors he has in mind for the lead roles and that I'll call him next week.

Gulp. Somebody frickin pinch me, please!

This past week's scrutiny has been incredibly humbling. I'm going to need humility in spades to patiently proceed with the task of doing all that I can to prepare for the production of Original Glory, knowing full well that there is a long uncertain road ahead. There is no guarantee that this film will get made. However, until they stop returning my calls I'm acting as if it's going to get made. I'm not going to write any checks, legal tender or otherwise, that I can't cash, but …

But what? Let's just say I'm going to do my best to keep my feet on the ground and my head in the clouds.

i nostri cordiali saluti,
signore direttore

No comments: