The dream of making a movie
A friend once told me that your typical American male harbors three secret ambitions: Own a restaurant, play in a rock band, make a movie. If there’s a female equivalent, I suspect the movie aspect would still be part of the threesome. This observation speaks to an abiding truth: people have dreams, goals large or small, to which they aspire. And perhaps more than most, a movie represents the dreamer’s dream.
I was reminded of that today when going through various news reports and tracking boards with the usual assortment of movie announcements. For every big Hollywood spec script sale, there are many other small, independent movie projects in various stages of development: funding, pre-production, production, post, festival circuit, etc. Each of them represents somebody’s dream. Here are three examples I saw today:
“Crossing the River”: From this article in The Daily Star-Journal from Warrensburg, Missouri:
An independent producer hopes to raise $1.5 million to shoot a film in Warrensburg this spring.
Crimson Creative Works principals discussed “Crossing Rivers” last week with area officials in the Ed Elliott Union at Central Missouri State University.
Producer Drew Hiss said the company plans a high-quality production with a cast including “A-list” talent.
Hiss said the “award-winning production team” has more than 40 years of combined film industry experience and 25 years of entrepreneurial experience. The advisory team also has more than 100 years of film experience, he said.
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The film summary states, “A father, son and despised neighbor find their lives changed forever after surviving a perilous flood.”
The theme addresses “deep-rooted generational hate and bigotry that are broken by unimaginable sacrifice and love.”
The original script, written by Sterling Macer Jr., who also co-directs the film, offers a positive message, Burrow said.
Wheeler said, “We need to close the funding gap. I’m confident we have all the other assets we need.”
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Hiss said they have raised $350,000 to $400,000 for the film.
“We need to fill the coffers,” he said, and seeks funds locally and nationally.
“Sunny in the Dark”: From the movie’s website:
A reclusive family therapist hiding in the solitude of an exclusive downtown loft discovers he?s not the only person living in the same space. “Sunny in the Dark” is a story about two people hiding from the world who find each other. Jonah Bock (40s) is a therapist with a marriage and family counseling clinic. Ironically, he’s never been married nor had children. Jonah moves into the exclusive, high security, uber private loft he’s wait listed for over two years. He quickly senses he may have finally found the ultimate sanctuary to shield him from the pain of the world.
What Jonah doesn’t realize is that homeless Sunny (20s) “phroggs” — “hopping from pad to pad” to survive — and she’s landed in the dark crawl space above his place. Unable to live among people because of the incredible abuse she suffered as a child, Sunny finds places where she can live undetected. In Jonah’s case, she sleeps in the crawlspace at night, and when highly regimented Jonah leaves for the office each day, she drops down and lives in Jonah’s space, careful to leave no trace of her existence or the minimal amount of food she consumes.
“Sunny in the Dark”, written by Mike Maden, is a story about knowing. It?s characters all deal with the fears and revelations of desiring to truly know someone — and the significance of them truly knowing you.
“The Uninvited Guest”: From Screenbase:
Guillem Morales’ English-language remake of his own film of the same name about an architect who goes through a painful separation from his girlfriend, and then receives a strange visit from a guy who asks to take refuge in his home and make a phone call, but then never leaves.
Three very different movies, although the latter two share one similar aspect to their story conceit: one primary location which reduces budgets costs considerably.
I don’t know about you, but all three strike me as worthy ideas. If I was forced to bet on one as the most likely to succeed financially, I’d probably opt for “The Uninvited Guest,” in part because its genre — thriller — is one of the three most popular (comedy, thriller, action) and since it’s a remake, there is a built-in audience from the original.
That said “Sunny in the Dark” strikes me as perhaps the most interesting idea of the group with two central characters starting in distinctive states of Disunity, literally living in parallel worlds, then over time coming to know each other and in the process their own Self.
But “Crossing the River” represents the biggest dream of the bunch. I’ve had so many of these projects come along my way during the last twenty years, $1–2M budget movies with a script, a few attachments, a percentage of the funds, and an ambition to close that financial gap and get the movie produced.
Every movie starts off as a dream, most often in the mind of a screenwriter. A dream of telling a story so compelling, it builds momentum and gets produced. From the “Sunny in the Dark” website, there’s this quote from the movie’s director Courtney Price:
While working on a feature film script, I came across Sunny in the Dark. Originally planning to produce my own script, I was surprised by how much I kept thinking about the characters and story of Sunny. I found myself continually going back to this script, instead of my own. It was then that I realized that the story had enchanted me.
Maden’s script captured Price’s imagination and caused her to dream, too, about getting the movie made.
Do you remember the movie Tucker: The Man and his Dreams:
The story of Preston Tucker, the maverick car designer and his ill fated challenge to the auto industry with his revolutionary car concept.
In that movie, there’s a poignant scene between Tucker (Jeff Bridges) and his right-hand man Abe (Martin Landau). Here is Abe’s monologue:
When I was a little kid, maybe years old in the old country, my mother would warned me, “Don’t get too close to people. You’ll catch their dreams.” Years later, I realized I misunderstood her. Germs, she said, not dreams. “You’ll catch their germs.” I want you to know something, Tucker. I went into business with you to make money. That’s all. How was I to know… if I got too close, I’d catch your dreams?
Every day there are people around the world who ‘catch a dream.’ A story percolates into their imagination. A story to tell. A movie to make. Who’s to say if someone’s dream is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’? Probably a more apt choice is crazy or crazier.
But then you see a small indie film like Winter’s Bone:
Or The Legend of Pale Male:
Or The King’s Speech:
And all you can say is God bless the dreamers.
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