Okay... now this is getting ridiculous! One of our producers is networking at TIFF right now, and we noticed that his website bio was recently updated to include a line about our film. On one hand, this is great stuff, because it feels that much more official to see him putting it out there. But, what completely surprised us was that his bio also includes who DE is starring!! We haven't even been given the go-ahead to speak publicly about this yet! (Although I'd be lying if I told you that we didn't tell a dozen or so people already... and we know for a fact that a few of them have long since broadcasted our "secret" news to others as well.)
But jeez... We've been waiting to make an official announcement since the end of June about who we cast. We never imagined it'd take THIS long! What a test of patience this has been.
However, an interesting fact worth noting is that while TC updated his bio, our other producers (who are featured on the same website) did not. Also, only a day before this online discovery was made, Jim asked AS if we could write anything on our official blog yet, and she said not until a proper press release had been issued... which she promised would be soon.
What also feels kinda crazy is that here we are, looking at moving to Vancouver for pre-production in only two n' a half weeks, and yet we haven't made any kind of announcement to our friends n' associates yet that (barring any unforeseen circumstances) our movie is green-lit. In which case, I might as well share the (now anticlimactic) news that Telefilm actually came on board only a couple days after our meeting -- even though they originally said that their answer would take a few weeks. (Told ya the meeting went exceptionally well!) Of course, we weren't allowed to say anything at that time, because we had to finish appeasing our distributer first. If we didn't have our distributer completely on board, then Telefilm wouldn't fund us. But as I shared a couple weeks ago, our distributer is happy with our final tweaks and the script is now locked.
All this being said, Telefilm ended up offering us 150K less than what we asked for, (although they are giving us HALF of what they had left in their budget -- and with 12 projects all vying for a piece of that pie, that ain't too shabby!) While additional funding still needs to come in from various sources, (which I suppose is why we haven't been allowed to "officially" announce anything yet?), by the sounds of it, none of these other sources are make-or-break. Plus there are always a few Plan B's, like shmoozing existing sources for a top-up, or cutting corners however else we can..... which again, is why it is really, truly awesome that AJ & Kerry are letting us stay in their wonderful suite rent free!
Boy, I sure as heck must be demystifying the whole "glamourous" movie making process with this blog, huh? Begging for funding, livin' on the cheap, writing, rewriting and even more rewriting... And while it's true that independent Canadian films are rife with obstacles - the reality is that EVERY movie is a challenge to get made. As I've said a million times before, just watch the behind the scenes features for almost any movie. You might find yourself very surprised at how everything got pulled together.
Anyhow, as Jim n' I start looking down the road, we need to consider if this is the steep hill we want to continue climbing in life. And despite the inevitable challenges we're bound to face along the way, ultimately, the answer is YES! I want to be a writer and Jim wants to be a director. This means that we're gonna need to figure out a game plan for what happens after DE gets made. Because while it's been nothing short of a miracle that two little nobodies from K-town are making a movie, we can't expect lightning to strike twice in the same place. Which means, we're likely going to have to move if we want to make a living at this.
So... this is where we sit. Not so much at a crossroads, but more like staring at a benchmark. If we want filmmaking to be in our future, we cannot expect it to happen here. I guess that's always been pretty obvious, but we've just been so preoccupied with getting DE off the ground, that we've never really given tons of thought to our next step in the game. And the truth is, serious people move to where the work is. That's part of the reason why it's taking forever to grow the film industry in the Okanagan. While the Valley offers a gorgeous backdrop for filming, bringing qualified crews to the interior is a huge expense. And anyone who is qualified enough to get consistent work is not going to be found living in Vernon.
Of course, this isn't something we need to figure out right now - but we do have to start giving our future some thought. I'm sure once DE is made and the time is right, our instincts will tell us where we'll need to go... whether it be Vancouver or *gulp* L.A. And let's be honest, the best opportunities are in L.A.
But never mind that.... For now, I'm content to just bask in the present happiness of knowing that we're about to take our first big step in the right direction. As for the actual geography of that direction, I'm sure it'll reveal itself to us eventually. (And hopefully we'll finally get to reveal a few more things to y'all eventually too!)
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