#14 Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes

Luna teeny tiny baby booties need replacin'.
It's time to make some moolah.

So, as I may have mentioned, The Lake Effect is looking for a sales agent. In our hot pursuit, I had to get a screener to a company in Santa Monica on Friday.  With no babysitter and no runner, I loaded Luna up and hit the road.  

I buzzed the office from the street and let Luna press the button for the elevator.  I prepared myself for the confused looks from the people working the front desk.  Babies and work places just don’t go together, it seems. I didn't anticipate that the front office of this company would have glass walls, so that when I walked in with Luna on my hip, we had a nice little audience.  

Now, the term “deer in headlights,” is overused... but I would argue it's for good reason – we shot THE LAKE EFFECT in Michigan, where I witnessed a deer in headlights for the first time and they really do just stand there, staring at your approaching headlights with this wide eyed gaze... anyway, in the spirit of Michigan I think it’s appropriate to use the overused metaphor here.   The office workers just gaped at us like deer in headlights.  (A side note to this side note, when I arrived in South Haven after a three hour car ride from Detroit, I commented on the high number of dead deer on the highway.  Our intern Liz, smiled and said, “Oh, those are our welcome signs.”  How I miss our smart-mouthed Michigan interns.  Especially when I have to be my own runner.)  

Right, so I walk into the office with Luna on my hip and the whole office just stops and stares at us like (all together now) deer in headlights. 

I smile and hand the manila envelope over to the guy at the front desk.  “Hi, I have a drop off for Joe Sales Agent.”

“Thanks.”

I wonder if they think I'm a runner and doing some sort of take the kid to work day.  I check in with Luna, who is returning the office workers’ wide eyed stares. “Say buh-bye.”

“Bah-bye.”

And then the stunned deers’ faces thaw out into awed smiles.  They are still cooing, give cutesy waves as we leave.  

I let Luna walk down the hallway holding my finger and there's just something about how it's all working out that makes me feel so peaceful.  Like whatever this sales agent says or whatever happens with the movie is exactly what should happen.  

After promising Luna that she can press the elevator button, I say, “You know what, Luna?  This right here is one of my very best moments ever.”  

BLOG #8 “Hurry Up and Wait”

Okay, so this is the portion of our program where we wait.   Just like in production where we hustle through rehearsal and then wait for the lighting crew to get the set pretty, or in post where we hustle through the edit to wait for the clip to render (I hate that spinning beachball soooo much)…

We have hustled to get the movie done and into the hands of some sales agents… and now we wait to hear back and see if we can marry up with the right company to sell this film. 

So what’s a filmmaker to do in these oh-so empty moments, when the film is out of your hands?   I spend time with my family and friends, I catch up on the news, I fill out my absentee voter form (VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!) and I watch movies and tv shows that I’ve neglected…  and then I come into my messy office and I look up at my white board – which is covered with a slate of projects.  If those projects are ever going to get as far as The Lake Effect has, I’ve got to get a move on.

Here’s the breakdown:

THE CYNICS:

I’m excited to say that Jennifer Westin and I have had so much fun working on TLE together that we’re teaming up on a second project, (which, really, I should be writing instead of blogging about). It’s still in treatment form but it’s shaping up to be a fun and funny ensemble comedy about love and friendship.  It’s loosely based on my childhood friends, actually – a group of complete assholes, whom I love dearly.

STRONG ISLAND:

This one’s a TV pilot that I’m penning with my very dear friend and amazing comedy writer Cindy McCreery.   Seriously, that girl funny.  Can’t tell you much about that one yet except that it’s set on the south shore of Long Island where I grew up and it’s cast of characters include some colorful Italian Americans that may be inspired by my family.   (Are we seeing a pattern here of me raping my real life for content?  Beware ye close to me, lest you get immortalized…)

PRUDE:

Prude is actually a script of Cindy’s that she’s considering letting me direct.  It’s a very funny take on high school sexuality – sort of like a female American Pie.  Genius.

LOVE IS REAL, THE MOVIE…:

This one’s simmering on the back burners.  It’s about a documentarian documenting her dysfunctional love life.   I have toyed with the idea of doing this as a cumulative webisode series, playing the documentarian and shooting half the movie on my webcam.   Maybe the back burner is the wrong place for this one…

TITS:

Ah, Tits.  This is an oldie but a goodie.  It’s a dramedy about a typical teenage girl struggling to grow up in a near-perfect suburban world when she realizes that only one of her boobs is growing.  This film has had actors and financing come and go – it only needs like a half a million dollars and a name actor to be the best thing ever.  

And last but not least… UNTITLED TV SPEC

I’m working on a Modern Family (I know, I know, “Everyone’s doing it.”)  But I straight up love that show.   I’m convinced that the creators snuck into our house and took notes on my husband while crafting the character of Phil.   Anyway, finding a home on a TV staff would be very cool.  There’s so much amazing creative work going on in TV right now, it’s a great place to work on character driven stuff, and you know that what you’re writing will actually be seen!  What more can you ask for? Plus, baby needs a new pair of shoes and I hear TV jobs come with these things called paychecks. 

  

So what’s the trick to maintaining sanity while waiting to hear back from that agent/ executive/ sales company…? Keep on keeping on. Attack that to do list with your whole heart. Dive into that new project head first. Also, it doesn’t hurt to listen to McHammer radio on Pandora.  Nothing inspires me to “move it move it” like early nineties hip hop.