The Dream Factory

The man handed me a check and thank me profusely for making his dream of 30 years come true. NO, it’s not getting a BJ from a guy who looks like a Cambodian drug lord. I worked on this short film that was a translation of a novel he wrote. The story is…it’s a bit outdated. But he’s actually a solid writer, considering he isn’t classically trained. He’s a nice guy from Illinois who brought his wife and kids out to watch us make a movie of his book. Weird, right?

Apparently there’s a market for people who’ve gotten on in age, have money, no one to leave it to, and are bored. SO they invest in films from stories they wrote. The only stipulation is…well, that could be ala carte. In this case, it was that he got to cast who he wanted in the film. His daughter and wife casted the hunky lead male. Who is a great looking dude, but  can’t act. Don’t get too weirded out by that. The story is THAT is precisely how Johnny Depp got the role in “Nightmare On Elm Street.” Wes Craven’s daughter thought he was dreamy.

Well, believe it or not, it’s not a bad price to pay for fulfilling your lifelong dream. Think about it…what price tag would you have to be in a movie with Marilyn Monroe? Or dance with a young Ginger Rogers? At least this guy’s dreams were within reach. And I would say…for the price he paid, he got MORE than his money’s worth. We got to give him the whole film making treatment. Which is essentially…making a film ON FILM. That’s right we shot it on 16mm film. Though, no one on set had ever really touched or worked on film. IT was exciting to watch them all marvel at the medium. Though grueling and frustrating, it still provided SO much more joy than had we shot on digital. Think about that…some people on set were living their own dreams. I even lent them my 35mm motion picture camera to shoot. It was great to see the joy working with film.

You know…in a strange sense, this has renewed my love of filmmaking. To watch someone so enamored by the process from a completely new way, was…I never saw someone so giddy about it. I was so tired I wanted to vomit. He was watching a live action version of his characters and story come alive. And happy to spend every cent he had on it. Strange, considering he seemed to just like to view it from afar watching the lumbering process never seemed to bore him like it did me. Everyone should work with a producer like that. It’s a hoot.