I Think I Might Be a Filmmaker

I love free meals. I’m privileged in that my parents were on the older side of all of their cousins, but I came much later once everyone had kids. This means my cousins are all established and I can act like I’m the same age as their college-age kids. They’re working on their majors and thinking about what they want to be; me too! That’s how I ended up in Culver City tonight.

I’ve spent the past ten months putting together a project that existed in my mind and it’s coming to fruition. I’ve been surrounded by artists and free thinkers throughout this process, but tonight I was seated with those that are hard to impress - people that live and work in the Bay Area.

I started out with the vision. The only thing missing was background music when I told my story. I was happy with the delivery, but then it got to the hard questions. They thought it was great to be creative, but they wanted to understand the process.

I explained my motley crew that were gathering to complete the mission on a small scale. They wanted numbers.

Do you all remember how I took off for New Orleans in the summer of 2024 believing I might just need to live in the Garden District? Well, my crescent city years are on pause, but from that trip I realized that I had a cool story to tell. Guided by King Creole and the energy of the Crossroads, I came up with an idea. I let it simmer for a bit, and knew I just had to make a go of it.

I realized that when you talk with people that own Bay Area real estate, you do not tell them that you are touching yours. Try it, cut into barrata smothered in pesto sauce and tell someone the above. I knew there would be slight pushback, but I was grateful for the support as well. It came in the form of “please have a lawyer” and “you have always been bad at math”. It’s just part of the creative process.

By the time all of the tapas had arrived they asked just how much was being thrown away. The amount didn’t impress them and they calmed down. Then they asked if movies could really be made for the price of a vehicle. Yes?

I realized I was introducing a world they hadn’t been exposed to. The indie film. No FX. No studio. No insurance (joking). My cousin had sat in on meetings about Apple shows and asked if that’s how I was planning. I couldn’t explain that the catering for their meeting was probably my entire budget, but my story could be told as well.

I will have two months in the tropics where I will be sleeping in a hammock out in the jungle, using a machete to clear the brush from the area an hour before we use the area for our scene. Everyone thought Apocalypse Now would fail as well and that worked out.

I work hard for everything I have. Every morning when I pull out of the Starbucks drive thru, I’m juggling the cup, the song on Spotify and gridlock traffic all at once. That grit and determination is what I’m bringing to my project. Life will always be hard with hurdles, but it’s the ability to persevere and still create something that makes the journey.

I’m thankful to everyone that’s helped with my project. This small community that’s been created in a short timespan is the kind of thing that seems rare. A year from now, we might be talking about a project that is deliverable and was a wild ride.