..."Win"....

And just like that the production is BACK on track. Props are being bought, magazines are being made and cast and crew are being put together. Mandi, my wife, has never really been a huge supporter of this thing I do. She's a realist if there ever was one and honestly I love her for that, because I'm a dreamer if there ever was one and if she wasn't around to put my feet back on the ground every now and again, I'd be freakin' lost on Mars somewhere by now.
She grinned and beared Meter during all my pre-production BS and when I asked her if she would help me shoot the film that freezing cold November night, she didn't say no. In fact, had she not been there and worked her charm with a tempramental cab owner, Meter may have never had the claim to fame of "shot in one night." After that night she didn't speak much of it. Even as I pulled my hair out on the audio mix, she let me do my thing and never really asked any questions.

Then one night just a little before it was completed, she sat down with me and watched the film. She was sort of on the fence. She saw the lighting issues, sound issues and gave me her insight. Now Mark's performance was nothing short of brilliant, but for my wife to go and on about how he was sooooo good and he's the reason that it works kind of hurt my feelings. Yes, Mark made the movie, but I thought the script was quite good and my editing was methodically calculated to keep the pace of a 15 minute conversation in a car interesting. Either way, the night of the premiere when that audience ripped up an applause and I went up and spoke with everybody, Mandi later said, "she had never felt so proud of me."

With Jeopardy, things were a little different. There was more preparation, money and time involved. I don't think Mandi ever thought it was as big a movie as it actually is, so she looked at it as yet another film like Meter that was just kind of getting prepped on free time and free money. As I progressed in my pre-production phase, just the words, "my movie," would get a roll of the eyes. I chose just to not fill her in on what was going on to keep from hearing, "you need to be doing something else with your time." It was clear she thought making the film was "unrealistic." She's always thought my goals of securing a job at camera or editing for a company was an "unrealistic" goal. Everybody immediately associates video, editing etc with the word "Hollywood," when in fact there are an abundance of jobs doing that kind of stuff in every city and many if not 99% never walk down the red carpet on Oscar night. They make a great living because it is a skill, but are never tied to say Jessica Alba romantically. There is nothing unrealistic about it. And I hate to toot my own horn, but I've been working really hard at this for a very long time. No goal I would like to achieve in that trade is unrealistic, (with the exception of maybe making a short film with very little spare time.)

Then the other day, Mandi shocked me. I had begun to see the light at the end of a long tunnel of mistakes, miscalculations and just plain exhaustion. Ryan and I had decided pushing the film back a month was a good thing and upon a record breaking 10 hour edit and completion of the second wedding of three I had to finish to get back to where I needed to be, I almost felt the film may triumphant after all. My stimulus check came and I already knew it wasn't $600 like it should have been, but a mere $170. Mandi relayed the message to me on the phone at work. I came back with a typical Garrick smart ass joke,"Yehhh! That might be enough to take the family out for a pork dinner." Then Mandi said something I never would have dreamed her saying.

You remember Rocky II when Adrian was all to hell about Rocky fighting Apollo again and then she ends in a coma after giving birth to their son. When she finally comes to she says to Rock, "there's only one thing I want you to do for me.... Win." Then it gets all dramatic as it blasts into his training montage? Well, this moment felt like that for me. After my smart ass comment she said, "One hundred and seventy dollars should be plenty to get the rest of the lumber and paint you need to build the newsstand, shouldn't it?"
I paused shocked, ".... Yeah."

"Well, then you need to get on it."
I smiled. She had been paying more attention than she led on. "Yes maam," I thought. I hung up the phone and Bill Conti's soundtrack of Rocky Training began in my head as I marched back into the office.
I had to make some calls and spend some money. I had a short film to make.