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PRE-PRODUCTION JOURNAL
BETTER THAN A SHARP STICK IN THE EYE 8/02/00 One advantage to not actually making a film is the chance to spend time with the family. When we made Cherry, I thought it would be great working in New York for a change and sleeping in my own bed at night. Well, the practical reality is that when we are in production, the entire rest of the world becomes vague and distant -- a fond but hazy memory. Almost every day of production I left my house at 6 AM and returned at 11 PM. Eventually, Jon and I took to sleeping on the Muffin Shop set in Hoboken. Pathetic and obsessive, but it meant that a precious two hours of sleep was not consumed by travel time. So much for seeing the wife & kids during production. Anyway, this is a long way of saying that I have seized this precious opportunity to vacation with my little family unit, which explains the long lapse between this and the previous entry. . Here's the update: On the location front, we have decided to film in San Antonio after all. While there were not any additional concessions made by the SAPD, we were finally swayed by the enormous amount of enthusiasm within the San Antonio film community for our project. I spent most of my early years in this business as a PA on the streets of New York attempting to cajole pedestrians to the other side of the street and later, as a location manager, trying to convince homeowners that we were in fact a responsible production and would not ruin their house like the last film company inevitably did. I am, therefore, looking forward to filming in a city that is not jaded by four thousand episodes of Law & Order disrupting their parking routines. While some other city may have made more concessions, none has worked harder than San Antonio to address our concerns, all the way from the Film Commission to individuals with nothing to gain but the satisfaction of seeing San Antonio thrive as a filmmaking destination. We look forward to making them wish we'd picked Baton Rouge! On the financing side, Jon's LA trip resulted in two companies expressing serious interest in co-financing EvenHand. We heard from one yesterday, and what could have been a five minute "Thanks for thinking of us, but..." ended up being a 20 minute conversation about how we might work together. Jon also snagged an influential and extremely enthusiastic partner for In the Pines, which makes that project look viable as well. All in all, it's a damn sight better than that sharp stick. - Joseph Pierson
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