The Grail Is At Hand!

Okay, HOW stoked AM I!!!

I've been bangin my head against a wall for some 14 years now, trying to figure out how to get people to pay me to do what I already do for free -- namely, write movies and make movies.

This past week I finally figured out what I was doing wrong...

I've been trying to figure out how to contact the people who have the money to risk in an indpendant feature film. Which is a dificult thing to do since I don't know WHO those people are!

But then I was reading an article in... What was it? OH! It was on the Highland Myst Productions website. And it was about their business team. And I realized that there are some people in the world who enjoy making deals as much as we enjoy making movies. THESE are the people I need to be seeking out! Because these are the people who know who has the money to invest, and what it is they're most interested in investing in.

That's what these people DO! They spend as much time cultivating contacts and revising business strategy as I spend nourishing my understanding of what makes movies great and revising my understanding of story structure. Ted Elliot and Ted Rossio have said on their website Wordplay that we should become screenwriting EXPERTS.

Well...

There are people who devote their time to becoming experts at getting a movie rolling!

So I desperately email my friend Kelly, begging him to tell me how to find one of these experts. He's in Hollywood, that's where the money is -- or at least, the people who know how to get at money for that particular purpose.

It was a long conversation, and Kelly told me everything I need to know to get started!!!

First step, natch, write a fantastic screenplay.

NO PROBLEM!!!

I'm sorry if that seems arrogant, and please believe that it doesn't come from some misguided belief that I myself am some master screenwriter. This confidence comes from the belief in the AMAZING TEAM, of which I am a grateful part!!!

After some of the initial responses for the short we're gearing up to shoot, I'd say that Brian and Tommy and I are the top of our game!!! I'm really proud of the script, but mostly I'm proud at the ideas that make the script a fun read -- most of which, I'm not at all ashamed to admit, came from Brian and Tommy!!! All I really did was find a way to make them work in a single story, and to make sure folks didn't doze off while reading that story :)

So this has been an EXCITING weekend for Ray Jay!!! It's like like running a long-distance race, seing the finish line ahead, and then lloking back to see that everyone is half a mile behind you and losing steam! All I have to do is keep running and I'll win!

But don't get me wrong, I'm sweating buckets and my legs feel like they're about to give out.

I mean, not really. I was extending the metaphor, but it looks like I may have stretched it out so it doesn't fit anymore.

I mean that there is still work to be done before the big First Deal is struck. Like, we need to write a GREAT movie that can be shot for a really small budget.

But like I said, we're in a groove!!!

2006 isn't following the plan I laid out for it at the beginning of the year, but I like the plan it laid out for me a GREAT DEAL better :D

And I hope things are going twice as good for anyone reading this!!!