The Aughts (and The Aught-Not- Haves)

Fall 2001

Before I left for North Carolina, I called David Lynch to ask him what was the best piece of advice he had for any director.  He repeated his mantra, “Keep your eye on the donut, not the hole.”  The donut, David explained, is the movie.  The hole is all the other bullshit – the backstabbing, the drama, the agents, the negotiations, all the stuff that pollute your creativity, and if you’re not careful you can get sucked right into it.  “The only thing that matters is the information recorded on those 24 square frames per second.  That’s the donut.  Keep your eye on the donut, not the hole.”  It turned out to be the best advice anyone ever gave me.  In fact, we all used it as a mantra to get us through the shoot.

“I have to figure out how to keep paying my $725/month rent and edit at the same time. I feel bad charging groceries to Mom and Dad. I’m almost 30 and I’m broke and charging groceries to my parents. Who’d want to date that?”

As it turns out, we did start shooting, but we never did get the money we needed.  The Dentists never came through with the $500,000 they promised, and in fact told us at the last minute they would only do it if we cast one of the Dentist’s 19 year old daughter.  That was three days before principal photography.  So Sam Froelich wound up putting in $500,000, up front, which was never his original plan, he just did it on blind faith it would all work out.  It was a nightmare.  One week we even gave the crew their paychecks after the banks closed and then spent the entire night on the phone calling anyone we knew for money, so that we could have it wired by the time they went to cash them the next morning.  The boys from the Union drove down from New York City and even though we were not breaking any rules and were in a right-to-work state, they threatened  crew members in their motel rooms in the middle of the night (that is not an exaggeration, this is what they did) and on day 12 the movie was kaput.  My father, who has pretty much worked every day of his life since he was 8 years old, put a huge chunk of his retirement money, ultimately totaling $110,000, into the movie so we could shoot out our North Carolina locations.  The movie was not complete, but we shot 22 days and limped back to Los Angeles, still in need of another $700,000 to finish.  Not only had I spent all the money I had in my bank account, I was about $10,000 in on my credit cards, and if I lost my father’s retirement money he’d be working into his 80s.  I was happy we got most of the film shot, but we had no money to edit.

A producer/editor friend, George Folsey, helped us work a deal at Big Time Editing facilities where we could cut for a deferred fee and points in the movie, and his son Ryan came on to edit the film.  We all agreed that we’d do whatever we had to in order to pay Ryan, he was the only crew member who’d get any money, because we had to get the movie cut in order to raise the rest of the money.  We often took turns not paying rent so we could pay him, and each time would incur the wrath of our landlord threatening to throw us out of our apartments.   Meanwhile, we kept looking for money, cobbling together the film a little at a time, and then showing it to investors.  I literally had to show a 3/4 completed film, with cards describing the missing scenes, and ask them for the money to finish.  However, once they knew they had us by the balls they’d ask for everything in return, and their money became too expensive.  It was a very, very stressful time, and all the producers developed stress-related health problems in one form or another.  Also, it should be noted, that no distributors had seen the film.  We were making the film with no safety net.  We might never see a penny back, and Sam I later found out had put his house up to put in the rest of the money.  It was a nightmare, and I felt the growing pressure that not only were people potentially going to lose their money on this film, their lives would be ruined in the process.

Journal Entry:  12-2-2001  Sunday night.

Things are getting tight.  Thank God Dad came through with $50,000.  I mean, it just seems unreal.  I can’t believe he actually did that. What happens if I lose it?  I can’t – not an option.  So with Sam’s money we may have $100,000 in the bank tomorrow. I just have to keep editing and hunting down money.

So Bill Mechanic put “The Extra” into turnaround.  He said he wasn’t sure what the tone should be.  That’s kind of frustrating, but what can you do.

Journal Entry:  Friday, December 21^st, 2001

I didn’t hook up at all in North Carolina.  Feast or famine, I guess.  Girls look at me, but I rarely do something about it.  Am I too picky?  I spend a lot of time alone.  I don’t see my friends very often.  I’m having a difficult time reintegrating back into to society.  Or maybe I just use directing as an excuse to be a recluse.  I’m in the editing room 7 days a week.  When I’m not there it’s all I think about. We need that money to finish.  I think I’m going to get it, but first I have to figure out how to keep paying my $725/month rent and edit at the same time. I feel bad charging groceries to Mom and Dad.  I’m almost 30 and I’m broke and charging groceries to my parents. Who’d want to date that?

>>>NEXT: “The whole thing was being held together by duct tape and chewing gum.” (Click here to print.)

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.