The One with a Movie

Hello, Sunshine

Two years ago today, I attended a film premiere. My own film premiere. That's right, I made a movie! An actual movie, not the kind you only watch when you're alone, or the kind you post on Vine, but a real movie.

See?



Good stuff, right?

In case you don't know anything about filmmaking, it's really hard. And I don't say that condescendingly, but most people don't realize the amount of work that goes into a 90 minute film. The number of people needed, the hours and hours and hours put in before a camera is even picked up, the numerous excel spreadsheets, the hundreds of phone calls and meetings, and the paper clips. It's a massive amount of paper clips. Hell, I didn't even realize what it took to make a movie before I made one. Baptism by fire, that's how I roll.

Me, my mohawk, and Jess at the premiere.

It all began how all good ideas do, over a couple of beers. Jess, my best friend/soul sister/brain twin, and I were sitting around talking about all the stupid stuff we've done. We were like, man, our shenanigans would make a good movie, a la Superbad but with chicks, so we got out a pen and paper and started jotting things down. Neither one of us knew how to write a movie, but from that day, we decided to learn.

My favorite shot. Took six hours to get because the sun wasn't cooperating. 

Jess and I met in journalism class in high school so we knew how to write, but a screenplay was a whole new beast for us. We took classes, read books, joined writing circles, the whole shebang. Eventually we completed it. Then we wrote another, and another, and another, thinking one of these bad boys had to hit. Someone had to want one of our ideas! Someone? Anyone?

Jess, me as a zombie, and Bennet, our sound guy.

We tried the query thing, we tried the LA thing, we even tried the stalk Adam Sandler thing cause he makes crappy movies all the time, but none of it worked. So, in the fall of 2012, we decided to open our own film company, Tinker Films. I started writing Just Like We Used To Do in the middle of the night on a random Wednesday, sent the first ten pages to Jess, and she emailed me the next day with, "This is it. This is the one we're making."

So we did. But how when we knew nothing about making a movie? Google, of course.

The car that broke down no less than 3 times on set. 

We pulled our resources, raised some money on Kickstarter, turned on the Bat Signal for talent, and voila, we had a movie. From start to finish, it took a cast of about twenty people, a crew of about thirty, thirteen days, and one broke down Chrysler to make it all happen. I slept, like, ten hours total for those two weeks, but it was one of the most fun experiences of my life. It was also the most stressful, and literal blood, sweat, and tears were shed to get it done. But I couldn't be more proud. It's a film about someone who is very close to my heart, and it may not be worth millions or star JLaw, but I think for a budget of shoestrings and hot dogs, it's pretty damn good. I'd like to think I'm the female version of Ed Burns...or, ya know, someone just as cool but with a lot less money.

We've since signed with a film sales agent, and we're hoping to have our little film out there somewhere, maybe Netflix or on your next JetBlue flight. Either way, you can watch it now. So, go ahead, what are you waiting for?

 

I'm officially a triple threat: writer, director, producer. Just call me James Franco.

#seriouslycallmeFranco
Suz