xtcian

flame-retardant bridges

10/9/05

Over the last year or so, I've avoided talking about The Pink House movie for a variety of emotional reasons. Folks who have read this thing since 2002 - which is probably my family, three friends and the FBI - will recall that fully a third of my entries used to do with post-production on the film. I've gone on about reshoots, the screening of the rough cut, and even when we were utterly betrayed.

The last of these three proved almost impossible to overcome: Tessa and I had spent so much emotional energy by then that "getting back up on the horse" never happened the way we would have liked. Some wounds are too deep, and sometimes you really do wait for a savior that never comes.

I bring this up because the movie Waiting... came out on Friday (if you've been watching "My Name is Earl" or Comedy Central lately, you've seen the ads) and writer/director Rob McKittrick has been keeping a tell-all blog about the various people that helped him and tried to destroy him along the way.

Here was a guy with zero connections who went from being a waiter at TGIFriday's in Orlando to making a real film with Hollywood backing. If you've got 15 minutes, start from the beginning of his blog and read all the way through, because I've never seen a more honest account - and outright name-calling of those who probably deserved it - in the history of indie film. Sure, you've seen exposés of celebrities and directors long after their careers are assured, but Rob is just starting out, and his honesty is the sort of thing every agent in Hollywood would BEG him not to put in a blog.

Perhaps this video of him fighting with Luis Guzman might whet your appetite. [Scratch that: we met Vanessa Lengies today, and she said it was a prank. We didn't believe her at first, but she was right! -mod.]

God knows when it came to the Pink House movie I kept my mouth shut. I could say things about certain actors, certain members of the crew, and a particular demon that would have you enrapt, but we were always so afraid, so worried that it would all come back to haunt us. That some producer at a big studio would get wind of my attitude, and it would be just enough to make them say "forget it."

As it was, we never exactly finished the film the way I wanted it. We ran out of funds $30K short of our goal, and it was just too much. After a screening of the movie in front of some friends and family down in Tribeca - yes, the one YOU attended - we made some massive editing changes and tightened it up. After a screening in Chapel Hill where students got to give notes (along with laughing a lot, I might add), we did one more big tweak and sent our impossibly-long-gestated baby to a bunch of festivals for this winter and next spring.

We've foregone the festivals on everyone's lips (Sundance, Toronto, etc.) because we just don't have the production machine or feature-film connections to be even remotely in the running. Instead, we've chosen smaller festivals in towns we love, towns we want to visit, and towns that contain people that we adore. We think we could have a great time with our little indie comedy, and maybe close that chapter of our lives with an award from somewhere delightful. Possibly even see it on Comedy Central one day. Or just put those lessons learned in the back of our brains to use again, possibly sooner than we expect.

And "Waiting..." by Rob McKittrick? The tiny film he had worked on since 1997? Blew expectations out of the water this weekend by grossing $5.7 million with an average of $3,450 a theater. All without holding his tongue.

funny candid of Tessa and me, first Pink House shoot, 2001