April ~ May

I shouldn't make excuses, but April was so packed there wasn't time to think about blogging.  In the first week I was preparing to leave for LA to do the screening of Distant Location in Newhall for the cast and crew.  Linda Simeone flew up to help me drive back as I have developed a condition called PMR or Polymyalgia Rheumatica.  At that time I was trying to get off Prednisone so I could think clearly.  The doctor put me on Meloxicam.  It didn't work and I was in pain most of the time I was in LA.  Aside from all the personal stuff, the screening went well, and we are now in the process of cleaning up the clearance issues and finding ways of selling Distant Location.

Sue Upperco was so kind to let me stay at her beautiful apartment in Canyon Country while we worked through the screening.  Rachel Arno and Linda Simeone the other producers came over the Friday before and we scrubbed the timeline even more.  Rachel is an excellent editor and has a natural instinct about how to fix things.  Linda organized the food and Sue took care of the tickets and people coming in the door.  I believe we had between 75 and 80 people and everybody loved the rough cut.  The only criticism was the Ice Cream scene, which is easily fixed.

When I got back on April 10 the challenge was getting all the materials together to submit the movie to Women in Film for finishing funds.  They wanted a complete budget and financial plan.  I haven't done anything like that since I was in business school 20 years ago.  Linda agreed to write the one page synopsis and do the principal bios for the package and I tried to figure out where exactly we were going to market the film.  Finally on April 25th I burned the four required copies and sent it off to be in their office by April 29th.  I should be getting the certified receipt back any day now.

In the meantime, I've been building a fence around the back yard and planning a vegetable garden.  I'm hoping that the fresh juices will cure me of this PMR thing faster and I can start cutting back on the Prednisone.  Today I'm pouring concrete around the posts and gluing down the Gothic post caps. The gate is finally finished and I have two cedar bunnies which I will secure place on it today as well.  The kale will have plenty of time to mature if I get it in this week.

Luciana Lagana purchased an online press kit which looks pretty nice.  I'll look into more of that type of thing.  It was very nice of her to use it for Distant Location and it will be interesting to see just what type of advertising and marketing you get for that kind of money.  It may end up being one of our best sources of getting the word out.