Production Journal: "LOVE IS DEAF" -- Entry 4

Candle Fish Pictures is pleased to add a new Executive Producer to "LOVE IS DEAF": my mother! She just called to tell me she wants to give me $1,000 toward the budget of "LOVE IS DEAF." I should also point out this act of generosity comes without my even asking for a contribution. Thanks Mom!

So now that makes two executive producers, my mom and my wife, Angelyn. For those of you who don't know, Angelyn works full-time to support my film pursuits, so technically, it's all her money. I have thoughtlessly failed to give her that credit on my projects up to this point, giving her instead a "special thanks" (though I'm going to go back in and add it to the projection copy of "NAKED" before I send it to the Florida Film Festival).

Anyway, before my mother's contribution, I was $595 short of my budgeted $2189 (not including the added cost of the generator). See, I had planned to sell my XL1s on eBay, and indeed did sell it for $2,200, only to have the winning bidder back out after a month went by. Now, I've been trying to get one of the losing bidders to buy it, but that hasn't worked. I'll just have to relist it, I guess. Chances of having that money before we shoot, however, are slim.

So that brings me to my next dilemma. Do I use this extra contribution to fill in the gaps or to add production value? I need to talk to Alix about whether in the best of all worlds she'd ask for a bigger generator and more lights. Now, I don't want to go all out on this film, I'll admit. Something just this side of "artsy" is an okay look for me. It's "MELISSA WITH A HEART AROUND IT" I want to splurge on. But even that being said, it's a waste of the money I'm already spending if the film isn't going to look good enough to play festivals. So if an extra couple hundred bucks would make the difference between BLAIR WITCH and Fellini, I'd spend it.