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Watch the 24 minute featurette on the DVD "Summer Rain
Hits Hollywood"
THE
NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL in LOS ANGELES |
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September
17th Wednesday 2003 |
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I
flew out on Virgin Atlantic thanks to a hostess friend of mine getting
me my otherwise very expensive ticket half price. On the eleven
hour flight I had plenty of time to contemplate what had brought
me to be 37,000 feet in the air en route to the dream factory.
Despite its humble origins Summer Rain had turned out to be an epic production that had taken complete control of eight years of my life. Yet, despite all the difficulties it had been well received and given me a fantastic year traveling to Savannah, Rome, Connecticut, New York and now L.A. Of course, this was also the film’s final screening on the festival circuit – what better ending could there be to this story than to have my film have its Hollywood premiere, with seven international awards, three nominations under its belt and to have the director attending thanks to a grant from Screen South. Surely, I thought, this would have to have the dream ending – a Hollywood career. In order to make this dream a reality I knew that lots more work would have to be done. So, I spent six weeks data-basing the three volumes of the 2002 Hollywood Creative Directories; I had the names of Producers, Agents and Distributors at my disposal. I had 5000 invitations printed up. I ordered 2000 envelopes and paperclips, bought over 5 cartridges of ink for my supporting letters, 5 reams of paper were used. Day by day, I printed letterheads, supporting letters and envelopes. Day by day, posting 300 at a time to L.A – But rapidly running out of time. I used UPS to courier 500 invitations to L.A on September 16th on a three day service. I also signed up to www.evite.com which is an e-mail invitation service which tracks rsvps, acceptances and declines. Through this service I invited 1000 people. On the evening of September 16th I continued to print envelopes, supporting letters and fold and seal them with the invitations. I enlisted the help of my mother, actor Charlie Watts (Michael in Summer Rain) who was staying with me as he was in Brighton on tour with ‘Vincent in Brixton’, and actor Simon Paul (Paul in Summer Rain). Until approximately 3 am, they slaved folding, sealing and paper-clipping. My suitcase was stacked with thousands of spare invitations and hundreds of envelopes ready to be posted once I was in L.A. After about two hours sleep – Charlie drove me to Heathrow (from Brighton). So by the time I was on the plane, I was confident that I had given myself and my film a pretty decent shot at securing an audience and a Hollywood career. I had spent everything I had, over a thousand pounds on 1000 e-mail invitations, 2000 hard copy invitations, all sent out to fill the Laemmle Fairfax Cinema in West Hollywood which had 179 seats. I mean, it’s an award winning, British, romantic comedy – who wouldn’t want to be there? Sadly, due to my own stupidity, immaturity, non-commital and selfishness - I had split up with my wonderful girlfriend in June (who had accompanied me to Savannah and Rome) and I had hoped that by throwing myself into the preparations for the Hollywood screening I would find my own happy ending. The week before I left I’d sent her a card of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton; inside my message read: “They gave each other five or six opportunities to get it right… I just need one chance. Let’s talk and go out to dinner when I get back from the states.” She didn’t respond. A week later at the airport I text her: “I’m about to board the plane for Hollywood, I wish you were with me. Why don’t you jump on a plane and come?” I’m nothing but optimistic. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t respond. So, I was hoping that this trip to America might result in a career for myself, and that the time I was to be there (3 weeks) might help soften my personal situation. On the plane I mostly slept. Whereas Charlie had to drive back from Heathrow to Brighton on two hours sleep. I hoped that he didn’t crash my car as I looked out onto the vast landscape of America beneath me. Flying over the deserts of Utah, Arizona, Nevada and into California you realize just how huge America is, the Salt Lake is a mere puddle in the epic vista before me. Blue skies and deserts. The overwhelming colour scheme as we approach Los Angeles is beige. Then as we approach Los Angeles you can spy the Golf courses, they are the oasis of greenery amidst the beige. Blue kidney swimming pools glittered in the sun. Then the grid starts. Los Angeles is hundreds of miles wide and long and is basically a flat grid of one story buildings surrounded by endless freeways in every direction, for hundreds of miles, until you hit the coast. From the air it looks like a monument to the stupidity and self-destructiveness of man… and how I wish I had shares in concrete. After the perfect landing we disembarked; the other passengers and I wearily stumbled onto U.S soil. Walking down the gang-plank I saw a beautiful looking black dog, with an armed Customs Officer. I smiled at the dog and walked past onto the downwards escalators. As I yawned on the journey down I heard a patter of feet coming towards me, I turned to find the dog enthusiastically settling behind me so I stroked it and said “What a beautiful dog” to the Officer, who nodded as he spoke into his handset. At the bottom of the escalator he slapped his hand on my shoulder and asked me to step aside and wait. Obviously this made me a little nervous. Why would he want me to step aside? Because I liked his dog? A Female Officer turned up and asked me to accompany her to U.S Customs. As I followed her I was aware of the other passengers now eyeing me suspiciously and the dog handler’s suspicious gaze as I was led through a priority channel to Customs. |
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JONATHAN JONATHAN I was then introduced to the mustachioed, balding Officer who would search my luggage. As he set about my hand luggage I was asked another set of questions:- CUSTOMS
OFFICER |
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Obviously
the search of my hand luggage yielded nothing but several hundred
invitations to my film screening, and a couple of hundred envelopes
ready to be posted. Both of which proved to be fascinating to the
Officer as I explained I had a movie screening in a week in Hollywood.
He wished me luck as I invited him and the entire U.S Customs team
at L.A.X to the film. By this time I think he could tell that I
was entirely innocent and he started the search of my main luggage.
Before he opened it I warned him, “Be careful, as soon as
you open that case approximately 1000 envelopes and 2000 invitations
will just fall out.” He nodded disbelievingly.
1000 envelopes and 2000 invitations flooded out across the airport counters. He raised his eyebrows at me and I managed not to say “I told you so” (after all, he’s armed). My only fear was that he might want to actually look in the envelopes just to make sure I wasn’t ingratiating myself to the powers of Hollywood by sending them drugs through the post…. Luckily he didn’t so the 1000 envelopes remained intact and useable. I helped him repack my bag, scooping up the thousands of fliers. The dog handler kept eyeing me suspiciously obviously wanting me to be guilty, to prove his dog was never wrong. Every now and then he would chip into the search with “Check his heels” and “Check his belt” – but the searching officer ignored him. Finally, he looked at my hand luggage again. “I’m just wondering what set the dog off”. He said as he sniffed my pencil sharpener. Then he took out a Mars Bar from the side pocket. He held it in his hand and considered it for a moment and looked at me, his eyebrows raised again as he nodded, “This could be it.” Slightly
later than expected, I wheeled my bags out into the foyer of L.A.X
where I was met by my friend (and host) ANDY HURST. He is a former
Brighton resident and film-maker who I met in about 1990. Andy was
the camera operator on my first 16mm short film ROADSIDE. Andy grew
up making films with his friends in a collective called ‘New
Blood’. Originally it was Andy with his brother Mike with
Robin and Daniel Hill. After a few video shorts of varying quality
they had undertaken to make a video feature film. The first effort
which I helped direct was called the ‘THE DEBT COLLECTOR”
– that was never finished and is only notable in that it was
the first time I worked with actress Daisy Beaumont – who
went onto have a successful career and cameoed in my short THE PERFECT
MURDER as well as appear in Summer Rain. |
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Arriving at Andy’s home in West L.A, I was taken aback that here was a quiet residential street, with trees, grass verges and Spanish style housing and yet it was only a turning away from the three lane highways that criss-cross and suffocate L.A. |
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After a couple of hours of rest Andy took me
into Hollywood, a twenty minute drive, and I was predictably like
a wide-eyed tourist. Parking under the Kodak Theatre (where the
Oscar’s are held) I was amazed by the amount of employee’s
needed to point the way for parking patrons, also with the option
of valet parking.
Stepping out onto the Hollywood boulevard I was immersed into the crazy buzz of L.A. There really was energy in the air, an excitement and across the road there was indeed a premiere going on for Sharon Stone’s new movie “Cold Creek Manor” directed by Mike Figgis and starring Dennis Quaid. The crowds were screaming as the guests arrived and there was a seemingly endless supply of cameramen jostling for position. I looked down beneath my feet and smiled:- |
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As
a hip film director, I know I’m supposed to say my influences
are Trauffaut, Godard, Renoir and Scorcese but I can’t deny
that my love of cinema, like countless other film-makers of my generation
was because of this man – Steven Spielberg. I
was on the Hollywood walk of fame. Apparently it costs the celebrity
$3000 to have the star put on the side-walk so I was confused as
to why Harrison Ford wanted two. On
this quick jaunt through Hollywood Andy took me to see the legendary
celebrity hand prints outside of Mann’s Chinese Theatre. |
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September
18th Thursday 2003 |
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My
sleep was erratic, my body clock confused and heart was broken.
So I got up early and started to unpack and sort the invitations
and envelopes that I had bought with me. I was disappointed to find
that the parcel of 350 envelopes that I had sent on a UPS service
didn’t arrive; ah well, they still had a day or two as I booked
it on a three day service.
Andy and his girlfriend Zaki had already sent many of the envelopes that I had previously posted to him, but there were still a few hundred to go. I started to sort them and realized I needed to go to the post office again. I gave Andy the $250 I already owed him in postage and sat down to stick on more stamps to my VIP envelopes. Andy gave me a lift to Santa Monica via Nakatomi Plaza…. I mean the Fox Building that doubled for Nakatomi Plaza. “Gentlemen, you wanted miracles; I give you the F.B.I” To quote Alan Rickman in Die Hard. |
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Yet,
my first experience of Santa Monica was to stand in the post office
queue for 45 minutes. The U.S Mail service is awful. This is not
a debatable sentence. During my stay I went to the post office many
times and each time I found the experience to be tediously long,
boring, frustrating and a bizarre contrary glimpse of America. Every
other public service in America seems to demand exceptionally high
standards…. Except the post office where there is a sign that
says “The customer always comes first, last and always.”
By that I think they mean the customer arrives before the staff
and waits forever.
Even in this queue you couldn’t escape Hollywood. A mobile phone went off in the queue. “Hi, no he’s at Fox now…. I’ll be at Paramount this afternoon… no he’s young but very talented, he should direct.” So I held out my invitations very openly and asked the Mailman: “Can I have $350 worth of stamps please so I can send out the invitations to my feature film premiere?” Sadly, whoever it was in the queue with me didn’t use that as an opportunity to ask for an invite and sign me up. |
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In
Barnes & Noble bookshop I saw a notebook journal which I thought
would be good to write notes in but I didn’t buy anything,
fearful that I was only on day one of my trip and I had already
parted with over $500.
Dropping me off at home in West L.A, Andy went to work at Sandstorm Entertainment. Whilst he was gone, I started to stamp and collate the envelopes and invitations ready for posting. |
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That
afternoon I checked my email and I received a ‘Good luck’
note from Ray Adnett at Deluxe labs, which encouraged me. It’s
funny how simple gestures can hearten you. Don Haber, an Executive
Director at Bafta LA sent me an email confirming that my films details
had been added to the Bafta LA website thus hopefully encouraging
members to attend the screening, now less than a week away.
www.baftala.org
I had only met Annameka Porter-Sinclair twice briefly, but she emailed me that she was asking some of her friends, who were L.A Agents and friends at Paramount to attend the screening. I had no idea she moved in those circles. There was an email from Summer Rain’s co-writer Chris Rieley. Sadly, he couldn’t afford the air fare over to L.A so he was declining the opportunity to watch the film in Hollywood; sad, but a reality of being a British independent film maker. That night Andy and I, with a couple of his colleagues from Sandstorm, went to the opening night party of the film festival. We arrived late at the Wyndham Belage Hotel, 1020 N.San Vicente Blvd, W.Hollywood – Just off Sunset Blvd. The event was in full swing, but it was less of a party and more of a film market similar to the basement of the Palais in Cannes. Many of the film-makers had hired at great cost ‘booths’ (or as I would call them ‘tables’) from the festival to publicize their films. Posters, fliers, and DVD players were at each booth screening either the trailer or in some cases, the actual film. The film-makers were doing their best to drum up interest and an audience. I’m not sure how effective having a booth would be as the only guests, as far as I could tell, at this party were other film-makers like myself who were only selfishly interested in generating an audience for their own film. The film festivals publicity assured us that acquisition executives would be at the party from HBO Films, Paramount Classics. Paramount TV Distribution, 20th Century Fox, Miramax, MGM, Jerry Bruckheimer, Artisan, United Artists. Acme, Greene Street, Warner Brothers to name a few but I didn’t meet them. I started handing out fliers for my film but found it hard to generate the enthusiasm to just market it to other film-makers. I laid out the sticks of rock, the fliers and schmoozed for England. |
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I
offered Sean a stick of Summer Rain rock which he declined, I think
food stuff’s that he can’t identify are not to be accepted
as a general rule. I invited him to the Summer Rain screening and
was given an answer that was to become like a recurring theme throughout
my trip “I think I’m out of town then.” Other than meeting a composer now producer MARC ARAMIAN, www.aramian.com whowas a fan of Summer Rain when he saw it in London at Raindance 2000, I found the opening night party quite depressing, film makers trying to flog their films to other film makers. The standard line is “If you come to mine, I’ll come to yours”, a blatant lie as I often loyally followed up on my promise only to have none of the film-makers return the favor; heartbreaking and not really a route to an audience or industry success. I met one producer there called Steve Lustgarten. I pitched the movie, we exchanged cards and I decided to leave and catch up with Andy, who by then had retreated to a bar on Sunset. I really needed a drink too and entered the bar, to find many of the film makers I had just met also recovering over a beer. Andy and I contemplated the evening back at his home, playing PS2 FIFA World Cup 2002 on his giant 5ft x 4ft TV late into the night. Our conclusion – Only independent film makers watch independent films, and usually, only their own. |
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September
19th Friday 2003 |
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The
final box of envelopes still didn’t arrive via UPS, whilst
I waited I checked my email.
RSVP’s were finally beginning to arrive on www.evite.com from the VIP invite list. However, despite the fact that my invite says quite clearly to confirm your free passes to the Summer Rain screening the guest had to fax Rachel Kate Miller at the NYIIFVF, I knew they probably wouldn’t. They would assume that by their rsvp to me they had done so. This left me trying to work out from some very abstract email addresses, which was coming to the screening and then having to email Rachel in New York with my vip guest list. So on this first day, we established that Fountain Pictures, Harmony Gold and Tomorrow Films were coming. Rachel also sent me this:- “Jon, Can you please explain to me who Adrian O’Donnell is and how the: Department of Rehabilitation and Post Acute Care Administration, qualifies as "industry professional" and thus should allow me to give them comp tickets. If they want to see your film, great! Fabulous! Tickets can be purchased at ticketweb.com” Fair cop. Adrian is a friend of mine, a British actor who lives in Santa Monica with his wife. He innocently wanted a free pass. So I replied – “The Department of Rehabilitation and Post Acute Care Administration has a five picture deal with Dreamworks. Honest!” Rachel:- I do hope you get an 8 picture deal, but I thought the Re-Habilitation place signed one with Miramax, not DreamWorks, oh well... what can you do? Adrian got his free ticket. Anyway, he is quite close with British producer John Daly of MIRACLE whose credits include PLATOON, THE LAST EMPEROR and TERMINATOR amongst others. There was also an invitation to meet Simon Graham-Clare, the Executive Assistant to the Director at the British Film Office in Los Angeles. www.britfilmusa.com Matt Henderson at Seventh Art Releasing, sent me an email asking for a screening vhs as no one would be available to attend the screening. Fortunately, I had brought 10 ntsc vhs’s with me. There was also an e-mail from producer MAURICE SMITH in Vancouver. He confirmed that he would shortly be in Los Angeles as one of his two actor sons was picking up an award for his work in the Warner Brothers series EVERWOOD, so we could meet. I had previously met Maurice at a Davenport Lyons party a year or two earlier in London and had initiated conversations around a thriller script called HUNT FOR THE DEVIL. Yet, nothing had as yet come of it. Unexpectedly
Chris Rieley now announced that he was indeed coming to L.A for
the screening and had somehow secured the cash which was excellent
news. From www.evite.com I did my best to work out who was coming for Rachel to arrange the free passes. The guest list looked like this for the moment:
Amongst these acceptances was one from Colin Chapman at Sonic Trax. Another Brit was on his way to Hollywood. Colin Chapman edited my first three award winning short films ROADSIDE, THE PERFECT MURDER and LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI. So the acceptance list on just the e-mail invitations on evite was looking quite promising. I wondered how effective the hard copy invitations were going to be and when would I get my first responses from those? Steve Lustgarten whom I met at the opening night party got in touch to say that he’d love to meet me again to talk about the film industry and future projects, but sadly he’d be “out of town” when Summer Rain screened. After the comprehensive session on Andy’s computer it was time to go to the Post Office and face the massive queue again. After an hour long wait the envelopes were on their way to their VIP destinations. I kept walking on Pico and picked up my rental car from Enterprise. For some reason the economy car that I had booked was not available so I had to have the only model they had in the shop. A massive PICK UP TRUCK! |
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I
suddenly had the urge to get a six pack, surf board and go to the
beach and pick up some bikini clad girls and sing Beach Boy tunes…
dude. Luckily I found the L.A soft rock station on the radio and
cruised on the freeway to Santa Monica singing Beach Boy hits and
endless Carpenters songs, interrupted only by Hotel California by
the Eagles. Yes, I found time warp radio and I loved it.
In the Santa Monica Kinko’s I approved the test strip on the poster and went shopping in Barnes and Noble where I bought myself a journal and a pink, sequined notebook for my ex. I thought that maybe a love letter might help explain a few things and make her look back fondly at me and maybe… just maybe… she might change her mind. So I started writing in it every day, a diary of my trip and feelings for her. In the evening I parked my truck outside of CBS main Hollywood Studios and went to the Laemmle Fairfax Cinema, home of the NYIIFVF. A crowd was gathering in the lobby to watch the 8:10pm screening of EVERYTHINGS WONDERFUL – the film with the Ron Jeremy cameo. Directed by Skip Shwink. 88 minutes. Comedy. |
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Yet,
all in all the film felt a bit pointless. It was yet another film
that probably could not have, and would not have, existed without
Kevin Smith’s CLERKS, which is still the bench mark by which
to measure hyper low budget independent films about slackers wasting
their lives and trying to fulfill their lives. As much as I enjoyed
the film it wasn’t CLERKS. I asked Skip to come to the Summer
Rain screening on Wednesday, he told me that as he was now moving
to Los Angeles he’d be “out of town” that day
as he was getting his stuff. He was moving to L.A as Everything’s
Wonderful had been so well received that he now had a number of
projects in ‘development’. “Well done” I
said as I shook his hand, bitterly thinking “Will anyone be
IN TOWN when my film’s on?” Flashing my VIP pass about I stayed in the 175 seater theatre to watch the next film at 10:10 pm, GRINDHOUSE. "Directed by Stephen A. Tramontana. 106 mins. Horror. Set during a second Great Depression, Grindhouse is the story of the Messik Brothers, two down on their luck mechanics who have taken to kidnapping and extortion to get by. When a kidnapping goes wrong, they make a desperate attempt to stay alive for the night and figure out that the creepy things don’t always come out after sundown." I
really wanted this film to be good. I loved the premise and thought
it held out a lot of promise. I was instantly disappointed. It
was on video again, not in itself a crime but the execution was.
There seems to be a misunderstanding amongst ‘indy’
film makers that they think the instantaneous nature of video
means they should make their films from the hip whereas they should
take just as much time lighting and executing their film just
as though it was being shot on 35mm. This film was badly lit and
poorly filmed, I just wanted to scream “BUY A TRIPOD!”
I got so frustrated by the poor sound and technicalities that
despite the promise of the story by the end of the first twenty
minutes I had had enough and left the cinema. |
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September
20th Saturday 2003 |
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After
watching a Man Utd match live on Fox it was time to exchange my
pick up truck for the less silly Ford Focus. It was easier to park,
drive and cheaper to fill up at $16 for the entire tank. I drove
it to the Wyndham Belage Hotel and parked on the N.San Vincente
Blvd hill, remembering to turn my wheels to the curb (a law, to
prevent cars rolling down the hills in case of earthquake). I was
there to attend the first seminar of the festival:-
Saturday,
September 20th--"Directing Actors" 10:30am-12:00pm |
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After
a huge pizza on Sunset Blvd, I returned to Andy’s to check
my e-mail and the progress of the invitations. Not much to report
other than an actress I met at the Director’s View Film Festival
in Connecticut, Shawna Casey, said she’d come to the Summer
Rain screening on Wednesday with her husband.
At the Laemmle Fairfax that evening I started to lay out the first batch of Summer Rain fliers and rock. True to form, the Americans looked at the Brighton rock with confused bemusement and looked at the artwork with mild indifference – after all the lobby of the cinema is usually just filled with relations of the local film-makers only interested in one film and one film only. Am I sounding cynical? 6:10 pm ALMOST AMISH. Alanna Bowers, dir. Experimental Comedy. Almost Amish is a medley of liberal ideologies. Legalization of marijuana and Winnie the Pooh’s sexual nature are candidly revealed in this honest, jubilant, tender and spirited celebration of life. NYIIFVF AWARD WINNER. Thankfully it was only 9 minutes long. Hilariously it feature the film-maker stoned giving a message to the president and her little lap dog shagging a Winnie the Pooh. A good film - Debatable. Funny – Yes. SCORE!: Sara Hyoun & Cecilia Hyoun, dir. 80 min. Comedy/Romance. Reva Joy is the cutest twenty-something bowler seeking perfection in Los Angeles. With her size three bowling shoes, this Korean American hipster seeks the perfect score on and off the alley, while her friends seek the perfect men (with the perfect parts). Dating has never been so full of premature-ejaculating men, videogame-playing boys, and frank discussions on the manliest protrusions! (co-starring Jason Rush). |
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Outpatient
was undoubtedly very good and refreshingly it was presented on a
35mm print. The cinematography was excellent and technically it
certainly was in a class above everything else that I had seen.
The acting was universally very good and the direction was superb.
The only draw back with the film was that I felt that it was too
painfully ‘artful’. The makers were so intent on making
a ‘serious’ and ‘proper’ film that they
left their sense of humor behind and that removes ‘humanity’
and reality from a film. In trying so hard to make the film have
‘integrity’ they drowned it a certain artifice. In some
respects the art-house slow pace of the film was a fault of its
own choosing, I felt the editor should have picked up the pace at
times rather than let it wallow in its own ‘art’. However,
I am being very hard on what was otherwise a superb, truly independent
feature film.
That night Andy beat me at playstation FIFA – again. |
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September
21st Sunday 2003 |
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After
watching an Arsenal match on Fox it was time to nip over to the
Wyndham Belage hotel again for:-
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I
invited Rob to my movie and he said that “He was out of town”
taking a seminar. However, he was so impressed by the list of awards
on the invitation he recommended that I send my latest script to
an agent called Phillipa Burgess at Mason who regularly supports
young writing talent. I liked Rob.
Back at the ranch, I checked my email. Steve Lustgarten had replied that I should meet him tomorrow. Chris Rieley wrote and said he was actually coming to the screening! There was also a very fast response from Phillipa Burgess at MBL requesting to read TSAVO, my new script. There was also an email from the Manager of the football team that I play for in Brighton, Queens Park Ravers. Because I was in L.A I had missed the opening match of our season and as a ‘star’ striker I was disappointed not to be there; especially as I had bought the entire squad a new strip. The good news was that the team had won 5 – 1 against Big Love. The bad news was that they managed to win without me. It was lucky that none of the films screening that day at the festival appealed to me as I got a desperate phone call from Charlie Watts. He had arrived at LAX – a day earlier than he expected to (I don’t understand either) – so his host who was going to collect him was still in San Francisco for the weekend. I was pleased to collect Charlie who had become one of my best friends since he acted in Summer Rain. Charlie was touring as ‘Sam’ in the national tour of VINCENT IN BRIXTON, but by a bizarre quirk of positive fate, there was an unexpected week off in the run which co-incided with Summer Rain’s screening in L.A. I managed to convince Charlie that if there was ever a time for an actor to go to L.A, it was when he had a feature film screening. So £550 lighter (for the air ticket) Charlie arrived, tired and wondering where his ride was. I greeted him with the first thing that was on my mind: ”Where did you park my car? In a residents bay?” We returned to Andy’s and played FIFA before dinner at a Cuban diner which had a signed photo on the wall of ‘Cuban Gooding Jnr – see what he did? Oh. After wandering
aimlessly around Hollywood and Manns Chinese Theatres handprints
again, I drove Charlie through Hollywood up to the hills. I still
I didn’t see the famous landmark sign, even though he was
staying with friends close by. The house was large and beautiful,
belonging to his friend JOANNA CLARE SCOTT. Joanna was at the
Mountview drama school with Charlie before getting married and
turning her hand to writing and producing. |
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September
22nd Monday 2003 |
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I
drove to Van Nuys in the Valley to meet STEVE LUSTGARTEN of LEO
FILMS at his home. He was the producer and distributor that I met
at the festival’s opening night party. |
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For
example my producer IVAN CLEMENTS suggested to me that we make my
script FLAKE CITY as a ‘guerilla film’ for as little
as possible. For a moment my enthusiasm to make a film overwhelmed
me and I said ‘yes’ – but with sober thought the
conclusion is ‘what’s the point?’. If no one famous
is in it the film doesn’t stand much chance of distribution,
so we would have suffered the process of a low budget film just
to have film festival screenings and no income; pretty much the
Summer Rain story. As I’m not prepared to spend another eight
years of my life trying to make one film with no income I think
the ‘guerilla’ option is a no-no. I don’t want
to make low budget films that aren’t seen anymore, and I want
to make films with higher production values and audience appeal
than DV genre films – so Steve and I although friendly, are
film-makers on different paths, although he did express an interest
in distributing Summer Rain.
www.leofilms.com |
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I waited for about half and hour for Charlie but he wasn’t there and I didn’t know where he was, so I left. Apparently he was out shopping as I embarked on a rush hour journey across L.A to Santa Monica. I was desperately trying to reach KINKO’s to pick up the poster before they shut. It took me two hours to get to Kinko’s only to find they are a 24 hour store. I needn’t have rushed. But the poster was ready and I loved it. It was perfect for the lobby of the cinema and it now hangs framed in my flat.By the time I made it back to Andy’s I was so tired from the constant driving I just wanted to stay in that night. So I checked my email, wrote the love letter and played Fifa before collapsing in bed. |
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September
23rd Tuesday 2003 |
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The UPS package of invites and envelopes still
had not arrived. If I was to stamp them and get them in the post
in time for people to get them before Thursday they would have to
arrive today. Andy was to work at home that day and said he’d
ring the moment they turned up. Surely, they’d come to day
as they were sent on a 3 day service… 7 days ago.
I tried to put the worry out of my mind as the first thing to do was get Charlie after yesterday’s mix up of not seeing him at all. As I had been in Hollywood now for six days and still not seen the Hollywood sign, Joanna took us there. She lives only a five minute drive away from the landmark, and finally I got to see it for myself. |
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Before we drove down to Hollywood I received
a phone call from Paul Allen Smith at the Broder, Webb, Chervin,
Silbermann Agency. He requested a Vhs of Summer Rain, another one
for the list of things to do.
I drove us down to Hollywood and we had lunch at MELS DINNER, the chain made famous by AMERICAN GRAFFITTI. Although the Mels they filmed at was near San Francisco this restaurant was covered in pictures of George Lucas and Ron Howard filming. The Burger was excellent but not as good as Charlie’s favorite ‘In n Out’ Burger. We nipped to the Laemmle Fairfax and laid out loads more fliers and sticks of rock to publicize the film. We continued down Melrose so that I could go and visit Simon Graham-Clare of the British Film Office in Los Angeles. Charlie disappeared for a while whilst I met with Simon. Simon basically asked me what could he do, to help me. In truth unless it was help me get a green card or facilitate introductions to Hollywood mover and shaker’s not much. Simon explained the role of the Film Council was to help the British Film Industry and not individuals. So as much as he wanted to introduce me to people he couldn’t be seen to, especially when he had not seen my work. Also, the Film Council had no way of securing employment visas for British filmmakers. Of course this was all quite disappointing news but Simon more than made up for it with his enthusiasm for my film and activities in Los Angeles. I explained to him that the main thing I had learnt from my brief time in L.A is that if you want to be employed as a screen writer or film director in the English language film industry is that you have to be where the majority of the employers are. Los Angeles. So my problem is how to make a situation occur where I can legally live and work in Los Angeles. American film companies actually make movies, they pay for services it is a huge ‘industry’, whereas in the UK it’s a village industry fuelled by only a handful of cottages who have their own clique of regular villagers. Trying to break into the British Film Industry just reminds me of ‘The League of Gentleman’ – “This is a local shop for local people, we don’t want your sort here.” Whereas in America, there is more competition granted, but there are also more opportunities and America welcomes new talent. Being in Los Angeles I felt far closer to realizing my ambitions than by sitting in my flat in Brighton. Although I guess having a movie screening helps my delusion of being a film maker. Simon suggested that I find out more about the Film Export Group run by Sarah McKenzie at the film Council. Ultimately though, Simon couldn’t help me particularly on this trip. However, he freely offered his support and enthusiasm for which I was very grateful. I know that I’ll stay in touch with him and I’m sure that he will be a useful contact in the future, as well as being a thoroughly nice bloke. We drove to Venice Beach stopping off at a Staples store on the way to buy reams of pre-punched U.S screenplay paper, braids and printer ink. As I had now had a couple of requests for my film and screenplay it was time to start printing – more expense. We walked along the seafront boulevard from Venice up to the shopping malls of Santa Monica. It was a long but lovely walk. I would live in Santa Monica in a shot as it just reminds me of Brighton, except it has sand… and pelicans. |
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Charlie and I missed Zaki’s opening night
in play “Antiphony” at the Odyssey Theatre, apparently
it went well but Greek Tragedy has never had me storming the box
office.
I drove Charlie back to his place in the Hollywood hills, this constant driving was beginning to get on my nerves. The driving also was not helpful to having a social, fun time in the evenings. The culture of L.A is the car. Taxi’s and public transport seemed virtually non-existent and non-helpful. How can you have a fun night out if you are always the designated driver and your friends live in opposite directions by half and hour each way? So, I’d been in Hollywood a week and still not had a ‘proper’ night out. As Andy and I played Fifa that night, I bemoaned that the UPS invite box hadn’t turned up. Even if it arrived tomorrow there was no point in sending any of the 350 invites enclosed as they wouldn’t turn up until after the screening at their destinations. UPS’s 3 day service had let me down badly. Andy assured me the 1000 email invites and 1000 or so hard copy invites that had already gone out would be enough. |
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September
24th Wednesday 2003 |
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Simon Graham Clare sent me an email and suggested
I invite:-
Tracey Bing, Warner Independent Pictures, VP Production and Acquisitions Steve Giulula, Fox Searchlight VP Distribution Benedict Carver, Columbia Tristar, VP Acquisitions Nancy Lessor, HBO, SVP Media Relations I also checked the status of the e-mail invitations on www.evite.com . There had been 23 Acceptances, 3 Maybe, 6 No and 702 non-responses with a day to go. I wasn’t too discouraged as that was just the email invite list and not the responses from the hard copy invites, so who knew how many would turn up? At least 23! But just to confuse me, Karen Weiss at Harmony Gold then emailed me she could no longer attend the screening but would like to receive a VHS. Another mail out on the list. Also Mail Boxes in Brighton emailed me to say that they had contacted UPS to find out where my package was – it had misrouted to Philadelphia (despite the label saying Los Angeles , California) – and that it should be with me tomorrow…. Pointlessly. Even more annoying UPS had said that because the 3 day service had not been ‘guaranteed’ I would not get a refund. I was livid. A courier company completely fails to deliver an advertised service and gets to keep £70 just because it wasn’t guaranteed? That implies that they think it is acceptable for their 3 day service to take a week. I was furious. I had posted packages by ordinary post that had taken only 5 days to get to L.A. I had specifically used UPS to get my package to LA fast. Their failure to deliver upon their advertised 3 day service meant that I had 350 invites and envelopes that would not be used. Combine that with the sheer effort, time and expense that it took to prepare those envelopes and the hundreds of dollars worth of stamps that I had pre-bought, meant I was very angry. It had been over a week since I had sent the package on a three day service and it still hadn’t arrived and UPS were still going to keep £70. Outrageous. I put a few last minute invites in the post, drove Andy to Hollywood to pick up his repaired vehicle and then content myself that I had done all that I could do (bar the UPS failure of service) to make tomorrow nights screening a success. So Charlie and I went to Universal Studios for the day as complete tourists. |
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Terminator
3-D, Shrek 4-D, Back to the Future, Backdraft, The Studio tour,
Waterworld stunt show and of course our favorite ride… JURASSIC
PARK. I think we went on it 5 times in total and I got soaking wet
each time. |
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It was a fantastic way to unwind before the big
day. I get very nervous before each film festival screening and
because I had invested so much time, money and emotion into this
screening – I was a bit of a jumble of nerves. Phone calls
came in from Colin Chapman and Chris Rieley, they had both arrived
in L.A. At lease I had a core group of friends around me for the
screening.
That evening we went out for drinks and dinner with ALI HORN. A Casting Director for Commercials and Pop promos in L.A. She took us first to the Standard Hotel, which is famed for having a lingerie model in a Perspex box, reclining behind reception but she wasn’t there today. The waitresses were in pseudo nurse outfits which was fun. We sat by the pool overlooking L.A and talked about the life of an actor in L.A and the casting process. |
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Ali
is only in her twenties but formed her own company in L.A and works
hard and constantly. Her premises include video suites, client offices
and kitchens and she has several permanent staff. All within a three
year time period.
That night we had dinner at Jones, and then crossed the road to the famous red bar ‘Formosa’s’ once the haunt of many classic film stars as seen in L.A CONFIDENTIAL when Russell Crowe finds Veronica Lake look-alike Kim Basinger. Finally, I had been to a couple of famous Hollywood bars even if I did have to stay tea-total and drive Charlie back to the Hollywood Hills. I went home, no UPS package, checked my email, played Fifa and wrote the love letter before falling asleep troubled by my nerves. |
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September
25th Thursday 2003 |
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Tense,
nervous, headache….. no UPS package. Stress. Practical things
had to come first to dispel my shaking hand. I queued in the post
office for another hour and sent off the screening vhs to Paul Allen
Smith, Simon Graham Clare, Matt Henderson and Karen Weiss. I tried
to make the printer work but still, for the third of fourth day
in a row it defied me, making me worry that if I didn’t manage
to print TSAVO soon, I’d lose my window of opportunity with
Philipa Burgess.
On email I found out from www.evite.com that clubbeverlyhills had rsvp and was coming to the film. Jennifer Murphy at the prestigious GERSH AGENCY also responded that David Gersh would be attending the screening with two guests. Gloria Morrison of Echelon Entertainment could not attend but wanted a screening vhs – opportunity was calling. www.echelonent.com |
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We went for a ‘Subs’ and were impressed
by the standard and friendliness of the service – you don’t
get that in England we both remarked. What else was there to do
now other than worry?
Play Fifa. Just before we got ready for the 8:10 pm screening, I sent an email I really shouldn’t have. But, I had to. It was to my ‘ex’. It read:- "In
59 minutes I'm going to present my film in Hollywood.
I
think I've got about 30 film biz L.A types coming, including the
prestigious Gersh agency. Things could really happen. I sent out
1000 email invites and a 1000 postal invites... so who knows how
many might turn up. This is potentially the most important screening
of my life... This
is my shot. But, above all... I wish you were here to share it with
more than anything in the world. Jx "
That
really was a very accurate snapshot of my state of mind. Stepping out of the car with Charlie I was instantly met by Colin Chapman, Chris Rieley and my friend actor MARK AIKEN. With Andy and Zaki and Charlie there, at least I had a group of friends to support me. I don’t know why I get so nervous, after all the film has been finished for well over a year and it has won numerous awards – I know it’s good so why worry? I can’t help it. Shawna turned up with her husband JACK KEHLER who I was delighted to meet. Jack is a well known actor who has been in THE BIG LEBOWSKI, MEN IN BLACK II, LETHAL WEAPON 4 and LOVE LISA. I saw Love Lisa at the Savannah Film Festival, the very first festival on Summer Rain’s circuit, and now a year on, I was meeting him at the very last screening on the festival tour. I love the way the world works sometimes. Joanna Graham-Clare was there and my fellow Brighton film makers HOWARD FORD, MARK ANDREWS and ADAM turned up. Just by co-incidence they were in L.A to pitch their new screenplays to the studios. My friend Adrian turned up with his mother, and Charlie even had a couple of friends from his days at Mountview turn up. Despite my friends though, my worry was with my guest list. Who would come? Out of all the tickets that Rachel had arranged to be on the door only three had been taken. Weirdly the last three tickets to be arranged for the Gersh Agency. That was it! To my knowledge no other tickets were picked up. I was so disappointed, after all that effort and expense only three tickets had been taken. Still, at least it was three tickets that could potentially change my career for the better. Andy kept a low profile as he had only recently left the Gersh Agency. Despite the lack of people there due to my invitation campaign, there was a decent sized audience. At least 60, genuine ticket buying, members of the general public had taken their seats in the cinema so things were looking up. No they weren’t. The festival director momentarily hi-jacked my screening to present a pop video from a ‘hot band’ at the music festival that ran simultaneously to the film festival. It was seemingly endless, and such a dreary tune it felt monotonously tedious. It out stayed its welcome by ten minutes or so. Then, when it ended – about 15 people left the cinema. They were just relatives and friends of the band. Then the official presentation started of the short film ‘Silenced’. SILENCED: Eugene Park, dir. 8 min. Drama. A dejected young man sits in an empty apartment and reminisces about his former girlfriend and their past romance. Through a series of memories, both good and bad, he tries to convince himself that he’s not to blame for the eventual tragedy that ended their relationship. It becomes apparent, however, that his perspective on the matter is not entirely objective… Thematically it sounds like a ‘break up’ film and suitable to be screened with Summer Rain. It wasn’t. It was a film student style, morbid, B&W video of a suicidal teen. The music was gratingly abstract and far too loud, like it was going to pop the speakers. The poor, fuzzy, image quality combined with the depressing non-narrative content and bad sound had at least three people walk out. It was a very long eight minutes. I was trying to impress the Gersh agency and they sat through a pop-promo and bad student film to get to mine. I was quite depressed by the whole experience as Eugene Park’s friends and family left when his film was over. The audience was down to about 35. I started my introduction speech to the audience, after all this was supposed to be the glorious final screening in Summer Rain hugely successful festival circuit – but as I spoke a few more people made up their minds to leave. It’s very disconcerting to be talking whilst watching your audience leave – at least they hadn’t even seen the film. I rushed my introduction and just started the film. Nothing was going to plan at all. The lights went down, the film started and I was pleased that at least the image quality was passable – but the sound was AWFUL. I don’t know if ‘Silenced’ did pop the speakers but the soundtrack was fuzzy and the projectionist couldn’t settle on a volume level. It was all over the place and quite awful. I must have buried my head or something now as I can’t quite remember what happened but some people left, quite rightly with such poor sound. If I was in the audience I would have left, having sat through a poor pop-promo, a poor student short and now a feature with bad sound – I wouldn’t have held out much hope that it would have got any better. Sadly, the three people who left after five minutes were all from the Gersh Agency. What a horrible experience. After about fifteen minutes the projectionist found a decent sound level and the film settled into its routine. I was heartened when the laughs started to come in the second half. The reel change was smooth and ultimately, the audience that stuck it out to the end seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. It got a huge round of applause and everyone was very complimentary. My friend Adrian had come with his mother, she turned to me and said “That was excellent, and normally I walk out of films.” Adrian nodded “She does”. My favorite compliment came from Joanna as she seemed genuinely impressed. I had survived the final screening but worse was to come… the festival party. Most of us got in various cars to drive into Hollywood to go to CINESPACE, where the official film festival party for the night was being held. We queued for about half and hour to get into our own party… and failed. So we all drove to Sunset Blvd and went to the Standard Hotel, now with the lingerie model in her box behind reception, but we had no where to sit. So we walked to the nearest bar and took over. Howard, Mark and Adam had only flown in on that day, so as the process of getting to a bar had now taken over an hour they bailed out, leaving only Joanna, Charlie, Chris, myself and one of Charlie’s friends from Mountview. It had been a very stressful, disappointing and heartbreaking night. On the TV ‘Some Like It Hot’ was finishing up, although it was on ‘mute’ Charlie, Chris and myself started doing the dialogue en mass. Thanks to my friends support, beer and the flirting of a pretty waitress – I had a good night. “Nobody’s perfect.” |
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September
26th Friday 2003 |
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I woke
tragically early and checked my email disappointingly there weren’t
any. My wounds from the night before were still fresh so I got dressed
and drove to West Hollywood to pick up my co-writer CHRIS RIELEY.
Chris and I went for breakfast at the grandly named ‘International House of Pancakes”. |
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Bizarrely,
he was instantly interviewed by U.S TV about his favorite film and
unexpectedly Chris went all shy and didn’t want to talk. In
the meantime I found George Lucas and Steven Spielberg set in the
cement. |
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We
then picked up Charlie and his bags and today he flew back to England.
Chris would be on the flight behind him. We shook hands with Chris
and wished him well on his flight. I then drove Charlie towards
the airport. We stopped by Andy’s house to pick up Charlie’s
jumper that I had borrowed. We were running late but there was six
minutes left of the Arsenal v Man Utd match live on Fox. We thought
what’s another six minutes?
We made it to the airport right on time and I waved Charlie good bye. I felt very alone again. That evening, I drove to Venice Beach and hooked up with Mark Aiken. Mark is a UK based actor who has been coming to L.A regularly over the past three years looking for work. He is fortunate that as he is Irish he was eligible for the ‘Green Card Visa lottery, and he won. He can work legally in the US. His frequent trips have started to pay off as whilst I was there he was filming ‘CHARMED’ and had been meeting the producers of season 3 of “24”. Mark and I have been friends for about ten years now and he’s always been a supporter of my work. He was a good friend to hang out with. He introduced me to his local bar and coffee shops in Santa Monica and I loved the atmosphere of this area. Mark rents an apartment right on the beach front which obviously made me very jealous. Whilst I was with him, his girlfriend Casey rang – “how would he like to go to Vegas for the weekend to go to a friends wedding?” |
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September
27th Saturday 2003 |
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Mark
picked me up at mid-day and we sent off on our road trip to Las
Vegas!
Not
much to report about the long seven hour drive into the desert.
The scenery is spectacular in a desert mountain range kind of way.
We passed a couple of enormous military complexes with thousands
of tanks and armored vehicles lined up in precise rows, all just
little dots in the distance. The elevation kept going up and the
temperature kept going up. A bizarre quirk of the desert too was
that you lose depth perception. We crested a rise to see Las Vegas
in the distance before us. The signpost said “Las Vegas 26
miles”. Yet, to me it looked like it was only three or four
miles away. Mark set the ‘counter’ on the dashboard
– and sure enough it took twenty minutes to get there and
it was 26 miles away. I guess it’s because there is no size
comparison or perspective on a flat, surrounded by nothing. |
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| Our
party decamped to the Palms Casino to go clubbing. Twenty seconds
after entering the casino a huge guy put his arms around me and said,
“Did you see that girl with the big titties?” I instantly turned into Hugh Grant, “Gosh, no… what girl?” I looked very confused. Mark’s girlfriend Casey looked suspiciously at the huge guy, correctly as it turned out as he then said: “Do you want some Charlie?” I maintained my wide eyed Hugh Grant, “Gosh, er.. thank you for offering and.. er… such … but… no… I don’t think so. Not for me… er… thank you.” Casey, being a quick thinking girl, grabbed my other arm and pulled me away from the Bear saying, “What have I told you about talking to strangers?” “Sorry, girlfriend needs me, got to go.” I even waved ‘goodbye’. “Shouldn’t we tell security?” I whispered to Casey. “Not if you want to leave Vegas alive." |
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Again, because I’m English, as I had forgotten
to bring my passport the bouncers would not let me into the nightclub.
After losing a few dollars on the slot machines I decided to go
back to the Belagio. Mark too had had enough and we walked back,
after all it was now 4 am.
We had a quiet drink in the bar, watching the silicon and botox go by with their unlikely male companions who were either their fathers or very rich. I think I was in bed around 5:30am. |
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September
27th Saturday 2003 |
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The
drive back was very, very long. All of Las Vegas decides to leave
on Sunday afternoon and head back for Los Angeles – making
the trip a nightmare. Of course it was fun being with Mark but equally
tedious being stuck in traffic on a journey that is already scheduled
to take seven hours. Not much to report really except that the Americans
have no lane etiquette. In England, we have slow lane, middle lane,
fast lane – a fairly safe way to ensure overtaking is always
on your right. In America it’s a free for all, thus you can
be killed from all sides at great speed. It is a nightmare! I was
frequently terrified for the duration of the journey and it wasn’t
Mark’s driving, it was everyone else. Arrived around midnight back at Andy’s and let him thrash me at FIFA… again. |
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September
28th Sunday 2003 |
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My weekend email heralded an apology from Marc
Aramian for not making the screening and not much else. I began
to panic, after all that preparing the screening, all that expense,
from 2-3000 invitations trying to make this a successful Hollywood
trip all I had managed to do was get three agents there who didn’t
like the film. Andy comfortingly said it says more about Hollywood’s
indifference and laziness rather than being a comment on my talent,
abilities and commitment. That still didn’t change the fact
that my screening had come and gone and I felt no closer to a career.
So I made two decisions. 1) I would chase up the rsvp evite list of people who said they were coming – but didn’t. 2) I would use a facility called Script Hustler. I spent many hours going through the evite.com ‘Yes’ rsvp list, sending them all an email asking them if they had managed to see my film? – and if not would they like a vhs? www.scripthustler.com is a site I might not normally have considered but I felt that with a week left in the US, I had to do something to make the trip a success. So I signed up. For $120 script hustler will send your e-mail query letter / script pitch to the email addresses of 1200 agents/producers/executives/studios. I used my credit card (again), wrote a fabulous query letter that highlighted my films awards and Hollywood screening and pitched my new screenplay TSAVO. |
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Dear Sir/Madam,
I
have recently finished writing my new action-adventure screenplay
TSAVO. Tsavo is the name of a game reserve in Kenya where this 'Die
Hard on Safari ' script takes place. |
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Having spent all day on the computer there was
little else to do but panic.
I tried to print TSAVO on Andy’s computer but failed again, for some reason the printer and scanner decided not to talk to each other. Andy kindly volunteered to print it at work, so I gave him the CD of the script. Amongst the emails there was one request for a screening cassette of Summer Rain from: John N.Flynn Hollywood Classics 2450 Mission St San Marino, CA 91108 There was also an invitation to meet Simon Graham Clare at the BFO again. That afternoon Andy and I went to play tennis. As I hadn’t played since I was 14 I was a little rusty and Andy won 6-0, 6-2, 6-2. It was quite tough playing under the L.A sun. That evening I went out to dinner with Echo Gaffney. We went to Morels French restaurant in THE GROVE. I had met Echo in Cannes and met with her there each year. In 1998, Echo produced her first short film, the multi-award-winning THIS IS HARRY LEHMAN, starring Academy Award winner Ray McKinnon. Since then, she has either produced, written, or directed over 12 short films. SAVE VIRGIL, an animated and live action short film, directed by animator Brad Ableson of The SIMPSON’S, stars Gary Coleman and Ginger Lynn. Echo’s directorial debut, THE SILENCE OF SPEED, was picked up by The Sundance Channel last year. Echo has produced 3 feature films. SHUTTER, her debut feature film as producer, premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. SHUTTER stars Emmy winner Bruce Weitz, Aysia Polk and Garikayi Mutambirwa. LEARNING TO SURF, her second feature and BURNING ANNIE are due out this fall. Echo is writing and producing the thriller CYANIDE BLONDE. |
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September
30th Tuesday 2003 |
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After
checking my email I successfully managed to print a copy of my script
TSAVO. With still no response from the screening or script hustler I felt quite morose and as though I was just kicking my heels. Andy was out so I took messages, one from Nick Moran (Lock Stock) asking if he could stay at Andy’s. I also rang Victoria Wisdom of Becksy Wisdom Kalajian, an agent who was once quite keen on my writing as she had read my screenplay RAVENSWING. I didn’t manage to get through to her but I resolved that as she had once been a supporter I’d get a copy of TSAVO to her. I then went to meet Melissa Hargreaves at the British Film Office as she was very keen to meet an independent film maker taking on Hollywood. We had lunch and just talked about the difficulties of breaking into the industry and surviving in this difficult industry. At the BFO I spoke again to Simon Graham-Clare who was very encouraging and he reminded me that it was quite an achievement just to get this far, to get a film to screen in Hollywood. I was temporarily resolute again. Without anything actually solid to ‘action’ I just went and played tennis again with Andy, this time 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. I was getting better. As we jogged around the block, Andy told me that he use to play Sunday league soccer at this ground, but he stopped playing when someone pulled a gun on the ref. That night I went to Santa Monica and met up with Adrian O’Donnell and Mark Aiken in a popular bar called ‘My fathers office’. As Mark had a callback in the morning for ‘24’ he left after one drink. Luckily, Adrian and I had plenty to talk about into the wee hours. I then went clubbing but within ten minutes two girls started a fight over a skinny bloke who then got beaten up by the bouncers. There was a lot of blood. I went home. Andy beat me at Fifa again and I stayed up late writing the love letter to my ‘ex’. |
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October
1st Wednesday 2003 |
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Karen
Weiss at Harmony Gold emailed to say that she wouldn’t be
able to see the vhs of Summer Rain for at least a couple more weeks. Aaron Shuster at Fountain Pictures asked for a vhs screener. On my way to have lunch with Marc Aramian, I dropped off a vhs screener at Aaron’s home address. Marc Aramian, www.aramian.com , is a film composer and has now turned his hand to producing. He was a huge supporter of Summer Rain when he lived in London, but he has now returned to L.A to pursue a producing career. |
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He
thought that my film was fantastic. But, he already had similar
directing clients and although he wouldn’t be representing
me, he thought I wouldn’t have too much trouble in finding
an agent. He wished me great success and arranged the return of
my VHS. Why is it the people who find me the most talented are the
ones who won’t help me?I then went to Kinko’s (again)
and ordered 5 copies of TSAVO ($35) to be picked up tomorrow. I spent the rest of the day shopping in Santa Monica. That night I checked my email to find that producer Maurice Smith would meet me the following day. Andy beat me at Fifa again. |
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October
2nd Thursday 2003 |
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Tony
Unger sent me an email thanking me for inviting him to the screening
of Summer Rain, sadly I couldn’t work out which production
company he was from. Brad at tomorrow films asked for a screener vhs. Wilma Enders at Allied Entertainment emailed to tell me she had passed the vhs of Summer Rain on to Mr Moder – www.alliedentertainment.com Jerry McCarty
of Braderic Productions sent me an email apologizing for missing
the opening of Summer Rain’s screening, but he enjoyed what
he saw and hoped to meet me another time. I drove down Pico to Kinko’s and picked up my lovely bound copies of TSAVO. I felt very excited to hold my work on fresh, warm, crisp paper. I was finally able to package up my script and send it to Philipa Burgess as recommended by Rob Tobin. I also sent it to Victoria Wisdom at BWK with a copy of Summer Rain. With the mail out of screening cassettes this of course led to me standing in the post office for yet another hour. But surprise
of surprises, my package arrived via UPS! The 3 day service took
two weeks and three days! Of course the content of 350 envelopes
and invitations was now completely devoid of use and was defunct.
The only thing to do was bin the box on arrival. Back in England
I tried to get my £70 back, but because the package was
not ‘guaranteed’ UPS refused to give me my money back,
even though they admitted it had been mid-directed twice. I explained
to them that they had completely and utterly failed to provide
the service which I had paid for hence they owed me my money.
Their response was that ‘it got there’ and as it wasn’t
guaranteed they were under no obligation to give me my money –
they just didn’t comprehend that their complete and utter
failure to provide a courier service meant that morally they should
return my money. After all, I had managed to post packages to
L.A on normal postage that had taken only 4 – 5 days, the
entire point of using a company like UPS is to ensure that the
package gets there in the agreed amount of time which was 3 days!
I certainly didn’t pay £70 for it to take over two
weeks. They maintained there ‘no guarantee no money back’
position, even though by implication that meant they thought it
was acceptable for their service to take two weeks! “What
about the three day service?” I cried…. “It’s
four working days actually” they replied seemingly unaware
that four days still doesn’t equate to two and half weeks.
Then to add insult to injury, I then received a phone call from
UPS complaints department telling me that they couldn’t
talk to me anymore as “I wasn’t the customer”.
As I had placed the order through Mailboxes in Brighton, Mailbox
was the customer and not me, so they would not correspond with
me any more! That night I went out in Hollywood with Echo and went shopping in the Grove. |
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October
3rd Friday 2003 |
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I
was supposed to go to Disney with Echo but sadly she felt ill and
had to stay at home in bed.
My
email was a little more exciting than usual. I had emails from Adam
Betteridge at Great British Films detailing the current section
48 tax deal offered by GBFilms:- Ron
Gilbert at Rogue Arts emailed to offer Summer Rain a limited theatrical
distribution in L.A and a DVD release. This deal is still being
looked at. www.roguearts.com |
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October
4th Saturday 2003 |
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Obviously, because I’d decided to go away for the weekend the emails started to come in from Script Hustler. Although the first two were a little disappointing, they were Auto Out Of Office replies from Bettina Moss at HBO and Bruce Johnson at Porchlight. It proved though script hustler do actually do something for the money. Maurice Smith also contacted me to say that he would be coming to the UK in mid-November after MIFED to finalize finance for his productions and that he would hope to meet me then too. After watching the football on TV, I packed my bags and set off to San Francisco at 1pm. It’s about 400 miles to San Francisco but luckily it’s a pretty straight road the entire way there. Once you’re over the mountains it’s flat all the way. You really get a sense of the scale of America when it’s flat in every direction as far as the eye can see. On the entire seven hour drive I only saw one Police car. There were three things that made the journey interesting though. Through the dust flats, you could see mini-twisters or ‘eddy’s’ blowing in the dust. At one point I started to pass a cattle ranch, but I have never seen so many cattle gathered before in one location before. In fact, I didn’t know there were as many cows in the world as I saw by the roadside. Endless cows for as far as the eye could see. The smell was quite impressive too. Finally, an hour before San Francisco I hit the wind farm power generators. Again, I have never seen so many windmills, propellers in one place. Thousands and thousands of rotor blades swiped through the wind; on every hill, in every direction, everywhere. It was a most amazing sight. I drove across the bridge and entered the city around 9pm. My hotel was situated in a prime spot right besides China Town. It was a central location for everything. As quick as I could I showered, changed and hit the town. Without any idea where to go I followed the search lights in the sky, reasoning that beneath those lights there must be a party. The first thing I noticed about San Francisco was the chill wind, this wasn’t L.A anymore. The second thing was that it was a city you could walk around. L.A is built entirely for cars not for humans, San Francisco is a walking city and of course that puts you in direct contact with the homeless, whereas in L.A you can drive past them. Anyway, I walked through the financial district and found a party besides huge searchlights. There was a queue waiting to get in, but into what? I asked the bouncer:- “What
is this?” With that I jumped the cold queue and went into the club and partied all night. Bizarrely, two waitresses bought me drinks and Danni Minogue was there. |
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October
5th Sunday 2003 |
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I
almost overslept but leapt to my feet to see the sunny day outside.
I walked through Chinatown and accidentally found myself following
a walk route in my tour guide. I found myself spotting locations
from BULLIT, DIRTY HARRY and of course ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ.
I found the waterside docks and the seals that have made Pier 39 their home. |
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Apparently
the seals have only been there a few years, at first just a few
found their way onto the pontoons but within a year the whole colony
had settled there, after all it’s a protected harbour and
safe from the sharks that hang out in the bay. Whilst I was here,
I went to the Bay Aquarium which had an enormous Shark Tunnel. I
also went onto a Bay cruise around Alcatraz and beneath the Golden
Gate bridge. |
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My trip to Alcatraz would have to wait until
Monday as all the tours for Sunday were booked up. So I contented
myself with just riding around the bay and took the cable car home.
That night, I went and eat in a dinner and went to a Blues Club. Muddy Waters drummer was there which I took to be a good recommendation. That night, I wrote the love letter and went to bed very, very, tired. |
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October
6th Monday 2003 |
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| ALCATRAZ | ||||||||||||||||||
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I
found Alcatraz a fascinating place to visit. All the legends and
stories could fill volumes of books and they do. Entering the cell
block was very eerie. Nearly everyone does the Audio tour, so we
all listen to individual headsets telling the stories of the cells,
so the cell block is in virtual silence as hundreds of people mill
around in a strange synchronicity, one after another peering into
the same cells doing as instructed on their earphones. It was a
fabulous experience seeing where Al Capone was held and other notorious
gangsters. Did you know that the Birdman of Alcatraz didn’t
actually have any birds there? He wasn’t allowed as he had
been in his previous prisons; hence the wardens believed he was
a ‘grumpy son of a bitch’. That afternoon I got stuck in rush hour traffic and I didn’t get back to L.A until about midnight. |
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October
7th Tuesday 2003 |
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My
last full day in L.A! With three days worth of emails to catch up
on:-
There was a message from Adam Betteridge from Great British Films wondering if I could meet Rogue Arts before I left L.A. There was also an email from Rogue Arts saying there was no point in meeting them as the contract they sent through was non-negotiable – I don’t think I want to do business with a company who can’t even be bothered to meet the film-maker and declares that they won’t even consider a negotiation. I don’t think Rogue Arts will represent my film. Maurice Smith sent through another script for me to read: “HUNT FOR THE DEVIL”. Script Hustler also provided this gem from Sony:- "The referenced e-mail sent by you has been deleted without having been read. Although we appreciate your interest, it is the firm policy of Screen Gems, Columbia Pictures and/or Sony Pictures Entertainment not to consider material submitted on an unsolicited basis. Studio insurers, including those of Sony, Columbia and Screen Gems, mandate this policy because of the frequency of unfounded plagiarism claims. We hope you understand the difficult position we are in regarding these matters." This next email came from the story department at HBO:- "Your e-mail has been forwarded to me by Bettina Moss. Unfortunately, due to legal considerations, we cannot consider submissions made via e-mail. If you wish to submit a project you must go through a WGA signatory agent or lawyer, who can submit a letter and/or one-page synopsis on your behalf." Warner brothers also provided me with a very similar:- "Warner Bros. Pictures studio policy, established by our Legal Department, prevents us from considering any story material unless it is submitted by a licensed literary agent who is signatory to the Writers Guild Of America. Therefore, we are returning your submission unread and any enclosures included with it. We cannot recommend agents to you, inasmuch as this would imply we preferred some over others. However, you may try calling The Writers' Guild at 323-951-4000 and ask them to send you a list of accredited agents. Thank you for your interest in Warner Bros. Pictures." However,
in direct contrast to these there was an email from my agent Kate
Watson at Sara Putt Associates:- “Darling just taken a
call from Walt Disney Pictures, Bruce Hendricks (President of Development)
who's very keen to see the 'Tsavo' script!!! how exciting.” That night, there wasn’t much more to do other than pack and play tennis. Andy beat me 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. Then he thrashed me at FIFA. That night I finished writing my love letter to my ‘ex’. I had pretty much filled the entire pink-sequined notebook with my thoughts. In it I just asked for one chance to talk to her and sort out our ‘situation’ and if that was not possible it was a heartfelt goodbye, assuring her I wouldn’t bother her again. I wrapped it up in a T-Shirt which bore her comedy catchphrase ‘It’s all about me’ and spread Hershey ‘Hugs n Kisses’ candy throughout the envelope. It might not win her back I thought, but it should make her smile at least. |
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October
8th Wednesday 2003 |
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Andy
took me out to lunch at a well known Deli. I found it funny that
every table around us was filled with people talking movies and
deals. Andy even bumped into one producer who asked him “So
what are you doing now?” Andy looked a little coy as he replied
“Writing Wild Things 3 for you.”
Andy’s
had also written Wild Things 2 which was in post-production and
everyone was apparently very pleased with it. Andy spoke a little
about the complications of writing a studio product, in that he
was given almost a check list of things to include. The script had
to have at least one court room scene, a three-some and a very impressive
opening scene. For this sort of sequel the studios like to spend
the budget in the opening ten minutes as they believe that unless
they open with a “BANG”, the audience won’t stick
around to see the ending, no matter how much money they spent on
it. |
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ENGLAND |
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Its cold and it rains; back to the poverty and
reality of being an independent film-maker.
The emails from my trip continued. Script Hustler provided three more script requests from The Endeavor Agency, Zide/Perry Entertainment and Wriart. Disney emailed to say that an intern had accidentally shredded TSAVO as soon as it arrived, so would I send another copy. Indican pictures asked for a screening cassette of Summer Rain. Gloria Morrison at Echelon Entertainment emailed through a contract as Echelon want to take on distribution of Summer Rain. I am now looking at the contract closely. Matt Henderson at Seventh Arts “passed” on Summer Rain. I received a phone call from Lorenzo De Maoi at the office of Dino De Laurentis. Apparently Dino was “intrigued” by me as I had won an award at the Rome Film Festival, so would I please send Dino a vhs of Summer Rain and my new screenplay Tsavo. Of course, I am very excited to send Dino De Laurentis my work. I just hope he likes it. Maurice Smith will shortly be flying to England to talk to me about the three projects he’s offered me. I have also learnt that Summer Rain might be out on DVD in the UK in about 8 months, in a deal with GOLD and GBF. So professionally, things might well work out. Which only leaves my personal life to sort out. The
love letter I sent from L.A came back unread and unopened. My ‘ex’
has moved on. As disappointed and upset as I am, I guess I have
to as well. She’s a wonderful girl and I wish her well for
her future. |
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Jonathan
Glendening |
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