1 FULL week of preparation for Beyond The Still... Only to taste defeat.
It was a week full of preparing for what we expected to be a great challenge. We planned for everything knowing we had a number of obstacles standing in our way (the most crucial being time). The positive vibes and creativity were flowing, whenever an obstacle would come up, we would have an almost immediate response. Maximum production with minimum sleep, we cranked out the idea, wrote the outline, wrote the script and did some researching. Location scouting and preparing the storyboard is when things got even more challenging. It's not a good idea to go up on a rooftop in E. Harlem in the middle of the winter on a weeknight at 11 o'clock at night. Thinking nothing of it, we're up there snapping away shots, trying to find the right visuals to capture the feel of our story. Then, a flashing light in our direction, an alarming "HEY!," and a short interrogation later and its back to ground level, escorted by 4 of "New York's Finest" and then greeted by about 7 more cruisers. (Now that I think of it I guess that was just foreshadowing). Luckily, we came away with just a slap on the wrist. ("Just a couple of photographers.") After slipping back into the warmth and re-gathering our thoughts, we head back out into the cold night and scout the area some more. (This time from the ground of course.)
After a couple more days worth of bearing the cold and grinding out some more work and excited to have the rest of the crew involved I get ready to put out the call sheet when I get the news. The only thing left unplanned for and the most crucial... Our actor is no longer available. As shitty as that felt, we had no time to pout, we had to find an actor asap. Easier said than done when your talking about a 6-8 year old boy. Not to mention we would be asking for a less than 24 hour notice to walk around in the cold and post some flyers, with only a free breakfast to offer.
Well, we still had hope. Jon's cousin is of the age, and although she was a girl and we would have preferred a boy, we figured we could adjust some things. However, with such short notice, she couldn't be reached.
So with regrets, I sent out the email to the crew that it was off and it was back to the ground for me.
We had hoped to come away with personal victory if not victorious in the "Beyond The Still" competition. Instead, I have a taste of defeat that I can't quite get rid of.
I have faith that I will taste victory at some point, in some way. So I remain optimistic and move "On To The Next."
