Three Movies in Three Weeks: Proud Mary Part One

In which things happen really slowly for awhile.

I got back from New Orleans in early January determined to get more work, a new apartment and a cat before the end of the year.

I am still in the same apartment.

The cat is fine.

As for work, I decided to become an independent producer of no-budget films. Partly this was because it was the path of least resistance. To be self-employed, I didn't have to ask anyone for help, I didn't have to go to any interviews, I just had to find some projects.

Partly, it was because of Marlon Brando.

Brando revolutionized his medium, but he lost his focus. I saw an interview with a biographer of Brando's where he said "you just want to tell him, 'you're good at making movies. That brings people joy. Why not do that?'"

After I did Ballots Over Broadway, I figured I was good at making short, no-budget movies, so I'd better go ahead and do that.

Not long after that, Nadine, director of Ballots, came to me with a project. It was a great script by an NYU Junior named Nick Koenig about a girl who's shit-head boyfriend convinces her to do an amateur porn with an overweight local.

I saw immediately that Mary was going to be a challenge. We were shooting in Jersey, which is always a struggle because I have to get everybody out there and we'd all have to sleep over; it was longer than any script I'd done before; and Nick had created some interesting challenges for himself and his actors with the script. It was really going to have to be done well to be done at all.

But, man, what a script. I decided it was going to be worth the challenge. It was exactly the kind of project I was looking for, and I took it.

We scouted locations in Jersey. We did a lot of casting. I tried to figure out how we were going to put this thing together.

For awhile, things happened really slowly. It was my fault, really - when I'm my own boss, it's great because there's no one telling me what to do, but it's awful for the same reason.

I struggled with trying to keep myself motivated, keep myself moving. A couple of times I thought about quitting, but never too seriously. By the time I had said "yes," I had a lot at stake in "Proud Mary." I had to see how far I could go. I was in it for keeps.

At some point, I added up my calendar and realized I was going to be doing three movies in the next three weeks. I'd made just enough progress on pre-production for Mary that I'd be ready if I worked really, really hard. It was time to get organizized.