Day 2 of Continuous Blogging about our Movie

I am the worst at social media. I like staying in touch with friends and family, but never really got into it. This time I want to learn how to use the tools to get the word out because of this amazing project that looks like it is really going to happen.

I wrote the script for Resilient Hearts 2 years ago and was sure I could get someone interested in helping me make it into a film. The main character was patterned after a wonderful actor and singer I got to know, but I never heard back from him.(No surprise) Allen even drove to Oprah's studio in LA so I could drop off a copy of my script and a letter asking for help making the movie. I began to lose hope when we toured Universal Studios and saw a room with thousands of movie scripts stacked from the floor to the ceiling that never got looked at yet alone considered. I can't even keep track of the number of people associated in someway to the movie industry who acted interested, but never called back.

I think the "not calling back" is business practice for a polite "no thanks". The problem is the waiting, the wondering if you should try again just in case they got busy. I hate to be annoying, and I just relied on the belief that if it was meant to be it will be.

After months again of waiting for a response I finally decided to listen to Allen (the Hubby) and research what it would take to make an Indie film. By the way, I thought an Indie film was a film that was made in India! When Allen stopped laughing, he told me it  was short for an Independent Film. One where individual's get together with film making skills, no money, and agree to work their butts off.

Allen gained a lot of experience in film making over the past few years while I sat around waiting for the phone to ring. Now he has access to the needed equipment and resources to make this happen.

I met Erik Darling a LVN and Patient Care Coordinator through work. He introduced himself to me and asked if I would be willing to be interviewed about my work in Palliative Care on his pod cast. I mentioned my movie dream and he turned out have a background in film production and acting! He agreed to help and we had the beginning of our film production team.

One day, I decided I wanted to spend more time with Allen, and agreed to go with him to a fund raiser near San Diego. I am still not sure why I did it. Usually I use my time on weekends to get caught up on lecture organizing and writing projects for work, but this time I didn't.

We got to the event and Allen was off taking pictures like he was asked to do, and I just hung out at a table watching everyone in costume and starting to feel out of place. I have found I can get lots of alone time when asked what I do for a living. I tell people I work with the terminally ill and dying and they usually get pale and quiet and wander off. This time I thought I would share some of the creative things I was doing.

Two guys walked up to the table I was at and introduced themselves. One was Timmy D, and the other was Big Jon. Timmy's voice intrigued me. He shared he was a singer for the band Pullman Standard, but there was something familiar about his speaking voice that I couldn't place. All of a sudden I knew. It was Michael's voice, the main character of my screenplay. I imagined his voice and phrasing a million times in my head as I worked and re-worked the script, and now I was hearing it out loud.

Then I said something totally out of character to Timmy. "Please tell me you act." Timmy looked surprised and said acting was one of the reasons he cane to LA. I talked about the film project to him and Jon for quite awhile. They both agreed the movie needed to be made, and they were willing to help make it happen.

Since that time Timmy and Jon have been my major cheerleaders and have provided the much needed encouragement to go forward with our plans. Guess it was meant to be.

More about how we discovered that Jon was the perfect Cooper and that I actually work with the female lead Valerie and didn't realize it.

Take Care,
Bonnie