In The Trenches—The Founder’s Daily Report: Day 350: Should I pull the plug?

Day 350:  The table read went amazingly well!  I was incredibly happy and felt good about the cast we assembled to read the script out loud for the very first time.  So did my director.  Screenwriter Monica unfortunately couldn’t make it.  Pesky day job.  Table reads are always a bit awkward with meeting new people and reading cold from the script, but, it was a blast!  Creative differences and complications ensued afterwards but all in all, I’m very excited about the cast we have so far.  Conflicts with two of the actors proved too great and they bowed out.  That is exactly why I haven’t made any official cast announcements yet!  Besides my dentist, Dr. Woss, who will still be playing the role of the dentist.  But honestly, I’m relieved.   They weren’t a match for the energy of the project and the project wasn’t a match for them.  And the simple truth is, there are so many incredible actors waiting in the wings who would kill to have the opportunity to act in these parts, we’ll refill them easily and quickly.

But, we can’t start shooting on January 7th. It’s just not possible with Christmas and New Year’s Day in between now and then. And, my lead actress is only available two days next week and then is traveling Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day. We just have to have an extra week or two for prep and rehearsal. We have to push to January 14th at the earliest, ideally, we push until the 21st.  But we’ll see.  We may be pushing indefinitely.

Is it time to pull the plug on this creative team?

The biggest news I would say is that I’m personally having a lot of difficulties with the co-producer I brought on board.  Deep sigh.  Namely, she and I don’t see eye to eye on the overall vision for the movie.  Yeah, it’s a problem and it sucks.  I still love my director and he and I do see eye to eye, which is what really matters at the end of the day.  He and I parted ways this afternoon in solidarity, on the same page, and excited about the cast we have, saying, “we’re making a movie.”  But still, I’m pretty unhappy about this co-producer bump and it threatens to kill the whole project and this current creative team.  My hand is at the ready to pull the plug if necessary.  Yes, my hand is shaking.  I genuinely hope I don’t have to do it.  It would be devastating to all of us who are so committed to the project, and to those of us who have put over a year of our lives into this, and especially to those of us who are consciously and willingly staying toothless to star in it!  But I can’t compromise my dream and my vision for this particular project.  I mean, come on!  It’s my baby.  I have to stay true to my original “missing tooth” vision for this film.  So, I will pull the plug if I have to.  I’ll keep you posted.

Until tomorrow, create from what you have….plugs to potentially pull.

Kelli Joan Bennett is a filmmaker, actress, writer, entrepreneur, advocate for creative thinking and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Think Outside The Box Inside The Box Media.

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