In The Trenches—The Founder’s Daily Report: Day 353: SAG Solution

Day 353:  We are 9k over budget.  And what is costing us 9k?  Going SAG Ultra Low Budget!  UGH.  I want to be able to pay my actors a little something!  Actors always get the shaft.  But my Co-Producer spoke to SAG today and since we don’t have distribution yet, they recommended to her that we simply go with the New Media contract.  The New Media Contract is deferred pay.  Deep sigh.  I’ve been avoiding that contract like the plague!

Logically, I know this is a simple solution to our budget problem but I’ve spent the last couple of hours having a bit of an emotional meltdown over this new development.  Actually, I think I was living out the hysterical state that my character is in in one of the pivotal scenes in the film.  I rehearsed earlier today with one of our lead actresses that exact scene and we went over lines and talked out motivation and blocking but I didn’t fully go where I needed to go emotionally in the scene.  It wasn’t that kind of rehearsal.  Well, the emotion’s gotta eventually come out somewhere!  But I digress.  The point is, do I want to make my movie or pay my actors?  Unfortunately, with such a small budget, I can’t do both.

The look of stress!

And here’s the thing.  I really want to make this movie!  As a producer and as an actress.  Despite the bump with my Co-Producer a few days ago, I still have an amazing creative team and an amazing cast and I want us all to have a shot at making this happen.  I know I’ve said this before but I have such a good feeling about my director.  I love the way he’s working with us actors.  I love his sense of the characters and of the story.  I have such a strong feeling his vision for this project is going to make an amazing movie.  Who knows?  Maybe it will, maybe it won’t.  The reality is I will never know if I’m right or wrong unless we get the budget down to the amount of money I have to actually make the film in the first place!

My Co-Producer has found the SAG solution and put it right in front of me but I’m having trouble accepting it.  It is not what I had originally envisioned.  Oh the danger of getting an idea in our heads!

I’ll make the final decision in the morning.  Tonight, I’m going to sleep on it.  I’m deliriously exhausted yet again.  I hope I wake up tomorrow with less resistance to this obvious solution.

Until tomorrow, create from what you have…obvious solutions.

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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