Hope.
(Quicktime
required)
I honestly swore I would not shoot Hope.
I had the script for the trip to Africa, and when I got back, that's really all I cared about spending my time on. Brian agreed emphatically--nothing else mattered in the short-term.
But then there's Joe Mendoza, a guy I'll do pretty much anything for. Because he believes in me, and that's a big deal in my book. In Brian's as well, because all it took was for Joe to ask him, about what it took for me to say yes. he would be producing, and if Joe is producing, you can guarantee you'll get a great deal for very little money--he's somehow magical in that respect, and I hope I never figure out that he's actually a genie.
I thought it would be rough, because the theme was one I'd seen before, and I really didn't want to step on Tracy McCrackin's toes as a writer. There were a few issues I felt should be amended, and this would be the first directing I'd done of someone else's work--I never have a problem amending my own writing, but someone else's--that's not something I do lightly or with a cavalier attitude, What someone puts on paper is important, and I never want to feel as though I didn't do my best to make it work. Still, when I made the changes I did (primarily visual cues) she accepted them wholeheartedly and readily, and we worked together to make the integrity of her vision shine while striking a balance between the unexpected and the touching.
Ultimately, I'm very happy I did it. I learned a great deal more of how to work with a writer (instead of against them, as is the bane of many a screenwriter facing a director) and also how to better convey much while saying little. Plus, we came out with a product we could all say we'd had a definitive hand in, and one that plays very, very well.
Tracy's piece won the Overall Best in Cinema award from the Sacramento Festival of Cinema--a great thing in that she dedicated the piece to her mother who passed away the previous year, and this paid a fitting tribute to the power of love that transcends the fleshly realms into the spiritual infinite.
Hope is currently hosted at the Sacramento Festival website (see previous paragraph for link); I'm in the process of converting it to run here, but in the meantime you can pop on over there to check it out. The others films in the Festival are also mounted for your viewing pleasure--though some of them might not be one's cup of tea...