During March of 2010 I was reformatting the screenplay after transferring it to a new computer. I had gone back and taken a look at some notes that my friend Keaton had given me, a few months earlier, and I came across one that made perfect sense to me.
"What happens to Lindsay?" he asked. I did not have an answer. Lindsay was a character that one of the boys meets during his journey and falls in love with. After a particular scene in my story the boys had continued on their journey leaving Lindsay behind. There was nothing memorable about her. If he truly loved her, how could he leave her behind so easily?
I knew that an audience would never believe Ricky truly cared about this girl if he let her go so easily, so I knew what needed to happen. She had to guide the boys for a section of their journey, which she now does.
During this time of rewrites I was on a personal road trip with my friend, Zeus, who was visiting from Holland. During a lot of these rewrites I was actually traveling from California, where we met, through Arizona and up to Colorado.
The next pivotal step in driving me to finally produce my film happened while Zeus and I were visiting my parents in Colorado for Easter. My mom has a large collection of movies and every night we would watch a film before going to bed. On one of the evenings my mom suggested a movie for Zeus and I to watch.
My first thoughts of this film were, "I don't really think I want to watch this crap. It's going to be a cheesy Hollywood movie. It's got big stars, it's gonna be fluff." I even second guessed my own mother's judgment. I decided not to verbally say any of my concerns that flashed in my head and I told my mom, "Okay, pop it in." The film I am speaking of is called "Freedom Writers".
The film was really well done. It dealt with the issues of racism in American culture. I personally know a film is good when it stirs up emotions and evokes thoughts within me. At certain points in the film I felt as if I wanted to cry because of the portrayal of how some people in the world behave.
One actress in particular caught my eye during the film. She had some of the most mesmerizing eyes I had ever seen. She would show so much emotion in scenes with just the way she looked at another character. This actress I speak of is Jackie Ngan.
Being the cinephile that I am, I have always had a great interest in young up-and-coming actors. I always fantasize about who I might one day be able work with. About a year prior to watching "Freedom Writers" I had grown a "mancrush" on an actor by the name of Andrew Garfield. I saw him in an incredible film titled "Boy A" and now he's going to be the new "Spiderman".
Take that for what it is, but I did the exact same thing for Jackie as I had done for Andrew. I looked her up on IMDB to see her other work.
To my astonishment "Freedom Writers" was Jackie's first film. And on top of that, it appeared that she had not done many productions since.
I thought that if I tried to contact her I had a 1/100 chance of her responding. On top of my probability of her response I felt I honestly had a 1/1000 chance of her actually being interested in my film if she made the initial response. "Who am I?" I asked myself. But hell, I had nothing to lose.
I contacted her and to my surprise she kindly replied. I was so in shock of her response that I knew I had to calm myself down and play it cool. She told me she would be interested in reading the role of Lindsay.
I nervously emailed her the latest draft of the screenplay. I did not know how to respond if she told me it was complete garbage. To respect somebody's work so much and to have them tell you you're work is not good enough would be soul-crushing.
She positively responded to me two days after sending her the screenplay. I still remember her first sentence saying she found the screenplay "moving". I still kept my guard up waiting for her to say she was going to pass. I thought she was trying to sugarcoat me with politeness. When I read her last sentence that stated that she would like to be on board, I was in shock. I was in complete awe of everything that was taking place.
My 25th birthday was right around the corner and I was planning to move to Los Angeles. I already had my first meeting lined up with Jackie and I was on top of the world.
I arrived in Los Angeles at around 10pm on April 20th, 2010 to celebrate my 25th year of life. I met with my friend Matt Bailey for dinner in Chinatown. I told him my plans and I was going to make this year count. I was a quarter of a century old and I knew it was time to become a man. I became steadfast on producing my first feature film.
I now had two actors on board and the only thing that was going to hold me back from actually making this film was myself.
The other actor that I had casted for this project was an actor by the name of Tyler Vincent. I attended a festival in which a short film of mine by the name of "Sky Train" was playing. This was in the summer of 2009. I saw a short that Tyler was in and I thought he did a fantastic job. He ended up taking home the best actor award at the festival.
I contacted him after the festival and told him I was interested in his work. I mentioned to him my project "Turning Point" and he seemed interested. At the same time I felt a sense of skepticism because he initially thought I was a documentary filmmaker. When he finally saw some of my other work he realized I was more well-rounded than he assumed.
I remember emailing him a copy of the screenplay. I knew I wanted him to play one of the three boys. I had a boy in mind which I thought he would be perfect for. However I thought he would be drawn towards the role of James because that character has the most prominent arc in the story.
To my surprise, when he finally responded he was drawn towards the character of Ricky. The exact character I had in mind for him. He was on board and it wasn't until one year later that we formally met in person and had our first read through together with Jackie.
I was really nervous at first because I was playing cupid to a certain extent. I kept second-guessing myself, "What if they hate each other in real life?" "No, Ryan! They're both really good people. They'll be fine together." "No---No, they won't, stupid. How can you listen to somebody that talks to themselves like this?"
I didn't know what was going to happen.
I put them together and magic happened before my eyes. They were perfect! The looks in both of their eyes in my rehearsal footage still astounds me. The puppy love they portray seems so true and so innocent.
Currently I am in the process of casting the other roles of the film. So until things are confirmed, I don't think I should divulge too much information.
I've finally reached the point in which I can see the horizon in which my film will come to fruition. It's been a long and arduous road at times but it's all been worth it. The experiences and relationships I've created along the way are irreplaceable. I look forward to what the future has to hold and what's going to be around the next bend.
I want to personally and sincerely thank anybody that has read this far into my story. Please leave any and all comments that you may have. I would love to stay motivated while documenting this experience.
(Hopefully this is not truly "The End")
-Ryan Moser.
No comments:
Post a Comment