This past Saturday - we did it. Something we've wanted to do for over a year now but finally took a deep breath, turned the sign to closed and forever shut down our coffee shop. And it feels liberating. We feel as though the world has been lifted off our shoulders.
People don't get it - they always jump to the conclusion that we closed or wanted to close because we weren't able to make ends meet. Actually - we want a life. The coffee shop was sucking our life from us - since our child was born that place was all he knew - and that mommy and daddy spent time with him separately as we split our shifts. That's no way to raise a child. And it's no way to pursue my film career, being stuck behind a counter 6 days a week. Yeah - the economy is bad - but since week 1, we always paid our bills, business and personal but had to work long hours to do it. Even if we had cleared a hundred grand a year, we would still have shut the doors on March 31st. You don't sacrifice your family and dreams for money - at least I don't. Some do - and I pity them.
We would have preferred to have sold the shop but couldn't find anyone willing to take it over in this bad economy. It seems everyone interested in purchasing it didn't want to have to actually work at it or wait out the economy (that will come back eventually) - but instead wanted a turn-key career handed to them for very little money. Owning a business is hard work. Many hours. We had set a goal of March 31st to be out of there and upheld that commitment to ourselves. Now I am free to fully pursue my film career. And Amy can be a full-time mother like she has always wanted.
Just within the first few days off, we had breakfast/lunch/dinner out several times, something that was rare in a 6-day week. When you have only a single day off each week for 2 years, generally that day is spent doing things that need to be done around the house with an occasional outing. All I can say is I wished we would have closed sooner. The driving motivation to close by March 31 was tourist season. They had already begun to wander in wanting frozen drinks and weird things and we just couldn't take it - we had to get out of there before it picked up and drove us crazy. Even with the high gas prices, it just felt like it was going to be a busier year than 2010.
To accentuate my personal freedom and signal that the closing was meant to be, I met a fellow filmmaker at Starbucks in Asheville the day after we closed. We talked film for quite sometime. He is producing a feature film later this year with plans to premiere the movie in NYC to a group of investors and distributors. I could tell we were on the same page and one thing led to another and I verbally committed myself to a 21-day shoot for his production. We will meet for coffee in a few days. This would have been utterly impossible for me to do just one day earlier. This sort of gave me a nod of assurance that I was being led by a higher power than my own desire, will, or mind. I feel good about it.
At the judging contest of The Indie Fest in California, The Purple Box won an award of merit. I think it was one of a dozen features to be awarded this award. We are still awaiting to hear from most festivals though have been turned down by a couple. I'm not surprised. most are accepting higher budgeted films with named-actors in them, neither of which I have, though my actors are just as good as most of the actors that attract viewers. I still maintain TPB will find a home somewhere, if not at a festival then with a distribution company that specialized in new talent. We'll see.
I have my copyright back from The Library of Congress for TPB and will soon burn copies of the movie to distribute to everyone who was involved in the production.
Currently, I have written a script that I will hold for a bit until I decide what is right for it. Nothing is set in stone when it comes to which script I will produce until I have actually taken pre-production steps beyond the script to produce a particular film. Many hours go into each production and you have to maintain a high level of interest and enthusiasm regarding it or it might fall flat and waste every one's time.
I have two other ideas in my head, both with merit, and I can't decide which direction I want to go. There's so much going on right now that I need to relax and soak it in for a few days. Everything has changed. It's like I now have 48 hours in each day. It's amazing.
Once settled into somewhat of a new routine, I will make my choice regarding which script I want to concentrate on. I can say that I shied away from the second psychological drama because that genre seems to be a hard one to break into - it's too weird for basic drama and not scary enough for horror - it's kind of a 'tweener' genre and from what I gather from at least a couple sources, festivals tend to sometimes look the other way when one of these come along, especially when it is cast with 'newbies.
I need to trust more.
Out.
