Damn, Damn, Damn

Had a meeting yesterday with Richard Johnston, Jason Hildebrandt and Jason's roommate Andy (I don't know his last name). We met for dinner and a drink at some bar/restaurant down in Soho. I brought copies of the script of THE PIG FARM for Jason & Andy. Richard gave me his feedback on the script (I had sent it to him last week) which was basically that he liked it. He did mention one technical thing (in the script Rusty owns 20 acres of land which later is referred to as being a mile long and Richard pointed out that for property to be a mile long it would probably have to be AT LEAST 120 acres) but that was it. Hopefully Jason & Andy will like the script as well.

Richard is set up to play RUSTY SHOWERS, Jason as JOEY MANLIONI, and Andy as DEREK ISAAC (named after the sacrificial character in the Bible).

I still have to get a script to Karen Oberlin to see if she'll play FRANNIE. I cast Karen as LILLIAN LOVE, in my attempt last year at shooting STRANGERS IN A CAR. She recommended Richard Johnston to me to play DOUG, and Andrew Lee Barret to play GERED, and Richard recommended Jason to me to play MASON GRAY (and Jason recommended Andy to me to play the part of KURT - a small part that Andy happened to be perfect for). The funny thing was each actor was absolutely perfect for each part they were recommended to me for so as fate would have it, my actors casted the film for me.

Anyway, STRANGERS IN A CAR, is an amazing story but required lots of money to shoot because it involved a cross-country car trip. Being unable to raise suitable funds I wrote THE PIG FARM this year in about two weeks time because it is a story that I am capable of raising funds for. I wrote it with the actors from STRANGERS in mind and, provided they want to be in the movie, the plan is to make The Pig Farm this year and STRANGERS IN A CAR next year.

So the meeting last night went well. Jason & Andy like the idea for the film and just have to read the script (they said they'll let me know Sunday). We decided to try to shoot the movie in two weeks time (I was hoping to shoot it in one week but that would be a killer pace and the film would suffer - not to mention the cast and crew). Jason also brought up a good point about the financing. Basically I'm putting up half the money for the film and a friend of mine, Matt Block, is putting up the other half. Now I'm all set to invest my money (my half is going to be paid on credit cards - sucks but that's all I got) and I'm definitely down for my half. The only problem is we don't want Matt to back out at the last minute for any reason so the idea now is I have to get Matt to give me his money ASAP so that we can put it into a savings account and have the money all set to go so that there'll be no problems later on. I even passed up a PA job recently for Nickelodeon International for the next six weeks and a PA job for an HBO picture out in LA for the next few months so I can shoot The Pig Farm so there better not be any problems with financing.

Actually guess what!!!?? I was writing the above journal entry and waiting for Matt Block to call me back so I can see about getting the $8,000 we had been talking about him giving me for his "half" of the movie, when he did call me. And you see, this just goes to prove you never know about anything in this world (and especially this business). I told him about the good idea to get the money in the bank and I asked him when could he get me the $8,000 and he said to me he never thought I was asking him for $8,000 and that he can only give $1,000!!! You see!!! He kept yessing me all along and now tells me he never heard me ask for that much money and he doesn't want to invest that much money in the film. You never fucking know (I'm sorry about the language but I'm a little upset right now).

So now I have to raise $7,000 more from other people just to make back what I thought I was getting from Matt! And that'll still be a few thousand dollars short of the $20,000 mark. This is a MAJOR, MAJOR bummer (especially since I backed out of those job offers) but, hopefully, I'll be able to overcome it. I'm just really upset now so I better go. I have to find a few more friends and family members I can get to give me some more money. Shit.

IF ANYBODY OUT THERE ACTUALLY READS THIS AND CARES TO HELP OUT WITH MY FILM E-MAIL ME AT MBARLIN@MINDSPRING.COM AND GIVE ME SOME EMOTIONAL SUPPORT OR BETTER YET, TELL ME YOU'LL SEND ME A DONATION TO HELP ME GET THIS FILM MADE! I KNOW I CAN GET COOL STITCHED HATS MADE THAT READ "STRANGER THAN PICTURES" OR "THE PIG FARM" BUT THEY COST ME $15 SO IF YOU CARE TO HELP OUT AND HAPPEN TO SEND, LIKE, $30 OR MORE, I'LL SEND YOU A HAT FOR BEING SUCH A PAL! Thanks. Shit.

Editor's note: Mr. Barlin has finished shooting The Pig Farm but I'm sure he'd still be glad to have any donations to try and find finishing funds.