Who Slaps Their Business Partner & Pal on the Eve of Shooting a Film?
Gabe Casdorph. That’s “who”.
After the first few drafts of the script were “finalized”, I flew out to Salt Lake to meet up with Casdorph, some cast and crew members, and a close group of his industry friends to wrap-up the last few tasks of pre-production. Always generous, Gabe picked me up at the airport, beaming. He went to welcome me with open arms from the driver’s seat as I settled into the passenger seat when, SLAP!
Honestly, it wasn’t so much a “slap” as it was an accidental bump that came as the result of a well-intentioned hug, poorly executed inside a motor vehicle. BUT, that’s not attention-grabbing enough.
Since I got you, I want to tell you about Gabe’s group of industry friends who were instrumental in helping us pull things together. I can’t tell you all of their names (I’m fairly certain one or more are wanted for tax crimes), so I’ll tell you none of them. BUT, I will tell you that the folks who where there that night at the (beautiful) home of Vanessa & Joseph Winter (you tricked me into naming two of them) helped make He’s Dead into something so much stronger than what it initially was.
I usually don’t ask for feedback after I’ve polished a script. Draft 1 or 2? Yeah, gimme your notes, baby! After that, I’m a curmudgeon and want everyone with a “note” to write it down, fold it neatly, and carefully stuff it up their own ass, usually. However, we were making a feature, ourselves… we were all ears.
Mostly everyone gave mostly great notes. It was great. Usually the notes you tend to get are not-so-great. Bad, even. Not negative, mind you, but bad. Here’s what constitutes a “bad” note, for anyone who may be unfortunate enough to be friends with a writer; if you start with “What I would do is…” or it completely changes the tone or direction of the story or a pivotal scene? It’s a bad note. Shut up with your stupid suggestions.
Thankfully, we didn’t get any of that. We got thoughtful questions peppered with the occasional praise and insightful, unique perspectives on characters, scenes, and even some specific jokes that may have been taken the wrong way. In the end, did we completely change our story? Did I re-write the whole script? No. But, we made some critical tweaks to the script and have even referenced some of the notes from that night during our arduous post-production process.
So, what I’m saying is that when you watch the movie and find yourself LOVING it- know that a handful of weirdos in Utah helped make it THAT much better. OR, should you find yourself watching our film and not loving a particular scene, please know that it was Gabe’s friends’ fault. What WE wanted to do was actually brilliant but they effed it all up.