Two Drops From Dry
In the inexorable rush of western civilization to dynamite itself, the United Kingdom voted out of EU membership today. The thing is, we actually financed “Clocking The T” from my international savings account in Britain.
*gulp*
How does a European political debacle have anything to do with a Los Angeles based micro-budget passion project? To make sense I need to back up a little.
*gulp*
How does a European political debacle have anything to do with a Los Angeles based micro-budget passion project? To make sense I need to back up a little.
Back in 95’ I went to Ireland to work on a film and by the time I came back six months later I had an Irish girlfriend who I would later marry. We settled in Los Angeles but we’d talked about eventually moving back to Europe when we retired. Since the dollar was wobbling at the time, we started a savings account over there and banked the excess of all the crazy money I made working in the trailer world. We’d pay taxes on it here, and then convert to Euro and transfer it over. We didn’t buy fancy cars, or waste our money on yuppie bullshit. We lived nicely and saved away. As the Euro rose it was a nice profit.
Once that marriage blew up (Insane hours = crazy money = KABOOM!) I left my half parked on the Isle of Mann waiting for… I dunno. Death, I guess. I had no plans for it until 2013 when I woke up one morning and decided to Make A Movie. When I pulled the trigger on “Clocking The T” I had about $180,000 in cash sitting in that Lloyd’s of London account. And little by little I started transferring it over. At first I bought equipment, then eventually paid for insurance and payroll and every unit cost imaginable. And when our NLE blew up all over the show (Fuck Avid) and shut us down for three and a half months, I transferred more for living expenses while trying to resuscitate the production (Did I mention ‘Fuck Avid, ’ cause I really mean, ‘Fuck Avid’). Over those months the GBP would slowly sink, shrinking from 1.80 to 1.42, the last time I transferred money over.
As the cursed post production phase of CTT dragged on and on and on and on and on we started watching the numbers in our bank account decline. Making matters worse for us was the increasing amount of freelance jobs I turned down so I could have the time to work on the film. A quiet discouragement was evident: We’re not paying ourselves. This is an investment. A speculation. But that can’t happen if we can’t survive. And so we inevitably poured more and more money into living costs not directly associated with the film.
So the True Cost of “Clocking The T” is intangible. While it cost x to ‘make the movie, ’ it actually cost closer to y to ‘produce the movie. ’ In the end we’ll have probably zeroed out the entire $180,000 for a finished digital delivery of “Clocking The T. ”
But…
If I hadn’t made this movie I’d have less than half of what I bought sterling at. I’d essentially have lost my savings. I mean, not all of it, but enough to make you feel like you had. Enough to make you walk under a black rain cloud the rest of your life. So it’s crazy. Instead of crying to the sky I felt an enormous sense of self-satisfaction today. When I rolled the dice on making this movie I couldn’t have foreseen that there wouldn’t be any other choice. That in the rear view mirror of history it would look a helluva lot like destiny. And that instead of ashes in my hand I would be holding a sprout.
Fuckin’ A.
___
© Michael Thibault 2016, All Rights Reserved. May Not Be Printed, Published, Posted, Transferred, Or Duplicated Without Permission.
Once that marriage blew up (Insane hours = crazy money = KABOOM!) I left my half parked on the Isle of Mann waiting for… I dunno. Death, I guess. I had no plans for it until 2013 when I woke up one morning and decided to Make A Movie. When I pulled the trigger on “Clocking The T” I had about $180,000 in cash sitting in that Lloyd’s of London account. And little by little I started transferring it over. At first I bought equipment, then eventually paid for insurance and payroll and every unit cost imaginable. And when our NLE blew up all over the show (Fuck Avid) and shut us down for three and a half months, I transferred more for living expenses while trying to resuscitate the production (Did I mention ‘Fuck Avid, ’ cause I really mean, ‘Fuck Avid’). Over those months the GBP would slowly sink, shrinking from 1.80 to 1.42, the last time I transferred money over.
As the cursed post production phase of CTT dragged on and on and on and on and on we started watching the numbers in our bank account decline. Making matters worse for us was the increasing amount of freelance jobs I turned down so I could have the time to work on the film. A quiet discouragement was evident: We’re not paying ourselves. This is an investment. A speculation. But that can’t happen if we can’t survive. And so we inevitably poured more and more money into living costs not directly associated with the film.
So the True Cost of “Clocking The T” is intangible. While it cost x to ‘make the movie, ’ it actually cost closer to y to ‘produce the movie. ’ In the end we’ll have probably zeroed out the entire $180,000 for a finished digital delivery of “Clocking The T. ”
But…
If I hadn’t made this movie I’d have less than half of what I bought sterling at. I’d essentially have lost my savings. I mean, not all of it, but enough to make you feel like you had. Enough to make you walk under a black rain cloud the rest of your life. So it’s crazy. Instead of crying to the sky I felt an enormous sense of self-satisfaction today. When I rolled the dice on making this movie I couldn’t have foreseen that there wouldn’t be any other choice. That in the rear view mirror of history it would look a helluva lot like destiny. And that instead of ashes in my hand I would be holding a sprout.
Fuckin’ A.
___
© Michael Thibault 2016, All Rights Reserved. May Not Be Printed, Published, Posted, Transferred, Or Duplicated Without Permission.