I’ve never been to Tallahassee, but I hear good things.Actually I don’t. My friend Beth, a Florida State alum, not-so-fondly refers to this rustic locale as “Tallahickee.” But hopefully The Beneficiary can class the place up a little, as the Tallahassee Film Festival has graciously accepted my movie, and become stop number nine on the tour. Yeehah.
Once again, I’ll use this Festivus space to drop a little knowledge about the film, in the form of a story I told before it was screened at William Morris:
It took over two years to shoot the whole thing. Whenever we had equipment and money, we’d get the crew together and get to work. And if we didn’t have money, we’d go guerilla, including one day in which we needed coverage of my character walking into a pawn shop.
We’d shot inside the shop six months earlier, and paid the owner a fee for the day, but now we were out of cash. So I put on my wardrobe, and the crew hid across the street with the camera. I set my phone to vibrate for the director’s cue to action, then hit the buzzer to get past the wrought-iron, front gate and went inside. I browsed around the place, then faked a call on my cell and walked out. I did it a second time. But then the third time, the Iranian shop owner, seeing me in my wardrobe, smiled and exclaimed, “Mr. Actor Man!” I made a beeline out the door and mouthed to the crew “Abort! Abort!” We quickly packed and split.
Here’s the kicker: after all that, the shot didn’t even make it into the final cut. It happens. Welcome to showbiz.
