Looking Back

Some background information.
I'm a 40 something aspiring writer/independent-film/video/ guy. (That's me in the pink shirt and my best friend in the red.) Yes, normally people do this sort of thing in their early 20s i.e. Kevin Smith, Rodriguez. In your 40s you've put away silly dreams and gotten on with what remains of your life. Well, I probably would have, had it not been for my best friend coaxing me back into this world. My best friend and I started out writing scripts way back in the early 90s, when we were still in our twenties. But life got in the way. Or maybe we let life get in the way or maybe we just lost the gumption and confidence to believe in our dreams? I don't really care to analyze the past- I don't have the time or luxury. My best friend, Gerald Pettit got me back in the script writing mood about 4-5 years ago. Both of us, fully employed in very demanding jobs. Him with a family and me with a job that calls for lots of travel. Yet we decided to embark on writing a television script about Mexican-American families on the South Texas border. I would have never thought of going back to the world of scripts...much less of actually filming anything.

Maybe it was always in the back of my mind to come back to this. Maybe it was always there lurking in my dreams. Maybe Gerald (who knew me better than I know myself) always knew it was there and that's why he came to me with these ideas. I don't know.

I do know this. I can't afford to do too much analysis about how I ended up here. I'll leave that for later. Right now, I have to get on with actually getting on with this thing. Gerald died this year. He died of Glioblastoma Multiform, an aggressive brain cancer. He was the best person I've ever known and he's gone. He was my best friend. He was the brother I always wanted. And I promised him that I would finish what we started. I promised him while he lay there dying, probably not terribly conscious, but I promised him nonetheless. I promised that I would take our dreams as far as I could, for his wife and kids and for us...for our friendship.

So I'm starting this journal to document what's going on with the script.
You will notice that I'm not being very open about the story I'm trying to film... Gerald and I were always very guarded about the work we did...call it foolish paranoia, but hey, we just believed in protecting our intellectual property.

We.. you will notice me slipping into "we". Gerald is gone. But this project, this part of my life belongs to him and me and I will slip into "we" and make no apologies for it.


So here we go.