The 7 Year Itch

When I was a kid I saw this movie and now that I am much older and a tad bit wiser I understand the phrase 7 year itch more than I ever thought possible.

I typically shy away from getting too personal on this blog as I want to keep it business as usual, but wanted to take a moment and celebrate the fact that I have been in Los Angeles for 7 years. What a ride it has been. Reflecting back, I have had my fair share of ups and downs like the next person and I see very clearly the mistakes as well as successes I had along the way. The past couple months have been challenging to put it mildly, my business partner fell ill and moved away, financing fell through for our film and I was here alone to pick up the pieces of two years of trying to get it right and two more years of coming so close we could smell the paint dry on set. So four years of hard work and all I got was a plaque with my company name on it and a storage unit of office equipment. I packed up, moved into a home office complete with phone line, internet connection and close to my bed in case I need to bury my head under the covers.

One of the reasons I chose to come out to LA to try my hand at Producing film and tv (and now new media) was because of this man:

I was only about ten years old when I saw Sixteen Candles, the first film I saw by John Hughes. To this day it is still one of my favorite movies of all time. In fact, four of my favorite movies ever are Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful and of course Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I have even posted a blog about the music of Sixteen Candles being an inspiration to me growing up and how important music is to film. The Muse In Music So of course when I heard John Hughes died two days ago I began to reflect quite a bit on what brought me out here to begin with.

For anyone that knows me in life, they know I have an incredible affinity to coming of age stories, of all age ranges. Whether you are ten, twenty-one, thirty or fifty-seven, I believe we all have our time to come of age.  It has been a goal to find a coming of age script for years now.  When I was a CE five years ago and then head of development I tried desperately to find a script that reminded me of the films of John Hughes.  I remember reading a very AMERICAN PIE like script (several in fact) and I kept asking the agents and managers I knew, “We want to find a great coming of age story, like John Hughes’ movies” The agent or manager would say to me, “Oh that would be great, but we just don’t have anything like that right now.” Every single person I talked to at the time would have loved to find that script too, a great coming of age story that touched the hearts of the young who could relate to it in the moment as well as touched the hearts of those who were older who had already been through it.  It was and still is something that alludes me, finding the perfect coming of age story, a teen comedy that is funny yet poignant, smart yet stupid, and something someone of any age could enjoy. I want the next Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink or Breakfast Club and maybe some day I will find it…or write it…

This touched me! It is a blog by a woman who wrote to John Hughes, became his pen pal. Many of you I am sure have already seen it, but I want to share it here because it reminded me of when I wrote a letter to Robert Altman six months before he passed away, thanking him for making movies. He is another talented filmmaker who inspired me to want to make movies. To this day THE WEDDING is still one of the first memories of watching a movie and thinking WOW I want to make films like that (and if anyone has a copy or knows where I can get one let me know…I have yet to find it even on VHS). Anyway, so this woman, Alison is her name, wrote to John Hughes for two years and then again in 1997.  It is a wonderful glimpse into the reasons why John Hughes made the movies he did and why he ultimately walked away from his career.  This is the NPR story as well as Alison’s blog. Alison and The blog post that made me cry

Last night I attended the Topanga Film Festival and saw this movie: What About Me WOW. I heard ONE GIANT LEAP before I saw it and it still is one of my favorite film soundtracks to date. It truly was a magical night under the stars watching a film that was breathtaking and awe-inspiring. Check it out!

After some pretty deep philosophical conversation with my friends and some local Topanga residents regarding the film, I went over to the Dolores on Santa Monica Blvd just east of Bundy, on Purdue to grab some tea and dessert. The Dolores holds some fond memories for me.  I have done a lot of work with my business partner there, brainstorming, e-mailing investors, taking calls, for awhile it was my office before I had my office and now my home office.  I walked in and recalled how we came up with dialogue on our projects and created a treatment for the tv show we hope will get picked up one day. I also remembered the first time I had come to this diner, it was the day before Halloween, my then boss was trying to decide if he wanted to open a film and tv division and have me and my now business partner head it up. I was frustrated and so we went over to the Dolores where I had some fries and watched THE GREAT PUMPKIN CHARLIE BROWN and knew it was all going to be ok.

Being in LA for this long it’s easy to begin to get jaded, and if you are not careful, it’s easy to lose sight of why you came out here to begin with. I have not given up the fight; in fact after crawling into bed last night feeling somewhat defeated, this morning I got up, and began to write what could be the next great American novel as well as finished up my business proposal for a pilot I am producing this fall.  I may get down, I may have my days where I feel like packing it in and moving to Montana, but then something happens that makes me realize why I am here and what I set out to do…THANK YOU to those that have read this, one of my lengthier posts, and thanks for John Hughes… you will live on in your films for generations to come!