What Makes Me Think I Can Produce A Movie?

1. I’m really smart.

2. I produced a book. You may not think that’s relevant to filmmaking but it is. I was a baby when I did Starart. I had no experience and had no connections. I only had a vision. And a lot of gatekeepers to get through.

3. I was the Art Director at Cannon Films. The mini-major with no walls. Film school in the combat zone. Many people who went through the Cannon boot camp have gone on to greener pastures, including my friend Michael Alden and Academy Award-winning writer, Jim Taylor.

4. I know marketing.

5. I produced a play. It was a one-act…about a child abuser…two actresses…and one of them was me. Sounds like an equation for disaster, right? But, I know marketing. I decided to do it for charity and got ChildHelp USA on board as the recipient (not an easy task, btw). I booked the Tiffany Theater on Sunset (they didn’t give us a deal on the rent – only a small donation). Problem: Getting butts in the seats to watch two nobody actresses in a one-act play about child abuse. Solution: a) get my friend, Michael Georgiades to write a song for the play and a very cute five year-old boy to sing it live, and, b) bring in celebrities to host the evening, including Robert Englund (Freddy Kreuger) and Christina Applegate. In three weeks, we raised close to $4000 for ChildHelp USA.

6. I almost produced two movies. This story deserves its own post. For now I’ll just say, I was a producer first. And after these two movies, I decided I needed to learn screenwriting. At the time, I didn't realize I was getting out of the frying pan and into the fire.

7. I’m stupid enough to try.