Having My Baby Wins Most Ambitious Film Award, or, Four Years of Snowballing Karma

The Blog lives on. We’re on a roll. Having My Baby won the award for Most Ambitious Film at the Columbia Gorge International Film Festival (formerly known as the Washougal International Film Festival) in Vancouver, Washington. Many thanks to the lovely and talented festival founder and director, Breven Angaelica Warren, and her trusted sidekick, Festival Captain, Wes Parker. They treated us very kindly during our stay in their fair city, and we really appreciate it.

Most Ambitious Film, Having My Baby. It has a nice little ring to it. I like it. I suppose I should get an award for Most Megalomaniacal Director, truth be known. I can proudly says, “It’s over, Johnny.” Having My Baby is a tangible commodity. So, I’m living proof you can make an award-winning, feature-length, action-drama film for $80,000 while simultaneously working 40-hour weeks for The Man. However, such sleep deprivation, physical hardship, mental anguish and gravity of will is not recommended for one’s health. It turns you into a “mean man.” Someone who is driven. Someone who will not take “no” for an answer. Like the Terminator, “It will not die!” “Ugh, must make movie, get out of way.” One friend in a polite way told me I was just stupid enough to think I could do it, and ended up doing it. After four years of seat-of-the-pants filmmaking making Having My Baby, I would have to say, I agree.

In the end, I’m proud of Having My Baby. It’s a cool little flick if the story interests you. One thing that has puzzled me however, is that people think Having My Baby is a Christian movie, however, I contend, it only has a fundamentalist Christian character. Sophie is proudly agnostic. As the creator of Blaine and Sophie, I never chose between them or took a side. As the omnipotent creator/writer, I must be totally neutral so that the audience may choose for themselves. Just the facts, ma’am. Having My Baby is an action-drama, human interest, love story. I guess. What do I know? The squares love it. The civilians love it. I love it, though some of it does still make me cringe. Too much karma still. Four years of snowballing karma wasn’t vanquished in a day.

HAVING MY BABY Now Available on DVD

You can now purchase HAVING MY BABY on DVD. Almost five long years after I began producing HAVING MY BABY, I can finally see the fruit of my labors. Many thanks to all who made it possible.

http://www.havingmybabymovie.com/Store.asp

Dispatch from Les # 7: The Movie Premiere is a Success

We finally had our premiere. I haven't had much time to write this web log and do it justice. Perhaps I will find more time in the future since we had a successful premiere of Having My Baby July 9 at The Studio Movie Grill on Royal Lane in Dallas. We had a great attendance rate at just under two hundred people. Many thanks to all of you who came and supported us.

Many people congratulated me right afterwards and said they loved the movie, and I could tell they were being sincere. The movie also got a lot of laughs where one might not expect them. The audience was hooked from the very beginning due to the rapid pace of the story unfolding, and due to the interest in the characters Blaine and Sophie's unusual romance. And the story line is very original: A young man kidnaps a young woman from an abortion clinic to prevent her from aborting his baby. No one ever came up with that one before. Originality really counts for a lot in this industry.

The demographic of people who seem to like this movie the most are elderly Christian women. They just gush over it, which makes me very happy. I have only had two people out of approximately a thousand say that they found the movie (or script) to be offensive because: 1. It glorifies violence and kidnapping. 2. It portrays Blaine as a Christian but his actions are not Christianlike. I think they miss the point, and possibly miss the bus. First and foremost, Having My Baby is a love story.

Those of us among the cast and crew were very happy the night of the premiere. I think the movie was better than people expected. We had some minor sound issues, and the sound was turned up a wee bit too loud, but we have since fixed those problems and have been submitting the film to festivals in hopes of winning some prizes and garnering some notice from the film community. To create a watchable, 2-hour, feature length, action drama for around $80,000 is really quite phenomenal. That feat in and of itself is really half the story. Sam and David and I have a lot to be proud of, in that after four years we never gave up; and we were always able to settle our differences amicably, and remain friends, and put the movie first over self interest. It was not easy!

We are on IMDb now, too. We are official! I began pre-production on this movie in August 2005, and our premiere was July 9, 2009. That was four long years, never knowing if we could finish it. But we did and we are very proud. We have one more free screening in Fort Worth on August 27 (see http://www.havingmybabymovie.com/) and then we can rest a little easier and get our lives back. Our only real chore after that will be to submit it to festivals and sell some DVD's online.

I may then shoot an over the top, R-rated biker flick called Dead or in Huntsville which I wrote back in 1993 and produced for the stage in Deep Ellum, and have since adapted into a screenplay. But I will definitely have to raise the money first - no more guerrilla filmmaking with a near zero daily budget for me. I'd rather not put myself and my crew, friends and family through that again. "The horror... the horror!"

Viva la original, truly independent films! Viva la Dilligaf Productions!

Dispatch from Les #6 - What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been

We're back! We're back, we're bad, we're in business. We have an excellent new trailer maestro David Dixon has put together. We have our fledgling new website, thanks to actor, star and computer guru, Stephen Brodie, and we're doing an AV test very soon on the big screen, thanks to executive producer and head honcho, Samuel H. Roden, III.

I'm putting together a press kit and soon to be released press release to inform the public and elucidate the masses concerning our little indie Texas gem, Having My Baby, and will hopefully, after four years of persistence, have our premiere in July: "If the 'Lord' is willing and the creek don't rise." Yes, our little action drama, soap opera, tear jerker of a movie has arrived. I know that after four years since preproduction (August 2005) and three years since beginning principal photography (September 2006) that some of you are like... yawn. What movie...? GTFOOH. Life moves on....

But we're back! Dilligaf Productions is back! We come back like a ghost in a dream that you can't shake. We're like that bad penny that keeps showing up on your doorstep. We're like the house guest that won't leave. We must be the center of attention! We demand it! Get hip, people!

I'm "betting the farm" that interest will pick up as more and more people see our little $80,000 wonder. The famous French filmmaker, Jean Luc Godard famously said, "All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun." Just remember, at the end of the day, when all is said and done, that Having My Baby is just a love story about two people named Blaine and Sophie; nothing more, and nothing less. A girl... a gun... a Bible... and a baby.