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 #4 - Do You Want Some Cheese With That Whine?

I'm not complaining, folks. I set myself up for the struggle. I wanted this punishment. I don't want this blog to sound bitter. I'm excited! I feel like the coolest mofo in town. I just don't want to count my chickens before they cross the road, if you know what I mean. (You know why the chicken crossed the road, don't you? To see a man lay bricks.)

One great bit of fortune here at Dilligaf Productions is that we got so lucky casting Having My Baby. There are a lot of talented actors working and auditioning in Dallas, and we were lucky to get so many. Such kind, gracious, wonderful people. Beautiful people. I am deeply indebted to and very proud of all the actors involved in making Having My Baby a reality.

To those of you who got there late for the pizza, I'm sorry. To the actor left bleeding in the creek without a Band-Aid, I'm sorry. To the dear friend with the twisted ankle, I'm sorry. To the set designer with the hijacked back yard, I'm sorry. To all the numerous people who got poison ivy, I'm sorry. To the actor who had to blow into a breathalyzer to operate the vehicle as she drove and said her lines, because that was the only car we could get for that scene, I'm sorry. To the actor who got anthrax in the mail, I'm sorry. (Just kidding.) And to the actor who was persecuted by The Man, I'm sorry. To all the actors who tired of chips and sandwiches (and Wheat Thins, granola bars, cheese sticks and Fruit Rollups), I'm so very sorry.

To the actors who worked for points... thank you. Don't count them out yet in this economy. I just know we're going to be a big hit in Borneo. To the actors who worked for money... thank you. You were worth every penny and more. I'm just sorry I didn't have more. And to those of you who felt cheated, I'm sorry. And to those of you who donated your time, your resources and your money, a great big thank you. You shall forever be in the pantheon of the people I hold dear. And to my evanescent crew of misfits (a term of endearment to me), I thank you. You too shall get credit when the credits roll.

At the risk of sounding megalomaniacal, I really think we have accomplished something huge in the annals of low-budget indies. Our chances of a cult favorite are a million to one, but I'll gladly take those odds. Better odds than the lottery, mon ami. One thing that can be said of Having My Baby, is that the script has universal appeal. The logline can be understood in any language. Yes, even in the jungles of Borneo, they would understand the storyline of Having My Baby. You think I jest.

New York Times movie critic Matt Zoller Seitz called Having My Baby "a classic" after reading the spec script. Having My Baby poured out of me over a few weekends, as if my muse had turned on a faucet. When I passed around the spec script to an assortment of people, most women who had read it told me it made them cry. When big, burly, scarred roughnecks read it and said they got choked up, I knew I had something. I'm talking about guys who can crack a walnut in the fold of their arm, crying like babies. Guys big enough to eat apples off your head, fighting tears. And Having My Baby never slows down long enough for you to get bored. You won't even have time to notice that tripod leg in the frame. (Just kidding!)

A weird twist of fate has willed this movie into being, like memes taking over time and space and nourishing an anemic little movie into an organic dreamscape worthy of the movie gods. Egads, I sound a bit full of myself as I mix my metaphors. No Hegelian dialectics here, friend, just pure poetry of a movie; beautiful actors, beautiful Texas exteriors, southern style, abortion agonized, religion tinged, testosterone and pheremone fueled, action drama, baby! Get the popcorn ready, Mabel.

Peter and Lynda from the film Having My Baby

Peter(Jay Prichard) and Lynda(Tracie Foster) in a scene from the feature film Having My Baby. Coming soon from Dilligaf Productions.

National Guard characters in Having My Baby

National Guardsmen search the woods looking for kidnapper Blaine Carson.

Darrell Hughes and Wayne Donaldson as the National Guardsmen.