Filming starts tomorrow!

The day before filming starts. This is always a weird day for me. It's not nerves. It used to be. On "Macbeth" and "Between the Raindrops", it was nerves. What am I doing? Who am I kidding? This could all be a terrible mistake. Can I actually do this?

On "Dorian", it changed a bit. It wasn't "Can I do this?" anymore. It became "I HAVE to do this". I had been telling people how stunning "Dorian" was going to be for weeks before I actually started shooting it, so by the time production came around, it had occurred to me that I'd better live up to it. In the days leading up to production, things were so crazy and hectic, with last-minutes hurdles appearing everywhere, that I didn't really have time to stress about whether or not I was capable of making the movie I wanted to make; I just knew I had to do it.

"Angels on Fire" brought its own challenges, since I was making the movie as a tribute to both James O'Barr and Brandon Lee, as well as trying out a different kind of movie than I'd done before. I kind of reverted back to the "Can I actually do this" stress, but it was a little easier to deal with, now that I had three movies under my belt.

Now comes "People Like Us"... My stress isn't whether or not I can do it. I know I can. It's a question of "Will this movie FINALLY cross the finish line?" There's such a history with me and this story. Technically, this is the third time I'll try and shoot this script. I first wrote it about four years ago. I tried shooting it while I was in film school and then again about two years ago. Each time, for different reasons, it didn't happen. Some actors have stayed since the beginning and others have came and went. Each time that's happened, though, I feel like the cast has only gotten stronger. That's not to take away from any of the actors I've worked with before, but I think this is easily the strongest ensemble I've ever had on a film. Also, because the movie's taken so long to make, I've had a lot of time to tinker with the script and get it in the strongest shape that I can. At this point, I'm confident in the cast and script enough that all I want to do is just shoot this GODDAMN movie. I've lived with it for years. It's time to get this fucker on the screen. Time to triumph.

Now it's the day before cameras roll. Tomorrow we shoot with Rachel (playing Sarah) and Jessica (playing Julia). Sunday, we start with James (playing Matt) and Clay (playing Rick). It's going to be a blast.

Here's hoping nothing falls from the sky and gets in our way.

~Vincent~