Making it happen, then watching it happen

A word of warning: this entry is very me-centric and skirts around the edges of egomania. Let me assure you that I'm still as self-loathing as ever. Death, taxes, and me hating myself: depend on it!

About a year ago, I wrote a short story to submit to a horror anthology. Said horror anthology rejected the story, in part because I accidentally wrote a comedy, but I had fun writing it and showed it to some friends. Swarney, filmmaker extraordinaire, told me to turn it into a script. So, I turned it into a script. Swarney says "I'm doing this next." He gets his two leads, one of whom is a good friend and a beloved Atlanta actor. I don't know the other lead, but if Swarney wants him, then I'm sold.

This morning, we had our first script readthrough with Matt and Jeremiah. The four of us were all kind of worn out from our respective Saturdays, but watching those two guys take control of the characters and get them figured out was incredible. We read through it once, with Swarney leading things and me filling in one for one of the supporting roles. Everybody stops once the food arrives (as an aside, the weekend brunch menu at Manuel's Tavern is greasy and awesome), then we run through it again, switching the leads. Those two guys owned it by the second time through, and I found myself laughing at lines I had written because they sold it so well.

I was also laughing because what I had written was genius, but that's a given.

It's just kind of weird that this riduculous story that I wrote one afternoon last year while stuck at home, bored and depressed during a snowstorm has now lead to actors learning lines, locations being scouted, and people commiting a lot of time and effort. It's gratifying and humbling and I'm looking forward to being a part of it as it develops. More on this as it happens.