Photograph from Thesis shoot 11/2009Last night Gus and I held our Investor's Dinner at my house. We invited our families (and Megan) over to view our completed short film Wreckage. We wanted them to be able to meet us, talk to us about what it is we had been working on for past year and three months, and then ask them if they wanted to invest in our dream.
That is what Thesis is. It is our dream. Our dream to make films and be the deciders of our own destiny, to be able to do something creative every day and love every minute of every day. It is something we have been working on for a year and three months now, incorporating all our passions into. Something that we have poured our blood, sweat, and tears into.
Showing our short was nerve-racking. Wreckage was my muse in January. It was the beast mask made by Paul, Gus, Mike Bruno and Paul's friend Kat that inspired the idea for Mother. I had the emotions and the strife boiling within me, I was just lacking the focus. Wreckage gave me that focus.
Yet I didn't have the emotional or time investment in it that Gus had. Poor Gus. It was not easy for him to show it to Matt, Pat and I. We were harshly critically, but Gus took it well. He took it and Paul and he created an amazing film. One I was proud to have my name attached to and couldn't wait to show to the people who were important to me.
Despite my excitement, as Gus and I stood in the back watching everyone watch it I broke out in a full sweat. It was gross, but I just got so nervous and so scared about what everyone would think that I couldn't control it. What if my family thought I was wasting my time? That we didn't have anything worth while here? What if they hated it?
Luckily, that is not the reaction we received. In fact, the complete opposite. From their words, questions and their investment (we raised 88% of our set goal in one night) it was clear that we were doing the right thing.
The question arises though, how do you repay someone for essentially making your dream possible? Without the contributions of my family members and Gus', making Thesis would be extremely difficult. All the members of the crew have already contributed to the film financially as much as they can, and several of us have pledged to invest more when the time comes, yet that last chunk was going to be difficult to come up with without the aid of others.
Knowing that these people - my Aunt Kathy, Aunt Sue and Aunt Judi, Paul, my Grandma, Matt's parents, Megan, and my Dad - believe in us and are willing to help us in this way, is overwhelming. What they have given us is unbelievable. And the only way we can show our gratitude to them is for us to do it, really do it, to make Thesis, and make it AWESOME. We will achieve the dream that they believe in and that we believe in.
The pressure's on, and we will definitely rise to the occasion.