SHE LOVES ME NOT #6 (the year of the movie)

So here I am, nearing Christmas, all alone in my house on a Friday night.  Well, not totally alone.  My son's little doggie, Vannie, is with me.  We call her our granddoggie because we don't have any grandkids yet, and so little Vannie is working out nicely as a placeholder.  Anyway, me and my little furry buddy are hangin' on this chilly Friday.  My wife is in Japan visiting my son, who is studying Asian Studies in school.  This will be the first Christmas in 30 years that my wife and I will not spend together.  It's only been a couple of days since she left, and I'm already starting to act a little weird - talking to myself and what have you.  I don't know what to do with myself.  My acting classes are on hold for a week, and I don't have any production work at the moment, which is typical for this time of year, so it feels like I have a lot of free time.  I do actually have a big production job coming up in January that I'm preparing for - I bought a new computer and the new Final Cut Pro X that I'll use to edit, and I've been going through all the YouTube tutorials in my attempt to reduce the severity of the learning curve, so that's been occupying some of my time.  I'm also trying to be productive in other, more domestic ways as well.  I put in a new ceiling light in one of the upstairs bedrooms, and I changed the oil on my wife's car.  I even cleaned out all the tiny little dead bugs inside our porch lights.  It's the evenings that seem to pass slowly - the time when my wife and I are usually seated on our couches in the family room - first having cocktails and discussing the events of the day, and then shortly thereafter, getting mad at the evening news as we eat dinner.  As a feeble attempt to fill that void, I re-activated Netflix the day my wife left for Japan, so I've watched a few movies.  Watching new indie films inspires me to push forward with mine.  The business plan is finally completed, and it looks impressive.  The next big step is getting a name actor to sign on, or at least provide a letter of intent.  Apparently this is the magic elixir that will boil and bubble down the throats of all the monsters out there trying to thwart my plans and turn them into harmless toads and pussycats.  Without a name, according to the consensus, no one is going to be interested in my film (even though no one heard of Jennifer Lawrence in the Academy Award nominated WINTER'S BONE, and there are no "names" in the highly successful PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchise, and I can cite countless other films without name talent that were quite successful as well, so once again, the consensus is not necessarily the definitive.)  Nevertheless, I do want to use a recognizable actor because I do believe it will greatly improve investor interest and marketability.  I have several actors in mind, and after the holidays, my attorney is going to start making phone calls to agents.  In addition to the talent quest, I must engage and consume the next two servings on my proverbial plate.  The author of the business plan is recommending that I employ the services of a Producer's Rep who can, according to said author, help immensely with procuring distribution outlets both home and abroad, but according to my research, it seems not all Producer's Reps are on the level!  Some of them are greedy, self-serving-con-men-sons-a-bitches!  Imagine that!  Unscrupulous people in the motion picture industry!  And with the advent of non-traditional distribution platforms, many indie-minded opinions I've read suggest you don't need someone else to peddle your film!  You can avoid the pitfalls of going with a Producer's Rep!  You can DIY!  Sell dvd's from your own website!  Make your own deals with digital download companies!  So now I have even more conflicting opinions to sort through before I can make a decision.  But the more I read about the arguments for and against Producer's Reps, the more I keep reading about the second item on my plate - completion bonds.  A completion bond would of course be attractive to an investor involved with the risky business of indie filmmaking.  With a completion bond, the investor is guaranteed the film will be completed - not that it will make money and their investment returned, mind you, but simply that the film will be completed as proposed in the plan.  The problem I have with a completion bond (other than the expense) is the fact that if you happen to fall behind in the schedule, or begin to go over budget, the bond company can fire the Producers and Director and take over the film!  Now, I've spent countless hours putting this package together!  I wrote the script (based on Jean's book) and I broke it down into a detailed shooting schedule with a detailed shot list for every single day, and from that I calculated a detailed budget.  Things always go wrong with productions - there's always obstacles to overcome, and I will be prepared to deal with them.  I will know what scenes or lines of dialog can be replaced or reworked or eliminated in order to pick up time.   I will know where and how to leap-frog from one location to another if we are forced to do so.  No matter what detours in schedule or budget may occur, I will be prepared to improvise, adapt, overcome (thank you, Clint) not some completion bond Director.   This is my baby, and the only way I would give up my own flesh and blood is over my dead body!  Goodness.  I didn't mean to get so carried away.  Tis the season to be jolly, right? Check back after the holidays, after my wife returns from Japan, and things return to normal.  I look forward to the new year - 2013 is the Year of the Movie.