How Goodnight Came to Be (Part 1 of 3)

I was in LA, sitting on the floor of a cargo van, wedged between the drivers seat, a Palestinian fabric rug, and the passengers seat. Nily (AFI graduate student a few days shy of receiving her M.F.A. in Producing) drove. I spoke about a film I wanted her to produce.

Carnevale, a tale of a father haunted by the death of his son. Demons dressed in bright red Venetian masks, resembling that of Eyes Wide Shut, chase our hero through the woods as he dodges visions of his pale white son haunting him.

I had a whole look book: storyboards, visual references, the locations I wanted to use, even the type of trees I wanted in the background (birch trees) and a preliminary budget of $10,000 which I had funding for.

Nily stopped me. She asked "have you ever lost a son?" I said "no." She said "I know this story is very visual and you are passionate, but why do you want to tell this story?"

I paused for a moment. I told her how I was raised Roman Catholic and how CARNE + VALE broken down in Latin translates to "farewell to meat" that this film was about saying goodbye to something you love and a father coming to grips with the death of his son.

Nily persisted. Have you ever lost someone? "Yea" I responded.

"Who?"

"Mariana, my best friend and ex-girlfriend" Everyone in the van grew silent-we were doing returns for Nily's Thesis film and our 2nd AD/Co-Producer sat shotgun).

Nily responded: "You have to find a story that you HAVE to tell, something that there is NO WAY you will give up on. If the money runs out, if everything goes wrong, something you will die trying to make. Azad is a true story about a family member of mine in Iran and it expresses how I felt when I was trapped there for months unable to return to America."

HOLY SHIT I thought. My eyes were opened. No more films about two guys talking on their couch about getting laid, or rip-off thrillers about a serial killer on the loose. It was time to elevate my game.

I decided to make a film about over-medicated America, about those who fall victim to pills and drunk drivers because 5 of my friends including Mariana, have been slain in the last 6 years to intoxicated drivers.

But I learned something from my last film: I needed a writer and a great producer!

See my next post: Finding a Writer!