Roger Corman was right.

I set my alarm for 6AM, but I wake up at 5AM. Now what do I do with an extra hour of prep time?

I go to make my coffee. I'm one of those that needs coffee immediately or I can barely function the rest of the day. 

I see a text from an actor, Mike. He says he can't make it now. I'm not mad. I'm not upset. Okay, I'll reach out to a few others then. Someone must want to be up on the screen. We'll get Mike up there on the next film.

I was ready early. I had a single toaster waffle with whipped butter and sugar-free syrup.with my coffee. Deb, my right hand and producing partner arrives. She honks the horn to let me know she's there. She's old-school. I'd have texted. I like that about her though. That, and the fact that she came out from Riverside, CA to make a movie with me. She likes most of my ideas, loves that I have made being a father my new personality for the decade, and that I promote her constanstly. I had quit owning vehicles around 2012. I've been thinking about the future and I don't think driving is valuable anymore. So I got rid of the car and walk or take public transit. Deb picks me up, I put all of our stuff for the day in the backseat and we're off to the set.

Roger Corman is someone I have studied a lot. One of my favorite ideas he talks about is making Lawrence of Arabia all in a tent to save money. The truth is that storytelling is about compelling characters and real dialogue. A lot of other stuff can happen but it's the characters we go to see. The actors on the big screen. It's not about all the plot. Those are generally forgetabble, especially when you've seen as many movies, TV shows, and comics as one does in modern times.

It's because of Mr. Corman that I came up with Waiting for the Bus. It's a big movie, but set in one setting. It's a small movie with big ideas and even bigger characters. 

We start off with Lisa's role. She's the crazy dog person in the movie. I met Lisa on a dating app where she was dressed as a chicken. I liked her quirky snapbacks enough to keep in touch even though it turned out we weren't compatible for dating life. I offered her a role in the film and she accepted,  showing up with her 2 dogs as co-actors. Her role was all about the craziness but also the relationship with her dogs shows she needs to be caring for someone or something.

Lisa and I had discussed ideas about a crazy guy making a podcast about a woman he was dating. The end result turned into a 6 episode audiodrama called She's My Girlfriend.

There's Alex's role, the conspiracy theorist. Thinks everyone is out to get him. Alex did such a good job. I met him in an audition for a movie I was making about 2 people stuck in a room. Alex's performance was incredible, but he wasn't right for the part in the end. I've kept in touch with him and expect to put him in everything I can. 

Steve, one of my neighbors, is a comedian and actor. He's been in all the gangster roles. One of the best things about him is how quick he is. I remember thinking that Steve's character would be the person I would smile and keep taking steps away while saying goodbye. His character turned into a real weird creep. That's what I wanted but I didn't know until I saw it how scary that type of character is in real life.

The woman I've been seeing, Becca, asks me about the project a few weeks back when I finished writing and prepping. I, of course, think she's the bees knees and extremely funny, so I ask if she wants to have a small role. She ended up staying with us for a few hours. She actually did a lot of work with our lead actor and ended up staying in the finished film a lot.

She actually nailed her role! Maybe she'll be the next leading lady? We'll see. She should go for it.

Matthew, one of my longest known friends, also an actor, came through and put on a wig, acting like a drunk showing up and trying to get others to join in his insanity. I'll always be grateful that he pitched in with some of the funniest lines in the film.

Charity is someone I met on her first acting job since moving to Los Angeles. She was so new to everything but her heart was open and she became our dancing character on screen. I'm so thankful for her to come in and dance for us. 

Andrew is someone I met while doing actor work on Star Wars television. They cut my scene short and I didn't have any lines, but it was one of the higher profile featured roles. Great payday and I hung out with Andrew, found out he's a father and it's part of his personality too. It's always fun to meet people who go all in when it comes to new experiences and potential in others. 

Eric is one of my friends who I met through Reddit. We're both computer nerds and we needed actor types to read scripts together. He was initally very shy, but we did some extra takes and goofed of enough to loosen him up and he knocked it out of the park with his role.

Deshyra is someone brought to me by the casting agency. There were two young women who I really liked but chose her because she seemed to have that soft face but stern command while speaking. She did fantastic in her role. The funniest part of this is her role is huge, but only needed for a handful of lines. She thought this was a short film and I had to correct her on what we were accomplishing together. Sadly though, she moved away and I haven't truly been able to keep in touch with her. 

The last person I want to talk about is Ethan. He is generally clean-shaven but I had liked his performance at the audition that I asked if he could grow a beard. He showed me some pictures and seeing him with a little bit of stubble on his face sold me that he had the right look. The only issue is he grows a beard slowly, unlike mine that can grow full in a week. We did a good amount of test shots and blocking with Deshyra a week before we did the filming at the bus stop and I got to know him well. He's a respectable person that commits to the role, and his performances and reactions did so well for the final film. I'm so lucky to have met him. My goal is to put him in every film I make, even if just a quick one liner. That's how fun he is to be around.

I got truly lucky to have so many people to work with on this project. This was all a test for me. I saw an opportunity to make a feature film and the writing came from my own experiences. We finished right as the night began, which we had planned. Also though, we came back and filmed some extra shots a few months later once the Assembly Edit stage was happening. Over the entire year, I'd go out and film extra B-roll content to tell the right story I wanted to. I'm proud of the final film. It's a cool little movie that has a cool story. 

Roger Corman saw it all as a business decision in his filmmaking books, but I have suspicion he was the most creative out of them all. These days I consider budget as a way to make things better, not a way to toss money at problems. Most people that do that fare better than people with lots of money in their budget anyway. Think of movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, A Bucket of Blood, or Little Shop or Horrors.

Thank you for all that you've made and done and written. I use it every day while in the creative zone. 

Roger Corman, you were right. I will always work grounded, but think towards the skies.