I actually use the term "big problem vs little problem" more then you would think because it's a teaching point for my autistic children, specifically my oldest who will be 15 in August he has anxiety along with being on the "high functioning" side of the Autism Spectrum and with his anxiety comes panic over things that some are huge to anyone and others are small to others but he sees them as huge problems that can't be overcome, this is where the "is it a big problem or a little problem" comes in . The reason I'm telling you this is because when I'm on set working I suffered from what I call "on set anxiety" allow me to explain how this all ties together .
Like I said I have "on set" anxiety and what I call "office anxiety" as well and yesterday is a perfect example last night was the final table read for Sins of Man II : Vengeance which starts shooting on May 1st . and with in 3 hours of the read I had people telling me that they couldn't make it to the read and that made me anxious knowing that I would have to cover for them during the read which makes it hard to follow along and make notes as I was getting to the read one person text me telling me she was coming she was going to be late only to text me again as we are all waiting for her saying she wasn't coming. This sent me from panic to angry really quick I had no time to process what was happening at the time I just handed out the extra reading parts to the cast that was there and didn't even realize that I was solving the problem at them time because I couldn't process was it a big problem or a small problem...
Less then half of the cast was at this read and now everyone had to pick up extra parts to read and they all did an amazing job with it and took it in stride . We had a special guest at the read as well he's a fellow writer / director by the name of Alan Dillingham he and Sheri Collins (Who plays Adrienne in Vengeance) are working together on the short film Doll House . Check out the Teaser here :
We made it through last night and are now moving into the final script changes (all minor ones) then we start shooting on May 1st (Very excited to start we have some really cool things planned for this movie and I can't wait to bring you a more brutal, blood thirsty, violent Mortis who wants nothing but to slaughter as many people as possible. Mortis will be the monster that makes you check behind your door, check your closet and always carry a flashlight when you walk through a dark parking lot at night !!
You know when you 15 year old Autistic son asks in the middle of YOUR breakdown "Is it a BIG problem or a little problem" that you have finally gotten through to him and it puts the issues at hand into perspective rather quickly . This is something I will keep in my bag of tricks on set when we kick of shooting of our second feature film Sins of Man II : Vengeance on May 1st !!!
STAY HUMBLE, STAY HUNGRY MY FRIENDS :)