In just over a month from now, I’ll have been working on this film for 3 years. And it seems that wherever I go these days, everyone I meet has the same question. In fact I get asked it so many times that I’m calling it: “The Number One Question”. And that question is:

“WHEN WILL THE FILM BE FINISHED?”

I always feel slightly uncomfortable when I’m asked this. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an important and very valid question. After all, it’s been a long process and some of you have been following the project from the start. Many people tell me they can’t wait to see the final product.

I can’t either!

I get uncomfortable because I can’t answer the question. I wish I could do what the big studios do and have a release date planned a year in advance. But I can’t. There is so much that goes into making a film, especially a low-budget, independent, passion-driven project like this one and there’s lot’s that can get in the way. So when I’m asked the “Number One Question”, I try to explain that I’m a homeschooling parent, time with family is precious, I have a tiny film crew (3 people) and on top of it all, I still have to find time for that pesky activity called “making a living.”  If I had a big budget and oodles of time on my hands, things would be different.

But the flip side to that slightly uncomfortable feeling, is that I’m thrilled. I’m thrilled that lots of people keep asking because it always fills me with a new sense of purpose and helps to re-focus my efforts.

So for those of you out there who may be dying to ask that “Number One Question” yourself, here’s what I can say:

* We have a shoot planned in July with Blake Boles and we’re currently planning what may be our final shoot with the family we’ve been documenting in LA. So aside from some  pickup shots here and there, and any additional things we forgot, we may be very close to completing the actual filming portion of things. Then it’s full steam ahead in the editing room. If all goes well, I’m hoping to have a rough cut of the film by the end of the year. It’s about 300 hours footage to sift through, but I’ve been squeezing it in here and there and have already made some progress.

Once I have a rough cut, we’ll have a few private screenings for friends, peers and a select few people so we can get feedback and make changes. Once we have a fine cut we’ll send it off to our fabulous composer Jonas Friedman to be scored. Add on some time for final tweaks, mixing and color-correcting and voila, you have a movie!

That was the long answer….the short one is: it’ll hopefully be ready for release in early 2014. But as I mentioned earlier, there’s lots of other things to juggle and contend with.

So uncomfortableness aside, thank you for asking “The Number One Question” and keeping us on track. Thank you for your patience and continued support.

I can assure you we’re doing the best we can to stay on track and meet our goals.

Blessings,

Jeremy