My then 7 year old daughter and I lived with my Brother who I worked with as well. Life was comfortable and predictable. Work, Church, Family…
There was no one special in my life at the time, so I decided, on a dare (more from myself than anyone else), to go online and find true love.
After all, isn’t true love the answer to true happiness?
I quickly scanned what seemed like several hundred candidates narrowing it down to 3 or 4. Only one replied… How very cool I thought that was.
The picture of “him” that interested me most was the one of him in Joshua Tree National Park. He was wearing this beautiful Native American Jacket with all the beads and tassels. He had to have the same love of the Native American Culture and Mother Nature as I did.
There was another picture in his profile with him and his grandmother. Again… how cool is this. Not only does he love the outdoors, is familiar with the Angeles Forest, he loves his family.
Our internet communications went a little like this…
Valerie: flirtingly I sent a smile
Daniel: Thank you for the interest. Although I’m flattered I’m undertaking an Independent Film project that will keep me tied up for at least 6 months.
Valerie: Thank you for the reply (polite weren’t we) I can understand how busy you’ll be. I have been involved in producing several TV and Radio spots and I know how much that entails.
Daniel: Really, have you gone to my website? You can learn more about the project I’m working on. www.neptunecowboy.com (He gave me his personal website too… interesting.)
Well now he’s really got my interest, thinking this can be something that will lead to at least a great friendship, I dove into both websites. (Okay the truth. I dove in hoping there might be something just a little more.)
First Daniel’s website… oh man, how deep is this guy? Great philosophy (more in a later blog entry), we have similar personality traits, he’s working on an Independent Film – THAT HE WROTE – and to top it all off he’s a TV journalist and a producer. (Wow, I hit it big here ladies.)
Now, the Neptune Cowboy site, I read the bio and thought to myself, pretty risky. He’s going places where a lot of people won’t want to go. He’s taking someone’s daughter from them. The mother of this daughter is being portrayed as a voluptuous drug addicted bad girl.
He’s even hitting delicate faith issues. (I, being a devout Christian was especially concerned. LOL)
Nonetheless it was an interesting enough project.
Valerie: Great project. Interesting Website.
Daniel: Thank you. Is that your daughter in the picture? Would you be interested in having her test for the lead part of Melissa?
Valerie: No, she’s never acted before, she’s still in school.
After several more emails Daniel overcame every one of my concerns.
Daniel and I agreed to meet at a local coffee shop. I was nervous. It felt more like a date than a meeting. (Little Miss Hopeful.)
I drove up in my little 1996 Toyota Camry and picked him out quickly. He was wearing a producer’s jacket, lots of pockets. I recognized his red hair and distinct eyes too.
We walked down the street to a Sports Pub. We found a table in the back where it would be fairly quiet and we wouldn’t disturbed during this very important production meeting. (Did I say I was nervous?)
We both ordered a beer and something to eat, soon began the small talk. You could tell by our body language that we weren’t quite comfortable yet. Well if you know me at all, you know that when I get nervous I talk. His one or two line questions turned into three or four sentence paragraph answers.
Finally after a bit of food and couple of beers later the conversation got more relaxed. We had so many things in common. He’s well traveled, yet down to earth.
Once we started talking about the project there was no stopping us. I actually got chills when he talked about Brandi Gannon’s role… It was like he was taking a page out my history.
I was even more chilled when he started talking about Melissa’s father, Levi… how did he know what my daughter’s father was like?
Three hours later we agreed that Daniel and Michaela should meet because she was indeed Melissa Gannon.
It was a very short drive home. I was so excited. I couldn’t believe it, my daughter being considered as a lead in an Independent Film, dinner with such an exciting person. What more could I possibly ask for? (No one’s going to believe this.)
I jumped online to check out the Neptune Cowboy website one more time. First, let’s check our email. Oh my God, an email from Daniel already! He was thanking me for an excellent meeting and good company. And then… He asked me to be a 2nd Assistant Director.
ARE YOU KIDDING? Of course I’d be interested!
We talked a little about changing some rather racy pictures (to show the character types being sought) on the original website so that anyone associated with Michaela would see that she's involved in a legitimate project. He quickly agreed. (Can this be true, this guy is respecting my wishes to protect my daughter?)
Once I got my hands on the script I read it from cover to cover (I’ve only read two books cover to cover and they were Stephen King books, which was more than 10 years ago.) Immediately I called Daniel… All I could think of saying was WOW… We must have talked for at least 2 hours. We shared more of our histories and knew immediately that this project had a life of it’s own.
Soon our first Directors meeting took place. We met at a Denny’s near where I was working at the time. We reviewed tons of head shots that had come in response to our casting calls, matching them up with appropriate roles. Next we needed a place to audition the actors so I went to my boss. We had just moved into a great office space in Santa Fe Springs. She agreed to let us use the office as our casting office.
We set up casting calls and the auditions were incredible. Everyone just seemed to match up so quickly. I even auditioned for the Preacher’s Wife. I had never done anything like this before. It was so bad Alex, 1st Asst Director, deleted it!
But our project seemed to take off so easily once the ball got rolling. Where are we going to shoot? Daniel has already scouted out many exterior locations, but we still needed many more interior sets. I went to my friends, family and even my church. They were all so very helpful! So hence I became the Locations Manager as well.
“Who’s going to do the make up and hair?” I kept thinking. Daniel had the answer. He thought it would be a good idea if I did it. Me? Well I did do a few make up sessions for Avon and for a Salon I worked for in Long Beach, Atlantic Studios. So now I’m doing hair and make-up. Okay, I can do this. It took a few months, but soon the actors and locations were in place.
Coming Next- Time for Production…
