My Interview: part1

I had saliva dripping off me from every job website that had spit in my face. I sat in a little conference room waiting for my interview to begin-- 5 black empty chairs at a long cheap table.

The boss entered. He had an "at ease" quality in the way he moved his husky body. His voice was calming, and I liked his hair cut: it was the same as mine. He leaned back in his chair and asked a few questions about me and what I had done. I had edited for this and that commercial etc. It moved along like any interview.

"But I really," I told him. "I want to make my film Joy Lies." I felt I was going out on a limb. He made commercials and most (future) bosses don't like the idea of extracurricular activities. He leaned forward in his chair and looked me right in the eye.

"You know, I've made 368 episodes of a TV show. I spent $100,000 dollars of my own money; drained the kids college funds, mortgaged the house. There is just no room in this industry for an independent producer anymore. If I tried to sell my show in the Chicago market, lets say, the big networks wouldn't take it even if they wanted to. Because the big guys would muscle them and say, 'If you take that show, we won't sell you Smallville.'"

"Now you," He pointed at me with his phone, " If you make this film and it goes to video, or even the theaters, the best you can hope for is working for Miramax or something, editing trailers. You'll never make your next film on your terms."
He paused leaning back in his chair. I thought "That sounds pretty good, Quentin's Editor."

He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Maybe thats what you want to do, I don't know. I never took the jobs offered me. I mean I made four successful films in the '80s. It was a different market with video. And I got offered jobs to produce." He suddenly swiveled and flopped his arms on the table. "They wanted me to work in a cubical making phone calls all day. I was offered a job at Sony and MGM. But I can't stay in an office all day, never getting behind a camera again, and working on someone else's projects." He leaded back calmly and looked out the glass door. Then, almost in a whisper, he said. "I make more now then I ever got offered then."

He stared out, and I wondered where this interview was going.