Since finishing the polish, my script is finally ready to move forward. When I get asked what I think is one of the most important characteristics for working in this crazy business, I reply, learn to have patience. It's taken me a long time to realize this but you're going to be waiting on various people throughout every stage of the process (except writing and then you're usually waiting on your muse) so you better learn it quick.

Patience helps when you get that knee jerk reaction to send out a script before it's ready (been there, done that, never again), it also helps when after the final polish (at least until pre-production) you're waiting to get back a budget from your UPM (Unit Production Manager), waiting to have your attorney read the project, waiting on the casting director to return your calls... as you can see, this is a team effort that requires a lot from others as well as the one driving the train.

The process for "Produced By Jimmy Wade" for the next couple of months is as follows... fine tune and tweek the budget, write the business plan, get an attorney to sign on to the project, get a casting director to sign on to the project, think about lead casting, start speaking to accredited investors about investing in the project... a long list that's just going to grow as the time passes. But this is fun, the hard part (getting the script in fighting form) is done.

When I handed off my script to the UPM here in New York for budgeting, he asked, "Why now? You've been working in advertising for the past four years, why are you ready now?"... I pointed to the script, "It wasn't me that needed to be ready, it was my script." Man, it felt good to say that. What I see too often here in the indie film world in New York is that people are hustling projects that clearly aren't ready in the script that's presented. Although there will be changes made to Jimmy Wade, it's where it needs to be in my honest to god judgement to move forward.

Now let's hope my UPM doesn't come back with, "You're going to need at least 5 million..."... in the meantime, check out Josh Friedman's blog, one of the best out there... and he updates about just as much as I do. EB