Location Location Location

I turned 25 yesterday. Woo-fucking-hah. Ear hair and sore hips, here I come. It seems much older than 24, strangely. But 24 was a year of progress - not necessarily open doors, but more like french doors. Sure, you can see through them, but they ain't swinging wide just yet.

I have been putting off new re-writes on Chub and Marigold Moon, but it doesn't seem like I can do so any longer. Producer interested in MM has asked me to ‘think about’ (read: do it if you want me to get involved) changing the locations in the film. Currently, 2/3 of the movie takes place in an affluent suburb of Phoenix. Her suggestion: move it to Canada if I ever plan to see it on celluloid.

So while it's doesn’t change the story I want to tell…it changes the story I want to tell.

What to do? There’s a specific social, economic, and aesthetic stigma to Scottsdale, the bleached, transparent gated community I know all too well. It's not a generic setting - it's particular and deliberate. It is also impossible to cheat in this country, which ususally we're so good at. Can the same sensibility be replicated and transported north of the border? If so, where? Winnipeg? Vancouver Island? Banff?

Here’s the thing: I don’t think it can. But that doesn’t mean im not going to do it. I mean, other than it affecting a handful of secondary characters, the main plot point, and the overarching theme of the story, it’s fairly inconsequential. I joke because inside, I cry. It bothers me more than I'll ever admit, almost as much as recognizing that there's not a chance anyone in this country could ever afford to make the film as written.

So now instead of Marigold Moon: the tragic tale of a young girl’s move from Canada to the fake-boobs-and-palm-trees, it’s now Marigold Moon: the story of an east coast girl transfer to an affluent, all-white…prairie community? How about Medicine Hat? Exciting, nuanced...Medicine Hat.

Shit.

Try to contain your excitement. The painful re-positioning of a geographically specific story begins. And some cash might soften the blow. Might.

Next up on my solo slate: How to make Chub better when each note I get contradicts the next. Apparently it's loved for the same reasons it's hated. Personally, I think that's a good thing - polarization is a conversation starter - but clearly, my opinions have about as much weight as Mel's apology.