I love change, but I hate transitions. It’s been a whirlwind 3 months on the road, attending fests, finishing the feature and all manner of other madness. But now I find myself headed back to L.A., not entirely sure when I hit the road again next. I suppose I should be happy to be headed back, but it’s also a bit sad. Life in the “real world” is likely to be a bit anti-climactic after all the jet-setting.
Fortunately, I find myself back at the Detroit airport, with a few hours to decompress, reflect and prepare for this next phase. So many wonderful journeys have been bookended at this place. It’s so familiar to me now, like a dear old friend. I wonder if it would be permitted for me to have my ashes tossed about here one day. It seems appropriate.
I’ve spent the past week in Indiana. It’s positively gorgeous this time of year. There’s nothing quite like walking across Notre Dame’s beautiful campus through vibrant-colored falling leaves. It’s perfect Halloween weather, too - 60˚ weather and that faint, smoky scent in the crisp air. Born and mostly raised in the Midwest, I remember I couldn’t wait to get away as a young ‘un. But now when I return I feel a bit like Scarlett O’Hara finding comforts and strength in her Tara, a perfect way to reboot.
It was fun catching up with the other faculty members and I even met up with a former student from my horror film class who is now a prof himself. Man, I miss being in the classroom! Too fun having academic debates about zombies and Rocky Horror!
Halloween this year’s been a non-stop event. Agustin and our dear bud Wally the Bartender (whom we met when he auditioned for and landed one of the leads in Confederate Zombie Massacre!) organized this elaborate “fancy dress” party Friday night. They catered it themselves with the most delectable, pretentious finger foods (caviar, a variety of canapés, shrimp potstickers, smoked trout goat cheese quesadillas and the list goes on…) 
They also hired 2 stunning server girls and a very talented bartender who made 3 fabulous cocktails from the 20’s – The Corpse Reviver 2 (delicious, but dangerous as I learned at our last Halloween party where I was eventually discovered curled up asleep on the bathroom rug) , Bardstown Sling and the Chimayo Cocktail. It was a very Nick & Nora type affair (sans a murder mercifully).
They also brought in the Mountain Meadows, a live mini-orchestra, who entertained us amid the witty banter, costume vogue-ing and dancing. People really dressed to the nines. There must have been 60 attendees and all were either in outlandish costumes and/or dressed in super chic elegance – my kind of atmosphere.
Just to balance things out, we spent actual Halloween night on the opposite side of the elegance spectrum with an old-school trippin’ gathering. 
About 14 cast/crew members convened to see their finished product at last. We had our traditional spaghetti and beer dinner with the famous Russell home-baked cookies. I was actually nervous. I so wanted people to be pleased with the fruits of their labor. Fortunately, it was a smashing success. 
Nothing like having the family home for dinner and enjoying a job well done. Man, it was a treat to see Shane’s beautiful color correction on a calibrated monitor and hear Brian and Cliff’s amazing sound and score through decent surround sound speakers.
We had a few virgin eyes among the group and their laughs and gasps were probably the loudest, which bodes well. It’s hard to know what’s funny or shocking anymore when you’ve watched your film in painstaking detail far too many times.
Of course, now that it’d be far too expensive to make changes, my more objective eye has already started spotting areas where we could tighten some editing – why does that always happen too late? 
When we recover financially and are ready to distribute this we’ll definitely want to make a few more tweaks.
But all in all, a very successful venture. I’m sad to leave Indiana. So many people I didn’t get to see and so much left undone. I suppose it’s good to leave wanting more, however. Besides, there’s much excitement ahead back in L.A. – the AFM, Shockfest and some promising meetings with a few “players,” but it’s been really good to get back in touch with my roots. I so want to come back here to make more films. Bless those Midwestern state tax incentives! One way or another I need to get shooting something new in the next few months.