I know many are on Thanksgiving holiday already; mine starts Wednesday afternoon right after work picking up my youngest from the airport and then heading to the hill country for a Thanksgiving meal Tex-Mex style. If you don't know, Jess is 1/2 Mexican, her dad is full, and her mom merges the flavors deliciously.
Speaking of Jess, she always says my first feature, This World Won't Break, is such a Thanksgiving film the way It's a Wonderful Life is a Christmas film because the latter isn't really about Christmas; still, we always view it around the holidays, often the soundtrack to our preparations; it's a ritual of feeling.
Jess feels that way about TWWB, and I'd say I would have to agree. You can put it on in the background while baking, cooking, or having a cocktail. If you're from Texas, you'll nod at the familiar terrain, chuckle at characters you feel you know, and perhaps hum along with the hymnody of the human tale.
Here are a few behind the scene pictures Chris Bourke, my director of photography, sent over from our days on location.
If you haven't seen This World Won't Break yet, turn off your cell phone, grab something bubbly, put the kids to bed, and settle in for this Texas slow burn. My love letter to Dallas.
Enjoy it for free while it's still on Amazon Prime.
Happy Thanksgiving!
- Josh
Welp, this weekend was a bust. Or at least at 2:30 PM on a Sunday; it feels that way. I had plans for Friday. Plans to put the finishing touches on some things in the works plans to finish a masterclass I'm soaking up, you know...plans. But instead, on Friday evening, I answered a phone call to help a stranded Jess at the grocery store. The battery had died in her car, and remedying this incident went on into the late hours of the evening. Saturday after vigil, Jess calls me again, stranded on Mockingbird lane. This time, it's clear this isn't gonna be a quick fix, so I left what I was doing, jumped in the car to get her, and guess what... I ran out of gas on the way! Yeah. I think it's been college since I ran out of gas. So... if it ever looks like rainbows and ponies over here at casa de jordan, we have our fair share of crappy days too.
Once I finally got to Jess, I waited for roadside assistance to tow our car to the mechanic and waited and waited until 1:30 AM until I finally figured I was not getting roadside assisted.
This morning we got our tow, and the car is safely in the shop.
My first-world inconvenience is frustrating because car maintenance was not what I had in mind for my weekend or fit my timeline for items I need to check off before Monday.
And this, my friends, is wild west filmmaking.
Life happens in between the idea and the execution ALWAYS. You don't get to the celebration without the middle, and often it's messy and very human.
Thankfully I've got John Lennon to serenade me today; I'm watching the wheels with you.
Moral of the story.
Keep making your masterpiece; crummy days will come and go and come again. Just keep going. I know it gets lonely out there, so if you'd like to connect or need an ear, I'd love to hear what you're working on. I'm only an email away.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I'll pop back next week with some updates I think you'll be excited to hear about. Until then!
- Josh
I wish I would have made a diary of my first film; THIS WORLD WON'T BREAK, I do. It breaks my heart that I wasn't able to. But to be honest, it was hard enough to get through each day.
It was all a blur.
Two hours of sleep a day, getting coffee and breakfast tacos for those that showed up, and then watching the terabytes slowly download onto the many random hard drives that I could afford and conjure up at midnight. And then do it all again the next day.
Maybe a diary seemed like I had to revisit it all, and well, I couldn't feel that. The day my teeth fell out on set would have been a good entry. The day I thought I was dying on the floor of Alamo Draft House would have been a good entry, too; it was probably best not to try and relive those moments.
(More on those things later )
So making a film is a lonely process.
The actual filming is not; that's when everyone is on board, and it's a blast.
But that is 10% of filmmaking. The other 90% is paperwork, emails, driving around, and crying.
Not at the same time.
Well, I did run a red light when our funding ran out, and I was crying and throwing up again; that's for later.
So yeah, all that being said, I'm doing it again.
Not crying and throwing up, but making another film.
This time, you all are going to be around for it all.
Maybe it will make it less lonely.
- Josh
