CANNES

Hey, guys.  As some of you know, Shanghai Street Films, the production company formed by Jason, Charlie, and myself, is currently “in talks” to co-produce “Jasmine” with Cineville (“Swimming With Sharks,” “Hurlyburly,” “Gas Food Lodging,” etc.).  Not only does Cineville have a reputation for producing some of the best independent films of the last fifteen years, it is also a regular presence at the Cannes Film Festival every year.  And, when our co-producers suggested that we take “Jasmine” to Cannes this year, for the purpose of generating interest in the project and meeting with foreign pre-sales agents, we leapt at the opportunity.  And it’s been a mad rush ever since.  The task at the very top of our rather lengthy “to do” list was to create an advance poster and press kit for the film.  This was much easier said than done, given that my lead actors, Jason and Eugenia, are on completely opposite sides of the globe at the moment.  But, fortunately, with Berton Chang’s help, we did manage to come up with a couple of images and designs that we feel pretty good about.  (Note: You can view these in my photo blog from last week.)  In addition to this, we’ve been working to complete a revised business plan for our investors, we’ve been locking down members of the cast and crew, we’ve been negotiating a deal to shoot the film on a Red camera, and I’ve been busily rewriting Eugenia’s scenes, many of which have been nagging at me for quite some time.  Under normal circumstances, these tasks would have been relatively painless.  However, given our tremendous time constraints, they were murder.  In fact, by the end of last week, I was a complete and utter wreck.  Fortunately, I forced myself to take a much-much-much-needed break over the weekend.  I got some good sleep, ate some good food, spent some quality time with a beautiful woman, and, by the time Monday finally rolled around, I was restored once again.  Anyway, it’s now Tuesday night, we fly to Paris tomorrow, and, as I write this, I’m finally starting to realize that I’m actually going to be in Cannes on Thursday… It's hard to believe.  I’m going to try to take a bunch of pictures and, if time permits, regularly update my blog.  We’ll see how that goes.  Stay tuned for more…

-Dax

P.S. If anybody wants a stupid T-shirt or anything, let me know and I'll see what I can find for you.