Atencioblog

It’s 12:45am. I just got home from a celebratory dinner with Jim Benson, who produced The Rig, and Marilee Benson, his wife, who co-wrote the film. We toasted the end of a long road, swapped stories of torment and heartbreak from the long process of making the movie, and got just a little drunk and self-congratulatory. I’m too tired to put much thought into this, so here now is a list of some final thoughts and feeling on this movie, or what went through my head when I got home, opened the Best Buy bag, removed the shrink-wrap, and put the DVD in my player for the first time.

• There’s a bunch of trailers before you get to the DVD menu. Normally this just annoys me, but this time it’s kind of fun because they’re all trailers to movies as cheesy and bad as my own. The best one was the last one, a Dolph Lundgren action movie called The Killing Machine. I made a movie that has a Dolph Lundgren trailer before it. I can die happy.
• The menus aren’t bad. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of straight-to-DVD movies where the menu design is straight up embarrassing. These aren’t. Nice job, Anchor Bay.
• I watched the behind-the-scenes video first, because I was curious what they used. This reminded me that 1: I was approximately 12 years old when we shot this movie, and 2: I have gained a lot of weight since we shot this movie. 2007 was approximately 15 years and 50 lbs. ago.
• Wow, I look miserable most of the time. Hell, I was miserable most of the time. That shoot was one of the most difficult, challenging, and emotionally and physically draining experiences of my life. The first three days were me trying to avoid getting fired. The rest of the 18-day shoot was me trying not to collapse while battling the flu, insane producers (not Jim Benson, who was a saint, but other people on the project who will not be named), and a schedule that was totally fucked from day one, not to mention the countless logistical and situational nightmares that arose on the set.
• Next I tried to watch some of the movie with the commentary track on. I quickly realized I will never be able to listen to the commentary track for more than 2 minutes at a time. I can’t stand the sound of my own voice. There goes my dream of being an audiobook narrator.
• I’m too tired to watch much of the movie, so I just flip around. Lots of memories. Some good, some bad. But lots of them. I’ll probably never be able to separate myself from it enough to just watch the movie as it is.
• To be clear, the movie is bad. It’s a bad movie. But I’m still convinced it’s a fun bad movie. If it’s even remotely entertaining to watch, then I feel like I’ve done my job. The next one will be good. For real good. You just wait and see.

The people who worked hard on this movie know who they are, and I hope I’ve made it clear how much I love and respect them for it. When we began this journey in late 2006, I didn’t know how it would feel to get here today. Turns out it feels great. Thanks.