Plough-on (blog 23)

The entire team shaken and stirred, are now dispersing group by group and arranging to meet for dinner at the Allegro, our cornucopia for the next three weeks. The gear is safely packed away for the night and I am trawling the pit of my brain to find inspiration for this new nugget I have to pull clean and gleaming from the coal face. We need a significant injection of cash into the account by tomorrow morning or else we are all to languish like those abandoned souls on Théodore Géricault 'Le Radeau de la Méduse' on a raft drifting at a loose end, a crew without a cause, without a purpose, slowly floating toward despair. I thought this might have happened due to the equipment not making it into the country, now that grim possibility of being cast inert is once more upon us. We have set the stage, but oddly enough we are denied access, pure and simple, none shall pass!! until that cheque shows up in an interim holding account, our hands are tied. I manage to garner some information here and there about the nature of who we are dealing with, as it is necessary to have some kind of portrait of the expectations I should hold in mind when it comes to getting that money back, because I know we will honour our end of the deal, but will he?

First things first, we were back at Alan's house and I am on the phone with our lawyer, painting the scene for him and together formulating over what kind of letter was required to safe guard this transaction, and that turned out to be a letter of trust. I was then able to leave Brian Gormley to his own devices and draft the precise wording so he could get us that letter ASAP. We were back at the books and observing where the Hull was splitting and attempting to predict and plot our way through a possible financial crisis. Out of the experience of the first days expenditure we could with a certain statistical accuracy see into the immediate future to where the major currents of monies were going to gush and surge. And with a certain trepidation visibly see how much more money we would actually require to keep this omnivorous eighteen wheeler oiled and gassed for the next twenty days. Not a pretty forecast, but regardless of that I was going to have to rise to every occasion and attempt to provide upon request up to a point.

What slightly concerns me right now is the thought patterns of those involved, this is a micro-budget movie, not even a low budget movie, a low-budget movie would be a 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 euro. I have stated to all involved how much we have to play with and it is substantially beneath the above bar, and as a friend of mine, the photographer, Sante d'Orazio commented about the fact that we had so little money, expressing that we were actually better off, as we would be forced to invent and use imagination in the place of hard cash. This was a circumstance I was well aware of, and I am used to dealing with people like this and love it, as it is such a laugh watching someone come up with a solution that is usually brilliant. Daithi is a first class, prime example of the species, that can simply invent their way out of a corner, and can do this on the twist of a nickel. And can actually see value in what others might see as trash, hence Daithi's days spent trawling through the scrap yards and creating a set for the movie for free. He just went and did it. Necessity being the Mother of Invention.

Now it is my job to keep spirits up and not allow the mood to falter. It was a trying enough start to the process this morning, bordering on the traumatic, but as Daniel always said "the first couple of days will be hell, until we get into it." but not even Daniel could have foreseen this particular set of circumstances. I arranged for a meeting in Jesse MaCarthy's bar between Alan, Kevin Hannafin and I, where the three of us over a long involved consideration of our predicament hammered out a solution, and that was it, the money was now in my hot fist, all we had to do was get it to the real estate agent as soon as his door cracked open for business in the morning and then call the land lord and clear it with him. Until then there was a definite air of expectancy, anxiety, uncertainty, a sort of quiet unspoken ghost loitered about the place, no one was actually breaking that peculiar silence, for fear of hexing still further our faith, and so we all retired to our comfort zones to rest and get ready for whatever was to come in the morning. Kevin Hannafin had stood up and come to the rescue, his generosity and vision stepping into the breach, and now I felt the might of two powerful allies by my side, Alan and Kevin, both willing to go that extra mile, and neither one blanching in the face of this serious challenge.

Next day Alan and I were outside that office and chatting about whatever, when the time came for us to enter and pass over the cheque, it was DONE PRONTO! then we hopped back into the car, phoned the land lord, informed him of what had just transpired, only to be given an unusual reply. It was Alan that spoke with him and he just looked over at me. Then we drove to the apartments and I called for a meeting, gathering the crew into the casts apartment where I kept stum until I could inform everybody at once as to what the out come proved to be. There they were all eager and as anxious as one would hope from a team that were here to rock and roll. I could clearly see what I had accomplished in getting these individuals together right there and then, and there was definitely an esprit de corps, unified and staring back at what I was about to say.

THE FILM IS OVER. HE HAS DECIDED AGAINST IT. I AM SORRY BUT WE DID ALL WE COULD DO. THIS IS A DISASTER. I watched as eyes glared in dis-belief, some clearly crestfallen, and certain expletives of disappointment were uttered. I spoke some more about how sorry I was to see all this come to naught, and carried on a little while longer until it was time to turn away, bend over and sweep my coat tails up in the air as I hollered out 'BLOW IT OUT YOUR ASS!!!! WE ARE BACK IN BUSINESS!!!! LET'S GET TO WORK!!!!!!' some people shouted out 'you bastard!! how could you could you do that!!' and other's laughed, and some stood looking rather annoyed at my little charade. I recall Alan walking out behind me laughing to himself and wondering what the hell just happened, and I was laughing as to me we were back from the edge where in fact we had ever so slightly fallen over, but somehow managed to yank ourselves back out, and I had every intention of enjoying the upsurge of energy that was now gushing once again, because just a few hours ago we had been rendered a solemn chain gang, our free spirits manacled in iron, and I found that unbearable, and now we had busted loose and were freed from under them shackles. That was it! there and then there was nothing lurking in my consciousness that could cloy or sully this vision, the above debacle had been a source for concern and did linger across my mind until now. If we stick to the plan, and everybody holds firm under what will be straightened circumstances, then we can make this MOVIE, and do as the land lord said "plough-on.".