Yargh!

I am just about ready to strangle The Blonde.

It all started a few weeks ago.. we'd done a 'trailer' for our little short (just about two minutes) - so we could show it to certain people in hopes of either selling it as a TV show, or getting the money to do a full length movie.

The feedback we got was that the trailer was confusing, disjointed and didn't give a good idea of what we're about. This came from friends of mine that work in acquisitions, so they see a lot of these things. I know good advice when I hear it. I recut.

The new trailer's about 4 and a half minutes, and it's much, much better. I've already had to pay for two portable DVD players because folks laughed so hard they spewed whatever they were drinking onto the player and fucked it up. This is not a bad thing.

The problem is this: at some point, you have to just accept that what you have is good and not make changes (i.e. it's 'locked'). Too much tinkering results in a crappy film.

The Blonde is listening to EVERYTHING that anyone says to her, and she calls me, frantic to make some stupid fucking change that someone she just met (or someone's nephew, or some bartender) suggested. I refuse, and she gets pissed, and then I have to spend an hour trying to explain to her why said change is not a good idea.

Now, she wants to send out the old two minute trailer because some idiot told her that 4 and a half minutes is "too long". I'm in the midst of trying to explain to her that it's not too long (just so you know, over 5 minutes is considered 'too long') - that it's as short as it can be and still maintain some sort of narrative thread.

The other problem is that if you lose someone's interest the first time, you'll never, ever get another chance. They'll see the bad trailer and write us off as idiots, and then we'll never get another 'in'. I'd rather make them sit through the longer trailer that's at least good.

I've been through this before, and I've had projects that didn't get funded because of bad presentation. I feel it in my bones that it's going to happen again.

I'm going to have to kill her - or at least lock her in the closet for a few weeks so she can't cause problems.