One Too Many Mornings - a new comedy.

Now that we’re going to Sundance, there are all sorts of other people who are part of the team. We’ve hired some really fantastic publicists to help spread the word further than we could do ourselves.

Right now they’re creating a press kit that they will give the media to learn more information about us. Part of this press kit is a “director’s statement” that has more insight into why and how we made the film.

Below was my first stab at this statement. They told me I had to re-write it. They were right.

Michael Mohan – Director’s Statement.

I’ve got problems. I’m kinda fat. I’ve got a hairy back. I overcompensate for my low self-esteem with being too enthusiastic. I work too much. I’m messy. I take on way too many projects. When I get really stressed out, I get physically sick. I sweat really bad when I sleep. I’m nervous. I am always in need of a haircut. You know, I really just don’t have it together. But, you know, it’s alright. I’m okay with it.

The two main characters in One Too Many Mornings, they’ve got problems too. Peter’s awkward and insecure. He’s the kind of guy that runs away from his problems instead of dealing with them. Fischer’s way too sarcastic. He’s completely self-distructive and is just bludgeoning his way thru life. And the difference between me and these characters, I don’t think they realize the degree to which they are screwed up.

When me and Anthony and Stephen were writing One Too Many Mornings, a good friend of mine was going thru a drinking problem. He had just gotten a DUI, and suddenly me, the most unqualified person in the world, had to help him go thru it. This is the obligation of friendship.

The thing I learned is that when a friend is dealing with serious issues, it’s almost like you’re forced to look at all the problems in your own life in order to commisserate. “Oh man, you got a DUI – that sucks man, well I’m a fat messy nervous weirdo. Doesn’t life suck.”

And in doing this, not only was it NOT helpful to him, but I realized that I’m sure I’ve still got a lot of problems that I don’t even know about up ahead of me. Just like my friend’s drinking problem was to him.

So what good is this? Maybe, just maybe these problems can help define who I am. Then at least I’m aware. I think that’s what this obligation of friendship is good for – getting a deeper understanding of ourselves.

So screw trying to actually solve our problems. Nobody is good at that, and nobody really wants to change (or do the work it takes to bring about change). Myself included. In the end I’m just have to be thankful I have true friends who help me continue to be comfortably imperfect. To me that’s what One Too Many Mornings is all about.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 10th, 2010 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.