Movie Star

Good friends, I have to let you know I have appeared on the "silver screen" in a movie.  It was a little strange to sit in a theater full of people and watch myself bigger than life on the screen.

How can this be?  Let me explain.  Our son called one day and said he needed a "grumpy old man" to play a role in a movie.  He obviously thought of me first.  So, my wife and I went to Austin and spent a Saturday shooting this movie.

They have something called "The 48-Hour Movie" which is a national competition for film makers.  They travel to various cities holding these competitions.  The way it works is on a Friday at 6:30 p.m. each film producer draws a theme, i.e. a drama, comedy, mystery, silent, etc., for a movie.   They have 48 hours to make a 7 minute movie.  They have to have the movie on a DVD to the office no later than 6:30 p.m. Sunday. There were 27 film makers that participated in the competition in Austin.

A week later they have a screening of all 27 entries at a major theater.  A few weeks later they select the top 10 movies.  Ours was selected in the top 10 films.  A few weeks later they select the first, second, and third place movies.  This is yet to be determined.

There were two other men, a woman, a little boy, two young girls, a cat, and a dog in the movie. There were five or six others involved in the filming, editing, musical scoring, titles, etc. making.  Our theme was silent with titles.

The story line was a little boy about 4 years old wanted a cat.  His mother told him if God wanted him to have a cat then God would give him a cat.  The little boy went into the yard, got on his knees and prayed to God for a cat.  Suddenly, a cat flew through  the air and landed at his feet.  For a while he believed in prayer because God had answered his prayer for a cat.  But, he later learned that the man next door was trying to get a cat out of a tree and he threw a rope into the tree and caught the branch with the cat.  As he pulled the branch down to reach the cat the rope slipped from his hands and the branch flew back propelling the cat over the wooden fence into the other yard at the boy's feet.  He lost his belief in God and the power of prayer.  As he grew old he became a grouchy old man (me) and walked away from his belief, thus the title of the movie, "Walking Away".  But as time passed the  grouchy old man began to come around to renewing his belief through his associations with a man that delivered meals-on-wheels to him and two young girls and his old hound dog.

It was fun.  I had never done anything like it.  I was pleasantly surprised that the production team put it all together in the professional fashion it was when it was projected onto the big silver screen.

So, now I'm a movie star.  Anyone want my autograph?