when I started this blog five years ago, I was a pet sitter and the name animal-crackers made sense. now I'm a stay-at-home-dad and freelance writer, but rather than confuse everyone by getting a different blog, it's just easier to keep posting things here.

I sent in a filmmakers' grant application today. My first ever grant application.

Although I'm feeling good about the project, I don't have high hopes for getting funding. It's highly competitive, and my film making resume is slim.

What's the project? A short movie called The Pills Have Eyes. Here's an excerpt from the grant application:

They’re staring at you. You can see that, can’t you? The Pills. They have eyes.

They’re watching. Waiting. Judging.

Don’t look directly at them. That just makes them angrier. In fact, it’s probably best to give them what they want. And what they want is their own movie.

The Pills Have Eyes is a 10-minute movie about Harry, Beth and of course, their Pills.

Beth loves Harry. She’s convinced it’s because of her medicine. So she secretly switches her medicine with Harry’s so he might return her love.

Oh, did I mention they live in a group home for mentally ill professionals?

(Now it’d be easy to create a movie that makes fun of crazy people. As someone who has suffered from major depression and whose wife has bipolar disorder, let me assure you this movie does not mock the crazy. It embraces the crazy. It uses the crazy as a vehicle to explore deeper issues – love, certainty, chemistry.)

Where was I? Beth, Harry, Pills, group home.

So for several days Beth switches Harry’s pills. Now his pills have eyes, and the only way to stop their staring is to swallow them.

Easier said than done.

Besides getting free money to make a movie, the real motive here is validation. A grant means that three professional film people (the judges) think this project can compete at film festivals.

And for short films, festivals are about all there is. No one goes to the theater to see a 10 minute movie.

In the meantime, I still need to finish my feature-length comedy. It's 54 pages. That means I need 40-50 more and I'll have a first draft.