A Moment For Gratitude.

Tomorrow is the first proper day of principal photography on the first feature film by Hybrid Motion Pictures, JAKE, the first feature that I've written and the first feature I'm directing.

People have been asking what is the deal, and so a quick explanation: I started writing JAKE a little over two years ago, inspired by two things:

1. being at a point where I was not happy with my life, then realizing how foolish that was when I had so many things going for me, and

2. wondering what Jake Gyllenhaal's life would be like if he was named Jacob.

On the former point, there's nothing worth going into in public; on the latter, I've always been fascinated by how people choose to represent their name. I know Daves and Davids, and each are insistent on what they're called, despite what their birth certificate says. If somebody calls me Douglas, I know they're some subset of the following:

a. trying to get my goat
b. in my family
c. working for a government agency or otherwise referencing my name from an official document

But what makes me a Doug and not a Douglas? I don't know - well, I do know, but as soon as the words form it slips away a bit. Would people treat me differently as a Douglas?

Would people treat Jake differently as Jacob?

Anyway. I won't say more about the story, for now. What I will say is that, during this long gestation period, an incredible group of people have come together to help bring this project to life, and without them I wouldn't be heading to an office tomorrow to shoot the first scenes of the movie.

And I want all of them to know how incredibly grateful I am, for bringing my fifteen-year dream of making a feature to life, for coming on board this insane labour of love, and bringing so much more to it than I could have ever dreamed.

Thank you all.