They made it for 5 million and quite the bang for that buck in the movie business. It was pretty interesting the ways they put it together and saved money. I managed to take a still photo and was going to take a movie of the interview but figured I better not push my luck. I think I read somewhere that photos were not allowed (or perhaps that was at the Bob Hope Golf Classic coming up that we have tickets for...hoping to see Mike Weir do well!).
They had problems getting money the first year so missed the cotton harvest which was essential for the film. They had a lot of problems with the cotton as a number of times they were ready to do the scenes, then there was some pressing need for the field to be harvested so with combines to do the work these days they harvest a field in an hour. So had to find other fields.
They figured they would have problems finding some young fellow to do the electric 50's guitar type stuff but someone mentioned a young musician who was currently doing a gig in Austin so they flew down to see him. It happened to be his 21st birthday so the first time he could play without having his mother along! His response to the offer was "cool". He was excellent...could do some acting and could really do the guitar thing too.
John Sayles at the mike.
Over 200 films at the festival and they seem to be getting big crowds.
