“Althea, can we make this into a movie?” Keith asked me over tea at our favorite coffee shop.
“Keith, man, what are you talking about? Losing Control just came out last month,” I said in response to my friend, a film producer. I poured honey into my tea and shook my head, dismissing the craziness of his question.
“Okay, okay. It may not be ready for a movie yet, but the way you wrote this book, I can literally see every detail of what’s happening, just like a movie. It’s going to make a great movie.”
I nodded and continued to stir my tea, tasting it to make sure it was sweet enough. In my mind, I had already dismissed the outrageousness Keith was giving me. Seeing that he was losing me, he quickly whipped out his cell phone and pulled up a YouTube clip. As he tapped and swiped the screen, he asked me, “Have you ever heard of a book trailer?”
I sipped my tea, relaxed back into the cushions of the cafe couch and shook my head. He turned the cell phone screen towards me and pushed the play arrow. A short, 60-second “commercial” for a book played out like a movie trailer. At the end, the cover of the book and link for purchasing it popped up on the screen. Keith looked at me expectantly. I looked back at him and nodded with a smile. “That was nice,” I said, since it was obvious he wanted me to say something.
“We could do something like that with Losing Control,” he said, and I could see him already creating scenes in his mind.
He talked, I listened, and I agreed that a book trailer would be a good idea. We left with him thinking we were doing a book trailer, and I not. A few days later, he sent me a text asking for money to hire actors for the book trailer shoot he was setting up in two days. What?! No! I called him immediately, and we debated via text and phone for the next two days. He didn’t understand why we couldn’t do it, and I didn’t understand how he couldn’t understand why I wasn’t ready to do it. In the end, Keith won.
Amazing Thing 1
Keith is sitting in my family room with a little book of pencil-drawn scenes. He’s animatedly describing what would be captured on camera to my husband and me, and I say, “Where are you even planning to do this, Keith? You need an office building downtown.” As soon as I said it, I knew I was about to call my HR contact for United Way Atlanta, one of the corporate locations where I teach meditation and Yoga. My contact asked the building owner and the HR director, and both said yes, we could shoot in and around their location. What?! Yes?!
Amazing Thing 2
I knew I did not have any budget left after editing, publishing, and marketing Losing Control to pay actors for the all-day trailer shoot. So Keith and I started brainstorming people we knew who fit the descriptions of the characters. When I wrote the book, I actually used two people I knew in real life to create the physical characteristics of Jonathan and Zuma. They aren’t in their 30s anymore like the characters in the book, but Keith and I had agreed we weren’t going to get faces or close-up details with this trailer. We only wanted coloring and body types. So I FB messaged my sorority sister from college and texted my God brother, both of whom I used to describe Zuma and Jonathan back in 2002 and who just happen to live in the same city as I do. They both said yes immediately and without hesitation. What?! Yes?!
Amazing Thing 3
The characters of Iris and Rey were important to get right, and I really didn’t have anyone in mind when I created them in my imagination. So Keith and I decided to do an open casting call downtown where there were lots of good-looking, young, twenty-somethings. We went to the casting location at the appointed time and waited two hours. No one showed. We went out on the street corner and watched college students from Georgia State University walk up and down, but no one caught our eye as the perfect Iris or perfect Rey. Two hours later, we locked up and left, dejected. When I arrived home that evening, I had emails, FB messages, and texts with pictures of people who couldn’t make the casting call in person, but still wanted to be considered. We had several women to choose from for Iris and finally found one that was pretty darn close to who I described in the book. I sent her an email to find out if she would do it for free and if she was available on Superbowl Sunday for the filming. She responded yes to both. What?! Yes?!
Amazing Thing 4
So we had Zuma, Iris, and Jonathan covered. What about Rey? Keith and I had found three different guys that all together could be Rey, but individually were not quite right. The one we agreed to go with just wasn’t making me happy. Every time I thought about the project I got a little sad, because Rey is so central to the entire story and the actor’s body was not fitting what I’d described in the book. He couldn’t be wrong, he had to be right. Four days before the shoot, the “Rey” we’d settled for called with bad news – he couldn’t get off work to do the shoot. I sighed and knew the whole thing would be over if we couldn’t find a Rey. Just then, I received a text message from my friend and boot camp instructor, Montrell. I pictured Montrell in my mind. Could Montrell play Rey? He was muscular and the same skin tone as the character I’d described in Losing Control. But I knew Montrell loved football and would probably be busy on Superbowl Sunday. So, I called him and casually asked if he had any plans for the Superbowl.
“No, not really.”
So far, so good. I asked if he’d be interested in bearing his chest, abs, and arms for the book trailer. He said he was planning to ask me if I wanted him to do it. Yes. What?! Yes?!
Amazing Thing 5
Montrell does not have dreadlocks. I drove to different wig shops without luck, and all the ones I found online were either very expensive, super fake looking, or unable to ship within a week. On Thursday night, I finally found a decent looking dreadlock wig that was the proper length on Amazon. Could I get it before Superbowl Sunday? I squeezed one eye shut and peeked out of the other as I slowly scrolled to the bottom of the screen. Free two-day shipping with Amazon Prime. Yes, I could have the wig on Saturday. What?! Yes?!
Amazing Thing 6
Everyone showed up at the appointed time on Superbowl Sunday. We shot amazing scenes, and everyone played their roles magnificently. I have no idea what will come from the Losing Control book trailer, but since every thing leading up to this point has been an amazing surprise, I’m sure I won’t be disappointed by what comes next. Yes!
