At 3pm last Friday, with 24 hours and 2 minutes left on Kickstarter, I posted the first in a series of hourly thank-yous on our Facebook page. Since many of you are not on FB (for good reason, I’m sure), I’ll share them here.
Thank you,
3pm Virginia McCutcheon, for being our hero, for opening the book on your life and going with the flow when clearly it was time for a Scotch.
4pm Ginny Palmer, for your candor, patience and determination. Oh, and for introducing us to your mum.
5pm Joan Macbeth, my friend, fellow producer and co-writer. We’d be nowhere without your talent, heart, energy and readiness to share the adventure. And your Best Western free night card.
6pm Ron Macbeth. You deserve much credit for your camera work, team spirit and road-trip readiness, but we expect that from a Canadian, eh?
7pm Neil Wells, for just about everything I can think of since this project began two years ago. And I’ll make sure to stock the freezer with burritos before I go off again…
8pm Barbra Mousouris, for placing your trust in us and sharing your insights and wonderful stories. You’re the only person I’ve ever met with a hamster up her sleeve.
9pm John McCutcheon, for sharing your art and your indomitable spirit. You’re such an inspiration and I’m hoping maybe to talk you out of another of your paintings someday.
10pm Gifted composer Jonathan Geer, for agreeing to score the film. How I decided a tango musician from Texas was the right fit for a Japanese internment camp movie — oh, wait —
11pm Eric Palmer, for allowing your personal struggles to add to the depth of this film. Your bond with your grandmother is undeniable, your challenges both different and the same. I never had a chance to tell you I went to Chino Men’s Correctional Facility to take pictures and was summarily required to remove them from my camera. We do what we have to do. R.I.P.
12am Barbara King, for contributing in so many ways behind the scenes. I know Virginia thinks of you as her other daughter, so in an extended family sense you must be my other cousin!
1am Andy Archibald, for kindly sharing your archival photos of Virginia’s brother, Jack, who competed for England in the ’52 Olympics as a Modern Pentathlete. Well, what does one do after flying in the R.A.F.?
2am Dr. Jiyu Yang, for writing “My Shanghai” in beautiful Chinese calligraphy and for many afternoons in your company at the teahouse at Lan Su Chinese Garden. I only wish I had more time to learn the art of patience.
3am Dan Lu Kesi, for designing and carving “My Shanghai” into beautiful marble seals as your donation to the film. I’ll be careful not to use them upside-down. I’ll also review the concept of yin and yang and fix what I mis-posted last week…
4am Sarah Inglis, for your amazing and timely offer to delve into British Special Operations archives. Who knew we’d find spies among us?
5am Roy Baley, for the use of your beautiful garden by the bay. I really don’t hold you responsible for the fog.
6am The vendors at the Los Osos Farmers Market who appear in the film trailer — soupmakers Stephanie Burchiel and Brittani Axtell, and Gary “The Date Guy” Billington. Will we see you in the final cut? That’s like asking for the secret recipe…
7am Leanne Miller, for handling so much of our grassroots publicity and for being the first person to pledge on Kickstarter! You got it rolling and helped keep it rolling!
8am The good people at NW Documentary and NW Film Center. Sorry, I handled just enough equipment to make me dangerous.
9am Michelle Muldoon, for the opportunity to get my first producing credit on “A Rendezvous.” I’m not exactly sure how helping you make your postcards led me to believe I could make a film, but there you go.
10am Cynthia Whitcomb, screenwriter, playwright, teacher. If I hadn’t wandered into your screenwriting workshops and watched Ordinary People and Butch Cassidy and hadn’t written my first screenplay… see what you started? (right, Joan?)
11am Lynn Federman of the San Luis Obispo County Film Commission, for waiving the permit fee on our location shoot at the farmers’ market. I don’t know how we managed to be around all that food and not spend any money!
12pm Dean Piper, for allowing me to promote the film on internet radio W4CY.com. Thanks for offering to give me my own show, too, but my hands are pretty full right now.
1pm Writers in the Rafters. The dedicated women in this group climb the little stairs over the coffee house kitchen twice a month. We do it for the writing, but that’s not the only thing. We do it for the coffee. We do it for the coolness factor of meeting in the attic of a coffee house, and the chill factor of meeting in the winter in the attic of a coffee house…
2pm Milwaukie Bomber. No, I’m not thanking a scary guy in a ski mask; it’s a real B-17 in my neighborhood. This WWII-era lady didn’t didn’t lose her nose section in a dogfight over Germany or her engines over the Pacific. She still has a story to tell.
2:50pm ALL OUR PROJECT BACKERS. I’ve scheduled this post to publish at 2:50pm PDT, which is 12 minutes before the Kickstarter door snaps shut. No matter what happens, I appreciate every one of you, whether you’ve been on board from the beginning or just came across it last night. Thank you! You still have 11 minutes.
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Thanks, everyone. Now back to work.
phw
My Shanghai: the Film 