The Story of Scratcher

In the fall of ’09 I was summoned to Uncle Bill’s to meet with aspiring producer and Jersey Style pizza king, Jon Feraro, to discuss a short film project he had cooked up with writer Steve McQuerter. Normally I develop my own projects – and at the time I was not feeling the filmmaking vibe – however the story was compelling, and we all seemed to hit it off well, especially when it came to shaping the film into something, that, not only appealed to my sensibilities, but to my visual style as well. I came onboard and it was agreed that Steve would write the first draft, and I would oversee all additional drafts from there, which is my preference. After a month or two it was clear, for a variety of reasons, that the project wasn’t coming together, and we went our separate ways.

A few months later, while attending the St. Louis International Film Festival, I ran into Jon Feraro, looking gloomy. We had a brief chat, and the subject of our failed film (later titled Scratcher) came up. I had assumed the project moved forward without me. To my surprise I found that there had been no movement, and the writer previously attached had left the project. I confessed that I still had it in the back of mind; a collection of beautiful images stored away, with no other story that could bring them to life. This tale of grief, addiction, and loneliness had touched something inside of me. It had become personal. I had to tell this story. So it was agreed that we should move forward on our own.

I wrote a first draft in a matter of weeks, and over a period of months the story came together to both our satisfaction. In the meantime, we cast local musician/photographer Bob Reuter in the lead, playing a broken widower addicted to playing the lottery. I had met Bob earlier that year and we immediately hit it off. He’s one of the truest characters I’ve ever known. And that’s what I’m always looking for: characters. Equal parts inspiration and cautionary tale. The casting was followed up with the amazing artist Cindy Royal and Lindenwood theatre sprite Beth Graveman. With Jon Feraro stepping in for a small role, the entire cast was complete. We were all set to move into heavy pre-production, location scouting, hiring crew, the usual budgetary malarkey, etc. But it was now January, and winter had come down like a frozen anvil.

After a long debate, it was decided to postpone shooting out of concern for the cast and crew(something I had never done before), since a majority of our scenes were exterior. With that, Scratcher was bumped to early April and pre-production immediately began on a script that had been collecting dust for over a year: Psychological Sample. But Scratcher had to be postponed once more, since the stress of post-production on Psychological Sample, coupled with the chaos of pre-production on Scratcher was stretching me too thin, and I knew that one of the films would suffer, namely Scratcher. My head was somewhere else. Scratcher was set for May 2^nd, giving me room to breathe.

It is now May 1^st. Production begins tomorrow. Although I am still in post-production on Psychological Sample, we’re in the final stages that don’t require all of my immediate attention. It’s coming together very nicely. I’m grateful that we’re shooting tomorrow, rather than February. Since then Jon and I formed a tighter producer/director partnership, we’ve worked with some amazing crew, and developed a vision for what we want to accomplish in the coming months, and year to come. But most importantly, I’ve reignited a fire inside of myself that was almost reduced to cold ash. I was lost and fragmented for so long, wandering, and wondering: What am I? A writer? Photographer? Am I some kind of hybrid outsider artist without any clear direction, or just a filmmaker? It doesn’t matter. At my core is a storyteller, pure and simple. The only variation is with which canvas I use to tell that story.

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