"The Card Attached Would Say 'THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND'"-Golden Girls

 Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Recently I thought of my first break in this business. It was a role as a medic on “Homicide: Life on the Street” In Baltimore Maryland in the late 90’s. That feeling was complete bliss, that that hope, that buzz, that feeling…that this role could be something special, and propel me on to bigger and better things.

 That perfect day of filming ended such a warm feeling, and a month later… with a huge crowd around my television, waiting to cheer me on…there was that cold feeling, when I realized that my scene was COMPLETELY cut out of the show.

I imagine that evening would have been enough to retire any young actor from showbiz. Yet I still held a promise, a hope. I felt that the promise of a better moment may still be ahead of me.

Bob Hawk indirectly had something to do with that moment.

After my wholesome acting debut was lay cold and unwatched on the cutting room floor, I’d continued to audition, get small parts here there and everywhere, forgettable things with character names like “boy” “Soldier #1” “Brother” and my personal favorite “Tomato #1”. At one point, in NYC (after an audition where my sole task was to pretend I was jumping up and down in slow motion on an invisible trampoline...and apparently failed at it) I stopped at a New York City bookstore and read a piece on Edward Burns which to paraphrase, essentially said to make my own path, develop and write my own roles, give myself my own breaks.

Around that same time, I’d purchased the CHASING AMY dvd, where, I was tremendously inspired, not only by the film itself, the filmmaker commentary track, where Kevin Smith and Ben Affleck talked about how to make a low budget film, wearing your own clothes, grabbing a film shot wherever you could, to create your own material and film it to the best of your ability.

This all coincided with the end of a contract I had on a soap opera, and this was where I started to respond to what these influences have taught me to go my own way, to develop my own material and, no matter what, to get it out there. I realized around this time, that one man was instrumental in getting these influences into my life, which has inspired me and continues to inspire me to keep going forward, in a business with such great highs and such low lows. That man is Bob Hawk.

So imagine the joy that I felt when the opportunity came along to work with such amazing filmmakers, to be able to actually tell BOB’S story, I felt, I owed it to Bob, who’s been a source of such inspiration to me, to be able to pay it back, to be able to include such great personalities in this film, to be able to film with Kevin Smith and Ed Burns, to hear them, very successful filmmakers, tell very similar stories like the one I’ve told above. I’m so proud of this project so far, and I’m so excited for the world to see it. More importantly, my hope for this wonderful piece of filmmaking, is to inspire others, I hope people will see this, hear Bob’s story, listen to Ed,Kevin and so many other testimonials, that this film generates a new generation of hungry filmmakers, with original ideas to chase their dreams, and make their films, which, again in turn, may inspire even more filmmakers.

All of this can start right here, with “Film Hawk” With that said, we’ve been raising funds, and raising funds through the community online and by word of mouth, rather than what I normally do, and that’s beg, cry and plead with the producers and money people who can make films happen….. and I’m very humbled and very proud to say that we’ve been able to pull this thing off as of recently. The film is fully funded, and I didn't have to sell my soul, do any imaginary trampoline jumping or think about the offer of portraying "Tomato" to do it. 

So with that, I so very very humbly thank you. This isn’t a “thank you” to just anyone who’s donated funds….because indie film is FAR more than that.

To get a little story like this out there, you ALL have helped. If you’ve stopped in this site, if you’ve read the tweets, the updates, if you’ve spread the word or even thought of telling someone about it... you’ve done an incredible service to a small little film. I’m blown away, I’m humbled, and I’m thankful. We won’t let you down, we have all hands on deck here, and we’re 100% committed to making a wonderful film, a film that will do this story justice. Thank you all, thank you for all of your support and thank you for your time reading this.

Please take care, be good and stay true to your dreams.

xoxoxo,

Tim