Meet Carmen Marron, Hollywood's Most Improbable Auteur

Once you were on the set, and the film is suddenly a reality, was there ever a point where you actively realized, "Hey, I've got the hang of this"?

I would say it was probably a few days in. The first day was a fiasco because it was my first external day in Chicago, and we filmed in literally 13 hours of rain. It was insanity. And so I was working really hard to make my day. Really, every day was a challenge. We shot the movie in 19 days! But definitely by the end of production I was unfazed because of everything that happened.

Like what?

Well, besides the pouring rain, on the second day of production, a couple of PA's dropped a mirror. That scene where she's practicing in the garage? And the mirror in the scene is all cracked up? That was actually a nice, big, rectangular new mirror. But they dropped it, they cut their hands, and I was yelling, "Get them to first aid!" Another of the actors had kidney stones, and they day before we were supposed to film in Irvine, he was in the hospital. I had no idea if he was going to show up or not. But I was trying to coax his brother to bring him to the set -- to make sure he shows up. He was a trouper. And we lost a location. The house where we were shooting four days, we lost it, like, the day before. So at 5 or 6 p.m. on the day before we're supposed to shoot, I found a location in Van Nuys. I took photos and sent them to the crew members and said, "Everybody meet here at 6 a.m. the next day." But it's indie. That's how it is.

How did it wind up with Lionsgate and Pantelion?

This is actually inspiring for all those indie filmmakers. Here, I made this film myself. I'm the only producer. I didn't get into Sundance, I didn't get into Toronto, I didn't get into Cannes. Everybody told me, "If you don't get into one of those three, it's the kiss of death. Be happy if get a straight-to-video release." So I said, "I need to find a way to put my movie on the map." What I did is I applied to as many reputable festivals as possible -- ones that had been around for a while. And I started marketing the hell out of the movie on Facebook, or in local community papers. I'd work with a festival marketing person as well.

And we started selling out. The buzz just started getting around because one festival director would tell another festival director. People in Texas would hear about it from their friends in New York. And we started winning audience awards. By the time I got to maybe my sixth festival -- in L.A., just a regular festival -- it was at Mann's Chinese Theater, and it was a Tuesday afternoon at 5 p.m., and we sold out. Literally. People were standing. And somebody at that screening happened to have a friend who worked at Lionsgate, and they said, "You really need to see this movie." Then that festival wound up adding a screening the next day, and the person from Lionsgate came. About 20 minutes into the screening, they texted me and said they wanted me to come to the studio to screen for the execs. I don't even know how he got my number. Probably from the festival or something.

And they were into it?

They fell in love with it. So... you don't have to have a sales rep. Everybody kept telling me that, so I was a nervous Nellie: "I don't have a sales rep! I don't have an agent! I don't have anything!" But it can be done. It can be done.

So after spending years on Go For It!, do you want to continue to direct? Or is this the story you wanted to tell?

You know what? As much as I hated going through all this... Because it was really hell. It was definitely trying for my husband and I, too, because we were spending our life savings on something that my husband was certain wasn't going to go very far just because he knew the odds -- more than I did, really. But honestly, this was my destiny. I feel so connected to my audience and my demographic -- women, teens -- and the stories they want to tell. I'm already writing two more scripts, and I'm hoping to get another one into production before the end of summer. And I can't wait.

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