I remember when I was kid and my parents were trying to encourage my brother and I to read more outside of school and our assignments from class. They instituted a regular reading time, but allowed us to choose any books we wanted from the family library to read during those times. Already being a big fan of Stephen King's adapted works that I had seen on film, I immediately went for the King. Given that films such as Creepshow, Maximum Overdrive, and Stand By Me were potent and prominent features in my formative years, I was eager to dive in and actually read some of his published works.

This love affair with the King's words would last a lifetime, and when I began writing short stories of my own, I even sought to emulate his style and try to capture some of his storytelling magic woven through my own pen. This persisted through to my twenties when I penned my first novel, before the allure and call of the silver screen was heard. As I shifted away from long form prose, and started directing my pen towards screenwriting, I still felt the King's influence in my love of horror and my propensity for turning to that genre time and again.

And after over a decade of penning and shooting dozens and dozens of original short films, I discovered Stephen King's Dollar Baby Program, and the list of unadapted short stories he had made the rights for available to student and indie filmmakers for the low cost of a dollar. I was giddy. Mostly because I had just experienced a pretty serious medical episode at the top of the year in 2023, and I was looking for a new cinematic challenge to throw myself into to keep me distracted from the prolonged nature of dealing with that. Admittedly, there was likely an element of me believing I was facing my own mortality in the wake of said episode in a way I never had before that also made me seek out some new sense of achievement.

But the road of the written word had led me back to that original source of inspiration for me and I was so eager to pursue the opportunity, I dove right in! Headfirst. Not even considering that the contract comes with a one year time frame to get things done, and I wasn't currently in the best position to get it all done by the deadline. But the program stipulated that contracts could be extended for the simple fee of another dollar down on the project. I saw one of the stories called “Luckey Quarter” on the list, and was intrigued by the purposeful misspelling and what that could mean, so I grabbed a copy of the collection the story was in, and fished it from the pages. It was actually the final ten or so pages of the short collection, Everything's Eventual, and there really wasn't too much of a horror or supernatural bent to the tale. Still, I was intrigued.

So I wrote my proposal and sent it off to the King's people. It wasn't long before I heard back, and my pitch was accepted. Other reasons I focused on “Luckey Quarter” was that I felt it would be a story I could tell through our usual low-to-no budget style of Colorado indie filmmaking, once it was adapted to the region (from its original setting in Nevada). Given our proximity to Cripple Creek, I felt like we could fit the story into the hills and slots of the Creek with ease. After all, at its heart, it was the story of a single mother desperately struggling to make ends meet under her somewhat unfortunately common circumstances. So the setting wasn't as important to the story itself, so long as you had casinos and slot machines in the picture.

Once I had the story all set, the adaptation came easy as well. Given that this would likely be my only opportunity to make a Stephen King short, I wanted there to be some horror, and to have the potential otherworldly aspects of the tale more firmly placed in that arena. Since the initial story didn't address the point about the title that intrigued me and caught my eye, I decided I would center any poetic license I might take with the tale around that. And I am a poet, and a lifelong lover/fan of King's horror, so taking that license felt somewhat reasonably within reach. Though fraught with anxiety at the same time. But adapting the story came so naturally, that I had the script done in no time at all. That's when I started sending it out to some of my usual collaborators to gauge interest in being part of the

project.
Most merely needed to hear that it was an official, fully licensed Stephen King adaptation to

eagerly sign on to the film. Even though that meant we wouldn't get to release the film publicly on our YouTube channel like we do with all of our other works. But some of my team were going to be potentially tied up for a few months with other projects, so we would have to delay. “No, problem,” I remember thinking to myself. We had a whole year, and the ability to extend the contract if it came down to it. So we kept putting the pieces together over the course of the rest of 2023, aiming for actually moving into production on the film in 2024.

That's when the news hit that King was shuttering the Dollar Baby Program, and that all existing contracts would be honored, but no extensions would be allowed. That suddenly added a whole new layer of pressure to getting the project locked in and made. But as indie filmmakers, pressure is not a concept that is foreign to us whatsoever. And we all pulled together to be able to make the film happen with just six days of production squeezed into the Spring of '24. Giving me just a couple of weeks to edit the film and get it all sealed with a bow right before our contract was set to expire.

Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better experience, and that was all due to the amazing team of people we managed to bring together to make the film a reality. And what the film meant to me personally, to be adapting and taking on a story by someone who had been such a pivotal voice shaping my own. And, as a filmmaker, getting to work with the same people from project to project is always a blessing and something that fills me with joy, and this film was no exception. We had so many returning players for this lengthy short, that it felt so at home and easy, even though it was the largest, most involved and cast and crew I had ever assembled and worked with for one project. Owing mostly to the fact that we had to have an extended sequence set on the casino floor.

We also did a small crowdfunding campaign to help with the costs of the production, and that in and of itself added a new layer to the project that I wasn't used to dealing with, including a large marketing push to get the campaign launched and going. In the end, we didn't get all we were asking for, but we managed to get enough to make the film happen. All on the strength and generosity of our cast and crew, and their willingness to sacrifice and more to capture the magic. A true labor of love fueled by a handful of passionate creatives, and brought to life by the dedication of some stellar Colorado dreamers and crafters of cinema.

A DVD of the film had to be produced to send to Mr. King himself, per the terms of the contract, so we made sure we could get enough made to give each of our cast and crew their own copy of the film as well. Again, the anxiety returned upon the mailing of the DVD to the King himself, but I was put at ease by the fact that we did something amazing. And we managed it under some really tricky circumstances and limitations. So I am exceedingly proud of the work our team turned in day after day, and the final product stands as one of the things I am most proud to have worked on through Whatsabudget Films.

As we move into trying to find and fund a solid festival run for the film, I really hope that more people get to see and experience what our scrappy team of indie filmmakers achieved here. It truly is a testament to all that I love about indie film, and filmmaking in general.