Stone Soup

When asked about getting films into production, I usually find myself referring to a children's book called "Stone Soup". While everyone from New England seems to know this book, I consistently find folks from other parts of the country who are unfamiliar with it.

For those sad unfortunates, I paraphrase it here:

As the chill of winter begins to set over colonial New England, a travelling stranger passes through a small town along the road. With no money to his name, he begs for his dinner - and is turned away by every house he finds.

"Winter is coming, you know."

"Our harvest was small this year."

"We're all poor, here. Who can afford it?"

With the cold evening right on his heels, the stranger decides not to travel to the next town on the road. Instead, he heads to the creek... where he selects two stones. As he picks through the mud, washing and appraising the stones of the riverbed, the stranger is careful to be seen by a family of villagers.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm making stone soup", says the stranger.

"Is it good?"

"It's very good. In fact, it's my favorite food."

"May I try some?"

"You may try some, if you'd be so good as to lend me your cauldron. Mine is too heavy to carry on the road."

Quickly agreeing, the family runs off to fetch their cauldron. Building a fire in the center of town, the stranger hangs the cauldron and fills it with water. As the water begins to boil, he drops in the two stones.

"What are you doing?" A second family has come out from their house, and is watching the stranger curiously.

"I'm making stone soup," says the stranger.

"Is it good?"

"It's delicious!", exclaims the first family.

"May we have some?"

For a moment, the stranger considers.

"Do you have any squash?"

"Sure, we have squash."

"Well, stone soup is always better with squash. If you'd be willing to share your squash, I'd be happy to let you have some."

With that, the second family runs off to get some squash.

When the third family comes out to see what's cooking, the stranger convinces them to lend him some onions. The fourth family brings salt. The fifth brings salted meat, and soon the whole village is in the center of town, gathered around the cauldron to share in the feast.

When everyone finally sits down to eat, everyone agrees - stone soup is by far the best thing they've tasted in a long, long time!

To make a film, there are basically three things you need. First and foremost, you need a fantastic script. Having a story worth telling gives you the stones - forgive the pun - to pull together everything else the movie requires. Second, you need to be good with people. When someone tells you "Winter is coming," you'd better have the tools to find out what they really mean by that. Lastly, you need to know how to make a fantastic stew. Without knowing which ingredients you need and how to use them, you're going to wind up with a terrible movie and a mob of very angry villagers.

If anyone out there is wondering why their career hasn't taken off yet, I'd suggest looking long and hard at the lesson behind Stone Soup. Are you asking people for dinner and getting turned away? Is the winter long and cold?

If so, you will probably find the very same problems in the next village down the road. Lord knows, you found those problems at the last five villages you've visited. Am I right?

At the risk of being flip, maybe it's time to find your stones!