After we had graduated from Eastern New Mexico University in 1986, Chud and I stayed in constant contact. We would send each other Christmas cards and call long distance from time to time.
After leaving ENMU, Chud got accepted into a Masters program in stage design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. He and Elad lived together while he earned his degree. He designed the sets for a number of productions.
In 1989, I was living in Denver. He and Elad came through town on their way out to California after he had graduated. He went there to see his father. They got to meet Bez, who was my girlfriend at the time.
Shortly after arriving in the Los Angeles area, Chud was able to get a job as an Imagineer for Disney's theme parks. Chud didn't think much of marriage, after seeing what happened to his parents after they had gotten divorced. However, he was persuaded to tie the knot with Elad after she proposed to him. I got an announcement from Chud and Elad that they were officially husband and wife. On the back of the note, he drew a shackle and wrote, "Watch out, or you may be next!" However, I never did get married to Bez.
A couple of years later, I moved out to San Diego, CA. About three months later, I got to pay my first visit to Chud and Elad at their apartment in Burbank. It was nice to get to be closer to Chud. I went up every few months to visit them. Sometimes, Chud would take me to Disneyland to see some of the projects he had worked on. I probably went to Disneyland at least 10 times over the next few years.
Eventually, Chud and Elad bought their own home in Burbank. They got a good price on it because it's close to the airport. The entire house is a work in progress because Chud is always doing something creative with it. Something always changes every time I go there.
In 2000, there was a screenwriting contest called "Project Greenlight." I asked Chud if he wanted to help me write a screenplay to enter. I had an idea for a story and we made arrangements for me to come up. I pounded out the majority of the script in a week on an electric typewriter and came up to put it all into his computer. He thought what I had done was very well-written We made plans for me to come up the next week and we would finalize it.
I arrived the next weekend to find he had drastically altered the script. He added more characters and it became a lot more complex, almost too much for the million-dollar budget we were supposed to work with. Some of the changes I agreed with, but most of them were so far out in left field, I didn't feel like it was the same story. So we worked and reached a compromise on many of the issues. However, the biggest fight we got into was figuring out a title. We threw a few titles out and wrote them down. After awhile, we weren't getting any closer to coming up with a title. I sat down at the keyboard and deleted some of my suggestions. I had hoped that Chud would follow my lead and remove some of his as well. But when he sat down to type, HE ADDED MORE TITLES!
Eventually, we agreed on a title and I thought it was ready to enter. We printed it out so we could submit it to the copyright office and the Writers Guild of America. During the first contest for "Project Greenlight," there were several submissions that were already being read and graded before the deadline came. I had hoped to get our screenplay in a week before the deadline so that it would get properly read. However, Chud decided it needed more work, so he made more changes to it, without consulting me. The screenplay was entered on time, but we mostly got bad reviews, so we didn't win. We probably would have gotten bad reviews even if we went with my original draft.
(Years later, I read the actual script that was submitted, which I hadn't done at the time of the contest. It was so different from the compromised version I had initially agreed to, to the point that there were a number of real world logistical flaws with it. However, if I had any further objections, we never would have gotten the entry into the contest on time.)
The next year, we attempted to enter "Project Greenlight" again with a new screenplay. We didn't have as much drama in the writing this time and the reading period didn't start until after the deadline. However, right before we were going to enter the screenplay, Chud's computer crashed and deleted all our work. He called up and profusely apologized to me. He wasn't aware of this, but I wasn't going to have enough money to cover all the entry fees, so it actually came as a relief that I wasn't going to have to fork out all that money. He was probably shocked that I didn't yell at him. I had hard copies of the treatment and many of the key scenes. It was not going to be a problem re-creating the screenplay. We just weren't going to be able to enter that year.
The next time they had a "Project Greenlight," I was able to rewrite the screenplay, but we didn't really stand a chance because they were looking for some type of horror or thriller type of film and this was a comedy. I had a good idea for a story in the thriller vein, but hadn't fully fleshed it out. We would never write another screenplay again.
I moved to San Jose in 2003 and don't get to see Chud and Elad that frequently anymore. However, when we do get together, we always have a great time.
I hope we'll always be able to keep the spark of our friendship alive through at least the next 32 years.
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