by Mac Welch (star, co-writer, co-producer)

What do I feel about the making of The Putz? By now you would think that I should be used to the whole idea of moviemaking. What we are trying to do here? Are we trying to make independent movies for fun? Absolutely. Do we make these movies to entertain? Sure, of course. But it still gets me every time. When the camera rolls and the sound cue starts them, wham the feeling of complete ecstasy fills your body. Like when you’re smothered in Vaseline and cream cheese… umm… never mind. But that’s not why I do it of course. I do it to make a statement …right. The pleasure of knowing that I have created something in the entertainment field that possibly could reach some one out there. Yeah, whatever… I do it so I can try and fuck the other cast members. Male or female, it doesn’t matter to me, I umm… sorry… (hee hee).

Really, we make these movies so we can tell the world of the fucked-up situations that happen to us everyday. The story of The Putz is not that much different then the way my life was running at one point--constantly searching for Miss Right, or at least Miss Right Now. Any person who has tried to figure out what the opposite sex (or the same sex, if necessary) is thinking or feeling should see The Putz. Or maybe Swingers, but since Favraeu didn’t ask me to help him with that web site I’ll stick with what I know. The Putz was a film to explain a young, sensitive man’s outlook on dating after divorce. We were not trying to solve any problems; there was no deep agenda. We just wanted to finally have fun. In a society where people change spouses like they do their automobiles, it was good to make a movie to explain what some guys feel. Making The Putz was an enjoyable on several levels but the best thing was making a comedy that many people could relate. That and the dirty sex between the cast members.

The idea for the film came from Jason and I talking about the problems that the two of us had with dating. For a while I thought that women received a newsletter once a month telling them to watch out for me. “This man is dangerous. He is needy, fat and masturbates constantly. His ex-wife says he is a lousy lay so stay clear.” I seriously thought my name and picture was on this list with a Surgeon General’s warning. So, realizing Jason was having the same problems, I said, “HEY….DO YOU LIKE DATING….I DO…LETS MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT THAT….AND HOT DOGS!” So out of this frustration with dating came one part of The Putz. The other part of the film came from my divorce (Hear that ladies…he is divorced…he has experience) and the problems that had arisen throughout the years from those situations. You throw in some jokes, my cute little son, and some hot looking stink to turn me down all the way through and we have ourselves a fun comedy. So as Jason and I lie naked on the rubber sheets, surrounded by the smell of Vaseline and farts, I tell him, “Hey, you have dating problems and I have dating problems lets do a movie about that. I'll star and we will call it The Putz.” So we finished making love and he began writing.

We debated constantly on how the tone of the movie should go. Jason had a nice, High Fidelity type of movie in mind, with some heartfelt moments and in-depth characters. I wanted a Jim Carrey-type vehicle to show off some of my own comedic talents. So we struggled with that until Jason came to me with his version of the script, and I realized how good the movie could be if I incorporated my little tit bits into this nice character piece.

We knew we wanted to make a movie that everyone could see. The company had been catching shit for years over the language in our films so we wanted to do something our grandparents could handle. ALRIGHT JESUS FUCKING CHRIST WE’LL CUT DOWN ON THE MOTHERFUCKING F-WORDS. That was probably the hardest part of writing the script because, for us, telling funny stories without being dirty can get tricky. Sure, if all you are doing is fart and asshole jokes then you can fill the movie easily, but we wanted a little more than “ Suck me beautiful!” Personally there were times I said “Fuck this! Let’s get back to the penis jokes! I have got a great butt crack thing that would be perfect here!” Then Jason would remind me of our goal and I would save those jokes for when I would look at myself in the mirror naked. Once the story was flowing then it took off and soon the script was done and pre-production began.

I swear, the casting of this film was the biggest motherfucking pain in the ass. There were so many good people who came out audition but very few people could commit overall. On the surface they seemed excited, but when it was time to get into it they backed out or didn’t even show up at the read-throughs or rehearsals. The Putz had thirty-five characters in it, which was by far our biggest cast to date. We loved that everyone was so eager to try out, but then they wouldn’t show up and recasting got extremely annoying. Out of the original thirty-five people cast, I believe a little over half had to be replaced. At time we were scared that we wouldn’t be able to find enough people. We went from turning people down to scrounging around trying to find out who was still available to come in and do the schedule. So when we finally got into the rehearsal it was like… “Ahhh, thank god. We finally got here.”

When all the bullshit cleared the rehearsals were fabulous. Based on what worked and what didn’t, we began cutting out some things and adding others in. You could tell when each person took the part to the next level that we were on to something brand new and fresh. (THANK YOU TO THE WONDERFUL CAST) Plus, the new replacements were better then the originals anyway and the movie started looking better and better. As we began shooting we lucked out and fell into having two cameras on the shoot grabbing every angle. Plus, we assembled a fantastic crew that was constantly on point in everything they did. (THANKS GUYS) I won’t say that around the middle we were all wondering how the fuck we had talked ourselves into this bullshit fucking project but that eventually subsided and we pressed on. Finally the movie was shot and we all made group love. That’s not exactly true, but some of us were changed forever, some of us were pregnant, some of just still liked ham.

The editing process didn’t have anything to do with me. I would come in and check out what was new as the producer but that was it. My intention in the beginning was to get massively involved in everything but sometimes laziness wins out. So all I did was watch and give advice which didn’t really mean shit. So that was editing.

Finally, the movie opened and was received by the public. Mostly I heard good things, but as usual there are some selfish fuckwads that will come and shit all over everything you do because they like to feel good about themselves. A lot of people told they thought that this movie was a personal attack on my ex-wife. Of course, I told them that anything similar was just poking fun and that the ex had read the script and found it enjoyable and didn’t take anything personally. My ex has always been a huge supporter of our movies and was the same way on this project as well. The characters were exaggerated to make the movie funnier. My married and divorced life just gave small scenarios to blow up and make funny. I have a wonderful relationship with my ex so I discouraged any thought of this being an “ex-wife hate film”.

I wish that this inbred, useless, life sucking, boring town would have been more supportive but unless you show a special effect flying out of your ass every five seconds the general population in Wichita is unimpressed. If one thing would stop us from making movies here that would be it. The total lack of support by the media around here is amazing. For a minute I thought of holding people hostage to get us some press but I figured prison and salad tossing wouldn’t be as fun as advertised. All but two media kits we sent out were ignored. The Friday morning of the premiere I happened to be listening to what is supposed to be one of our best morning shows: KKRD’s Morning Crew with it’s out of it, old man DJ and his brainless female sidekick who laughs at all of his awful jokes, making a show that is like listening to cats fuck late at night. Anyway, they were doing their movie talk section telling Wichita of what new movies were premiering and all they talked about was Pearl Harbor. Should have to waste my time talking about that cinematic piece of shit? I thought you’d agree. But I heard this dumb bitch actually say…”that is the only movie opening in Wichita this weekend.” We had sent them a press kit with all sorts of information, as well as a preview copy of the movie. They didn’t give a shit. No media outlet in this God- forsaken shit hole did, except for our buddy Brian on the Warp Zone on 1330 AM. I could go on for pages about the bullshit that you deal with trying to advertise in this place. It’s like trying to get pussy from your ex-wife. You keep trying but she still ain’t giving it up.

In general The Putz was great to work on and I am really glad I had the chance to bring one of my ideas to screen. I hope to continue that in the future but if I don’t I will always have The Putz. The movie was made cheap but the folks that worked on it made a million-dollar blockbuster. I would love every project to flow and come together as well as this one did. Oh, and I’d love for the media to get their heads out of their asses and support local films but I will probably find Jimmy Hoffa’s body first. I LOVE YOU ALL.