On a serious note, and not differentiating too much from the Director's Statement, that's kind of what happened.

It was mid February, day 149 of the strike, and at that moment in time there was discussion of shutting down hockey for the year.  I was in pre-production on my second feature film and JUST lost my funding.  I was depressed and upset.  I came home and really wanted to watch some hockey.  Hockey was always a release for me.  It's like soap-opera for men. 

I plopped my sulking body on the couch and scoured the television.  No hockey.  My girlfriend, who was in the other room and new I was grouchy about losing the funding, let me have some time to myself.  I decided to play my XBOX.  After two or three games, my thumbs became sore and I thought it was funny that this was how I was getting my hockey fix.

Then it hit me.  How was the absence of hockey affecting everyone else's lives?  I go bolting into the bedroom, where my girlfriend was, and ramble about the adverse side-effects of hockey withdrawal.  I thought it would be funny to get a womans POV and make the movie about how women want hockey back just as bad as men.  She loved it!  I then called Richard De Klerk, who is a good friend of mine, and he said, "Just write it baby!"  I wanted to shoot something this year no matter what.  I already had 60% of my
cast and 100% of my crew ready to go.  I didn't want to let anyone down.

So I finished writing the script.  Within 45 minutes, I had the fifteen page short film complete.  I knew it wouldn't cost me too much to film it and if I had to, I'd do it myself.  The only reservation, what if the strike is resolved.  I decided to wait until the strike was confirmed for the year.

About a week and a half later, I got a call from a friend of mine.  He heard about the feature and how it lost funding.  I told him the synopsis, sent him the script, and within three hours he said let's make the movie!  Just like that the feature was a go and I returned to pre-production. I was heavy into pre-production then the bomb hit!  HOCKEY HAS BEEN CANCELLED FOR THE YEAR!  I couldn't believe it.  I truly thought they would settle at the last minute.  Now, here I was with potentially two great films and essentially no time to make them.  I began doing pre-production on both films at once!!

This was all too crazy, I know.  Believe me, no one liked the idea of doing two different pre-productions at the same time.  I don't know if it's ever been done before, and I'm sure it would be discouraged if the idea was brought up, but this film had to be made.

With a tentative start date of April 8th 2005 for the feature (which as I write this is in 5 days) I needed a weekend to get the short finished.  With the crew completely locked for the feature I pitched them the idea of this.  Besides a few outbursts of, "What are you thinking," I had them convinced that this can be accomplished and it wouldn't jeopardize either production.

So we went at it and it was a blast!  Most of my crew and I hadn't been behind the camera since September and it felt great to be back on set.  We shot Puck This on March 25, 26, and 27th with only 8 hour days.  The cast was on fire, the crew was amped I was ecstatic that it turned out so well. 

Now we tackle my feature film.  It's crazy the way things happen.  The
up's, the down's. It's just like hockey!

Rick Alyea
April 3, 2005