As you may know, I ran away to Utah a week-ish ago and met with the director (David Skousen) and the producer (Sae Sae Norris) for THE HAAN BLADE. It was my first “meet and greet”. I have been working with these people for a while now, but it has ALL been over the phone / e-mail.

I was terrified.

Stereotypically, my first thought was “what do I wear?” I chose “casual” although, dressing comfy (jeans and a sweater) doesn’t mean I have to look homeless, right? Thank you, White House | Black Market. –Yes, I spent $100 on ‘lunch’ at a clothing store.

I had a list of “rules” and did my best to stick to them. Here they are:

1. Don’t talk too much.
2. Don’t discuss the contract.
3. Don’t discuss the script; unless being nebulous.
4. Be myself.
5. Be memorable.
6. Don’t linger. –Respect that these people are busy and they will appreciate it.

Pretty much The Ant Queen’s dialogue to Princess Atta in A BUG’S LIFE: “…they come, they eat, they leave…”

This may seem like an odd list of rules for meeting the team for a film I’m making. In my humble opinion, however, the important thing to remember is that a meet and greet is NOT a meeting. You are having lunch and shooting the shat.

That’s it.

From my POV, it went awesome. By keeping to my above rules (as much as possible), I was able to get to know the team rather than get into a complicated discussion about the contract, development notes, or embarrassing myself –too much.

The director and I enjoy the same music. The producer and I were dressed in almost identical clothes; we had a good laugh about that! When we had finished lunch (which all three of us tried to pay for) we headed off excited about THE HAAN BLADE.

The bottom line, for me, is those rules guided me through that experience.

When was your first ‘meet and greet’? How did it go? What advice would you give someone who is heading into one? Share…or perish.

Thanks for reading! Keep writing!