This is something that I’ve been rolling around in my head for a long time. In fact, a lot of my not posting anything about Goss Acres has been due to my indecision about this. But if I’ve learned anything it’s that when a decision starts driving you crazy, the best thing to do is say “screw it” and act.

In October of 2007, after the release of Postpartum, Randy DeFord brought up the idea of doing a new feature length film. I was surprised as he’d told me he would never do feature length again. He said that he wanted to do it after watching Desiree Conn work in my short film Songs For Daddy. He briefly outlined the story of a criminal profiler who goes back to her hometown after the death of her father and becomes embroiled in the local goings on and said that he wanted Desiree for the lead. This idea matured into the original version of Goss Acres. Shooting would take place over a year, fitting scenes in on weekends when actors could be available.

Over the course of shooting, we ran into a number of difficulties, culminating in production being postponed for one year. During that hiatus, Randy brought up the idea of re-writing Goss Acres to create a new story that could make use of the existing footage. I wasn’t sure about the idea, but Randy convinced me that it would be the best way to make use of the existing footage and come up with a fresh new product. We did that and created a new cast for the re-written story. Production on the new project began in June of 2009 but in July Randy announced that he wanted out, siting the economy, issues encountered during the original shooting, friends’ health issues and a myriad of other reasons. He suggested that I complete it with other people.

I’d considered ending the project altogether but a lot of people had put a lot of work into the film, many for no pay, and I didn’t feel right about letting them down. After speaking with the actors who remained the decision was made to continue, although production had to shut down again soon due to losing our exteriors. That winter, I had spinal surgery, putting the production off even further, but by spring we were back on track. We wrapped production in August of 2010.

Soon though, I discovered that Randy had produced a film titled Section 5, the storyline was as follows:

“A young woman returns home after inheriting her father’s estate. But the neighborhood has changed from when she was a child. What will she find out about the new neighbor and his connection to her father?”

Upon seeing the trailer on Facebook, I found that Section 5 was the original version of Goss Acres. In speaking with others I found that the cast and crew had been informed of the similarities, but that Randy had said he was unaware that Goss Acres was in production.

The worst part about this is that I kept pieces that Randy wrote by himself in Goss Acres, and have intended all along to credit him. The screenplay for Section 5 though, is credited only to Randy DeFord.

I guess the point of this post is to clear the air. In my mind this makes my film appear to be lifted directly from Randy’s film, which is very simply not the case. Also, a lot of people have invested their time in Goss Acres because they believed in the project. I want them to know that they weren’t involved in a sham.

I wish Randy DeFord the best in his future endeavors and I look forward to putting this all behind me.