In the early pre-production stages of my making ‘Cobra’s Wish’, I came across some great obstacles, one of them being how to find the right team to shoot this movie. Friends and acquaintances gave me all kinds of suggestions.

I tried Mandy.com and Craig’s list. Of all the resumes of the cast and crew I received I had to choose the best to fit my budget. I had to consider a number of factors:

1. Find people who do the best job possible technically

2. Complete the shoot within the allotted time

3. Audio and video to be in a good shape for editing so the final cut will look decent.

4. People who can work well together as a team.

One thing, in my opinion, most people ignore is the chemistry among the cast and crew members. But not only that. If the line producer does not see eye-to-eye with the director, the shots will not look so great.

Lack of chemistry and personality clashes can lead to financial loss and failure, as we have seen with the Disney Company where the two top executives Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz were at constant loggerheads. Eventually Ovitz got fired costing Disney $140 million dollars in severance pay. The astrological charts of Geena Davis and Donald Sutherland indicated to me that the TV show Commander-in-Chief on ABC would not make it.. There was further trouble when creator Rod Lurie missed script deadlines and caused production delays. Harmony and good chemistry among cast and crew is essential to make a movie or TV series a success.

In some of the classics like Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly the three main characters, Eli Wallach, Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef had great chemistry and that’s why it has

been such a success. In Funny Girl we see great chemistry between Ormar Sharif and Barbra Streisand and in Meet Joe Black Anthony Hopkins did an excellent job working with Brad Pitt. In the TV series Honeymooners a great chemistry existed between Art Carney and Jackie Gleason. And the series has been admired by viewers for a long period of time.

It is also imperative that the director not tinge the movie with his/her own philosophy. The spirit of the script must retain its essence in the final cut. To create conditions in which the writer, director and the crew can practically depict the essentials of the story is the key.

To achieve this aim the personalities of the writer, director and line producer must harmonize. I did this astrologically. And everything turned out ok. One word of caution. No one except me (the writer) actually knew how I envisioned the entire movie in my mind’s eye. This created a misunderstanding. Only when completed, the whole picture made sense because all the parts were in the right place.

And this is how I won my Waterloo.

If you are in the process of finding the right team, it is important not to sacrifice the quality of production because of a lack of funds. Make sure that crew members are in harmony and dedicated. and you’ll have a product you can be proud of.

Good luck with moviemaking.