Ace was the bomb.
Well, technically he was not a bomb. But from where we came from he was about as close to heaven as most of us were going to get.
We'd all grown up together on the sad side of town. We didn't call it the ghetto or the hood or any of those types of names. It was just there. Not much of a home but it was all we had.
When the rest of us were hanging out on street corners, getting high, Ace was studying and learning and working towards making a name for himself. I don't think any of us from the old gang were at all surprised when Ace announced he was headed to California to take college courses. What may have surprised some was Ace's chosen field of study...film.
I wasn't surprised at all. Ace was always creative and as long as I had known him he always had some type of camera in his hands. He said it was like looking out a window at forever. He was a deep thinker, our Ace.
He disappeared from our lives for a few years while he was out there. When he came back, he had a degree and a dream. He hadn't changed much from our old Ace except he had visions of what he could do with our neighborhood and our lives. He started first with short films featuring the people around the block. It wasn't some crazy thriller or espionage plot but it was interesting. He showed the completed works to a few industry insiders and got a spot at a local film festival.
It got good buzz and a few financiers decided Ace had talent. They offered to front his next work. He took the money and headed back home. With a bankroll, he could be more leisurely in the process and fine tune his efforts. And he could also afford to be a bit more generous, paying us as extras. It wasn't a hell of a lot of money but it was the gesture we appreciated. Times were tough all over and even a little cash in our pockets was better than none at all.
Life was good. Ace's films were critically accepted and popular among those that mattered. He used some of his profits to buy an abandoned warehouse downtown that he poured more money into to make it a studio. He started writing actual plots to the films and we had actual dialogue to follow but it was all good. Everything was smooth.
But not for long because after Ace's fourth and most successful film, the names in Hollywood told Ace it wasn't cool to have all his movies made in the neighborhood. And it wasn't cool to feature all his buddies in all his films. And if Ace wanted to make a real name for himself, it would be better if he started filming 'professional' films with 'professional' actors and 'professional' crew. Sadly, Ace decided to listen to them.