Shearer has directed a few shorts in recent years, but he hasn't helmed a full-length feature in 13 years, since Martin Mull's Portrait of a White Marriage . And, quite simply, the reason he returned to filmmaking was because he missed the rush. But unlike his pal Christopher Guest's films, Teddy Bear's Picnic is not at all improvised, partially because Shearer could ill afford to spend the time or money sifting through dirt to find gold. Such things are impossible when you're paying for the movie out of your own pockets, no matter how deep other people might think they are. But it's wrong .
People do go broke doing that all the time.
And yet they get to keep doing it. Nobody ever says, Ah ha , you made a mistake by underestimating the public. And you never get to do it again. So the deck is totally stacked. But it's stacked by the industry.