Our team member Ricardo Manigat was a guest on Happy Face Podcast, where he discussed pursuing his acting career, deciding to follow through on writing a feature, and how fatherhood has crystalized his goals.
ricardo manigat
"About a Donkey" Start of Principal Photography Recap
Thanks to all who supported our successful crowdfunding campaign, we were able to start principal photography on our second feature film, About a Donkey, this past weekend. You can check out this blog post to find out more about the film and see behind the scenes of our first unofficial production day back in January. I'll be sharing more about the experience of making this film, the creative choices behind it and how we're able to do it on $20,000 in 12 shooting days after we wrap production. But in the meantime, I'd love to include you in our progress through a bit of behind the scenes along the way via a weekly blog post. Here's the first.
We'll be shooting the film over four weekends through April 2nd. This was our first (three consecutive days), and it was a huge success! We're running on 12 hour days and I'm proud to say that we not only made our day all three days but made them early! This is a testament to the talent and skill of our small in quantity but mighty in quality crew & cast (or film-family, as we like to say)!
On Friday (thanks to my cousin Lauri, who loaned her house for the shoot), we shot scenes set in Annie & Paul's kitchen. See BTS below.
And check out a couple raw Stills from the day:
On Saturday, we shot scenes set in the nursery for Annie and Paul's soon-to-be baby. See BTS below.
And check out a raw Still from the day:
And check out a couple raw Stills from the day.
This weekend we'll be jumping back in shooting a scene set in a hospital waiting room on Friday and scenes set in (grandma) Farrah's nursing home on Saturday. (We're skipping Sunday because our pilot "Two Gays & a Girl" is premiering at the Queens World Film Festival that afternoon!)
You may be wondering where the titular donkey is in all this production. Well, stay tuned!
-Christina
Meet Paul! (Seed&Spark update)
Paul is played by Ricardo Manigat. Ricardo is one of my favorite actors to collaborate with and one of my favorite people to be around. He's part of the main ensemble in my first feature film, Summit. He's also been in our short films "Juice It" and "Hello." He was actually the first actor we cast because we simply offered him the role knowing we love him and would love to work with him again! Watch what he has to say about his character and the film.
More about Paul:
Paul is a software engineer. He has always loved children and is over the moon to be having his first child with his wife, Annie. He has become the voice of reason in the family, though has always had a soft spot for Anne's father and his whims.
Suggested Tweet: Meet Paul, one of the characters in #aboutadonkey, an inclusive comedy currently crowdfunding on @seedandspark! https://vimeo.com/204193277.
Suggested Facebook Post: Meet Paul, one of the characters in About a Donkey, an inclusive comedy film currently raising funds to make their full feature! https://vimeo.com/204193277.
We've made it past 50% thanks to all of you! Let's keep this momentum going so we can make this film! Aiming for 60% by Friday!
-Christina, Kelsey & the team
BTS of New Short "Arm Bar"
in Short Films
Last night we wrapped production on my new short film, "Arm Bar."
Logline: A young, aspiring MMA fighter visits her local boxing gym to settle a dispute with the owner.
The screenplay for "Arm Bar" came to fruition in the first few months of our CongestedCat writing group. Christina Raia, Kelsey Rauber, and I, had all been talking about how we wanted to meet once a week to keep the creative, right side of our brain's in motion. I knew I wanted to move into pre-production on a new short, but I didn't know which would be the right script to move forward with. I initially wanted to tackle one of my other short stories, "Magic Mountain," with DoP Peter Westervelt, but it proved to be a bit too ambitious for the time. After Christina and Kelsey gave me their thoughts on Arm Bar, I knew it was the one. I was soon after introduced to Jeanette Sears at one of our IndieWorks events and knew she would be a great fit to DP the film. I loved the fact that we had representation and inclusivity not only in front of, but behind the camera as well.
Christina expressed her interest in producing the project and we immediately moved into pre-production, which proved to be a lot to take on. At first, the plan was to crowdfund on Seed&Spark, but after talking with Christina, we decided it'd be best to fund this one out-of-pocket. She helped me solidify the budget and we realized it would be attainable. Still, we made the decision to shoot promotional and behind the scenes videos to draw some attention to the project before moving into principal photography. You can watch the promo here:
Casting the project was a bumpy road, but when I auditioned Latresa Baker is when it all really started to come together. She walked into that room prepared and ready to take the role that was rightfully hers. The training process was one one of the aspects of pre-pro that I was most scared about. We bounced around from class, to individual trainer, to fight choreographer, and I was worried that all the different types of blocking and direction would make it more confusing than helpful. In the end, Latresa absorbed all the information like a sponge and we created a simple, cohesive, and hopefully exciting fight that I can't wait to share with you all.
In hindsight, everything about this project was almost just as ambitious as Magic Mountain. FedUp was the last short I directed over two years ago... a six-and-a-half minute short in my apartment with a small cast and crew. Arm Bar is a fifteen page screenplay that takes place in a boxing gym with a decent-sized supporting cast, extras, and fight scene choreography. It was a lot to take on, but with the help of Christina, Jeanette, AD Matt Gershowitz, and the rest of the amazing cast and crew that I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with... we did it.
Check out some raw stills from what we shot below:
See BTS photos from the day:
I really can't thank my cast and crew enough. They were all my rock, and helped me keep it together in the production's most heightened points of anxiety. Can't wait to collaborate with these wonderful people again in the future.
Some of the cast and crew after we wrapped production on the film.
-Ryan