Short Films
Have a listen to this interview Christina did about 'Juice It' with the people behind the Damn Film Series as part of their podcast The Story Around the Story. It's a little choppy and the audio quality has issues due to some technical difficulties. But it's a fun listen nonetheless. 'Juice It' will be screening as part of the series on May 11th.
We JUST finished "Not Our Living Room" and plan to submit it to its first festival this week! We have a handful more we'll be submitting to over the next few months.
"We Had Plans" has been submitted to multiple festivals over the last few months, and we'll finally start hearing back from some in May. We'll be sure to keep you updated as we get notified.
We're having a screening for cast, crew & local supporters! If you're a local supporter, you should have received an invite to our private premiere on May 6th. If you did not, or if you aren't local but will be in town that evening, send us a message & we'll forward details. We're so excited to share these films with the people who helped make them! After the screening, we'll send out private links to everyone at the eligible Incentive level. And hopefully there will be a screening near you so that everyone who can't be there on the 6th can still see it on a big screen soon!
What else have we been up to since our last update?
We have more updates coming your way, including teasers for the films. We'll be in touch again soon.
As always, thanks for your amazing support! We wouldn't have two completed short films if not for all of you!
-Christina, Kelsey & the team
Friday night was the "Juice It" screening at the Queens World Film Festival; and what a night it was! In a 400 seat theater, over half the seats were full with an enthusiastic audience - many connected to filmmakers there, some just attending for a night of indie film.
"Juice it" screened 1st of the 6 films, and it really opened the night up. People were LAUGHING, like really laughing all throughout, especially through the ending. The room was a roar at a certain dirty line (in reference to a pretzel) for anyone who's seen it before. I've grown accustomed to that being the biggest laugh at screenings, which is fun & refreshing. Clearly people are not expecting that at all.
After the screening, audience members were raving about the film. I got such wonderful & insightful comments. Also, people were all over Ricardo & his performance! It was very exciting. I tweeted some quotes about the film from people here & here. I was also interviewed by a reporter from the Queens Courier, so hopefully that'll come out this week. Afterwards, we went to a local bar & hung out with some friends and a few audience members turned fans. It was a great night. And, overall, it was lovely being part of this particular festival where the people who run it are so clearly sincere in their support of local filmmakers and trying to create a sense of community between us. I enjoyed how interactive they made the build up to the screening and will surely submit future films shot in Queens. Until then, I'm excited to see the film in front of an audience again on May 11th at the DAMN! Film Series.
Last Saturday, I shot a new short film titled Hello. For the past two years, I was an Instructor for a mobile workshop, which I've written about in the past, so I'd spent about one week out of every month in a hotel room. I'd always let my imagination run away with me and occasionally convince myself that maybe my room was haunted. At a workshop in January, during the second to last night in my room, I couldn't sleep (as usual) and also couldn't get the melody from the opening sequence of "Up" out of my head (as I've seen it about 35 times, using it as a teaching tool in the workshop), so I got inspired to write a short screenplay. I ended up writing a 5 page quirky comedy about a haunted hotel room from the ghost's perspective.
Everyone who read it really enjoyed it, as did I, so I figured why not make it. It's short & sweet, and I knew it'd be fairly easy to shoot.
I wrote the script with two of my favorite actors in mind: Lauren A. Kennedy & Ricardo Manigat. Anyone who's been following my work will surely recognize them. So, I got them on board; Peter Westervelt, my wonderfully creative & resourceful DP, was game, Matt Gershowitz, my AD/Editor & right hand man, was excited to get back to a fun small-scale project after our long two years of Summit, and Rashida Bolden, our makeup artist for our last two shorts, was gracious enough to offer her talent & services to the spooky-funny project. We rounded out our low-key team with co-founder Chris Carroll taking on-set photos & an additional actor Maylin Castro, who hung out with us for a quick scene. A big thank you goes out to all of them for helping bring this production together.
Also thanks to generous local film friends Steven Smith & Michael DiBiasio - because of their equipment loans, I only had to rent one piece of equipment, a Zeiss zoom lens. As for the location, I rented the cheapest room I could find near my apartment (to have as a homebase if needed) and we shot the film kind of guerrilla style in the sketchiest & sleaziest motel I've ever been in, filled with drugs & prostitution for sure, between 2pm and 2am (though it quickly became 3am thanks to daylight savings time). Thankfully, we survived the icky motel unscathed and pulled the film off without a hitch! Our only setbacks were getting a late start, so having to change one day scene to a night scene, and my monitor not working. Otherwise though, it was smooth. Luckily, sound is not an issue for this film because there was some serious noise going on in the halls, which actually worked in our favor because the questionable activities of the other guests allowed us to fly under the securities' radar & shoot the film sans disruption or confrontation. I'm so excited about what we accomplished with this short short & cannot wait to dive into Post.
Below are BTS photos from the shoot:
And here are some shots from the Raw footage:
With Fogal Stocking
Without Fogal Stocking
We shot on a BlackMagic Pocket.
A film we screened at IndieWorks a few months back used a stocking over their lens to give their footage more of an old film (stock) feel because it was a period piece. This inspired me to want to do that for this film and create a motif where the stocking would only be on the lens anytime we're seeing events through the perspective of the ghost in the film. Maybe you can see the subtle difference in the screenshots above, though it's easier to see in the moving footage. Peter found this article and executed the look perfectly. We're both really happy with the end result and will definitely do it again should a project come along that's suitable (which I'm sure will because I spent $65 on those stockings & that's enough to get me thinking creatively for an opportunity to use up both legs).
That's it - the story of shooting "Hello." I'll keep you updated on post-production over the next few months!
-Christina
Hello everyone,
Sorry for the lack of updates. Kelsey & I have been super busy in post-production, on top of some other exciting happenings.
The most exciting is that "We Had Plans" is finished! Footage has been colored, sound has been mixed and the film has been submitted to its first few festivals!
As far as that film goes, we just have to sit and wait for a few months. The earliest we'll hear back is May. However, we aim to share both films with you, our amazing supporters, as soon as both are finished.
Speaking of both, we achieved picture lock on "Not Our Living Room" yesterday! We're now moving into color and sound mix. As you know, this film's more on the surreal side, so we have a bit more work to do in terms of graphics and sound design. It's going to be a fun, but potentially lengthy process. We'll be sure to keep you updated as we make progress.
Also, we're planning to release teasers for both films next month. You'll be the first ones to see them for sure, don't worry!
In other news, we sent out the 'Kelsey' Fan Rewards. If you didn't get yours, please send us a message. I'll be sending my feature film, Summit, to eligible $100+ supporters next month. Please fill out the survey and let me know you want to watch it if you have not yet done so.
Speaking of Summit, I wrote an article featuring 5 lessons learned from shooting it for the Seed&Spark blog: Shooting a No-budget Feature in Winter Weather. It's a short companion piece to a series of 15 posts I did on our CongestedCat blog last month titled #ShootingSummit. Feel free to check it out. I've gotten incredibly wonderful feedback on it, particularly from fellow filmmakers.
Also, my last short, "Juice It," shot after 'Kelsey' in 2013, is screening next month at the Queens World Film Festival, in April at the HollyShorts Screening Series and in May at the DAMN Film Series. I'm waiting to hear back from one more local festival before finally putting that film online.
Lastly, Kelsey & I have some new collaborations coming in this new year! Nothing we can talk about just yet, but definitely know that we're being creative & working hard. More on that soon!
Thanks for your support, patience and continued interest in our projects,
Christina
