My Festival Moment... As I Best Recall

Okay, so it’s been a month since my short film, Artistic Closure, premiered at the Stony Brook Film Festival. It’s taken me a month to process that whole experience, and I’m still not quite sure there’s a clear blueprint etched in my memory.

First and foremost, it was an amazing experience. I was treated like..., well, let’s see...



A Filmmaker

I guess because I am, but, that’s besides the point.

The Stony Brook Film Festival has one of the largest screens - I mean, gigantic. A forty-one foot screen - blemishes and all, right there.

Right

“This is the right way to hold a fork.”

“This is the right way to tie your shoes.”

“This is the right way to make a million dollars doing absolutely nothing.”

...and this is the right way to punch the crap out of those who insist there’s a right and wrong way of doing things.

For the record, I don’t believe in right or wrong - but just don’t tell my kids. In terms of parenting, it makes things a lot easier. After all, easy frees up time to spend on the hard, and, besides, it’s too damn time-consuming explaining to a child that the human race is a true study in contradiction. Well, maybe it’s not that time-consuming - I just don’t want to, okay.

We’re complicated, interesting and just plain screwy.

That, and we all like being right - knowing it all. Come on, it feels damn good to be the smartest prick... I mean, person in the room. And when you make someone else feel stupid - I mean, really small - damn, life is good.

The Procrastination Bug

It’s that time again.

A tidy house. DVD collection in alphabetical order. Windows sparkly clean. Even the dreaded visit to the dentist - twice in one month. Any and every-thing to avoid putting butt to chair and “punching the damn keys”.

Writers often talk about writer’s block; the inability to put words to paper. For me, I don’t think it’s a block, as much as it’s... what’s the word? Oh, yeah, FEAR! Good old-fashioned scared shitless.

I’ve never been one for the unknown. I like to know what’s at the end of that dark, deserted alleyway before I send twenty buffed body-builders to check it out, draw up a detailed blueprint and aerial view, and gather a posse to join me only after they’ve installed lighting and security cameras.

I don’t like the unknown.

Leap of Faith

Okay, so I’m in the process of moving out of my home office and into an office in the outside world.

I’ve been talking about it for months. Being home has run its course, as my family and friends are under the impression that being at home means sitting around and doing absolutely nothing.

I’m also at the stage where procrastination is more than my worst enemy - it’s becoming my friend - my really, really good friend.

I’ve found a place not too far from home that’s located a stone’s throw away from the Long Island Sound. Now I can procrastinate while enjoying a cool breeze.

This move, it’s pretty big. I’m scared, more than scared. But it’s a fear I’ve felt before. It was the same fear I had making the phone calls to get a crew together for my short film. Or the fear I felt the first day on the set. Or when I mailed out my finished film to film festivals.

These were all huge leaps of faith. Faith to believe. To believe in me. Not an easy task, but I’m learning with each new leap I take.

MIA

I know I’ve been M.I.A. these past few months. A lot has happened since.

First --

My short film Artistic Closure was selected into competition at the Stony Brook Film Festival. I’m excited and nervous. The venue is large, and the audience shoots from the hip.

Second --

I’m full swing into pre-production on my feature length documentary. There’s a lot of research needed, and I’m gathering more information than I thought I would. I’m also getting a lot of people willing to share their stories with my, so I’m in the process of organizing everything. This documentary is growing legs - which is a great thing, but also means a lot more work than I anticipated. I’m looking to bring on interns and volunteers during the next couple of months.

Third --

Artistic Closure Trailer

Trailer for my short Artistic Closure





For more information about the film click here

Me And My Kitty

So much has been happening since I’ve last blogged; not to mention the fact Apple’s new powerful kitty ate a lot of my work and computer settings. I’ve spent the past two weeks trying to recover a lot of my old stuff from my archived files/folders and placing them on my new iMac. Even though this kitty was not so kind - leaving me with a few scratches - I’m a Mac girl. Once you go Mac, you never go back.

I was smart enough to backup all of my film work onto my trusty Lacie drive. However, not quite having my new computer fully set up, editing was placed on hold for a bit.

I did, however, manage to complete a rough cut of my short film before Leo attacked. It was a learning experience in storytelling. Filmmaking is collaborative - no question about it. Unless you’re someone like Robert Rodriguez, you can’t do it alone (though I even suspect he has magical elves hidden somewhere).

I’ve just hired an editor, and we will start working on bringing the short film to a level all involved can be proud of.

This month I have also been busy with NANO, and I plan to finish 50,000 words of my novel by the end of this month. As of today - day 8 - I have 13,341(5 chapters and 58 pages). I’ve always wanted to write a novel, and I even started two about ten years ago. However, once the screenwriting thing hit me, I felt I had found a happy home for my ADD.

Let me tell you, ADD is giving me one serious beat-down - big time. My house is the cleanest it’s ever been, and I’ve gained at least 10 pounds from the exotic dishes I’ve been experimenting with this month - and it’s only day 8. Thank God I’ve joined the gym this month - though I haven’t been there yet. Hey, it’s only day 8!

As far as the strike. I’ve been following it like so many “can’t-wait-to-get-my-WGA-card” writers, and I find myself extremely pissed every time I read an article or come across someone who blames the writers. I am so proud of the writers, and especially the showrunners - like Tina Fey and Shonda Rhimes. Rhimes’ statement of why she felt she had to walk the line opened the floodgates to my heart and soul. Integrity is a big word with huge shoes. I just hope one day I can fill them; even though at times it’s not a comfortable fit.

Production Pics

Trisha Tsolyn (DP), Zayre Ferrer (Associate Producer) and Me watching and discussing playback.

This was the last night of filming. We shot two locations - starting the day at 8 AM and finally wrapping at 2:30 AM. An experience I'll never forget.

What I Did With My Summer...

I can’t believe the summer is fading. When I look back at the summer of 2007, those typical days of grilling, movie nights and vacationing with the kids will not be around to paste in the photo album.

However, my copy of Gorilla and FrameForge software would archive my first (of what I hope to be many pivotal moments in my career and life): produced, written, directed and edited short film.

As many friends and family members were surprised, and somewhat impressed, at the fact I was filming a short film, no one was as unsure, scared-out-of their minds, and completely naive as I. But I wouldn’t change those emotions for anything in the world. For it was these three emotions that kept me grounded and pushing on despite the many obstacles I faced.

I started my adventure sometime in the Spring of 2007. Having written screenplays that I was unforgivingly passionate about, and having received positive and encouraging feedback from mentors and producers, I found myself banging my head against the wall. It felt like I would be going in circles forever.

It's A Wrap...

Whew!!!

It’s been a major rollercoaster ride, but I’ve finally wrapped on my short film Artistic Closure.

I now move on to Post-Production.

The shoot was four days long. Everything that could go wrong - rental equipment screw-ups, chopping off a day and of course, losing the lead actor just one day before the shooting of his scenes - went wrong. Despite it all - I love filmmaking. I’ve learned so much writing, directing and producing a short film.

I’m going to catch up on some sleep, but I promise to share the experience with the one loyal reader (Annabel).

Catch you later.

Oh, you can catch a few production pics on my production website.