Big Apple Film Festival A Success!!!!

I have to say last night's screening was a big success. It was amazing to see my film with an audience and get a whole new perspective on it. People's reactions were amazing. They were scared in the right moments and laughed in places I wouldn't have expected. I should clarify they were laughing with the movie not at it!!! It was such a trip to hear people connect with my film this thing I created.

Afterwards the Q&A was nerve wrecking. Everyone said that I looked totally at ease and confident but if they'd seen me up close they would have known I was shaking. I just had to keep remembering what Jordan tells me. Stand up straight, don't fidget, smile like you mean it and make eye contact with your audience. It was also amazing to get such a warm reaction when I introduced myself. I don't think I've ever gotten applause just for me before (excepting when I was small and in a recital or something but that doesn't really count). I have to say I felt like a bit of a rock star. I hope this is the beginning of something good.

Onward!

Getting Ready

So right now I am trying to mentally prepare for the film festival which is coming up fast. I can't believe it's less than a week away! I'm a bit nervous about seeing my film with an audience. How will they react? Will it be a success or a bomb? Will people forget it as soon as they've seen it? It feels like there is a lot riding on this screening, however I'm sure that I am just putting undue pressure on myself about it. I've been working on my next screenplay again. Man that's been a long process, but it's getting there for real! My parents and my aunt are coming in town for the festival which will be very exciting although a bit nerve wrecking I love you guys but my family is demanding! I wonder where I get it from. Anyway, that's it for now if I hear from any other festivals I'll make sure you know!

The End

Today I finish my film. The sound is done, the VFX are finished and today we do the color correct. So now it's almost over, and by the end of the day for all intents and purposes it will be. It's been a crazy year and a half raising funds and then getting everyone together to shoot and edit. I think I"m still kind of in shock that it all actually happened. I feel honored to have worked with so many talented people, and honored that so many talented people would come together to help get this film made. From here on out I'll be focusing on festivals and promotion. Gotta get myself an agent and manager to keep on moving up!

Acceptance

Congratulations to everyone who worked on the film!! Hunting has been accepted into the Big Apple Film Festival right here in NYC! It takes place from November 2-6!! As soon as I have more scheduling details I will let you all know.

Big Apple Film Festival is a small festival here in NYC and it screens predominantly shorts. I am excited to be part of this festival for several reasons. 1. Moviemaker magazine called it on of the 25 coolest festivals last year, so that is pretty rad. 2. It's in NYC which makes it accessible to the industry people I know here, plus all of my NYC family and buddies who've been harrassing me about when they can see the film. 3. It'll be nice to get my feet wet in a smaller festival to sort of ease my way into the festival experience. Because hopefully this is the first festival of many!!

I am over the moon as they say!

Check!

We did the sound mix on wednesday and it was awesome. David came by for the first half of the day and really helped me figure out what to listen for and how to approach the mix. Eric was wonderful as always; working at the huge control panel and in pro tools responding to our comments and figuring out how translate my crazy suggestions. It was freezing in the mix room, but luckily Jordan stopped by with a sweat shirt and to check out the mix process. The film sounds so awesome with the music and all of the affects it. I am so excited for people to see it!

I can't believe the mix is already over. I mean good lord there are really so few things left to do. Next up is color correct, VFX delivery and conform. And that's it . I may be being redundant but I think I'm in a bit of a state of shock!!

Sound Mix

Last week was a busy week. Susan went into the music studio to record the wonderful eerie music she composed for the film and Eric was hard at work on the sound edit! I've gotten a couple of chances to hear what he's doing and it's pretty awesome Tomorrow I go into the sound mix. Which is basically spending all day long watching my movie and making sure all of the sound effects, dialogue and music sound perfect. I've only ever sat in on a sound mix before so it'll be exciting to take part and take charge. Jamie won't be able to be there which bums me out, however David will be stopping by in the morning which will help give me confidence in the afternoon. And Jordan might even stop by to take advantage of the air conditioning and see what a sound mix is like.

Although I've been working so hard on the film I feel as though the end of the process has kind of snuck up on me. I've been so focused on the smaller details I haven't considered the bigger picture (no pun intended) I am so close to finishing the film. With the music composed and the sound finishing up this week all that's left are the Visual Effects (compositing in progress ), color correct and then conform. It seems like nothing, almost completely manageable. And then... I will have a physical tape of my film which I can hold in my hands. All of my other films being basically online digital creations it's incredible to me that I will have physical evidence of my movie. It almost seems unbelievable that after about 2 years of work I'm almost finished....

Bummed

A couple of days ago I found out about the grant. I guess you are only notified on September 1st if you actually recieved funds. I however was not chosen to recieve the Women in Film Finishing Fund Grant. Sigh, it's a good thing I've been working my ass off this summer saving up money because I'm going to need all of it for post production which I've already committed a lot of funds too. My parents have generously offered a loan, but I'm hoping that maybe I can somehow swing the costs myself. I've reconciled myself to the loss of the grant money now, I mean it's just money. What I'm having more trouble getting over is not being recognized. I always thought that the money would be awesome, but that to have recieved a prestigious grant would really be a feather in my cap and lend me some of the legitimacy and acclaim that I crave. I am by no means someone who needs constant approval or recognition (If I did I would have given up on film a long long time ago) But it certainly is nice to be recognized, and there is also the idea that when someone or institute with power recognizes and awards you that soon others will follow. Not because people are sheep, but because sometimes we need someone else to go first to give us the courage to stand up and say, damn it that person is a talent or deserving or even just really determined.

Anyway, in lighter news Sound edit is proceeding and the music is turning out fantastic. I just have to find a studio to do my music recording that's cheap enough for me to afford. And I have a mini ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording) session today which will reunite me with my actors. So full steam ahead cause the train's gone full throttle out of the station and there is no way to stop it now.

The Waiting Game

I should have been finding out about my Grant any day now and I've been manic all week with crazy giddy happy highs and sad boozy lows. It's been taking a toll on my emotionally and I feel exhausted. Today I was certain I didn't get it because usually the longer it takes you to hear the worse your chances are of receiving the prize/acceptance whatever. So I decided screw it and I finally went to the website (which I have been avoiding like the plague) and there is a notice up! Since the deadline was pushed so was the notification date. September 1st!!! Oh god September 1st. At least now I have a few weeks to erm, try to relax? Maybe I'll do lots of Yoga. Try to meditate. Drink myself into a two week coma (ha ha just kidding!) And.... Still nothing from Fantastic. I wonder if they've pushed their notification deadline too! I'll go check...

Post Production Official

Post production has officially begun! I dropped off all of the VFX with Lisa my fabulous compositor yesterday. Getting everything prepped for her was quite the learning experience. I had to transfer a whole bunch of the Red Raw files (which is what the original footage we shot on) to a different kind of file called a 4K pro res. It took 24 hours and all of the processing power my little macbook pro could muster. However, the computer accomplished the task and soon Lisa will be hard at work filling in all the computer screens in the office and making the final green screen shots look awesome. Jamie and I will be doing our picture lock edit on the 16th and then I deliver all the sound files to Eric at Sound One on the 17th and he'll start the sound design and edit. (We had a spotting session last week where we watched down the film and discussed all the sound details) Susan Hwang has joined the team as the composer and I look forward to hearing all the creepy and lovely sounds she comes up with.

It's amazing that I'm actually in the final stages of the process. Soon I'll have a tape of my finished film in my hands that I can hold and a year and a half of work will be complete!

Towards a Picture Lock

Things are moving right along. I had the second screening on Monday night. I have to say I was quite nervous about it as we are so close to being finished. It's the first faint echoes of labor pains. Jamie was unfortunately not able to make it, which made the screening that much harder. She was on her way back from Detroit where her husband (also an editor on Hunting) is working on the new Harold and Kumar film, and she had all sorts of travel woes. She was sorely missed as we both benefit from feedback! But, the screening went well I got a lot of constructive criticism and positive reviews.

On Friday Jamie and I will be back in the edit room hopefully with the goal of locking picture. I was originally thinking that I wouldn't have another screening before we officially lock but now I'm thinking that we probably will. I want to make sure we've got it right! I also had a meeting with a potential composer which was very exciting and I can't wait to see what she comes up with!!!

I've got a few more festivals to submit to as well at the end of the month, so that is looming large.

In other news we are getting ready to deliver the footage to the VFX person Lisa Daly and I'll be meeting with Eric my sound designer next week hopefully. So everything is moving right along despite having no clue yet about the grant or Fantastic Festival. However, mid august will be here and hot before I know it!!!

Final Edits

Hello!

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful summer and has survived the heat of the past few days with their sanity in tact. I know I had a few questionable moments. Well, after a long hiatus in which I went on Vacation my editors went on their honeymoon and I dealt with some difficult family times we are back editing. Jamie and I are working towards the final cut and I have to say that the break was inspiring and the film is looking awesome. David is off working on the new Harold and Kumar movie in Detroit so we miss him (Jamie in particular) in the edit room but he's still with us by proxy.

I am anxiously awaiting to hear from Fantastic Festival in Austin to see if the film got in. Believe me I will announce it as soon as I know. Summer seems to be speeding past me and I've just realized lately how much there is left to do. Time to buckle down and get back to work. If only I could make this brain clouding heat abate! That's the update for now. I promise more frequent posts as the days go on!

Grant Deadline Extended! Sort of...

So I had an intensely stressful week last week for personal reasons and because I was desperately trying to get my grant together before the deadline. Quentin has been an enormous help in giving me advice and feedback and helping me with the budget. Given how busy he is with his full time job it's really amazing that he's made the time. Anyway, I was all stressed out and about to curl into the fetal position from the pressure and high expectations when I made one last visit to the Women In Film Foundation (WIF) website and discovered that the deadline had been extended! WOO HOO!!! Unfortunately, because of my schedule (I'm going on vacation to Florida next week!!) it's only bought me a couple of days and not the entire 3 weeks it was extended by ... but.... I'll take what I can get. A few more days of checking over my work is perfect. I'm actually starting to feel really positive about the application finally. It feels like it's coming together as a strong proposal.

I am also extremely happy with the cut of the film that I'm submitting. Jamie, David and I had our last edit session yesterday and it was awesome. I think that the film is already just awesome and I know it's only going to get better. I am, as I'm writing, laying off a the DVDs which I"ll be sending off to the foundation. So just a few more ducks to line up and I'll be able to send off the grant application tomorrow! And then I will have a party because I will be so relieved. I will also be sending the film off to Fantastic Fest in Austin. It's a genre festival which I'm hoping will premiere my film and kick off a successful festival run. So everyone keep your fingers crossed for me (if anyone reads this blog that is)!

Grant Applications

So I've been working on this grant application for a few weeks now. It's due at the end of the month. It's a finishing fund grant through the Women in Film Foundation. It's right up my alley as it's geared towards woman in leadership roles in the film industry. This has been a great learning experience as I have never applied for a grant before. It's extremely nerve wrecking. It doesn't seem to matter how much research I do or how many grant books I read. I still feel unprepared. I'm sure part of it is insecurity because my track record with applying for prestigious things in the film world isn't great. However, this time I'm determined. Besides I have no other choice since I have run out of money for post production. Anyone have a rich relative who feels like helping me make a movie?

Anywy, thankfully Quentin has been very help as has the Foundation Center here in NYC which I have found to be an invaluable resource on grant writing. On the flip side of the coin the Edit is going really well. Jamie and David are always coming up with creative solutions to editing problems and the film is starting to just hum right along. Molly will be coming in on Sunday when we meet next to do a little Additional Dialogue recording and then we will be almost entirely set for our Rough cut which will go out with the grant application and to a few festivals.

Fingers crossed!

Editing

So I just had my first official editing day yesterday. This of course means that I am back in the creative process. I can't believe how much a founder when I don't have a creative outlet. I just couldn't tell you what I've been doing the last two weeks since the shoot. However, I could give you all the boring details about the edits I've been making.

Basically everything is going well and the footage looks awesome. I am editing it myself right now, but hopefully very soon I will have the help of two very talented editors.

Ok back to work.

Finished Shooting

Well I have been relatively negligent here. I finished shooting! Last Tuesday the 16th we wrapped about about 11:30pm! It was a crazy 5 days of shooting. It felt like running a marathon everyday and I was almost completely obliterated on wednesday. I wandered aimlessly about my house my brain mush my muscles sore and unsure what to do with myself. In fact I didn't really start to come back to myself until Saturday.

Right after shooting there was a lot of wrapping up to do and now there is a lot of loose ends to be tied. First and foremost I"m dying to get my footage back! I have yet to see any dailies which means I have no evidence of all the amazing work my crew and I did to get this film made. I do however have some awesome pictures from on set taken by the fabulous Julie Fiasconaro our scripty!

I don't know what to say about the shoot except that it was amazing and from Day 1 I knew that it was exactly what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. The journey certainly isn't over but a huge mountain has been climbed. I will keep posting on this blog as I progress along in post production so that you all can know exactly where I am.

Right now I'm working on getting an editor for the film. I have a few people in mind and I'll let you know when someone is confirmed. And of course I'm sure that as soon as I get dailies I"ll be back here gushing about the foootage.
xo

1st Day of Shooting

Went really well. We got all the creepy hallway shots and the celebratory bar shots! We still owe the realty agency but that's ok it's a quick shot we can pick up later. Everything looks so amazing! The Red and Shawn are making it magic.

Shooting Tomorrow

Oh my Goodness. So much has happened since I last updated. I wish I'd been more diligent about updating but there simply haven't been enough hours in the day. Our entire crew is on. We finally locked in a great AD named Rick Flynn, a scripty and a sound guy. All of our roles have been cast:

Megan Melnyk will be playing Tina,
Molly Pope will be playing Maureen,
Jordan Smith will be playing the co-worker
Kent Meister will be playing Richard Powell
Daniel Abeles will be playing Billy

I had a wonderful rehearsal with Molly and Megan last night where we practiced tying Molly up. That was a good time!

We've finally locked in all of our locations thanks to our fabulous locations manager Alec Bates. We had a slight set back with our office space on tuesday but we found an alternate location out in Flushing that's going to work just fine.

The entire crew has been working so hard to get the film made it's simply amazing! And everything is coming together beautifully. At this point, 1 day out from shooting I thought I would be a nervous wreck BUT in reality I'm feeling really good, and really confident. With all the pieces moved into place all I have to do is come in and make the magic happen as they say.

So wish me luck tomorrow on our first day of shooting. I'll update again when shooting is over as I imagine I'll be too tired to keep posting during shooting. But you never know.

Shooting Date Set

It looks like we are officially shooting over Valentine's Day weekend! It will be a 5 day shoot and probably mostly nights so I'm preparing to be nocturnal. We are making offers to our lead actresses today. I can't say who they are yet, but they are fabulous and I'm very excited to start working with them.

With a little over a week to go before shooting everyone is switching into high gear to make sure that we are super prepared to move forward with our very ambitious shooting schedule.

Over the next couple of days I'll be taking a good look at the script and making sure that I have it clear in my mind exactly what I want for the look and feel of the film. I'll also be working on communicating this to all of the talented crew. Because I'd be no where without them. And then it will mostly likely be meetings, meetings, meetings, and rehearsals. I'm already exhausted just thinking about it.

Ok gotta go lots to do!

Hurray!

I have reached my goal for my Kickstarter fundraising. This means that I'll definitely get to keep the money I've raised. However, there are still a few more days of fundraising to go so I'm hoping that a few more donations will trickle in to add to the kitty.

I had a very productive weekend. The second round of casting went extremely well and I'm happy to say that we have found a few very talented actresses. However, we are going to do call backs this coming saturday to make sure we get the right fit. I also had a locations meeting which was very informative and I hope that by the end of the week we'll have at least one location locked in.

Our Costume Designer's sister has come aboard as our Hair and Make Up artist so I'm glad to welcome her to the team. Unfortunately, it looks like we are still looking for a Production Designer though, but I'm confident we will find a talented person soon.

xo

Locations, Locations

So things are really getting going and it is exciting and stressful and wonderful all wrapped into one. I have hired an amazing locations Manager named Alec who is all over finding me the perfect locations for the film with the help of my dear friend Christina. Tami Manear an old friend from my early HDNet Films days has come aboard as our costume designer. I'm interviewing a Production Manager/Producer today and Saturday is the next round of casting. Thank you Paige Blansfield. I don't think I've ever been so busy in my life!

The Kickstarter fundraising is coming to a close as well. So if you haven't donated I urge you to go ahead and do so. We have less that $300 to go and that should be an easy gap to close. And Maybe just maybe we'll exceed the $2000 goal.



I'll keep posting as production continues. Your comments and questions are very welcome if anyone has any!
xo

Cinematographer

So I have brought on a Director of Photography or DP. His name is Shawn Greene and we have worked together in the past but never in this capacity. I am very excited, especially because Shawn is a fellow New Hampshirite! Hurray for filmmakers from the Live Free or Die state.

Happy New Year

Hurray it's a new year and I'm feeling good. I have already raised half of my funds through Kickstarter and I'm feeling good. Auditions went extremely well in December and I found some talented actresses. However, I'm going to do some call backs and cast the net a bit wider in January. Paige Blansfield a talented Casting Agent has agreed to help out!

I'm also starting to conduct crew interviews this week and next week so hopefully I'll have my key crew brought on soon and a date will be set in place. Everything is moving right along!