What You Have Been Waiting For: How to Wear Fake Eyelashes by Hi! It's Taryn.

We have a new episode of Hi! It's Taryn. She shows us how to put on fake eyelashes. Personally, I have never worn fake eyelashes. I was enamored by the process. I'm learning so much producing this show.

I may have to try it! Check it out for yourself here:

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Don't Be Clueless When Producing Low Budget Films

This post is inspired by a Facebook status from a friend who is a focus puller. This friend is someone with whom I have worked on both low budget and decent budget projects. He's a great person and a really good focus puller.

Today he lamented that he's working with a low budget producer who asked him why they needed a 2nd AC and what does a 2nd AC do?

This obviously did not sit will with my friend or all of his other crew friends as his comment started an outcry of similar frustrations about clueless producers.

As a producer, I take what people say about their experiences working with producers very seriously. This is my career and my industry and what one producer does carries over and affects the work of all producers. I want to know about people's frustrations so I can try to avoid making similar mistakes and improve the future of independent film. If we want to make movies, we should all have this goal in mind.

Let's examine why my friend would be so upset with this clueless producer.

Well, as we all know, a producer helms a production. He or she is the glue that keeps the production together. If you're working for someone, you need to feel confident that person knows what he or she is doing and understands the inner workings of your department and the resources you need. Why is this so important?

You need confidence in your leaders so you can trust that you're being treated properly and will have what you need to do your job successfully. As soon as you distrust management, feelings of angst start creeping in and job performance suffers and then all hell eventually breaks loose. I've worked on sets as a crew member with clueless producers and trust me, all hell eventually breaks loose.

In this particular case, the clueless producer may have a valid reason for questioning the 2nd AC hire. However, he went about questioning this hire in a really bad way that undermined any trust he had between himself and my friend.

On the outside, it's pretty clear to me that the film is probably having budget problems and this clueless producer is thinking of ways to trim the budget. This is a completely valid issue and one that this producer needed to address. However, instead of respecting my friend and his team, he actually insulted them by asking what a 2nd AC even does. Ouch.

First and foremost, you as a producer need to know what every crew member does. That is your job. It is not the job of your crew to tell you. If you don't know what a crew member does then google it. Don't ask a crew member.

Second, if you are having budget issues then say so to your key team members (not the entire crew - your PAs do not need to know you are having budget issues) and get your department heads to help you figure out a solution.

In this case, the clueless producer could have said to my friend, we are having some budget issues. We're needing to make cuts in all areas. Is there anything we can cut back on in your department? Do we need as many crew members? Solicit advice and possible solutions from your team leaders. Don't insult them by implying that a person they hired isn't needed and definitely don't ask what that person does. Even writing that makes me cringe.

Clueless producers give us all a bad name. I work on all kinds of films and some have great budgets and I can hire enough staff and pay people their real rates. And there are other films I take on because I believe in the creative team and I want the world to see their work. I bring professionalism and knowledge to both kinds of projects. Because both are valid even though one may not have the funds of the other.

In fact, low budget productions are the hardest ones to make. When I take one on, I know I won't make enough money, if any at all, upon which to survive. And I will have to ask other people to do the same. I hate having to ask other people to work for peanuts.

I make small films because of my belief in someone and his or her vision. And I know I will have to beg, borrow and steal everything to make it happen. It's an arduous journey at best but I keep doing it because I love helping to bring someone's vision to the world. It feels good. But they are incredibly painful to make and super personal - which can be both amazing but also heartbreaking.

So when I hear the cry of disgruntled crew over low budget filmmaking, it makes me sad. These little films need all the support they can get. And when I hear outcry over a producer's cluelessness, it makes me even sadder or actually pissed. Because what another producer does to his or her crew affects me. I may hire his or her crew later on and he or she has tainted that person's feelings about working on a low budget film - the hardest kind of film to make.

In conclusion, if you want to produce movies, get experience, increase your knowledge, read books, read blogs, attend seminars, work on all kinds of projects, respect your cast and crew, and for goodness sakes, don't be clueless! Low budget filmmaking is necessary and really, really hard and it needs producers to treat it with care and respect.

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Indie Film Press Break: 40th TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES PROGRAM LINEUP

40th TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES PROGRAM LINEUP

40th anniversary edition plays host to 27 new feature films in its main program

Tribute programs to Robert Redford, T-Bone Burnett and the Coen Brothers,

and Mohammad Rasoulof

Telluride, CO (August 28, 2013) – Telluride Film Festival, presented by the National Film Preserve, today announced its official program selections for the 40th anniversary edition of Telluride Film Festival. TFF’s annual celebration of artistic excellence brings together, cinema enthusiasts, filmmakers and artists to discover the best in world cinema in the beautiful mountain town of Telluride, Colorado. TFF will screen more than 100 feature films, short films and revivals representing twenty-five countries, along with special artist Tributes, Conversations, Panels, Education Programs and Festivities.

In honor of its 40th anniversary, the usual four-day Telluride Film Festival has an additional day of programming and takes place Thursday, August 29 - Monday, September 2, 2013.

In celebration of their contributions to Joel and Ethan Coen’s new film INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS and the 40th anniversary of Telluride Film Festival, Punch Brothers will perform. The performance will include songs featured in several of T Bone Burnett and the Coen Brothers’ collaborations, including songs from the soundtrack of INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS. The concert will be tonight, Wednesday, August 28 at 5:00 pm in Telluride Town Park.

Telluride Film Festival is honored to present the Werner Herzog Theatre, the fourth cineaste for whom the Festival has named a theatre. Situated in Telluride’s Town Park Pavilion, the Werner Herzog Theatre is the Festival’s most technologically advanced theatre accommodating 650 pass holders. Chuck Jones, Abel Gance and Pierre Rissient also share this tribute.

The past 40 years have seen Telluride Film Festival mixing highly anticipated award hopefuls with the films of talented emerging filmmakers and auteurs from around the globe. First-time filmmakers discovered at TFF include Terry Zwigoff, Jim Jarmusch, Billy Bob Thornton, Robert Rodriguez, Michael Moore, Doug Liman, Jon Favreau, Andrea Arnold, Lodge Kerrigan, Robert Luketic and Sarah Gavron. In addition, TFF has previewed numerous films that have generated wins at the Oscars® in recent years, including FOG OF WAR, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, THE LIVES OF OTHERS, BABEL, THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, JUNO, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, UP IN THE AIR, THE KING’S SPEECH, BLACK SWAN, A SEPARATION, THE ARTIST, THE DESCENDANTS and ARGO.

“This year’s 40th anniversary is a celebration of what Telluride Film Festival has accomplished over the past four decades, as well as what we are doing now and forty years from now” said Telluride Film Festival Executive Director Julie Huntsinger. We are committed to presenting groundbreaking films with the world’s most preeminent talent in technologically advanced, state-of the art facilities including the brand new Werner Herzog Theatre. We look forward to continuing to explore the future in cinema through current masters of the art form and breakthrough talents.” 

40th Telluride Film Festival is proud to present the following new feature films to play in its main program, the ‘SHOW’:

·       ALL IS LOST (d. J.C. Chandor, U.S., 2013)

·       BEFORE THE WINTER CHILL (d. Philippe Claudel, France, 2013)

·       BETHLEHEM (d. Yuval Adler, Israel, 2013)

·       BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (d. Abdellatif Kechiche, France, 2013)

·       BURNING BUSH (d. Agnieszka Holland, Czech Republic, 2013)

·       DEATH ROW: BLAINE MILAM + ROBERT FRATTA (d. Werner Herzog, U.S., 2013)

·       FIFI HOWLS FROM HAPPINESS (d. Mitra Farahani, U.S., 2013)

·       THE GALAPAGOS AFFAIR: SATAN CAME TO EDEN (d. Dan Geller, Dayna Goldfine, U.S., 2013)

·       GLORIA (d. Sebastián Lelio, Chile, 2013)

·       GRAVITY (d. Alfonso Cuarón, U.S./U.K., 2013)

·       IDA (d. Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland, 2013)

·       INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (d. Joel and Ethan Coen, U.S., 2013)

·       THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (d. Ralph Fiennes, U.K., 2013)

·       LABOR DAY (d. Jason Reitman, U.S., 2013)

·       THE LUNCHBOX (d. Ritesh Batra, India, 2013)

·       LA MAISON DE LA RADIO (d. Nicolas Philibert, France, 2013)

·       MANUSCRIPTS DON’T BURN (d. Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2013)

·       THE MISSING PICTURE (d. Rithy Panh, Cambodia/France, 2013)

·       NEBRASKA (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2013)

·       PALO ALTO (d. Gia Coppola, U.S., 2013)

·       THE PAST (d. Asghar Farhadi, France/Italy, 2013)

·       SLOW FOOD STORY (d. Stefano Sardo, Italy, 2013)

·       STARRED UP (d. David Mackenzie, U.K., 2013)

·       TIM’S VERMEER (d. Teller, U.S., 2013)

·       TRACKS (d. John Curran, Australia, 2013)

·       UNDER THE SKIN (d. Jonathan Glazer, U.K., 2013)

·       THE UNKNOWN KNOWN (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2013)

Additional Sneak Previews may play outside the main program and will be announced on the Telluride Film Festival website over the course of the five-day weekend. Visit the TFF website for updateswww.telluridefilmfestival.org.

“During its 40 years Telluride has brought together established filmmakers and those about to be discovered to celebrate together the joys of great cinema,” commented Festival Artistic Director Gary Meyer. “This year is especially exciting because of the many wonderful movies we were able to consider and then program, and also frustrating given the amount we could not fit into the program.  Our selection of classics this year is truly rich as we celebrate the past, present and future of the art.”

Since its inception in 1974, Telluride Film Festival has paid tribute to numerous influential filmmakers and artists. Gloria Swanson, Francis Ford Coppola and Leni Riefenstahl were the first to be honored, and forty years later the prestigious list has grown to include Pedro Almodovar, Claudia Cardinale, George Clooney, Penelope Cruz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Catherine Deneuve, Laura Linney, Clint Eastwood, Colin Firth, Jodie Foster, Stephen Frears, Werner Herzog, Isabelle Huppert, Jack Nicholson, Jean Simmons, Meryl Streep, Tilda Swinton, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Agnes Varda to name a few.

Joining that list, the 2013 Silver Medallion Awards, given to recognize an artist’s significant contribution to the world of cinema, go to Grammy and Oscar-winning music producer T Bone Burnett and Oscar-winning filmmakers the Coen Brothers, whose four collaborations together include THE BIG LEBOWSKI, LADYKILLERS, O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? and INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS with a 90-minute program featuring a musical performance by the Americans, a clip reel with scenes from the collaborations and an onstage interview; Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof (THE TWILIGHT, THE WHITE MEADOWS, GOODYBE) presenting his latest film, MANUSCRIPTS DON’T BURN. The program includes a selection of clips followed by the presentation of the Silver Medallion and onstage interview; and Oscar-winning director, actor, producer Robert Redford (ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID) who stars in the TFF selection ALL IS LOST. The program includes a selection of clips showcasing the range of performances during his career, followed by the presentation of the Silver Medallion and an onstage interview.

“When I joined James Card and Bill Pence to start the Telluride Film Festival, we wanted to make tributes, retrospectives and revivals central to the Festival” said Co-founding Artistic Director Tom Luddy. “40 years later, Julie, Gary and I are still able to present a show which focuses on film artistry and preservation. This is something I’m very proud of. The fact that there is still a large audience for it makes me believe in the future of the cinema.”

For each of the past 25 years, Telluride Film Festival directors have selected a Guest Director to serve as a key collaborator in the Festival’s programming decisions, bringing new ideas and overlooked films to light. Donald Richie, to whom the Festival is dedicated, had the first honor in 1988 and has been followed by many notable collaborators including Laurie Anderson, Peter Bogdanovich, John Boorman, J.P. Gorin, Edith Kramer, Errol Morris, Alexander Payne, Peter Sellars, Stephen Sondheim, Bertrand Tavernier and Slavoj Zizek, among others.

This year, Telluride Film Festival invites six past Guest Directors to return with new programs: novelist Don Delillo (TFF 2006) presents LA MORTE ROUGE (d. Victor Erice, Spain, 2006) and analyzes the 26-secondZAPRUDER film; screenwriter, director Buck Henry (TFF 2005) presents the “director’s cut” of THE TERMINAL MAN (d. Mike Hodge, U.S., 1972); writer Phillip Lopate (TFF 1995) presents NAKED CHILDHOOD (d. Maurice Pialat, France, 1969) with Pialat’s short, LOVE EXISTS (France, 1960); novelist Michael Ondaatje (TFF 2010) presents short films LA JETÉE (d. Chris Marker, France, 1962) and ELEPHANT (d. Alan Clarke, U.K., 1989); film scholar, curator and author B. Ruby Rich (TFF 1996) presents ONE WAY OR ANOTHER (d. Sara Gómez, Cuba, 1974); writerSalman Rushdie (TFF 2004) presents MAHANAGAR (d. Satyajit Ray, India, 1963).

Additional film revivals include Pierre Rissient’s selections, short MUSCLE BEACH (d. Irving Lerner, Joseph Strick, U.S., 1948) and TV episode A PIECE OF THE ACTION (d. Bernard Girard, U.S., 1962); “Pordenone Presents” has two selections: HE WHO GETS SLAPPED with The Alloy Orchestra performing their brand new score, and A SIMPLE CASE (d. Vsevolod Pudovkin, USSR, 1930) with a live musical performance by Gabriel Thibaudeau both presented by Paolo Cherchi Usai; PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (d. William Dieterle, U.S., 1948) presented by David Thomson; LE JOLI MAI (d. Chris Marker, Pierre Lhomme, France, 1963) presented by Colin MacCabe; LA POISON (d. Sacha Guitry, France, 1951) presented by Monique Montgomery; AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (d. Werner Herzog, Germany, 1972); and Michael Barker presents DEATH RIDES A HORSE (d. Giulio Petroni, Italy, 1967).

Backlot, Telluride’s intimate screening room featuring behind-the-scenes movies and portraits of artists, musicians and filmmakers, will screen the following programs, five of which are preceded by short films:

·       DIOR AND I (d. Frédéric Tcheng, U.S., 2013)

·       HERE BE DRAGONS (d. Mark Cousins, U.K., 2013)

·       JODOROWSKY’S DUNE (d. Frank Pavich, U.S./France, 2013)

·       LOCATIONS: LOOKING FOR RUSTY JAMES (d. Alberto Fuguet, Chile, 2013) select screening will be followed by Francis Ford Coppola’s RUMBLE FISH (U.S., 1983)

·       NATAN (d. David Cairns, Paul Duane, Ireland, 2013)

·       MILIUS (d. Zak Knutson, Joey Figueroa, U.S., 2013)

·       MULTIPLE VISIONS, THE CRAZY MACHINE (d. Emilio Maille, Mexico, 2012)

·       MUSIDORA, THE TENTH MUSE (d. Patrick Cazals, France, 2013)

·       PARTICLE FEVER (d. Mark Levinson, U.S., 2013)

·       REMEMBRANCE – A SMALL MOVIE ABOUT OUUL IN THE 1950s (d. Peter Von Bagh, Finland, 2013)

·       ROAD MOVIE: A PORTRAIT OF JOHN ADAMS (d. Mark Kidel, U.K., 2013)

·       A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM (d. Mark Cousins, U.K., 2013)

Telluride Film Festival annually celebrates a hero of cinema who preserves, honors and presents great movies. This year’s Special Medallion award goes to Alejandro Ramirez who runs Cinepolis, the fourth-largest chain of movie theatres in the world, with a focus on how movies can address poverty and social change. Past recipients include C. Chapin Cutler Jr. and Boston Light & Sound, Criterion Collection, HBO, Ninon Sevilla, Ted Turner, Stanley Kauffman, Manny Farber, Pierre Rissient, Leonard Maltin, Serge Bromberg and UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Telluride Film Festival’s SHOWcase for Shorts features eleven short films chosen to precede select feature films; Filmmakers of Tomorrowincludes four programs: Student Prints, Great Expectations – narrative and non-fiction, and Calling Cards from twenty-one emerging filmmakers.

Telluride Film Festival’s Education Programs present students the opportunity to experience film as an art and expand participants’ worldview through film screenings and filmmaker discussions. Celebrating its 25th year, the Student Symposium provides 50 graduate and undergraduate college students a weekend-long immersion in cinema. In honor of its anniversary, 25 new students and 25 alumni will make up the 2013 Symposium. The City Lights Project, now in its 14th year, brings fifteen high school students and five teachers from three divergent schools the opportunity to participate in a concentrated program of screenings and discussions. In 2011, TFF and UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA-TFT) launched FilmLAB, an extraordinary new program giving ten outstanding graduate film students from UCLA/TFT the opportunity to attend the festival and learn from the greatest filmmakers in the world in a workshop/lab setting: and For The Love Of Movies, a Los Angeles High School Screening Program focusing on the most creatively promising and under-served young talent featuring the “Best” of Telluride Film Festival, managed by UCLA-TFT graduate students and with the participation of selected filmmakers and TFT faculty.

Telluride Film Festival’s Talking Heads programs allow attendees to go behind the scenes with the Festival’s special guests. Eight Conversationstake place between Festival guests and the audience about cinema and culture, and three outdoor Noon Seminars feature a panel of Festival guests discussing a wide range of film topics. These programs are free and open to the public. A special seminar, Alice & Friends, with panelists Alice Waters, Michael Pollan and Dieter Kosslick will focus on the issues at the intersection of food sustainability, consumption and art and will be followed by the presentation of Participant Media’s inaugural FOOD, INC. Movement Award to Alice Waters.

Various Festivities take place throughout the Festival including Book Signings with Don DeLillo signing Libra and Underworld; Robyn Davidson signing Tracks; David Thomson signing Moments that Made the Movies; and Joyce Maynard signing Labor Day. Other festivities include Story Night in Brigadoon; Disney’s never-seen-before short GET A HORSE; and 40 Years of THE SHOW, presented by AMPAS featuring two 40th anniversary exhibitions from the Academy’s Telluride Film Collection, a photography display and clip reels highlighting TFF’s history from the Academy Film Archive to precede film screenings.

Corporate support at Telluride Film Festival plays an essential role in the life of the Festival and underscores the Festival’s commitment to quality, adventure and distinction in the art of cinema. TFF is privileged to collaborate with some of the world’s most renowned consumer and entertainment brands, including Land Rover North America, Turner Classic Movies, Audible.com, Meyer Sound, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Pine Ridge Vineyards and Universal Studios; and excited to welcome new partners Bombardier Business Aircraft, EY, Film Finances, Inc. and Participant Media-- each of which are aligned with a unique feature of the festival. Equally, Telluride Film Festival is extremely proud of its committed relationships with Americas Film Conservancy, The London Hotels, Teatulia, The Hollywood Reporter, Cinedigm, Dolby, New Sheridan Hotel, Telluride Alpine Lodging, and UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

The 40th Telluride Film Festival’s program will be posted in its entirety on Wednesday, August 29, 2013. Visit www.telluridefilmfestival.org to download the Program Guide.

Film stills and Festival images available upon request. Emailshannon@telluridefilmfestival.org for more information.

About Telluride Film Festival

The prestigious Telluride Film Festival ranks among the world’s best film festivals and is an annual gathering for film industry insiders, cinema enthusiasts, filmmakers and critics. TFF is considered a major launching ground for the fall season’s most talked-about films. Founded in 1974, Telluride Film Festival, presented in the beautiful mountain town of Telluride, Colorado, is a four-day international educational event celebrating the art of film. Telluride Film Festival’s long-standing commitment is to join filmmakers and film connoisseurs together to experience great cinema. The exciting schedule, kept secret until Opening Day, consists of over two dozen filmmakers presenting their newest works, special Guest Director programs, three major Tributes to guest artists, special events and remarkable treasures from the past. Telluride Film Festival is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit educational program. Festival headquarters are in Berkeley, CA.

About Our Sponsors

Telluride Film Festival is supported by Land Rover North America, Turner Classic Movies, EY, Film Finances, Inc., Audible.com, Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association, Meyer Sound, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Bombardier Business Aircraft, Participant Media, Universal Studios, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Américas Film Conservancy, The London Hotels, Pine Ridge Vineyards, Telluride Foundation, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, Teatulia Organic Teas, Dolby, Telluride Alpine Lodging, Crumpler, ShopKeep POS, New Sheridan Hotel, The Hollywood Reporter, Cinedigm, Boston Light and Sound, among others.

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How Much Does an American Film Producer Get Paid? from Ted Hope

I love this blog post from indie film producer Ted Hope:

How Much Does An American Indie Producer Get Paid?

Ted tells it like it really is. Thanks Ted for sharing this kind of vital, inside information. My bank account certainly reflects these figures. I'm glad our story is being told. It's a wake up call to so many.

Hug your producer today.

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Check Out My New Intro for All About Indie Filmmaking

Hi all,

I am hoping to start vlogging soon as well as blogging about filmmaking. So I created a simple intro for the vlog for my YouTube page.

I used the Web site Animoto to create it for free. There's no shame in using free resources. I encourage it. As an indie filmmaker, you don't have a lot of cash resources for promotion but you can still find great ways to promote with free tools. I am all for that!

Check out my teaser here and please look out for some future vlogging!

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Sequins!

Happy Friday styling with sequins!

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Our Short Film on the Keystone XL Pipeline (Pipe Dreams) Now Available on Vimeo!

Our short film Pipe Dreams is now available on Vimeo On Demand as a rental! Please watch and help spread the word on the harsh realities of the possible Keystone XL Pipeline.

We drove over 2,000 miles to interview ranchers affected by the Keystone I - a pipeline that has been built and has had multiple leaks - as well as the ranchers whose land has been earmarked for the path of Keystone XL. Hear from their true accounts of the problems with these tar sands pipelines.

Leslie and I are very proud of this film. We were inspired to make this film because we care about protecting the natural resources of our country. Leslie covered expenses and we filmed it ourselves - the two of us on the road with a camera and a laptop. We were welcomed onto the ranches of some amazing hardworking people. We are humbled by their sacrifices in ranching the land that delivers us food to eat and the fact that they are dealing with such stressful threats that this pipeline poses to their livelihoods as well as the world's food supply and air, land and water quality.

We drove through four states and shot it over two weeks and edited it for two months (that's a very short timeframe for creating a film). Daryl Hannah came on board to narrate. She is so incredibly knowledgable about the dangers of tar sands and so committed to educating the world - she travels extensively to speak, take part in demonstrations, and even be arrested for the cause.

This little film that was created by two women driving the American backroads was shortlisted for an Oscar and we had a number of screenings supported by the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and Bold Nebraska and more. We even got a copy to President Obama.

Humans are not the only ones being threatened by tar sands oil. There's countless wildlife that are dying from tar sands extraction every day and many will be affected by the creation of the Keystone XL Pipeline when the inevitable leaks occur. Please watch this film and understand what tar sands pipelines can mean to you and the land upon which our survival depends.

Tar sands oil is not the same as crude oil. It is far more toxic and the extraction of it is a carbon bomb to our atmosphere. To be clear, we understand the argument for Keystone XL and the need for job creation. We believe the risks associated with the expansion of tar sands oil production are far too great to ignore. We need better solutions for the long term.



Pipe Dreams: A Film by Leslie Iwerks from Leslie Iwerks on Vimeo.

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Sneak Peek! A Trailer for Our New Feature Documentary on Disney's Imagineering

Here's a trailer to our new feature documentary on Disney's Imagineering! So honored to be helping to produce this film with Leslie Iwerks.


 

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Busy, Busy Filmmaking Month!

This past month has been a busy one for me. I went to Shanghai to continue working on a film project with documentary filmmaker Leslie Iwerks and DP Suki Medencevic. It was soooo hot. We found out that we filmed outside on two of the hottest days on record in Shanghai. We were huddled under flags and umbrellas and had lots of Gatorade and water on hand. Definitely not recommended to shoot in such heat but you do what you have to do to get the job done. We had a lot of fun - Leslie and Suki are awesome to work with - it's great to be friends and coworkers. And being surrounded by such talent is very inspiring.

The 5-day shoot went well and we made it back to the States without a problem, except the intense jetlag. Shanghai is 15 hours ahead of us. They say it takes one day per every hour of time difference for your body clock to return to normal. So I had 15 days of recovery. Fun times!

On top of filming in Shanghai, we got great news that Netflix wanted to renew our title Not Since You and post our new title The Diary of Preston Plummer. The renewal was easy. Delivering Diary however was a little harder. I had to get our master tape to Deluxe so they could create the electronic file for Netflix. Luckily, Deluxe delivers files to Netflix all the time so they handled the entire delivery of the file. It was a little pricey but necessary. The film is available on Netflix now so please check it out here!

The trickier part was all the artwork they needed in photoshop layers. Our wonderful poster designer Hillary Gronvold stepped up and handled it for us. Thanks Hillary! (Here's some of Hillary's work (we love her): http://cargocollective.com/minidesignco). If you ever need any graphic design, we definitely recommend Hillary.

Next, we planned a final shoot for our new Web series Honest Andy, for our Web channel So Natural TV. We had a great shooting day - our cast and crew have become a well-oiled machine. We can't wait to launch the series and we're hoping to secure funding for our next Web series so we can keep the awesome momentum going. It feels great. I have really wanted to get involved in creating content for the Web and I'm really happy with the material we're creating. My producing partner and writer/director Leena Pendharkar is so talented and we get along amazingly well - loving our partnership.

Additionally, we are nearing a final version of our new short film Plain Clothes, written and directed by - and starring - Sam Jaeger! I am a huge fan of Sam and his work. What a wonderful person and talented filmmaker. Super excited for this short. Can't wait to figure out its launch and our next feature we will be making together.

Brandon Trenz and I completed our feature script romantic comedy titled The Fixer. This one is near and dear to my heart as it's set in the world of publishing - my home for almost ten years prior to film. And I also finished a first draft of a chick lit novella I am writing. My brother Kevin Kelly and I are nearing a first draft of our new comedy and my cowriter Kristin Goodman and I are packaging our project The Virgin.

Last but not least, I am also packaging two wonderful features - Ashland by the awesome husband/wife team Lindy and Kris Boustedt and Pitching Tents by Rob Fox and Jayme Petrille. Really proud of these projects.

So that was my month - whew! I'm busy but loving every second!! Feeling good about the future and definitely figuring out who I want to be as a filmmaker. And working with some amazing people. Very blessed. These are good times.

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