Short Film Series at American Cinematheque This Thursday and Q&A with short film In Confidence director Mitch Levine

A friend told me about a short film series at the American Cinematheque this Thursday. I didn't know about it. It looks like a great opportunity to screen your film in Los Angeles. I'll have to check it out.

This Thursday, In Confidence is playing during the program. Looks like a great way to spend a Thursday night!

Enjoy a Q&A with Mitch Levine, director of In Confidence:

• What made you decide to become a filmmaker? 

I’d had a career as a director and designer of theatre, opera and dance and started thinking about expanding my visual storytelling pallet to film, an art form I loved as a spectator, but had never engaged as an artist. I was offered a directing fellowship at the American Film Institute, although neither I nor they knew if I could tell a story with a camera. My first day on set, as I called “action” for the first time, I knew I was home.

• Tell us about your film. What inspired you to make it?

I’m a directing member of the Actors Studio, an extraordinary place that’s home to many of the finest actors, writers and directors in the world. There, I saw a reading of a short play by Deborah Pearl. It was the story of a woman who finds herself in an unusual circumstance and makes a provocative choice – and the consequences that choice has on the rest of her life. That play and its depiction ignited something in me. The play’s themes and the central character’s journey were powerful, poignant and evocative. The performance by its lead actress, Beege Barkette, was extraordinary. And so as soon as the reading concluded, I rushed to the writer and to the actress and asked if they’d be interested in transforming their stage play into cinema – and they both immediately agreed. Together, we re-imagined the play as a film. And less than two months later, we were in production.

• What do you love about your film?

The incredible esprit de corps that informed every moment of its pre-production, production and post and that continues to this day. I am blessed with an amazing team: We had an angel investor, J.R.A. Maduro, who fully supported our undertaking. And after Beege (our lead) and Deborah (our screenwriter), my amazing producer, Mary-Lyn Chambers was quick to sign on, followed by the remarkable Svetlana Cvetko (our cinematographer and the DP on the Oscar-winning INSIDE JOB, amongst other terrific films), James Kent, our Production Designer (fresh off numerous projects with Michael Mann), costumer Kate Bergh and stylist Kathy Bayley. And then, as we entered post, we were joined by our amazing editor, Nahall Esteghamat, award-winning composer Penka Kouneva (who scored my first film), Geoff Green, our sound designer and Damian McDonnell, our phenomenal colorist from Technicolor. And there were many other artists and others who gave of themselves, including Craig Barnes and Donovan Kosters at Visionary Forces, who donated a complete Alexa camera package and then provided our final mastering and DCP. That was my greatest love, the extraordinary people who supported my vision and the creation of this film.

• How long did it take you to make your film?

Incredibly, we shot the whole thing in a single day, due to the very limited availability of our principal collaborators. And post production took about seven months.

• What was the most challenging part of the filmmaking process and how did you overcome it?

The greatest challenge was our very production concept: Beege Barkette gives a remarkable performance – and Molly, the character she portrays – is the only character in the drama. She speaks directly to camera for the entire film – which then intercuts between her conscious and sub-conscious lives. It was incredibly difficult for her to act with a camera lens as her only scene partner – and to make the audience feel as if they are the ones engaged in the conversation. In shooting the “sub-conscious” scenes, Beege had to re-create the emotional foundation and essence of the conscious-state ones. It was an incredibly difficult character journey to direct, but Beege – and the entire team – trusted and believed. And the result is now on screen.

• Tell us about your experience getting into this shorts program. 

I love the American Cinematheque and what it represents: sharing the best cinema with an engaged and appreciative audience in one of the finest theatres – the Egyptian – anywhere. I was honored to have my first film, Shadows, presented there and feel thrilled and privileged to have In Confidence screening there now. And I’m very grateful to their shorts programmer, Andrew Crane, who’s been an amazing supporter of my films and of so much undiscovered cinema. We’re honored to be a part of this amazing program.

• If you had to make the film all over again, would you do anything different?

I don’t think I would. This film and its production were blessed.

• What’s next for your film? When and how can people see it? 

We’re still doing a few fests, but will be distributing it online and through multiple platforms in the very near future. People should stay tuned for news on our website (www.InConfidenceMovie.com) and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/InConfidenceMovie).

• Can you provide any advice to other filmmakers who dream of getting their films made? 

Believe in your vision, surround yourself with the very best people – and embrace their artistry and creativity in helping you realize it.

Read More

The Rollercoaster Ride of Crowdfunding: Thoughts on Our Campaign for Dandekar Makes a Sandwich

We are about a week out from the deadline on our crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo for our new short film Dandekar Makes a Sandwich, written and to be directed by Leena Pendharkar, starring Brian George and Dyana Ortelli and excited to report that we have raised more than 60% of our financing thus far. Woohoo!

Our cast:

Brian George

Dyana Ortelli

Check out Leena's pitch video here:




We still have 40% to raise and we're excited to make the final push to the end. We hope you join us on this roller coaster ride. Here's the link to our campaign where you can snatch up some cool gifts for your contribution: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dandekar-makes-a-sandwich/x/6178.

I love Ameet Mehta's illustrations that he is doing for us - such a cool sandwich!:

Securing our funding goal will allow us to pay our super talented cast and crew and rent a brand new Red Epic (gets me so excited - hee hee) and pay for our grocery store location (expensive!). We also found a rad 1980s white Volvo for our main character (not easy to find) and we get to make the most awesome sandwich on shooting day. Help us make a sandwich here.



Crowdfunding is always a roller coaster ride! It's a full-time commitment to continually raise awareness and push out new promotions to excite our fans. I find it to be a really fun process with lots of unexpected twists and turns. You never know how a campaign will turn out. I usually strap myself in and go for a ride!

Our awesome Volvo for Dandekar:

Dandekar's Volvo

Crowdfunding is such an incredible tool for independent filmmakers. You can have a project with no funding in sight one month and the next month be fully funded and ready to start pre-production. It's truly amazing. And making the kind of connection with your audience through crowdfunding is priceless. I love it.

I have successfully managed a few crowdfunding campaigns for my films and they are always full of lots of energy and excitement for the process of filmmaking. It warms my heart to know that there are fans out there wanting to see our films get made. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. We work tirelessly each day trying to find ways to get our films made so when a crowdfunding campaign works, I cry tears of joy.

Here we are scouting for our location:

Leena, Sohini and Jane Scouting Grocery Stores

Every film I make always has a crowdfunding component. It's such an incredible way to connect to your audience and bring them into your world. And it's a great way for contributors to really make a difference in the success of independent film. Each contribution helps a project get made.

Here are some tips on having a successful campaign:

1) Know that you have a specific audience to market your campaign toward. Hone in on that niche market. Ask yourself why would they contribute? Are they fans of your actors? Are they fans of you? Will they be compelled to help you because you are making a film in a genre they love? Are they fans of independent film? Whoever they are, figure out how to reach them and give them incentives that would excite them. Are there blogs they read or organizations of which they are members? Go after them where they enjoy hanging out online.
2) Build an email list. I love MailChimp and email my fans periodically to update them on my work. Get the word out to your niche market first and then their word of mouth will help you reach an even greater audience.
3) Create a Web site for your film. It really shows that you are working hard to make your film happen.
4) Write a blog. I love my blog and helping other independent filmmakers. It has enriched my career in so many ways. I am certain my blog has contributed toward my successful crowdfunding campaigns.
5) Hire a publicist. We work with an amazing publicist on our films. She has consistently gotten our projects coverage that we would never have the connections to make. Include her fee in your film's budget and the amount you are hoping to raise in your campaign. It will be so worth it.
6) Give relevant updates that show you are working toward making the film. Show pictures and video and loop your audience in with developments through pre-production.
7) Engage in your campaign every day and throughout the day through social media. You never know when that one tweet will push someone to contribute.
8) Be positive and excited. Let your audience know that you are excited about making your film and your excitement will be infectious.
9) Build a team to help you. It takes a village - work on building that village every day!
10) Never give up! Even if it seems impossible - stay in the fight for your project. Be passionate and engaged and show the love of your work to the world and they will want to share in your passion.

Thanks for checking out this blog post! I want to thank everyone for contributing to Dandekar Makes a Sandwich. Without you, this film would not get made.

But we need more help.

We still need 40% more of our goal. And any funds that we raise above that amount will go directly into our budget for the full feature Days with Dandekar that we plan to make in the new year.

Please help Dandekar make a sandwich! You can see our campaign at this link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dandekar-makes-a-sandwich/x/6178. We would love to have you all join us on this roller coaster ride! Thank you!!!

Read More

We're Making a Short: Dandekar Makes a Sandwich

I can't believe it's been over a year since Leena Pendharkar and I have been making short films together! We started working on short films for our Web channel So Natural TV. And now we're making a short film based on a feature-length script that Leena wrote called Days with Dandekar. 

The short film is called Dandekar Makes a Sandwich. We have cast the hilarious Brian George of Seinfeld fame to the lead role of RK Dandekar, a lonely man who goes on a journey to find his stolen Volvo and finds himself along the way. In the short, Dandekar makes a sandwich and an unlikely connection.

We've started an IndieGoGo campaign to help raise the financing to make the short. We have some fun gifts at each contribution level so we hope you check out the campaign. Maybe you need a tote bag or a T-shirt?

In all seriousness though, I am really proud of the work I have been doing with Leena. We are two independent filmmakers who teamed up to make fun, entertaining stories. I have been producing her work because I really believe in her talent. I think her work has something to say and she has a really fun aesthetic and wry wit - I'm really drawn to her storytelling. I hope you are too.

With your help, we plan to shoot Dandekar Makes a Sandwich next month. Then next year, we aim to film the feature-length script Days with Dandekar - click on this title and become a fan on Facebook!

As I mention above, we have started an IndieGoGo fundraiser to help raise the money to make the short - and any additional funds will go towards the making of the full feature. 

If any of you are able to contribute - whether it's money or posting about the project for your friends to see - we would be so grateful. Thank you so much. 

Here is the link to our campaign: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dandekar-makes-a-sandwich/x/1097043?show_todos=true

Days with Dandekar Web site

Days with Dandekar Facebook page

Read More

Producers and Directors Need to Remain Committed to Their Films Even After the Premiere Is Over

As a producer, I love working with directors. I get caught up in their passion and joy for bringing stories to life. I marvel at a director's creative vision and have spent most of my career finding the means to bring the visions I believe in to life.

The producer/director relationship is like a marriage. They're passionate, exciting, unique and emotionally charged. When making an independent film, you go into a project as partners and the idea is to remain partners in that film for its life, right?

And in like a marriage, it takes equal effort to ensure the health of a project.

There is a phase when a producer/director marriage is tested. It's usually after the premiere is over and the theater doors have closed.

It's the time when your baby is being let out into the world to find its place. It's such a critical phase in your baby's life. A phase when your baby needs you both there, supporting it, introducing it to new people, and contributing to its success.

It's not the time for either of you to pack your bags and take off to solely focus on creating a new baby and leave your old babies behind.

When this happens, it's like your spouse just left you after years of an amazing marriage. It hurts your partner (director or producer) who believed in you and did everything in his or her power to make the film a success during its creation. And worst of all it hurts your baby - the beautiful thing you created out of love for storytelling.

If you're going to make a film then commit to every phase of its life. Your film needs you. And so does your partner. There may be cases when you explain to your partner that you can't be there for them all of the time and that's okay if you give your partner a heads up and it's a mutually agreed upon arrangement. Every relationship is different. The key is respecting your partner and his or her time and ensuring the health of your baby.

Every time you tell your partner, you don't have time to do something, you are making your partner do it all. It's not like that task goes away. You have just put it on the very shoulders that are crumbling from having to take care of the baby you created together. It's disheartening, sad and exhausting to be the one carrying all of the weight. Don't do that to your partner. Figure out a way to be there or to find help.

You went into this journey together and created something you both so badly wanted to create. Don't abandon the journey. Take it together to the end. Otherwise, your film doesn't deserve to be made.

Read More

Happy Mother's Day: 40% Off The Diary of Preston Plummer on IndieReign Outside North America

Watch The Diary of Preston Plummer outside of North America for 40% off on IndieReign through May 30th: 

indiereign.com/v/66047 . 

Code: WELOVEMOMS

Happy Mother's Day!

https://www.

Read More

Attention Foreign Friends: Our Film The Diary of Preston Plummer Is Now Available Outside the U.S. via IndieReign.com

Poster for The Diary of Preston Plummer

Finding a means for distributing your film to the foreign markets outside of the United States is never easy, especially for small dramatic films.

Trevor Morgan as Preston Plummer

Foreign sales agents want films that have actors who already have worldwide fans. This usually means films with actors who have starred in huge tentpole films like Batman, Spiderman, Transformers, X-Men, Harry Potter, etc etc. I don't make these kind of films so it stands to reason that the films I do make would need a different delivery method - one that allows us to reach our audience direct.

Rumer Willis as Kate

So how do independent filmmakers get their small, dramatic films to a foreign audience? To date, we have had to find foreign sales agents willing to take a chance on our film and then we have watched as our revenue was eaten up by their expenses. This is a practice that doesn't work. We need a better way to get our films to our foreign audience.

Christopher Cousins as Walter & Erin Dilly as Emily

In the end, you may have sold your small indie title worldwide, but did you see substantial income from it or any at all? We as filmmakers have to remind ourselves that we are in a business and it's bad business to not see revenue from your product. End of story. We need to become smart about our business and create a sustainable method of getting our films to our audience.

On set with Rumer and Trevor and director Sean Ackerman

Too often, filmmakers feel like they have no other choice but to sigh and say, well at least it has reached a wider audience as they watch all of the earnings for their hard work go to everyone else but them.

Robert Loggia as John

THIS MUST STOP! We need to take control of our titles and work together to build viable distribution platforms for our titles whereby content creators are earning the lion's share of the revenue.

With this intention in mind, we have decided to work with IndieReign.com in launching our film The Diary of Preston Plummer into most foreign territories. If you live outside of the United States and Canada and you are not in the Benelux region (as we sold the film in that region to a different distributor), you can watch The Diary of Preston Plummer on IndieReign.

Rumer Willis as Kate & Trevor Morgan as Preston Plummer

I really hope you do watch it. This was a film that was the result of a lot of hard work by independent filmmakers and talent who believed in its creation. We had an awesome creative team and great actors: Trevor Morgan, Rumer Willis and Robert Loggia and a wonderful director Sean Ackerman. This film deserves to be seen and we hope you agree.

Sean Ackerman, director

On set with Rumer Willis, Me (producer), Trevor Morgan

Please help us make this film a success and establish a viable means for sharing our small indie films with a foreign audience. Thanks everyone!

Watch The Diary of Preston Plummer on IndieReign here:

Read More

Our Other Film Not Since You Is Now on Hulu!

What a week! Both of our films The Diary of Preston Plummer and Not Since You are now on Hulu!

This has been a long time coming. It always takes longer to launch films than you expect. But they're both up now and we're excited that these films will reach an even larger audience. We hope you check them out!

You can watch Not Since You here:

 


And watch The Diary of Preston Plummer here:

 

Read More

In Your Eyes, written by Joss Whedon and directed by Brin Hill

We need to watch Brin Hill and Joss Whedon's new film In Your Eyes on the online video Web site Vimeo. This film was produced by Kai Cole and Michael Roiff.

I love the mission behind Joss and Kai's company Bellwether Pictures. Their purpose is to bring micro-budget films directly to an audience, bypassing "the classic studio structure." I've been wanting to do this for years and sometimes I'm able to do it, but not as successfully as I'd like. So the attention Bellwether is bringing to indie film distribution is a huge step in the right direction.

Renting this film on Vimeo will help all indie filmmakers take control of their own distribution. I can't stress how important it is for us to find a viable distribution path to our audiences whereby we actually see the revenue from our hard work. 

Building a direct path to our audience is what we need to do. So let's support the filmmakers behind In Your Eyes because their success if our success. And no, I do not know anyone personally on the filmmaking team behind this film. I would like to know them - I will have to reach out. I am highlighting their work because their efforts to self-distribute will help us all. We need to support them. And hopefully they will support us too. 

The more audiences are familiar with these other platforms for watching movies, the more indie filmmakers will actually have a means for making money on the films they make. It's only five bucks to rent which means lots left over for some popcorn and Whoppers! 

Here's the link to the film: http://inyoureyesmovie.com/

And here is a teaser:


In Your Eyes - Trailer from Bellwether Pictures on Vimeo.

Read More

Our Film The Diary of Preston Plummer Is Now on Hulu!

We are super excited to announce that our film The Diary of Preston Plummer is now on Hulu! The film is now on Netflix and Hulu as well as other Internet sites like Amazon and iTunes.

The great thing about Hulu is that it's free for you to watch the film on that platform. We hope you check it out. We had such a great time making this film.

Here's a little bit about the film:

On the day of his college graduation, Preston Plummer cannot think of a single thing he really loves. Adrift, Preston follows a beautiful but troubled young woman to a small island town where he begins to fall for her, but it all threatens to fall apart when he uncovers her family's dark past.

And here are just a few of the awesome comments from our audience:

"The Diary of Preston Plummer - it was beautiful I cried"
"The Diary Of Preston Plummer is hands down one of my new favorite movies"
"Just watched The Diary of Preston Plummer on Netflix. Wow, just wow. So many feels."
"The Diary of Preston Plummer was just so absolutely perfect in every way."

We hope you feel the same. You can watch it here:

Read More

The Road to Tribeca 2014: App (a short), directed by Alexander Berman

APP follows Paul, a shy engineer who desperately needs venture capital for his virtual wingwoman app and sets out to prove that his app works. The film was the recipient of the 2013 Alfred P. Sloan Production Grant and is the AFI thesis film from Harvard University graduate, Alexander Berman.

What made you decide to become a filmmaker?

My father is a novelist and playwright so I grew up surrounded by his stories. When my family moved from Russia, my father wrote to preserve the life and identity he left behind for another country, but I was too young to feel Russian and too foreign to feel American. I started filmmaking at a very young age as a way to make sense of my environment – to insert myself in proxy into a place I didn’t belong.

Tell us about your film (include title of film and category your film will play at Tribeca). What inspired you to make it?

My film, “App” (in shorts competition at Tribeca), was inspired by an ugly breakup experience as so many films are! My girlfriend and I had one of those mutual/amiable/bullshit breakups that leave you with a nagging feeling that there is an untold story. Out of jealous curiosity, I used her passwords to search through her email, Facebook, twitter, instagram – the entire contents of her digital mind – to see if she had every cheated on me. When I told her about it later, she laughed and said she had done the same too me. The real data apocalypse isn’t NSA spying or high frequency trading…it’s when we confront our fear of rejection by destroying the uncertainty that is fundamental to love.

What do you love about your film?

I love its prescience. While I was developing the film a year ago, Tinder, LuLu, Zoosk, and other location based relationship startups were slides on an investment deck and not the multimillion-dollar companies they are today. The film is a comedy if you think, “This is so ridiculous and impossible!” It’s a horror film when you realize the future is now.

How long did it take you to make your film?

My producer, Edouard de Lachomette, and I started developing the idea for the film in January 2012. The American Film Institute has a long development process, so we started shooting in November, wrapped reshoots in January 2013, and delivered in June 2013: a total of 1.5 years.

What was the most challenging part of the filmmaking process and how did you overcome it?

My favorite films are the sci-fi movies that feel like they can happen the day after tomorrow. Trouble is…you start developing a film a year before you shoot it so you run the risk that whatever technology you are satirizing feels too stale or too unbelievable by the time you finish. We went through a ton of drafts of augmented reality, computer implants, etc… until we settled on “Sexy Siri”. My animator on the film, Benjamin Berman, is an app developer himself and really helped me conceptualize what the dating apps of 2014 will feel like back in 2012.

Tell us about your experience getting into Tribeca.

It’s actually a funny story: I get an email from Sharon (lead shorts programmer) that says, paraphrased, “What is the premiere status of your film? But don’t take this question to mean we are programming you or anything else dot dot dot.” After a nail-biting week of anticipation, I get a call from Ben Thompson confirming that the film was accepted. At the American Film Institute, our entire crew is fellow students so it was an awesome feeling sharing the news with them because we are all starting our careers together.

If you had to make the film all over again, would you do anything different?

If I made the film today, it would be completely different because the technology is so different. I’m very interested in augmented reality (like the Oculus Rift and Google Glass) and have a number of projects on the question of what immersive VR does to our emotional experience of the people we love.

What’s next for your film? Do you have distribution? If so, when and how can people see it and if not, what are your hopes for the film?

Our film has some other exciting festival announcements to make after Tribeca and some distributors have approached us. At the same time, I want our film to be seen by largest audience possible while it’s still relevant so we’ve also been exploring a general Internet release. I hope the success of the short film enables me to make my feature project. Stay tuned!

Can you provide any advice to other filmmakers who dream of getting their films made?

Working in movies a lot of times can feel like a crapshoot. After suffering your first failures, it’s easy to believe the advice that talent and handwork is not enough – that you need to “know” the right people or have a lot of “luck”. That’s bullshit. I truly believe the people who are my role models were the people who had the highest capacity for pain, rejection, and failure. They kept making when others told them it was time to quit. It’s a war for talent out there. But it’s a war won through attrition.

Screening Times: 

New York, New York - Tribeca Film Festival

4.18, 5:30pm @ AMC Loews Village 7, 66 Third Avenue

4.22, 5:30pm @ Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 9, 260 West 23rd Street

4.24, 12:00pm @ AMC Loews Village 7, 66 Third Avenue

4.27, 7:00pm @ Tribeca Cinemas, 54 Varick Street

Website: http://www.appthemovie.com/

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/66196560

Read More

RIP Sarah Jones - From Your Film Family

When I heard about Sarah Jones - a young woman who died working on a film set as an AC (Assistant Camera) - I felt like I had been kicked in the gut. I put my head in my hands and thought how sad it was to lose someone so young who was probably living her dream of making movies. I was reminded of the joy I felt walking into a production office for the first time - knowing I'd come home. A home we all believe will care for us - look out for us - protect us.

I didn't know Sarah personally but I knew her, just as I know every member of the entertainment industry. We are one big family who come together all over the world to create stories. Each new project builds a sub-family. We bop around the planet and instantly bond with our sub-family of the moment to create a story we hope will help inspire, provoke thought, make us laugh or cry. This bond never goes away.

A film set is a very emotional, life-changing, awe-inspiring place where creativity and dreams are realized. It's a home for so many of us. Let's strive to protect our home and our family members.

As producers, we need safety to come first always. We are the parents of the family on set. Our crew needs to be able trust their parents.

My heart goes out to Sarah's friends and family. We feel your pain and send our love to you. We come together all over the world to mourn the loss of Sarah - a member of our film family. We will strive to be a better family.

RIP Sarah Jones. You will always be remembered. Love, Your Film Family



For Sarah's Family, From Ours from Sustainable Dave on Vimeo.

Read More

Season 2 of Average Joe Web Series - Ridiculous & Roll Your Eyes Fun

Now for some afternoon fun, you can watch Average Joe. Each video opens with Intended for Immature Mature Audiences. The 13 episodes of this wacky series live up to the intro. If you're looking for a laugh from some ridiculous and raunchy dating sitches and an Average Joe, this Web series is for you.

Here's the trailer:

And to watch all of the episodes, you can go here: Good times! Thanks to my publicist Susan Szotyori for sharing this gem with me - haha!

Read More

A New Novella and Book Trailer for Valentine's Day: Valentine Schmalentine

My writing partner Brandon Trenz and I wrote a really funny romantic comedy feature-length script called Valentine Schmalentine and decided to adapt it into a novella. I handled the adaptation and even made a book trailer for it, starring Sunny Mabrey. My husband Steve shot the trailer.

It's been so fun creating these novellas and the trailer was a blast.

Here's the link to the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ID3K1BY. You should read it if you like rom coms and you like to laugh.

And here is the book trailer - enjoy!!:

Read More

Road to Sundance 2014: Crime: Marcus McGhee (a short), directed by Alix Lambert and Sam Chou

What made you decide to become a filmmaker?

Alix: My name is Alix Lambert, I am a director and producer. I co-created Crime: Marcus McGhee with Sam Chou. I have been directing for 20 years. My background is in the fine arts where I made installation and conceptual work that often involved video. I've always been a visual thinker/storyteller. 

Sam: My name is Sam Chou. I am a filmmaker, Director of Animation and co-director of Crime: The Animated Series. I've been animating by hand for over 15 years, working on Feature films, TV and commercials and eventually started directing. It was a natural evolution to start creating my own stories, and telling them through the medium of animation

Tell us about your film (include title of film and category your film will play in Sundance). What inspired you to make it?

Alix: I published a book titled CRIME. The book is a collection of interviews in and around the intersection of crime and the arts. What do real life criminals think about the way they are depicted on film? What do film directors want to know about criminals when they depict them in their movies? I interviewed bank robbers, victims, law enforcement, directors, writers, actors and many other people. I went on to develop stage plays using verbatim texts from further interviews about crime in specific geographic regions. How does crime differ from city to city? How is it the same? One of these plays, Crime, USA: Hartford, was commissioned by Real Art Ways in Hartford, Connecticut. One of the people I interviewed for the play was Marcus McGhee, the subject of our short film, Crime: Marcus McGhee. Sam Chou had purchased my book and actually contacted me while I was in Hartford working. We talked about our mutual interest in using some of the audio I had from these many interviews and turning them into animated shorts. That is how we ultimately came to make the series together.

Sam: Yes, the book was a great source of inspiration. Throughout my career, I've always wanted to tell stories that are grounded in reality and a bit darker than typical animated films. So after reading Alix's book, CRIME, I was blown away, I couldn't get those images out of my mind. I was like "YES! These are the stories I need to tell!!"

CRIME: Marcus McGhee is playing in documentary short program 1.

What do you love about your film?

Alix: I love Marcus! He is a wonderful storyteller. Pardon the pun, but he is so animated when he tells a story. I think in four minutes he is able to use humor to illuminate a very real problem in Hartford. I also love the animation style of this particular episode.

Sam: I agree, Marcus is a great story teller and I love his enthusiasm when he tells it.  It really helped inspire the quirky animation design and technique.

How long did it take you to make your film?

Alix: Once Sam and I had the idea, the problem always is finding a way to finance a film. We made a trailer and used that to talk about what we wanted to do.  I had a meeting with Emma Reeves from MOCA tv about the possibility of working together. She liked the animated crime series idea and MOCA tv committed to producing the first six episodes. I loved working with them and went on to create a second series, Ambiance Man, with them. 

Sam: All in all, we created 6 episodes of CRIME: The Animated Series in just over 3 months. 

What was the most challenging part of the filmmaking process and how did you overcome it?

Alix: Filmmaking is full of challenges, both practical and creative. For this film, we had to make some decisions in order to stay within a small budget (limited color palette, less expensive animation choices) and we also had a very tight production schedule once the project was green lit. Additionally, Sam lives in Toronto and I live in NYC, so there were a number of virtual meetings. While, it's great that that is possible now, it would have been preferable if we had been in the same city. We didn't meet in person until the night the series screened at MOCA.

Sam: I agree. On the production side, the challenge was creating 6 different completely different visual styles but using the same color palette. Then producing the animation within the schedule and budget was another challenge.

Tell us about your experience getting into Sundance.

Alix: We applied and we got in! Thrilled to be included.

Sam: When we submitted CRIME, we actually submitted the entire series, 6 episodes back-to-back. It was a 20 minute film that thematically worked really well. When the Sundance programmers got back to us, they explained that they loved the CRIME series but a 20 minute film is much harder to program than a 5 Min one. They kindly asked for just 1 episode, Marcus McGhee's episode. We had no issues with that, we were thrilled to be accepted!!

If you had to make the film all over again, would you do anything different?

Alix: I always make mistakes and learn so much on any film that I make, but I never want to go back and make the same film over, I would rather take what I learned and do things differently the next time around.

Sam: Yes, we made many mistakes during production.  If I had to go back, I'd make better mistakes.

What’s next for your film? Do you have distribution? If so, when and how can people see it and if not, what are your hopes for the film?

Alix: The six episodes can be viewed on MOCAtv. We do not have distribution and are currently discussing possibilities in that regard. We hope to make more episodes and continue the series.

Sam: We'd love to continue the series. There are so many CRIME stories to tell!

Can you provide any advice to other filmmakers who dream of getting their films made?

Alix: Kill your babies.

Sam: Just do it. Keep doing it. Don't stop.  And when you are done, do it again but better.

Read More