Start the Revolution

Hi all,

I have taken so long to get back to the blog.  I hope you like the new format.  I’m deeply glad that this is actually now a functional website.  I have got to get the crowdfunding campaign going for The Go-Girls and my friend, Lee Forgang, who is now officially my executive producer, is working on getting investors.  I will be pursuing them as well.  I was considering whether to use IndieGoGo or Seed and Spark, which also has a distribution platform.  It’s hard to know what exactly to do since I haven’t done this thing before.  I also have a possible director who wants to make sure we have funding before he signs on to the project.  No other actors attached yet other than myself because I want to hire an actual casting director and make sure I have the money first.

I checked out every book about producing Indie film I could from the library.  I was especially happy to get my hands on the book, From Reel to Deal, by the renowned indie-film production guru, Dov Simens.  He goes into detail about what you can do with each budget tier from how much crew you can hire to insurance and deals with investors and distribution agents.  It’s a really helpful book, but it is from 2003, so the information has changed a bit.  I also found the excellent book, The Declaration of Independent Filmmaking, by the Polish Brothers, who produced the films, Twin Falls Idaho, Northfolk, and The Astronaut Farmer, among many others.  The book is from 2005 and has the narrative of how they started in film and the lessons they learned along the way.  I have a great deal of work to do from setting up a business name and account to the funding itself.  I also have the official move to LA in December.  There aren’t enough opportunities here for me to grow in my career, get real credits, be union, and make a living.

My friend set up a jewelry fundraiser for preliminary funds for The Go-Girls, but no one came.  We read through the script out loud together and that was a lot of fun.  We might schedule one again.

I had an audition for Arizona Studios last weekend and it went great!  They provide pre and post-production services, including casting, animation, 3-D graphics, and special effects.  I heard back from the company producing the musical and one-acts a few weeks ago and they would like to work with me, they just needed to decide if they were going to have callbacks or direct offers.  That was the paying one.  The Sondheim revue that I auditioned for that same weekend, gave me a quick no.  That company doesn’t pay anyway.  We need more paying companies.  You’re more likely to get paid in Portland for theatre and that’s saying something.  At least Phoenix has a good deal of commercial projects.  Of course not as many as it should, but it’s something.  A few weeks back, I was in another of my buddy, Bobby Shook’s, commercials for Adobe.  I was a bridesmaid this time and I got to eat cake.  Here is a picture of me on set with my pal, Diana Brest.  

I also submitted Business Casual to Filmstock Film Festival, a small Arizona festival, and the LA Lift-Off Festival, which has connected festivals across the US and abroad.  I got to submit to Filmstock for free and with a discount for the Lift-Off Festival.