Craziness and Magic, Pt. II

The Retirement Home Throwdown, Day 2:  On Sunday we arrive at the retirement in Woodland Hills.  Lisa and I tried to arrive earlier than the call time of 8am to set up first, but once we got there, the rest of the crew quickly arrived.   Takayo Fischer, who plays Grandma, also arrived early.  She brought a wig in order to make herself look older.  Emily and Shireen arrived shortly thereafter.  

Lucy called and said that she knew someone who has the adaptor that can read the P2 cards, but this woman lives in Marina del Rey.  So after she dropped off the walkies, she drove all the way back to Marina del Rey to pick up the adaptor.  Day 2 and we were in the same stressful and entirely desperate position of figuring out how to download our footage.  Luckily, we had a number of extra P2 cards.  

So we set up production central in one of the rooms in the retirement home, next to the reception area, where we plan to shoot later on.  Shortly thereafter, the residents start to drop by and asked about the shoot and when they could stop by to be the extras.  I find out that at least 12 women had signed up to be extras.  Yay!  I tried to recruit one of the women for a speaking role and she immediately agreed.  Double yay!  I asked Lisa to help her rehearse the lines, because at this point I needed to leave to shoot the first scene of the day:  the confrontation between Jenny, Ma and Grandma.  

The scene among Ma, Grandma and Jenny is a very special scene for me.  To me, it represents three generations of Asian American women, each with their own personalities and histories, and their relationships to one another.   It is hard to describe the magic that happened in that room that day for me, so I won't even try (especially because my brain is completely fried).  All I can say is that to have Takayo, Emily and Shireen in the same scene together was just awesome, and humbling.  What talent!

During a break, Suzi, the most wonderful make-up artist EVER, tells me that downstairs, the elderly women residents who wanted to be extras in this film started fighting over the speaking roles.   Yes, a throwdown at the retirement center!   So the two women who stopped by earlier in the day decided to drop out, because they both got mad at one another.  The one who didn't get the speaking role accused the other of trying to steal the part.  Real life behind the scenes drama!

I check in with Lucy re: P2 cards.  The adaptor that she picked up in Marina del Rey didn't work!!!!  Arggggggg.... So Lucy and Lisa start calling people again, to see who had a laptop we could borrow and/or extra P2 cards.  Finally, the situation became dire.  We were running out of cards and nowhere to download.  Lisa was about to drive to Samy's to pick up 4 additional 8G cards at $50/card.  Yikes!!!   Brian, our DP, came downstairs and looked at the P2 store again (or original solution to the issue).   To our surprise and joy, Brian figured out a way to make it work on the laptop!!!!   WHEW!!!!!  P2 problem solved!

Coming up next... Retirement Home Sex Scene with Grandma...to be continued...

Craziness and Magic

So we wrapped production on Love 10 to 1 yesterday.   What a ride.   I had two days left to shoot in my story--two of the more challenging days because I had a surprise birthday party scene (i.e., need extras again) and scenes to be shot at a retirement home (i.e., need extras again, but this time, elderly extras).   So we start with Saturday.

Oops, let's back up for a second.  The night before (Friday eve), I realized (at 11pm) that my new MacBook Pro doesn't have the slot that would fit the P2 cards.  Which means that we had no way of downloading the footage recorded on the P2.  I frantically called Lucy, but she didn't pick up.  I sent an email to 2 other friends who either had an older Mac or was a tech genius and could possibly help me.   Said friend with older Mac (which had the slot for P2 card) couldn't part with her Mac laptop for the weekend, but said she would come later in Sat. afternoon to help.  Tech genius suggested I look for the adaptor to fit the P2 cards.  

Day of production: Saturday.  We arrive and set up.  Lucy is now calling around to see if she knew anyone with the adaptor and/or older Mac laptop.  Meanwhile, she was also tasked with set dressing.  Lisa, my wonderfully supportive friend and roommate, was the other set dresser, along with craft services, legal coordinator (get all the releases together), and designated house-watcher.   We had use of a house for this one day, and we were going to dress 4 rooms, including a surprise birthday party scene.  

Somewhere along the way, the two resident dogs of said house (Haku and Kuma--I love you!!!) wandered off and ran outside, since we had left the gates opened to load stuff.    Owner of said house inquired about the whereabouts of said dogs, at which point, we all FREAKED.   He ran outside and saw Kuma crossing the street, that being Crescent Heights Boulevard, a very busy street.  Amazingly, having crossed the street not once but TWICE, Kuma was safe.  OMGx100! 

Despite the chaos, we got some really great shots.  Emily Kuroda was so fantastic as Ma that we were ahead of schedule since very few takes were needed.   Shireen was awesome as usual.  We were moving along.

Then the "extras" started to arrive (i.e., my awesome brother, 2 brother in laws, one cousin, and friends) as well as Art, Cazzy, Ashley and Jesse (they play Jenny's friends).  So, we decided to shoot the extras first.  There were lots of moments of people yelling "SURPRISE!"  Even today, "SURPRISE!" is still ringing in my head.  I never want to hear that word ever again.

So back to P2.   Aside: we had rented the P2 store for the day but the software didn't load.  The instruction manual said that the software doesn't work with the new Intel-based based Macs.  WTF???!!!  Fortunately, friend with laptop arrived and helped us download footage for the day.  Unfortunately, she could not help us for Sunday.  So, we were back to the question of how can we download our footage?

   

All in all, we got some great shots, and there were enough extras to not make the scene look retarded.  

SUNDAY:  The retirement home THROWDOWN...to be continued...

  

  

LOVE 10 To 1 - IT"S A WRAP

Today we wrapped our FEATURE!

This journey has taken us all over the city of Los Angeles and beyond, here's a list all the places we've filmed;

Cerritos Swim Center
Downtown Los Angeles
Thai Town
Sherman Oaks
Burbank
Melrose
Brentwood
Hollywood
Venice
Woodland Hills

This crazy journey was led by three female writer/directors/producers (Christine, Lucy & Laura). We couldn't have done it without the help of our four Cinematographers (Leah Anova, Erik Forsell, Matt Boyd & Brian Sorbo) a kick ass crew that rotated positions but for the most part was consistent through out the shoot (Casey Slade, Brian Sorbo, Frederick Chaignant, Lynn Langmead, Jeffrey Waldron and Matt Boyd), our kick ass sound people (Carrie and Ray (1st round), Ian and Jarred (Love Song), the most amazing make up artist Susan Thompson, my costume designer Natasha & Jannae who did wardrobe, the best roommate Lisa J. who did anything and everything (Christine's roommate), my co-producer on Love Song, Meagan and a wonderful cast of 40+ people. There were others who helped during the first round back in October/November; Jenna, Dominick, Isaiah, Paul, Sandra, I know I'm forgetting people and I'm sorry for the omission but I've gotten no sleep. Also those who helped these last two days; Tad and Layne (sound), Kevin, Julien, Jamar and Craig.

Thank you to our friends and families for their help and support and to all of those who kindly donated services, locations, equipment, gear, music etc. Oh, yes and those who kindly gave us $$$$$$.

A HUGE THANK YOU to East West Players, Projetct:Involve, Film Independent, The Filmmakers Alliance & Movies By Women.

I'm too tired to write more.


xoxo,

Lucy

Crewplay.com

Check out this amazing site - it's like myspace for crew. The guys who run it are very on top of it and sent me a personalized email once I joined. Yes, personalized, not a mass email that they send everybody.

They have amazing resources and it's a great way to network with other filmmakers.

Here's a link to my profile:

Lucy's crewplay profile

http://www.crewplay.com/member.php?member=Lucy%20Rodriguez

xoxo,
Lucy

Love 10 to 1 website is back up

Here's the message I got from our web master;

Alentus servers went down yesterday. Same happened to all my websites.
You can get updates at http://www.alentusnews.com

All the website on the Alentus network got back up just few mins back
(10.30 am Sunday).

Hope you're all having a great summer.

xoxo,

Lucy

Seeing Things Through

When Christine, Laura and I started this process, no matter how far it seemed, we always acted with the intention of making this film and seeing it through. Yes, we’ve gone through growing pains; there were times when we wanted to forget the whole thing (because everything costs so much $$$$) and there were a few times when we would have loved to duke it out (again $$$$). We were under a lot of pressure because; we put up all our money into this venture, we had a HUGE cast and crew (especially the November shoot) to take care of and most important, we needed to DELIVER. This was our dream and we were one of the few who are privileged enough to pursue it and see it come to fruition. We made a FEATURE FILM!

A friend of mine thinks we spent too much $$$ on the film. He's working on a script and he plans to get our production value and quality with his $900 camera and a 3-4 person crew. I didn’t want to argue with him but I have to say that I was a little insulted. My production value was aided by the equipment we used (HVX 200 with Zeiss lenses, can’t remember if they were super speed or ultra prime) but the majority of it came from the cast and crew’s talent and experience. They made my story come alive and it was their hard work and dedication that gave me the production value I got. My friend is going to shoot his film himself and he’s going to direct it too. I’m not saying it’s not doable because it is. However, if you are going to tackle a film on your own, you need to write it with minimal locations and few actors. A strong team behind you is also key. He’s going to use the film White Red Panic as his model http://www.vimeo.com/1333375?pg=embed&sec=1333375

I saw a little bit of this film and it looks good. However, Love 10 to 1 is a romantic comedy and we have a lot of characters and a lot of locations. Romantic comedies look a certain way, our model for making this film was not a film we saw online. We wanted to make Love Actually meets Sex and the City on an ultra low budget. This was our dream and because we got such a late start at it we felt we had to do this right. If Love 10 to 1 was a horror movie and we would have used The Blair Witch Project as our model then it would be a different story.

People look at Robert Rodriguez and how he got into the industry and think they can do it that way too but he’s the exception, not the norm. Like everyone else who makes a film, I would like to make this a career, I would like to be hired to direct and hopefully this film can open the doors to those possibilities. I started preproduction in my head for my next two films. When my edit is done I’ll focus on pre-pro for the next two.

I have one day of establishing shots and Christine has her scenes with Ma, Grandma & Jenny to shoot. I’m very excited to roll up my sleeves and get to work on that. I need to backtrack, if you read the previous blog that Christine posted – What an exciting addition to our wonderful cast! Emily Kuroda as Ma and Takayo Fischer as Grandma, way to go Christine - please blog about this:-)

I am so proud of the work we’ve done and that from the beginning we set high standards for our film. I don’t know where our film will take us but I’m looking forward to the journey.

xoxo,
Lucy

Doing It

About a year ago, Lucy, Laura and I decided to proceed with production on Love 10 to 1.  We didn't have all the financing in place, but we operated on the belief that "if you build it, they will come".  Actually, this is one of the lessons that I've learned working with business peeps: act as if.  Last year, before we went into production on this film, I was working with a client on a billion dollar acquisition.  Mind you, they didn't have the billion dollars--not yet anyway.  But the top dogs at the company, well, they acted as if they already had the billion dollars.  And to the bankers who were potentially going to fund the acquisition, they acted as if the target company was already theirs for the taking.  Balls.    

Of course, it's not always that simple.  But there's something to be said about just doing it.  You may never have enough money to make your film.  Just do it, or at least, move as much towards your goal as you can.  And somehow, the pieces will fall into place.  It won't be perfect.  Far from it.  But at the end of the day, you would have done it.  Or at least, you would be a few steps closer towards your goal than if you waited until everything was perfect.   

I met another filmmaker about a month ago who told me that he made a bunch of short films with very little money so that he could give himself the permission to fail.  Because that's usually when you learn the most.  

Anyway, I'm heading into production again in several weeks.  I'm finally finishing up my piece with a few scenes that I didn't shoot the last time around because I didn't have a "Ma" or a "Grandma".   Fortunately, I was able to get a couple of AMAZING Asian American actresses who agreed to play these roles: Emily Kuroda (Gilmore Girls, among others) and Takayo Fischer (Pirates of the Carribean, The Pursuit of Happyness, etc.).   Takayo, Emily and Shireen acting together. Wow! 

I'm looking forward to having a completed film.  It's been a very long journey with a very unclear destination.  Here's to leaping without a safety net.

Onahoua Rodriguez on Weeds

She plays Maria "the MerMex" (what Keavin Nealon's Doug renames her - a Mexican Mermaid), she calls him Senor Flippy Flop. While yet again playing the immigrant role, at least this one does it with a sense of humor.

Stay tuned for Love Song where Onahoua does not play the sterotypical role offered to Latinos. Her character is just a girl from Venice Beach who sings in a band and is in love with her roommate.

Congrats to Ona and the cast and crew of Lydia for their big win at the Henry Awards:
Outstanding Ensemble Performance
Denver Center Theatre Company, “Lydia”

Outstanding New Play
“Lydia”, Octavio Solis, Denver Center Theatre Company

Outstanding Production of a Play
Denver Center Theatre Company, “Lydia”

Onahoua will resume the role of Ceci when the play goes to The Yale Rep Theater in New Haven, CT (February 6 - February 8, 2009). If you are on the East Coast check it out.

Here's a link to the Yale site:
http://www.yale.edu/yalerep/subscribe/lydia.html

Do It Yourself Film Distribution

Click on the title of this blog for the link to the NY Times article on how indie filmmakers are looking at self-distribution in theaters.  

A Response to One of My Blogs

It's been a while since I've been here, I know I owe you a lot of blogs and I will get to them. I was going to blog today but I spent a bit of time on a response to one of the blogs I wrote. The blog is titled The Election, Strong Women and Love 10 to 1. You can either scroll down or click on the title of this blog to go there.

Below is Anna's response to the blog, I don't know Anna so it's great to see that people outside our circle are reading the blog.

I know I am new to your blog & I do not mean to cause trouble but - just because it works in the publishing industry does that mean it still makes sense? I know nothing about the publishing industry but selling books based on a novelists sexiness sounds potentially sexist to me. The average person has no clue about the sexiness level of male film directors. It is considered besides the point. So how are women film directors - who I support whole heartedly - aided in their work by putting themselves out there as sexy?

I liked what you said about Hilary & Michelle Obama. Thanks for that.

And how great to find such a blog!

My response:

Hi Anna,

Thank you so much for reading our blog and for your comment. You are not causing trouble and replies like yours are encouraged because every time the subject of women directors comes up people feel like they are opening up a can of worms. Even women filmmaker organizations try to stay away from the certain topics and I think that for there to be positive change we need to talk about these issues in a positive way.

In the publishing world, in order to sell books, authors go on book tours. To me, authors are sexy because they are usually smart. For me, an intelligent person, a well read person, regardless of their looks is a turn on.

Like beauty what is considered sexy is in the eye of the beholder. So when I say that in order to sell sexy we need to be sexy, that's something that came out of following the rule that as a woman working on a set you need to be gender neutral (which equates to dressing like a boy). If that's what I have to do on a set that's fine but off the set, promoting my film, I will make the decision of how I want to look (I want to look like me). I want to embrace my femininity and let the world know that you can be smart, you can be sexy, and you can make a movie. You can also be an idiot, not sexy and you can still make a movie (feel free to check out the multiplex any time of year). This won't apply to everybody but I choose to be the smart/sexy person who makes films.

Now to define sexy - for me, sexy does not mean dress like the wanna be celebrity of the moment. Jackie Kennedy, Gena Rowland, Penelope Cruz, Sophia Lauren, I can keep going but you get the picture, those women are sexy. They embrace their femininity without flaunting their sexuality. Male directors don't need to worry about that and neither do male bankers, lawyers, doctors etc., these politics are not inclusive to the film world.

At the end of the day, I want to promote my film in a way I'm comfortable. It doesn't mean I'm going to pound on makeup and wear a padded bra because that's not comfortable for me either. I love shoes and I'll be wearing some sexy ones. My reward, once I've paid for the rest of the film is a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes, the highest, sexiest pair I can find. I will wear them to every Q&A. Presenting the film in those shoes, with a great mani/pedi, wearing a nice pair of jeans and a Dirty Virgin t-shirt (that's the band in the film), that's going to be me feeling pretty sexy. That is a choice I'm making that works for me. At the end of the day, sexy, not sexy, male director, female director should not come into play but unfortunately it does. So, to end this on a positive note, here's some advice that all directors should follow.

1. Be Prepared
2. Connect with your cast and crew - I feel strongly about connection because if the cast, the crew and the script are all connected, your audience will connect as well.
3. No matter how busy/crazy/hectic your day is, make sure that you acknowledge everyone at least once during your shoot. Say good morning and thank them at the end of the day. The most gratifying thing I walked off with is knowing that my cast and crew respected me. In your journey as a director you'll be lucky if you can get to work with actors you like multiple times, your crew however, you can keep with you for ever (schedule permitting). Knowing that my crew will work with me over and over is the best feeling in the world. As a director, having a strong team working with you is priceless.

Thank for your comment Anna.

Lucy

What's Up

So I just found out that my short, Las Perdidas, is going to be screened at the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival next month! We're quite thrilled, because the film is finally picking up speed and generating interest after several earlier rejections. Las Perdidas ended up winning Best Short at the Broad Humor Film Festival in Venice, and it will also be screened at the Rhode Island International Film Fest August 5 - 10. Yay! Getting lots of practice for when Christine, Lucy and I hit the fests for Love 10 to 1. Everything makes a difference when you finally get a good film in your hand.

I'm finally all set up and ready to start editing Diving Lessons. I bought the MacBook Pro and Final Cut, the footage is all converted, I have my new external hard drive, and a heck of a lot more confidence when it comes to all the technical stuff of editing. I've been thinking a lot about the way I chose to shoot Diving Lessons, with long, lingering takes, and I'm starting to think about how to approach the edit. I'm starting to get excited about potentially approaching the edit from the idea of what it looks like when you're sizing a prospective lover up for the first time. like for example, maybe you're having a conversation about a trip you took, but you can't help noticing the way his/her hand ruffled his/her hair, and then you start to think about the back of her/his neck and you fixate on that the whole time he/she's talking rather than on what he/she's actually saying. So the question is how to accomplish that with long master takes? I'm thinking that with digital footage, the ways of doing this could be an interesting experiment. if I'm going to continue to use this film as an homage to the guys of the French New Wave, well then, shouldn't editing be a bit of a quirk? They did invent the jump cut after all...

Love 10 to 1 Website Goes LIVE!

Our film website is now live! You can link to it by clicking on this blog's title or the link tab at the upper right corner of this blog.

We've been working with a web developer, Sudeep at B3net.com, on our website. He's been very helpful at suggesting ways to economically put together a website that still looks good. He works hard and has a great attitude. I met Sudeep through my friend Selva, who is also a godsend and also helped us with the website. When Selva and I get together, we talk about karma a lot, both good and bad, because from our experiences we see that what goes around comes around. Selva is one of those people who does a lot of good for others, and this website could not have come about without him and Sudeep. So a big THANK YOU to both for making the website happen for us!

Editing

For the past several months, I've been meeting with my editor, Ricardo, to work on the film edits. It's been going very slowly because he has a full time editing job and agreed to work on my piece of Love 10 to 1 at a reduced rate. So we try to meet once a week, when we work together on the edits, though recently, given both our hectic schedules, it's been more like once every three weeks. Usually he has already put together a rough cut of one scene, and then I would have some suggestions and we'd work on it together.

Of the three stories, I think my vignette probably relies most on having a great editor, because I'm looking for good comedic timing (rather than a "romantic" story, I'm going more for comedy). Last night Ricardo and I worked on the "Silverlake Party" scene. During production, I was worried about our shots because we were using a stedicam and had problems with boom shadows, among other things. Also, I had wanted to convey a sense of "party" when we didn't have a lot of extras there to convey a party feel. So it was a bit scary to see whether we were able to get enough coverage for Ricardo to put together a cut. I was pleasantly surprised by what he put together-- in fact, this scene is turning out to be one of my favorites. Shireen's husband, Eddie Mui, did a fantastic job as "Smelly Francis". He actually ad-libbed a lot of the dialogue, and he's so good both Ricardo and I still laughed at Eddie's lines even after we watched the footage over and over again.

I can't emphasize enough the importance of having a good editor. Unfortunately most filmmakers spend so much on production that when it comes to post, the money is all spent and they cheap out on the editing. We happen to fall in that category, but luckily, we were able to get good editors for great rates.

We've also been asking around for good post houses to do our sound mix and color correction. Stay tuned for that update.

Response to Lucy's Blog Below Re: Women and Politics

A friend of mine forwarded this to me...

If you or anyone you know has questioned whether the media has been sexist in its coverage of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, take a look at this staggering montage and please, forward to anyone you think should see this which in my opinion, is everyone.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-IrhRSwF U&eurl=http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2008/05/27/sexism_sells/

Lydia gets 5 Henry Award Nominations

Congratulations to Onahoua, Stephanie, Juliette, Octavio, the cast of Lydia and The Denver Center Theatre Company.

The Colorado Theatre Guild announced the 2008 Henry Award nominees. The winners will be announced at a boisterous ceremony on Monday, July 7 at 7pm at the Town Hall Arts Center in Littleton. Tickets: 303-778-7724

Outstanding Actress in a Play
Jeanne Paulsen, Denver Center Theatre Company’s “Doubt”
Karen Slack, Curious’ “9 Parts of Desire”
Martha Harmon Pardee, Paragon Theatre, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Onahoua Rodriguez, Denver Center Theatre Company’s “Lydia” Stephanie Beatriz, Denver Center Theatre Company’s “Lydia”

Outstanding Ensemble Performance
Countdown to Zero, “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui”
Denver Center Theatre Company, “The Diary of Anne Frank”
Denver Center Theatre Company, “Lydia” Denver Center Theatre Company, “Plainsong”
PHAMALY, "Urinetown, the Musical"

Outstanding New Play “Contrived Ending”, Josh Hartwell, Conundrum Productions
“The Denver Project”, Mildred Ruiz and Steve Sapp, Curious Theatre Company
“Every Secret Thing”, Judy GeBauer, Modern Muse Theatre Company
“Lydia”, Octavio Solis, Denver Center Theatre Company
“Plainsong”, Eric Schmiedl, Denver Center Theatre Company

Outstanding Production of a Play
Curious Theatre Company, "The Lieutenant of Inishmore"
Denver Center Theatre Company, “Doubt”
Denver Center Theatre Company, “Lydia”
Denver Center Theatre Company, “Plainsong”
Paragon Theatre Company, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

Outstanding Direction of a Play
Chip Walton, Curious Theatre Company, “The Lieutenant of Inishmore”
Juliette Carrillo, Denver Center Theatre Company, “Lydia”
Kent Thompson, Denver Center Theatre Company, “Plainsong”
Paul Mason Barnes, Denver Center Theatre Company, “The Diary of Anne Frank”
Terry Dodd, Arvada Center, “Of Mice and Men”
Warren Sherrill, Paragon Theatre Company, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

The Election, Strong Women and Love 10 to 1

This film was conceived some four years ago when Christine and I met at a directing class at UCLA. At the time there were four stories - each about 20 minutes long. During one of our first meetings, the news broke that John Kerry had gotten the nomination from the Democratic Party. Fast forward four years later, and when I was on set shooting Love Song, news broke that Barack Obama got the nomination from the Democratic Party. Talk about coming full circle. It took us about 2 years to write the script. During the first year one of the writers parted ways because she knew she was not going to be able to raise the 5k that at the time we thought each story was going to cost - we were so innocent to think that we could shoot each story for 5k! But I digress.

By the time we release the film there will be a new President in the White House. Which brings me to the current election; I won't use this blog to take sides or to profess my preference for a candidate, but I will use it to state the obvious; The media and a good chunk of the country did Hillary wrong and now they are going after Michelle Obama. The woman is being crucified for speaking her mind and then when she tries to show a different side of her personality by going on The View they gang up on her for being "fake". The allure of being a woman and especially a strong woman is that we have many facets to our personalities. For example, if a woman is the CEO of a big corporation, or a film director, she's going to behave differently in the boardroom or on the set than she would when she's baking cookies for her kids or when she's out to dinner with her friends. Women today are expected to be Super Man, juggling career, kids, social life etc. In the case of Michelle Obama, campaigning alongside her husband, being under media scrutiny, taking care of her kids, plus all the other things she does, she should be allowed (without the media making something more out of it) to be who she is; that probably means that she's warm and sweet around her girls, smart and supportive when she's campaigning for her husband and all around Super Man/Wonder Woman the rest of the time. I have not heard anything about Cindy McCain but I've been living in the world of filmmaking where it's easy to loose touch with the world when you are in production. I'm sure Cindy is Super Man/Wonder Woman as well.

I strongly believe that behind a successful man there's usually a few women responsible for getting him there, usually their mother, wife, sisters and daughters not to mention a father, brothers or sons. Obviously the logic works in reverse as well.
Bottom line is that to be successful it helps if you have a strong support system and if that's not the case you need to be like the little engine that could and just keep moving ahead.

Which brings me to my next point - As a writer/producer/director on this project I wore additional hats, I basically did what needed to be done to take care of my crew, my actors and anything that came up, basically Super Man/Wonder Woman. As I'm watching the footage, I take pride in the strong women I created, because of that, the film is beautiful and sexy; that's my vision, those are my images up there and I need to stand by them. I had a conversation with Christine today and we came to the conclusion that in order to sell sexy we need to be sexy. We are going to embrace our inner Candace Bushnell, Pamela Des Barre and Jackie Collins - why is it that it's ok for female authors to be sexy if they are going to sell sexy books and not for female directors? We're going to change that!

We'll put the pictures of the director's photo shoot and you can judge for yourself - let's hope Suzie is available to give us a make over.

xoxo,

Lucy

The RED, Editing, Casting

This past weekend I worked on a shoot with Brian and Matt, we shot on the RED. I say WE because I worked in the camera department. I was responsible for downloading the footage, clapped the slate or the claqueta (in spanish, I'm trying to learn all the right terms because I want to make a movie in Argentina!) and pitched in where ever it was needed, but mostly, I stayed by the camera. Mike was the first AC, he's a friend of Jarred's (the sound mixer from Love Song). Mike visited the Love Song set one day, I had a good feeling about him. Working with him on someone else's set was great. He was very familiar with the RED, he works at a rental house and he's seen the workflow a ton of times. He was really nice and explained a lot of the functions of the camera to me. He told me that my job was basically the 2nd AC. I was so happy because coming from him that meant a lot. It's always good to work on a set with Brian and Matt. As usual, Brian was always imparting knowledge, that's why I call him the Master. I met some other nice people that I'm sure Brian will adopt and make part of the family.

The footage was recorded onto a hard drive instead of card. This made shooting a lot smoother because you didn't have to worry about swaping cards as often. There were two drives, one for high speed (which will give you slow motion) and another drive for the normal speed footage. What a concept! One camera, two drives = no frame rate issues!!!!

I really like the camera and the workflow. It was so easy to download and easy to view the footage. I took my assignment very seriously, in my opinion, I had one of the most important jobs on the set. Based on my prior experience w/the HVX, the person who was in charge of downloading my footage (Frederick) had one of the most important jobs - if there was a screw up and something got erased then all the hard work we all put in would be out the window. I digress; I want to shoot my next project on the RED and use the super speed lenses. We used the normal speed lenses on Love Song because Indie Rental only has 5 sets of the super speed (they were all rented), the normal speed lenses worked well but the super speed would have been better particularly during the night scenes.

I'm about halfway done labeling and organizing my footage. Matt surprised me today with a rough cut of the end of the film. He set the footage to Mazzy Star's Fade Into You - ofcourse, now I have that song in my head and I want it, Matt decided to change the song because he didn't want me to get attached to it and he wanted me to see that the possibilities are endless. The scene is just beautiful.



Onahoua and David have so much chemistry, they look great together and they are so talented. As I watched the footage I was turned to mush, my eyes got watery and my heartbeat was super fast. Matt always tells me that shooting is fun, then you look at it and that's great, but when you watch your work edited and set to music, that feeling is just priceless, he's absolutely right. I had so many emotions running through me, it's been one of the most gratifying experiences of the process.



I'm so proud of this project, I can't believe we've come so far. I met with Christine and Laura today and we discussed our upcoming battles with post and trying to get the feature done in time to submit to festivals for next year. I have one day to shoot the opening of the film and get establishing shots, Christine has 2-3 days and she's shooting in late August. Stay tuned for the new cast of Christine's film; Ma and Grandma are going to be super fierce - wait 'till you hear who'll be playing them... Let's hope Christine doesn't keep us in suspense much longer before she makes the announcement.



xoxo,

Lucy

ps
yes, Matt the Cinematographer is the Editor, I am the Assistant Editor - That's how it's done in IndieWood!

Staying True To Your Vision

I have so many things to blog about; I promise to catch up soon. I wanted to share my excitement with you all. I’ve been watching the footage and it looks amazing. Matt, Brian and the rest of the crew did a great job and the cast was phenomenal. I am so blessed, grateful and thankful that the images I’m looking at belong to the film I set out to make.

In my journey making this film I’ve learned so much, I’ve had both good and bad experiences. The most frustrating thing I’ve gone through was watching the footage I shot last November and just saying “What the F*ck”. I shot scenes that shared the same locations as Christine’s and Laura’s, I’m glad I did not shoot anything else because the images I was looking at were not what I envisioned. That footage will end up on the deleted section of the DVD. It’s not to say that the footage wasn’t shot well (with the exception of the frame rate issue) the footage looks good but it’s not my vision. Ultimately, I hold myself responsible because I was the director, I should have said something.

The most powerful lesson I learned is that when you see something that’s not going the way you envisioned it, speak up. Once that day is over you most likely won’t be able to go back to that location. The same goes for the people you are working with; if someone is not working out, or if someone does not deliver or make good on what they said they were going to do, it’s ok to fire them.

Fast forward 7 months later and I love every frame we shot. Matthew (Matt) Boyd the cinematographer never questioned what I wanted but he came with suggestions that improved my vision. We work well together, we like a lot of the same music and that helped. We never watched movies for references but we listened to a lot of music, I explained my vision of what I wanted through songs, particularly The Fabulous Miss Wendy’s (because she’s pretty much letting me use all her songs). I would tell Matt, this song will go on this scene and we would start from there.

As I watched the footage, I laughed and almost shed a tear – I tried to contain myself because I did not want my mascara and eyeliner to run (I went to a networking event so I had to get dolled up and I did not want raccoon eyes). The clip that almost made me cry was of Shane and Dustin walking on the beach at sunset, they were shot in a beautiful silhouette against the Santa Monica Mountains as the sun was setting. I remember when we shot that scene, so many things were going through my mind, particularly the hundreds of hikes I’ve taken on those mountains thinking about that very moment. I remember saying Thank You God. Shooting it was magical but watching it back was indescribable. I LOVED IT. I was so excited I could have burst.

The mistake I made the last time was that I watched a lot of films with Leah (the other dp). I’m sure that works for other people but in retrospect, that didn’t work for me and maybe that’s why I didn’t feel that the November footage was my vision.

As a filmmaker you need to figure out what works for you and what works for your particular project.

The next film I shoot with Matt may have us watching some shows on The Food Network because the story deals with food or maybe I’ll take a cooking class, who knows.

Stay true to your vision and figure out a way to get it; that usually starts with a kick ass team who can bring it!

xoxo,
Lucy

My short is in a film festival this weekend - in VENICE!

Cool. I get to go back to Venice this weekend and explore some more.

And this time, the purpose of my trip is to reap the benefits of hard work.

Last year I directed and co-wrote a short film, titled "Las Perdidas" (the lost ones) with a couple of friends of mine. It is the story of three friends who take a road trip to Mexico - their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and they are rescued by a local one legged vagrant, of whom they become suspicious when they discover a box filled with various driver's licenses. This story is based on a real life experience that happened to me a couple of years ago, and it touches on cultural barriers and prejudices.

We've been submitting this film to various film festivals and we have managed to get a little attention from it, having won a Remi Award at World Fest Houston, we were recently at the Cannes Short Film Corner and have been granted early selection by the Rhode Island International Film Festival. Hopefully there will be more good news to come.

This weekend "Las Perdidas" will be screening at the Broad Humor Film Festival in Venice. One of our goals was to get as much local exposure as possible, because I think ultimately the best place to make contacts and spark interest in our talents is Los Angeles. We are one of four narrative shorts that will be screened this Saturday at 1pm! The best part of this is the fact that they will be screening our 28 minute version as opposed to the 16min version that most of the other festivals will prefer.

Here's the info.

The Broad Humor Festival Presents:

Las Perdidas: (the lost ones)
Saturday, June 14th at 1pm

The Electric Lodge
1416 Electric Ave.
Venice, CA 90291

$8
Tickets can be purchased online or at the venue. Go to www.broadhumor.com

Free Parking

We are part of a shorts program--there are 4 shorts. Total running time for the program is about an hour. There are parties going on all weekend too!

www.broadhumor.com
www.lasperdidas.com


I anticipate this will be a very small festival, with little publicity, but it will be a great opportunity to meet other women filmmakers in the area, and get our names out there, building a presence for not only myself and the other Las Perdidas ladies, but I'm also going to talk up Love 10 to 1. Hey, you never know!

The Beautiful Cast

Onahoua Rodriguez as Shane, David Villar as Dustin

Onahoua Rodriguez as Shane, Justin Klosky as Jim

Daniella Alonso as Cali, David Villar as Dustin

David Villar as Dustin

Justin in the limo (I think we all clapped the slate at one point)

The Fabulous Miss Wendy & Onahoua in the limo



Lynn & Onahoua

Daniella

Suzie & David

Mari Marks as Sonny Vivian, the band manager

Justin as Jim - yep, we had to get him to take it off again!

Cast n Crew poolside