#16 RESOLUTE.

As the late, great Michael Jackson said, “This is it.” I believe when Michael said, “this,” he was in fact talking about 2011 and when he said, “it,” he meant GO TIME.

You heard it here first: 2011 is go time.

According to my friends’ status updates on and around New Year’s Eve, 2010 will not be missed.  Granted, 2010 did not greet me with job offers galore or send me diving into gold coins like Scrooge McDuck but personally, I had a pretty great year watching my baby grow into a toddler,

moving to a new part of the city, hopping to some great film festivals… To boot, just before the end of this complicated year, Jennifer Westin called and told me some of the nicest news a filmmaker could hear. Apparently, I’ve been named one of the Top Ten American Indie Filmmakers to Watch by the prestigious Raindance Film Festival! So, happy 2010!

Alright, so in honor of being named one of the Top Ten American Indie Filmmakers to Watch (Beware, I’m going to use that phrase as often as possible… at drinks meetings, baby birthday parties: “Hi, this is Luna and I’m one of the Top Ten American Indie Filmmakers to Watch!”) I’ve decided to kick this wicked cool year off with my own Top Ten list.

Here are…

TARA’S TOP TEN RESOLUTIONS TO BECOMING 
A BIGGER AND BETTER FILMMAKER IN 2011 
(ALSO, WHAT A LONG A TITLE THIS IS)

10) Get another film in the can, namely The Cynics, which has yet to be written. Watch out though – it’s top of the list this month… even though it’s number 10.

T. Summers in
The Lake Effect

9) Collaborate with all the talented artists around me. I’m coming for you, friends. By the way, speaking of ridiculously talented people I’m lucky to know – The Lake Effect’s very own Tara Summers is going to be on ABC’s Private Practice this Thursday, January 6th at 10 pm! Watch and be amazed. Tara is gorgeous and talented and is one of the reasons that THE LAKE EFFECT turned out to be so lovely.

8) Watch more films by amazing directors. I’m going to pick one director per month, watch four of their films, do some research on their process at the nearby Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and then blog about it.This month, I’m thinking James Brooks because he’s a writer/director, he’s epic, he’s funny, and he’s someone who does dramedy right (eg: Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good As It Gets) and his new flick HOW DO YOU KNOW is still in theaters.

7) Create for the web. I’m totally eager to explore the web as a new format for storytelling. If anyone needs one of the Top Ten American Indie Filmmakers to Watch to help them write or direct some webisodes, you can find me here.

Chase Maser plays the guitar
as "Jace" in The Lake Effect

6) Start playing the guitar again. As a writer, it’s good to have a habit (er, hobby…) that clears your head and doesn’t involve caffeine, drugs, and/or drinking. I had been learning to play guitar when I got pregnant and started work on The Lake Effect… Despite the fact that there are lots of guitars in the film, a year and a half later, my poor Yamaha acoustic is gathering dust. But this year, my baby’s demands for me to, “Strum! Strum!” will be answered.

5) Read more. I mean news, reviews, articles, etc. That’s where my best inspiration has come.That and from my crazy family and friends, which brings me to…

4) Spend more time with my crazy family and friends (and convince them that their lives should be fair game for me to write about).

3) Read the trades (or at least Deadline Hollywood) more. Once a week. Okay once a month… at least.

2) Get a steady writing gig! Seriously – this little writer needs to support her indie film habit which is why when I’m not scribbling this blog, I am busy scribbling lots of words on pages intended for the television. Hopefully, I will land a sweet gig on a TV writing staff and you will be able to see my name on the TV screen sometime this year, which brings me to…

1) Get The Lake Effect to a screen near you. Be it movie, TV, or laptop. You wanna see this movie? In 2011, you will!

#14 Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes

Luna teeny tiny baby booties need replacin'.
It's time to make some moolah.

So, as I may have mentioned, The Lake Effect is looking for a sales agent. In our hot pursuit, I had to get a screener to a company in Santa Monica on Friday.  With no babysitter and no runner, I loaded Luna up and hit the road.  

I buzzed the office from the street and let Luna press the button for the elevator.  I prepared myself for the confused looks from the people working the front desk.  Babies and work places just don’t go together, it seems. I didn't anticipate that the front office of this company would have glass walls, so that when I walked in with Luna on my hip, we had a nice little audience.  

Now, the term “deer in headlights,” is overused... but I would argue it's for good reason – we shot THE LAKE EFFECT in Michigan, where I witnessed a deer in headlights for the first time and they really do just stand there, staring at your approaching headlights with this wide eyed gaze... anyway, in the spirit of Michigan I think it’s appropriate to use the overused metaphor here.   The office workers just gaped at us like deer in headlights.  (A side note to this side note, when I arrived in South Haven after a three hour car ride from Detroit, I commented on the high number of dead deer on the highway.  Our intern Liz, smiled and said, “Oh, those are our welcome signs.”  How I miss our smart-mouthed Michigan interns.  Especially when I have to be my own runner.)  

Right, so I walk into the office with Luna on my hip and the whole office just stops and stares at us like (all together now) deer in headlights. 

I smile and hand the manila envelope over to the guy at the front desk.  “Hi, I have a drop off for Joe Sales Agent.”

“Thanks.”

I wonder if they think I'm a runner and doing some sort of take the kid to work day.  I check in with Luna, who is returning the office workers’ wide eyed stares. “Say buh-bye.”

“Bah-bye.”

And then the stunned deers’ faces thaw out into awed smiles.  They are still cooing, give cutesy waves as we leave.  

I let Luna walk down the hallway holding my finger and there's just something about how it's all working out that makes me feel so peaceful.  Like whatever this sales agent says or whatever happens with the movie is exactly what should happen.  

After promising Luna that she can press the elevator button, I say, “You know what, Luna?  This right here is one of my very best moments ever.”  

#13 Write the Trailer

So after a fun family-filled holiday weekend, I am always raring to get back to work and get pages out.  Of course, there are lots of steps that need to happen before I get pages out – brainstorming, character development, treatments… I thought I would share one of my favorite writing exercises with you all. 

Basically, I write the trailer for the movie I haven’t yet completed the script for.  For me, as a director/writer - I dream visually, so it helps to do this before I’ve finished all my scene breakdowns and character development.   If I can create poignant glimpses into the story for a two minute teaser, it helps me stay on point through the rest of the work.   It helps me visualize what Act Two is all about.  It’s also a great reminder that (duh) the film has to be compelling: dynamic in the individual moments as well as in the big picture. 

I actually pulled out the trailer script to THE LAKE EFFECT when we were cutting the trailer after the movie was finished to remind myself what I originally felt were the trailer-worthy moments in the film – what would bring people into a theatre?

Anyway, here’s a rough trailer script for the CYNICS.  Hope you enjoy it!  

BLOG #8 “Hurry Up and Wait”

Okay, so this is the portion of our program where we wait.   Just like in production where we hustle through rehearsal and then wait for the lighting crew to get the set pretty, or in post where we hustle through the edit to wait for the clip to render (I hate that spinning beachball soooo much)…

We have hustled to get the movie done and into the hands of some sales agents… and now we wait to hear back and see if we can marry up with the right company to sell this film. 

So what’s a filmmaker to do in these oh-so empty moments, when the film is out of your hands?   I spend time with my family and friends, I catch up on the news, I fill out my absentee voter form (VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!) and I watch movies and tv shows that I’ve neglected…  and then I come into my messy office and I look up at my white board – which is covered with a slate of projects.  If those projects are ever going to get as far as The Lake Effect has, I’ve got to get a move on.

Here’s the breakdown:

THE CYNICS:

I’m excited to say that Jennifer Westin and I have had so much fun working on TLE together that we’re teaming up on a second project, (which, really, I should be writing instead of blogging about). It’s still in treatment form but it’s shaping up to be a fun and funny ensemble comedy about love and friendship.  It’s loosely based on my childhood friends, actually – a group of complete assholes, whom I love dearly.

STRONG ISLAND:

This one’s a TV pilot that I’m penning with my very dear friend and amazing comedy writer Cindy McCreery.   Seriously, that girl funny.  Can’t tell you much about that one yet except that it’s set on the south shore of Long Island where I grew up and it’s cast of characters include some colorful Italian Americans that may be inspired by my family.   (Are we seeing a pattern here of me raping my real life for content?  Beware ye close to me, lest you get immortalized…)

PRUDE:

Prude is actually a script of Cindy’s that she’s considering letting me direct.  It’s a very funny take on high school sexuality – sort of like a female American Pie.  Genius.

LOVE IS REAL, THE MOVIE…:

This one’s simmering on the back burners.  It’s about a documentarian documenting her dysfunctional love life.   I have toyed with the idea of doing this as a cumulative webisode series, playing the documentarian and shooting half the movie on my webcam.   Maybe the back burner is the wrong place for this one…

TITS:

Ah, Tits.  This is an oldie but a goodie.  It’s a dramedy about a typical teenage girl struggling to grow up in a near-perfect suburban world when she realizes that only one of her boobs is growing.  This film has had actors and financing come and go – it only needs like a half a million dollars and a name actor to be the best thing ever.  

And last but not least… UNTITLED TV SPEC

I’m working on a Modern Family (I know, I know, “Everyone’s doing it.”)  But I straight up love that show.   I’m convinced that the creators snuck into our house and took notes on my husband while crafting the character of Phil.   Anyway, finding a home on a TV staff would be very cool.  There’s so much amazing creative work going on in TV right now, it’s a great place to work on character driven stuff, and you know that what you’re writing will actually be seen!  What more can you ask for? Plus, baby needs a new pair of shoes and I hear TV jobs come with these things called paychecks. 

  

So what’s the trick to maintaining sanity while waiting to hear back from that agent/ executive/ sales company…? Keep on keeping on. Attack that to do list with your whole heart. Dive into that new project head first. Also, it doesn’t hurt to listen to McHammer radio on Pandora.  Nothing inspires me to “move it move it” like early nineties hip hop.  

BLOG #7: Filmmaking and Sex… a metaphor.

Alright, it’s drizzling in LA.  It’s been overcast for an hour and (along with the rest of the city) my seasonal-affective-disorder is kicking in. 

In my cynical state, I thought I would share a little metaphor that I was discussing with some filmmakers at an artists’ club in SoHo in the wee hours. 

What is the value of niche/art film if no one ever sees it?  If you’re making obscure little indie films that no one ever sees but which you really enjoy, are you really just doing it for your own pleasure?  And isn’t that kind of like masturbation? Moreover, if art film is masturbation, then that would make their opposite, studio tent pole event movies… prostitution?  

Picasso's Les Mademoiselles d' Avignon

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not placing judgement on what kind of films people choose to work on.   I have friends who write tent poles and friends who make movies for an audience of one… and I’m mighty proud of all of them actually.  Hell, I’m proud of anyone who gets any sort of movie made.  Lord knows it ain’t easy.

I’m just trying to figure out what the balance is, if indeed there is a balance.  Maybe there’s a different answer for everyone.  Film is art, film is commerce.  There is a large gray area between those extremes and I think that they have a lot to learn from each other.  

The studios spend lots of time and market research developing films in the hopes of  reaching as large an audience as possible.  Films for everyone - it sounds like the perfect marriage between communism and capitalism – ideally hit all four quadrants of viewers: men and women, young and old.  I would argue that these films are less about individual expression and more about their ability to please, their broad appeal.  Unless of course they are made by Pixar.  Talk about balance.  They’ve managed to support artistic vision and reach the masses.  Bravo, Pixar.

Alright, so that’s the model of successful balance on the top tier – what about for us indie folk? How do you create film that pushes the limits and is a true creative expression of your yearning little artistic soul and ensure that lots of people are going to want to sit in the seats munching popcorn for two hours of it? We can’t hire Tom Hanks (or let’s face it, even get a read from his agent’s assistant).  As an independent filmmaker, how do you balance?

Finding the balance as an indie filmmaker -- using cinema as a tool for artistic expression while also getting people to actually SEE the films that I am pouring my heart and soul into… that’s the goal.  So, maybe there is compromise on the road to independent distribution.  What that is, I have no idea.  I get the sense that I’m opening a can of worms here… maybe I’m just trying to incite someone to comment on this blog!!!!  I guess really, I’m hoping that  somewhere in the large gray area between masturbation and prostitution is… making love.   

Aw. 

Thoughts? 

BLOG #6 RAIN(DANCE) OR SHINE - Raindance Film Fest Wrap Up!

It is an understatement to say that Raindance is a really cool festival.  Stridently independent, they eschew politics to program great work, whether or not it has names or glory attached.  Everything I saw was unique, entertaining, and engaging.

Raindance,
where the magic happens.

God, I love going to the movies.   The dark theatre, the cushy seats, the escapism found halfway through a bucket of popcorn.  I know we’re all moving toward watching cinema on our Iphones (not that I’m knocking my Iphone – I heart my Iphone) but really, an image the size of a playing card cannot compare to the Calgon-take-me-away experience of 4k projection, stadium seating and surround sound.  But I digress… what I want to say is that watching The Lake Effect projected in all it’s glory in a first class theatre… ruled.

Sandwiched between Resident Evil and
The Other Guys.  Not bad company. 

All my fears (no audience, technically difficulties, tomato throwing) were allayed.   There was indeed, a crowd. The lobby was packed when we arrived twenty minutes before our screening and the 200 seat theatre felt full enough – could’ve been the opening weekend of anything (except maybe Harry Potter… let’s be real).  Jennifer and I hid in the back row as the lights went down and the movie came up… and then (thank god) the audience laughed, they gasped, they wiped tears.  They got it.  


Jennifer said that she spent the entire movie watching the audience but I somehow managed to forget to worry about what they might be thinking and just experience the film.   It was the first time I’d seen it look and sound how it was supposed to and it was beautiful.   Not just the technical stuff but the film.  I really felt that the film itself was beautiful.  After so much work and some uncertainty about what I’ve invested two years of my life in, this night, this festival gave me a chance to fall back in love with my film.   The whole point is to reach people, right?  To affect an audience, to share human experience.  This night was just that. 

Winners of the London Mums
TLE ticket giveaway!

Okay, so here’s the thing, I’m home now – back in LA.   I’m still riding the high of that night, the excitement, the generous compliments from the crowd – the fact that several older British gentlemen were in tears… but I’m not sure what’s next.  I know a lot of people stateside are anxious to finally see what this is all about.  All four of you reading this are thinking “I want to see what made the older British gentlemen cry!”  We don’t have any festivals or screenings lined up quite yet but believe me we’re working on it.  I’m committed to carving out a real strong life for this film even if indie film is collectively on the operating table. Which is to say, if you have the inclination to see The Lake Effect, you will be able to see The Lake Effect.

At the very least, it will be Jennifer and I on the road in a beat up van, screening the film for our fans across the country.  Film tour, anyone?  

Blog #5 Nerves and Things

Tonight's the big night!  

Tonight, we project our nicest HDCam copy of The Lake Effect to the British public… I’m suddenly struck with the few images I’ve seen of British Parliament (Verbal assaults from a flurry of white wigs, or is it whigs?) American indies have a tough time here, so I hear. 

I'm a bit... nervous.  Maybe it’s the bustling metropolis that’s right outside the theatre doors.  Or maybe it’s because the line-up at Raindance has been so impressive or because the programmers and staff are so incredibly cool...  

I shouldn’t be nervous.  We have at least a dozen friends coming to cheer us on (thank you thank you thank you), not to mention an entire fan club for our British actress Tara Summers (who does a flawless American accent as Natalie, btw).  We’re having a pre-party and an after party and it’s going to be all good.  Right?

To keep my mind off of it, let’s change the subject.  Let’s talk about…

Things you might not know about what it’s like to be a filmmaker on the indie festival circuit:

• You get very close to your producer.  For example, Jenn and I are sharing a double bed in a flat in Pimlico. 
• You try to stay under budget.  For breakfast this morning, Jenn and I ate oatmeal packets that I brought from the hotel we stayed at in Colorado.  No joke. 
• You walk a lot.  Cobblestone streets plus boots with heels = sore calves.
• You become a pack mule.  Laptop, umbrella, big posters, small posters, postcards, water, emergency granola bar (chalk that up to the mom in me). 
• You stay up very late.  Our first day in, Jenn and I arrived at 6 AM.  20 hours later, with the Spice Girls pumping at the very divey, very awesome Phoenix Club in Soho, we called it a night.
• You, for a short while, are reminded that you are an artist, that you have a community, and that what you are doing is totally, totally worth it. 

(An addendum:  If you haven’t seen it yet, read the “Mompreneur” article that the popular British parenting site London Mums wrote about me! http://www.londonmums.org.uk/busmums/busmums.html  A big thanks to Monica Costa!)

#4 A FILM IS BORN

Cooler than a laser light show... 

Ah, sweet recovery from a weekend of high altitude celebration in Boulder!  What a great town and a cool venue to have our very first public screening in…  If you’ve never had your movie projected in a planetarium, I highly recommend it.

I want to give a big thank you to those of you who rallied to come to our 9:30 pm screening on a Sunday night.  Especially those of you who laughed and cried and whooped and hollered.  The highlights of the weekend included: Paul Larson’s beautiful set at our awesome pre-screening party, Luna clapping happily for all the winners at the awards dinner, and a comment during the Q and A by a mid-wife in the audience who remarked how well she thought the way the birth was represented…  Whew – if someone who has witnessed hundreds of births thinks I got it right, I’m happy.

Hello, Apollo Cinema.

So I’ve got three HOT days in LA to prep before Jennifer and I jet off to London for Raindance. Thank goodness we have a lot of local friends who are drumming up support as well as British Moms (er, Mums) who are championing TLE on their blogs/sites (check out: Babes About Town, London Mums) Now that I think about it, we should really host a party out there…

In between TLE work I am spending quality time with the wee one and prepping a TV movie pitch for ABC Family for Thursday… which is exercising totally different muscles (at least I’m exercising something.  I haven’t been to the gym since July - oye).  

Our little Superhero.

Speaking of ABC – our lovely lead actress, Kay Panabaker’s AWESOME new show NO ORDINARY FAMILY premieres TONIGHT on ABC at 8/7central!  I’ve seen the pilot and I assure you that this is a show worth watching – it’s great and Kay is great in it.  That girl’s gonna be a big star - our little TLE family couldn’t be prouder. 

#3 THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

I should be on pins and needles, counting down the days until our premiere at Moondance (plug: Sunday the 26^th at 9:30 pm – click here for details).  Maybe it hasn’t hit me yet.  Or maybe I’m just too busy!   Yesterday, I was chasing after a very mobile one-year old who was running around the house wielding our newly printed postcards cooing, “Ross! Ross!”

Luna is a big fan of

actor Ross Partridge.

I am actually scribbling all this furiously before naptime ends - the MacGruber-like pressure is on… the seconds ticking down… Luna will wake in 4-3-2… hand me the chewing gum!!!

The week before a fest is like mini-pre-production.  We’re hustling to fill a 250 seat planetarium and to get some reviewers to show up (C’mon reviewers, if you’re reading this: SHOW UP!).  We’ve launched TLE’s website and posted our trailer (hopefully if you’re reading this, you’ve seen it, liked it, and shared it!). We’ve teamed up with Real Baby, a store in Denver and Boulder to do a ticket giveaway.  We’ve emailed newspapers, radio stations, and bloggers and we’re starting to line up interviews… Yesterday, Jennifer unveiled our suh-weet posters – I’m planning on wallpapering my house with all 500 of them (yes, that’s right.  We printed 500 posters– we’re nothing if not ambitious.  PS: anyone wanna buy a poster?).

Truth be told, this is the easy part – festivals are (at their best) celebrations of cinema.  I’m excited to meet the other filmmakers and see their films (especially the controversial POPE JOAN with John Goodman).   We have lots of cast and crew flying out for the screening and the post-awards-ceremony-pre-screening par-te at the Boulder Draft House!  The film’s very talented composer Paul Larson of THE MINOR CANON, will be playing a set of songs from the film and our trailer will be screening on 8 flat screen TVs around the bar.  We’ll have Lake Effect drink specials, CDs of the score and copies of our poster for sale… like I said, festivals are celebrations!  And of course, there’s the screening and the Q & A…

I’m not always a fan of watching my work with an audience – it’s like hearing your own voice recorded – you’re never sure it quite sounds like you.   And then you have to get up and talk about your work – which is a bit redundant, like an addendum to the film.  I’d rather sit behind a two-way mirror and eavesdrop as the audience talks amongst themselves…  that’s assuming that there is, in fact, an audience and that they like it. 

Ah, there they are… the pins and needles... and uhp - there's the baby calling.  

blog #1: OMG, I have a Mom Blog.

It’s currently 2:20 am on Labor Day and I am sitting on the floor of a home office in the San Fernando valley while a friend/colleague tries to figure out why Final Cut/Motion isn’t making our credit roll nice and clean and professional.   The credit roll is one of those things that seems so easy – it’s the earliest form of animation on a movie  - they used to roll a sheet of paper by the camera… I’m tempted to try that now.  Picture me, with a sharpie, a paper towel roll, and my iphone, making movie magic in the kitchen.  If this doesn’t work by 4 am… it’s happening.

This has been a strange pattern on this movie – the easy things have turned into behemoth and troublesome tasks while the hard things have often slipped right into place, eg.: convincing my producer that she should take this journey with me, getting an amazing cast, shooting without going into labor.  I’ll admit that at times I’ve been extraordinarily frustrated by our lack of money and resources on this shoestring budget.  It’s not easy to work so hard for so long without a pay-off but mostly I’ve been stoked that we managed to make this movie.  Totally stoked and enjoying the entire crazy process – even when our movie was a homeless little hard drive going from computer to computer, even when I spent the first four hours of my first mother’s day working on our sound mix, even when we had to re-color time the movie three times.   Thank god Jenn (the producer extraordinaire on the film) is so positive… and such a powerhouse.  She moves mountains (or gets someone to do it for her) giggling the whole time, “It wouldn’t be The Lake Effect if it was easy!!”

Poster by: Nick Tamburri

As you may or may not know (I’m still wondering if only my mom – or even my mom - will read this fine blog I’m creating) I was eight months pregnant when we shot The Lake Effect.  The entire impetus for shooting this film came because I was pregnant, I was assessing my life, I was scared that I had nothing to show for the ten years I had angled to be a director, nothing to show my daughter when she came… and I got an email from a producer looking for a project.  A lot of people thought I was crazy to take on such an immense project while pregnant but I did it for her, for my daughter – to show her what was possible, to prove that hard work pays off, to let her know what she’s made of.  

We literally planned our production in reverse from my due date, setting our wrap day just days before the last day I would be allowed to fly.   It was down to the wire -- My water broke 12 hours after we wrapped a pick-up shoot in Hollywood...

7-26-09

7-29-09

  

That was 13 months ago.  Nothing makes time fly like having a baby or shooting a film.  Honestly, making a movie and having a baby are a lot alike: It’s a lot of waiting, a lot of pushing, and once you get it out in the world, you just hope that people are nice to it.