Lessons Learned

Note to self: Before starting next movie, have boyfriend (or at a minimum, boy toy) at my disposal for massage and other stress-relieving tasks.

I'm better today, but yesterday everything caught up with me and I was sore and exhausted from tip to toe. Last week I tackled the monumental task of ripping out my studio/frame shop down to the bare walls, painting every square inch of this 15 x 20 room including the painstakingly detailed trim (this entailed me sitting cross-legged in a deep windowsill for hours at a time), and reassembling it as my new office, or as I like to call it, my Movie Lair. It was well worth it, though. Now I have a bright, clean, huge, cheerful space to work in, and since I will be spending the greater part of the next six months in this room, it is highly beneficial that these surroundings are pleasant and comfortable. It has two 8-foot tables for my work space, a dining room table and chairs for meeting space, and of course, a Casting Couch ;)

It really did turn out great. The walls are a pale but sunny yellow, the trim a textured dark olive. That rug that I bought at Home Depot looks fantastic in here, the perfect colors. I arranged all my framed black & white movie star photos in a perfect balance around the room to watch over me while I work. These are the people from the movies I love most, Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Jimmy Stewart, and of course, my absolute hero, Mae West. She is the only one in color in the room, a gigantic poster of her on a hot pink background wearing a black wide-brimmed go-to-hell hat.

In 1935, Mae West was the highest-paid woman in America. Some might say, "Yes, but not that many woman were in the work force in 1935." Well, that just makes it all the more impressive! She wrote most of the movies she starred in, and called all the shots regarding who she worked with. She hand-picked Cary Grant for her film, "I'm No Angel," (and often claimed to have "discovered" him, which he disputed). This is one of the rare (and it was the last) films where you can see Grant portrayed as the pursuer rather than the one being pursued. West, of course, gave herself all the best lines.

Having grown up in Vaudeville (she was known as "the Baby Vamp"), of course she had no college education, but she had savvy. She used all the natural weapons at her disposal, and combining her brains and her sexuality, who could have stopped her?

I think in a way she left herself behind to get ahead, and for all her groundbreaking success, she died in a rather lonely manner. But she was the first of her kind, and I don't think she can really be criticized for trying to uphold her own image of sexual and emotional independence. In those very early days of the industry, if she took her eye off the ball for a second, she might be at the mercy of the studios, as many actors (such as Grant) often found themselves, just to make ends meet and stay working. Can you imagine Mae West being reduced to playing a dumb blonde or a boss-chasing secretary? No way.

So here she is in my Movie Lair, smiling coyly over her shoulder, on a poster that bears her name OVER the movie title in letters four-and-a-half times the size (I measured) of Cary Grant's name BELOW the title.

In other words, "Get to work, Jeanie."

Charm City, the Cast

I am very excited to announce the casting for the movie, "Charm City":

Cheryl Scungio as Gracie

Orlando Gonzalez as Tony

Kelly Coston as Melanie

Will Lurie as Andrew

Darik Bernard as Brad

Johnny Benson as Bentley

Phil Calvert as Thom

Kyle Holtgren as David

Phil Amico as Jack

Tiffany Ariany as Angela

featuring Tommy "T.T.Tucker" Davinti and the Bum Rush Band

special appearance by National Public Radio host Al Letson as himself

and local Baltimore legend and nationally recognized artist and performer Joyce J. Scott as Mrs. Talford.

I couldn't be more pleased to have rounded up this amazing ensemble. Can't wait to get out of pre-production and on the set! 37 days and counting...

(Un)timely Death

Grrr. My computer totally died on me two days ago, just when I needed to start sending out the offer letters to the actors I want to cast! I write this from my neighbor's computer. I'm off to the Apple store tomorrow to get a new Mac. I was going to do that Tuesday anyway. My PC couldn't have waited just one more week?! Did I mention Grrr?

Toes Curled

I feel like I didn't get much done today, but I did really. It is just that there is always SO much more to do.

After much thought and review of the current set up of my apartment, I decided that it makes sense to move my makeshift movie-making office from my living room into my studio. I had been trying to avoid doing so because it is going to be a lot of work, and I need to ELIMINATE items from my plate, not add to it. But, it must be done. It doesn't make sense to set up the whole she-bang in my living room and then have to move it all when it comes time to film, as this room will serve as the set for at least one scene when we start filming seven weeks from now. Seven weeks from now?!?! Mm, was that a chest pain?

My horoscope today (Gemini, which should surprise no one)said that if it uses electricity, it would be problematic for me today. That indeed was the case, as my stupid computer seized up everytime I tried to get online until after 3pm. What my horoscope also should have said was that if it walks on two legs and works at Home Depot in it would completely ignore me.

Once I make a decision I am a person of action. So, must transform studio into office, must hit Home Depot! I went in there knowing EXACTLY what I wanted and it still took me an hour and a half to get out of there. I spoke with at least eight different people who worked there, and the only one who knew what they were doing, was pleasant, AND gave a damn about helping me was the SECOND guy I dealt with in the paint department. I think they should change their motto from, "You can do it. We can help," to, "You can do it. Good luck with that."

But, I did get a nice area rug that was originally $370 for $160, so my patience paid off. Crammed that huge thing in the back of my Mustang, packed the trunk with a gallon of primer and four gallons of paint, rollers, tape, etc., and headed home.

The rug is now in the staircase, the paint is still in the trunk. It will be a few days before it can get anywhere near the walls of my studio. First I have to figure out where the hell I am going to put all my artwork, supplies, and framing.

My subconscious is sorting that out for me and I'll start tackling that Sunday. My friend Caren will help me with the painting, she loves that stuff. I want to have it done by Wednesday night. A tall order, but with Caren's help, completely do-able. She is like the Tasmanian Devil, except cuter and more productive. Put a brush in her hand and by the time you turn around, the room (and a good portion of Caren)has two layers of paint.

Sean is supposed to help me next week, to go to the Apple store and choose equipment for my editing suite. So I want a nice, fresh office to put my new toys in.

Tomorrow I am going to Eric's to continue my tutorial on building a website. I need to launch that no later than the end of the month. I am going to become technically proficient (at something other than writing really long blog entries) if it kills me!

Today I also popped off a few important emails, including confirming a day-long do with Michelle on Tuesday. We are going to go over the entire script and probably visit a few locations, start blocking things out schedule-wise.

Between yesterday and today, I watched the nearly five hours of tapes of the callbacks. Some decisions have become clearer, but there are still some choices that leave me on the fence. I have found a brilliant group of actors and it is going to be difficult to turn some of them down. Everyone of them seems so enthusiastic about the project, I wish I had parts for all of them.

After taking a second pass at breaking down the script into production days, it became clear to me that it is going to take a minimum of twelve days to shoot this thing, not the ten days I was hoping to cram it into. That alone pretty much eats up my "contingency" budget. But not to worry. Another credit card is on its way to me in the mail as I write this!

After Eric's tomorrow, I am taking my little cousins and future movie stars, Joey and Sean, to the Orioles game. I was on the phone with Eric last night and he asked when I was totally diving into pre-production. I have been plugging away at it, obviously, but this weekend I think will be my last social hurrah for the next two months. In the last two weeks I have seen a lot of friends, due to my birthday and other excuses to gather. But it is time to get down to business, hard-core. I'm standing on the edge of that wobbly plank, gripping the edge tightly with my toes while I gather the nerve to bounce higher and higher before taking the plunge. Here goes nothin'...

Successful Sunday

Though my body and brain are limp with exhaustion, my spirit is wide awake and bouncing off the walls. Had a FANTASTIC round of callbacks today, I could not be happier with the way things went. I so wish I could babble on about all this to one of my filmmaker friends, but they are all hard at work on their own projects tonight. Sean and his crew are editing their sit-com, "El Presidente," though I did get to borrow cameraman Greg Almond for the afternoon to tape the auditions for me. Eric is off in Woodstock, VA, filming more footage for his period horror film. They only have two more (planned) weekends of filming at my place. And Michelle Farrell, my DP (okay, by now you should all know what a "DP" is if you didn't before)is in Philly or Delaware or somewhere filming a commercial, I think. It is hard to keep track of her, she has so many irons in the fire at all times.

So, good thing I have this blog so I have somewhere to prattle off, if not someone (live person) to prattle off to.

Let me just say, what a bunch of pros. Everyone showed up on time and off book (lines memorized), even down to the little ones. My young cousins, Joseph (nine years old) and Sean (seven), have a scene in the movie, and before getting here they were very excited about it. Once the camera was rolling, poor Sean had an attack of stage fright and started to cry. But I've seen Sean like this before, and he is a tough little trooper and works his way through it. He gets excited about things, like when the Orioles mascot came to his birthday party. He LOVES the O's mascot, he practically bursts if we are at a baseball game and we get to joke around with the Bird. But when the Bird came to his party last year, Sean got so nervous he was about to cry. He shook it off then and had a great time, and he did the same thing today. The boys got to punch each other and wrestle around and once they did that a time or two Sean was fine. I was very proud of them both.

I was proud of everyone there today. The actors took the process very seriously, and everyone was well-prepared. Especially for the actors with smaller parts, I appreciated their patience when sometimes it would literally be more than an hour between their scenes. While for the two actresses playing the role of Gracie, the lead, they had to perform for about two hours straight, and culminate their performance with an incredibly emotionally draining scene.

But I didn't hear a single complaint all day. We started around 1pm and ended right on time, a few minutes early actually, at 6:20ish. Then we moved across the street to my neighbor's gorgeous Victorian home for a cocktail party to blow off some steam.

An added bonus was how well everyone got along. During auditions, when they weren't upstairs filming with me, they were downstairs running lines, joking around, and playing pool. Great chemistry offscreen leads to great chemistry onscreen, so seeing that made me very happy. I got to chat with everyone at the cocktail party and they all seemed to enjoy the experience. I think they appreciated the organization that went into planning the day, that the day went as scheduled and finished on time. No one was more glad than I was when we finished the last scene. It really is quite draining. But somehow, still fun.

Then, of course, I have my unsung heroes: my cameraman, Greg, who I only asked at the very last minute to do this when someone else bailed on me; he even brought his own lights! Ann Mladinov, my casting consultant, who on top of being my second pair of eyes is never above doing all the little things that make my life easier, from making copies to moving furniture. Regina Guy, my awesome Production Assistant, who was first in and last out, kept the actors corralled and happy, did everything asked of her without complaint, and picked up the slack when my other volunteer PA no-showed. The day would have been really hard to keep coordinated and flowing without her. And finally, my neighbors and dear friends, Phil & Ron, who opened their beautiful home to us, prepared the food and played bartender(s)for our group, and were simply the quintessential hosts that they always are.

The cocktail party was the perfect way to wrap up the evening, as it truly embodied what I love about this town, and especially my immediate neighborhood of Mount Vernon. Native or naturalized, we "Baltimorons" are a friendly bunch, as generous in spirit as we are overflowing with personality. And believe me, that was a HOUSEFUL of personality.

Stateside

I have returned from Jolly Olde England, and lovely though it was, I am very glad to see my dogs and my own bed once again. Wherever my travels take me, as soon as I see that Baltimore city skyline I can't help but smile, and my heart says, "I'm home."

This weekend was very hectic but much fun, extremely busy at my "day job", and on top of that, Saturday was my birthday and about a dozen friends helped me celebrate in various ways throughout the day and evening. Work was still busy today, and Eric Thornett from Piranha Pictures was filming at my hotel once again.

While I was in London I stopped by the gift shop of the Globe Theater and there I found a little something for Eric - a bottle of stage blood. As I write this, that very bottle is being used in my attic. Tonight he filmed his villainess chopping off someones head with an axe, her weapon of choice. Along with my little tiny bottle of blood, Eric is also using half a gallon of homemade blood that he whipped up himself. I think the ingredients are Karo syrup, creamer, food coloring, and chocolate sauce. My attic floor and two of his actors are now covered in it.

I'm not one to see films with a lot of blood and/or gore, but now that I am learning how it all takes place behind the scenes, it is kind of fun to see how it comes together. No blood or gore in, "Charm City," but I may have a more open mind about such things in the future.

This week is all about getting ready for the big callbacks on Sunday, June 8. The actors have been studying hard and preparing to do battle for their roles. I have never had to do that, and I must say I am glad. I think it would be completely nerve-wracking. I have been in front of the camera, which is nerve-wracking enough, but I did not have to compete against anyone else to be in that position. I give actors much credit for their sheer courage.

I have some great people coming in, and I am looking forward to it, though it will be a lot of work for everyone involved. The hard part for me is keeping an open mind right now, trying not to lean towards any one person for a role before seeing what they are capable of. An important part of the process is taping the whole thing, then afterwards giving it a few days to clear my mind and then watch the tapes, several times over, a few days apart between viewings. "The camera sees things the eye doesn't," as I have already been told countless times by my filmmaker friends, and it is true. In the first round of auditions, some people looked great to me in person, but after watching them a few times I thought differently. Maybe in person I thought they gave a strong performance, while when I watched it on film a few times, I could better see that they were a bit, "hammy." And some people that didn't "wow" me at all in the auditions, seeing them on film made me appreciate that they were very natural, which is what I am hoping to find for most of the actors I will be casting.

But in Baltimore, it is a fine line between "natural" and "hammy". Eric helped me by being one of the three people who watched the tapes with me at different times. He liked some people that I found a little too plain, either in appearance or delivery, and he thought the people that I liked were often a little hammy. I think our difference in opinion can largely be attributed to geography (though I will state for the record, in case he ever reads this, that he disagrees). Eric doesn't live in Baltimore, and he doesn't know a lot of permanent residents here. I, on the other hand, do, and I gotta say - people in Baltimore are...hammy!

I gave it a lot of thought after he and I watched the tapes and had our differences of opinion. Eric has been doing this a lot longer than I have been and I have a great deal of respect for his experience and advice. I questioned myself and wondered if I was making amateurish choices. I watched the tapes again, and compared notes with Ann Mladinov, who sat in on the live auditions with me.

Although Eric's feedback helped open my mind to give some people a chance that I might not have considered, I honestly think that most people, real live people, in Baltimore are at least a little bit over the top. Going through a list of friends in my head, particularly the ones that the characters in this film are loosely based on, check, check, check, they are all, "a bit hammy." And in many cases, the "bit" is superfluous.

And THAT is why I love this town.

In the thick of it

Where does the time go? Whizzing by my head, for the most part. But, lots of progress. It is all coming together.

My Director of Photography, Michelle Farrell, is signed on and already has most of her crew assembled. She is amazing, I am SO happy to be working with her. On the technical side, renting her equipment gives me access to almost every piece of gear you can think of, dollies, steadicam, you name it...and we are going to be shooting in high definition on an HVX, which I am very excited about. I recently went to a production meeting with my script consultant, Sean, to see the latest on his own production he is working on. Some of their footage was in HD on the HVX, some was not, shot on a DVX. What a difference! I was sold.

Michelle knows her stuff, is so easy to work with, and keeps me laughing. I can't wait to actually get on set. Our shooting schedule is locked down, July 31 through August 12.

This week I'm taking another pass at the script. I HAVE to knock it down to 90 pages. Doing the casting calls helped me to recognize the fat I can trim. Trying to get the gist of a scene into a one-page side will do that. This week I sent out longer sides to the actors that are coming in for callbacks on June 8. I hadn't looked at the script for awhile, and I was afraid that if I trimmed the fat, I would be cutting out all the funny parts. But it actually makes it funnier, and a lot tighter.

I am looking forward to the callback on June 8. I have some very talented actors coming in, and I will have some tough decisions to make. Proper casting is crucial to the film. There are no car chases, gunfights, or sex scenes to distract the viewer from mediocre acting. This is a character and dialogue driven film, the actors, and the script, have to carry it.

I'm having lunch Thursday with my other investor. He sent me a tantalizing email a few days ago to entice me to meet him in D.C. - a photo of the check he has for me, for $20K.

Along with Mikey's $10K already in the bank, there is my production budget. Pre- and post- are out of my pocket (and plastic), and will probably total about $20K when all is said and done.

Depending who is reading this, you probably either think that $50K is a boatload of money, OR you're laughing right now. It goes fast, that's for sure. But I have enough to do what I want to do, the way I want to do it. I have some fantastic people around me like Michelle, Sean, and others who are going above and beyond to help me make a quality product. And I keep meeting more of them.

Another filmmaker friend, though I've only known him since January, Is Eric Thornett, of Piranha Pictures. Currently he is filming his latest, a period horror film, at the mansion that I manage. I have seen a good deal of the footage, and it looks AMAZING. This is Eric's fourth feature-length, and I am happy to have him and his crew around, even if it means that when I open my apartment door there may or may not be a headless corpse in a tuxedo sitting by the elevator. I absorb a lot from watching him work and just BS-ing with him and his production team. They are a very fun bunch, and they work very hard. It brings it home to me how important it is to choose the right people to become a true team.

Well, have to get ready to meet an actor that I found outside of the casting call, someone I saw in one of the films Michelle has shot in the past. I average two meetings a day for the rest of the week, plus rewriting the script, and attending the Stonehenge auditions on Sunday. Monday I am off to London for 10 days, to chaperone the theater students from the Baltimore School for the Arts exchqnge program with my friend Matthew's school in the UK, Songtime Theatre Arts. So you won't be hearing from me for a couple weeks, but stay tuned!