Ask Not What Movies Can Do For You...

If you are reading this right now, there is one question you should be asking yourself: What can I do to help Jeanie make her movie better? Luckily, the answer is simplicity itself: you can be in it!

I still need many, many extras. The more the merrier. If you want to be in this flick, contact my Production Manager, Rebecca Clear Dean, IMMEDIATELY at rebeccacleardean@comcast.net. I especially need extras for THIS SATURDAY, August 2. SO get on board already! Bring your mom! Bring your friends! Bring a book! Filmmaking is a LOT of hurry-up-and-wait. But on the flip side, it is an opportunity to be immortalized!

My brain is so fried yet so clickin' at the same time. I am extremely stressed, but even more excited. I know that my entire team - film crew, actors, and production team - are well-prepared. Five loooong days of rehearsals with the actors, hours and hours of pre-production meetings with Michelle and her crew, and Rebecca and the interns and myself as well running all over town gathering wardrobe, props, permits, artwork for the finale... I still have quite a bit to do in the next 48 hours, but we are in pretty good shape.

All the tiny details, you wouldn't believe how long the list is...yesterday I went to two of my actors' homes to finish choosing wardrobe, plus pick up artwork from one of them...the housekeeper's uniform and the judge's robe that I ordered on the internet came in yesterday... the robe is cheap-looking because it has a bright silver zipper in the front that is not at all hidden, but that is why God invented gaff tape - it can fix ANYTHING. Got in touch with my friend who is loaning me the sweetest limo you ever saw for one of the scenes, and another cherry classic car for a different scene...made some tiny tweaks and put the final, FINAL lock down on the script - no more changes, it is what it is now. Realized I STILL need a hot latino guy for the finale, so I called my friend and investor Mikey B. to dredge one up for me. Mikey is a concierge and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Manhattan, he can make ANYTHING happen! Hung up all the wardrobe from the actors who have handed theirs over to me and started sorting them. Made another run to Sam's Club, where I am maxing out my credit card $200 at a time. I have gone there almost every day for the last week, filling my car to the brim with soda, water, disposable plates and utensils, condiments, coffee, juice, snacks, etc. I have been stockpiling for weeks. OOPS, still have to order the flowers for the finale, MUST do that in the morning. And thank goodness my cousin Janet called me to volunteer to be an extra, she is making a cake for one of the scenes and I hadn't talked to her about it in months! But she's on it. Oh, I went to Utrecht art supply and bought $155 worth of black foamcore boards. Even better than duvatene (blackout cloth) for blacking out windows. Man, the money is FLYING out the door.

I really have a million things to do so I have to be going, but every day someone new tells me that they are actually reading this thing, so I don't want to leave you hanging just as we are getting to the good stuff! It is SO much work and I am exhausted fairly consistently, yet at the same time, as soon as I open my eyes in the morning I pretty much spring out of bed. Partially because there is so much to do, but mostly because I am excited to be doing it. The best part so far, though, has really been all the people who have come through for me. Every day the pot sweetens as someone throws their own personal contribution into it, whatever that may be... a location, a piece of equipment, their dad as an extra, a cake :), their time... their support. It means the world to me and keeps me going.

But right now what is keeping me going is the realization that if I don't get some laundry done tonight, I am going to have to go commando through this shoot. Peace out.

Crazy Jeanie's!!!!! Everything Must Go!!!!!!!

Many (well, 6 or 7) months ago when I was about to jump in with both feet, Consultant Sean posed some tough questions to me as I asked for his help. How far was I willing to go for this? Was I willing to max out my credit cards? Sell belongings? I said sure, but I didn't know if I meant it. It just seemed kind of... I dunno, a little crazy. I didn't want to end up living out of a van or anything just to make a movie.

But as I haven't thought about anything else for what seems to be a very long time now, selling stuff seems like no big deal, because I am not a materialistic person anyway. Clearing out my studio, I totaled up over $2000 of framing supplies alone that I had stockpiled. So I inventoried it and put it up on Craigslist. I've sold about half of it so far. Then I started digging into my art supplies. This morning I sold all my Sennelier Pastels & paper. Later this afternoon a college student is coming by to look at my drafting table. Last month I sold my entire darkroom set-up.

Now I am rummaging through closets and even starting to eye up furniture. What else can I get rid of? When ebay first started, I had a brief addiction to bidding on stuff, so this is like the opposite. It is kind of fun, but I have already learned to price things a little higher than I hope to get because the first thing Craigslist shoppers do is try to talk you down, even if it is the deal of the century.

If I can sell the table today, though, that will be about $700 for the week, and I still have more junk and supplies to sort through. That more than pays for what I had to spend at Home Depot to renovate my studio into my office (though it doesn't begin to touch what I just paid for this new computer...) It is good for my feng shui to get all this unused clutter out of here, I feel more focused already.