"Take Care of the Luxuries...

...and the necessities will take care of themselves." This is probably my favorite quote of Dorothy Parker. Not only because it sort of gives me license to do whatever I want, but also because it is largely true.

Making a movie, despite it often being rather grueling work, is a luxury when it comes down to it. So many people out there want to do exactly that. Not that many get to.

With the emotional, financial, and physical assistance of a LOT of people, I got to do that. I put together the luxury, the screenplay, and one by one the necessities took (and are taking) care of themselves. Every time it seemed that I had reached the end of my resources, something or someone new popped up to help me solve the problem. Someone letting me use a location, someone sending me a check, someone tutoring me on an aspect of filmmaking I knew nothing about, whatever. And now that I am about to embark on the fine-tuning of the movie, this remains true.

As I have said here many times, "Smalltimore," is my love letter to Baltimore, and especially to the creative community that thrives here. I crammed over a dozen Baltimore artists' works into the film itself - paintings, sculptures, photos, even three different jewelry makers. And now it is time to really work on the soundtrack, which will be all original music by Baltimore musicians.

There were some people I had in mind from the very beginning who are already on board, such as T.T.Tucker & the Bum Rush Band, and Jennifer Swartout. There are a couple other local favorites whose music I used for the rough cut, but I haven't approached them yet about the real deal. I'll start that in January. When I secured Joyce J. Scott in the role of Mrs. Talford, I learned then that she had a CD of her own, and some of that music works PERFECTLY, so I am super-excited about that. You can see some of Joyce's paintings in the movie also, so she is truly the triple-threat of "Smalltimore."

There is another Baltimore singer/songwriter who I had in mind from the beginning, to be involved on the soundtrack. Her name is Niki Lee (www.nikilee.com). I had read about her in the City Paper a few years ago. She has a very interesting story, about how she secured the musical rights to Dorothy Parker's poetry from the NAACP for, I think, $600. An exemplary case of, "ya never know until you ask."

I got to see Niki perform those songs a couple summers ago at a show she had at the Creative Alliance. I didn't get to meet her at the time, but I did buy her CD, "Here Lies Dorothy Parker".

A couple weeks ago I started digging around online and found her website. I gathered from her blog that she had moved to California, and I thought, hmm, maybe she's blown up and she won't want to be involved, or she'll want a bunch of money that I don't have. I roamed around on her site and she has another CD out, titled, "Here". A little blurb about the CD says you can hear about her life in Baltimore in these songs, like the guy who lived in her driveway. I thought that was funny, and so Baltimore, and I looked at the title of the song, which bears his name. And this, being Smalltimore... I know the guy.

I figured that was a pretty good icebreaker, so I took a chance and wrote to Niki, sent her the link to the new trailer, and a few lines about the project and how I'd love to use some of her stuff, and that we have this mutual friend. She very graciously picked up the phone and called me from California last night. We had a good chat and she is psyched for me, and definitely wants in on it! I am so happy about this, and it is just the impetus I needed to get me to be EXCITED about going back to editing after New Year's. There are only a few scenes in the rough cut that have the permanent music laid in, and those scenes are so much more powerful because of it. I can't WAIT to get back to the drawing board!

New Friends & Old Clothes

Good gracious, I don't know where to start, life has been such a blur the last few days. I don't know why this continues to surprise me. Saturday I was an extra (though a prominent one!) in Eric's film, but I don't want to say too much about that as I think he has personally been keeping a lot of it under wraps. I'll just say it was a very looooooooooooong day, but the footage is going to look incredible, I can't WAIT to see it! I hope to get a sneak peek this weekend.

Sunday was great. Started off by interviewing a young man named Corey Smith for my production team. A very sharp dresser with a thousand-watt smile, I am quite pleased to tell you that Corey is on board as our main wardrobe person, among other hats he will be wearing. He jumped right in and tagged along with me all day while I met up with three of my actors to work out their wardrobes. Beteween Killer Trash and the thrift store on Fort Avenue, by the end of the day, they were pretty well done.

The night before that, Saturday, I sent one of those actors, Phil Calvert, on a mission to research his role of Thom, which mainly entailed boozing it up in Dundalk while T.T.Tucker & the Bum Rush Band played at a bar there. Phil is dedicated to his work.

While the role of Thom is not a lead, Phil has a great task ahead of him, but all kidding aside, he is taking it quite seriously. The role of Thom, as I have mentioned here before, is based on my friend Thom who passed away. Tucker was Thom's best friend and bandmate, so Phil has been spending time with Tucker and the guys, and learning their songs, and meeting a lot of people who knew Thom. In many ways it is wonderful to talk about Thom and have people excited about helping Phil to get to know a man he is playing but will never meet. It is incredibly important to me to do him justice, and the film is dedicated to him. But it is harder for me than I thought it was going to be, and I find myself shedding a few tears almost every day when I talk about him or write about him, like I am right now.

But I am very happy the way things are working out, how everyone is so into it and seem to be becoming friends in real life as well as onscreen. Cheryl Scungio, who is playing the lead (Gracie), has been spending a lot of time with Kelly Coston, who is playing Gracie's best friend Mel. They are hysterical together and their dynamic in real life is going to lend itself to the camera perfectly. Cheryl, Kelly, Phil, Corey and I had a blast shopping together all afternoon, laughed the whole time. I think my favorite part was making Phil try on the leather pants with flames up the sides of them at Killer Trash. But my favorite outfit of the day was a bright blue halter-top jumpsuit that Kelly absolutely ROCKED. When I saw it on the rack, my comment was, "That is so Donna Summer." It looks amazing on her, and she was so happy that I gave her the thumbs up on it that she literally skipped back to the changing area.

I got a boatload accomplished on Monday and today also, but more on that later. I have to complete the production schedule before we start our first day of rehearsals tomorrow at 2:00pm, so, signing off!

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...