Film as Prayer

I am humbled by the very-erudite blogs of other working writers I have discovered lately.

Witness the incredible and inspiring Barbara Nicolosi, founder of my Writing School, Act One, whom I adore and always wish to emulate:

http://www.barbaranicolosi.com/" title="http://www.barbaranicolosi.com/" target="_blank"http://www.barbaranicolosi.co...

And witness the amazing Sean Gaffney, (a fellow Act One grad) who we all want to be when we grow up:

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/sc...

He so rocks.

And Crystallin, my dear compatriot in screenwriting:

http://crystallin.tblog.com/" title="http://crystallin.tblog.com/" target="_blank"http://crystallin.tblog.com/

Also my friend Jeff Berryman (another Act One grad) has a groovin' site:

http://www.jberryman.com/" title="http://www.jberryman.com/" target="_blank"http://www.jberryman.com/


I guess my problem is that I keep making movies, which distracts me from writing them . . .

Back to it. Off to L.A. for the Festival tomorrow. . . for much more humbling I am sure.

"Dancing with You" got into Film Festival Number Five! In Toronto (no, not THE Toronto Fest., a second-tier one, but still cool!). It is called "Reelheart", and it is June 23-26.

So, I am off to L.A. for Number Three, La Femme Film Fest., the day after tomorrow, Saturday May 28-9, then the Forest Grove one Sat. June 11, then Reelheart.

Five is better than none, even though they aren't the Big Ones . . .

I know that this is off-topic, but our beautiful foal, a colt named Solomon, was born Tuesday May 24 at 2 a.m., and I was there! I got to help him wobble around, and bond, and he fell asleep in my lap . . . total joy. A unicorn moment. Pictures on my site (link to the left).

Tired after driving 4 hours to Canada and back for Solomon's birth, but oh was it ever worth it!!!!!

Our new kitten Titania is also prospering. She and Theo are bonding. And she will be joined by Pasha, an adopted one, on Monday.

So, two kids, two horses, two cats, five festivals. Life is good! Now, if I could just get one of these scripts all ready . . .

Still haven't heard from the online short contest . . . hoping.

Sorry I haven't written for so long. Tomorrow is the final shooting day on "The Gamers: Dorkness Rising", and I am so very grateful to have had even a small part in its success. Today was the last day for extras, so I am officially wrapped as Extras Wrangler. Phew.

While I was not invited to be a full part of the team (I think because they just forgot to communicate with me before Shoot Number Two), I did have three great weekends with them toward the end. Bless them, bless them, I adore every one of them.

Weekend One: Peasants at the Castle. Big fun with Robert, Crystal, A-M, Stewart, and Tallis (until Tallis had to go to the E.R. for a small kinfe wound in his knee, ahem).

Weekend Two: A glorious two days of rainy, muddy, filmmaking at the New Tacoma Cemetery. Tallis played "Drazuul", a Death Demon, and I played one of his minions, a zombie. It was tremendous fun (except for the lying in the mud puddle part, and even that had its silly moments). Tallis had eight lines, and lots of wild action, over 12 pages. He looked incredibly cool in his horns and red contacts. Matt Vancil, may his name be forever praised, cast Tallis on Wednesday, he learned his lines by Thursday night, and he was perfect by the Saturday shoot. What an actor. Mom was so proud!

Weekend Three: The court scene, in which the king sends the heroes off on quests, and in which many extras mill about in colorful medieval clothes (mostly provided by Bronwen; mine were too plain). Robert was resplendent in full armor, glowing up by the throne. At one point, after Matt V. had said "We only see the extras up through Tallis in this shot", Chris the DP said "Wait . . . that's TALLIS??" Nobody recognized him out of his Death Demon makeup.

We had a sweet dinner out with Matt and Jenn and Kevan, and then went to the Holy Grail for Tallis, "The Game Matrix".

A terrific ride, all along. I loved it.

I am very grateful to God for the chance to work on two features in six months.

And I got my short in on time to the online contest, thanks to Tamia's hard work.

And I turned a new draft of my Script One in this morning.

A busy time.

Now back to Script Four.

Terry opened "Arthur: the Hunt" last night at Taproot. And Tallis' next project is Nate's little movie.

And then, I hope, we rest.

(Pictures of our fun weekends on "Gamers: Dorkness . . ." are on my website).

JOY!

Long time no write! VERY busy!

I went to my second film festival with the short, right before Easter, the San Fernando Valley Film Festival. It was fun and exhausting, and film got some good comments. Though the rejections keep pouring in (AGH, over twenty now!), I have been accepted to two more, and one has offered a potential representation deal . . . very cool.

I am still working on "The Gamers: Dorkness Rising", which is fun and frustrating. Communication between departments is not brilliant. I gather that the film may be good. But not being at the center of things, as I was on the last shoot, I wouldn't know.

I am busily trying to gather extras for a zombie shoot next weekend . . .

Also, I am working on a short documentary called "Women Who Pray". Shot it in two days last week, will edit beginning tomorrow with wonderful Tamia. Have to get it done very soon, all prayers and good wishes happily accepted.

Scripts need work, and they will be gotten to, after the edit . . .

And then there's my other doc . . .

More than enough film work to go around.

Wheee!