shoot details
Interview with Matthew Bowers.
The enormously charming Matthew Bowers interviewed Alexis, Serena and me for his podcast, Wrong Opinions About Movies.
We talk about what it’s like to make the film, how we like working with Seed & Spark for fundraising, what got us into filmmaking, and what it means to us to work together. We’re so grateful to Matthew for taking the time. If you’ve never heard me chatter excitedly, this is for sure your chance.
-bodine
Casting Amber.
The central character in the film, Kim Getty, has a roommate named Amber Reynolds. Amber is a beautiful late 20s blonde who is funny and smart and happens to be living with someone who is sort of insane to have to live with. Kim is doing her best, but she would be a trial as a roommate. It’s a craig’s list matchup that works well enough but man, I have nothing but sympathy for Amber’s character. Her scenes are meant to be funny and break tension, and Amber was written with a very specific funny person in mind:
I’ve planned to include Anna Margaret in this film since the very first draft. We acted in a play together in 2009 that was written by the incredibly talented Michael Yates Crowley and oh boy it’s been love ever since. She’s going to kill this role and I am so, so excited to get to act with her again.
She stars in “Social Butterfly,” which will be at Sundance in a few weeks. Other wonderful projects you should absolutely see her in are the features, “Small Beautifully Moving Parts” (SXSW, Hamptons Film Fest), “Gayby” (SXSW, BAM Cinemafest), “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (SXSW), “Slacker 2011,” “The Romance of Loneliness,” “The Color Wheel,” “The Brave One,” and the short “Adelaide” (over 50 festivals, including Gen Art, Woodstock & Austin).
She is charming in everything without exception but I especially love the bumpers she did for SXSW last year.
-bodine
Prior Date featuring Claire Coffee
As part of our fundraising page on Seed & Spark, we need to have a video. Many videos on kickstarter pages have an interview with the creative team, but I wanted to see if we could do something a little more interesting. So I wrote a 2ish minute short that works in tandem with the feature, but is totally separate content. Like a DVD extra.
This past Wednesday, Alexis and I borrowed a camera from the very nice guys at Toy Closet Films and asked some favors of a few actor friends. We shot it all out in about four hours.
I asked the unbelievably talented and kind Claire Coffee to star in the short. She has read more that six versions of the script over the past year, and has given me desperately needed encouragement and consistently great advice. Do you even know how unreasonable it is to ask someone to read your feature script multiple times? That is a straight up ridiculous thing to do to someone. But Claire was always gracious and totally cool about it. More than once, her feedback pulled me back from a ledge of self-doubt and anxiety. This girl is the type of friend we all want to have and hope we can be to others.
Did I mention she’s on Grimm on NBC? Fridays, 9pm EST. Watch it. It’s awesome.
The other part of the short involves a young family picnicking in Prospect Park. I asked my friend Kim Griffin, who I’ve known since we were 16 and Cherubs at Northwestern’s summer acting program. She is a brilliant actress, and is about to star in the feature A LOTUS TIL RECKONING. Her husband, Brendan Griffin, just wrapped Clybourne Park on Broadway. Their son Liam is the cutest fucking thing in the world.
This shoot reminded me that I’m a fool for not having more roles for women in my film. My next script will rectify this, I promise.
The teaser goes live on Dec 1st when our fundraising page launches! There is so much about this film that I cannot wait to share.
-bodine
And here we go.
When I decided to write this film, I had no doubt that I would also then make it. So from the very beginning of the process, about a year and a half ago, I’ve known that I would at some point(s) need to ask a ton of favors. Because with pretty much no exceptions, you cannot make a feature film alone. It takes the support of many, many other people. Best case scenario, you’re going to load down some friends with absurd impositions, borrowing their afternoons or living rooms.
But with gratitude that staggers me, I would like to mention that I’m gathering collaborators who believe in the film and want to be involved in making it, which is the highest compliment I could imagine receiving. We plan to shoot in February 2013 over three weeks. The creative team (Serena, Alexis and me) will be updating this blog in the meantime, during and after.
WordPress as my witness, this will be a beautiful film. I hope that you like it, and I sincerely believe that you will.
-bodine