Newport Beach Here I Come!!

So...very early this morning I hopped a plane for Washington DC - a short little pit stop on my way to Newport Beach for the festival.

We are celebrating not only my Uncles Big Birthday and a good excuse for a family reunion with all my relatives from the other side of the pond but we are also celebrating the article I wrote about 'ninety-one'. Today on the Moving Pictures Magazine website they published an article I was asked to write about my film and the experience of making it and films in general.

There is a link to the right hand side of the page under blog archives.

And with that I am off to take a little nap so I am ready for the craziness that is about to begin!!

A Shout Out!

Our first media mention.....yay!

http://theshortsreport.blogspot.com/

Kellie is a filmmaker, writer, blogger (the shorts report) and member of the NSI team.
She is based in Vancouver and has her finger on the pulse of the short world, especially when it come to Canadians. Thanks Kellie.

Newport Beach has officially received the film - good. Elliot has received the ninety-one buttons. He says they look great!! Phew.
I have been emailing press etc...like a banshee trying to get people to take notice of our film at Newport and give a mention. It has worked a little so far - keep 'em coming.

I am still looking for the right song for my new short Little Larry as we have a Wolfmother song in the edit right now that is perfect but way too rich for our blood unless someone wanted to be very kind and help us out. Until that happens - we/I am looking....

Tonight will be fun....screening the PSA for women's cancers to all those who were in it and worked on it. I am looking forward to showing them what a great job they did and how wonderful it turned out. We will soon be sending it out into the viral universe. Keep watching your inbox.

Ok....so off to try and get some more ink for ninety-one - wish me luck!

Press Kit Done!!

Here we go, the poster. Nice huh?!
I have finally gotten the press kit done, the 'ninety-one' buttons have arrived in LA for Elliot to give out before I get there. The film has been sent off and NBFF will be able to make sure all is in order....we are on our way people!! Now to make sure we have bums in seats....

YouTube......

Just posted the 'ninety-one' trailer to YouTube....check it out!!
Look to the right of this page and click on the link to the trailer in the links section.

Time for a quick one...

Hey.
So many things have been spinning these days in a great way! I am almost finished making and gathering the promo stuff for 'ninety-one'....posters, postcards, pins, a fan page. I will put a link to the fan page here. And the cherry - a trailer - it will be posted here as well...
So a very quick update....gotta run, finish the press kit and ship off the film to Newport today.
Back soon.........
Jill

WOOO HOOO!!!

Finally some GREAT news....'Ninety-one' has been accepted into it's first festival. We will be premiering at the Newport Beach Film Festival in California. It is in it's 11th year and runs April 22nd to the 29th. I am really excited to be screening at this festival because my friend, collaborator and co-producer of this film, Elliot V. Kotek has been a guest speaker at this festival on a number of occasions. He speaks very highly of Newport and this year he is helping them program a spotlight on Australia - his native country.

NBFF will be a unique experience as in a way both Elliot and I will have two films screening there - 'Ninety-one' and the documentry'140'. We both contributed a segment to '140' (you will find a link to the 140 film blog on this site) a film that was conceived by filmmaker Frank Kelly which gathered 140 filmmakers from around the world through twitter - to film 140 seconds at the same time on the same day. I have yet to see the film but from what I am told it is quiet emotional so I can't wait. It's gonna be one hell of a festival!!

Other good things have been happening....I have locked picture on my new short (which Elliot wrote) 'Little Larry'. I am heading in to do the color correct on Tuesday....then finish up the music and sound mix. The response so far from vetting has been very positive so I am looking forward to sharing the finished film with everyone.

I wrapped up shooting 'Score: A Hockey Musical'....shadowing Mike was great and the film was a blast to work on!! The whole entire cast and crew are so excited to see the finished product. I am going to continue my shadowing - head into the edit etc...Look out for it coming to a theater near you in October.

The book option that Avi and I were working on fell through which is really disappointing as I know I could have (we could have) made a really great film. However it was not to be so we are back looking and I am back writing. I have been thinking a lot about this one idea and am going to start writing this week!

I shot a PSA for The Princess Margaret's Weekend Walk to End Women's Cancers the weekend before we wrapped Score. It is a music video (kind of a Glee like number minus the big production value but with a lot of heart) set to "These Boots Are Made For Walking". We are going viral with it in the next couple of weeks. It was a ton of fun to shoot and very inspirational. The people I have met on this project really make you think about how lucky you are and remind you that you have to live each moment. I am excited to see where we can take this and to raise a ton of awareness not just for women's cancers but cancer in general. I am sure these days you would be hard pressed to find someone who has not been touched by this disease.

So them mammoth long over due update....till the next one....and one of the days I will figure out how to upload an album of photos and post 'em. Stay tuned.

Look Who's back......

Well, well, well.....it has been far too long. I have felt kinda stuck as I unfortunately don't have much new to report on 'ninety-one'. However I have now decided - to heck with it - I will just talk in general about my projects and leave it all under the same banner. I did start this blog for 'ninety-one' but to also share my thoughts and experiences of film-making.

So....here is the update.

I am still submitting 'ninety-one' - the response from all who have seen the film has been wonderful and I know that once we get that first festival things will take off from there...so come on!

The 'day job' got in the way a little....Copper (tune in ABC/Global in March). That did not put a damper on progress - I shot a new short called 'Little Larry'. I am just editing with Kyle right now. It was written by a friend of mine Elliot Kotek whom I met at the Bahamas International Film Festival when 'moment' was screening there. Elliot is a multi-talented guy - writer, artist, actor....really there is nothing he can't do. He has recently renewed his post at Moving Pictures Magazine as Editor-at-Large and has a website/blog called NoA - The Nation Of Artists -http://social.thenationofartists.com/. My plug for Elliot.

'Little Larry' is a comedy of sorts. The main character Larry was originally a boy but in my version - with a little effort - I convinced Elliot to let me turn Larry into a girl. Her name though has remained Larry. Kyle and I are now sending out the cut to a select group of people for vetting. We will be waiting patiently to hear back...

Even better news is that I have hooked up with a new producer. Tired of doing it a lot of it myself. Although I have had invaluable help on my films to date I needed to find someone to help me kick it up a notch and take it to the next level. So I have teamed up with Avi Federgreen. Avi has worked his way up through the industry to finally land on top if the indie producer pile in Canada. He had three films at TIFF this year - Leslie My Name Is Evil, High Life (I saw it last weekend as it opened in limited release - a must see!) and Hungry Hills. So Avi and I are looking for projects and are in the process of optioning a novel so we can make my first feature film together! I have told him that by September 2012 I want to have made a feature....I (we) am doing my best to make that happen!

Last but not least....I am shadowing Mike McGowan on his new film 'Score: A Hockey Musical'. We go to camera in a week and at that point I will be taking on the script supervising duties as well as shadowing. We have been in prep for the last 3 weeks and it has been a crazy ride - locations, casting, singing - the list goes on. I am having fun and learning some interesting things. I excited to start shooting. Avi is producing with Mike. I worked with Mike a few years back on his very sweet film 'Saint Ralph'. He is a great filmmaker and a really nice person.

I am also working on setting up an official Staggerdwheel website. So you will finally be able to find all info pertaining to my projects in one place. Yes - I am moving into the world of grown-up presentation.

Best get back to wrapping up this edit session.

Later.