Full Circle Moments

That's a wrap on our Closing Night Film extravaganza at the Silent River Film Fesival.  Last night was completely surreal seeing our movie where we actually filmed part of it! (In fact, it was SO surreal it threw me off a bit!) Heartfelt thanks to our AMAZING cast and crew who came out. It was fantastic to see so many familiar faces including our incredibly talented actors Matthew Kevin Anderson (Camera One), Scotty Dickert (Spuds), Elana Krausz (Zoey), Leigh Forrest (Susan), Jimmy Hanks, Joelle Adamson, Christo Dimassis! Special kudos to producing partner Thomai Hatsios and the wonderful Metahara peeps, as well as all the FreeDreamPix peeps who all gave their time, talent and hearts. Love you all!!! (including those who could not make it tonight). AND to our generous donors, invaluable sponsors and wonderfully supportive friends (including Linda who's visiting from Chicago!) My heart is full. 

photo by Sara Terry

Cross Over Promotions

How cool is this? The poster for movie ODD BRODSKY is in another movie! It's an animated feature called The Grid: Zombie Outlet Maul!

Congratulations Chelsey Hemstreet

Congratulations to our superstar Costume Designer Chelsey Hemstreet who has TWO feature films playing at the Silent River Film Festival! Pretty Rosebud and ODD BRODSKY screen back-to-back on 10/20! So come join us for a Chelsey double-feature!

Congratulations Audrey Brodsky! (Whoops --I mean Robin Brodskky!)

Congratulations to Robin Brodsky Curtin (the namesake of our movie) for getting her first royalty check as a songwriter! Her song "Freedom" was used on 2 episodes of The Voice & 1 episode of American Restoration!! AND her song "When you want" is also featured in ODD BRODSKY in this scene pictured here. Way to go Robin!!

And The Winner Is...

They like us! They really like us!  I'm delighted to tell you that ODD BRODSKY won the Audience Award of the 9th Annual Broad Humor Film Festival!  Nothing beats sitting in a theatre full of strangers and hearing them laugh out loud!  Heartfelt thanks go to our amazing cast and crew! Woo Hoo!

Working with Legends!

My amazingly talented husband Matt is out in Nashville shooting a movie called MY MANY SONS. He's off today and found himself hanging out doing laundry with Tatum O'Neil. (!!!) Besides getting to hear first-hand on-set stories about PAPER MOON (one of my all-time favorite films!!!) they briefly talked about ODD BRODSKY!

Morbid Curiosty and Stalked at Bleedfest

We had a blast at the AWESOME Bleedfest Film Festival, which was founded by the super-talented Elisabeth Fies & Brenda Fies. They invited MORBID CURIOSITY to screen and we were just thrilled to win the audience award! We also previewed a sneak peak of a work-in-progress of STALKED (the short we made in NYC) and the audience LOVED it! It could not have gone better. They laughed at all the right places. Great festival. They are trying to raise money to keep it going. If you can help, please donate here.

Seymour Sally Rufus

Matt wrote a great 1-page short story back in 1991 or 1992 (long before I met him) for a class at Stanford. Well.. today it became a film! Brian Dietzen (NCIS) is playing the lead role of Seymour, Ignacio Serricchio (General Hosptial/ Ghost Whisperer) is Rufus and I'm Sally! Jim Hanks cancelled his trip so that he could be around to play the doctor (thank you!!!) and Katrina was the receptionist. We shot it right here in our home. Matt was the DP, Traci Glodery co-produced , Imre was gaffer and grip, and Ryan did sound/PA, Violetta did make-up...and we had a blast! I had our lunch catered by Pitfire Grill, one of my favorite local restaurants. and it rained the whole day! But we did it! What a fun day!! Can't wait to start editing...

Someone is getting STALKED in NYC

Matt and I were in New York City for a gig this week (for the third time in 2 months!), and I REALLY wanted to shoot something. I put out a call for scripts, but nobody responded. So Matt came to the rescue and wrote me a REALLY GREAT 5 minute short! We spent 3 nights with our DP friend Jenny Ramirez running all over the city grabbing shots with our Canon 5DMarkII, and came up with a great little project with fantastic production value, considering it only cost about $100! We shot at the hotel we were staying at in Times Square, and found locations in a Bodega, Times Square, an outside Cafe, the subway and an elevator.

My favorite fun fact about this project is that for the score, we ended up using a piece that Matt had composed and performed in 1994!! We transfered it to the computer and it worked perfectly --16 years later!! good fun. I love this short film so much!!

July 24: Life in a Day

Today people from all around the world are taking out their video cameras and submitting footage to the LIFE IN A DAY documentary, produced by Ridley Scott, which will premiere at Sundance. If they include your footage you get co-directing credit! How fun. Matt and I shot footage of us waking up, making smoothies and trimming our gigantic Willow tree. For more info go here: http://www.youtube.com/user/lifeinaday

Yes on Change

My friend Onyay wrote this song and performs it here. What an amazing video! I am remembering what talented friends I have. Talented and proactive. I am humbled.

No on 8

 

POTA cofounder Jenn Mahoney wrote and edited this video. She also stars in it. She conceived the idea on Wednesday and it was completed and live on YouTube by Sunday! Go Jenn --You creative, activist! Lets keep equal rights for ALL people.

BART GOT A ROOM

Last night I got a special sneak peak at the talented writer/director Brian Hecker's debut feature BART GOT A ROOM. This really cute and very funny film about the stress of finding a date for prom got rave reviews when it premiered at Tribecca earlier this year.  It was especially fun for me, since I was an actress in one of Brian's short films awhile ago! The film is being released by Anchor Bay, and will out in February of 2009. I hope you see it!

Book Signing with Neil Kaplan

Come have a glass of wine and meet my friend Neil Kaplan who will be signing copies of his brand new comic book "I, OF THE WOLF" (which he created and co-wrote) today at 2pm in Burbank. This comic is a re-envisioning of the Wolf/Man myth and the special preview edition issue is now available. Also signing with Neil is his artist J. Zoe Frasure, and guest artist (cover and dream sequence) JK Woodward (of Fallen Angel, Crazy Mary & CSI comic fame). The comic is $3.00 and all 3 will sign!

WHEN: Sunday September 14, 2008 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
WHERE: Dark Delicacies, 4213 W.Burbank, Burbank, CA 91505

Kids Talk Politics

My talented filmmaker friend Ken Sheetz recently directed and produced a nonpartisan show called "Kids Talk Politics", which is featured in this great spread in the LA Times. Congrats Ken!

Jenn Mahoney at the Ford Theater

Check out POTA co-founder Jenn Mahoney (who is also an Emmy-award winning singer) as she performs at the Ford Amphitheater tonight as part of The Celtic Divas. This six member group sings lovely ballads with haunting harmonies. There will also be Irish step dancers and a traditional pipes and drums marching band in full uniform. It promises to be a full night of music, song and dance for the whole family to enjoy! For Ticket info click here.

AUDIE & THE WOLF

Last night Katrina and I attended the World Premiere of my producer/actor friend Christo's lastest movie AUDIE & THE WOLF at the Downtown Film Festival, at the beautiful, historic Los Angeles Theater.  (I actually auditioned for this, but didn't get the part.) I had seen a private "work in progress" screening back in December, but now seeing it all finished and on the big screen was so much fun! AUDIE plays really well with an audience. Congratulations everyone!!!

So Long and Thanks For All The Fish

Well, we got word that Tony Barbieri's latest film EM did not make it into Cannes. So Goodbye France. On the bright side, John Cooper (the programing director of Sundance) emailed Tony personally to say how much he loved the film, and is going to personally champion it to other top tier festivals. EM was only 2 films away from making it into Sundance. It was #19 out of 17... SO CLOSE!

Hat's off to the Mahoneys

Yesterday Matt and I had lunch with my friend Jenn and her husband Thom. I love Jenn. She's such a happy, fun and abundant person. Being around her makes me feel even more inspired. Thom has turned their garage into a small video studio, complete with green screen and 3 rows of hanging lights on a grid! And there's a huge curtain on a rail, so they can "hide" all the equipment, and turn the space into a bar! It's so cute. In the next room is a full-on editing suite! His use of space is phenomenal. My hat is off to the Mahoneys!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Okay, now don't get me wrong. I LOVE the rain. I long for rain. To me rain is like a sign from the Universe to relax, breathe, take it easy, tune in to my senses, be present! I mean, there's almost nothing better than opening the windows and listening to the lulling sound of the rhythmic pitter-patter on the roof. So I'm not complaining, really. All I'm saying is that the timing could have been better. It took us 2 hours to pick Robin up at the airport. And see photo #1: This is what happened to her on our hike at Runyon Canyon Park Thursday. Thankfully, the rain cleared up just enough for a very nice mailman to snap a photo of us in front of the Hollywood sign. See photo #2.

Friday was her big day on "Wheel of Fortune". We actually made incredible time driving in the rain to Sony Studios in Culver city, thanks to Matt's clever route through Hollywood --avoiding the freeways. Robin did GREAT! She won a one-week trip to Venice, Italy and over $6,000 in cash! I take her to the airport in an hour. Tonight Matt and I have the ASC Awards. Luckily that's at Hollywood & Highland, so there'll be a cover overhead to protect our formal attire. Nothing like looking like a drowned rat at a fancy awards dinner. Ug. Wish me luck!