An old world  cloak and dagger spy meets new world global cyber terrorism. . . In a nail salon.
There is a lot to catch up on here. I have been so busy with making this film happen that I have been unable to keep a record of everything here.
In November, while waiting to hear if Pinecone got into any festivals I got the itch to get back to work and make another film. This time I wanted to be in it. And the goal was to hit an 8 min run time. The longer a short film is the more challenging it can be to get it into festivals.
I called up my good friend Judith Leora and asked if I could use her short play “Fumes” from a New York Madness I was a part of earlier in 2012. She was game and agreed to come on and help produce it as well. At the same time I was introduced to Meredith Witte through a friend at church. Meredith is a commercial producer by trade and was looking for more stories to tell. She agreed to come on and produce the film as well.
With this core team in place we got started an built an IndieGoGo campaign to raise money for the film. The campaign was more than a success and we raised beyond our goal. This afforded us to rent better equipment and more lighting than what I used on Pinecone to give the film a more professional look.
I got us a fantastic location. Thanks to Rachel Miller Hyams and my wife Karen I was put in touch with Joni Johnson at Kropps and Bobbers down on Ludlow Street. She was gracious enough to offer her shop to us for a long evening in February to shoot the film.
We then had to cast the other two actresses for the film. After a few casting sessions we found the fantastic Alexandra Gjerpen and Alla Bronskaya to round out the cast opposite myself.
Judith brought in her friend Sabrina Notarfrancisco, to design the costumes. And I assembled a crew headed by Doyle Lee. I knew if I was going to direct and act in the film I needed someone I trusted as the Director of Photography to handle the camera and lights. I had worked with Doyle on one project before, and knew that was one aspect of the production that I would not have to worry about on set.
Everything came together and we shot the film in one very long night. I got to set at 8:00 pm on Saturday night February 9th (It was the weekend of the huge snow storm) and I locked the gate to Kropps and Bobbers at 11:15 the next morning. It was an incredibly long night.
Since then we have been working like crazy to get the film finished and begin submitting it to festivals. Meredith found us some fantastic editors Ryan Steele and Brendan Hogan to cut the film. These guys are amazing. We’ve been working tirelessly for the past two months to shape and massage this story and make it sing.
As of last night we are currently at picture lock. We have a movie and we need to start polishing it up. Ryan and Brendan are going to continue working on the color correction and grade, to give the movie just the right look. Â Russ Gautier (who was on set all night in February as the production designer) is creating some incredible animation for the credit/title sequence. Meredith is finding us a sound mixer to clean up the on-location sound. Saturday nights on Ludlow Street sound like keg parties at times. and
The film is coming along very nicely. I am incredibly proud of the fabulous work everyone on the team is bringing to the table. The blessings that have brought it all together are staggering. I am very excited to finally share this movie with the world. We hope to have it ready for submitting to festivals by the end of May. You can see some stills and other updates about the production on our IndieGoGo Page, in the Updates and Gallery tabs.
