May 13, 2004

5.13.2004

Head is spinning major from all these ideas gearing up for a huge promotion campaign later this year (again, thanks mom and dad for making me stay in college to get that PR degree!!!) that I’m planning on kicking into full gear soon (planning stages through October, implement in January 2005 for kickoff).

So, note to myself:

When going after all these corporate sponsors for the “promotion tour” – here’s what we consumed during the production – we spent our money, now you spend some of yours!!!

Catering: (Costco)

Snapple
Kirkland Bottled Water
Zone Bars (Annie’s steady 3 month diet!)
Starbucks (in store and bottled) Frappaccinos
Krispy Kreme donuts
Gatorade
Coke/Diet
Chips (multi packs of all the majors)
Cookies (multi packs of all the majors)
Nutrigrain Bars
Trail Mix Bars
Pop Tarts
Fuji/Gala Apples
Subway (Eat Fresh) man, I’m a dork
In and Out Burger
Pizza Hut
Applebees

Props:

Used my own guitars: Takamine acoustic, Hamer electric and my Sure SM 57 mic, Motorola 2-Way Walkie –Talkies, American Spirit and Basic cigarettes (lots of them!), Bic lighters, Beef Jerkey, Pabst Beer (it was the cheapest) and of course no one will ever forget the famous Ding Dong(s) scene with Travis and Ray. Annie’s sword…ahem “ink pen” was by ? (will have to look at the box again). Bought all the production/office supplies at Staples. Rented “Annie’s Car” at Rent-A-Wreck. Used my own JVC Digital Camcorder and tapes. Used DV tapes to shoot on Daniel’s Cannon GL1, shot the crane shots with Stu’s Cannon XL 1. Used Ari Lights and Teague’s Jeep Wrangler to light all of the night scenes in Palmdale and Lake Hughes (there’s a genius commercial just waiting to happen).

Costumes:

Annie was costumed in Urban Outfitters, Windsor Fashions (Angela’s dress also), Hot Topic (notice the stickers…) and Wet Seal (Annie’s Diner costume and Billy’s Cop uniform provided by CRC here in LA! who I found on http://www.debbiesbook.com/ (Debbie’s Book online – this site has everything you could ever ask for and more!!!). Also if you ever need a dog, cat, bird, horse…amazing animals for your production are found at www.pawsforeffect.com ask for Debbie and Pat – two of the most amazing human beings and trainers you’ll ever meet! Check out their site.

The website www.chasinglifethemovie.com will be designed by Jason Croatto and will be up very soon. www.hipchikproductions.com will also be up soon (it’s on my running list of things to do!) Also check out www.farwestthemovie.com and www.cinematik.biz – the co-producers of Chasing Life and their first movie. Together we’ll move mountains and will start a new generation of indie filmmakers.

Until next time…

Posted by jodinels at ">05:20 PM

May 12, 2004

5.12.2004

Talk about some depression. Post partum for sure...I feel like I've just given birth...I now know what all the famous actors (who we see as very successful and working) feel like when they finish a project and say they think they'll never work again. Such heartbreak in light of a huge accomplishment. What a screwed up dichotemy, huh?

I never rest on my laurels. Always, looking for the next big thing. I did really good this time and lived in the moment, experienced the journey of this project during it's process instead of flash forwarding to today,tomorrow, next month and next year - which I feel confident will bring a windfall and will keep me very busy in between other projects I'll develop and outside acting gigs. However, in light of that postive naivete, it's just such a jolt of reality when you don't have anything to plan for the following weekend. Rest, relaxation and recouperation are definitely my nemisis. I guess I always feel like I'm missing out on something. Maybe,older age will bring me the wisdom to feel secure about this. But, right now I want to make the most of my youth, my freedom and lack of responsibility
to anybody but myself and get it all while I can. It's selfish and self serving I know. But, again, I just don't want to miss a thing. It's a beautiful world out there and I want to see and do all.

I want to produce/act/create all the time - whether that's on a set, a stage or traveling to other countries and meeting new people, learning about new cultures, because ultimately, I learn things about myself and bring that experience back with me, embrace the new found "me" and import it into my art and share it with others....

Is this the meaning of life? Is this what the purpose of the artist is to be? I just feel exhausted, terrified, exhilerated, alone, embraced, pressured, free, stopped and yet all the while on a runaway train - make sense? Out of control, yet at peace for the moment. Scared, yet optimistic and hopeful. I just want people to see what we've created here without it getting all tied up in the red tape crap that is this Hollywood machine.

So, we strap on our bootstraps and hit the pavement and another journey begins. The next phase. Each moment is an experience to enjoy, embrace and love. My heart, mind and soul has been through so much in the past 8 months with both projects and life. I'm curious to see how it all plays out - what the benefits are. My mom sent me this card with a Maya Angelou saying on it "Not every project is a masterpiece, sometimes you're just stretching your soul"...

So which is this one going to be? Or is it both?

Website coming soon...

Until next time...

Posted by jodinels at ">05:18 PM

May 11, 2004

5.11.2004

That’s a WRAP!

As of midnight on Sunday May 9th, Chasing Life has officially wrapped on production. What a whirlwind. Amazing. Experience. Love. Creation. Birth and now it will have life….

After a crazy weekend last week, we got super organized and planned out this last weekend to make it fun, expedited, exciting and memorable. Daniel was efficient and worked very hard to get all the shots within the scheduled time frame. Under pressure to get everything, everyone worked diligently together to ensure we finished up on time – there was no going back…all my actors showed up on time, my crew were angels…everyone worked like a dream.

So Friday, we started at Cal Arts to shoot the interrogation scene with Derek and the Chief. Got stopped by CIA “Security” (That’s Cal Arts to you and me), because Billy Cole (a.k.a. Jason) was carrying his ‘gun’ in his police uniform. So after all that checked out and we convinced everyone he wasn’t a real cop (thank CRC for a great costume!) – we got all of our shots and moved onto the Motel location in Palmdale by 2pm for our last weekend of shooting in that blasted place. Once we got there, everything was cool. We checked in and started shooting right away…then the owner moved in for the kill…apparently, while we were away he thought he could get more money out of me/company and the extortion plot began…I blew him off and said we’d discuss it on Sunday after we wrapped (and in my mind I was driving out of the parking lot…smile). So, knowing that, put me on extra alert and super pressure (especially after the previous weekend at the bar), because the next day we were shooting exteriors in the parking lot all day and I didn’t want to get kicked out – even though we had signed contracts and payment for our initial agreement in place…Bastard.

But, Friday was so nice, as we wrapped up shooting by 9 and then hung outside until 11pm just joking/drinking/smoking and bonding…it was memorable under the stars and friendships and “love” developed. Not mentioning any names. I’ll plead the 5th! Smile….That’s what film sets do – bring people together and make memories for life! And I facilitated that. A match maker in disguise – moooaaa haaa haaaa.

Then Saturday we were up and running by 9am, when the rest of the cast and the “Van” man, joined us on set. Todd (Betty's amazing assistant) joined us too, to check things out and Menard (fight coordinator) was on set to watch over our fight scene and steal everyone’s wallets in our DVD extra footage… The fight scene came out beautifully. We also had enough time to capture a little footage for the DVD extra bonus features – where the crew got to recreate the fight scene, I played director and Short (a.k.a. Pat Tarpey) got to play (me) Annie – apron and all. Mondo (sound god) got in on the action and put the moves on Tiaraju (who played Derek), Daniel played Tommy and got some unexpected "love" from Tiaraju…then everyone died that wonderful Oscar/Hollywood death scene which carried out for at least 5 minutes…It was hilarious and is now captured on tape forever…can’t wait to see the footage. It was a fun moment for sure.

Then I took all the actors on set and my crew out to a very nice dinner and to celebrate Tiaraju’s birthday surprise. Everyone really had a great time and I was very thankful I had money in the budget to do that for them. They’ve all worked very hard and given me their all – so it was a night to remember. Then back to work…So we shot all day and wrapped around midnight and only had one pick up we had to do.

Sunday (Mother’s day): Got up at 7am and finished shooting by 11:00am with Nadine (a.k.a. Joan), packed up the cars and were ready to make our fast getaway before the owners swooped in like vultures…but alas, it was not to be. So armed with our “legal team” (that’s myself, Tiaraju and Marisa – hardly LA Law) we faced them in the office where they screamed at us for 10 minutes at how heartless we were, how unfair we were and that we shot in areas (outside) that were not part of the deal, that they lost customers (whatever), that they are hard working people…they worked us over for sure, etc….Tiaraju exclaimed “but your motel will be famous”.....this hardly helped, but it was funny nonetheless…ah, why is it that people are so greedy? We were perfect guests, they only had to clean our rooms once, we didn’t break anything, blah, blah, blah…In the end, as I was walking back to my car with them chasing me down like a dog – all I had to do was slip him a hundred dollar bill and all of a sudden he’s Mother Teresa offering me a receipt…Bastard. Oh, well. Karma I say. And I’ll sleep easy at night.

Ah, the woes of Production…especially when you bargain, get favors and do things for free (even though I paid for this location). Overall, it worked out to our advantage. We got all our coverage, they left us alone and it’s done. If that is the worse of it – budget wise – then I can say I prevailed on everything, kept it together and didn’t spend over my allowed budgetary line item for locations…I planned, but I was lucky that things worked out to my advantage. Could have been much much worse.

Sunday night we regrouped at 7pm at Cal Arts (to end the saga where it all began!) and shot all of our “behind the bar” scenes that I had to rewrite, due to last weekend’s little snafu with the bar location. But it all worked out so much better, as we had it completely to ourselves and got some amazing performances and action sequences from out actors, great aesthetics and Daniel got some great shots. Mondo was boom guy all weekend, because we lost Joe to another job that actually paid...So sad and he was missed. But, next film everyone will get paid, for sure. Ultimately, everyone had a great time and when it came time to wrap at midnight…alas there was only 5 of us left – Mondo, Daniel, Tiaraju, myself and Chad…sort of anticlimactic –but we’ll all regroup and celebrate soon! Again, it was a bittersweet night. Beautiful to be under the stars and calm skies. God watched over us this weekend and I made sure everyone was happy and finished up on a good note. In the end: it worked out like I never even imagined. I just put one foot in front of the other and had an incredible team to help me push through the tough times, celebrate the good times (there were so many more of these than bad), and ultimately make my little film. My field of dreams…and now people will come.

So, what’s next?

Post Production, Promotions Planning, screenings, cross-country exposure, International presence with Cinematik, film festivals and market entries to find a buyer and grab all the accolades that this film and the people in it so deserve…everyone will hear of Chasing Life by next year if I have to go to every single door in the world and beat it down…okay, that’s a bit naïve of me – but at least you know I’m determined. I believe in this film. I believe in my actors’ performances and the gifted, gracious and lovely human beings behind the mask, the story I wrote and my extraordinary talented and hard working crew’s ability to capture it all on tape. Now it’s in the hands of my editor, Teague who will pull Daniel’s footage together and Mondo’s sound and make it into the final realization from paper to screen…

I’ll keep everyone posted on the post production process, pr and marketing campaign and when it’s coming to a screen/town near you. The website will be up this month and it will have all the info/bios/photos/screening/news updates and the trailer for your entertainment pleasure. Everyone, please say a little prayer for this film, and cross your fingers that all of our hard work pays off. This film will not slip through the indie film circuit track, I’ll make sure of that. And collectively - we can all “will” it to do well.

Now to bed/sleep/rest/recoup/reenergize…

Thank you to everyone for making this happen (there will never be enough thanks): Cast, Crew, Family, Friends, Mentors, Starbucks, industry journals/articles, 2-day film school, WIF, Step Up Women’s Network, Flash Forward, all of the people on my thank you list and of course, especially all those of you who will end up on my No-thank you list – certainly without you doubters and pessimists, this film would not have been possible. Thank you for saying NO! to me – so I could say “oh, yeah – just you sit there and watch me”…

Until next time…

Posted by jodinels at ">05:16 PM

May 04, 2004

5.4.2004

Man oh man oh man…did Murphy’s law ever rear his ugly head this weekend. It was bound to happen. How can you go through an entire perfectly perfect production and not have at least a snafu or two…we just happened to have them both (snafu’s) on the same weekend. And it sucked. People were mad. But, we pulled together and made it happen. That’s what teamwork is all about. All of this will be worth it. Rewards will come.

First before I go into the gory details – I have to praise my amazing, talented, team of lovelies: my crew – Daniel (Dir.), Tiaraju (my co-producer, co-star and everything else), Mondo (Sound God), Joe (Boom and Wardrobe and Redneck!), Marisa (Line Producer and everything to Jodi), Liz (Makeup/Tattoo Artist), Teague (Editor, Gaffer, jeep lighter extraordinaire!), Stu (DP, Gaffer, Grip) – these guys rock. My actors on both Saturday and Sunday were fabulous and I know everyone was about to drop. There was so much down time that was not anticipated and wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have problems with locations on Sunday. If it were not for such a beautiful effort on each individual’s behalf to pull together and work as a team to get all of our shots – it would have been a much worse disaster…

So, what happened…started earlier in the week with some miscommunication on actor’s schedules. So we fixed that. Then confirming we were going to our bar location for our last weekend – we were told that they thought we were done, and that on Friday they were no longer the owners (yikes!) so Jodi goes into panic mode. We had signed legal contracts in place, but of course since we didn’t pay for the location, they could have told us just to go screw ourselves. But, the new owners called us that night to confirm everything we were doing and said we could come and shoot on Sunday as planned…(sigh), but wait it gets better…

So, Friday we had a light day, finished up around 4pm – good. But myself and Tiaraju stayed up late recording 5 songs for playback on Sunday…they are so beautiful and rock. Everyone will be impressed. Then Saturday, which we knew was going to be a long day (but, we didn’t even come close!), started at 2pm in the Compound location. One of the guys had a blowout on the freeway, which set us back a little bit – but it was fine, he was fine, and we got everything back on schedule – it was a little glimpse into what was to come for the night. But, Friday - Great shoot, good shots/performance/wonderful! Then we met back up at 6pm at Cal Arts to drive out to our Riverbed location out in the Lake Hughes area. Because it was so isolated and we had no permits, I called all of our cast and crew and had them drive out at the same call time, so no one got lost and we were all together. We had planned on shooting until 1am…but we finished at 4am instead! People were dropping like flies, cold, hungry, mad at me for sure…and we worked very fast to make sure we could get all of our shots and get to our “beds” before our 7am call time at the Bar…So yeah – that was a logistical nightmare. I felt bad. I could have planned it better (maybe two nights Fri/Sat instead) but, I’m learning just as is everyone else. But, it’s my production, my responsibility and I dropped the ball. So no sleep for 48 hours for me.

Also, I have to give a quick shout out to Menard (Fight Coordinator) and Ryan for coming out – but then sadly not getting to shine. Unfortunately, that’s the way the cookie crumbled on Sunday. But this weekend both of the fight scenes Menard will choreograph will come to life and be spectacular. Ryan got his moment when Annie punched him out…so it was just scheduling problem. But, with me acting and producing, it’s difficult to remember everything and of course all of my brain cells were asleep. I was on Annie Autopilot on Sunday for sure….I just hope I didn’t look too hard on camera…(always the diva – smile)

So Sunday – after no sleep at all – we got to the bar location, where we again encountered more problems…aka the new owners, who where absolute beeatches to us the whole day. They dictated where we could and couldn’t shoot, griped about losing business and if we were under their contract it would cost us $600/day (thank goodness we weren’t – of course we wouldn’t be there)…We planned on shooting until 8pm to get everything, but by 3pm I was so tired of dealing with them, that we rushed to finish at 5pm. We ended up not finishing 3 scenes, which are being re-written and scheduled for this last weekend. We’ll have to get a new location, but they are exteriors that haven’t been established yet, so we should be able to find something pretty easily and soon. After 48 hours of no sleep – I was just waiting for them (owners) to look at me cross-eyed and pull out my guns – lucky for them we left (he, he). Needless to say our food contracts with them are no longer in place. Why would I give them any more of our money after the way they treated us? We didn’t interfere with their business and came in and out just as before. They are just bitter bitter people…

So after Sunday - I’m sure (I did) we all went straight home and to bed and slept for like 14 hours! It was insane. But, during the production on Sat and Sun everyone pulled together. We got all of our shots, great performances, lighting, sound…it was a bittersweet romance for us all.

So this week we go into the last weekend of shooting for Chasing Life. Ready to put this baby to bed that’s all I’m looking forward to. It’s been great, productive, inspiring and we’ve made huge leaps in creation, artistic endeavors and lasting friendships, working relationships. But, all good things must come to an end (I never really understood that…why can’t they last? Even through the bumps in the road?)…but, yes…Chasing Life is almost complete. It’s been a long road and the journey for the production route must end. Annie must die on Sunday.

Then onto the next bigger and better thing! If I had a million dollars I’d give it all to my cast and crew, who are so deserving for being patient and sticking it out with me. It’s been very difficult on everyone, because of the fast paced production schedule. But, again, these guys are amazing and the next production they will work on will be lucky to have them all…

Until next time…

Posted by jodinels at ">05:14 PM