Altared NC Premiere in Charlotte, NC presented by The Light Factory

Charlotte Screening and other updates

It's been awhile, I know. But I've been busy trying to get something to happen with the movie. We've submitted to countless festivals now and while we've been rejected by some, we are still waiting to hear from most. So keep those fingers crossed and the good karma flowing, and hopefully we'll sneak our way into one of them.

Now on to the good news we do have. We submitted our film for the viewing please of The Light Factory in Charlotte. The Light Factory is a museum dedicated to photography and film. Consequently they show films throughout the year from around the world. Many of these films are submitted to them through the Sundance channel and through various other organizations like them. After viewing our film, they were excited to show it. The screening will be June 17th at 7pm. The cost is $7 for Light Factory members and $10 for non-members. It is imperative that we pack the 700 person auditorium so I'm counting on all of you to get the word out. For more information about the screening, check out this link:

http://www.lightfactory.org/factory_films/current.htm

Now for some current updates on cast & crew:

Actor Mick Walker is settled in LA and loving it. Last I heard he had some good leads on agents out there and was getting lots of kuddos for the Altared scenes on his reel.

Actress Virginia Betleyoun is about to graduate and is planning a move to Wilmington in the summer to pursue her film acting career.

Producer Eric Williams and his wife just settled in to their beautiful new home at Carolina Beach. His wife, Dawn, just wrapped Secret Life of Bees and will be working on the upcoming film, The Bleeding, in the wardrobe department.

Producer Marshall McGee just started work as the boom operator on the #1 show on Lifetime, Army Wives. He'll be working down in Charleston, SC, until Oct.

Director Kara Still just finished a series of commercials and will be working on the upcoming film, The Bleeding, in Wilmington as script supervisor.

That's all the updates I have for you because that's the only people I've talked to.

Until we meet again.

Smelly Cat & a Dog

For those of you unaware, there is a small quaint little coffee shop in the heart of the arts district in Charlotte, NC that goes by the friendly name of The Smelly Cat. No, it wasn't named after Phoebe's song by the same name on the hit show Friends. But it holds all the charm of the Central Perk on Friends. So, we decided to reshoot Joyce's final scene of the movie in front of the beloved neighborhood coffee shop. While it took us two dogs to finally get one that would sit still and not whine, we finally got the scene and it looks great. It also helps propel Joyce's storyline to it's final mark, showing her character arc has come full circle.

On the Altared website (myspace.com/themoviealtared) we've uploaded new behind the scenes pictures, Promotional pictures, and Press Kit pictures. For those of you actors that don't see your mug in the press kit section, well, that because you never sent me a jpg version of your headshot! So do it. The only way you'll see your picture in any press or film festival press kits is if you send it to me! Please, please, please take the moment to send it to me via email. If you don't have a jpg version, scan your headshot, or get your friend to and email it to me. Trust me, it's a great thing to have at your fingertips.

Thanks to John Disher from Emulsion Films who shot our scene today and thanks to Marshall McGee our sound mixer for recording the dialogue, traffic noise, and dog whining today. Thanks Jan for making the hike to Charlotte and Buster for being still and remaining quiet for the duration of the scene. Good effort goes to JoJo for trying her best to look pretty and be quiet, but she just didn't cut it.

New Year, New Updates

If one were to judge my work on the film solely on this blog, it would at first appear that I've been slack. Let me assure you that while, yes, I've been slack at writing updates on here, I have not been slack at all when it has come to the film. We've been busy submitting the film to numerous US and international film festivals. Since the last blog we've submitted to the following: LA Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, SXSW, New York New Directors Film Festival, First Time Film Festival (also for 1st time directors), Dances with films, and Cannes International Film Festival.

In addition, we are always striving to improve the film as we see fit. So we are still working on the sound, including recording some ADR from actors we currently omitted recording it with. We have made the decision to reshoot a scene from the end of the film and will be doing so the last week in Jan in Charlotte, NC. Our decision to do so was to rework the dialogue in Jan's final scene to show that her character has indeed had an arc throughout the film and to tie up some loose ends in her storyline. This decision came from comments and suggestions we received after the Oct. screening of the film in Wilmington.

Other news regarding the film is that we are still looking in to a Charlotte, NC screening of the film. Currently, The Light Factory is interested but we have to submit the film for their viewing first. Hopefully, we will have a screening scheduled within the next month or so.

So far we have not been accepted into any film festivals, but still have not heard back from the majority of which we have submitted to. Well, that's all the news I have for everyone.

Hope you all are working through the writer's strike as Marshall and I have been fortunate enough so far to have done. If not, the good news is the DGA signed a tentative agreement so hopefully we'll all be back to work soon!

If any of you have news to post on the blog or the website about your upcoming projects, please let me know!

Methodfest

We have good and bad news to report today. While we sent off our film to yet another film festival, Methodfest, we also received word from Sundance that we had not been selected this year. I can't say that I'm surprised, and I'm not letting this discourage me as I don't believe that Sundance values the independent film as do some other festivals. So we are trudging forward and looking forward to hearing back from other festivals we've submitted to and future ones we will be submitting to.

Tribecca

Last week we submitted to our 4th film festival - Tribecca. Unlike the other festivals we've previously applied to, they required us to submitt our press kit with our application. So at 2am Friday morning after working 14 hours on One Tree Hill, I rushed around trying to put our press kit together. The upside is that now, I have all my press kits together for any future needs.

Cinequest

We submitted to our 3rd film festival this week - Cinequest.

Cinequest takes place Feb. 27 - March 9, 2008 in San Jose, CA.