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!