"About a Donkey" Start of Principal Photography Recap

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Thanks to all who supported our successful crowdfunding campaign, we were able to start principal photography on our second feature film, About a Donkey, this past weekend. You can check out this blog post to find out more about the film and see behind the scenes of our first unofficial production day back in January. I'll be sharing more about the experience of making this film, the creative choices behind it and how we're able to do it on $20,000 in 12 shooting days after we wrap production. But in the meantime, I'd love to include you in our progress through a bit of behind the scenes along the way via a weekly blog post. Here's the first.

We'll be shooting the film over four weekends through April 2nd. This was our first (three consecutive days), and it was a huge success! We're running on 12 hour days and I'm proud to say that we not only made our day all three days but made them early! This is a testament to the talent and skill of our small in quantity but mighty in quality crew & cast (or film-family, as we like to say)!

On Friday (thanks to my cousin Lauri, who loaned her house for the shoot), we shot scenes set in Annie & Paul's kitchen. See BTS below. 

And check out a couple raw Stills from the day:

On Saturday, we shot scenes set in the nursery for Annie and Paul's soon-to-be baby. See BTS below. 

And check out a raw Still from the day:

On Sunday (thanks to my mom Marlene & stepdad Jay for loaning their home), we shot scenes set in our main picture house, the home of parents Ann & Tim. See BTS below.

And check out a couple raw Stills from the day. 

This weekend we'll be jumping back in shooting a scene set in a hospital waiting room on Friday and scenes set in (grandma) Farrah's nursing home on Saturday. (We're skipping Sunday because our pilot "Two Gays & a Girl" is premiering at the Queens World Film Festival that afternoon!)

You may be wondering where the titular donkey is in all this production. Well, stay tuned!

-Christina 

IndieWorks - March Recap

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Last Tuesday was the March edition of IndieWorks and our last of Year 4 before Best of Fest! We only screened 4 films this month (instead of our usual 5) and it was quite a cold night, but we still had an engaged and thoughtful audience of over 40 people. Insightful conversations came out of the lineup, and we hope valuable connections were made, as well!

We'd just like to say thank you to everyone who came out to support the filmmakers and spend the evening with us & them. We hope you'll join us again to watch our Best Films of Year 4 on April 18th! (More on that soon!) Save the date!

See photos from the night:

The Films of the night:

Runners (Directed by Liam Billingham, Written by Victoria Negri)
A frustrated female runner has a casual encounter with a middle-aged, aspiring skateboarding dad, leading to self-reflection and new discoveries.

Twinsburg (Written & Dreicted by Joe Garrity)
Jerry, sentimental about his fading twin identity, reunites with his reluctant brother Paul for a weekend of revelry at the world’s largest congregation of twins.

Between Seconds (Written & Directed by Nora Jaenicke)
The story of two musicians who have grown out of sync with their music and ultimately themselves.

The Tramcar Girl (Directed by Gerard Zarra, Alex Tymchak & Daniel Lewinstein)
A young woman rescues a man buried up to his neck in sand on the beach. She is immediately smitten, but he runs away before she can say anything.

Check out the quick Recap to see what the filmmakers had to say about their films. *Please know there are some film spoilers - feel free to look for an opportunity to catch the films at a festival or computer screen near you & then come back to watch!

The awards go to...

At the end of the evening, we announced our winning filmmakers for both Audience Choice Award & Silver Whiskers Award. The Audience Choice Award is voted upon by all those in attendance, and the Silver Whiskers Award is judged by the CongestedCat Team based on a system rating 8 categories of Story, Dialogue/Writing, Direction, Acting, Cinematography, Sound, Editing, and Production Value. The Silver Whiskers winner goes on to screen again at our end of year Best of Fest screening in April. 

The Silver Whiskers winner also receives $50 towards a crowdfunding campaign on SeedandSpark.com should they use the platform and a free Social Media audit ($200 value) from 4MileCircus. 

For the March 2017 lineup, our winning films were:
    Audience Choice Award:  "Between Seconds"
    Silver Whiskers Award:  "Twinsburg"

Watch the trailer for the winning film below:

We Did It! (Seed&Spark update)

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We did it! Our campaign just ended and we made our full goal thanks to all of you! Thank you for believing in us and in this project. We're so excited to have you as part of this filmmaking journey! More love to send in the coming days. But we're going to be able to shoot this film (starting next week!) and donate 5% of cash raised to The Trevor Project. This film will matter in as many ways as we can make it - thanks to you!

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We put together this silly video of our attempts at our thank you jingle incentives. Enjoy! 

And find the actual thank you jingles on our Facebook page.

-Christina, Kelsey & the team <3

The Final Push (Seed&Spark update)

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Hi lovely Supporters, 

We're in the last 8 hours of our campaign! As we're writing this, we're 92% funded and just under $1,500 from our goal. We'd love your support in helping to spread the word one more time and get this film fully funded. 

Suggested Tweet: 

8 hours left to support @aboutadonkey, an inclusive comedy crowdfunding on @seedandspark! Let's get 'em to 100%! http://bit.ly/2m4Z4wO

You could also share our first scene preview, which has proven to really grab our audience, so far. 

Or any of our Meet The Cast videos. Found HERE.

Our campaign was also covered by Flurt Magazine, Lezbelib, and 4MileCircus. Sharing those articles will lead to the campaign, too. Each article emphasizes a different reason to support the project.

However you're able to help with this last hurdle, we're so appreciative. Thank you for making this film with us! Let's do this!

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-Christina, Kelsey & the team