Pride Parade Recap & Push for 50%! (Seed&Spark Update 11)

June 30, 2014

Good afternoon wonderful supporters,

We had quite the adventure at Pride yesterday. Not only was the parade a ton of fun, but we also got to chat with a lot of people about our film.

With homemade promotional shirts (by my aunt Merilyn) and stickers & cards, we spent much of the day approaching people & basically doing quick pitches for them. A few actually gave cash contributions and many promised to check out our campaign online. We didn't want to be too pushy but people did seem genuinely interested and supportive of what we're doing. Fingers crossed those that promised really do support us on Seed&Spark.

Even if they all don't though, it was a fun experience and we got to meet a lot of cool people. There were 2 highlights of the day for us. The first was at the start of the day when we spoke to a family of 5. The father said, "That all sounds great except for the part about money..." He went on to explain that he had recently lost his job. We chatted with him for a bit and he said that he would spread the word. We later saw the whole family at the parade and they were all wearing our stickers, kids included. That was a small but significant moment for us. The second was at the end of the day when Kelsey and I were pretty over approaching people and were off to do an interview with Examiner.com (article coming later in the week). A woman stopped us, having noticed our shirts, and asked us what our link was for. We noticed people noticing and maybe even reading our shirts all day, but to have someone actually stop us and ask about them was pretty damn awesome. All in all, it was a great day!

We're resharing our Q&A with the HLC Project, in case you missed it: http://thehlcproject.com/kelsey/. We're also excited to announce that we've added a Makeup Artist, Rashida Bolden, to the team thanks to our posting on Seed&Spark. We're still casting for Chris, for Not Our Living Room. We should be holding another set of auditions next week. We'll keep you updated on our progress with that.

*We're now down to 9 days left of this campaign and still have $7,459 to get to our 80% green light, and $11,459 to make our goal. We need to keep reaching people & making sure they understand why these films and our team are worth supporting. So let's keep spreading the word! We want to hit 50% today.

Tweet of the Day: Get @CongestedCat to 50% on @seedandspark. 2 character-driven, stereotype breaking films about loss: http://bit.ly/1ih3qFq. #WomenInFilm

As always, thank you for supporting & believing in us,

Christina, Kelsey & team

P.S. We released more thank you songs today! Check out Ruth's & Dave's.

IndieWorks: June (Year 2 Launch) Recap

June 18, 2014 in IndieWorks

Aaaaaaand, we’re back! We’re officially in our second year of IndieWorks, and we couldn’t be more excited for what’s in store for the series and the filmmakers we’re bound to meet throughout. IndieWorks has become such a great opportunity to meet independent filmmakers and supporters, where we can enjoy the work of our friends and fellow filmmakers, and promote future projects/collaborations. The night featured six great new short films; and members of their crew were present to represent them during the Q&A.

The films of the night:

Before I Wake
A woman deals with grief.

Hallelujah
Natalia and Rob go out on what seems like a perfect date. They're pretty much a match made in heaven, until they encounter a major obstacle in their opposing religious views.

Raymond & Lina
Raymond Johnson, 63 and tired. Lina Overton, eight and troubled. One summer day, their lives will be closer than they expected.

Half & Half
A young man who struggles with O.C.D. experiences an intersection in his routine after finding a symbolic piece of jewelry that belongs to a young woman he desires.

Rules
Two young people with some time to themselves decide to try something new.

Boy on a Bike
A short film following one man's life, from childhood to death, eight to eighty years old, only told from the perspective life-long friend, his bicycle.

The Awards Go To…

Audience Choice Award accepted by Brendan Steere, director of “Rules.”

Silver Whiskers Award accepted by Casey Stein, director of “Boy on a Bike.”

CongestedCat Shorts - Crowdfunding Campaign!

We're currently crowdfunding for our next projects, be sure to support in any way you're able. Share, Contribute, Loan: all on Seed&Spark!

Seed&Spark Crowdfunding Campaign Launch!

June 09, 2014 in Short Films

We're crowdfunding for 2 new short films by the creators of (Christina Raia & Kelsey Rauber)! Watch our pitch below & please join us in making these films by supporting on Seed&Spark!

'Juice It' Teaser

May 20, 2014 in Short Films

We premiere the Teaser Trailer for Christina's latest short film "Juice it." The film is 10 minutes of absurd fun! We can't wait to share it with you but can't do so until we hear back from festivals. In the meantime, enjoy the Teaser!

A young couple attempt a 7 day juice cleanse but quickly realize it's much more difficult than they anticipated as they pass the first 24 hours.

SUMMIT Color Correction

May 19, 2014 in Summit

On April 9th, color correction for Summit was finished! If you're following us on Facebook & Twitter, you were notified right away. But I waited to do this post until now so that I would have the high res colored files to show you some shots.

Compare this coloring to some of the raw file shots in this Album!

Color in this film is very key to the way you as a viewer are meant to experience it. That's of course true of every film, but Summit in particular because I wanted the film to start out very vibrant and Hollywood-Slasher-esque, then make a slow but dramatic shift in the color tone as the narrative turns away from the formula the viewer is probably expecting and becomes something a little deeper and a lot more 'indie.' I'm obviously being kind of spoilery here, but if you've been following this film from the beginning as many of you have then you've already been spoiled quite a bit. I will, however, avoid showing you some shots in the comparisons I'm about to do because I still want the film to surprise and intrigue you visually when you watch it for the first time!

One of the most interesting things about our Teaser is that I had Anna, our colorist, color it separately before completing the film rather than coloring the film and pulling the shots from it for the teaser. I did this because I wanted the teaser itself to reflect this progression from a warmer, more vibrant Hollywood look to a colder, more intense look the way the film flows. However, the shots from the teaser may not actually be in the order they appear in the film and are not all pulled from the same emotional/narrative moment like I want you to think when watching that teaser. So, what I've done is pulled Stills from all the shots in the teaser and pulled the matching Stills from the original raw, uncolored cut for comparison.

We shoot images in a cinematic mode on our cameras that flattens the image. The information is all still there for the colors, but shooting it flat allows the colors to be pushed in various ways in post-production.

Now seeing some of those same stills from the actual cut of the film should interest you because you can see how the color temperature is much colder in the film itself compared to the teaser.

The same footage could have many different looks, both subtle and drastic. That's the beauty of well lit shots and good color grading (or rather, that's the beauty of my DP John and Colorist Anna).

I don't want to show all the shots from the teaser in their actual film versions because doing so would maybe allow you to place them chronologically within the film and spoil some fun for yourself. But I will definitely include before and after Stills with commentary as part of a DVD or Digital Download Special Feature.

One interesting point I will bring up, though, is the fact that I found the color correction process to be so interesting because of the variety of choices I was given. There were times where I was torn between the most aesthetically pleasing image and the one that most represented where we were at emotionally in the story. Take for instance this shot. If you compare this to the one from the teaser, it's arguably less flattering. The teaser version is a sharper, more striking image. It's more stylized. It's maybe more exciting and pleasing to look at. I believe it's definitely more eye catching. However, the coloring of the shot in the teaser does not work narratively for this particular moment within the actual film. Ultimately, it's about choosing what best elicits in the viewer what you're trying to say. It's about looking at the bigger picture of a scene and not at the shots or moments individually. Having never made such a long film before, especially one where I chose to make the color tone(s) such an integral part of the viewer experience, I was not expecting to have so many subtle choices with the color. It was fun to do scene by scene but also required me to step back and think of the film as a whole. I had to try to avoid falling in love with any particular look of any particular shot (like the one above in its Teaser version) because, when you come down to it, it's all about what most effectively tells the story. This is something I've definitely learned more through running IndieWorks because I often see films where I think the filmmaker(s) chose the most beautiful look for shots, but maybe not the most viscerally effective. Finding that balance is key, I believe.

Lastly, I know I haven't released my Shooting Summit "journal" yet (wanted to take a break from it to edit before releasing to the public, as well as time it for festival buzz), but you will eventually be able to read it and see that I spent the second half of production obsessing in my head about whether or not one key scene would come together in post-production or completely break the film. That key scene was a daylight scene that involved all 5 characters and a hefty amount of coverage throughout the scene. The problem was that we had a beautiful, bright sunny day out, which is film, especially indie film, hell. It made getting consistent shots impossible because the sun kept moving, creating shadows everywhere. I feared that when cut all together, the lighting would be ridiculously inconsistent and wondered if it would completely pull viewers out of the emotions of the scene. A year later, while writing Shooting Summit, I still did not know the answer to that question because I was still looking for a Colorist. It was good that I didn't know because it allowed me to stay in that headspace for writing. However, I'm very pleased to say that, although I can not prove it to you by showing you shots or footage just yet, it did work out in the end. Anna made it all look unbelievably cohesive. I'm so grateful to her for that and to John for working with the light despite his preference not to and making sure it could all come together in the end. And while I'm at it, I thank Peter, Charlotte, Erin and Adnan, who all helped with lighting & camera on set that day and all the days. But since I'm talking color for this post, I'd like to plug Waffle-Media, the company Anna runs for her post-production services. I definitely recommend hiring her/them.

As for the rest of the film, the visual effects should be done by the end of this month. That's very exciting! After the effects, title design and animation will be the final visual step for the film. We're still working on a logo redesign to make it a little more unique and tailored to how it will appear within the film. Our score is a bit of a hold up because I keep going back and forth with Colin, our composer/mixer. But he's doing an excellent job and I believe he has a good handle on what I want now. So, I anticipate having the score and sound mix done by the end of June, which would put the entire film in the can in July. That's perfect because our first festival deadline is in August!

Then, it's months and months of waiting to hear back from them. So much work has gone into this film in the last year; it's going to be crazy getting to the point where it's literally just waiting. But I can't wait for it. It'll be such a relief. Even if it is a series of rejections, I'll know that we finished the film, put it out there and are that much closer to being able to share it with all of you. So please stay tuned for more updates. We've got some cool stuff on the way, like the reboot of our website, some new 'Questions with the Cast' videos we shot a couple months back, the release of Shooting Summit and even some sneak peeks at scenes from the film! This Summer and Fall will be full of exciting content and news.

Thanks for all the patience, support and faith in me & my team,

Christina

Read my last post about the process of making our Kickstarter Trailer >