BTS Photos from Shooting CongestedCat Shorts

Check out these behind the scenes photos from shooting our 2 new short films just a few weekends ago! See TWO galleries below!

Not Our Living Room was shot on day 1 with Alyssa Meadows doing on-set photography. 

We Had Plans was shot on day 2 with our resident photographer Chris Carroll doing on-set photography. 

We're hoping to have rough cuts of both films from our awesome editor Jordan Roberts by the end of this month. We're also hoping we'll be able to put out teasers for both films by November! We'll keep you updated as more progress is made. 

Want to know who all the talented people in these photos are? Check out the IMDb pages for NOLR & WHP!

IndieWorks: September 2014 Recap

Last week was Webseries month at IndieWorks, and it was such a success! Webseries month is pretty special to us because we came up with the idea last year when Christina & Kelsey's webseries 'Kelsey' was premiering online in September. We decided to devote that month of IndieWorks to webseries' and we ended up realizing how much of a community exists around webseries, and how much they allow indie filmmakers to have a gradual and substantial build around their work. So we decided to make every September Webseries month at IndieWorks! This year we had our biggest turn out of Year Two with 70 people in house! 

Thank you everyone who came out to support the filmmakers and spend the evening with us. We had a great time. We hope you enjoyed all the episodes and the opportunity to network with other filmmakers and film enthusiasts. 

See our photos from the evening:

The series' of the night:

Docket 32357 - Pilot
Lois and Valerie have a chance meeting in a courtroom hallway and discover their meeting is anything, but chance.

NYC Raw - Episode 2
NYC RAW documents outspoken voices within the five Burroughs of New York City. This episode features Michael Day, an Iraq War Veteran, who speaks about the difficulties of engaging in a meaningful relationship while struggling with the exacerbation of PTSD symptoms.

Anthology - Episode 3
"Anthology" follows six 20-somethings trying to function as adults living in New York Ctiy. In Episode 3 of the pilot season, meet Ashley R.

Henry - Pilot
When meeting with an old high school friend, Henry finds himself roped into a sticky situation and is reminded of why he stopped hanging out with him in the first place.

Just Sayin' - Episode 1
A web series about what it is to live with roommates. Thin walls and passive aggression included.

No Method - Episode 2
No Method is a semi-autobiographical dark comedy about the unraveling of aspiring actress and native Brooklynite Caitlin as she skids toward rock bottom. In this episode, Caitlin contemplates quitting her mind-numbing day job and meets a troubled musician. 

Stay at Home - Episode 2
Stay at Home is a character based comedy web-series that follows main character Ben through his day to day routine as he tries to make a living, be creative, and keep his sanity, all while raising two small children in one of the most expensive and competitive places in America. 

8 for Vegas - Pilot
A pool team in NYC is followed by a documentary crew as they try and reverse 10 years of bad luck. 

Hey Yun - Episode 1
In the first episode of Hey Yun - this angry yet whimsical Korean woman gets a side of hipster racism at a brunch party. 

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 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 at our end of year Best of Fest event in April, while both winning filmmakers will be featured in our Insider Series. 

For the September 2014 lineup, our winning filmmakers were:
    Audience Choice Award:  "Docket 32357" Created by Randy Wilkins & Eljon Wardally.
    Silver Whiskers Award:  "Hey Yun" Created by Hye Yun Park.

Check out the following videos below for both of the winning episodes.

We have two screenings next month, one with our usual diverse monthly line-up on October 8th, and another special Halloween themed screening on the 29th! Both line-ups are already full, but you can always submit your film for future screenings through our submission form.

We hope to see you at the next IndieWorks!

CongestedCat Shorts: Production Success!

We shot our films last weekend and now Post-Production has begun!

Sorry for not updating sooner. I was busy reviewing & sending our footage off to the editor, getting some much needed sleep and cleaning my apartment (more on that later).

As for how the shoot went? It was amazing. I’m so excited about our footage and cannot wait to see the first rough cuts. Our crew was phenomenal. Most were our usual team of people, but we had some newcomers that I’m so excited to not only have as more talented people to collaborate with, but also as new friends. The same goes for the cast. I was blown away by each one of them. I’ve been reviewing footage for the last week and am just mesmerized by their performances and the chemistry between the pairs.

We had some interesting things happen in the week before our shoot.

First, our location that was generously loaned to us had some change of plans and ended up being unavailable this particular weekend of all weekends. Instead of uprooting our schedule and everyone else’s (coordinating new dates that everyone would have in common would have pushed us back a month) or spending money we didn’t actually have on a new space (since the location was loaned), we adjusted one of the films so that both could be shot in the same location. This location was actually my apartment – thus the need to clean after a weekend of wonderful but very sweaty people plus lots of gear & hot lights inside.

Despite this abrupt need to make some revisions, I feel that it worked out for the best in the end because nothing about the actual story changed, just the set layout. Additionally, this allowed us to not have to breakdown after day 1, do a company move on day 2 & reset everything in a new space. Because of this, while day 1 (NOLR) was just under 13 hours, day 2 (WHP) was under 7 hours! I’ve only been able to shoot an entire short in less than 7 hours once before with my dark comedy “S.K.A.”, but both of these films are miles ahead of that in terms of production value. I’m just really proud of and impressed with my team for making this work. We shot 2 quality films in 2 days!

*Also, side note about the location - the house is still loaned to us for a production, which is awesome because it works perfectly for my next short, planned for production next Spring.

The other minor setback that ended up being for the best was that our selected camera, the Canon C300, was unavailable at Du-All, our usual rental house, and three others we checked with for the weekend. Apparently everyone else in NYC was shooting that weekend and with that camera. However, Du-All, being as awesome and loyal as they are (we used them for Summit & Kelsey), offered us the C500 for the rental cost of the C300! We had already allocated the additional funds we raised to our lighting budget, so didn’t want to spend more to rent an external recorder to shoot at 4K on the C500, but it was still awesome to get to use this camera and get a feel for it, especially since we had not yet shot on it. 

So all in all, despite what initially seemed like setbacks in pre-production, all worked out for production. And while we did have some minor type things that always manage to hold up the start of production (a couple Best Buy runs to replace a monitor splitter, for instance), the shoots went quite smoothly, in large part, I believe, due to how well we all worked together. In fact, Gwen, an actor we had not worked with before but who we’ll definitely have on set again and again, complimented me on the relaxed but productive vibe on set, and the warm welcoming nature of our team; also how well we all communicated with each other. That was really lovely to hear. 

On day 2, we did have some sound issues due to a parade going on midday down the block. But we did our best to work around it and overall I have faith that we got clean audio for most of the shoot and that our sound editor will be able to work with some of the background. In the meantime, I anxiously await rough cuts.

We’ll be posting some behind the scenes photos in the coming weeks, but for now we hope you enjoy seeing these stills from the raw footage!

Adam Jepsen as Chris in "Not Our Living Room"

Rob Ceriello as Jake in "Not Our Living Room"

Lauren A. Kennedy as Elizabeth in "We Had Plans"

Gwen Albers as Diana in "We Had Plans"

Thanks again to everyone who supported us in making these films. More updates to come!

Christina, on behalf of myself, Kelsey & the team

#StrictlyIndie Film Views: "The Motel Life"

The Motel Life has a fast-cutting yet slow-paced first act that is difficult to get immersed in; but if you give it some time, it catches its bearings and delivers.

The film begins with a great inciting incident. Frank (Emile Hirsch) discovers that his brother Jerry Lee (Stephen Dorff) has been involved in a hit-and-run accident. With the cops on Jerry’s case and the guilt permeating in his mind, the two are forced to flee Reno and drive across state where they land in a town in which Frank’s ex-girlfriend (Dakota Fanning) resides. However, the first act that gets us there is decorated with fragmented, uncertain scenes and quick flashbacks to the two when they were boys that renders rather confusingly. It’s hard to really grasp what direction the film is going to go in, and at one point even seems to lose the stakes it had presented in the very beginning, but then you realize why Gabe & Alan Polsky shape the world the way they do before we get back into the story. They paint a vivid yet subtle picture of a world where everyone is up to their ears in loneliness, but Frank is the most lonely of them all.

Once the Polsky brothers hit their stride and the pieces are thrown together, you can relax and enjoy a thoroughly well-acted and heartbreaking drama about brotherhood and love. Franks stories that he tells his brother are a nice contrast to their motel-ridden lifestyle and never delve too far into territory that would keep each scene from being raw and honest. If I were to be a proper critic for a moment, one of the only other technical aspects of the film that is confusing is the generational gap between the three characters. As the flashbacks show, the brothers seem to be around the same age but are obviously at least ten years apart in real life. The same goes for the believability in the relationship between Dakota and Emile. It feels weird at moments, but the performances are the glue that keeps this first-time project together for the Polsky brothers’ directorial debut.

You can watch The Motel Life now on Netflix or in the Seed&Spark cinema for $2.99 or 250 Sparks (their internal currency).

Review by Ryan Kramer

Juice It: Coney Island Film Festival Official Selection!

Christina's latest short "Juice It" has been accepted to the 14th Annual Coney Island Film Festival! This fest is listed every year as 1 of Moviemaker Magazine's 25 Fests worth the entry fee & makes their list of Coolest Film Festivals, so this is pretty damn awesome.

Also, while it did not make Official Selection for either the 10th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival or the 17th Annual FirstGlance Film Festival, it made the runner up division of both fests! So it will be screening as part of the 8th Annual HollyShorts Monthly Screening Series at the Chinese Theater in LA in either September or October. We'll let you all know the date when we're told. It will also take part in FirstGlance's Online Shorts Contest for the whole month of October. Last year, they got a total of 90,000 votes. If it actually wins, it gets to screen as part of their 15th annual festival in LA in the Spring! We'll be sure to share it when the time comes. 

We've submitted to two other festivals that we'll hear back from early next year. Fingers crossed! In the meantime, we hope you can make it out to the Coney Island Film Festival to support & see the film!