Making Progress! (About a Donkey Seed&Spark Update)

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The past few weeks have been very eventful for us! We applied for a post-production grant. (We're currently funding post-production out of pocket as much as we can, but hope to recoup our expenses and be able to fund future festival costs through other sources or another campaign next year.) 

We had three rough cut screenings with a few of our crew members (and spouses) to get feedback and tighten up the cut!

We shot one pickup for the film, a hand knocking on a door (with Writer Kelsey Rauber stepping in as the hand-actor)!

We gave our footage to Colorist Anna Marie Nguyen and Sound Editor/Designer Will Graham (who also recorded sound on set). 

And I (Christina) started discussing the score with our composer Alexandra Kalinowski just this morning! 

We feel we've reached Picture Lock, but we're not calling it yet until after our final feedback screening this Saturday, which will include a dozen fellow filmmakers whose inclusive perspectives we respect as both creators and viewers. 

Our goal is to have the edit locked by Sunday and then off to the next stages of Post, with our sights set on a September 20th festival deadline. 

Thanks so much for your support in getting us this far! Stay tuned for more!

Christina & the team

IndieWorks: July Recap

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Last Tuesday was the July edition of IndieWorks, and what an eventful night it was! We had some unexpected mishaps of the night, from one of our hosts having a last minute emergency, as well as one of our filmmakers of the night having a last minute emergency, to our venue being double booked! However, despite all that, the night went smoothly (and everyone is okay)! We screened 3 films and had over 40 people in house. Our first film was an effective, dramatic piece that explored the coming of age of a young woman in an unfortunate situation. The second and third films were comedies that took stylistically different, but tonally similar, satirical approaches to complicated subjects. All the pieces of the night resonated with the audience differently, and some thoughtful discussions were had. Overall, the night was a big success!

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 do hope you enjoyed all the films and the opportunity to network with other filmmakers and film enthusiasts, and we hope some connections were made! AND we hope you'll join us again on August 15th. 

See photos from the evening (by Carlos Molina)

The Films of the night:

Portrait of a Young Woman (Directed & Written by Grecia Aguilar)
Sonia is a typical sixteen year old with a love for music and an extensive curiosity for boys. She has fun but no girl is ever the same when she falls in love for the first time.

Death of a Vacuum (Directed by Simone Kisiel/Written by Adriana Jones)
AA short, dark comedy about a young woman who comes home to find that her parents are working on a fun new project together – a divorce.

Covered (Directed & Written by Tawny Sorensen & Colin Fisher)
When Anders Anderson buys a new house, he discovers that he needs insurance and visits Assuring Insurance to make sure that he is covered. 

Watch our Q&A Recap (shot & edited by Kimberly Drew Whiten). *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 award goes to...

At the end of the evening, we announced our winning filmmaker of the Audience Choice Award. Due to our shortened lineup, we made some changes this month and just awarded one winner all the monetary prizes. The Audience Choice Award is voted upon by all those in attendance; they receive $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 July 2017 lineup, our winning film was:
    Audience Choice Award:  "Death of a Vacuum"

Join us next month for our August edition on the 15th!

About a Donkey Rough Cut! (Seed&Spark Update)

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We're so excited to announce that we have a full rough cut of the film! After months of creative cutting and decision making, we have a fine cut with a runtime of 87 minutes (without credits). We're planning to screen it for some of our crew this Thursday night to get fresh feedback before diving into the sound mix, color and other finishing touches. Our goal is to have it ready for festival submissions by the end of September! 

(Me and our editor, Matt Gershowitz, finalizing the cut this past Saturday.)

(Me and our editor, Matt Gershowitz, finalizing the cut this past Saturday.)

In other news, we've been applying for grants and brainstorming on ways we could cover the costs of post-production, submissions, and eventually, deliverables. Our post crew is working deferred at the moment, but we're dead set on paying everyone something. Crowdfunding again may be the best bet down the line, but for now we're exploring other options and hope that the film and our mission will resonate with others the way it has with all of you. 

Stay tuned for more updates soon!

Christina & the team