In The Can: 'Body Image' Wraps NJ Shoot

Last week, during a one-day shoot in Woodland Park, NJ, we shot a new horror short film called Body Image. This is a different kind of film for me: very short runtime (approx. 2 minutes), one location, one actor, and no dialogue.

We had a great cast and crew! We worked with a skeleton crew for this small shoot and everyone worked so well as a team to cover the many roles needed.

I worked again with producer Matt Garland and cinematographer Ian Choplick -- our fourth film now as a team -- and we assembled a talented crew to create the look and feel for this film.

A big thank you to each of our cast and crew for their dedication, hard work, and artistry -- and a special shout-out to our actor Jocelyn Vammer and FX makeup artist Ashley Thomas for working with me to create Abby, our single character in Body Image.

You can follow our progress as we complete the film via our City Kid Films pages on Facebook and Twitter. And thank you for your continued support!

In The Can: 'The End of Mara' Wraps NYC/NJ Shoot

During the last week of March, we shot The End of Mara and had an amazing shoot! 

Over four days, we shot in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey. In the woods, in an SRO, and at Riverside Park.  And it seems we spent a lot of time shooting in the back of a truck.

We were filmmaking carnies: Setting up our tents, putting on a show, then packing it up and moving on to the next location.

We had a rockstar cast and crew who weren't dismayed by cold windy days, set crashers (we luv ya, Jukebox!), and a junkyard dog with a heart of gold. Thank you to each of our cast and crew for your dedication, hard work, and artistry.

You can check out our day-by-day behind-the-scenes photos at The End of Mara Facebook page and follow our progress as we complete the film: www.TheEndOfMara.com

And thank you for your continued support!

Announcing My Next Film: 'The End of Mara'

The time has come to finish up my Resurrection Trilogy of short films! The final film will be The End of Mara and it's slated for release in 2015.

The End of Mara is the story of a woman who helps her husband break free of a curse that’s brought him back to life and trapped him on Manhattan Island. This film, as with the last two, will be stand-alone and character-focused.

We're just getting rolling with this project and are in the script development stage now. We have our key crew for production and post-production already lined up - the same collaborators we created the first two films with - so we will truly be keeping the films all in the same world.

In order to focus on making this last film the best it can be, I'm taking a hiatus from my Script magazine column for the next few months to put everything I have into this project.

It's going to be an amazing ride!

Follow along via Twitter at my personal account or our production company's account, or on Facebook at The End of Mara page. I will also send out periodic updates through my newsletter, which is probably the best way to stay in the loop.

Thanks for continuing with me on this journey and I hope to share lots more with you soon!

Announcing My New Film: "Deal Travis In"

The time has come and I'm ready to make my next film! I'm writing and directing another short titled, "Deal Travis In."

While in pre-production on my last short, "Vivienne Again," I started thinking about telling more stories from this world where people resurrect from the dead. I was left curious about my own story, partly about the literal "what's next" at the end of "Vivienne Again," but over time my real question became how would resurrection affect other characters in this same world?

I decided to create three short films, all stand-alone and told in no chronological order, each offering a glimpse of the people learning to survive when death isn't necessarily the final chapter.

"Deal Travis In" is the second of these three shorts and is the origin story of one of the guys in gray - the bloodhounds - like those we first met in "Vivienne Again." Travis is a new character but through his story you'll learn who these men are and how they became ensnared in this world.

If you've seen "Vivienne Again" (or when you get the chance to) you'll see I open the film with an illustrated map of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood in Manhattan, the neighborhood where I grew up and where we shot the film. The film's title is plotted on the map as the location of where this story is set. "Deal Travis In" will also open with the neighborhood map, with its title plotted on it, and I'll do the same for the third film. In setting these stories in my home neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, I hope to add some of my own lore to this Manhattan neighborhood with a shady name and a shadier past.

These three shorts will in essence be my film school and the first body of work I'm putting out to an audience.  Please continue on this journey with me by letting me keep in touch and updating you on the progress and availability of this trilogy:

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Thanks, and I'm looking forward to bringing you more stories from the supernatural!

"Vivienne Again": The End is the Beginning

"Vivienne Again," my first short film, is now officially complete! The film, that is, because the work to bring it to an audience is only beginning. I'm very pleased with how it turned out and I'm nervous and excited to see it in a theater with an audience. I'm steeling myself for them to laugh at places I didn't intend to be funny or get restless in moments where I thought I was building tension. Or maybe it'll just go over great. The only way for me to find out is to get out there and screen it. So that's what I'm gearing up to do.

I learned a tremendous amount making this short, but many of the lessons are in hindsight and can only be applied to future projects. That's where the next film comes in. And the film after that. And the film after that.

Since this was my first short, there was always the chance I could get to the end and be glad I tried directing, but ultimately found it wasn't for me. I'm astounded by how completely sure I am that the opposite is true. I love adding the directing side to my writing, and how fulfilling it is to take the seed of a story and grow it all the way to a finished film.

I'm ready to turn right around and start again. I'm currently in rewrites on my next short film and hope to announce it soon (I just need to shore up a bit of casting first to be sure I can pull it off).

I'm so grateful to everyone who worked on this short with me and to all of those who gave feedback and encouragement along the way. There simply is no question that I could have done this without everyone of you. I hope the final film will make you proud to have joined in.

It's a wonderful feeling to have the end of a project be the beginning of a career and I look forward to seeing many of you at film festivals very soon!

That's A Wrap!

Last week, we wrapped on Vivienne Again (short film).  It was a 3-day shoot in a funeral home in the middle of Manhattan. We shot 22+ scenes on the RED camera working with 9 actors, 5 extras, a crew that numbered in the thousands (yet still, we needed more hands). We shot interiors, exteriors (including fire escapes), used a jib and a dolly, incorporated stunts and makeup FX, fought rain and one buzzkill of a neighbor (I'm still shaking my fist at you, old dude!)... and through it all, we kicked ass!

The cast and crew I worked with last weekend were extraordinary.  A HUGE thank you goes out to everyone who worked so hard to shoot this film -- it took all of us to pull this off and I'm very grateful.

Next up, we're going into post-production on the film and building a full website to showcase cast and crew bios, lots of pix and a screening schedule.  Until then, please keep checking our Facebook page for updates - we have productions stills up now - and watch out for a trailer we're aiming to cut soon.  Rock on, film friends!