For the first time, Vivienne Again and Deal Travis In (films 1 and 2 of my my Resurrection Trilogy) will be screening together. We're thrilled to have this first-time event held in our hometown!
Join us at the FREE IndieWorks Halloween screening (Chills, Thrills & Scares):
WHEN: October 29, 2014 - doors open at 6:00pm, screening begins at 7:00pm
WHERE: People Lounge, 123 Allen Street, New York, NY
RSVP: IndieWorks Facebook Events page
I hope to see you there!
"Deal Travis In," my newest short film, will have its world premiere at NY Shorts Fest on May 30th.
I'm thrilled to have NY Shorts Fest hosting our premiere in our film's own hometown. If you live locally, please join us!
MAY 30, 2013 at 7:30PM - Program 8
LANDMARK SUNSHINE CINEMA
143 EAST HOUSTON STREET, NY, NY
Tickets can be purchased through the NY Shorts Fest website - we're in Program 8 - and I will definitely be in attendance. I hope to see you on the 30th!
This Saturday, we're screening "Vivienne Again" at the Big Apple Film Festival! If you're local, please join us for the screening and for celebratory drinks afterward.
Saturday, November 17th, 1:15pm
Tribeca Cinemas
54 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013
Program 22
Tickets on sale now! (be sure to buy tix for "Program 22")
After party: AOA Bar and Grill
35 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013
And if you haven't seen the trailer yet, check it out!
WATCH THE COMPLETE FILM NOW: http://youtu.be/UjS8oFoWb-Y Supernatural thriller about a funeral home employee who saves a dead woman from the killer who's closing in to complete the job. Written & directed by Kim Garland Starring Erin Fritch, Christina Brucato, Scott William Winters and Tom Kemp www.VivienneAgain.com
The dates, times and locations are now set! "Vivienne Again" will be screening in October & November at the following film festivals:
FilmColumbia Festival (Chatham, NY)
October 19, 2012 - 3:00pm
Venue: Morris Memorial
BUY TICKETS
Flyway Film Festival (Pepin, WI)
October 19, 2012 – 10:30pm
Venue: Lake Pepin Art & Design Center Gallery
BUY TICKETS
*I will be in attendance at this screening.
Big Apple Film Festival (New York, NY)
November 17, 2012 – 1:15pm
Venue: Tribeca Cinemas (New York, NY)
BUY TICKETS (Tickets on sale 10/15)
*I will be in attendance at this screening.
I'm Hollywood-bound! Nope, this New Yorker isn't moving, but it is time for me to make the filmmakers' pilgrimage to Los Angeles. And this isn't just any trip or any screening, this will be my first time in LA... ever.
I was one of those kids who dreamed of being in film since I was a little girl, so thoughts of landing in LAX, five dollars in my pocket, and sleeping on the sofas of friends until I got on my feet wasn't ever too far from my mind. I never thought it would take me this long to set foot on Hollywood soil.
But as they say, the best laid plans...
The obstacles life threw my way that keep me from pursuing a career in film until just these last few years are mostly in the rearview now. This is my chance and I'm taking it with all I've got. The upside is, for my first trip to LA, I now have more than five dollars, I'll be staying in a nice hotel, and the day I land, I go straight away to screening my first film. Not bad for a kid from the old rough-and-tumble neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, NYC.
Here are the details of our screening:
AUGUST 14, 2012 at 9:00PM
GRAUMAN'S CHINESE THEATER, CHINESE 6
6925 HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD
HOLLYWOOD, CA 90028
Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite and be sure to buy tix for the 8/14 9pm Short Film Program: Action.
LA friends, I hope to see you there!
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:
> Sign up for my email newsletter
> "Like" our pages on Facebook:
Official Kim Garland Deal Travis In (short film)
Vivienne Again (short film) City Kid Films (our production company)
Thanks, and I'm looking forward to bringing you more stories from the supernatural!
"Vivienne Again," my directorial debut will have its world premiere at the inaugural NY Shorts Fest on May 29th! (yeah, that's a lot of firsts!)
I'm thrilled that our very New York film will have its premiere at home in New York. If you live locally, please join us!
MAY 29, 2012 at 7:30PM LANDMARK SUNSHINE CINEMA 143 EAST HOUSTON STREET, NY, NY
Tickets can be purchased through the NY Shorts Fest website and I will most certainly be in attendance. I hope to see you on the 29th!
(excerpt from on my January 2012 email newsletter)
Last month, I volunteered to help run the pitching sessions at the Screenwriters World Conference 2012 in NYC. This was my first pitching event, and if these events are new to you, too, then the following is basically how this one worked.
Over 100 screenwriters came to pitch their work to film & TV execs and talent managers hoping to get a request to send in their script to be read. Since most top production and management companies will only read your work if you are referred to them by a trusted source, a pitching event is a chance to bypass the usual rules and get your ideas directly to those who can help get them produced.
The screenwriters pitched their projects to the reps one after the other, trying to connect with as many reps as they could over a period of four hours. It was without question an endurance challenge for those pitching, for those hearing pitches and even for us volunteers trying to keep it all running smoothly. In the end, I heard stories of varying amounts of success from both sides of the table, but no one I spoke to said their day hadn't been well spent. Hail Mary passes were thrown that day and I hope some of them were caught and new careers were born.
Hats off to everyone who participated in the event, and as a volunteer, I learned a ton about pitching and it was definitely a cool way to spend a Saturday.
(addendum to the newsletter excerpt)
In a nutshell, what I learned about pitching: For those who are planning to pitch someday, the key seemed to be preparation, mostly to achieve a very concise and very clear pitch. More than any other concern, those hearing pitches struggled most with pitches where they couldn't detect the genre and were confused by story and character details. Keep the pitch short and very clear, focusing on your best hook or two, and then be prepared for follow up questions. A strong hook minus any confusing details seems to be a great way to start building your pitch.
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!
A few weeks ago, writer/director Rodney Smith was out in NYC on a snowy night engaging in what he called "spontaneous acts of cinema." He texted me and asked if I wanted to join in and, yeah, I did! I met Rodney and actor Daryl Ray Carliles in Union Square ready to run around town and help Rodney shoot... well, actually, I had no idea what he was looking to shoot, but NYC at night with a camera sounded too fun to pass up.
When I arrived, I learned that Rodney wanted to shoot a 1-minute minisode for DOMINION, his upcoming webseries. The only problem was, while he had a script and an actor, he was short an actress. Yep, you see where this is heading - he asked this writer, soon-to-be director, to work on the other side of the camera.
My first thought was, "no way!" My second thought: Am I really such a wuss? My third thought: Damn, I wish I'd brought makeup.
In all of a minute, I decided to be brave and put the success of the shoot ahead of my fear of being on camera. I let down my hair, literally and figuratively, and took Rodney's direction plus Daryl's encouragement and went for it.
It ended up being a great night. We shot in Union Square Park, and then on a subway platform and in a subway car. It was all shot guerilla-style, just the three of us and a camera, and it was huge amounts of fun.
What I thought would be a lesson in acting turned out to be a lesson in what it means to be a filmmaker. Filmmaking is for the spontaneous and courageous, and when I was asked to leave my comfort zone for the benefit of the shoot, I'm proud I can look back and see that when I had to choose whether to step in front of that camera or not, my hunger for movie-making crushed my fear.
And now, without further ado, my acting debut: