Now Casting: What I Know For Sure (Quest for the Cosmos)

Are you someone with specific beliefs about the universe, your purpose, and afterlife?

4020 Productions is now casting real folks to answer "the question of all time"!

Taking our documentary to CO this summer! Know anyone in the area that would like to be (or should be) in this documentary? Send them our way & tell us why! email: project4020@yahoo.com ♥

Photography by Goat45 Design

Lost In Sunshine: Transmedia Talk & LIS Q&A via producer, Lorie Marsh

Hey Sunshines!

If you're interested in what transmedia is and what it means in relation to our indie film, Lost In Sunshine, you have to listen to this interview! It's FABULOUS (not just saying that because she's our producer, promise!)!

In addition, Lorie also explains how she got started in the biz & how Lost In Sunshine came to be what it is now!

Ever wonder:

How did Lorie and Jentri meet?

How did Lorie become the producer of Lost In Sunshine?

How do the transmedia components connect to a revenue model that benefits LIS?

What's LIS's target demographic and what are the challenges of reaching out to them directly?

What's the business model for LIS, and how does it differ from others?

How do you sustain the momentum of the whole process, especially since it's taking longer than initially anticipated?

What's the point/idea/intention of creating version 2 of the (LIS) website?

In terms of longevity, how else can LIS use the written (i.e., blog, prequel) material and maintain its integrity?

How does the LIS differ from other traditional movie websites? Why is it this way?

How long will you continue to create/act upon this (online prequel) narrative world?

What are your thoughts on future distributor possibilities in relation to what you're creating/producing re: advertising,
marketing, content, etc., now?

What are your thoughts for syndicating various types of content re: LIS later (i.e., amazon, kindle, etc.)?

What's LIS's connection/marketing relationship to spiritual cinema? How are you demonstrating that?

What are your thoughts on pre-sales/foreign markets for LIS?

How is LIS expanding its narrative?

What are additional rewards for LIS' audience participation on the website, beyond entertainment?

When did you discover transmedia and what projects inspired you to do this with LIS?

What is LIS doing to drive their own boat, that others aren't doing with comedy-dramas?

What are things that you've noticed on different channels (i.e., FB, twitter, blogs) that you've been able to identify
and change/tweak so that they're working more effectively for LIS as a whole?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, LISTEN HERE!

In addition, if you're an indie producer, you'll want to book mark Lorie's blog! Very helpful!

Forward Marsh is an entertainment and consulting company.
:)

When/If you listen to it, please let us know if you have any OTHER questions! We'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for caring & sharing... Happy Listening! xo Jentri

Jentri's interview with Macha on herfuture.com

(Indie) Love is in the air during this one-on-one interview with myself and Macha for herfuture.com. :)

READ MORE & LISTEN HERE

AUDIO ONLY

Never. Give. Up.

Lost In Sunshine

"When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place."
~ Unknown

Using memories to make movies

Youth is important to remember for lots of reasons. It can bring us joy, or allow us to reflect on circumstances we can learn and grow from, particularly as an adult. In my new short film, based on Johnny Pott and Lyn Blue from Lost In Sunshine, we'll explore youth, and significant first memories.

In 1997 we lost our home, where I grew up, to a fire. When all the pictures are gone, and the home (and all that goes with it) is ash, all one has left are memories.

Even though my memories are completely different (in every way) to the subject matter of this short film, I'm going to turn my undesirable (past) situation into fuel to ignite this event... because I understand how significant memories are.

The lighthearted drama/comedy will serve as an extension of our story, helping to expand the entire narrative.

Let the memories begin!

Love, Jentri

What are you working on right now that pushes you to be a better artist?

When we're in between "film thingies" it's easy to feel the weight of the world rest upon our shoulders and question everything we're doing, where we're going, and why we haven't made it there, yet.

Why not be pro-active to alleviate this kind of stress by focusing on what matters?

We're selective in the hairstyles we have, the clothes we wear, animals we keep, flowers we grow, and food we eat. So why shouldn't we be selective in the projects, too (not talking about gigs/jobs we take to make $, necessarily).

Creating haphazardly, or creating just for the sake of having fifty things to do has never appealed to me. I know people whose goals revolve around just that - having so many things in the pipeline, just hoping one of them will be successful. To me, working on projects takes too much of me to do that.

Doesn't it feel so much better to know that everything you're doing is working towards your ultimate goal (even if it seems like it's taking a million years to get there!)? It's actually what keeps me sane most of the time.

This year, one of my production companies, Paranormal Productions, which I'm a co-founder of, decided to make a feature film that we'll enter into the festivals (featuring our group, Aether Paranormal). If we are lucky enough to have our rough cut locked by Dec. 9th, then that baby will be post marked and checked for SXSW. That's actually the easy(er) part! I've never had a film be IN a big festival before, so that's one of my goals!

We're also marching along with Lost In Sunshine, my passion project of several years now. Now, this is one of my ultimate-ultimate goals - to direct a FEATURE I wrote from my heart (with a theme of self discovery). This film is pushing/allowing me to expand my knowledge of film-everything. It's also giving me the opportunity to meet and work with beautiful and talented people, I probably wouldn't know otherwise. Read more about it here: www.lostinsunshine.com

Another love child of mine is my on-going documentary, What I Know For Sure. It's a piece of spiritual cinema that features some really profound dialog from some fascinating human beings. You can watch the TRAILER to get a taste. It is my life's goal to continue to grow, learn and explore as a human, so it fills a special space inside of me, allowing me to incubate its birth while creating it. And that, I believe, makes me a more open artist.

Right now, I'm also in the middle of creating a short film, relevant to Lost In Sunshine, which we hope will serve as sort of a pre-story (one of them) into the lives of Lyn (our lead female protagonist in LIS) and her best friend, Johnny Pott. Even though we're shooting it as a "stand-alone" piece, this project is an extension of our story, and addition to all the blog fiction we're currently embracing with our characters. Hopefully, it will advance our agenda in showing off our collective talents, too - what we're capable of as a (production) team, and myself - as a director.

Meanwhile, I'm continuously trying to navigate through existing material, and create new material I feel will personally advance my agenda as an artist - a screenwriter, and indie director, to be exact.

Don't we owe it to ourselves to be selective this way?

I also call it focusing on what matters.

So, all that "in between" time turns into productive time, assessing the present (instead of worrying!), and creating what will be the future. I feel it's just as critical as any other time. It's our chance to select (aka: focus, meditate, strategically decide, and start to manifest) what we want to do next with our work... our lives.

And let the games begin.

What are you working on right now that pushes you to be a better artist?

Happy (selective) creating!

Larry Flaxman scheduled to appear in documentary, What I Know For Sure

Does 11:11: The Time Prompt Phenomenon ring a bell? It's one of my favorite books!! So I'm super excited that the best selling author and paranormal hunter, Larry Flaxman, will be participating in our spiritual documentary, What I Know For Sure.

WHAT I KNOW FOR SURE (working title) TRAILER

Interviewing Story Musgrave for documentary, What I Know For Sure

What I know for sure about Story is that he's completely embraced his journey here on Earth. He's followed his dreams,
realized his potential, and literally - aimed for the stars. It was an honor and privilege to spend time with him, and have
him be a part of this magical experience with me. I can honestly say, today, I learned something significant about life (as we
know it) and beyond. I can't wait to share it with you in this documentary... may he inspire you, as he has me, to go after your dreams with fire and aim for beauty... coming soon... 2011-2012. J

Shad & Story


Jentri and Story

What to do when what you know for sure keeps changing...

That's what this documentary, What I Know For Sure, is doing to me - raising more questions about life and the universe. Every time I find a bit of information I think makes sense, something else happens... another voice of reason or illogical reasoning supports a theory I can't draw a solidified conclusion from... and then I ask someone else the (same) question, just to go through this again.

It's a brilliant ride... a delicious adventure... but it's like a magic trick you can't figure out... ya know, the one that drives you mad!

So what happens if what we know for sure keeps changing? Is that a good or bad thing?

I'm tempted to label it as GOOD, since that's the way I feel we learn and grow... by continuing to ask the hard questions.

It might ask 'the question of all time' but I wish it'd give me the 'answer of all time.' Unfortunately, I'm being left with more and more questions, or more and more sessions of analyzing the same circular question. As close as I can ever get to an answer I truly believe in, I don't think I'll ever be satisfied. Perhaps I'm not supposed to with this one.

I wish I could tell you the question, so you can weigh in, but you'll have to wait until the movie (if you're not IN it) to find out. Thank goodness I'm good at keeping secrets. I'm a scorpio. ;)

If you dig mysterious topics, and films that engage people in thought-provoking questions, please consider supporting this inspirational/spiritual documentary.

http://www.indiegogo.com/What-I-Know-For-Sure-?i=pite

If you like this material, you'll also like Lost In Sunshine, a dramatic comedy about finding yourself.

What I Know For Sure (documentary) and how you can support it!

Vlog: How I came up with the idea for this film.


THE DOCUMENTARY IDEA:
One hundred people are invited to answer the same question, not knowing what it will be in advance. A collection of colorful, everyday people, including a few familiar faces, (i.e. an astronaut who’s worked on the hubble!) candidly attempt to answer one of the hardest, most controversial, and profound questions of all time – in one minute. And some of them, surprisingly discover a little more about themselves along the way…

WATCH TRAILER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnmMX-GfeNs

NOTE TO CONTEMPLATOR OF SUPPORT :)

Hi there,

I’ve already asked over twenty people the same question, and to my delight, I’ve laughed a lot, almost cried a couple of times, and been seriously inspired in the process. Each person offers a genuinely heartfelt perspective, regardless of how frank, harsh, or passionate. While some answers may feel recycled, others are humorous, engaging, and enlightening. The beauty and power of this film’s message(s) comes from the honesty of those who tell it, and their diversity. Ya see, those people are just like you and I, each sharing, however different our cultures may be, a similar experience because of our location – on Earth.

What I also appreciate about this topic is that there’s no right or wrong answer – no forced messages – only raw emotion from a select number of people that are generous enough to share their thoughts with the rest of us (out there wondering).

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this project. Any donations, however big or small, are greatly valued and accepted with extreme gratitude.

Your contribution enables me to keep doing this stuff that I love so much, and most importantly, share it with you. And c’mon, don’t ya want to know the question? :)

To support this film, donate here, and receive your special perk(s)! Just click on "fund this project" on the right hand side. THANK YOU!

With love & respect,
Jentri

Spiritual Cinema

When I first started writing Lost In Sunshine, I didn't consciously think about telling a story with a spiritual message. I had never even heard the expression, "Spiritual Cinema."

I knew early on that its theme was self-discovery (all of the characters going thru a journey to find themselves) and knew where I wanted my main (female) character to end up - but that's pretty much it.

I wasn't trying to write something that had a niche (perhaps I should have been?!) or make a BIG point regarding taboo subjects. I simply find/found the idea of arguing different sides of the spectrum with myself - interesting/entertaining/exciting. I think that the more questions we verbalize... the more we ask ourselves... the more we learn about ourselves.

Writing LIS has actually taught me a few lessons in my own life already. For example, anytime I've wanted to run away from a stressful situation, I think of my main character. Even she knows (eventually) that you can't run from yourself. As silly as that may seem, I think that if our stories are real... if they are honest in the story telling... then the messages will organically be there and resonate within those who take the journey. I can't help but think that if I had started 'trying' to make points, or started off with an intent to inspire others, that it wouldn't have been inspiring at all.

But it's no surprise that Spiritual Cinema would gravitate towards me. I've always considered myself to be a spiritual person. One that believes whatever you believe in is great, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. And I believe in the power of messages thru visual story telling, too. So, I suppose we're a great marriage. :)

My wish for you all is that one day you'll see the film, and on some (small) level it hits a nerve, gives you a different perspective, or opens an eye. Or maybe at some point, it just makes you laugh, cry, or smile. Whatever the feeling, I hope that you have one about it, and I hope it makes a difference... at least for that day in your life.

What's up with Lost In Sunshine? We're getting there...

Howdy folks,

I'm really excited that we're getting our car painted for LIS this week! Well, it's not exactly ours... but it'll be Lyn's car in Lost In Sunshine. Our lovely art director, Ia, is allowing us to use her jeep in our film, so our payment is a new (blue) paint job... pics coming soon, yippee!

Meanwhile, we're awaiting response from a really special actress on her thoughts regarding the script.... more of this when there's more to share!

Lorie and I have been exploring the world of spiritual cinema and how that applies to our film for quite some time now. We believe that our film's theme speaks perfectly to those who are drawn to material with an over-all positive message. It doesn't mean it's not dark and twisty, has a perfect ending, or it's not complicated and difficult to get there - but it's got purpose. Not a forced or preachy trajectory, but it's got a clear direction. Yep, that's us! :) So, Lorie's communicating with someone in this circle to figure out how a particular alliance may be able to work with us to expand upon our audience/PR/possible financing/contacts, etc.

We've also been tossing around more alternative polishes of the script, based on some feedback via our new Bob, Ross Partridge. There's always been a small handful of specific moments/details I hope to elaborate on/enhance/dial into and sell, via actor performance. It's only the Very beginning of what I hope/feel is a really powerful experience, working on this story with the right, passionate individuals who help strengthen LIS' messages, characters, and offer variations to the color wheel, with their unique talents. People who will challenge me as a filmmaker, and make me a better artist. That's what I'm most excited about.

Thanks for joining me here each week.

SUNSHINE, TX
slowly but surely, we're getting there...

photo by Goat45 Design

ps. New Sunny Side Up episode coming sooooooooooooon!