Magic Film Potion Recipe

The next 3 weeks will determine the next few months of our lives with respect to LIS. We will either be making Lost In Sunshine, and be thrown full force into pre-production as of April 1st (some of us already are!), and begin shooting April 19th, OR we'll be forced to regroup for a later shoot this year. But right now it's all about April. Actually, right now it's about March... March 29th, to be specific. That's our deadline for securing necessary funds.

It goes something like this:

We must secure locations in order to productively move forward with the majority of storyboarding. And storyboarding takes lots of time. But it's hard to secure locations without a solid affirmative on our shooting schedule/budget info, and it gets more complicated with everyone's other schedules coming into play.

We've recently had a crew change, sadly losing our line producer, Michelle, to other work (it happens, and we wish her well!) so the lovely and talented, Megan Gilbride, has ambitiously stepped in to assist us with line producer needs at this time. Thank you, Megan!! Like a film friend recently told me, ".. it takes the right group of people to make these projects happen..." Like a magic potion recipe - you have to get all the ingredients just right for it to work.

AND, time is of the essence.

Our casting director, Vicky Boone, is currently approaching our lead male hopeful, and we need this budget information to determine other factors to provide the agency with... which could determine if the actor is even available/willing to do it. And, we need (tentatively) secured locations in order to move forward with storyboarding in a productive manner.

Bottom line: Everything revolves around everything else. If one person drops the ball, it's like dropping it on all of our heads! And quite frankly, it hurts. Each person is equally important to the team's success.

May you all find your magic film potion recipe!

This is how we do it in Sunshine.

Lorie gets us up to speed in her recent blog titled, "Still here" so perfectly, that I think it's best you read our production status there! :)

Meanwhile, I'll fill you in on the *writer-director's perspective of how we're getting it done in Sunshine....

(this blog has moved -- read the rest here!)

Storyboarding, Love, & the Aether

I don't like the "s" word, so I'll just say I've been 'under the weather' this week. :) I'm still not up to full speed, but nothing gets me out of bed and on my feet faster than thinking about  Lost In Sunshine. 

After a couple of hours of storyboarding with Ia and Iskra this AM, we began to find our rhythm - our cadence. It was a miraculous experience for me - so wonderful.  What began as a bothersome, anxiously awaited activity, turned into a beautiful, magical process. What can I say... "they complete me!" Ok, that was cornsville, but I do LOVE my gals. They f'ing ROCK!!!

Before we began the process, I conveyed my thoughts to Iskra (DP) of illustrating the character's POV's through the lenses, what that meant technically, and how that would change through the course of the film. How would their worlds be reflected through this method? It was lovely to be able to implement those techniques visually on paper - a great lesson for me with angles, composition, thoughts of lighting - yet another way to TELL the story - emphasize the details of that which you want to enhance or negate. Thanks, ladies!!

Then Iskra and I started chatting about the tone of the film, saturation levels, aspect ratios (what's that? ha. no really...235?) and what camera might best suit our needs. Lately, RED has been all the talk. Now we're throwing 35mm into the bowl of possibilities. So many things are still TBD, but that's the value of early prep-work - there's time to entertain ideas, move, weave, & make the best decision possible for your film!  

We were talking cranes, dollies and steadicams, too. Our film will hold a certain fluidness - little to no hand held action. Then Iskra reminds me that we must not forget stillness. Oh yes, it has a place too.  And thank goodness Ia can draw it. I'm afraid I'll need to reference that later. ;)

Still trying to figure out if we will shoot one or two days in "Sunshine" this Dec. If only one, then we're contemplating shooting "POV driving shots" to capture the essence of fall, if possible. After all, we have found Lyn's car (main character) that we have access to, and I'm VERY excited. This little beauty is a character all on its own. Perfectly imperfect. MUAH.

And with all the great LIS stuff circulating around me, I find even more excitement in the air with the Aether Paranormal documentaries I've been producing with Paranormal Productions. Things are looking unusually optimistic for some network action, so we're keeping our fingers crossed. Things move fast in LA. That's why we reside here. We like to sleep in and stay up late! 

So after a GREAT session with the ladies, and a long, productive phone meeting this afternoon with my kick ass producer, Lorie, followed by some much needed good news regarding the Aether team, I feel elated... yet still under the weather.  What can I say... It's hard to be down with so many loving, uplifting things going on! 

Thanks for reading, and have a beautiful weekend!

ps. LIS official website launch still on for end of October - yeah! 

Love, Jentri

Creating and Storyboarding Lost In Sunshine

Today, I met with our wonderfully artistic Art Director, Ia again for some oh-so-important, Lost In Sunshine storyboarding I've been craving. It's possibly the most challenging thing I've done thus far in my life. Luckily, she's patient, and carries a positive can-do attitude with her, making my life that much easier. THANK YOU, IA! Really looking forward to our creatively brilliant DP, Iskra joining us next week, too....

(this blog has moved -- read the rest here!)

Lost In Sunshine September Updates

Pleased to say that we're ON OUR WAY!!

The location scouting has begun with Laura. Here's an image of one of our cafes we plan to shoot in. The large rustic image is of a cotton gin, and the others are simply buildings occupying the town to give you a sense of its character. The town's people were so gracious, inviting, and excited. It was refreshing to see their glowing faces when we said we were "filming a movie" there. That has, lucky for me, and surprisingly, never been done before in this tiny little Texas town....

(this blog has moved -- read the rest here!)

Lost In Sunshine Hustle

In the next few months of pre-pro we are BUSY dancing bees! Just to give you an idea of the film challenges we're facing - we've got locations to scout, storyboards to draw, multiple jobs to juggle in between, and investors to solidify. We've got websites to build, audience -specific research to continue, music to entertain, important casting to conquer, test shots to contemplate, and mountains to climb....

(this blog has moved -- read the rest here!)

Where I found the beauty for creating Sunshine

This weekend, I drove through the two TX towns we'll be shooting some select Lost In Sunshine scenes in this Dec. and next April. They reflect the imagery which LIS was mirrored after. As I briefly drove through them, I was reminded of the understated beauty these places exude. My dad always said that I would grow up and appreciate living there, rather than a big city (I always wanted to move to Austin!) and he was.. uh... yeah... right!!

(this blog has moved -- read the rest here!)