Good Wednesday To You!

So grateful today!  My wonderful students gave me a lovely send off for my last day at the mental health facility in Watts.  Doughnuts and gifts, what more could I ask for?  Oh yeah, Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings off now until July 6th.  Umm... YAY! 


Also SO grateful for my wonderful manager Joy Stevenson who is celebrating her birthday today!  Yay Joy!  Couldn't ask for someone better to be on my team.


AND I'm so grateful for my writing/producing partner Leigh Hall!  We're putting the finishing touches on our first feature film script (comedy, but of course)  and couldn't be more optimistic about it!  Yay Leigh!


Lastly so grateful for and proud of Phil Han, whose recruiting business ZenSource is taking off!  Oh, of course it is!  It's Phil!


Yay today!!!

Grant Me One Grant, Please?

  On this Good Friday, I have a question for the universe?  How do a couple of funny ladies go about getting a grant to make a funny feature film?

Leigh Hall and myself, started Hall of Shea Productions when we decided to take our goods from stage to screen.  We started with the short film Not in My Family, followed by Love Royale (won "Best of Faux" at the Faux Film Festival 2009, then the 2-part series, Represent, and most recently The Bold and The Fuel Efficient, still in post-production.

We've managed to fund these one to two-day productions with favors, friends, and sad-looking savings accounts, but I'm afraid that won't cut it for our first ever feature film endeavor.  

We've got a great script, great cast in mind, all the energy and excitement we thing we'll need... just need some money and guidance.

Thoughts??  

The Scariest of Lakes!

Last night I attended the premiere of The Lake : The Lake trailer . This well-written, well-directed, well-acted, well-monstered, all around well-made (and yes, scary!) short film, is the newest from Just Chorizo Productions.  Written and directed by Jason Dodson, who made his directorial debut in 2007 with the drama, The Accident , The Lake tells the story of a body of water, once believed to have healing powers, which drew in terminally-ill patients, seeking its potential.   But what happened to all those patients who came looking for a miracle?  A few young campers are about to find out!  Production Stills from The Lake  


And speaking of potential, The Lake has it.  Dodson's plans to turn the short into a feature are in the works, alongside producers Henry Saine and Colin Ebeling.  Saine, cousin of Dodson, recently made news when his first ever feature film The Last Lovecraft: The Relic of Cthulhu, made it into the Slamdance Film Festival, then landed a distribution deal with Dark Sky Films.  Oh, and who could forget Henry Saine's first two hilarious shorts Not in My Family and Love Royale, starring and written by Beth Shea and Leigh Hall?  


When will the feature version of The Lake hit a theater near you?  Stay tuned!

Short Film Making... Money?

  I've been a comedy short film maker for four years now.  I have REALLY enjoyed it!  Not in My Family was the first, followed by the Korean drama acted by white people, Love Royale then there was the tumultuous production of what was supposed to be a pilot presentation, Represent, Part 1 and Represent, Part 2  which due to a long painful list of problems, turned into a 2-part web-series.  Still pretty funny though!  And most, recently a gem of a daytime soap opera parody, The Bold and The Fuel Efficient, currently still in post-production.  My production company Hall of Shea Productions has operated under what you might generously label, a micro-budget.  Leigh Hall and I have managed to bring our funny to film, even winning the Audience Award for Love Royale at the Faux Film Festival in 2009, with the help of great friends, actors, Henry Saine, and very little cash.  So it's been lots of fun, some good exposure, great demo reel material, but... is there more?  Could there be money??  A friend and filmmaker recently shared with me that his short films are in fact raking in more cash than compliments these days.  How? Some video host websites pay royalties per view.  The catch?  The viewer has to watch a commercial before the short film.  But that doesn't seem to be stopping the viewers at www.atom.com from clicking away.  Atom.com has paid out million of dollars in royalties through their revenue sharing program by contributing Atom content everywhere — on the Web, mobile phones, iPods, Xboxes, etc.  Does it really pay?  Stay tuned!