Re: GIRLFRIEND NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT!

Hey, guys. Been a while. Sorry I've been away, but trying to mount new projects is a time consuming process!

I'm back today to ask for your support. As you may or nay not know, our film GIRLFRIEND played to sold out capacity crowds at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. We got rave reviews and Evan was a huge hit at the after-party's... but now that we've had our Festival Premiere, we need to get the film out to you, the audience, in as many places as we can. To do that, we're going to need your help.

Don't be alarmed. We do, in fact, have a great distributor in New York who are 100% behind us and the film we're all so proud of. Where IndieGoGo comes into play is in helping us to reach the widest possible audience by (hopefully) coming to more cities before eventually heading to streaming, home video and VOD.

To that end, we are partnering with the distributor to help facilitate our distribution strategy so we can reach our goals. All we need are the financial means to pull the trigger so we can make it happen.

Our goal is to raise 100k to promote and release the film theatrically, get into more festivals, print and sell DVD’s and build a website to stream the film online.

Anything we raise beyond that will be used to bring the film to more cities.

Hitting our goal means we'll be able to do more to get the film out there and in front of your eyes. The cool thing is, we've pulled together some really great incentives - and you'll be supporting us and the film.

Think of this like Paramount's campaign for the first "Paranormal Activity" where they asked YOU, the audience, to "demand" the film in your city, only without the big studio and without demands.

So get involved! Hit up IndieGoGo and make a contribution. You may just win something! But more importantly, you'll be helping us deliver this great film.

Thanks in advance.

Shaun

Re: The Toronto International Film Festival Pt. 2

I doubt that any of us slept much.

Probably a combination of the high from the first screening and the knowledge that a bunch more of the cast and crew would be arriving the morning of the 13th.


We began the packed day by cabbing over to the Intercontinental Hotel on Bloor Street, where a day of press had been set up by Jeremy Walker and Associates (our publicists for the Festival). It was definitely an odd feeling to be sitting in this chic hotel on a secured floor where actors like Jim Broadbent, Bruce Greenwood and the lovely Gemma Arterton were wandering back and forth doing press. Of course, they were surrounded by an army of publicists, assistants and make-up people. We were a bit more... contained.

If you've never been around a Press Junket, well. I'll go ahead and give you a sense of what it's like. They're all pretty much the same. Generally, the cast and director will check into a suite at the hotel where the junket is to take place. You're given a calendar of events for the day. Then, it'll either be one of two things: You cast and filmmaker will walk from room to room, with each room representing a different media outlet, or the cast and filmmaker will go to a single room with a camera already set up. The media people then come into the room, pop a tape into the camera, sit their on-air talent down opposite the star or cast member and they get about 5-10 minutes worth of questions. Quite often, your poster is set up on an easel. Sometimes, you're in front of a green screen.

For our press day, Evan was set to do a ton of press along with Jackson and Shannon. In our case, they would move from room to room.



Here is the actual interview with ET Canada (thanks to JrathboneInfo for posting):



Evan was handling everything amazingly well. It may seem like it would be easy, but it becomes exhausting and monotonous - mostly because the questions tend to be very similar, if not exactly the same. The media need "sound bites" they can use to tease the story, and then they'll only use a small portion of the actual interview. After a while, everything gets hazy. I once worked with someone (who shall remain nameless) who thought it might be fun to play a bit of a game with the press. In between each interview, he'd ask me for a word... any word, which he would then have to try to slip into the interview, no matter how awkward. I think one of the words I gave him was Asparagus. (He did it, by the way.)

Anyway. Evan was running (like most of us) on little to no sleep, but he was amazing. He had poise and charisma and everything you expect of a star. At lunch the group of us (Justin, Evan, Jerad, Kristina and I) walked over to the Four Seasons where Wayne/Lauren Film Company had set up a casual lunch. At this point, we were being trailed by columnist Steve Pond, who writes for The Wrap and was doing a story on Evan which you can find Here.

During the lunch, Evan spoke with Harvey Weinstein the fabled former head and founder of Miramax who now runs The Weinstein Company. Weinstein hadn't seen GIRLFRIEND, but they have a mutual friend in Amanda Plummer. Since Weinstein was sitting only a table away, Justin thought it might be cool if Evan introduced himself. Harvey seemed surprised by the occurrence, but we thought it was great. Near the end of lunch, Evan did another interview (for print) before we headed out for a few more on camera interviews. You can find those here and here (special thanks for luckyj525 for the links).

Finally, with interviews done (and with a few swag bags now attached to us), we headed down to the cast lounge in the lobby for our final publicity stop of the day. The TIFF Photocall. You know about this. Every year, Entertainment Weekly does nearly an entire issue on Sundance Film Festival Photo Calls. The video from this particular shoot was covered by The Wrap and Steve Pond.

Here are some of the great photos from the GIRLFRIEND press junket:





By that time, we had been running from hotel to hotel doing press for about 9 hours. It was time to head back to our hotel where Evan and Justin would do one final "phoner" or phone interview , before we'd get a proper meal (they only have hors d'oeuvres for the most part at the press junkets), have a little nap if we could and finally, get ready for the big night. Our second screening and our official Red Carpet After-Party.

Check back in for Pt. 3! More pictures! More video! More excitement!

S

Re: The Toronto Experience Pt. 1

I got into Pearson airport at about 7am on the 12th after a great trip with Virgin America, my personal favorite and the chosen airline of our production thanks to, um... me. This was my first trip to Canada, so I was already excited, but to get off the plane knowing that I was headed to the Toronto International Film Festival with a buzzed about film, was more than I could've dreamed at that particular moment in time.

Jeff Castelluccio, my best friend (more like a brother, really) and I flew out with Donal Logue and Abigail Breslin, so we were in good film-making company. Jeff, if you don't know, is the editor on both of the films I've produced. He's kind of like my good-luck charm. I try to bring him on anything I do. Fortunately for me, he's talented in addition to being a good guy. Justin flew out with Sasha Grey... also on Virgin... As he so delicately put it, "irony."

The perfect start to my week at TIFF began with my bag being the first off at baggage claim. I was staying longer than Jeff, so I had to check a suitcase - something I'm normally loathe to do. Jeff had only his carry-on.

We grabbed the Airport Express and headed for our hotels. That night was going to be our World Premiere screening, though we were treating the screening on Monday the 13th as the real deal, since it would be attended by a large number of the crew who worked on the film and because we were being provided a Red Carpet After-Party by the great people at Tribute Events. The hotel was literally half a block from most of the events and right away I found myself in the mix. It had been nearly a year since the shoot and so this was already feeling like a bit of a reunion. Most of the cast and crew who were coming in would arrive the next day, but a few were already there. Jeff and I met up right away with Evan, Jason Olivier (Exec. Producer), Joe Turnbull (Cast), Darren MacDonald (Cast), Dan Turnbull (Cast), Seth Chatfield (Production Designer/Actor), Sarah Steinberg Heller (Co-Producer) and Jeff's parents who flew in especially for the event. We had a great lunch after Evan had introduced the 100 Monkeys at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Block Party. It was great to see everyone.

By the time it was 3pm on the 12th, I figured that I'd already been up for 32 hours. That's when I stopped counting.

The first night, you could feel the pressure. It was the first official public screening anywhere in the world. I may have been alone here, but my heart was pounding. My stomach was doing flips - of course, as a producer, I was covering it pretty well.

It's a complicated film and we knew that it could polarize an audience. Knowing that and trying not to worry about it though are two very different things. Justin spent a bit of time thinking about what to say when he introduced the film. He ran some ideas past me and settled on being brief as the best policy. After the screening, there would be a Q & A. I was not going to go on stage for this one. It seemed the film would be best served by having a minimal amount of people up there - meaning Justin, Jackson Rathbone, Shannon Woodward and, of course, Evan Sneider.

We sold out that first night and the audience was a crowd spread across all age groups with a heavy helping of TWILIGHT and 100 Monkeys fans who'd made the trek. After the first screening, I think we all felt that, while still overwhelmingly positive, it was a bit of a mixed bag. It seemed like they (the audience) were... maybe in a bit of shock as the credits rolled. When the Q & A began, there wasn't a single question... so our moderator, Lynne (who it must be said is stunningly beautiful) had to sort of take the lead. She did great getting the ball rolling and things went smoothly after that.

I kind of felt as though I was sleep walking through the whole experience that night. Seeing the film projected on that huge screen at the Scotiabank Theater was so incredible. We were playing in of the largest theaters they have, and knowing that your film has people standing in the rush line in the hopes of getting in is pretty humbling. Special mention should be made of Jane Schoettle here, our programmer for the TIFF Discovery section, who's efforts on behalf of our film were tireless and for which we are all so grateful.

Our Executive Producer had set up a dinner for the core creative team (aided by Co-Producer Sarah Steinberg Heller) and once the screening was done, we all headed over to a fantastic little place called Bistro 990 , where we had a private room reserved upstairs. The attendees were: Jerad Anderson, Kristina Anderson, Jason Olivier, Patch Cutler (Jackson's manager and Co-Producer on the film), Seth Chatfield, Sarah Steinberg Heller, Jackson Rathbone, Evan Sneider, Shannon Woodward, Quyen Tran (our amazing Director of Photography), Sam Reigel (Q's hilarious husband), Erin McPherson (Production Attorney), Justin Lerner and myself. It was a great night full of many toasts (most of them by Evan) and a few by the rest of us. After that, we all needed to head back to our hotels.

The next day was going to be pretty interesting as it would be the first Press Junket day.

Check back for Part II: The Toronto Experience and "Look, Ma! My name's in the Trades!"

Re: The Cast

I've done a post about the experience of working with Evan Sneider, so I thought I might write a bit about working with the other members of the cast of GIRLFRIEND.

When I first came on board the project, I was told that one actor was already attached... that actor was Jackson Rathbone. At the time, to be honest, the name didn't mean much to me. I hadn't seen TWILIGHT, nor any of his other work for that matter. I went out that night to rent the first film in the saga.

It didn't change my perception of him. In fact, it didn't do much for me at all, really... but then, I'm not the core audience for the film. What I knew of him after watching the film was that he was (possibly) a good looking guy. I say possibly because you can't really get a sense of him either physically or otherwise by watching the first TWILIGHT film. He comes off as a new-age Johnny Depp. A vampire Edward Scissorhands with frosted tips... still, you'd be crazy not to acknowledge that he has charisma. With maybe only two lines in the first film, I was still intrigued. Anyway, it wouldn't much matter what I thought either way. He was going to be in the film. I just hoped he could actually act. Like with Evan, I was in for a surprise.

Early on in the process, Jackson came in to Brad Gilmore's L.A. office for *chemistry reads with a variety of actresses. It was during this process that all of my concerns related to Jackson playing "Russ" were put to rest. In the room, he was magnetic. His "Russ" was a man to be feared. He wa tortured. Dangerous. Crushed under the weight of a reality he may not want to acknowledge. In short, he was fantastic. This was only the beginning though. We would have a great many hurdles to jump through together - not the least of which was his schedule with the third TWILIGHT... which was already threatening to wreak havoc with my initial schedule for our film. Not to mention the budget.

For weeks, I tried to negotiate with the powers that be at Summit and for weeks, they held us off. They tried to tell me they had no schedule only weeks out from their start date (yeah, sure). I even generated inside sources in their office in Vancouver - hoping that I might get enough info to lock in our schedule. On our end, we were fighting several other issues. Weather in Massachusetts was going to be a huge factor. We had to shoot at a certain time to maximize the beauty of the changing season's, something which was very important to Justin, and we also had to begin at a certain time to create a window of time with which we'd be able to have the amazing Amanda Plummer in our film.

Fortunately, we had Jackson on our side. Jackson, when he signed on, had indicated that he was very interested in the behind-the-camera aspects of film-making as well. He wanted to come on as a co-producer, which meant that I'd have an ally when it came to scheduling him around his vampire adventures... in the end though, the only way to make our film work for him, was to bridge our shoot across weekends. He'd shoot all day Friday in Vancouver, then hop a red-eye to Boston, which would put him into Logan Airport around 8am. He'd brave morning traffic in the back seat of a Production Assistant's car, change into his wardrobe on the way, arrive at set to literally jump in front of camera (thanks to our crack AD staff who had the days scheduled down to the minute and really saved us several times during the shoot) and that'd be it. By Sunday evening, he'd be back on a plane and headed back to the wardrobe of "Jasper."

In short, he didn't sleep for about three weeks. His commitment to the shoot, the character and the crew literally changed the polarity of the set. When Rathbone showed up for the first "Rathbone Day" as Evan called it, everyone suddenly came alive again. We had spent several weeks with only Shannon and Evan, and to see Jackson and Shannon perform together and, in fact, Evan and Jackson... well. The movie really came together on those days.

I mentioned Amanda Plummer above. This is a woman who, above all, loves the craft of acting. When she's "in it," she is totally invested. Each take brings with it a totally organic quality.

I remember one take that was so great that it transcended what Justin had written. It just became something else. It became a living thing in Amanda and Evan's capable hands. Once we had cut, Justin ran over to Amanda and said, "That was brilliant! Can you do another one just like that?" Amanda surprised Justin and the crew when she gave her answer. "No," she said. "I can give you something else, but not that because I don't know what I did." In other words, she wasn't Amanda the actress playing the scene... like Evan, who's genius is that for him, there was no divide between "Evan Grey" and Evan Sneider during the scenes, Amanda ceased being Amanda in front of the camera. She was "Celeste." She went to great lengths to ensure that the transformation would envelope Evan as well - she even came out to Massachusetts early to spend time with Evan on her own. Doing this ensured that they didn't seem like they were "playing" mother and son, but that they had spent time off camera building a relationship for real. When the camera rolled, it wasn't capturing performance, it was capturing natural behavior... and it was beautiful.

Next, I come to Shannon Woodward. Again, being honest, she wasn't what I had pictured in the role. When she came in to read, she projected a natural strength I felt was wrong for the part. But when the scene began, it melted away. She became troubled. Weak and laid bare by the turn of events in her life. A desperate young girl forced to be an adult for the sake of her child. In other words, she became our "Candy." It's one of those Hollywood cliche's, right? An actor comes in and isn't at all what you thought you wanted... but they simply cannot be denied. He or she just becomes the only person for the role. Sometimes you even try to fight it. You say to yourself, "No. Let's keep looking," but in your mind, you keep coming back to them. Sometimes, it keeps you up at night. In the end though, there's no denying it. The part dictates what it needs just as in editorial, the film begins to tell you what should stay and what should go. It happened to us on DAKOTA SKYE, and it happened again here.

Shannon is a fantastic actress, and her work with Evan was really extraordinary to watch on set - sometimes, subtly directing Evan or providing cues from within a scene to help get him to a certain place or past a block. In many ways, Shannon's work was key to Justin and Craig Divino's work with Evan. Shannon and Evan are in virtually every scene of the film together and the tenderness, confusion and realization she brings to their scenes together are the perfect counter-point to her scenes with Jackson. Where Shannon and Jackson have this feeling of two caged animals trying to determine what to make of each other, Shannon and Evan give the feeling of two people who have come to depend on each others love - even if they can't understand how or why. By the way: Shannon has a new show on called RAISING HOPE that is supposed to be hilarious, and as of right now, you can check out the pilot for the series for free on iTunes, so go check it out!

There are bunch of other actors in the film who turn in wonderful and varied performances and who, many of them having little or no acting experience before, are stand-outs. Seth Chatfield, Dan Turnbull, Joe Turnbull, Darren MacDonald, Harrison Lees, Carole Helman and of course young Nate Krawshuk all leave strong impressions in the world of the film. They are each a testament to Justin's ability to work with non-professionals and to create and craft strong and memorable characters.

For those of you who had a chance to see the film in Toronto, I'm sure you'd agree. This film doesn't work if you don't care about the people in it. From the smallest part to the biggest, they need to make you feel something. They are your connection as the audience and your eyes into the world. If you don't get "Candy" and her decisions, or why "Evan" feels the way he does for her... or why "Russ" seems so completely crushed by the things he's seen or the scenarios he suspects, it all falls apart.

Post Toronto, the general consensus seems to be that the film is strong. In fact, only yesterday, we announced that we have been picked up for distribution by indie label Hannover House, to whom we are all so thankful for recognizing the potential in the film.

If the film works at all, it is all down to collaboration - to the cast and crew and to Justin's vision... I cannot wait until you can see the film for yourself.

S

(Toronto Blog coming soon!)


*Chemistry Reads: This is the process in which actors are paired together in the audition process to see if they have chemistry on screen.

Re: Two Left Feet and Getting An Education...

Many of you now know (by following me on Twitter, (@shaun_obanion) that I have become quite close with Evan Sneider, the star of our film and as we head to the Toronto International Film Fest this week, I thought I'd do a blog about Mr. Sneider and my experience with him on the film. Here it goes.

PS: It's a long one.

There were many questions during Prep on GIRLFRIEND. How long would our schedule be? (pretty short by feature film standards). Would there be rehearsals? (yes, but very informal). Would our DP even be available for the first few days of the shoot? (after a difficult negotiation with another production, thankfully, yes). Would anyone from Summit return our calls? (a very emphatic no). What the hell do you do when you lose your First AD three days before a Location Scout that everyone's flying in for? (...get lucky and find a better one, who also happens to be an old friend.)... I mean... there were a lot of questions... though nothing new for an indie film.

For a lot of indies, the biggest question is often: where is the money going to come from? We didn't have that problem. The Anderson's of Wayne/Lauren Film Co., had already secured the full budget, so everyone was basically waiting on Justin and our excellent casting director Brad Gilmore to cast the film, Justin and I to crew the film and for me to create the initial schedule and early budget drafts... but the one thing that was nagging at me was how we were going to pull this thing off. For me, there were a whole different set of questions in addition to the normal ones I'd be asking (and getting asked) on a shoot.

I had never really been around a person with Down Syndrome before, much less had to count on one to convincingly do what we were going to ask him to do, not to mention all of the possible technical issues:

If you've never done any acting, well, it's not as easy as it looks - believe me, I ended up in the film when an actor could no longer accommodate our schedule.

Actors, particularly film actors, have to be aware of so many things. Not only things like motivation and character, but knowing that (for example) we're shooting Scene 25 which is an interior, where the character comes into a room. 25 follows 24 in the script (logically) only, due to the availability of locations, or other shooting necessity, we shot 24 (the Exterior scene where our hero arrives at the building and enters) maybe, three weeks earlier and now we're shooting the room he walks into... so the actor has to approximate what head-space he or she (as the character) was in three weeks ago when we shot the entrance. By the way, I fortunately only had one scene and limited dialogue, so I didn't have to be too concerned.

Things like blocking. Matching... knowing that he picks up the cup of coffee on a specific line so that in the coverage(I) he does it at the same time for every take and every shot. Remembering where to stand at a given moment. When to move, so that the focus puller(II) [ours was Alex Cason, and she is, quite simply, a badass] knows the distance the actor will be from the lens. Then, maybe the other actor moves. He or she takes something down from a shelf. In the other shot, did he use his left hand even though he's right handed so that he wouldn't flag(III) the other actors light?

Take Down Syndrome out of the equation and it's a lot to think about for anyone... now an army of film personnel and actors were going to be dependent on an actor doing his first film in the lead role, not only being aware of these technical things, but of his performance at the same time!

Early on, Justin (the Director) and I had many conversations about this. Justin, it should be stated, never doubted for even a second that Evan could pull it off. Well. If he did, he never let on. He had written the piece with Evan in mind (he'd even named the character after him) and had worked with him before on his excellent short film THE REPLACEMENT CHILD ( )... but, as a Producer, I still had to wonder... would we be able to keep our schedule? Could Evan Sneider actually do all that would be asked of him?

I was about to get an education.

Evan isn't you're typical guy. He's extremely high functioning. In fact, what I came to discover is that Evan, like many people, really likes to break down barriers. He likes to play with people's perception of him, and above all, he's re-defining what you and I might call "special." What actually makes Evan special is his ability to be un-special. Don't get me wrong, he's a very special person... but he has this disarming quality that just makes you deal with him as though he didn't have Down's.

Evan's brilliance is in his ability to overcome his "handicap." Above all, Evan is... just a guy. He's smart. Funny. Sweet. Kind. Curious. Emotional. Whimsical. And sometimes devious. He knows what he wants and he'll do what he needs to do to get it. In other words, he's pretty much just like you, me or anyone you know.

What I had to learn was to get over my bias. To forget whatever I thought I knew about Down's; Forget what I saw in RAIN MAN or some Farrelly Brothers' movie and just come to deal with Evan as a man... which, ultimately, is what he deserves.

Evan's been performing in the theater for years. He has a nearly photographic memory and he is the most feeling individuals I've ever met. He exists on purely emotional terms. He's both Method(IV) and Sense Memory(V) at the same time. He doesn't play the character, he becomes the character. It's really amazing to watch unfold in front of your eyes and believe me, it translates on screen. Evan is, without a doubt, the beating heart of the film.

These are all things I had to figure out. When we started, my own misconceptions about people with Down Syndrome led me to feel "off" when dealing with him... and since I was often the guy who often had to deliver news about changes being made on set, we didn't get along that well in the beginning. In fact, I told his mother at one point that I just didn't know how to communicate with Evan... I told her I felt as though I had "two left feet."

Evan, for his part, never changed. He knows exactly who he is and, unlike myself and most people I know, he never seemed to be wracked with doubt. He displays a high level of confidence, not only in what he's doing, but in the manner in which he does it. Maybe it's from his stage training. He'd often be heard telling Justin, "I know the drill."

As the shoot went on, my friendship with Evan grew and my understanding of him deepened. As that happened, my desire for what the film could or would do out in the world changed. I hoped (and hope) the audiences perception of what Down Syndrome is would change - as Evan had changed my perception. What I learned was that Down Syndrome is really just a term; A way for the rest of us to deal with that missing chromosome. A way to classify something... but that's all. It can only define the affected person if he or she lets it. And Evan refuses to let it define him. It absolutely does not define him. Just like you and anyone else you know, Evan is unique. A true original. To compare him to anyone else who has Down Syndrome would be like telling you that

you are like everyone else... and you aren't, are you?

I soon realized that what I wanted, by the end of the film, was for the audience to see 'Evan Grey,' the character he plays in the film, not as a man who has Down Syndrome, but as a man.

If even one person leaves the theater thinking that way, then I'll be happy. I know it's a tall order, but not out of the realm of possibility. It, of course, doesn't determine the success of the film for me, but it would be a great bonus.

It should also be mentioned that Justin, who cared for and nurtured this film beginning with some notes scribbled on a few scraps of paper a little over a year ago, would never tell you how he wished for the film to be received. Justin Lerner does not make "message" movies. The film is purely subjective. It isn't meant to educate you. It's art. It's storytelling. And I agree. It is. But I still have that wish in my heart - for Evan.

I should also mention that the credit for Evan's choices and abilities cannot be given to Evan alone. His mother has instilled in him a lot of ideas... He was taught that there are no limits to what he can do, and throughout his life, whenever someone placed a wall in their way, she and Evan would simply find a way over or around it.

Here's an example: when the Massachusetts School Board told them that Evan would have to ride the short bus and attend school with other "special needs" kids, they fought... and they won. Evan didn't go to school in classes with other Down's kids. He went to regular classes. Just like everyone else. And why shouldn't he have? As it turns out, that would prove a fortuitous decision... Evan met Justin in High School.

There were a couple more people who brought Evan to this point as an actor... When we were almost ready to shoot, Evan began rehearsing with Amanda Plummer. She came out early to spend time with him and to build a history together. They walked around town. They did their Wardrobe fittings together. The ate together. By the time they got to set, Amanda had really become like a second mother to Evan... and their scenes together are really lovely. Amanda, as many of you know, is an artist in the truest sense of the word. She's a total professional and is just lovely in the film. Justin's handling of the scenes between Evan and Amanda (aided by the stunning photography of Quyen Tran and the skillful editing of Jeff Castelluccio) create some really beautiful moments on screen.

Another ally in Evan's cinematic journey: A fantastic young New York actor named Craig Divino. Divino had also worked carefully with Evan to make sure that he understood all of the emotional beats in the story. He designed breathing exercises and physical movements to loosen Evan up before a scene and had taken time out of pursuing his own career to be present and available on set whenever Evan needed him. Evan also asked a lot of questions. He and Justin had many conversations about his character. He also wanted to understand the other characters in the film. He wanted to know about their choices and how what they did would affect his character.

So, after working with Justin, Craig and Amanda, Evan came to set and was one of the most professional actors I've ever had the pleasure to work with. He was obsessive about referring to the script. He knew it front to back and back to front. He understood where he had been and where he was going. He felt the emotions of a scene.

There was a day on set where he literally had the cast, crew and background in tears. It was a hugely triumphant moment and at the end, everyone broke into applause. He blew us away, time and again. Now, I don't want to completely sugar coat things and say that there were no issues... no tough moments, but by and large, things were very smooth and working with Evan was really, really wonderful. Justin and I had dinner recently with our Casting Director Brad Gilmore and we talked about how we'd like to work with Evan again. That says a lot about the experience. He was, and is, nothing short of extraordinary.

I can't wait for you to see him.

S

(I) Refers to shooting a scene from a variety of angles and distances so you will have the raw material necessary to edit the scene together into an interesting visual and emotional experience for the audience. Each of the shots, or individual angles, requires a different setup.

(II) In cinematography, a focus puller or first assistant camera (1st AC) is a member of a film crew's camera department who is responsible for keeping the camera properly focused during each shot so that the Camera Operator is able to focus on the Camera movement.

(III) Blocking a light with ones body or using a Grip tool designed to block the light.

(IV) An acting technique introduced by Stanislavsky in which the actor recalls emotions or reactions from his or her own life and uses them to identify with the character being portrayed. This allows the actor to experience emotion in the moment, as the character would.

(V) Sense memory is reliving sensations that were experienced through the five senses.

BLOG ABOUT WORKING WITH THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE CAST COMING SOON.