Wednesday on the Williamsburg Bridge.

We did it!

The film is almost finished! Here are some stills from it. We have the very talented Dev Hynes (aka. Lightspeed Champion http://www.lightspeedchampion.com/) working on an original soundtrack. Quite a coup!

Casting

Today was the day we were meant to sign off on the entire cast but it's so hard! Luckily, I had the help of my wonderful Casting Director, Kate Murray, my Producer, Heather Jack and my Associate Producer/Gaffer Bella Wing-Davey. Tomorrow is the absolute latest we can decide because I need to rehearse with the actors and sort out their costumes so I'm at home on a Saturday night reviewing all the tapes of the auditions again.

The Final Countdown

Ten days to go until the shooting begins. Yikes!

I currently have no cast, no confirmations from my locations and no camera booked. But I do have loads of faith!

I've worked very hard, auditioned over 85 actors and got my script to a point which I'm happy with. I have a wonderful crew and I think it will be loads of fun.

Cross your fingers for me!

Read this book. It's extremely interesting.

Mothers and Daughters

It's very remiss of me not to have explained what I'm working on this semester. The second year of the Grad film program is dedicated to a ten minute short film. It's the longest project we've worked on to date. Here's the synopsis for mine:
A young disabled woman wants to have a sexual experience but her overbearing, religious mother is unwittingly standing in her way. I've just got the script to a place that I'm happy with and I've got good feedback from my classmates and teachers. Now I'm trying to cast Eleanor which is proving almost impossible. It's quite surprising but there are so few actors with disabilities in New York. Luckily Christine Bruno from Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts is helping me out.

The talented Matt Mendelson has signed up as my cinematographer and I have two fabulous producers, Heather Jack and Shruti Ganguly.

Watch this space for updates.

I'm shooting this film in January, but in the meantime I'll be crewing on seven other films. Yikes!

RIP Bill Reilley

One of my greatest mentors at NYU passed away this time last week. Bill was an amazing teacher and I don't think I've ever met anyone as generous or truly caring as he was. He gave everything to the students at NYU and his generosity, insight and humor will not be forgotten. Last year he said that he'd had former students nominated for an Academy Award ten years running. It was truly a testament to his inspirational teaching. He gave me the confidence to complete my film last semester. I will miss him terribly and wish I'd had more time with him. Bill I was always so grumpy with you for going overtime but I hope you knew how much I loved you!