not so sturdy stock am I

I've had a cold for 9 days. It started a week ago Monday. The first down day after SXSW, my head was aching, I was sneezing, coughing, and I sounded like a troll.
I missed Trinity last week. I just spent the week groggy and slightly out of it. I drank teas, took Vitamin C and on Friday night I got Western and took some store brand nyquil.
Ten minutes later, I was sleeping like a baby, though my boyfriend said I snored.

Monday rolled around and I was still coughing. Here's the deal: I don't get sick. Ever. I'm one of those people that just don't get sick. I come from poor dirt farmers, we're hardy.

Anyway...back at Trinity today. I love it!
Lionel and Keni both wanted to talk about the movie. They both attended our screening at the Paramount. They loved the film. Keni said it was top notch. Lionel said it was just amazing.
I love those guys. I worry about them, too.
They are friends who I see once a week. Who I don't call. We are more like cousins, then friends maybe. Anastasia was there, too. She's a transvestite. She's a man, but she's all girl.
I haven't seen William in a few weeks, last time I saw him he yelled at me and stormed out the door. He's convinced he has a rare medical condition and the doctors won't give him the tests he needs to prove it to him. Randy hasn't come back yet, two weeks ago, he had just been released from the hospital with walking pnuemonia. (hey...wait a minute...maybe this isn't a stress cold...maybe this is a true germy cold...courtesy of sweet little Randy).

I feel at home at Trinity. Even when i'm insanely busy, it marks my week with a honest, homely love. They'd help me out. They'd watch my back.

I wish I could give them all a room of their own, a homemade quilt or two, a nice dog, a place to bathe and make toast.

file under: friends

a weekend

This weekend, was a true weekend.
I didn't work a bit. I didn't once come into my office and work on JOB or BB or Homeless or RMe or even paid worky work.

Here's what I did:
Slept in, worked in the yard, planted two tomato plants and one jalapeno pepper plant, met Tracy's new puppy, "Hank", took pictures of Hank and Tracy, went to the dog park with Roy and Hank and Tracy, watched Roy leap over boulders and run like crazy through the woods happier than I've seen him in ages, went with Steve and Tracy to see Annalise in a show at school, went to bed late, woke up late, had breakfast with Ryan, Kat and Karen, did more yard work, worked out at the gym for an hour, had a little meeting with other parents about the upcoming prom, went to the dog park with all three dogs and Steve, worked in the yard, lit the chimenea and puttered in the yard while Steve made dinner, chatted with my neighbor, Gabriel about his 8th birthday party, ate dinner with Steve outside, while Gabriel's little brother, Ian, told me all about his day, watched a Herzog film, tried to do a Suduko puzzle without cheating and went through half a bag of cough drops.

This is my experiment. If I allow myself some down time on weekends, will my weeks be more efficient, less crazy and more focused?
I'll find out this week.

First Day of Spring

Today is the first day of spring, the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.
Can you feel it?

"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."
- Margaret Atwood

in Just--
spring when the world is mud--
luscious the little
lame balloonman
whistles far and wee
- e e cummings (Edward Estlin Cummings)

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
- T.S. Eliot (Thomas Stearns Eliot)

"Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world."
- Virgil A. Kraft

file under: life in general

SXSW - our second screening

We had our second and final SXSW screening today, at the Paramount. It was exciting when Kat and I rounded the corner of congress to see in the marquee, jumping off bridges. A moment of just...damn, it's real!
Less than a year ago we were still scrambling for money, film stock, people, and were planning a trip to NYC to see about convincing Michael Emerson to be in the film. Amazing what can happen in almost a year.

Today was a day of gratitude.
To Kat for writing a great story, to our crew and cast for bringing it to life, to our investors, to the people who brought food to the set and encouraged us and kept us going. I'm grateful to have been a part of that and to keep it going. I'm also grateful that I inherited some of my grandpa's hard headed nature, that tendency to go forward when any sensible person wouldn't has always served me well.

After the screening we all gathered at the Driskoll, then headed out to eat dinner with our friends from the Rough Cut Lab, Alan and Eunee. Then we watched their film, Inner Circle Line. I was exhausted, still, the film was a treat, visually stunning and full of soul and heart.

A good day all around.

A near sell out on a Thursday afternoon at the Paramount. A wonderful review in the Chronicle. A nice way to end our week at SXSW.

When I got home at midnight, the dogs were barking, and the cats were hungry and there was a ginormous bouquet of flowers from mom and dad with the note, 'you go girl!' How cool is that?

file under: jumping off bridges

Sold Out

We sold out our show at hte Alamo. There were people sneaking in left and right. As the preview shows ended, the house manager told us there were two more seats, Kat and K hopped up and found two more people to come watch the film. Then we settled in...and then..Mayor Wynn arrived. I hopped up and gave him my seat.
I watched from teh stairs as a room full of people in seats in folding chairs and sitting on the stairs watched our premiere.
The feedback was positive, amazing. I've overhead conversations as people have talked about our film. People have come up to us and told us they love it.
We're gonna be the festival sleeper hit.

file under: jumping off bridges

what we want from SXSW

In all the rush of prints and masters and posters and parties and trying to find time to feed the dogs and keep the lights on at home...

I like to have a clear goal and I like the number three. With that said, here are our goals for SXSW:

1. Have a great premiere for jumping off bridges - increase our "pedigree" (that's a word all the industry folks seem to love). We'll get reviews, good ones I hope, publicity, and word of mouth and some notice.
2. Get some meetings with distributors and work a deal with them.
3. Get some meetings with production companies who work with indies (we have a list) and pitch them our next project.

We've worked hard to make all three things happen. Now, we just have to keep things in motion, show up and smile a lot. I know we're ready...wish us luck!

file under: jumping off bridges

A night off

The storie girls met last night for um...'stickering'. We did sticker a bit...and we tried to watch another episode of Lost with Michael Emerson, but they showed a rerun. So we watched American idol and ate salad soup and drank a little wine (thanks to Tracy, Super T, Frazier) and sampled three different flavors of chocolate, orange, raspberry and pistachio (thanks to the lovely Leslie).
After American Idol we indulged further in the event that always brings us together, Project Runway. Chloe won. She was the long shot. She's not the snippy creative one who can't sew, that's Santino. She's not the young, Daniel, who has wonderful, classic taste and makes weird little purses. She's sure of herself, she is a brilliant seamstress and uses lots of color and panache.

It was a fun night off. A calm before the storm. A carefree night after all the stress of the last few weeks.

Today I was on Fox 7. One friend called and said it was just great and I looked just great. Another said my hair was in my face too much. I told her that was intentional, I don't like my forehead much.

Tomorrow Kat and I should be on Eklekticos and we'll also be on KXAN. Later I'll be on the Austin movie show. I'll try to keep my hair out of my eyes...

file under: films

Storie Girls Rock!

I just want to say that the Storie girls truly do rock and I wouldn't say it if it weren't true. We are a great team, a tight, hard working, get stuff done team.

It's spring in Texas and I'm grateful to live in Austin. I love visiting NYC. It's a place like no other place. Still, the buildings can't compete with the mountain laurels and lavender blooming right here right now. When I stepped back onto Texas soil, I remembered why I love this place and how much I need spring.

file under: films

Trip to NYC

I spent the last four days in NYC. I met with producer's reps., distributors, casting agents and several people that are deep in the NY indie scene. This is one thing that producer's must do: walk that line between getting information, giving information and keeping the buzz at just the right level. While you're doing that, you're drinking coffee or eating, because, after all, you're in NYC.(I actually had a pistachio cream donut for breakfast on Wednesday!)

The meetings were good, great even.

jumping off bridges has pushed me into several roles I didn't think I was quite ready for, at least not all at once: producer/production mgr./line producer/post production and producer again. Our film is on the verge of finding it's place and all the work Kat and I (and our kick ass crew) put in over the past year will help make that happen.

It was good to come back from NYC and settle in to the growing list of work items we have to complete in the coming week. It's daunting, but then again, so was making a feature film on a tiny budget, and, of course, the marathon was a bit daunting at the beginning.

file under: films