Scenestealer Production blog

I started this blog to track what's going on with the film projects I am currently working on.

I'm working on a documentary called "Beyond This Life" and I am taking my short narrative film "Brown Leaves of the Fall" to a film festival or two. I entered it into one film festival, and I'm going to send it to another one. With the holidays being over as of right now, I can get down to work and get things happening.

My family and I are moving to Los Angeles in March or April and I'm trying to get things wrapped up here, then try to find some sort of editing or production job out there in L.A. First, I want to take this Final Cut Pro class while still here in Chicago, then maybe I can get some sort of editing job out there. Rent is expensive out there, moreso than our nice 2-bedroom apartment in the suburbs of Chicago. I don't want to just rely on hubby's job. I want to go out there, ready to work.

I'm filming a lot with my new HD camera for this documentary. It's about different perceptions on death and the afterlife and I'm incorporating dealing with the deaths in my family, particularly the death of my grandmother in 2000. I'm also going through something really serious in my life right now, as my mother and I haven't spoken to each other in over a month. It's happened before, but I'm to a point where I can't allow the pain in my life right now, especially after she didn't call my 4-year-old for her birthday and didn't show up to her birthday party, though she said she would. I'm filming a lot and all of it might end up in the film. It's weird talking about my grandmother's death on camera, and not speaking to my own mother, whom I feel doesn't care at all.

I'm trying to plan a trip to Los Angeles by myself in the next month or two to check out apartments and jobs, and I'll film that too. Even possibly visit a cemetery. I would love to go to the Griffith Observatory, where "Rebel without a Cause" was filmed. I love that film and I love me some Natalie Wood and James Dean. Natalie Wood...she's my heart. I'll watch her in anything. Her face was amazing. It was something about her eyes that made you feel everything she was feeling. Her eyes...absolutely amazing.

To prepare for making this film, I'm watching a lot of documentaries. I just watched "Capturing the Friedmans" and it was quite disturbing. I mean, I watch "Law & Order: SVU" all the time, which is disturbing too, and based on some truths, but "Capturing the Friedmans" was really about children who were molested at the hands of some creep. Having three small children myself, that stuff hits me hard. I also plan to watch a disturbing documentary made a filmmaker I worked with a few years back. It's called "Triangle of Death". It premiered on the Military Channel about a month ago and it's on my DVR. I'm also going to watch "Bowling for Columbine" again, this time with my husband, who is also my production partner. He's never seen it before, I have.

I'll keep this blog up to date with what's going on with my film projects.