I was with my friend Christopher Myers and he was talking about how much he loves Herzog-ing life, so we made this real quick. Hope you likes.

So this trend of Shit (Blank) Say is pretty, um. Well, it’s a thing. Anywhoozle! My friends Ilana Glazer, Eliot Glazer and Matt Mayer made this one so it’s great and they are great and we love them so don’t hate, appreciate. Jesse Jackson?

*I was googling the IFC films website, if you must know.

This song is great.

“The beauty of the procedural quality and character of a work of art is that very often you set out to do something like X, but during the course of the action something else happens and takes the idea in a previously unheard of or surprising direction. It is not only a matter of ideas bouncing off and against one another, it is also about the material realities, about how the chosen material guides and directs the process. Sometimes the end result is in fact much more than even you yourself thought at the beginning, and you recognize some of its main connotations only afterwards. And this, of course, is the hardest part of the process, how to keep it open and alive – and to let those surprises really lead and guide you.”

–Mika Hannula

So today was day one of our shoot.  Went really well!  My crew is fantastic, as is the cast and I’m really excited about the work.  So excited I seem to have locked myself on set.  Literally.  Went to go leave and the door wouldn’t work.  So I was trapped inside.  But my resourceful producer jimmied the lock with my bank card and kapow!  Victory!

Which was great.  Until she left and I got locked in again.  Seriously.  We were pretty stoked about her jimmy trick (which is a perfect metaphor for being a producer: using money and ingenuity to rangle your way into things).  It was doubly potent because earlier that day we thought the card was stolen.  And then we had it cancelled.  But then it wasn’t stolen!  And they also cancelled my personal card by mistake!  Wait, what?

Yeah.

But the fact that we used the dead card to open the door somehow seemed fitting, like taking lemons and making lemonade.  Until I got locked in again.  Then it seemed more like shitty lemonade.

But on the plus side I got to stay on set and work.  And I got to spend $400 dollars on a new lock.  Pretty fancy, right?  The real silver lining?  Being able to call my good friend/fellow filmmaker Bat-Sheva Guez and have her “bail” me out of the location, as I had no cards to use, and not nearly enough cash on me.  What does it take to make a movie?  Great people.  And the ability to be calm under pressure I think.

The real coup today was that all of the mishaps happened after we wrapped.  The dailies are looking great!  The pace is fast but not painful!  And at the end of the day, we’re making a movie!  Pretty awesome.

Happy Day One , Y’all!

So to get in the swing of being on set, I made this short video with the very talented comedianne, Roya! She’s one to look out for. Because she steals. Just kidding. She’s a very talented writer/performer who is a DEE-LIGHT to work with. Same can be said for Matt Mayer, Beth White, and designer Kristen Holbrook. Oh and special shout out to Alexandra MacArthur for doing some sweet sweet sound. Hope you guys like it!

Hey yo!  My feature script is a finalist for the SFFS Screenwriting Grant!  You can read the write up on IndieWire.com!  Thanks SFFS for believing in my work!

“…And when it came to the final sequences of the film I was forbidden to use fireworks.  I told the army major [in Kos, Greece] that it was essential for the film.  ’You’ll be arrested,’ he said.  ’Then arrest me,’ I said, ‘but know that I will not be unarmed tomorrow.  And the first man who touches me will drop down dead with me.’  The next day there were fifty policemen and soldiers standing watching me work, plus a few thousand people from the town who wanted to see the fireworks.  Of course, I was not armed but how were they to know?  Nobody complained or said anything.  So through all these incidents I learned very quickly that this was the very nature of filmmaking.”

Wener Herzog on why he is a badass/How he made his first feature Signs of Life.

Seriously read Herzog on Herzog.  It’s amazing.

So once you finish a script, things apparently go pretty fast.  

So far, offers have been made to potential leads (exciting!) and on Wednesday of this week we had a table read with the very talented Ilana Glazer, Tunde Adebimpe, Ann Carr, Matt Mayer, Kjirsten Riccardi and Deepak Ananthapadmanabha. It went really well, surprisingly well, better than I could have expected.  When something has been in your head for awhile (in this case a few months) it’s hard to imagine things that I’ve poured over several times will resonate.  But to hear the words out of the mouths of others, and to have a captive audience of people responding audibly (laughing, gasping, sighing!) in rhythm to the script was amazing. It also let me hear it a new, and make subtle changes based on how it played.