A COMEDIC SHORT FILM WRITTEN BY AND STARRING ME!
CUT TO: September, 2013. I’m working out this friend of a friend, Pam Gordy, (yes, I also teach exercise and dance… omg) and her life is hilarious! She becomes my muse. After each workout, I take copious notes and then by the end of the month, I have a screenplay, MOTHER OF THE WEEK, combining her life with mine. Here’s the synopsis:
STACEY, a 41-year-old career woman has it all together – with the invaluable help of her children’s perfect (inside and out) nanny, MARISA, whom the three kids love, and Stacey’s husband TIM doesn’t mind looking at either. When Marisa takes a week vacation, Stacey is happy to prove herself and reassert her own role as Mom and sexy wife. Easier said than done – Stacey finds that without Marisa’s help, taking care of family and work is a little more than she can handle.
I call an old writer friend of mine, Fred Stroppel, whom I did sketch comedy with (Third Rail Comedy) back in the day. He focuses and fine tunes the script (and adds a few more expletives). Now, it makes sense, and we’ve got a great story!!
I call a director whom I love and worked with before, Kareem Attallah, but after getting his budget (blah, blah, blah, 5 million steps later…) it doesn’t work out.
WIDE SHOT: Me running around interviewing directors and asking everyone I know who’s made a film, “How the eff do you make a film??”
Finally, I find a DP, Hai-Tao Wu, who’s shot the likes of Vice President Joe Biden, but not done a lot of narrative, so he’s into it. Then later Lee Davis came on board as our Director. The rest of the awesome crew: Producer Adrienne Paxton, Editor & Sound Nicholas Guldner, 1st AD Albert Massiah, Script Supervisor Sontenish Myers , Set Designer Rhonda Malhotra, First AC Oscar Araujo, Key Grip Ning Li, Gaffer Adam Benn, Additional Gaffer Jose del C Martinez.
(picured top row: Adrienne Paxton, Nicholas Guldner, and Hai-Tao Wu,. bottom row: Mark Lobene, me, Lee Davis and Sontenish Meyers.)
NEXT: CASTING!!