Happy Canada Day!

It's Canada's Independence Day today and although it's cloudy out--boo!--it's sure to be a fabulous day. Here's hoping it burns off before my afternoon run.

We had a fantastic time in Portland last week visiting with friends and shooting the music video for Toby. Thanks again to everyone who came out for the fun. The sun was out, the voices were perfectly pitched and a great time was had by all, I think.

Hello Faithful Friends

Hey, remember when Dipstick and I used to post stuff here? For those of you who haven't given up on us, THANK YOU!

Have you ever felt caught up in a vortex, where things are spinning so fast around you that you actually see colors and bright shiny things in the clouds (no hallucinogenics involved)? That is how I've been feeling and it's been hard to hold onto the reigns. Beyond basking in glee and drinking packets of EmergenC, that also means any free time I've had has been dedicated to sleep, so sincere apologies for being MIA.

Anyhoodle, for now, I'll fill you in on all things Lipstick since I last wrote.

A little over a week ago, we shot our first short film Til Death To Us Toby. For Patty (who was an awesome Assistant Director) and I, it was a 22 hour day. We got up at 3:45am, crew call was at 5:45 and we were rolling by 6:30. We shot until 11:11pm non-stop, save 15 minutes for lunch and 15 minutes for dinner. I thought it was killer that I said "that's a wrap" at 11:11 (I'm superstitious that way). We partied with the cast + crew until nearly 1am. The cast and crew were beyond AMAZING! Seriously, what a stellar team we had, who never complained or ran out of energy. Can't wait for the big wrap party!

If you're out of the loop, you can follow the thread the Hot Pink Shorts HERE.

It's been an amazing journey with OUTtv and this Hot Pink Shorts program. I'm gushing with gratitude and spinning at the sight of exciting things on the horizon, finally truly within grasp. I told the folks at OUTtv that I felt like a caterpillar who'd transformed into butterfly throughout this process. Week One, I was a furry little larvae and slowly, as we ate all the mentors had to offer, and set out on our own journey into the sticks and leaves, my wings actually began to take shape and I could eventually lift off the ground. And now, well, there's no stopping me as I fly around this wonderful world of opportunity.

More to come soon, for sure, as there are some really cool things simmering on the TV front.


**Small caveat for you Portland peeps: in the upcoming month, we'll be filming a little music video for the original song Christine Havrilla and I are co-writing for Toby. It's called Hightail and it's addictive. Think Jack Black meets Melissa Etheridge. For the video, which will also be part of the credits for the film, we'll need people to come out and help us, so stay tuned. We'll need as many people as we can get for the shoot, which is slated to happen at Laurelhurst Park.

Enjoy the little slideshow below of our shoot, both of the action and behind the scenes. Cate Cameron captured these amazing moments. Be sure to check her out online. She rocks!




*photos by Cate Cameron

Do You Want to Star in "Til Death Do Us Toby"?

Call for auditions!

If you live in Vancouver and fit any of the below criteria, send us your resume and headshot. You can read a full listing for the call for auditions here. Remember, we have a super small budget...

PROJECT INFO

Title: 'Til Death Do Us Toby

Duration: Short film

Storyline: A film about freedom, the need to break out of the chains that keep us in our usual place and a mother’s propensity to put unrealistic demands/expectations on a child. It’s also a story about survival. The protagonist, Toby, is the family’s pug, who misunderstands a conversation between his owners—Mimi, the mom, and her daughter, Sam. The neurotic Toby thinks that they’re trying to kill him so he tries to escape. Sam, Mimi’s teenage daughter, has a friend that Mimi doesn’t like: Megan. Mimi thinks Megan is a bad influence on Sam because Megan is edgy/alternative/gayish. Financially, times are tough for the newly-divorced Mimi, who is trying to keep up with the lifestyle she and Sam have grown accustomed. To supplement her income, Mimi leads a double life as a business woman/high-priced dominatrix. (Role info below.)

Characters:

Name	Mimi Brennan
Gender	Female
Age Range	42
Description	Mimi is a controlling mother who is confident, sexy, image conscious. Her daughter, Sam, bares the brunt of Mimi’s controlling ways. Mimi wants to keep Sam on the straight and narrow. Mimi, who was recently divorced, has had a hard time making financial ends meet, so she leads a double life to supplement her income by being a high-priced dominatrix. Actor must be willing and comfortable to playfully wear dominatrix outfit for funny, brief flashback scene. (Age range: 35-45) Height: 5’5 – 6’0

Name	Samantha Brennan
Gender	Female
Age Range	15
Description	Sam is a precocious, impressionable teen who is feminine, but also naturally a tomboy. Sam may or may not be gay, but she can’t stand her mom’s controlling ways, loves to break the rules and is completely smitten with her best friend, Megan. (Age range: young-looking 17 - 19) Height: 5’4 – 5’7

Name	Megan Ross
Gender	Female
Age Range	15
Description	Megan is a cool, alternative, edgy dyke, who is pretty hardcore for a teenager. Megan is confident, comfortable in her own skin and enjoys that Sam, her questioning best friend, has a crush on her. (Age range: young-looking 17 - 19) Height: 5’4 – 5’7

Auditions are this Saturday! Check out Vancouver Actors Guide for details on casting.

Also, we're looking for a local queer photographer and an art director/wardrobe specialist, to email me at development@chateauentertainment.com for info on that.

Hot Pink Shorts - Day 3 + 4 (Pre-Production + Location Mentor)

Things are really cranking over here! So fast that I've had to get my oil out twice to keep the parts moving. (Interpret that how you'd like.)

On Saturday, we had our first pre-production meeting with our team at OUTtv's offices. It was yours truly, Patty (who's wearing the Assistant Director hat, among other things) and Ryan, our Director of Photography. We talked about some important preliminary stuff: where we were at with the script, casting thoughts, logistics around filming, crew update, equipment needed, etc. At that point on Saturday, we'd yet to lock the script, so that was priority 1.

P and I went to lunch afterward--a little Caribbean food at The Reef on Main--and worked on the script and than did another couple hours of brainstorming later. We finally locked the script on Sunday! There will be little tweaks along the way, but we're truly off and running now.

On Sunday, we met with our Locations Mentor, Mike Cates. It was a great meeting where we discussed:
- scouting locations
- permits needed
- effective scouting strategies
- the need to be flexible and resourceful and not to get sold on one location
- how to protect the place you're shooting at (laying down cardboard or rubberback carpets, tennis balls on the bases of lights, etc)
- the importance of prioritizing when you first start scouting (what is the hardest location to nail down, what is the most important location with the most scenes)
- he told us about the BC Film Commission and said they are an incredible resource for location scouting and have thousands and thousands of digitized photos of locations submitted by filmmakers through the years of locations that have been used or scouted

He was a great guy and very resourceful! Thanks Mike.


We've also been on the hunt for the perfect pug to play Toby and have been in touch with some animal talent agencies. We decided to throw up a post on Craigslist and whatya know?

[Drum roll................. ]

That is where we found our star! We met "Juno" on Tuesday and immediately fell in love. He's "big boned" and we think that adds to the humor that we're going for in the film. Also, Juno is one of our favorite movies and we thought that was a sign. This is coupled with the fact we loved his owner, Peter, and his son Adam. We thought we'd give you a sneak peek at "Toby" here. Juno is a retired show dog and a former Canadian champion. If he could talk, Juno would tell you why he's a champ: his perfect placed ears and perfectly round melon. He did lose a few points because his hind chops aren't as curved as they should be.

We had another production meeting on Tuesday night and met our Camera guy (although he is and will be way more than that). His name is Mic and he's from Australia. He's a super smart guy and is putting our script into a digital 3D storyboard program which makes me so excited I yelp and snort--like Toby--little when I talk about it. Not sure if that is something I can upload here, but hopefully I can share some of that, too. The program he's using is called Frame Forge.

All right, more soon. We've got to check some things off our "To Do" list.

Hot Pink Shorts - Day 1 (Meet the Filmmakers + Scripting)

Let the games begin....

On Sunday, we began the making of my first short film with OUTtv. (Background: In March, my short film pitch was selected by OUTtv for their Hot Pink Shorts contest. As a winner, they are not only funding my first short film--titled 'Til Death Do Us Toby--but also they are making a documentary out of the process. We began the creative work and filming Sunday).

First task: THE SCRIPT! I met with the amazing S.B. Edwards (pictured above), a writer who's been in the film industry for years and recently optioned 2 film scripts and 1 for TV. She kicked ass and I walked away with an awesome arsenal of knowledge and feedback for my little short film. She was like a wise old sage (although she's not old at all--we're the same age--but seasoned deliciously). Some things I learned from S.B.:

- Before you begin writing your script, you must know the ending, as it will be your guiding force. As a novelist, my process was opposite for my debut novel, Jukebox (coming out in the fall). Many times, after I had the characters good and fleshed out and the story underway, I'd let the characters lead me. I'd just show up and I'd let my muse write through me, let them do what they wanted (like a Ouija board). I got some of my best scenes that way. In prose, characters can take on a life of their own and lead you (may seem strange to a non-writer). In film, you have to be much more deliberate it seems.

- There needs to be a surprise or twist, and a big payoff at the end. It needs to be something viewers aren't expecting, but after it happens it makes logical sense.

- I need to hone in on 1 protagonist and make them a sympathetic character viewers like.

- I only have 7 minutes, which equals 7 pages. Eeeek. There is no way I can pull off what I'd intended in 7 minutes. Time to turn up the heat and reduce the story.

- A short film needs to play on viewers emotions and be able to say much in just 1 scene. The short format is very economical and you must push the story forward (similar to the novel, but in an even more concentrated way) with each scene/each word. Nothing is wasted.

- I only get 3 actors, 2 locations and 1 day to film. Eeek again.

There was much more, but clearly, I've got to get to work!!! A big THANKS to S.B. for her advice and offer of continued support. She has been a great mentor so far!

Thanks, also, to Nicky (superhero/Director), Rylan (Mixer), Jonny (DP), Meagan (editor), and Philip (Producer/PM). I'm anxious to talk to Kevin Kostal, the other winner, to see if his day was just as fruitful!

OUTtv will be launching an interactive feature to the HPS website this week, where Kevin and I will be blogging about our experiences, uploading video and photos, too. Once that kicks off, I'll just put the link here for those interested in following.

Wish me luck!!

In case you didn't see my pitch, I embedded it below.

Lipstick Wins HOT PINK SHORTS

It's official: My pitch, 'Til Death Do Us Toby, has been selected by OUTtv for their Hot Pink Shorts contest. Thank you to all who voted! I couldn’t have done it without you.

If you're in the dark about this, here is some more info: OUTtv, Canada’s only LGBT national television network, recently held a contest in conjunction with Hot Pink Shorts, in which contestants submitted video pitches that were voted on by viewers. Yours truly was selected as one of the winning pitches. As a winner, OUTtv will fund my first short film, ‘Til Death Do Us Toby and make a documentary of the process (“The Making Of…”). Also part of Hot Pink Shorts: mentoring. During the process, I will receive advice/help from industry professionals from pre-production all the way through post-production—and it will all be captured on film for the world to see!

My short film, ‘Til Death Do Us Toby, is about Sam, an artist tomboy teenager and her mutt, Toby, who go on a wild adventure together, which includes Sam discovering that she’s gay. Sam is being raised by her religious cougar mom, Mimi, who refuses to acknowledge that Sam is growing up to be a big ole lezzy. Meanwhile, Toby, Sam’s neurotic sidekick, thinks that everyone is out to kill him. Will Sam and Toby make it out alive?

I've been producing the Lipstick & Dipstick Show on Curve’s website and am excited to take it to another level by writing/directing my first short film.

Round 2 of the Hot Pink Shorts contest has already began and they’ll make more lucky filmmakers’ dreams a reality. If you have a short film idea, check out Hot Pink Shorts today! Even if you’re simply a film enthusiast, Hot Pink Shorts is an amazing community. Join today!

http://www.hotpinkshorts.com/

http://www.outtv.ca/

http://www.hotpinkshorts.com/contest

* the other short film selected for this round of Hot Pink Shorts is "Short Sight" about a gay man who has the abilty to see people's true, repressed selves in an eye that was damaged in a fight when he was young. Cool, huh?