Black Market Kidneys Premire

We had the BMK screening today. Scotty Schultz and Catherine were the only ones from the cast and crew to show up. So kudos to you to. Debra Sussman was the only one who had an excuse cause she's currently appearing in a play.

The Artimoviches showed up, once again showing up like a heavy metal hurricane. They came to the first and best screening, sat right up front. I could hear them making comments about the movie, like how real the guts in the opening credit sequence looked, and they'd chuckle when they saw how we changed the geography of the house around. It's for people like them that we made this movie for. During each screening I was pacing the back room, wearing a rut into the carpet.

Things went well. We had a great turn out for our first screening, and no advertising.

BMK Production Day 5

We were finally able to get back into the house to film.

Things went well, much better than the other times we filmed in Le Carpathian.

We got some really great takes and are thankful once again that it worked out we were able to get Debra Sussman because she's much better than the other actresses.

We stayed around for a long time after filming just talking, so it's late. I'm tired. And going to bed.

BMK Production Day 4

We went back to Le Carpathian to finish filming. The power isn't back on, but it's been off for over a month and there was no sign of it coming back on, so we decided to go ahead and see what we could do. The moment we got there, Mike said the power is going to be turned back on tomorrow. We tried filming some stuff, but ran out of light and decided to come back in some other time and do it right since the power is coming back on.

Musings

Wrote (Name Deleted) today letting her know she's been fired. Almost wish I could've said it to her face like Donald Trump.

She wrote a nasty e-mail back outlining the "contingencies" she wanted us to put in the "contract". She wanted to stipulate how long we have for post-production on BMK. I don't think so. This is our movie, not hers. She didn't write it, she didn't direct it, and she sure as hell didn't put any money in to it. So she sure isn't oing to tell us how lng we have to work on it.

Another of her "contingencies" from a previous e-mail, is that she wanted it put in the "contract" how long we would be able to show/sell the film. Again, I don't think so!

Luckily we had our secret weapon, i. e. Debra Sussman, or we'd ahve been stuck with a crappy movie we hated, that we could oly show for a period of time determined by someone who should have no say in the matter. Who does this bitch think she is?

If Debra hadn't done it, though, we would have gotten someone else. No way we're letting someone else control out movie, that's our whole reason for sticking to independent films, so that we have total and absolute control over every aspect of the film.

Black Market Kidneys Production Day 3

Today was our third day of production on Black Market Kidneys. We did the Claudia reshoots with Debra Sussman at Lucky's Pub in Eustis, FL. We had made tentative plans to shoot the house scenes today, too, in order to get the movie completed on time, but Mike said that the power is out. It went quite well today, much better than our last time filming the bar scenes. We only had Jess Crawley and Trent Stover as extras, so pretty much have to use the main two shot. I'm glad we ended up with Debbie, though, she's a much better actress and brings more to the role than the other two actresses we had cast in the role could have done. We got everything done in about an hour. Then spent another hour catching up with Debbie in the parking lot.

The Release Form Issue Resolved

Yesterday I sent an e-mail to (Name Deleted) explaining how it's just a release form we want her to sign, not a contract. And I put my foot down, telling her that if we didn't have a signed digital copy of the release form by noon today, we would be forced to drop her and just recast the movie with someone else.

She wrote back wanting me to contact her acting coach. Hmmm, on Satuday she said he was her manager. He's leaving town today so I had to contact him yesterday. Yeah right. If she's going to consult her "manager" on this, shouldn't she have consulted with him before taking the part? She doesn't even have the release form anymore, so there's no chance she'll be able to get a signe copy to us on time. Good for us because we put together a rough cut of the movie and she really, really sucks, and brings the entire movie down and makes it seem amateurish.

Found Debra Sussman's number, our friend from back in our community theater days, and had Jason call her to see if she'd be willing to help us out. I originally wrote the role of Claudia for her anyway, but didn't think she would do it. Turns out, though, she's glad to help us, and is willing to take over Claudia so we can have a good crappy little movie, instead of a shitty crappy little movie.

BMK Problems Update 2

Heard back from (name deleted) today. She said she's "not comfortable with giving up her rights"

What rights? Does she think she somehow owns this movie? Did she write it? Did she direct it? Did she put money in to it? Did she do anything but act terribly and be a major pain in our asses? No! All we did was ask her to sign a simple release form I got from the good folks at IFC.com, that says she agrees to let us use her image and voice as it pertains to Black Market Kidneys. And she writes back talking about contracts.

I had no choice but to go Medieval on her buttocks.

Here is my response to her e-mail:

First of all, it is not a contract. You are not giving up any rights to yourself or your image. It is simply a release form allowing us to use your likeness for Black Market Kidneys and only Black Market Kidneys and its publicity. There is no contractual aspect of the release form nor is it implied.

Everyone else in the film has signed it and have not expressed any concerns with it. I received the release form from the Independent Film Channel. They require all films submitted to them to include the release form I gave you; it is not something that I came up with on my own.

I will need a digital copy of the signed release form e-mailed to me no later than noon, Friday September 14^th 2007. I need to receive the original release form, signed by you, in the mail no later than Wednesday, September 19 2007.

If I do not receive the digital copy at the requested time I will assume that you are no longer interested in appearing in this production and will re-shoot the Claudia scenes with someone else."