Three awards from Chattanooga's Best of Open Screen Night

December 11, 2012

Back in October, we were featured in Chattanooga's Open Screen Night.  We were asked back for the Best of Open Screen Night and we're honored to announce that "Blue" walked away with three awards!  Congrats to our actors and crew for another festival success!

-Favorite Cinematographer (Heather Dappolonia)
-Tied for Favorite Director (Tanya Musgrave)
-Overall Favorite Short Film (to producer, Kristine Barker)

Many thanks to Jimmylee Smith and those involved with producing this film festival.  Best wishes for years to come!


-The filmmakers of "Blue"

Festival Awards and Open Screen Night!...and other news

October 5, 2012


Wow, it's been a while since we've updated this--apologies.  Here's the real behind-the-scenes, lol...we ran out of money (and a slight amount of motivational-steam).

But here's a little of what we've been up to!


In June, we were able to be shown at the Rave Theater in Chattanooga, TN for Open Screen Night.  Viewers cast their votes, and the top tier would go on to be shown at the Best of Open Screen Night in December.  We just got an email this morning that ordered the top films by percent of votes on the night they were screened and Blue was 1st!

By category, Blue got the most votes on the night it played in the following:

-Storyline
-Cinematography
-Director
-Overall

and got 2nd for the Actors category :)

The Best of Open Screen Night will take place @ the 

Majestic Theater in Downtown Chattanooga 

Monday, December 10 from 7 PM - 11 PM

In July, we were graciously asked to take part in the Firehouse Film Festival in Dalton Georgia.   It was Whit Davie's hometown, and we were honored to be part of it.  It was held in July and we walked away with five awards:

-Best Set design

-Best Sound & Score

-Best Cinematography

-Best Lead Actress (Julenne)

-Judges Best Film Award

From there, the winners were shown at the festival in Rome, Georgia :)

We're very thankful to God for the success that Blue has had--with no clue where it's headed still, or what doors it will open up, we're nonetheless excited to see what's ahead.

   _________________________________

With a little change in our pockets, we're picking up the DVD dream again--to have a finished product to be able to hand to people (at the very least to our awesome cast and crew, and potential employers), that's what we're aiming for.  

So with that, I've been working on audio commentary that we recorded with Julenne earlier this year, as well as Spanish subtitles by the request of a viewer in Mexico.  There will possibly be more behind-the-scenes footage and a featurette on Julenne's journey as an actress.

Still lots to be done!  Bear with us ;-)

-T

The First Week | Stats and Shout-outs

Wow. It's been quite the eventful week!  Besides getting accepted into the L.A. Women's International Film Festival and being informed that we'd be in our Alma Mater's paper, you who have taken the time to see our little senior-project of a short film, you've blown us away!  

I'm not gonna lie, especially that first day, I was only expecting a handful of fifties or hundreds...family, friends and people who knew we'd shot it.  Let's be honest, generally people don't flock to a 13-minute film online, especially about something as sad and ugly as cancer...

When we got over 100 in the first hour, I knew something had to be wrong.  Even when it happened again and again every hour that first 12 hours, and we collectively topped out above 1,300 I thought "There has to be some mistake."

When it happened again the next day, it finally settled in and we realized how many people we knew that have been hurt by cancer...we've been so blessed with knowing you, and we wanted to take the time to give some shout-outs, because it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't passed it along.


YOU ROCK! Thanks so much for posting/reposting/blogging/reblogging/Tweeting/e-mailing/sharing, etc. Cancer sucks and we're wanting to let the people affected know it's gonna be okay.  With your help, we're off to a great start =)

Stats


Vimeo views - 5,962
YouTube views - 176


Total first-week views - 6,137

Countries - 98

# of Embeds - 65

Facebook shares (that we were tagged in) - 67

Tweets/Retweets - 49

And with that, we'd like to give a shout-out to as many as we could track (haha, in the most non-creepy way of course).


Shout-outs


Though we know it's not everyone, we wanted to at least try to thank as many people personally as we could!  If you're not on here, WE LOVE YOU TOO!


Facebook:  Jeff Meyers, Katie Freeland, Casey Depangher, Daniel Wahlen, Ryan Gordon, Matt Stevens, Lindsey Gaspard, Matt Hadley, Renee Cerovski, Garrison Hayes, Lisa Klimesch, Teresa Hennen, Melissa Wortman, Flor Just, Beth Anne White, Zach Gray, David George, Kevin Ekvall, Adrienne Suarez, Addie Dorough, Jade Meyer, Rebekah Doying, Asia Hamilton, Cassie Sommerville, Tammy Vaughn, Allissa Wright, Bob Vaughn, Abner Sanchez, Emily Taylor, Beth Grissom, Angela Hopkins, Daphne Martin, Leslie Foster, Penny Brink, Lacie Hamm, Adam Buck, Brittany Baisley, Kasper Haughton, Samantha Salyers, Debbie Patrick, Ian Pagdilao Elissa Gohl, Devin Anavitarte, Stephen Carlile, Amanda Fulghan, Nathan Page, Suzanne Ocsai, Lynn Downey Braswell, Robert Barr, Christy Rutledge, Steven Satterberg, Derek Pitman, Megan Rentz, Erin Burke, Brenda Wells, Lauren King, Shearin Joyce, Michael Dappolonia, Daniel Gomez, Brian Bautista, Kathy Cruz, Ceves Adventist Church, Tiffany Melo, Marissa Ferrell, Betsy Wirkkala, Anthony Velasquez, Mona Endehipa, Leroy Abrahams


Twitter: Marshall Snider, Katie Freeland, FaceCancer2gthr, Davidjgc, Ashley Chism, Daniel Wahlen, Nick Loyd, Niki Penola, The Adventist Church, Amy Sells, Nick Smith, CancerForward, Mary Kate Stone, Kenny Kane, Caitlyn Mayers, Joan Standish, Abolish Cancer, Breast Fest Films, Light the Night Ontario, Suzanne Ocsai, SciF1Sara, Michael Castello, Zamer


Tumblr/Websites/Forums:

And we'd also like to thank the people from these cancer organizations who have taken the time to watch and pass along to their coworkers or social media pool =)

Thank you to everyone who helped pass on our message of hope and comfort!  Keep sharing =)

To Daphne, with love...

February 2, 2012

I've been sitting at my computer for about 10 hours today, getting things ready here and there for our online release tomorrow...the sun is setting juuust on the edge of the mountains outside my window, enough for a ray to pierce into my vision.

Sometimes sunsets are like that...so beautiful and majestic that you can't help but look at it, no matter how bright it is, or how much it hurts.  It always seems brightest right before it dips behind the horizon, doesn't it?

I met Daphne Knecht about 5 years ago; we went to the same university. The first time I saw her, it was her roommate that pointed her out and said, "THAT'S my really cool roommate." On the sidewalk in the distance is where I saw a brightly smiling girl who waved back at us.

I'll be perfectly honest, I never really got to know her. I always saw her in the gymnastics shows (In.credible gymnast), or around campus and she was always really sweet.

But about 6 months ago, I started seeing mutual friends on Facebook say they were praying for her.  Stories from festival-goers had made us hypersensitive to cancer stories so I wrote her, curious about hers, offering our support and prayers.

(She also happened to know Julenne, our actress, and had gotten to talk with her about their situations)

Come to find out, I'd caught her shortly after she took the plunge and had shaved her head. And yet her message was still dotted with smiley faces and a cheerful outlook:

"Hey, yes I remember you, dear. Thank you so much for you support and prayers. . .  I gotta have optimism, it's tougher without it. 

My boyfriend and I were in a car accident in July 2008. The airbag hit me in the face, and scratched my right eye. The doctors did a CTscan to check for trauma inside my head due to the blow which showed the tumor on the left.. Totally random, but I strongly believe it was God letting me know my life was about to change. I had never had any type of symptoms from this tumor before, and still did not until January 2010. I began having headaches which felt like major migranes, but turned out to be siezures. I had surgery that January and started the chemo treatment I did in February through December 2010. The tumor shrunk about 75% of its original size. Had a great and uneventful school year, but then this May I started to have siezures again, which are now worse than just headaches, but I have never lost conciousness in one. I came home for another surgery because they found a spot on the tumor, and now getting ready to start another bit of the chemo, and radiation treatment at the same time. =/ I'm kinda nervous, but I'm sure I'll be alright.  I was expecting to lose most to all of the hair on the left side of my head. So I went ahead and donated what I had. 

My hair wasn't long enough to make a hair piece, but I read online that they still accept it and can use it for somethings, so I figured "what the heck?" lol.

Thank you for your interest.   Again, I really appreciate the prayers, and your film story sounds so great. I wish we could know each other a little better. 

God bless you and your thoughtfulless! 

-Daph

A short bit ago, things took a turn for the worse, and I started to see just how many lives this girl had touched. An unbelievable amount of people from all over the country were praying for her and even raising money for her brother's airfare to get to her bedside. Donors raised the $1500 within a day and then blew a good $6,000 past that to go towards her medical costs.

A Facebook group called Daphne's Warriors kept everyone in the loop from small triumphs to laughable Daphne-isms... to when she fell asleep Saturday night, January 28.

Scroll through her comments, peoples' pictures, her friends' stories...it's no question that she was a bright ray of a setting sun. For those last couple weeks, her positive influence shined so brightly that people like me who didn't even know her that well just couldn't help but watch, even though it hurt.

Her funeral is in a few days and the pain is so fresh for her family, friends and teammates. My heart and prayers go out to you all and I can't wait for the day to see the smiles of those who loved her so much, reunited with hers...and getting to know her better =)

Daphne, this one's for you; as petty as it may seem (or is), we'd like to dedicate our online premier to her, and to those who could use the comfort and hope.  Blessings and strength in the coming months...

-T

L.A. Movie Awards!

January 13, 2012


Got a call last night from Kristine, and we wanted to make sure to call Whit before we posted this up =P

Calls have been made and now we get to share with you!  *big cheesy grin*  Excitement!

We got an e-mail yesterday that went as follows:

Hello,

We would like to Congratulate you on your wins in the LAMA this season.  We also would like to thank you for participating and submitting such high quality work.  We've attached your winning laurels to this email. Thanks and have a great day.

You can view the full list of winners at:  

http://thelamovieawards.com/2012_%28I%29__Winners.html

Thanks again and we wish you the best with all your future projects.

Congrats Whit! So glad we could brighten up your day =P

Stay tuned for some more news in a week or so; we're almost ready for our online release =D

-T

Lots of exciting news!!

November 1, 2011


While we were there at our little corner for Alumni, we would tell the groups about our project.  To be honest, not a lot of people dropped by, haha, the radio station and nursing corner got a lot more attention. But yet I guess only one person is needed if it's the right one.

One particular gentleman showed some interest and asked us where we wanted to go with the film, etc. He bade farewell and handed over his card, offering to help in any way. He JUST so happened to be the Director of the Clinical Trials Group for the National Cancer Institute! (http://www.cancer.gov/)

I e-mailed him with a private link to the film; maybe he could tell us a little bit more information about that side of things, right? After all, there is a lot of legality involved when you "pair up" with any organization.

I woke up this morning to an e-mail from him. He said he loved it and offered to introduce us to a good friend of his: the chief medical officer and Executive VP of the American Cancer Society!! (http://www.cancer.org/)

It was an amazing contact to make, because we wanted to pair up with a cancer society and had no clue what that entailed, how that worked or how it could even happen; now there's a resource we can explore!  So there might be some cool stuff coming up in the future and we'll keep you posted =)


In other news, we've been wanting to explore the idea of compiling some cancer stories together for a book to go with the DVD. It just so happens that Facing Cancer Together invited us to share the film info on their digital quilt. We sent the organization a private link to view it and they were moved to tears, saying they would help in any way to compile stories for the book. One of our friends who has started getting into the publishing/book world and has written one herself, has even volunteered to help us write it!

Things are coming together...we forget every now and again how much prayer helps, at the very least to help us chill out and not worry so much about things. For a project we didn't even have a month before we shot, He may've given us one that could help save someone's life (we're wanting proceeds to go towards a cancer patient). God is good, eh?

-T

Lynn Downey @ Beverly Hills

October 26, 2011

Lynn Downey, writer of the original short story that "Blue" was based on, attended the Lady Filmmakers Film Festival, hosted in Beverly Hills.  She got a chance to write a few words for us =)

First off, let me say hello and thank you to everyone who is connected to the beautiful film the girls have made. I have been so blessed by this experience and by people being touched by a collection of words that have been sitting in my computer for five years. Some of you may know this but for those of you who don't, the story is based on a very brave friend of mine from college whose dad was diagnosed with cancer and came to spend a weekend with her. They hung out and played cards and laughed and cried and just sat with the horror and stared right into it together. I was so moved by her saying, "We both needed it." I wondered what it would be like if two people were less brave. If they needed some sort of distraction or project so they didn't deal with the painful depth of reality. My professor Bart Edleman was a great encouragement and I always knew it would make a great film. It took a number of years and some friend of a friend connections for the time to be right and I couldn't be happier with the outcome.

It's been so fun and so encouraging to get to travel with the film. My husband and I got to head out to Temecula to see it on the big screen for the first time. And since Heartland was the same week as the Ladyfilmmakers Festival, I was able to represent the film in Beverly Hills. 

Writer's Guild of America Theater

The Friday mixer was great fun and I got to meet a number of young filmmakers. Mike, one of the founders of the festival said 300 films were submitted, and they chose only 70, so GO BLUE!!! People said they really were touched by the film. One of the filmmakers I met wrote me this email: 

"I LOVED your movie! As a filmmaker, I really enjoyed how polished, well-structured, well-performed your simple story was -- but as the husband of a breast cancer survivor, I was moved to tears by your realistic but poignant portrait." 

Other mentionable films were "Bathing and the Single Girl," mostly because it was totally a performance piece, a ten minute monologue, filmed. It was compelling to see such a theatrical adaptation. My favorite was "The Maker," an amazing(!!!) animation that walked away with best of fest. 

Discussion Panel

I got to attend a really interesting panel discussion about the intersection of commerce and art in filmmaking with the president of the Casting Society of America, an executive producer, a cinematographer, and writer/director Diablo Cody ("Juno," "United States of Tara.") The discussion was one of those ones you leave feeling excited after, not bogged down. It seems that filmmakers of all levels are struggling to get things made these days. No matter if your budget is 200 million (Terminator Salvation), 7 million (Juno), or your own pocket money, you have to be super creative and work as a team. Just like our girls did! Afterward, I got to meet Diablo Cody and gave her our postcard. I told her about the film and she was visibly touched by it. She said it sounded like a really great story. It was a very real connection type moment. Super cool.

Diablo Cody (Writer/Director of "Juno")

My husband and I left, beaming, proud of our film Blue, and inspired to continue writing stories and getting together with other people to make those stories come to life. 


Lynn

Thanks again for all your support and I am eagerly anticipating all the wonder to come as this journey continues!