The Truth About "Miranda."

So here's the real deal on Miranda:

A lot of people don't know this, but Miranda actually started off as a work for hire type of gig. Director Kent Sutton reached out to me after writing a short screenplay and he wanted me to produce it for him. He had saved a little money for a budget (if you want to call it that), and he persuaded me to help him. My partner Cassandra was around, and she was going to serve as director of photography. The plan was to make the short, then Kent would explore the festival circuit with it.

When I read the first draft of the script I hated it. It wasn't "edgy" enough for my taste at the time, and I spotted a lot of Hollywood cliche's in the first draft. Just to make sure, as I usually do I got second opinions, including one from my other producing partner Brian Ackley took a look and felt the same way about it. We conferenced in Kent, then had him go re-work the script.

Kent is one determined guy - thats what I like most about him. He has what it takes to be a filmmaker, which is that stubborn, relentless drive that gets him up time and time again after he's been kicked down. I spotted these qualities in him right away and was immediately drawn to working with him because of it. He re-wrote the screenplay, then we made the decision to shorten what he had written and shoot it as a short for him to learn with. He had never directed a film before, and despite that sensitive, social issue he was tackling, I still was the typical producer jerk that treated it only as a learning tool. "Oh you want to tell this girl's story, huh? Very admirable. Domestic violence sucks, I feel bad for her character. Good for you for taking this subject on. Now use it to learn how to be a better filmmaker and be done with it." No humor added, that was nearly my exact reaction (I feel brave enough to admit this here).

I remember being on set and watching and listening to Kent direct his actors. I still can't forget how thoroughly surprised and impressed I was with what he was doing. His shorthand communication techniques. His disarmingly calm, understated, psychological approach to giving his actors objectives and adjustments. The way his actors almost immediately came out of their resistances, suddenly unleashed with vigor and fearlessness (it helps that Kent is a trained actor himself). I remember taking mental notes on a couple of his techniques, ones that I will definitely, unashamedly be stealing for my next directorial effort. We wrapped the film, and I sent Kent into an editing room to learn while cutting his first short.

That's not all I remember from the Miranda shoot. I also remember meeting the real girl that Miranda is based on. A sweet, soft-spoken, fragile young lady, I remember asking her if it was weird to watch us making a movie based on her story. Without a trace of dishonesty she smiled and whispered, "Yes. But its okay."

See, she never asked us to tell her story. Kent chose to tell it. And he chose to risk never getting a chance to make another film again by doing such risky, emotionally charged material - material that if executed wrong could have been a cinematic disaster, as well as totally misrepresent the feelings that came with the true-life circumstances. Miranda is about a girl who is hiding her abusive relationship from those closest to her.

Fast forward to September '09, as I am preparing to fly to Idaho for Cookies & Cream to premiere in Boise for IIFF. Kent gives me a call and lets me know in no uncertain terms that he has completed writing the feature length version of Miranda. To my surprise, he gets me a copy in time for my flight. On the plane, I'm holding a stack of scripts to take passes on (a couple of those feature scripts have already been made). Miranda is in this stack and I went through it in about 45 minutes. The script still needed work, but it seemed Kent and I were finally on the same page about story, about approach, about the reverence to the real life "Miranda."

Our company has recently completed developing a slate of upcoming feature films, all with larger budgets than we've had before (finally!). The pros of a slate deal are that once it's funded, you don't have to keep going out looking for money. You get to make what you make and that's it. The cons of a slate deal are that it takes forever to compile, scrutinize, and approve all of the necessary paperwork (welcome to my nightmare). On top of this, once in a while you get an investor who loves all of your projects except for this one or that one. And it can be for the stupidest reason.

Most of the investors we spoke to were in fact the kind who actually looked at each and every film's packaging down to the cinematographer. Which is fine, we're prepared for that anyway. But there were two films that we kept getting resistance on. One of the films was Miranda, the other was another film dealing with a controversial social issue. Here is an exact quote from an email I sent out recently to some of our friends about the fundraiser:

"Several investors have made it clear to us time and time again, that of the films included in our next slate of productions, this one's subject matter had 'the least commercial potential.' In other words, the taboo subject matter of domestic abuse was too touchy for them, and that basically when it comes to social issues with real consequences, we're pretty much on our own."

Production slates have now become the identity of our company. In order to move forward with the momentum of this particular slate deal, we finally had to "unload" Miranda, or risk it taking forever to make, or worse, never getting made.

As a company, our plan going forward never included crowd-funding. The budgets are a little too high, the lawyers are a little too many. Also nearly all of our next films have names attached to them (could you imagine a Kickstarter campaign for a film starring mostly name actors for a budget of, say over 250k? Even if I could, I would be reading their campaign pitch and saying to myself, "You guys got ____ and ____ attached. You'll find an investor somewhere").

However, what I love about this new world we live in is that options like this even exist. We have also partnered with some social organizations that help support victims of domestic violence both male and female, who are very excited and enthusiastic about this project and our approach to addressing the issue. We will be announcing those exciting partnerships very soon. Between grants, local fundraisers, and most of all this thing called crowd-funding we are confident that although it will be rough at times, we will meet our goal.

Every little bit helps, even if its $1. Our perks are also being updated, and if you are interested in helping Kent tell this personal story, or helping us address this issue through cinema, please visit the IndieGoGo campaign site HERE, and check out the VIP perks you can get as backers of our film.

Thank you for reading.

- Princeton

New "Miranda" Cast Member Announced: Jen Burry

We are excited to announce that we have just added a new cast member to Kent Sutton's upcoming feature film Miranda!



Jen recently performed the role of Hero in "Much Ado about Nothing" with The Vermont Shakespeare Company. Her other credits include Sophie in "Flight" with P3/east, "Almost Maine" at The Arundel Barn Playhouse, Sally in "Line in the Sand" at Virginia Stage Company, Rosamund in "The Violet Hour," Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet," Gertie in "Fuddy Meers," Celia in "As You Like It" and Olivia in "Twelfth Night" at The University of South Carolina where she completed her MFA in Acting.

Jen will play the counselor to lead our character, Miranda.

To receive VIP perks and share with us the experience of making our next film visit HERE.

On Camera Auditioning Tips

Got an on camera audition? Get tips and advice from a professional casting director in this lesson about looking into the camera.



Expert: Lori Wyman
Contact: www.loriwymancasting.com
Bio: Lori S. Wyman, C.S.A., one of the most prominent Casting Directors in the southeast, has been in casting since 1979.
Filmmaker: Paul Muller

The 6 Worst Decisions I've Made as a Producer

As in any business, success in independent film a lot of times is based on trial and error. We have the luxury sometimes of learning as we go. More than a luxury, most times its a necessity. We make most of our mistakes early, and if we are smart about it, we take notes from what works and what doesn't. Your ability to navigate through your trail and error periods will inevitably make you a better director, producer, or actor.

I began my work in film like most do - as an aspiring writer/director. In film school, our professors told us the very first day that what we come in wanting to do could very well change by the time we leave. Directors could transition into screenwriters, gaffers could become directors of photography, sound techs could gain a love for editing. It was all up in the air. They predicted when it was all said and done, very few of us would come out concentrating on the same skill. I was one of the few that came in a writer/director, and left a writer/director.

I spent time on as many sets as I could, learning whatever skills I could. In '05 I directed my first short film that contained recorded dialogue. I learned a ton from my mistakes with it, and a couple years later brought it to my first feature film. As fate would have it, I somehow became more than a writer/director. Like most filmmakers these days, I would be almost forced to include "producer" in my title. This was not a choice in the beginning, it was a necessity.

Now I consistently produce; more than anything else. You have friends' films that you want to help on, other projects that you'd like to be a part of, and before you know it, you're a producer as well. It just so happens, that nowadays I produce way more than I direct. And I have actually embraced this, and now have accepted my primary title, as "producer." I guess in a way, my film school professors were right.

Years later, with a couple of our titles acquired for distribution and released (and a couple more on the way), I'm looking back on what I learned this first go-round.

Here are the 6 worst decisions (mistakes) I have made as a producer so far:



1) Announcing a film too early. What sucks about this mistake is that I have made it more than once. I can't even remember why - maybe it was just your classic case of overconfidence. I had an epiphany that my next feature would be this ensemble cast feature comedy that I wrote called American Woman. It had been selected as a finalist at a very prominent screenwriters' program. I even had it optioned by an established producer. Years later the option would revert back to me, and after being thrilled about it, I immediately began casting actors. Most of them were either friends of mine that I liked working with, or people I was dying to direct next. Expectations grew high, way high, and next thing you know our financing lead fell through. Which unfortunately brings up questions of the project and its start date till this very day. It remains one of my most regretted, most painful mistakes. All it leaves you with is a ton of anxious, yet disappointed actors. From then on, I never announced anything else until either the project was certain, or the financing was already in place.

2) Marketing a film to the wrong audience. This one was another total misstep on our part. We had a title that we mistakenly marketed to more "mainstream" moviegoers. Its one thing to blindly promote a polarizing, risky film in front of an indie film festival audience. Its another to not concentrate on who each and every audience member may be, which groups or clubs they belong to, and just promote on the basis of your company's reputation from a prior film. We did just that, and I watched it happen (not to mention I invited some future investors - Yikes!). I allowed myself to get caught up in a numbers game, concentrating way too much on filling up all the seats in the theater, instead of focusing on who should see it, who would appreciate it, even if that meant risking a significant turn out. It would have served the film, the audience, and mostly our company much better. Hindsight is 20-20? Thats an understatement. This was a mistake so grave, that it affected the turnout of our next premiere. Luckily we still filled all of our seats, but strangely it was with an audience that was almost completely brand new to our movies. It would seem that at least temporarily, most audience members expected to be hit with another very challenging film, when it could have been avoided by first seeking out an audience that is 100% into challenging films.

3) Editing on Avid. Dont take this the wrong way. Avid is a great system, and a wonderful way to edit any movie. The reason this is on this list is because of all our titles, Cookies & Cream was the only film cut on Avid. This made things difficult when updated cuts were necessary, DVDs with special features needed to be authored, and little things like credit additions, color timing, as well as other distribution deliverables needed to be included on short notice. Because Avid editors are increasingly rare these days (especially those willing to edit a feature film on deferred payment), its tougher when changes need to be made. Everyone and their mother seems to have a Mac + Final Cut Pro combination, and this would have made these last minute adjustments run much smoother. Besides, it was tough transitioning between systems - PC to Mac, and back and forth - especially with a weak post production budget. It made it so every post production job of the film had to be PC-based. Our sound designer/composer used PC, our color correction had to use PC, you name it. We got the job done (thanks to our great editor Hector Maldonado), but it was much more difficult to coordinate than all of our other titles combined, which were all cut on Final Cut Pro.

4) Submitting Rough Cuts to Festivals. Filmmakers can be an egotistical bunch. Some of us become convinced that our opuses are so irresistible, so brilliant, that festival programmers can see their genius despite the unfinished color correction, unfinished sound mix, and overall rough assembly of our movies. Such was the mistake of a batch of a few of our early titles. We submitted the bunch to SXSW (and one to Slamdance) in time for the late 2008 deadline. When our inevitable rejection letters came, we ignorantly blamed it first on the festival director changeover that sent Matt Dentler packing. But the truth is, our rough cuts were just that - rough cuts of micro-budgeted DIY films that needed to be completed in order to even have a shot at acceptance. Rough cuts only work when Jennifer Aniston is in the credits. Despite what they tell you, never, ever submit a rough cut to a film festival.

5) Choosing talent over maturity. I was so blinded by a young filmmaker's very evolved, technically sound first feature that I never once questioned whether or not they were serious about it being seen or not. I was already beaming at what our marketing plan would be - "The director made this film when he was a teenager!" I think it would have been great - I knew of a ton of festivals that would eat that backstory up, not to mention that it had genre elements and distributors were already beginning to ask us about it. We were collectively rubbing our PMD mitts together. Until of course one day out of the clear blue, said young director woke up and decided they hated the movie. Everything about it. And it didnt matter what me and my company could do to potentially jump-start their name circulation in the world of indie filmmaking. The director didn't like it anymore, and because they were so young, they saw no upside of being able to claim an early, teenage entrance into the fray of auteur-ism ala' QT and PTA. We wasted time, energy, and money on the effort. Never again. My controversial new motto is, "I'll speak to them when they're over the age of 25."

6) Not starting a blog early enough. It didn't come up in our meetings to start a blog until after we shot Uptown. We had already shot our first feature film, and it was in post. We didn't begin this blog until after we wrapped the second. Had we begun it earlier, we could have at least begun talking about the process. Not so much to begin "building an audience," but to at least begin a journal of how all this came to be. If we had, we'd be able to look back on those first entries with a fond sense of journey, instead of being forced to go strictly from memory. I guess we were just too busy actually making movies.

- Princeton

(Stay tuned, for my list of the "6 Best Decisions").

Tom Reviews "Cop Out"

Tom's Corner:

Cop Out
(2010, Kevin Smith, Director)

Wow, he didn't write this one.... Love him or hate him (and hoo boy does the internet seem to hate the fuck out of him...), Kevin Smith has made a name as a writer/director of comedy and bane to those who would cross him (especially protesters and airlines). This movie got a lot of critical flak, and I really can't see why.

This movie works when seen through the homage lens. Think of every good (and a few of the bad) buddy cop movies you've seen. Go ahead, I'll wait...no the Lethal Weapon series only counts as one, since it's the same characters over and over. Okay, got a suitable list of titles? Now, remember the two lead characters in Hot Fuzz, Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) and Danny Butterman (Nick Frost). Nicholas has never seen any buddy cop movies, and he stays up watching them with Danny. Remember how the end of that had over the top insane violence? Homage. Everyone get it who's gonna get it? Okay, moving on.

We've got our two main cops, Jimmy (Bruce Willis) and Paul (Tracey Morgan, who annoyed me less than ever in this role, good show Tracey. And now, I'm kinda sorry for all those times I mentally mixed you up with Wayne Brady. My bad, dude). We start out with an interrogation and action scene one, which they will inevitably “lose.” So, our heroes are suspended for thirty days. Jimmy needed the money he would've earned for his daughter Ava (Michelle [I remember when you were on The Adventures of Pete & Pete and Iggy Pop played your dad, that was cool] Trachtenberg)'s wedding. Jason Lee plays Ava's stepfather, Roy, and plays scummy like he was born to do it. Hollywood, cast this guy as a villain more please. He's got that rare blend of humor and assholery down pat. Why, he could even have played Fletch in a movie (inside joke, look it up).

So, Jimmy decides to sell his rare and expensive baseball card to one up Roy and pay for the wedding. As he attempts to, he's tasered by Stifler and his partner, some other guy (who now that I look it up...wasn't that Rick Derris (another in joke)? Yeah yeah I know he has a name, Sean William Scott, but he'll always be Stifler to me, okay? And fuck you, cause whenever you see him, you think, 'hey it's Stifler.' Ya hypocrite.

Anyway, the boys need that card back. So, after cornering and capturing Stifler, they get annoyed by him and then drag his ass behind their car. Call me a sadist, but watching Stifler getting dragged behind and through various objects could be a fucking trilogy in my eyes. Anyone else? Well, Stifler doesn't like it, so he sets them on the path to get the card back.

This path sends them to Po Boy (Guillermo Diaz) and his gang. Remember Guillermo Diaz? He played Scarface in Half Baked. I kept waiting for him to crack a smile, laugh and smoke up with Dave Chappelle and Jim Breuer. But not even Killer the dog made an appearance. In all seriousness though, he made a great villain, and had an awesome collection of baseball memorabilia. He makes a deal with Jimmy and Paul: find a car that was stolen from him, and he'll give Jimmy the card.

Thus begins the major plot of the two cops moving themselves closer and closer, and finding out it's not the car that Po Boy (Scarface from Half Baked, yo) wants, it's what is in the trunk. No, I won't give any more to you. You've gotta rent this and watch to find out.

That is my final recommendation, by the way. Rent this one. It won't change your life, but it will bring some laughter into it.

The Moving Arts' 'Uptown' Review

Here is a new, fair, wonderful review of Brian Ackley's Uptown, after the jump:



"Two attractive twenty-somethings meet for the first time in a Manhattan restaurant and engage in obligatory small talk. What was intended to be a meeting between indie film director and potential star soon promises to be the beginning of a long and complex relationship that won’t end how either had planned.

So begins director Brian Ackley’s micro-budget bittersweet romance debut “Uptown,” shot guerrilla style with a skeleton crew in only nine days in various locations around New York City and New Jersey. The premise is familiar. Star-crossed romances makeup a large contingent of independent film. They’re cheap to shoot and just about everyone can relate to falling head over heels for that forbidden fruit. A new kind of hyper-realism, typified by the growing mumblecore movement, is also flooding the low-budget film world."

Read the full review HERE.

Uptown was released on DVD by C.V.D. on July 20th. DVDs available HERE.

New "Miranda" Cast Member Announced: Vincent Caiola

We are excited to announce that we have just added a new cast member to Kent Sutton's upcoming feature film Miranda!



Vincent Caiola

Raised in the North Bronx, Vincent’s passion for film and theater started at a very young age. He aspired to become an actor but was very hesitant on how to pursue such an ambitious career. After watching a film by Nancy Meyers, Vincent’s love for the craft thrived and pushed him to finally engage his talent. Although his life changing decision was made, Vincent knew he would not be able to break into such an aggressive career alone. Top talent mentored him, including actor Colin Farrell, who provided him with encouragement and guidance. Other names such as actors and friends, Peter Greene and Domenick Lombardozzi, also provided Vincent with insightful wisdom.

With that support, Vincent began studying acting for two years at HB Studios in the west village of New York City. He soon started filming and working on TV and movie sets including "The Sopranos," "Law and Order," "Damages," and "Pride and Glory." To explore all aspects of film and his new career, Vincent decided to step behind the camera and study producing. Vincent quickly became enamored with this change of scenery and has produced several short films. He is currently working on two feature films entitled The Grasslands and The Butterfly Chasers as an associate producer. He recently produced and starred in the film Blue Knight, also starring actor Peter Greene. He was also an associate producer on the feature film Cookies & Cream. Currently, Vincent is cast in the upcoming feature film Power and Pride as “John,” the assistant to “Senator David Fletcher,” played by Stephen Baldwin. As his career develops, Vincent continues to show drive and determination to exemplify what his talent is both on and off the screen.

You can follow Vincent's work at his fan page, or visit his official website for more info.