Wow! The non-stop gravy train that is the LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival continued yesterday with some great food, conversation, and networking. I spend lots of time at various conventions, festivals, and of course host Screenwriter Karaoke, so it’s always rewarding when  an event is well orchestrated. (Translation: thanks for having your shit together LA Comedy Shorts!)

Favorites of Saturday Night

Isabel Fay & Lee York’s With or Without U2 – A musical short, it appears to be about a man pining for his lost love. But it turns out as something else entirely. The short was good, but what elevated them above others on Saturday night was the filmmakers’ industriousness outside of the film.

When Isabel Fay began the short, she  the neglected to consider the rights of the U2 song they used. So, though they got into festival, the sound track was not licensed. What would any self respecting, industrious filmmaker do in such a predicament? Well, get the Silver Lake Chorus to perform the song live, acapella in the theatre. It was awesome!

It reminds me that filmmakers often work best when presented specific limitations – they came up with an absolutely inspiring solution that felt just the right bit of funny, old-timey, and performance art. Sadly, given the licensing issues around the short, the filmmakers shared With or Without U2 had its one and only public outing last night.

The other two favorites of the night were also foreign outings; Suiker a story accidental death and sugar and Appy Ever After the delightfully funny romp where a boyfriend uses a green-screen app on his iPhone, so he can drink with his buddies at the pub.

Rooftop Partay!

After the screenings it was onto the gorgeous Japanese Garden space at the Kyoto Grand Hotel.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s Day 4 wrap up and don’t forget to read about the first 2 days of the festival here and here!

It’s exciting to be a sponsor of the LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival, the vibe here in downtown Los Angeles is awesome. Over the next couple of days, me (@UncompletedWork) and Xandy (@CoverMyScript) will be tweeting and blogging talking about our experiences and all that fun jazz.

Here is the lovely entrance way of the Kyoto Grand Hotel. On Saturday night LA Comedy Shorts roof top party will be here.

Then it’s off to the Downtown Independent Theatre, to pick up our badges. And slippers. Xandy opted for the pink ones. Perfect fit!

Down at the red carpet, we tried out new battle poses. Watch out!

Hey! It’s a little CoverMyScript.com Signage. Nice!

Then it was into the packed theatre for the opening night screenings!

Last week, I was interviewed by The-Greenlight.com on the importance of branding. Today it came out so take a peek! I touch on the subjects of web presence, putting your best foot forward and taking ownership of what is quintessentially you.

It’s tough as ever to reach the dream. The talent pool grows and grows and at any waking moment in LA there is a cacophony of writers clamoring recognition and livelihood. When I say a screenwriter needs branding, it means they need to effectively set-themselves apart and above of their peers. Good writing is vitally important, not much can be done without a solid foundation, but so much is how you present yourself in the context of your good work.

Speaking of Branding there is even more exciting news in addition to all the goings on earlier this week!

L.A. COMEDY SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL PRIZES

Through CoverMyScript.com, winners of the Movie Magic Screenwriter Screenplay Competition for Best Comedy Feature and winners of the Funny Or Die’s Best-of-Fest Grand Prize Short will receive a Branding and Next Steps Consultation Package.

Over at the HQ of the L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival, the CoverMyScript.com team met with Artistic Director and festival co-founder Gary Anthony Williams (you may remember him from such comedy things as, everything) and Festival Director and co-founder, Jeannie Roshar – we were originally just going to transcribe an interview, but our time with them so lively, it kinda turned into a podcast.

Read the rest of the L.A. Comedy Short Film Festival news: here.

There are so many instructional and scholarly articles out there about the writing and filmmaking processes. Hell, I write some of those too. But, I’m just a dude who loves his craft(s), and has his hand in 15 little fires at any given moment. I’m out to learn from the world. What does it take to keep my engine running? I’m excited to share some of the things I’ve been working on, will be working on, and where you can see me in LA this month:

APRIL 2011

RT Booklovers Convention

HOLLYWOOD: From Page to Screen : Script Consultants Give You the Goods
Date: Wednesday April 6, 2011 01:00 pm – 02:00 pm
Event Type: Writer Industry Workshop
Location: The Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, 404 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071
Phone: 213-624-1000

RT Booklovers convention is hosted by RTBookReview.com and is a focused community of romance writers across several sub-genres. Though I’m not working on the next “Twilight-killer” I do know what makes for good story, and I’m delighted to be joined by fellow panelists and writers Xandy Sussan (imdb), Melinda Snodgrass (imdb) and moderator Vivi Anna.  We’ll sort you out. Romance lovers, hope to see you there.

LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival

CoverMyScript.com will be out at the LA COMEDY SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL:

The L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival and Screenplay Competition is dedicated to introducing the newest and hottest comedic talent to the industry, and helping them make the connections they need to take their careers to the next level.

In fact, the winners of the LA COMEDY SHORTS screenplay competition will also win a gracious CoverMyScript.com BRANDING AND NEXT STEPS CONSULTATION PACKAGE with myself and CoverMyScript.com owner, Xandy Sussan. Check it out, it’s going to be awesome, I mean Gary Anthony Williams people!  He’s very pretty (source: bio.)

Script Frenzy

Script Frenzy is an international writing event in which participants take on the challenge of writing 100 pages of scripted material in the month of April.

Along with Xandy Sussan over at  CoverMyScript.com, I’ll be co-writing a stoner comedy script, based on an outline we hashed out (pardon the pun) last year. Script Frenzy is an excellent tool to keep yourself accountable. My goals with this draft are simple; get it on the page, beat it up, slap it around. Many other will be pushing themselves to hit the 100 page mark this April too. Follow me on twitter @UncompletedWork and the hash-tag #scriptfrenzy for my progress and others. You can also sign up and track your progress on ScriptFrenzy.org

SCREENWRITER KARAOKE

Screenwriter Karaoke is going through some exciting changes in the coming months to include a NEW VENUE and NEW SPONSORS! Stay tuned for upcoming news about the when and where  and what special conventions and conferences you’ll see Screenwriter Karaoke attend. If you’d like to suggest your favorite karaoke joint in Los Angeles, tweet at @SWKaraoke.

ARTICLES

There are a million topics I’d love to be writing for and about. One of my most obsessive is probably video games. Last year I was able to indulge  with the sound design team on Medal of Honor.  This year,  I’ll be writing more content for other games. I can’t say which games just yet, but they are cool, well known franchises that fans definitely love.   I will also be contributing an occasional article over at Regrifters.com a new site about taking things old and making them new on the cheap.

WEBSITES

As part of the overall branding of individuals, I often do web development and design for my filmmaking clients. This month I finished the site of accomplished special effect make-up person Scott Conner (imdb). His website is EvilgrinFX.com.

If you are thinking about making a website for your film, or as a portfolio of your work as a filmmaker, reach out to Uncompleted at MerrelDavis.com.

Hey folks, a quickie, I’ll be here in San Diego all weekend at Comic-Con. Don’t be a stranger.

Over the weekend at The Great American Pitchfest I hosted Screenwriter Karaoke. Debra Eckerling of Write On! Online of wrangled me for a couple of moments during the Screenwriter Karaoke set-up and posted this video.

http://writeononline.com/2010/06/28/speaking-with-merrel-davis-creator-screenwriter-karaoke/

June is a very exciting month! Screenwriter Karaoke marks its birthday with a bang at The Great American PitchFest.

Screenwriter Karaoke is proudly sponsored by  CoverMyScript.com, Final Draft, Inc, Script Magazine, The Writers Store, L.A. Sings Karaoke, Sardo’s Bar, Coffey Sound, and our friends at #ScriptChat.

More details here.

Leah Meyerhoff

Leah Meyerhoff’s film Twitch won the grand jury prize at Slamdance in  2007. Twitch went on to show at over 100 festivals and received many awards and was her first foray into the film festival circuit.

Leah has been gracious enough to share a bit of her insight on her short filmmaking and how it has prepared her for her first feature length film. So, let’s get into it!

Merrel Davis: What were the circumstances surrounding the production of Twitch? When you set out to make Twitch did you have a particular endgame in mind, like getting distribution or simply visibility?

Leah Meyerhoff: I made Twitch while I was studying at NYU. I’ve always thought it best when filmmakers “write what they know” so I began with a very personal story and then expanded out from there. My mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis shortly before I was born and was in a wheelchair by the time I was learning to walk. My parents divorced soon after and I was left having to take care of my mother while I was still a child. I have always been interested in making a film about this mother/daughter role reversal and the complexities and challenges of growing up with a parent who was sick. Thus Twitch tells the story of a teenage girl torn between caring for her disabled mother and escaping into the world of adolescence with her new boyfriend. After many unsatisfying auditions in NY, I decided to cast my real mother as the mother character in the film, which meant that I needed to return to SF for the shoot. Around the same time, I was approached by a reality show called “Film School” who wanted to document the process of making Twitch for a program on the Independent Film Channel (IFC). Although in retrospect, it probably wasn’t worth the headache, at the time it seemed like an easy way to finance the film as well as secure a certain level of visibility. Although I didn’t have a set distribution strategy in mind, I knew that I wanted as many people as possible to see the film and a showcase on IFC seemed like a good opportunity. We shot Twitch on Super16mm over the course of three days with a small crew comprised of many of my classmates from film school. Afterward I edited the film on an Avid and began sending it out to festivals. [Merrel Note: If you want to see part of Leah's process, there are many clips available on Youtube of the "Film School" series.]

MD: Much short film seeks to mimic the style and pacing of television. I increasingly see “all flash, no substance” short films that feel very impressed with themselves. After traveling the festival circuit promoting your various projects and music videos, do you see any emerging trends?

LM: I agree that many short filmmakers seem more interested in making calling cards than telling a story, but at the same time I think there is a counter movement towards smaller, more performance driven work. Some of my recent favorites are films like Man, Lady Margaret, Antonio’s Breakfast, In the Morning and The Execution of Solomon Harris which don’t try to cram an entire feature into a short, but rather focus on conveying the emotional truth of a particular moment in a character’s life.

MD: At the Boston Underground Film Festival, you talked a little bit about your original career aspirations, you said you wanted to be a marine biologist. How has that skillset come in handy as a filmmaker?

LM: Although I had different interests in high school, by the time I attended Brown University I ended up majoring in Art-Semiotics, which is basically a combination of film theory, art history, postmodern thought and film production. This skillset has informed my filmmaking by provoking me to consider the meaning behind each shot in addition to the visual effect. Similarly, I am able to watch films with a more critical eye and take away specific lessons which I then apply to my work. At the same time, I think too much theory can be dangerous because the emotional truth of the story has to come first.

MD: Can you talk a little bit about your first feature Unicorns? Has your introduction to the short film and festival world been helpful?

LM: Unicorns portrays an awkward teenage girl who escapes to a fantasy world when her first romantic relationship becomes increasingly abusive.  Through a combination of social and magical realism, I hope to create an intimate, honest, performance-driven film that allows us to get inside the character’s head as well as her heart. I began writing the script as my thesis at NYU and simultaneously started fundraising as I traveled the festival circuit with my short Twitch. In fact, I would not be in the place I am at now were it not for my prior experiences in the short film and festival worlds.

MD: How did the production of Unicorns come about?

LM: I met most of the people who are currently working on Unicorns through the festival circuit. Our executive producer Allison Anders had recently mentored a film I saw at the Sarasota Film Festival as well as directed several amazing films of her own. I met producers Alexis Fish and Heather Rae through the Sundance Film Festival (where Heather’s previous film Frozen River won the Grand Jury Prize). Our casting directors Judy Henderson, Meg Morman and Sunday Boling were recommended by other filmmakers I met on the festival circuit and I initially had seen many of the actors we ended up casting in festival films as well. Similarly, many of the other crew members we ended up hiring were originally introduced to us through the festival world.

MD: Do you feel filmmakers should embark on short film projects before attempting to begin their first feature? In what ways did it prepare you?

LM: I absolutely recommend that filmmakers make several shorts before they try to tackle a feature. Not only did making shorts allow me to hone my skills as a director (how to work with actors, where to place the camera, etc.) but traveling the film festival circuit prepared me for the reality of the distribution landscape. It makes much more sense to learn the system with a short, plus you are able to make amazing connections along the way!

MD: Now that you’ve navigated the waters of the festival circuit. Do you have any advice to new filmmakers looking to embark down this path? What would you do again and what would you do differently?

LM: My advice is to plan out a festival strategy at least a year in advance. Figure out where you want to premiere, how many submission fees you can afford, where you want to travel, which festivals treat filmmakers well and so on. Compile a master database of everywhere you want to submit and then tackle each group of submissions one month at a time. Although this requires extra effort in the beginning, by the end you will have saved yourself a lot of time and trouble. Though I was lucky with Twitch (premiering at Clermont-Ferrand and Slamdance) I wish I had spent more time making a strategy in advance because there definitely were deadlines I missed or festivals I was disqualified from because I had already premiered elsewhere. Also, I can’t emphasize enough not to neglect the smaller festivals. Not only are you more likely to win awards there, but regional festivals tend to treat filmmakers really well and you are more likely to reach an audience that otherwise would never be able to see your film.

MD: Leah, thank you so much for taking the time to share your knowledge with other filmmakers. Do you have any take aways, or thoughts?

LM: Independent filmmaking is a long and difficult path, so the more we can help each other out and build a community the better off all of us will be!

MD: Amen! I’d like to end by sharing Twtich in its entirety.

LINKS:
Official Twitch Site
Official Unicorns Site
Leah Meyerhoff’s Blog
Leah Meyerhoff’s IMDB
Leah Meyerhoff’s Twitter
Unicorns Twitter