The second annual Reel Rasquache 2005: Festival of the U.S. Latino Experience in Film & Art will be held in Los Angeles April 29-May 1. And we're in it! Their website is being updated, but there's a press release with more information.
We've been accepted into the DC Independent Film Festival! It'll be held March 2–13, 2005. Check back with us sometime in February. We'll probably know the screening date and time by then.
Arelys Carballo, Writer/Co-Producer of Toxic, entered a screenplay titled Bitter Grapes into the 3rd Annual 2004 American Gem Short Script Contest. Bitter Grapes would inevitably become Toxic many iterations later. Arelys just got word that out of 978 entries, Bitter Grapes made the top 100! Check out the site: http://www.filmmakers.com/contests/short/2004/win/
CONGRATULATIONS, ARELYS! We're so proud of you!
We met with Henninger Media Services and Randall Blair, the director of the Producing for Film & Video program at American University, to discuss a post-production grant Toxic has been awarded. Details are still being worked out. However, we anticipate the final cut of the film will be available soon. So we're holding out on sending copies to everyone until then. This grant is very good news for us. Post-production estimates exceeded the remaining budget we had left to complete the film the way we wanted to. With the support of Henninger and American University, we'll be just fine and Toxic will be even better! Henninger is developing a new estimate based on the fine cut. So as soon as we have a schedule worked out between A3, Henninger, and Dan Perez, the director, we can begin putting the final touches on the film.
And here's the most exciting part: Henninger and American University have plans for a long-term relationship that will benefit future film students. So through Toxic, A3 has an opportunity to assist the two organizations in developing what this grant will be in the future—how it will help future film students at AU. We're really fortunate to be involved in this.
We screened the fine cut of Toxic tonight at Aroma on Connecticut Avenue NW. Thanks to Eric and Krishna for hooking us up. We had a really good turnout, especially for the last screening (we showed it twice). Thanks to everyone who came out to support! DVDs for cast and crew are now available and will be shipped out in the next week or so.
We recently got word that Keith Michalek, a sound mixer who generously donated his professional time to our shoot for 1/2 a day, passed away on August 23, 2004. Today his friends held a birthday party/memorial service for Keith on Capitol Hill. Sporting many an Hawaiian shirt and jeans, an abundance of friendly words were expressed about this man. On the surface he seemed a bit...grumpy. However, once you got to know him, you realized the kindest, gentlest, most wise man existed inside. One of Keith's dearest friends shared some things he used to say to her. Thought we'd share a few. They are good reminders as we go through this journey: Sound is photography for the ears • Whatever you do, don't forget to laugh • Make decisions; indecisiveness is simply annoying • Love what you do; make it your passion • Take your camera everywhere • LIVE WHILE YOU ARE ALIVE! — Thank you, Keith!
Vsev Horodyskyj, one of our sound mixers, is the winner of the 4th Annual Film DC Screenwriting Competition. Congrats, Vsev! Check out the release: http://film.dc.gov/film/cwp/view,A,3,Q,618859.asp
The first word out of our mouths when we found out today that we received an "A" on our thesis film. Of course we cannot take all the credit. With such a fantastic cast and crew, especially those who contributed so much in pre-production and post-production, how could we not get an "A," right? :)
Welcome to your new resource for all things Toxic! Today we officially launch the site and hand the project over to our advisor, Randall Blair. Fingers crossed that we get a really good grade!
Editors do an online from the Avid so A3 can turn Toxic into American University. Still to come...the post-house to do sound sweetening and color correction. Screening will be scheduled very soon!
Director and editors deliver fine cut to producers. We're so close to being finished!
Director and editors deliver rough cut. The finish line is in sight!
Producers and director view the editor's assembly of the scenes. Good first round. Shooting for a late August screening. Where? Who knows?
Our last shooting day. Shot the interior of the motel. Clouds threatened us all day. Really nice guys next door cooked hot dogs for us. This was our longest shooting day. We went over by almost three hours. But captured some good moments. The last pieces of equipment got packed up right when it started to rain. And did it ever! Overall, an outstanding shoot.
Fifth day of shooting. We originally set this day aside in case we had to re-shoot anything from the first four days. But we were good to go. But storms were on the horizon. This particular day was the last sunny day we'd have for a while according to the local weatherman. So we decided to shoot. We met at the Travelodge on New York Avenue to shoot an exterior in the morning. We had planned to shoot an interior in the afternoon, but we couldn't get into the motel room we needed. So we ended the day early. All in all, a really good day. We actually had a lot of time to just hang out and get to know each other better. Really nice.
Viewed dailies! Looks good. Decided we did not need to re-shoot anything from the first four days of shooting. Phew!
Fourth day of shooting. Back to Annette's house. Our luck ran out. It rained. But we had a nice, sturdy tent covering Annette's patio, so it wasn't so bad.
Third day of shooting. We're at CafŽ Citron, who very generously donated the place to us. We had full run of the place as they are closed on Sundays. Very good day. Started the day with some ãcreativeä parking since we couldn't get parking permits in time. This was the same day as the NOW march.
Second day of shooting. And we're at Reagan National Airport! Good day, but long. We just missed 3,000 people entering a hallway on their way to a banquet being held in the same part of the airport in which we shot. Yikes!
Principal photography begins. Shot at Annette's house. Beautiful day. Look for behind the scenes scoop and photos soon!
The Eastman Kodak Student Filmmaker Product Grant was awarded to Arelys Carballo, Annette Jones and Amy Savitsky for their proposal for Toxic. They won a total of 14 rolls of Vision2 Expression 16mm Kodak film.
