Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Indie Memphis bound!
"Blood Therapy" has been officially selected to screen as part of the Indie Memphis Film Festival in Oct. It will play at Malco's Studio on the Square on Oct 23rd.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Official "Blood Therapy" trailer
The final edit is complete! Enjoy the trailer!
"A man must learn to embrace change before he can discover his true self."
Blood Therapy trailer
Staring:
Christian Walker
Donald Meyers
Duane P. Craig
Cinematography/Editing: Craig Morris
Co-Producer: Arnold Edwards II
Written, Produced, and Directed by: Valarie O. Morris
facebook.com/cinegorepictures
"A man must learn to embrace change before he can discover his true self."
Blood Therapy trailer
Staring:
Christian Walker
Donald Meyers
Duane P. Craig
Cinematography/Editing: Craig Morris
Co-Producer: Arnold Edwards II
Written, Produced, and Directed by: Valarie O. Morris
facebook.com/cinegorepictures
Saturday, August 14, 2010
"Blood Therapy" - Day 3
8-14-10
That's a wrap, folks! Principle photography is finished!
What an amazing day! Everything came together so effortlessly. The actors were amazing and the blood f/x were yummy! I could have done without it being 87 degrees in my kitchen while we were shooting, but you take what you can get during Memphis summers. But the cast and crew were troopers, always professional!
You know what I loved about today? Those little moments that make me giddy about being a filmmaker. I witnessed several of those today. A heartfelt line, an intense head movement, a gleam in an actor's eye... those little moments are special to me. Seeing it happen before my very eyes and because of something I wrote is one of the greatest feelings a filmmaker can experience. I hope I never forget that.
Something kinda wicked and cool happened during one of our scenes. It was an exterior attack sequence. It was about 9pm, and while we were discussing the shot, one of the bats from our trees flew right through our little group. It was creepy watching him zig zag through us!
All in all, it was a wonderful shoot. I am so thankful for the opportunity to work with this talented group of people. Having seen the rough edit coming together, I can honestly say that this is our best yet. And it's all thanks to our amazing Cinegore cast and crew!
That's a wrap, folks! Principle photography is finished!
What an amazing day! Everything came together so effortlessly. The actors were amazing and the blood f/x were yummy! I could have done without it being 87 degrees in my kitchen while we were shooting, but you take what you can get during Memphis summers. But the cast and crew were troopers, always professional!
You know what I loved about today? Those little moments that make me giddy about being a filmmaker. I witnessed several of those today. A heartfelt line, an intense head movement, a gleam in an actor's eye... those little moments are special to me. Seeing it happen before my very eyes and because of something I wrote is one of the greatest feelings a filmmaker can experience. I hope I never forget that.
Something kinda wicked and cool happened during one of our scenes. It was an exterior attack sequence. It was about 9pm, and while we were discussing the shot, one of the bats from our trees flew right through our little group. It was creepy watching him zig zag through us!
All in all, it was a wonderful shoot. I am so thankful for the opportunity to work with this talented group of people. Having seen the rough edit coming together, I can honestly say that this is our best yet. And it's all thanks to our amazing Cinegore cast and crew!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
"Blood Therapy" - Day 2
8-8-10
We shot two scenes today. The shoot went great. We even finished ahead of schedule! Craig did a great job with lighting. This is as much his design as it is mine. I just told him what I'd like to see and he works his voodoo magic to make it happen.
Craig is already hard at work on getting the tentative edit done. The pool scene from the 7th came together nicely. And the footage from today is looking good, too.
One nice thing about finishing ahead of schedule is being able to sit around with cast/crew and just chill. Talk movies, or whatever. I like working with this bunch!
We shot two scenes today. The shoot went great. We even finished ahead of schedule! Craig did a great job with lighting. This is as much his design as it is mine. I just told him what I'd like to see and he works his voodoo magic to make it happen.
Craig is already hard at work on getting the tentative edit done. The pool scene from the 7th came together nicely. And the footage from today is looking good, too.
One nice thing about finishing ahead of schedule is being able to sit around with cast/crew and just chill. Talk movies, or whatever. I like working with this bunch!
"Blood Therapy" Day 1
8-7-10
Day 1 is in the can! The pool shoot went better than I ever expected. We came prepared and we kicked butt! The actors and extras were great, the shots went off (mostly) problem-free, and I had some of the most talented filmmakers supporting me today. Couldn't ask for a better shoot.
The underwater shot that I got turned out great! A big thanks to one of our actors (Rodney!) for assisting me. Couldn't have done it without him.
Unfortunately, the crane shot that Craig planned got ruined. A brand new tape was no good and didn't record properly. Ahh, such is no-budget filmmaking. Fortunately, we had alternative shots planned. Whew!
Just saw a very rough cut of today's footage... me like!
Day 1 is in the can! The pool shoot went better than I ever expected. We came prepared and we kicked butt! The actors and extras were great, the shots went off (mostly) problem-free, and I had some of the most talented filmmakers supporting me today. Couldn't ask for a better shoot.
The underwater shot that I got turned out great! A big thanks to one of our actors (Rodney!) for assisting me. Couldn't have done it without him.
Unfortunately, the crane shot that Craig planned got ruined. A brand new tape was no good and didn't record properly. Ahh, such is no-budget filmmaking. Fortunately, we had alternative shots planned. Whew!
Just saw a very rough cut of today's footage... me like!
Friday, August 6, 2010
"BLOOD THERAPY" shooting begins!
It has been a while since my last update, but I am pleased to say that we have been working on various projects (update on that later) during that time. And tomorrow, Aug 7, we go into principle photography for our latest project, "Blood Therapy"! I am very excited about this one! It's a script I wrote back in January and began pre-production on back in April for a summer shoot. The stars have finally aligned and it's time to shoot!
Blood Therapy is about a guy who must learn to embrace change before he can discover his true self. It's a horror short that I wrote and will direct. It stars some of the best in Memphis: Christian Walker, Don Meyers, and Duane P. Craig. I'm honored to get to work with these fine actors.
Check out a lighting test Craig and I did for the shoot. Please pay no attention to me in the pic or the sloppy background. It was simply a lighting test. :)
"Blood Therapy" will be shot in a film noir style. The dark tone of the film lends itself well to this type of design.
I'll be updating this blog as production rolls along!
Blood Therapy is about a guy who must learn to embrace change before he can discover his true self. It's a horror short that I wrote and will direct. It stars some of the best in Memphis: Christian Walker, Don Meyers, and Duane P. Craig. I'm honored to get to work with these fine actors.
Check out a lighting test Craig and I did for the shoot. Please pay no attention to me in the pic or the sloppy background. It was simply a lighting test. :)
"Blood Therapy" will be shot in a film noir style. The dark tone of the film lends itself well to this type of design.
I'll be updating this blog as production rolls along!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Organization
[Note: Originally written August 23, 2007]
Getting organized is a feat in itself. It can make me wacky if I think about it too much. I'm one of these old fashioned types (or maybe it's just weirdom) that when I'm writing, I prefer to write longhand at first. I guess the reason I prefer a pad and pen is because I feel too much of an urge to hit the delete key when I'm brainstorming on my laptop. Plus, I like physically seeing my ideas. It helps weed out the good from the bad. It's like, I may have this really great idea in my head, but if I can't convey it in writing well enough to still love it once it's in ink, then I just forget about it for the time being and move on. Sometimes simply seeing it in ink is enough to know the idea sucks all kinds of awful.
So, with a lot of physical writing, you can imagine the difficulty of keeping up with all that info. What do I do? Well, I've started a method that so far is working for me. I've got this 3-subject notebook that I carry everywhere. One section is for production and post-production ideas - actual thoughts on these two aspects. It contains everything from potential actors to bonuses I want included on the final dvd. The second section is where I brainstorm "death and gore scenes." Hey, no horror writer worth her salt doesn't have one of these! The third section is dedicated to writing the scripts, inventing characters, brainstorming ideas, writing scenes, etc. and every page is named according to its respective project and dated.
Once I see that a particular project is growing to the point of becoming an actual work, I start typing everything into this great screenwriting program called "Montage" for Mac. And once it does grow in size, all of those sheets get moved to a dedicated binder/folder for that project alone.
Once I run out of paper in the 3-subject notebook, it's time to buy another one. And that's what I'll soon be facing. But the dilemma is that I don't want to lose my unfinished ideas but I don't have the room to carry multiple books with me. And I'm certainly not going to transpose everything from one notebook to the next. So, I've decided to go with a smaller notebook. A 1-subject. And put all the pages from my previous notebook into a binder that can be updated easily. I don't worry so much about different "sections". If I have an idea, I jot it down.
For poetry and songwriting, the 3-subject notebook actually works quite well. Those two don't outgrow the notebook as quickly as screenwriting does.
I'm always looking for better ways to be organized.
Update: 1-26-11
I'm finally adding this entry to my blog. A few things have changed since I wrote it way back in '07. First, now when I fill up a 1-subject notebook I tear out those sheets and put them in a 3-ring binder for later reference. And I no longer use Montage much, as Celtx has become my go-to screenwriting software. It's nice because I can install the free software on multiple computers so I'm never without my script.
Another Update: 2-13-12
I've all but ditched the notebook thing. I still use paper when I'm starting a project, but once there's enough meat, I convert everything to plain text and sync with Dropbox so that I can access my files from all my devices. I do a lot of typing on my iPad. Here's a blog I wrote about moving to plain text.
Getting organized is a feat in itself. It can make me wacky if I think about it too much. I'm one of these old fashioned types (or maybe it's just weirdom) that when I'm writing, I prefer to write longhand at first. I guess the reason I prefer a pad and pen is because I feel too much of an urge to hit the delete key when I'm brainstorming on my laptop. Plus, I like physically seeing my ideas. It helps weed out the good from the bad. It's like, I may have this really great idea in my head, but if I can't convey it in writing well enough to still love it once it's in ink, then I just forget about it for the time being and move on. Sometimes simply seeing it in ink is enough to know the idea sucks all kinds of awful.
So, with a lot of physical writing, you can imagine the difficulty of keeping up with all that info. What do I do? Well, I've started a method that so far is working for me. I've got this 3-subject notebook that I carry everywhere. One section is for production and post-production ideas - actual thoughts on these two aspects. It contains everything from potential actors to bonuses I want included on the final dvd. The second section is where I brainstorm "death and gore scenes." Hey, no horror writer worth her salt doesn't have one of these! The third section is dedicated to writing the scripts, inventing characters, brainstorming ideas, writing scenes, etc. and every page is named according to its respective project and dated.
Once I see that a particular project is growing to the point of becoming an actual work, I start typing everything into this great screenwriting program called "Montage" for Mac. And once it does grow in size, all of those sheets get moved to a dedicated binder/folder for that project alone.
Once I run out of paper in the 3-subject notebook, it's time to buy another one. And that's what I'll soon be facing. But the dilemma is that I don't want to lose my unfinished ideas but I don't have the room to carry multiple books with me. And I'm certainly not going to transpose everything from one notebook to the next. So, I've decided to go with a smaller notebook. A 1-subject. And put all the pages from my previous notebook into a binder that can be updated easily. I don't worry so much about different "sections". If I have an idea, I jot it down.
For poetry and songwriting, the 3-subject notebook actually works quite well. Those two don't outgrow the notebook as quickly as screenwriting does.
I'm always looking for better ways to be organized.
Update: 1-26-11
I'm finally adding this entry to my blog. A few things have changed since I wrote it way back in '07. First, now when I fill up a 1-subject notebook I tear out those sheets and put them in a 3-ring binder for later reference. And I no longer use Montage much, as Celtx has become my go-to screenwriting software. It's nice because I can install the free software on multiple computers so I'm never without my script.
Another Update: 2-13-12
I've all but ditched the notebook thing. I still use paper when I'm starting a project, but once there's enough meat, I convert everything to plain text and sync with Dropbox so that I can access my files from all my devices. I do a lot of typing on my iPad. Here's a blog I wrote about moving to plain text.
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