Friday, May 25, 2012

Loose and Away + Summer Adventures

Whilst Alek was away at Hampshire College he worked on a number of films, one being Loose and Away, directed by Michael Lipton. Alek worked on cinematography, editing, lighting, pretty much a bit of everything, to create this short and sweet little film. Below are two screenshots, and to the left is the poster I created for the film's premiere at Hampshire. Once the film is uploaded by the director, I'll edit this post and link back to it here.

Alek also created a short for his film class that he attended this semester, entitled Alas, My Sovereignty!, which will hopefully be posted.

In other news, Alek and I will be traveling to Australia for two months, where we will be working on pre-production for My Sweet September and creating the director's cut of Hamlet. My Sweet September, as well as Bruised, are currently due to be shot this fall. We'd like to make a short out in Australia, but we'll just have to see how it all goes. We'll post some pictures. Until next time!



Friday, April 13, 2012

Our Domain + Cinematography Reel

In case you didn't notice, DancingBean Films has an official .com address now.
Yep, we're just like the cool kids.

I've also begun work on another class project, this one entitled "Intestinal Fortitude". It's about competitors in a food eating competition (directed by Dan Bosler), and stars an old teacher and friend of mine, Ren Shore.
You can see to the right the mock poster I've already created. I'm actually very pleased with how it's turning out, and I think it has some of my best work in it already.

You can see shots from the film in my reel.
Oh yeah, I have just finished my newest Cinematography reel and have posted it here to share with you all.

I'm really looking forward to these next two projects I'll be working on- one being a surreal love story?, which I am making with Dixon Narwhold and the rest of my group for Cinematography, and then Bruised, of course. I think they're going to turn out beautifully, and I'm incredibly excited to begin working on them.

Meanwhile, over in good ol' Massachusetts, Alek is working on a million different projects it seems, along with some of his own, and I'll hopefully be posting or linking to those on here as well in due time.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Little Hollywood Shootout & Hit Me

We did it! Just got back from the Little Hollywood Shootout Film Festival down in Kanab, Utah (which was a whopping 5 1/2 hour drive one way, nearly to Arizona. Whew!). We ended up winning third place (tying with Seaich Films' short Bloodshot Rots). Actually, the creator of Seaich Films, Jared Seaich, happens to be friends with Shawn Gordon, a well-known Utah make-up artist, who is in turn friends with OUR make-up artist friend Jonathan Aspittle. PLUS, he worked on a short film for the Utah High School Film Festival (If I recall?) called Clavis, which was pretty cool. He and his whole team were incredibly nice (besides talented!), and I hope that someday Seaich films and DancingBean films can collaborate on one big badass project of pure win!

More info about the festival: Little Hollywood Shootout is a 49 1/2 hour festival. Their theme this year was "out of this world", so we decided to go with a sci-fi western, with poorly done lasers, duct-tape+random junk weapons, spurs, and all! Our required line of dialogue was "Raising Kane". We had a TON of fun making this project, and we definitely plan on doing this festival again! Our team consisted of: Me (Anna), Robin, Katherine, Tyler, Ellie, Kyle, and Alek (from afar. He helped with the writing.)

I also just started work as DP on David Westphal's new film Hit Me, which he is planning to submit to the Your Film Festival that YouTube is hosting. We should be all done shooting that in the next few days. After that, the next project that I know that I'll be doing for sure will be in Bruised in May. Until then, we'll just have to see what comes up.


Here's our entry for Little Hollywood, as well as some photos. Til next time!





- Little Hollywood Shootout -

Getting Kyle all gussied up for his death scene in the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. We used lipstick for the blood.

Waiting to start shooting at Three Lakes Ranch. That is my happy dance.
Robin and Ellie, looking mean and fly in their sci-fi western get-ups.

Robing and her laser canon, which was made from a Spiderman arm control thing, a hair dryer attachment, a bunch of random cords, and duct tape.

Tyler with his laser pistol in downtown Kanab city.

Tyler being studly at Three Lakes.

Ellie with her Clockwork Orange reminiscent eye make-up in the parking lot to our hotel.

Tyler in the dunes, looking very Daniel Craig.

Tyler laser pistol, which was made from a glue gun, the barrel of a curling iron, duct tape, a random wire, and a piece of metal that looked sort of like a scope. His arm band was made out of duct-tape, a battery pack or some kind, wire, and glow sticks.


The old run-down Moctezuma's Treasure museum on the Three Lakes Property. It's pretty rad.

Robin and Ellie at the dunes.

Anna setting up the camera on the wonky tripod.

Robin and Ellie being... Robin and Ellie.

Kyle's bionic eye-piece thing, made out of a hair dryer attachment, random bits of metal, wires, duct-tape, and a piece of orange gel from our light kit.


Stunts! Oh boy!

Our third place trophy! Hooray!



- Hit Me -

Setting up some lighting as we shoot in the totally awesome Old Spaghetti Factory in Taylorsville.

Dylan getting buzzed on Dr. Pepper.

Lots of chandeliers. And Huston's bashed up face.

Tyler being a thoughtful manager.


Drinkin' it up! Apple juice and Coke never tasted so good!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Your Film Festival, Little Hollywood Shootout, and more!

March is going to be an incredibly busy month. I'll be shooting 3 projects, the first of which is coming up at the end of this week.

If you all haven't heard, YouTube is hosting the Your Film Festival festival. I'll not only be working with the incredible David Westphal on his short, Hit Me, but I'll also be working on my own film, working title Bruised. It's not a horror film. I know that my mock poster makes it look like such, but it's really not. Promise.

So Bruised will be the first project, then after that I'll be heading a team of about ten for the Little Hollywood Shootout down in Kanab. Yikes!
I feel pretty excited. I think we're all going to make magic together. I'm really going to try and make these the most visually stunning projects I've ever done.

Bruised is a short film about a young woman escaping her abusive home life by running away with her boyfriend to live in the woods.