Mounted Archery

Tilting at the quintain in Starkhafn Blue and red barding, as their Champion:)

Had a blast in the Celtic Tourney (I am yelling in Welsh there), in which one got extra points for bareback.

I also had the privilege of winning the mounted archery competition, and the prize was a lovely mini-chamfron:)

Charging the Hay Bale Castle at Great Western War, Fist Raised

IMG_5741, originally uploaded by Lady Rayne Archer of Annan (pending).

I was yelling the war cry of the Barony of Starkhafn, with whom I am delighted to find myself proudly associated as their Equestrian Champion, as of Thursday. *grin*

More fun than breathing.

In the "Castle" were about forty armored and clanking knights, and following the cavalry were the foot soldiers. Ah how I love the SCA!

Birthdays and Meteors

We have had a wonderful few days at Mom's island house celebrating Terry's birthday and the Perseid Meteor Shower; and beginning the gearing-up for my birthday (and the Nolte Anniversary) next week. Also in the mix; Mom's birthday, Theo's Happy Adoption Day, Sky's birthday, and Elizabeth's birthday. August is a lot about cake for us :) Well not for me but for many others, heh heh.

A couple of shots of celebrations. None of Terry's birthday as I was filming it. It is hard to remember to hand off the still camera to someone else *sheepish grin*.

And amid all the inevitable cooking and laundry and cleaning that goes with many beloved houseguests, I am womanfully trying to finish my SCRIPT. ARGH!!!! It is sadly considered rude to say, "So nice to see you, it's been a year, how are you, sorry have to go write . . ."

Mysterious Ways . . .

Just looked at pictures from the set of a film I auditioned for and did not get, and there were pictures of the actress the director chose for that role, and after a huge rush of jealousy I remembered that I had seen her in a play, and how good an actor she is, and was slightly mollified.

I have big fish to fry . . . maybe being an actor right now is not in the plan.

Have to try to figure out how to catch the fish first.

How on earth do we get in touch with these "Cattle on a Thousand Hills"?

Trusting. Which is rather . . . hard.

Leap of Faith

It's happening!

Now that we have a signed contract we are good to go.

And so we begin the actual pre-pre-production. For a long while it will be a very small team until we raise the funds to hire the actual crew. In my experience in Indy Film that is always the case.

The screenplay is slowly deepening and changing. I have been working on it, off and on, for many years. It is now, of course, my singular focus. It is a great privilege to try to inhabit the head of one of Madeleine's protagonists.

We hope to set the film in 1948 Manhattan, so we are researching locations that will be evocative of that time and place. On an independent film budget, it is likely that we will be using real old buildings rather than building sets, but we are looking into how best to tell the visual story.

Our researchers are finding a wealth of wonderful information about the time and place, and we are getting very excited looking at period pictures and drawings. Music will be a very important element of course, and we are talking to some enormously-gifted musical artists.

It is a very encouraging thing to realize how many people love this book. This is comforting when we realize the reality of raising money for a period piece in this economy.

Kairos Productions Signed Contract!

I am thrilled to announce that on July 6, 2009, (which happened to be the Feast of Saint Thomas More yay!) I signed the contract with Crosswicks, Ltd. to produce and direct a movie of her wonderful book "Camilla"!! I have been working on the script adaptation for years, and we are now going full speed ahead to begin to raise the funds for production.

If you have any spare prayers, we will gratefully accept them, as in this financial climate it is (to say the least) daunting, to raise that much money.

But I have to have faith that if it is meant to be, it will be, and I hope to cheer as the money arrives *smile*.

*takes leap of faith*

Here is a great link to a short online interview from Madeleine in '95 :)

http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/L'Engle_3833.htm

The Yurt!!!

We put up a yurt yesterday for nine hours and we are intensely proud of ourselves!!!

Seattle Screening Two of ZMD

Tony took this secretly with my IPhone, tee hee. It is Kevin and the cast onstage for Q & A after the June 4 screening. I am the one in the white dress :) When asked what my favorite scene was, I had to confess it was my gun toting scene *sigh*

Fun folks I enjoy!

Zombies of Mass Destruction Premiere!

We had a blast tonight at the premiere for Zombies of Mass Destruction at SIFF! Most of my fellow cast members were there, but alas not Bill Johns. Seven friends came! What a very excited audience, much cheering and groaning and general appreciation. Packed house, sold every seat at SIFF Cinema.

It was such a blessing to have good friends show up to brave the gore and horror - and gory it was; I had to tell Pam when not to look at the screen *giggle*. Not for the faint of heart, or those with delicate sensibilites.

But a hoot for wackos like me who love silly movies!

Rainy Easter

There was much rain, and yet there was much rejoicing . . .

Aww

An Almost Perfect Day

To day we went to the park and Theo showed us where the Coho Salmon fry that his class raised are acclimating to their stream before being released.

Then Terry and Theo and I spent the evening at our local medieval banquet . . . such fun!

Would have been perfect if Tallis had been there - but he spent the day with his girlfriend, and their posse, as they will be tragically separated all week while T & T2 tour colleges :)

Reel Festival for Women, L.A.

Just got back from a wonderful 24 hours in L.A., screening "The Dark Horse" at the Reel Film Festival for Women, and meeting with dear friends and colleagues. The screening went well, though there were only 8 people in the audience, 5 of which were my friends *giggle*. Always nice to see it on a big screen in HD, although the projector was not perfectly-calibrated and it looked a hair pale and dark . . . fabulous speakers in the theater though, really nice sound. And I have to say that I always enjoy watching my movie. Even as many times as I have seen it.

Had lunch on the Warner Brothers studio lot (*deep sigh of glee*) with my dear friend Sean Gaffney, and met some of his friends and colleagues there, one of whom has a really great script that I read twice on the plane home. Great. Now I have FIVE potential exciting scripts to try to get to direct. *facepalm*

Had a great breakfast with my DG buddy Don Early. Man I love all my DG friends, Don included. What a bright and entertaining and encouraging person to eat oatmeal with and discuss, among other things, my "Too Many Possible Projects" dilemma.

Met with Gary Stratton, new director of Act One: Writing for Hollywood (my first screenwriting school), and had a lovely dinner with him, and his lovely wife, and two of his almost-impossibly attractive children. And then they cam to the screening yay!

And I saw my bud Greg Zymet, director of that amazing short "Apartment 206" that screened in L.A. with my short "Dancing With You" a few years back. He is planning a riding trip in a week and I was able to give him some Centered Riding advice:) He and his charming wife and I had a "Second Breakfast" sort of after-screening meal in a bar near the theater.

What a fabulous trip! And I got to stay in the quietly-lovely "Luxe Hotel" on Rodeo Drive, due to the special filmmaker rate. I would never in a million years go there otherwise, couldn't afford to. Oh if only I could have stayed for more nights! But Terry is in a showcase and I had to fly home to be there for Theo while he is at rehearsal.

Was kind of tough coming home to the Seattle deluge after a lovely 70 degree afternoon in L.A . . . I do envy them their winter weather, that is like our summer weather. When I left Seattle yesterday morning, the air was liquid with hail and water, and I came home to much the same thing. Sigh. Yeah, but our . . . trees . . . are greener . . .

Upcoming Screenings

The Dark Horse has upcoming screenings! L.A. and Florida.

Reel Festival for Women (http://www.reelfestivalforwomen.org) Tuesday March 31st, 7:30PM

Sunscreen Film Festival (http://www.sunscreenfilmfestival.com), Friday April 30th, 1pm, Sunday May 3rd, 12:45pm

I kind of love the name of the "Sunscreen Film Festival". And will bring my big hat of course.

Best Feature Drama!

We won! Best Feature Drama at the International Family Film Festival! With some incredibly tough competition; some really amazing films, including one with Vanessa Redgrave in it *boggle*.

*extreme look of glee*

I screened "Dancing With You" here four years ago. I love this festival, loved it before, really love it now! And who handed me the gorgeous award that contains actual footage of "Wonder Woman" put there by the incredible Patte Dee McKee? None other than Dee Wallace! Who is a board member, and I gather a co-founder of the festival here (now in its 14th year). And whom I had the deep honor and privilege of working with on "Expiration Date"!

Such unutterable happiness. And to have buddies with me here, both Ben Dobyns and Haynes Brooke were with me, oh glee (I am usually so lonely at these festivals all by myself). And Matt and Camille Vancil, Don and Cindy Early, Ben and I all had dinner last night near Matt and Camille's charming new apartment.

And famous writer and Act One (and Act Two buddy) Cheryl McKay actually came to our screening on Thursday when I was trying to figure out how to reverse directions and come south to this festival and not east; I was scheduled to go to Florida until it became clear that California was the state to choose when faced with two concurrent festivals.

Oh thank God, thank God . . . *happy dance*

And we have actually spoken to several folks connected to distributors who actually asked to see a screener of the film. It probably means nothing, but of course I am praying that it means something. *fingers very very crossed.*

Must go to bed, fly home tomorrow.

Firsts

Tallis, yesterday, saw his first real Impressionist Paintings at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, as well as the most amazing thing to me, after more years than I care to imagine, a real Rodin, one of the ubearably lovely sculptures of God's hand creating Adam and Eve. I was honored to be there with him for his first real Amazing Encounter With French Artists *huge grin*.

The day before we had the last of the campus tours, at Brown - here are photos of one of the seven tours given that day. Yeah, there is some competition. Tallis says it might scare him into trying for better grades :) We went to two lectures at Brown and enjoyed them both, one was on auditory science and one was, I believe, on communication patterns or something, hard to tell as it was taught by a T.A.

And now we are back.

And next weekend Ben takes "Dark Horse" to the International Family Film Festival in L.A., and I take it to the Women's International Film Festival in Miami. We have to divide and conquer because they take place on the same weekend.

College Tour Report

On the Epic New England Colleges Tour:

I am full of lobster in Providence, R.I., after making Cthulhu-mask faces at my insanely-hilarious son during dinner and watching Tallis totally embarrass himself trying to eat snowflakes (insert in-joke).

It was the perfect dinner, we were deeply silly. Tallis has shown me his web comics late at night, and we have watched “House” several times online, and “Dollhouse”, which was enjoyable, but the best time so far was tonight, we were gigglingly happy, and it was like it used to be when we were punchy on the way to SCA camps of yore. This was the first time he had ever tasted lobster, and he told me the long long joke about the desert snake, and educated me about the Bush Sumo and Finger-Jousting Rituals. Much fun.

I love this, and I have missed this so very much . . . very grateful for this young man and his amazing mind and heart.

So far he ADORES Williams College, does not like Middlebury, likes Amherst pretty well except for the small interior spaces, and found Wesleyan to be kind of blah today. All except for the graveyard right outside the window of Joss Wheedon’s former dorm, where he is purported to have gotten the inspiration for “Buffy”.

On the drive to Providence, we talked about Theo, and how psyched we both are that he wants to learn piano, and God and I had a discussion for an hour afternoon in the silent car as Tallis wrote a short story for school.

Things are so much better than the first day of the trip at Middlebury, when I was all by my lonesome and sad. Walking around campuses with him is really rather educational, and I LOVED going to the two classes I was allowed to at Amherst, Neurology and Computer Science. I could actually almost understand the JAVA they were teaching, knowing something about semantics and logic, which delighted me no end. And oh, did I want to be going back to college!

Not thinking about anything but this moment is the key to this trip. When I think about the future without him living at home it does not work. Laughing about our newly-developed Cthulhu finger masks really helps.

Now he is over there playing his new game "Goo", which we both think Theo will love. And we are contemplating our last day, tomorrow, at Brown, and then we fly home.

And then I am back on the Festival Circuit!

So it Goes

WELL then. Heh heh. The second screening yesterday had all of 5 people, including me. It began 44 minutes late, and the projectionist began to freak out as the 7pm hour came and went, as we all had to be across town at the gala. But they soldiered through, though we had to remind them to give us all voting cards for the Audience Award. I know I got 7 votes at least since that was the number of gushing audience I had :)

I had no idea how to drive to the gala so I caught a ride with my friend Bill the actor/director, and we waited around a long time while his parents had some mysterious errand, then finally gave up and went to the gala. The food was served right when we got there, a lucky thing. I knew no-one at my table of course, but they were very nice anyway, it was the crew of the scary murdering-woman short film.

And though we were up for two awards, we didn't win, and I did not cry, though of course I was crushed. Larry would tell me to just shake it off, I told myself, and I was a very "Big Dog" (as my Dad would have said) and went to congratulate Bill for his Best Cinematography award, and spoke to the nice folks I had made contact with, some of whom sound very interesting to know in the future. Fingers crossed.

Then I got a ride with one new friend and went to bed as early as I could, as I had to get up early this morning. I made sure to order a wake-up call so I could pack and have breakfast and be leisurely.

The wakeup call never came.

I bolted upright, threw things at luggage, beetled to check out, and bombed down the freeway to West Palm Beach Airport. Flung the rental car at them, raced to the security line, made it through fine, and got to the gate, and of course the flight is delayed for over an hour. I sure hope I make my connection in Atlanta!

Now I am here waiting . . .

These hard things keep happening, you literally can't win them all, and I am very thankful that I am flying home to the best family ever, and also four very fuzzy cats, and exciting work with Ben on our Deliverables and all the pre-pre-pro for the next movie.

Wish I were there now . . .

Treasure Coast Film Fest Screening Day One

Jan. 29, 2009

My flight was delayed so they threw me on an earlier one that I pelted to just in time. Then I was told I had too much luggage and had to consolidate, smashing the contents of my purse into the pockets of my coat and stowing my purse in my roll-on and tersely passing inspection (sigh). I am now seated in between two of the burliest - armed, military-haircutted, guys in the world who are (probably inadvertent) seat-armrest hogs- I literally have nowhere to put my arms gaaaak also have about 7 babies and two pets on board help help help - just get me to Atlanta on time.

Jan. 30, 2009 Treasure Coast Film Festival, Screening Day.

10:30 am:

So here I am in Port Saint Lucie, FL in the tropical rain. I traveled all day yesterday, leaving my house at 9:30 am and getting here to the damp Club Med at 2 a.m., but of course they didn’t have my reservation, so I got into my room at 2:30 a.m. and to sleep much later, up at 9:30 to try to make it to breakfast at 10, at which I was not successful. Thank goodness for my stash of power bars and the free hotel apples!

There is no internet in the rooms alas, so I think it will be the joy of Phone Blogging. They say there is internet in the reception area, but that is a long hike with a computer for my fibromyalgic self. I have to do better with computer-rolling in future trips, this luggage is not really working out well without the kind sherpas I had last August☺

I checked in with the Festival Hospitality Suite and they gave me my badge and admission to tonight’s party, and they are driving me to my noon screening, picking me up at 11:30.

I am trying to resist going back to sleep as I have half an hour till that van comes, am back in my room listening to Elizabeth's horse whisperer music and propping my eyes open. I know I will be nodding for my 467th viewing of “Dark Horse”, tee hee.

So this is the tropical ocean. Looks kinda . . . grey. And monsoony. But at least I can turn off the loud A/C and just have the window open, as it is about 60 degrees in the rain.

Missing home, hoping for the best here; we are up for two awards, Best Picture and Best Cinematography. Ever hopeful!!!

12:30 pm in the daylit classroom-cum-screening room:

Waited till 11:30 when they told me to meet the van.

The promised van never came so I had to drive in the monsoon all over town half an hour to get to my noon screening which is not starting on time cause they can't figure out how to make the DVD player work for my audience of two :(

So far not loving Florida to be honest.

They just got the DVD player going, but they are playing the screener copy - for some reason they not only didn't get my hotel reservation, but they also did not get the clean non-screener copy we took such pain to overnight to them.

We are screening in a classroom with light streaming in from the windows. And the projectionist is in the back of the room "whispering" on her phone. And making what sounds like origami with loud rattlings of paper. And taking calls, on after the other, with very loud and long ringings preceding them. In the room while the movie is running. So it goes.

They asked my 2 audience members to be sure to fill out an audience award slip. Gag me. I so love screening at noon on a Friday.

I hurt. I want to cry.

7 p.m. Am in the only place with internet, the reception area. Just saw some Interesting movies. And the rain let up and there was a glorious sunset – and the best thing – they are screening the film again tomorrow at 4pm YAY. Hopefully I will get some votes.

Dinner was supposed to be at 6pm but I went over there at 6:30 and it was still closed, with about thirty people impatiently waiting outside. If I make it there it will be the first of my “free” meals I have been on time to consume*giggle*. There is a party tonight from 9-1 a.m. Hmm we will see how long I will last as I was nap-less today.

Still hopeful no matter how grunky I feel ☺ It has been more challenging before and resulted in awards, no guarantees, but every laurel helps.