Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Atlanta Press Release

Actress Adrian Lee returns to her hometown for Atlanta Horror Fest's feature screening of THE COMMUNE, a psychological thriller ripped from the headlines about a 16-year-old trapped on her estranged dad's commune for the summer. The Huffington Post says THE COMMUNE is "highly recommended".

Filmmaker Lis Fies and actress Adrian Lee will be in person at the 11 pm screening Friday October 2nd, the anniversary of Executive Producer Barbara Fies's death. It is also Adrian Lee's birthday. Lee is thrilled to see her movie play in the Plaza Theatre, the same moviehouse she watched movies in as a child.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

update!

I'm all crewed up for Thursday's shoot with Steve De Jarnatt (too freaking cool, I'm producing something by my hero!). But I'll have more opportunities coming up in October.

The Commune is playing Beverly Hills mid October at La Femme Film Festival, and October 2nd at 11pm at the Atlanta Horror Fest. Yea!!!!! Hope you can go see it!

Speaking of Atlanta, want to donate air miles so I can go to the Atlanta Horror Festival for THE COMMUNE screening10/2? You get a Thank You in the final credits!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Crewing up!

Thursday shoot in Burbank with two known Hollywood writer/directors.

Low pay, one day.

We need an asst camera (who can utility crew) 100.00 /day
Dolly grip/general crew $100.00
wardrobe/prop wrangler no pay
EDITOR $400.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Forecast Calls for Implausibility

From Ebert's review of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. He only gave it 2 1/2 stars, but if I were the filmmakers I'd be pretty proud to have given a critic like Ebert the following experience:

"Let me search my memory. I think — no, I'm positive — this is the first movie I've seen where the hero dangles above a chasm lined with razor-sharp peanut brittle while holding onto a red licorice rope held by his girlfriend, who has a peanut allergy, so that when she gets cut by some brittle and goes into anaphylactic shock and her body swells up, she refuses to let go, and so the hero bites through the licorice to save her. You don't see that every day."

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Power Rangers infamy

Okay, you asked for it. Here's one of my stunt jobs as a villain on second season of Power Rangers.

Guess which one I am. Hint: "Your power now belongs to Lord Zed."

Yes. I am a proud Woman In Suit.

At 4:39 I almost died.

They said "Run until you see the edge of the cliff, then stop." But I had Puttys flipping all around me and only a two inch eye hole to see out of, and it was down by my navel. See the edge of a cliff as I run? Not likely. Fun times.

During that spring I played Stag Beetle, Invenusable Fly Trap, and Octophantom. All bad-to-the bone villains. Even posed for Stag beetle's action figure, which I still have Mint In Box.

I would come home to find phone messages from my roommate like "Jxxx called, he needs you to destroy the Power Rangers tomorrow."

Season 2 ended and they went off to Australia to film the feature film with local stunt performers. I never heard from The Power Rangers again.

As Octophantom I stole the Green Power Ranger's powers. It was at the height of the show's worldwide popularity, and it was "THE" storyline. Kind of a big coup for me. To be feared and hated by children everywhere.

(Don't fret little ones, Tommy became the White Ranger, and then you had a whole round of new Bandai toys to buy.)

By the way in case you don't know the history of the Power Rangers circa season 2, Bandai took the Japanese show that was already taped (Super Sentai Zyu2) and built American stories around it, reshooting as little as possible. I'm in the fill-in scenes, which are easily identified by the different tape stock and coloring. In between takes we'd throw the old footage up on the monitor and come up with the choreagraphy for the fill-in scenes. Let me tell you, those Puttys were the meanest bunch of badasses you would ever want to meet. Don't eff with an Australian or American stunt man; they will cut you, bitch. They were just starting to import the crazy Korean stuntmen who were my exact height and weight (5'5 104) when I left the show.

That's spectacular Olympic medalist Shellie Blanks as the Yellow Power Ranger; the closest we get to American royalty in martial artsland. Oh, how the stuntmen swooned over her. The amazing Sophia Crawford (Buffy stunt double)is in Pink. She's had a very long and terrific career. Had a hell of a time keeping up looking like Sarah Michelle Gellar as the lollipop look came into Hollywood and the actresses got below a weight that sustained muscle mass (i.e. aneorexic). Impossible for a healthy stunt woman to achieve a matching body shape.

Great gals. Shellie recognized me a decade later in a Tae Bo class she was leading and came right over in the middle of it to say hi; super kind human.

Did I mention it was 105 degrees and I was doing martial arts encased in several feet of foam? Yeah. There's a reason I weighed 104 pounds back then. That reason is NON-UNION.

Whatever. I was a stupid kid and I was getting my shot at taking over the world in neon green. In hindsight, I'd do it again.


Years later in my hometown, some guy was going around saying he'd slept with the local girl who was a "star" on Power Rangers. He meant me. He made the mistake of saying it to a friend of mine and she flat out called him a liar, and we never heard about him again. My family and friends all laughed pretty hard at that, because I'd only had two boyfriends and honey he was not one of 'em. If I remember correctly I was like "Wait, WHO?? Have I MET him??"

Only thing more pathetic than claiming stunt work on Power Rangers as the highlight of your life is lying about sleeping with the girl who did stunt work on Power Rangers as the highlight of your life.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Insomnia, 90s style

Probably haven't seen an X-Files episode in 3 years, but in 3 seconds passing SyFy I can identify episode year & title.

Firewalker season 2.

On the plus side, my brain cells previously used to store crucial ST:TNG episode data have all been overwritten with healthcare facts.

Just typing the assinine moniker "SyFy" bumped me from a 3 to a 5 on the Kinsey scale. Hold on lesbians, I'm almost there!!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

The Commune (Screener - 2009) - Wildside Cinema - Cult, Horror, Exploitation

The Commune (Screener - 2009) - Wildside Cinema - Cult, Horror, Exploitation & More!

Posted using ShareThis

Today would have been Mom's 70th b-day

Probably would have celebrated at Lawry's Steakhouse or Tokyo Delves. And Gospel Sunday Brunch tomorrow.

Please don't smoke, my friends!! I want more time with you...

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Great screenwriting resource

Everyone needs to research beat sheets when they're tackling a new show or genre...check out this site to contribute your "homework" or borrow someone else's.

Beat Sheet Central.

Monday, August 03, 2009

Upgrading

I'm working on my website, so the pictures and header will be broken for a little while.

Craig Ferguson takes on "youth"

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Awwww...ANOTHER awesome interview about THE COMMUNE!

Thanks for the kind words, Brian!

ROGUE CINEMA Interviews:
An Interview with Elisabeth Fies - By Brian Morton
Posted on Saturday, August 01, 2009 @ 00:50:23


"For a long time, when you mentioned the term ‘indie movie’ people had one thought in their mind, a young guy, with a camcorder, in the backyard, making some kind of dumb-ass zombie movie. Well, those days are gone! Now-a-days, indie filmmakers are enlightened, thoughtful filmmakers, attempting to make not just scary or gory movies, but giving us little pieces of art that main-stream Hollywood can’t (or won’t) touch. One of the filmmakers out there doing her best is Elisabeth Fies, who gave us The Commune (that I reviewed last month, check out my review of The Commune here). Elisabeth is the kind of filmmaker who thinks before she acts and isn’t afraid to take her time to get it right…as you can see in The Commune. So, I couldn’t help but want to catch up with her and find out a bit more about this up and coming filmmaker."
...continue


To catch you up from Brian Morton's review last month:

"The Commune is an interesting indictment of religion and how easily something that seems benign, even gentle, can turn evil and malevolent! The story is great, the acting is strong and Fies has put together an amazing movie."

Flex Force 5

Check out maesto inker Corey Miller's surf psychobilly band Flex Force 5 He's the drummer.

Corey was super cool to me at High Voltage when I was on LA INK, and of course we got talking PISTOLERAS. Wouldn't he be fun??

Dan Smith!

Hey! Here's my tattoo artist!



He is indeed "very gentle". Check out his portfolio at Dan Smith Tattoos.com

Brenda and I were there...

and it was an amazing night of talent with The Commune's composer Danny B. Harvey and a half dozen of his handpicked guests. Shout out to Jenna Ross, (nee Jenna Cide), vocalist on many of Danny's tracks for The Commune. Amazing!

Friday, July 31, 2009

Monday, July 27, 2009

You need this "luxury"

If you are looking for sunglasses or wear prescription specs...even if you're from out of town...you MUST save your money and
GO to GOGOSHA.

The experience is described perfectly by Yelp users in this link...

The most important thoughts I want to leave with you:

1) Your glasses are on YOUR FACE. Every day. The single most important part of your body that everyone assesses you by. Whether your dateable, promotable, hireable, trustworthy, have good judgement, are likable. It's the thing that is most YOU.

2) You've never received expert customer service picking out your glasses before. Yes, even if you went to expensive places. Read these reviews and mull over your past experiences, and think how different it would be if you trusted the person in the shop as the WORLD'S EXPERT, and a PARTNER whose goal was to make you look like THE BEST YOU.

3) After falling in love with your new glasses, you'll feel embarrassed about what you've had on your face. So start now!!

4)If you're still not convinced, check out Julia Gogosha's blog of actual thrilled customers turning from ugly ducklings and frogs into swans and princes...her new before/after photos are SUBLIME ART.
Go go GOGOSHA!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Life Hacks from Brea Grant

My good friend Brea ran a great guests post of advice from me and mutual friends on little life improvements you can do for free. Enjoy the positivity!

And check out Brea Grant's appearance in Elle this month...hot!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

A meaningful life is not a popularity contest

"You are not on the earth to be shut up, and you are not on the earth to be shut down."

A great four-minute pep talk about why what other people think of you is none of your business, courtesy of Marianne Williamson.

Marianne and The Course of Miracles was a favorite of Mom's. I can't believe how young the lady looks; I've known her teachings all my life.

"You are not born to be at the effect of lovelessness, in other people or in yourself."

Monday, July 20, 2009

Knowing

I was blown away by KNOWING the other night, a film much better than I expected because I'd completely missed the reviews and ad campaign. The only films I can think of in the last decade that I had a similar pleasant surprise from along this scale were the original Pirates of the Carribean, and The Matrix.

My favorite sage Roger Ebert has an interesting philosophical essay about the central premise of Knowing here. But it's spoilerific by necessity, so please enjoy the movie first.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

LA Ink

I'm getting tatted by Dan Smith on July 30th. No, there's no news on if or when it will air, probably won't know until a week before the airdate.

Just have to figure out where the h to get the tattoo...for some reason everyone's freaked about my arm and what I will look like in a wedding dress.

Um, people...I don't even have a boyfriend. Cart? Horse?

And if I meet him after I get the tattoo, wouldn't we hope he would love me AND the tattoo? :)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Actual Match.com message

"Hello georgeous,
Impressing is what i describe your captivating profile as a near perfect description of what i desire in a woman,I mean what any man would seek for in a woman..."



So here I'm thinking, "spelling and grammar of a serial killer...but how did he know my childhood nickname was George? Maybe he's a Russian spy?"


"...Well i am a native of American,Borne in American and Raised in the states..."


I'm feeling this statement is like starting off with "To tell the truth,..." Like if it's the truth, why do you have to POINT OUT that it's the truth??

"I will like you to get back to me and lets know each other very well..You can also IM me on yahoo messenger...I will love to read from you,my love to be..."

More establishing of false intimacy, lack of details indicating it's a form letter he's mass emailing, aand no picture = Fail.

Analysis:


This Nigerian guy totally wants my social security number.

David Lago on Young and the Restless

He's got his May sweeps appearance up here. That boy can kiss!

Women auteurs

Great series at UCLA the end of July/beginning of August on feminist directors working in "exploitation" films in the 70s and 80s. I'll be attending, along with many people from Pretty/Scary.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

And there it is...

I'm clearly about to get funded, because I've had production nightmares all week. Hasn't been like this since I was shooting The Commune.

Thursday, July 02, 2009

More distribution doom and gloom

Because you indie filmmakers were getting too positive about the economy... ;)

Rethinking Gender Bias in Theatre

The New York Times has a great, well-researched article a reader recommended that suggests there are fewer female playwrights being produced because of female gatekeepers' prejudice against them.

I have to say, it gels with many of my personal experiences in Hollywood.

The Commune - Rogue Cinema review!

Thanks to Brian Morton for his Awesome review!

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

LA INK

I did a long on-camera interview last week to be tattooed on LA Ink. It's with the network right now, and if they decide to pick me the tape goes in with a stack to the artists and they argue over who they want to work with. But then after that, I still could get the tattoo and be taped but not make it onto the final programs.

Interesting process I really enjoyed. Had a great time chatting with Jaime, the casting associate.

My angle was a female director working in a man's world, just like Kat and Hannah and Kim. Of course, Corey could be cool too because he's a guy who partners with empowered women and isn't diminished in the slightest.

Here's my rough idea of the tattoo, which the artist who picks me would then riff on:

It's based on Colonel Van Riper's battle strategy as explained in Malcolm Gladwell's BLINK of setting the theme, hiring the best people for the job, and then not micromanaging them in the field but allowing space for creative thinking on their feet and happy accidents. Everything I want to be as Woman King leader onset.

Lynchian nightmare

I had this whole weird dream last night that I'd made a movie that wasn't THE COMMUNE but had the same stars in it, but it was about everything else that is going on in my life right at this moment down to a script of a friend's I'm reading about a water park only I'd read the Vanity Fair article about Johnny Depp yesterday so it was a Disney water park and my nieces wanted Johnny's costume...

The overwhelming emotion of the dream was mortification that some scenes I thought had been cut were shown onscreen, and they were soft-focus and dragged on too long with bad camerawork and acting from the leads, and then there were sexual scenes of me that made no sense that were way too graphic, and everyone thought it was an amateur movie all about my ego. And it was the only showing we were ever going to have and I couldn't figure out how it was the wrong print. Then I went right into this other horrible graphic slasher nightmare about a sister who'd died but didn't die and came back into the family's life as an unrecognizable man to have sex with them all and then kill them, but the whole time I was thinking "This would make a great screenplay!" and when I woke up I was all sweaty trying to remember the dream and realized it was utter nonsense and not a story at all.

There you have it! Fevered dreams of a frazzled filmmaker...

Monday, June 29, 2009

Referral

While I still have my sore throat, brother Brian is doing lots of interesting posts on the success of his new graphic novel Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

I'm having such a good day/night!

Some cool progressions with the movie, several of which I can't talk about. As always, you'll know when I can!

We have a fabulous new review up at Best Horror Movies. Pretty cool.

Hey, did anyone listen to my radio interview last week? Host Kurtis said it was super popular; had the most downloads. You can download the recording of WORST SHOW ON THE WEB's 6/15/09 episode to hear me talk for half on hour about THE COMMUNE and Chauntal Lewis losing her hand and becoming an activist. The hosts Kurtis and Harry, both Santa Rosans, were amazingly supportive and awesome. Thank you, guys!

Went with Brea Grant to the LA Film Festival to see HUMPDAY (Fabulous!) and finally met Mark Duplass (charming & brilliant...but more importantly, is his brother Jay single??).

(Speaking of film festivals, co-founder of DANCES WITH FILMS film festival Leslee Scallon has some great ideas about how we can support and increase female filmmakers' work in US festivals and at out multiplexes...she's a busy mom who's also still recovering from birthing the twelth year of DWF. But wanted to give you a heads up that she'll be guest columning here soon.)

Had a great planning conversation with editor Todd Miro about PISTOLERAS, then headed to the New Beverly to see the 2007 restoration 35mm print of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Still out of this world, but unimaginably better on a bigscreen with a worshipful audience.

B-day plans all week...it's a festivus!


Me and Randy Harris, talented writer/director of TINY LITTLE LIES.

Monday, June 22, 2009

1 in 4 South African men admit to rape

One in four male South Africans surveyed admitted to committing rape, according to a research group.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

50 movie posters from Berlin

Breathtaking collection. They distill each movie down to the id.



I want some Jungian Berlin artist to interpret THE COMMUNE!!!

On second thought, maybe I don't... ;)



UPDATE: Or Poland and Polish artists, as Ray helpfully pointed out. Have I mentioned my fever still hasn't gone away? And apologies to fabulous Barbara Stepansky, the one person I know from Poland.

A sonic scream from outside the Hollywood system...

By filmmaker Kate Perotti, it's MOMZ HOT ROCKS, a documentary on punk band member moms who are louder than their kids. Playing the Ventura Film Festival end of June.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

HollywoodFemmeGate continues...

Because women don't go to the movies and lead boring lives male viewers couldn't possibly find value in.

But a blow has been struck in the mighty northwest metropolis of progressive Seattle...

The Seattle International Film Festival has awarded the Jury Prize to a female director (Barbara Schroeder's Talhotblond) & top director awards to 3 more:

Best Director Golden Space Needle Award
Kathryn Bigelow, for The Hurt Locker (USA, 2008)
First runner up: Lynn Shelton, for Humpday (USA, 2009)
Second runner up: Kari Skogland for Fifty Dead Men Walking (UK/Canada, 2008)

And there were several more large prizes awarded to women.

Has this EVER happened in any other contest??

Congrats to women filmmakers, and to ALL of us!! Humans benefit when half of the population is valued.

Seattle International Film Festival's awards are a huge leap forward in what is the modern ghettoization of female stories.


Just to give you perspective, most screenwriting contests award less than a 1/5 of their prizes to women, and even at the truly independent and barrier-breaking Dances With Films festival there was only one female winner of the 13 awards given, and she was a co-director/writer/producer sharing the award with a male partner.

Maybe I'm just grasping at any little hope with the Seattle Film Festival's fantastic awards after this horrifying news out of Hollywood last week:

The Huffington Post
Thursday June 8, 2009
Women Don't Go to Movies
by Nia Vardalos

A little-known fact: some studios recently decided to no longer make female-lead movies.

Lately, I've been in meetings regarding a new script idea I have. A studio executive asked me to change the female lead to a male, because... "women don't go to movies."

Really?

When I pointed out the box office successes of Sex and The City, Mamma Mia, and Obsessed, he called them "flukes." He said "don't quote me on this." So, I'm telling everybody.



Oh...sigh.


Thanks to The Huffington Post for following up on this topic, especially after Ellen Snortland's article profiling me and Heidi as producers of THE COMMUNE with this slant just three days before.



I've personally been turned down by female managers who claim I'll never get funding for Pistoleras because "no one wants to see a female western."

Which means fellow women didn't even read page one of the screenplay that has won two big industry awards.

Here's one more interesting tidbit along the same subject, this time from respected online journal Cinematical. My favorite line from This article is "Women aren't flukes." My least favorite part is that there continue to be bone-headed comments to this brilliantly executed piece. If you replaced "female" with "black", your comments would seem unacceptable even to you, sir.

Cinematical:
Girls on Film: A Desire for Varied Female Protagonists is Not a Political Agenda

by Monika Bartyzel (ed. note: Wonder what the comments would have been like if it were Mark Bartyzel)

By now you've probably caught fellow Cinematical writer Dawn Taylor's posts about desiring female Pixar leads and wanting some Bechdel rule-abiding women in Star Trek. Both posts got their share of positive comments, but they also got a slew of knee-jerk reactions and vitriol. I don't want to rehash what Dawn already expressed well, nor get into another argument about specific female characterizations. Instead, I want to look into this neverending trend where any desire for a strong female character leads to complaints and accusations of a political agenda.

Ask for a certain type of female protagonist, discuss inequalities, gripe about the proliferation of poorly developed female characters, and in a flash, comments will pour in with a myriad of political catchwords like: feminist agenda, feminist rants, equality of the sexes, affirmative action, sexist conspiracy, and political correctness. These will be joined by painfully inaccurate sentiments that equate a desire for female success with wanting "every unfulfilled desire," Hollywood bending to charity and catering to specific audiences, wanting to exclude men from film, a lack of acceptance at the equality already reached, and of course, that including strong female protagonists is somehow sacrificing or tainting good work. (All of the reactions mentioned in this paragraph can be found in the comments on Dawn's two posts.)

The fact of the matter is: Wanting interesting and diverse female protagonists is not a political agenda. It's a widespread human trait found in both sexes: the desire to find camaraderie and others who are relatable and recognizable...


Please continue reading this fabulous article over at Cinematical.


Here's one more great recent mention on the topic. Unfortunately I can't seem to figure out who wrote it over at The Tracking Board. If it was a single straight man, sir, may I take you out to dinner? I'll even dress like Ripley.

"...One very interesting sidenote to this film, isn’t necessarily regarding this film directly, but the slow change Hollywood, and independent films are taking towards their choice in protagonists. Just in the past month alone, the amount of scripts we’ve seen sell, and new films we’ve seen cast, as well projects going in to production, it seems audiences are beginning to seek out the strong female lead.

“Today’s audience wants to see more and more strong women in film. Finally, film is getting exciting again.” director Alexandre Aja said in regards to his curious choice of Riley Steele in his new Piranha 3-D remake. (Aja also cast one of our favorite female leads to date with Cécile De France in his French release HAUTE TENSION.)

I know I’ve always had an eagerness and excitement to see the strong female lead return. Bring us back to the Ripley days of old. I think audiences are eager, and waiting."



I agree that audiences are eager and waiting. Now how do we convince the Gatekeepers funding the production of movies?

UPDATE: The comments section just became a Must-Read, as multi-talented, award-winning filmmaker Eric Escobar has shared his brilliant thoughts on race and gender casting in Hollywood, and whether they should and can be fought within the system (if you read his blog you know that's a NO).

Weird Al's Craigslist

Via Mediabistro.

What's on people's minds?

Just curious what you're out there thinking about, stewing over, laughing with...how's your summer so far??