Tag: film producer

My 2017 in Review
I’m sure you can tell that this type of post is going to be a yearly post.

Well let me tell you, this has been one hell of a year. Definitely full of ups and downs, I’d like to think that it was more ups than downs. To be honest, thinking about it now I don’t really remember what my goals and resolutions were for the year. With that being said, I do feel like I accomplished quite a bit this year.

So let’s review this year shall we?

JANUARY
- Started off the year in New York with my mom’s side of the family – had a white Christmas and New Year
- Did an adult thing and got myself a gym membership
- Started working for the school for my last semester as a coordinator on shoots and a student assistant in the classroom.
FEBRUARY
- I reconnected with an old boss and got to work on a spec pilot that I recently learned is going to Sundance, which is really exciting!
MARCH
- I signed on to be a Line Producer to a ULB (ultra low budget) short in July
- Took a spontaneous trip with the family to the central coast #whereintheworldisMichelle
MAY
- Coordinated my first PSA (and got a spot as an extra 😉
- Graduated from college
- Watched U2’s Joshua Tree Anniversary tour
JUNE
- Worked on my first commercial and television series
JULY
- All Time Low’s Young Renegade concert – got introduced to a new band (Waterparks – if you haven’t listened to them, you should go and check them out)
- Production for short
- Travelled to Solvang to decompress from the short I had Line Produced
AUGUST
- Worked on Jameson First Shot – first APOC (assistant production coordinator credits!)
- Signed on to be a UPM (Unit Production Manager) for a short shot in November
SEPTEMBER
- Worked wrap out on a YouTube series
- Worked on a reality shoot – I was a walking disclaimer for a cool minute
- Visited my best friend in Washington #whereintheworldisMichelle
OCTOBER
- Worked on a feature for the entire month (yay being employed for a month)
- Went to the Rams vs. Seahawks game
- Saw Tom Hanks do a promo for his book – thanks to NPR
NOVEMBER
- Wrap out of the feature
- Prep, shoot and wrap out of a short
DECEMBER
- Saw Tommy Wiseau in person for a screening of “The Room” at the Egyptian theatre
- Worked on my first music videos (two in one shoot) – the exciting part about this job? I was the Coordinator!
- Did a holiday horror double feature (also at the Egyptian) – and went on a general adventure for the rest of the night afterwards
- Went to my first ballet, The Nutcracker (and I got to put a new coat of mine to the test)
I feel the downs that I experienced weren’t that many. If anything I would say, the few (three days to one week) breaks that I would get, I would start to get bored and question my ability to do a job because I wasn’t working. But then again I feel like that happens to most people who work freelance.

Just a word of advice to newcomers to the freelance film world…

Don’t be down because you’re not getting work. Just keep applying and hustling and sooner or later you’ll land a job. And remember: no job is too small. Don’t think that you’re better than being a PA, everyone starts somewhere. And remember, don’t let your mistakes define you. Apologize, then do better.

With that being said, and me explaining how my year was, how was your’s? Feel free to comment below!
December 19, 2017
What are you thankful for Michelle?

The typical answer is always: health, home, family friends, food (aka everything stated in the featured image – which is also not my image)

**UPDATE: This is my 20th post woot woot!

Whenever someone is asked that question, and I’m guilty of this too, I don’t think they really think about this question too hard. Mainly because they starved themselves the whole day knowing they have a fat meal waiting for me, which again is also something I’m guilty of. However, this year I figured I would really explore my answer to that question.

So what are you thankful for this year?

Everything, to be honest. I’ve been lucky enough to work in an industry I thought was going to be a pipe dream. Instead two years ago, I was lucky enough to meet my mentors while interning on a feature. And since then, they’ve given me the opportunities to help me grow within my department. And starting this year, not even a year out of college, I got to move up from being a production assistant to being an assistant production assistant (APOC), coordinator (POC), unit production manager (UPM) and line producer on ultra low budget shows.

I’m extremely thankful for where I am in my career now. And thankful to everyone who has supported me along the way. My career journey doesn’t stop here, and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon. Just keep on following and we can both see where tinsel town is going to take me.

With that little blurb on what I’m thankful I’ll leave my comments open for you. So tell me, what are you thankful for this year?

November 23, 2017
A quick and easy recipe for filmmaking
No pictures this time. Just words.

I feel like a good majority of the time that I post anything on my blog it’s mainly going to be 20/20 hindsight. To be fair though, I did get this just through my second day of working on this show.

Now I’m not going to go do a bullet point list of everything that went wrong whilst working on this. But I am going to give just a warning for those of you who want to go into filmmaking.

FILMMAKING TAKES A LOT OF PREPARATION BEFORE ACTUAL EXECUTION.

Anyone who tells you otherwise, is either lucky, or an idiot. If there’s one thing I learned from working in production there’s five steps in the filmmaking process:
1. Pre Production
2. Prep
3. Production
4. Wrap
5. Post Production
Those are probably going to go against what you learned in school. But if you work in production (the department I mean) then you know what these steps entail.

Now most of you may think that Pre Production and Prep should go hand in hand, when in reality they go one right after the other. In prepro you need to make sure you have the funding and schedule locked down. No exceptions. Except for the schedule, because that can always change. Funding, however, can not. This is where the line producer will come in. They will prepare a prelim budget to run with the producers and the producers will then try to see if they can cut anything or make the budget work and try to get the money. If you’re reading this and suddenly have the idea that this is the post where you will learn where to get funding, I hate to break it to you. But this isn’t that kind of post. Think of this as more of a recipe for filmmaking.

So important things that need to be locked down in pre production:
- Funding
- Schedule
Once you’ve locked down those two things then you can go into prep. Now this stage is just simple execution of your (or the line producer’s) budget. This is where you make sure you button up EVERYTHING. I do not know how else I can stress the importance of this stage. In prep you lock down the following:
- Talent
- Crew (incl. post production – but can be locked down during shoot)
- Scheduling
- Department needs
- Locations
Like I said, this is where you button up EVERYTHING. Now this stage can take from as little as two weeks to two months. Preferably, two months just because of talent and locations.

Once you feel comfortable enough that prep is all good and ready to go (even if you’re not because your shoot days will not move because you do not feel comfortable enough) you will then move on to the production stage. Some departments may think that production is probably one of the hardest stages in filmmaking. Which don’t get me wrong each department has their own challenges and I understand why production is challenging. But for Production, this is the easiest. Why? Because, like prep, it’s all about execution, execution, and execution. To be honest, once you pass prep it’s all a breeze from there. Production and wrap are the easiest stages. The main thing to keep in mind if you work production is that during this stage, you need to always make sure your crew is happy. An unhappy crew means an unhappy shoot. But you should do that with everyone not just crew, but it’s important to remember that they are the ones who put in man power to help make the film what it is.

Now once you’re done with shooting, it’s important (if you’re not doing payroll) to take a breather before going into wrap. Take a few days, a week even, either way take as much time as you need depending on how intense the shoot was before going into wrap. Why is this important? Because you’ll be drowning in paperwork. And you deserve to take a breather, if anything, you deserve to refresh yourself after x amount of 12-14hour days. This is the stage where you make sure all of your accounting is updated and ready to hand off to the accountant. This is where you close all your vendor accounts. Make sure your logs are up to date. And, if you’re like me, make sure everything can be found both digitally and physically in a wrap binder. Wrap should never take any longer than a month – but again this is also depending on how big of a show you were running.

Well, I guess this is the most wisdom I can bestow upon you for now. Please feel free to like, share, comment any other pearls of wisdom you may have about filmmaking here. Or if you have any soecific questions about it (because I know I only really spoke about it vaguely) feel free to comment or contact me via the contact page and I’ll answer them as fast as I can! Now go out there and shoot (film) something!
November 2, 2017
And just like that summer came and went… Now what?

It’s strange, not going back to school. You go to school for almost 20 years that to finally be done and not have to go back is a little strange. To be fair though, I didn’t realize it was that time of year until I saw it on my social media feeds of people younger than myself going back to school.

But I have to say that this summer I was extremely lucky when it came to work. I think it’s because I juggled work while I was also at school. That finding work (or work finding me) immediately after graduating came easily. As you may know, I went on back to back shows almost a month after graduating. I hopped on to a commercial, then day playing a few days on a TV show, then a short, and finally a shorts series. To say that my summer was busy is an understatement. Again, I was extremely lucky when it came to work.

But now that I’ve hopped off this short series and I finally find myself unemployed. Now what? Well you hop right into the freelance bullet train. You apply every where. Keep an eye out for all job postings. Answer all phone calls. Read all of the emails. Never stop until the next opportunity comes. Even when opportunity comes, you don’t stop looking.

For those of you, who read this and are on this same bullet train or trying to get onto this bullet train. You can do it! Just have to constantly put yourself out there. Don’t stop looking, even if you are currently working on a show or another job. Don’t expect jobs to just come to you or you’ll never get your pinky toe in the door.

August 25, 2017
LA Cine Fest Semi Finalist Woo!

Hello all!

I know it’s been a while since I last posted anything, but I’m excited to announce that Because I Love You (2016) is a Semi Finalist at LA Cine Fest!

Exciting stuff right!? So I had the privilege to work on this amazing short film a little over a year ago. This project is one of my more meaningful projects because of the message behind the film.

The film itself is about Audrey (Diana Diaz) who after escaping her abusive ex boyfriend (Derrick Dover) falls into a spiral of depression and paranoia. Her mother (Paula Lauzon) pushes her farther by conveying a message from Derrick asking for another chance. Audrey’s cousin, Charlotte (Stephanie Mills), wants to help her out of this vicious cycle, but only she can help herself when her nightmare comes to visit.

We will learn if we’re finalist by hopefully the end of next week. So keep an eye out for more announcements regarding this beautiful short film 🙂

May 14, 2017
WTF!? – Nessa Knows (S01E01)

Hi all,

Sorry I haven’t been posting lately. If you’ve been keeping up with my via social media, you can see that I’m (currently as I write this post) 13 days away from graduation! Woo! Exciting stuff guys!

Well during this semester, I’ve been keeping very busy. I produced a pilot on youtube (for a class), coordinated a PSA for the Orange County D.A’s office, producing a short to be filming at the end of July, all while juggling exams, papers and projects. So, yeah – been staying pretty busy.

Anywho, there is one project that I had wrapped back in the beginning of April that I never got a chance to write about. So I’m going to write about it now.

Over the semester, I had the chance of co-showrunning a pilot for YouTube called Nessa Knows. The show itself is about a Vanessa (played by Alexandria Lewis), a senior in high school, who learns that she has a unique gift of reading minds, but her insight becomes both a gift and curse. She soon realizes the world is full of stereotypes, and learns the true nature of the people she interacts with everyday.

Long story short, this show was fairly difficult to run because, unfortunately we had a difficult personality on the crew that kept holding us back. However, she did pull through with production. Not so much during wrap and post. But what are you going to do? You deal with it, work around it, and move on.

On the upside, the final product turned out to be pretty good. I’ve attached a link below 🙂 And for our final we’ll be making an indiegogo campaign for the show. So if you like the pilot, you can keep an eye out for that!

Well, enough of my rambling. On to my next piece of good news! Post to follow shortly after! 🙂

May 14, 2017
One Semester Down, One More To Go

Obligatory “Last First Day” selfie

I can’t believe that after this semester it’s good bye school forever and hello adulting. What I find interesting is that I’m not that scared about the future. Sure it’s going to be daunting because it’s going to take me a while to get work but I’m not scared. I’m going to continue to look for work while I’m in school, like how I did this semester.

Last semester however did kick my ass. I had to write a 30 page script, produce a lecture series and a horror trailer, and then focus on academics. Granted the first three are also for school too. So let’s break it down.

To start off writing is not one of my strongest suits. Last semester I even had trouble writing a five page script, well that was more so to cut down my original seven to five. Hence why I went to my professor’s office hours almost every time he had them last semester. However, this semester I know I should have gone to my professor’s office hours, but I didn’t. I don’t know why, but I didn’t feel like he would give me the same criticism as the one I had last semester. Anyways, writing that 30-pager was a mission.

30pg mission

I have some high hopes though for this semester. Not just because I’ll be finishing up with school (maybe forver…?) but because I have a lot of things going for me this semester. First off, if you haven’t noticed one of the projects that I was developing fell through. Which wasn’t that surprising to me. But after I realized that it really wasn’t going to go anywhere, I suddenly felt like I was in a rut in terms of my film career. I wasn’t producing anything any time soon and I wasn’t necessarily looking for work. So I was in a rut. That was until I was talking to a friend of mine and we just decided, “You know what f*ck it. Let’s gather up the crew and make something this semester. Doesn’t matter what it is, as long as we shoot something.” That thought gave me the boost I needed to get out of my rut. And soon following that, I was offered the job to work for the University as a Student Assistant for one of the film classes.

Just goes to show you, that if things look bleak now does not mean that they’ll look bleak forever. Just for the time being. So pretty much moral of the story: when life gets you down, get back up and kick some major ass and take names.

February 1, 2017
I do many things “Because I Love You” and abuse is not one of them.

As of 15 June 2016 at 11:00AM, my chapter entitled the above title has officially come to a close.

It has been quite a journey and a little bittersweet to say the least on closing this chapter of my life. Throughout the process I could see that I have truly grown into my skill set as a short film producer. But it is not only that, I feel as if I have grown as a person working on this film. I have grown sympathetic and more compassionate towards women who have gone through abusive relationships. Trauma like that never truly leaves the victim, or survivor, but with some time and reflection they learn to cope and move on as best as they can.

The film itself is about a woman on her journey towards self healing after an abusive relationship. She is haunted by the past of her abusive ex boyfriend and must finally confront what has happened to her in order to regain control of her life.

Being able to see all of the hard work that the cast and crew put into this film and finally being able to see it on the big screen was definitely something else.

And now we’re onto the 2016-2017 film festival circuit! Will keep you all posted! Wish us luck!

June 17, 2016
Reflecting on “Reflections”

It’s been a little over a year since I first made this short film but I’m still proud of it nonetheless. Mostly because it is my baby. This is the first film that I ever produced and became the project that put me towards the path of what I love to do.

Let me give you a little background to this story….

When I originally wrote this, I wrote it as a short story because I was “taking a break” from studying. I was in Panera looking around the dining area when I saw this old man looking somberly into his coffee. And as I looked at him I began to question why? What happened to him to make him look so melancholy. And that was when I started to write about the possible why’s….

After a little positive feedback on the story itself and an experience on a set that I will never forget, I thought to myself, “You know what, if they can do it, I can do it too.” So I read up on how to produce indie films. I bought and read as many books and articles as I could. And then I started development and pre production for the project.

The story itself is about a woman reflecting on her current predicament in her life at that moment. Originally I thought about doing about four actresses who look the same, but then I was advised that maybe going for the same actress for all four roles and a double for a couple of interaction scenes would be the better course of action. And that was exactly what I had done.

As I wrote the short story and the script for this I knew that I had wanted to shoot this in black and white. Not because shooting in black and white means the audience is going to start paying more attention to the story rather than the details on the screen. Not that one, I hadn’t learned that in film school yet. It was mainly because I knew shooting this in black and white was going to look so much more aesthetically pleasing.

As with most projects, there will always be little mishaps. Original plan A location fell through. Not being able to find a stand in that looks like the main actress. Those are just a couple of examples of what had happened before we began initial photography. And when we did begin to shoot, time was not in our favor. Not to mention the fact that we were filming after hours. But I had a supportive cast and crew behind me so it made getting through that weekend not only extremely efficient and productive but mostly very fun.

I will forever be grateful to those who helped me and supported me all throughout the project as well as my pursuit of a film career. And just being overall patient with me too. I could read so many books about producing and still know so little about this foreign field. Yet with so much self doubt and uncertainty haunting my thoughts, I still felt like this was what I wanted to do. This was where I belonged.

March 8, 2016