Farstorm Productions

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noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 22:25:00 +0000

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Trailers. Trailers? Trailers!

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:57:00 +0000

Hello all.

I try not to blog until I can come up with a cool video to post alongside it, and there hasn't been any video for awhile---until now!

Our good friend Alex shot his short film about a month ago, and it was a crazy week of all of us in Arizona going crazy and filming. Now, he has released two trailers (one of them I got to make!), and I am featuring them now, here.

I'll keep this post brief, because very soon Scott will be posting the next interview---with me! It was intense, he and Adam double teamed me. I won't apologize for my ability to answer questions, or say things like "I wish I had said that a bit better," to lower expectations. Won't do any of that.

The writing of the script is going, but it's being frustrating. This script has probably given me more trouble than any script before it, it's been pretty intense. But, I power on.

More later.

And now, without further ado, the teaser trailer for Day 1000.

Check out the other trailer and more of Alex's videos at his YouTube Page, or at AlexCalleros.com

Chatting with FarStorm, Jourdan Lance

falcon913@gmail.com (Scott Marden) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:51:00 +0000

Hello! Scott here, bringing you the first of what I hope to be many interviews with the many people that have given their time and energy to FarStorm Productions. First up, Jourdan Lance, a very talented actress who has been performing with FarStorm productions since 2002. She portrayed Jourdan in The Adventures of Floridian Farr, Nadia in 421 and Film Noir, Alex in The Visitants, James in McGuffin, Marcy Stills in The Prologue and The Reunion of Amilia Marbleberry and Marcy Stills, and most recently Alicia Aimes in A Shatter Heart Christmas, and performed in Michael's music video for The Royal We by The Silversun Pickups.

Jourdan Lance: Scottie!

Scott Marden: Jourdan! How are you?

JL: Wonderful! How are you?

SM: I'm very well thank you

JL: Well what can i do for you, friend?

SM: I would love it if I could ask you a bunch of questions and you answer them.

JL: You got it!

SM: Excellent! To start, can you tell me something special or unique about yourself that most people don't know.

JL: I have three kidneys.

SM: Really?

JL: Yup, two of them do not work properly, one of them is kind of shriveled and raisiny and the other functions at about twenty-five percent. The other one is fine, but I had to have a couple surgeries when I was a baby so i've got some large scars that will probably never be seen by FarStorm viewers but they are there.

SM: Wow, that's really amazing. So, how did you become involved with FarStorm Productions and Michael Tucker?

JL: Ha, I met Michael my sophomore year of high school. He was premiering a film called Movie Day 4 and I had never heard of Michael or the movie, but I knew some people who were in it so they dragged me along. I was really impressed with the production value, and you could tell that he had a good eye for film and that it wasn't just somebody messing around with their dad's camera, he was taking it really seriously. So, completely uncharacteristic of myself, I approached him afterwards and said "Hey, I'd like to work with you" Lucky for me, he listened and he put me in his next movie, not knowing whether I could act or not. And the rest is history.

SM: Cool. What are your favorite and least favorite memories associated with FarStorm Productions?

JL: I think they're the same thing, which is when we stay up way past our bed time to shoot stuff. Because that's typically when the most hilarious stuff happens, and when we have the most fun; but it's also the time that I want to strangle Michael for saying "One more shot, just one more."

SM: Haha

JL: And any time I have to stand out in the freezing cold with a sprinkler on over my head, I'm not particularly happy. But it always turns out pretty cool. Also, anything where we get the entire gang, actors or not, we get them all in the same place and just go crazy, like the christmas movies, I think those are probably my favorite memories.

SM: I agree. So, where did you attend college, how did you end up there, and what was your experience?

JL: I attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. It's a great school, it's where my brothers went and they had a great experience there, and I knew it would be an environment where I knew I'd be comfortable and I'd find people who had similar life-style choices as me, so I decided to go there, and I graduated in April of last year. I majored in English, with a minor in Editing and an Emphasis in Magazine Production.

SM: That's really cool. What was the film department like at BYU?

JL: The film department here is actually really awesome. The students have access to ridiculous equipment. Because BYU is a church run school, there's actually an LDS motion picture studio in Provo, that has, like, huge old historic sets, and then they have professional, standard equipment, so they've got all this Hollywood standard stuff; and the students have complete access to it. They've had student directed shorts go to Sundance…It's a really impressive program, actually.

SM: Wow, that sounds amazing. Did you have a chance to work with anyone in the Film Department?

JL: I did, I did a little bit of film work, but I didn't really start until, my junior year I guess, I just hadn't really thought about it, and if you're not in the Theatre program of the Film program, you don't get notices about auditions or projects. And then i started dating Wyatt, and he got all the emails and would forward them to me, and on a whim I tried out for one thing and got the part and thought, hm this seems to work well, let's stick with this. I've done a few things since.

SM: Well done Wyatt. :) What actors do you feel most inspire or influence you?

JL: You know, it's so stereotypical to say this, but I am just completely awe-struck by Meryl Streep. She's just…I just watch her and think, "How do I become you?" I think she's phenomenal. I love her choices in parts. On one hand, she does these wonderful, serious roles in Sophie's Choice and Doubt, she just blows you away. Then you see her in Mama Mia and she's so effervescent and full of joy, and it's like something you can't fake, somehow you watch her and you just can't believe that she's acting, that there's a different person behind what you're seeing, and I really admire that. I hope to be like that someday.

SM: She is amazing. What's your typical process when you are working on a character?

JL: For me, I'm somebody who needs to work on a backstory in my head; so I'll read a script, and I'll take pieces of it that maybe aren't, necessarily huge, character bits, but little things and quirks about what they'll say or the way that they'll say things, and from there I'll go, "Ok, what would make that happen, what would motivate someone to do things in a certain way" and from there I try to justify anything that's in the script, somehow, and if that means making up something that means making up something, but unless I have something to drive it, I just don't think it comes out right.

SM: That makes a lot of sense. In your eyes, how has FarStorm Productions changed over the years?

JL: It's changed in a couple ways. First and foremost, the production quality has just gone up, crazy, and I think that's largely due to the fact that the crew is getting bigger and the acting pool we have is getting bigger, which I think is fantastic. I think that the larger we get the more professional we get; I think that's really powerful, and I think that's the biggest way that it's changed.

SM: While FarStorm is getting bigger, has working with the same core group of people been a blessing or a curse?

JL: You know, for me it's been a blessing, just because when you've got that trust in people you know, and you're working with your best friends, it's hard not to be happy. Some of the happiest memories I have are when we're filming, because I'm surrounded by people we love, and we're all doing something we're passionate about. At some point though, we are going to have to branch out a bit, because Michael can't put all of us in the same movie forever and ever because people are going to get sick of it. So, I think for now, it's probably still a blessing, and it will always be a blessing for me, but I think for Michael it may turn into a curse if we're not careful.

SM: Haha. ok Jourdan, time to get personal.

JL: Ok.

SM: Have you always been involved in the arts?

JL: Yea, I have. i was always kind of, the weird one in my family, cause my family is all sort of, business oriented and they all wanted to go into accounting or marketing, and they were always more "math" brained and I was always sort of more artsy and loved English and I loved arts and crafts when I was a kid. My mom would laugh because as a kid all I needed to be happy was paper. As long as I had paper I was fine because I could do anything. And I did Dance when I was really little, which didn't last long because I think I got lazy and thought "Wait, this is exercise, what am I doing this for?" I hadn't really thought about acting, but I had always loved movies I had always loved pretending, I would love to mimic, especially Mary Mart, in the old Peter Pan and I'd stand in front of my wall and do the whole "My Shadow" speech. But it wasn't until, I think Fourth grade, when I realized that I liked acting. We were doing a class play, and originally I wanted to work on sets, but, just for the day, we were just reading the script, and my teacher asked me to read one of the parts, just so we could read it as a class, and I read it, and she said "Jourdan, I really think that you should be this part." And so I did it, and I loved it, and it took off from there. I never really did "real" theatre, outside of school productions, but I always loved it.

SM: Great. What is your favorite food?

JL: Um. Chocolate probably. Actually, this is probably the most boring answer ever, but I am a bread person. Bread with Oil and Vinegar, I will be happy for the rest of my life. That combination.

SM: Do you have any hobbies?

JL: Anything movie related. I'm a big movie watcher. Which I feel so bad sometimes, because some people go out and do things with their spare time, go do yoga, and I like to sit on my couch and watch things. That's what I enjoy. I love art, when I get a chance I like to do little craft projects, and I like to paint. I haven't really had much time to do that, since I got a job, which is sad, but someday I'll get back to it.

SM: What was your favorite movie this past year?

JL: That's hard because then I can't remember all the movies that I saw. but, I think Where the WIld Things Are and (500) Days of Summer.

SM: What is your greatest wish or dream?

JL: Oh boy, um…you know, it sounds lame, but just to be happy in whatever I'm doing. I would love for it to be acting, that would be the dream, but I just hope that I can look at my life and go "yea, you know, I'm pretty happy with the way that was." and I can look back on it smile and not have any regrets. That's such a vague answer, but you never know where your life is going to go, so i just hope that whichever direction my life takes, I'm happy and I have people around me that I love and care about.

SM: What is your greatest fear?

JL: Um…My greatest fear is disappointing people. I have a really hard time thinking that I can disappoint. That probably drives a lot of what I do, I'm always afraid that I'm not good enough, which always pushes me. I think that's part of why I like acting, that once I'm done and I watch the movie, I'm never happy with what I've done. And I think "I can do this better, I can do this better." And I like to think that I am getting better. The more I see myself, the more I think, "ok, that can be worked on." So I think, whatever I do, I'm always thinking, "I don't want to disappoint myself, I don't want to disappoint anyone else." Fear of failure is what that comes down to I guess.

SM: Where do you see yourself in five years?

JL: Five years, um, I see us in L.A. and uh…I would love to see myself acting, I would love to have been in a feature film by then. That would be the dream. It doesn't necessarily have to be a big part, but you know. I would love to have in some way achieved my goal. Because I don't want to say that I didn't try.

SM: Who do you admire?

JL: There are too many people that I admire…You know, I'm gonna say, both my parents are very admirable, but the person I'm thinking of is my dad, because I appreciate people who, being and doing good is part of their nature, and observing my dad over the christmas break…he's a busy man, he's got two companies, and he's very successful, but he will drop anything if somebody is in need, which I really admire. I hope I can be like that some day.

SM: Ok, time now for ten questions that you've probably seen on Inside the Actor's Studio with James Lipton. Just answer them as quickly as possible.

JL: Oh gosh, I'm always afraid of this when I watch the show, I get anxious, because I don't know what I'd say…

SM: What is your favorite word?

JL: Contemplative. I really like that word.

SM: What is your least favorite word?

JL: Disappointment

SM: What turns you on?

JL: A good meal. :)

SM: What turns you off?

JL: Bad teeth.

SM: What sound or noise do you love?

JL: This is going to sound strange, but I love the sound of sneakers on a gym floor. That squeaky noise, it's very comforting to me somehow.

SM: What sound or noise do you hate?

JL: I hate the sound of gardeners on a saturday morning when you're still asleep.

SM: What is your favorite curse word?

JL: Hah. Well, I don't curse, so I guess as bad as my vocabulary gets, I use the word crap a lot.

SM: What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt?

JL: I would love to have a magazine someday.

SM: What profession would you not like to do.

JL: Anything involving blood. I couldn't do anything where you watch people suffer.

SM: If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear god say when you arrive at the pearly gates?

JL: I'd hope he'd say "Job well done."

SM: Well, those are all my questions, anything you'd like to say?

JL: I hope you're still out there FarStorm watchers, we are working on stuff, promise, we haven't disappeared. Stay tuned. (Jourdan points at audience, as if to say, "We Want You.")

SM: Awesome! Thank you so much Jourdan!

JL: You're welcome, Scott!

Thanks for reading, If you have any questions or comments for me, Jourdan, or any future interviews, please feel free to comment below. Check back in two weeks when I'll chat with Michael Tucker.

Until next time,

--Scott

New Characters in the TV Show of Life

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:50:00 +0000

Hello all, Happy New Year!

This was a busy winter, and I had a lot of fun. Apologies for not updating the blog.

I'm going to take this opportunity to explain my philosophy on how I look at life.

Life is a TV show.

I got this idea from my friend Steve, who told me in senior year of high school that we were all just characters on a tv show called "The Steve Show." This perspective was so much fun to me that I ran with it. I started blocking off sections of our lives as episodes, based on what storylines between characters began or ended. There was a core group of the main cast that was in every episodes, and then different reoccurring characters or guest stars from time to time. Our Series finale was when I went away to college...

Steve and I stood on my front porch the night before I left, and very dramatically said that our friendship had changed each others' lives in ways we'd always appreciate. Then he got in his car, gave a wave, and drove off as I stood on the edge of a brand new chapter of my life. Crane up. Fade out. Credits.

Since this time, it's basically become a religion to our group. The people that control and steer things in our lives are obviously "The Writers." So if I ever refer to "The Writers" with a capital W, that's what I mean. They organize a complicated web of drama, desires, through-lines, super objectives, etc. to make the TV show of our lives entertaining. I'll get into some more detail about how I break up life into episodes later (in case you, too, want to look at your life as a tv show), but for now I bring it up to facilitate current matters.

Now and again, we get new cast members.

Dramatic foreshadowing:

The core group has always stayed the same, with fluctuations in screen time (i.e. interesting things going on in our lives), but you have to keep the show fresh, especially now that it's essentially in it's sixth season. So, in the season premiere this year (the weekend of Sep 11-13) they introduced a few new characters, and two people obviously slated to be main characters very soon.

Garrett Ligget and Sophie Green.

These are characters that had been brought up in previous seasons, as they are two of Scott's best friends from college that he's been trying to get us to meet for years because they, too, are extremely talented actors. So, as the Writers prepare the show shift from being northern-california based to southern-california based, they felt this was a good time to bring in these characters and develop them, like having us learn that Garret can sing and play guitar, like we did last trip. While we were waiting for Alex and Sophie to go to the bank, he picked up Ryan's guitar and just started playing and messing around. That's him playing King of Carrot Flowers Pt.1 by Neutral Milk Hotel.

A quick rundown: Sophie and Garrett both live in LA now, doing the grind trying to get as many acting gigs as possible. They are both really super cool, super fun, super kind, and just generally super (and also pretty dern good-looking--as most new characters tend to be). They are also both going to be in my future projects, which I am very excited about.

So, this winter break as Jourdan and Wyatt returned home from Utah, and all of us were in the same place again, we got a visit from Garrett. And oh what a fun holiday episode it was. The Writers even had Jourdan organize a ice skating trip, so we could take cast photos like this:

So that is my brief introduction to Garrett and Sophie. There will be more to come. Scott is also working on a plan to bring some interesting interviews to the blog, in text and video form, but I'll let him talk about that.

Other quick updates: I finished the first draft of the script! And it wasn't super good! And I freaked out for a couple days! And then we had a really awesome audition/hangout/rehearsal that I'll talk about later! And then I started rewriting the script! And it's getting better!

In fact, I should be writing it right now. It's very different than the first draft; I'll give you an example. In this script, it begins with "INT. HOUSE - DAY." You see the difference, right?

And last but not least, I'd like to leave you with a video that I made for our annual Christmas party, that is essentially a year in review put together from all the video that I had of us from this year. Most of it is comprised of inside jokes, but you may get a kick out of it.

Thanks! ~Michael

On the Lot in Los Angeles

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:02:00 +0000

Hello Hello.

I am no longer sick, thankfully, so I am back on the blog.

Thankfully Scott's been keeping the blog updated for awhile. And now, hopefully with our powers combined, it will continue to be refreshed.

I am currently in Los Angeles shooting a number of videos for Colemanfilm. I realized that I haven't talked about what we've been doing, so I should do that now. Michael Coleman has created a new website, Soundworks Collection, that features short video profiles about all the sound designers that have worked on the latest and greatest movies. For example: 2012, Up, Where the Wild Things Are, Star Trek, There Will Be Blood -- to name a few. I have been filming and editing these profiles with him, and that's what we're doing in Los Angeles.

It began with Skywalker Sound up in northern California, and we got to visit there and then shoot the interviews in the mix rooms. Now it's been expanded to LA, so tonight we'll be traveling to Sony Studios and talking with the sound designers for Transformers 2. We shoot the interview, edit it into a little story, add footage from the films, and then it turns into something like this...

"Watchmen" Sound for Film Profile from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

So that is what has been taking up most of our time. It's really fun and a very enlightening opportunity to talk to these people who are so talented and so dedicated.

I've also been spending some time working on the story I talked about earlier...and even started the first page of the screenplay which is the only part I feel comfortable writing right now. I'll give you a very unrevealing sneak peak.... the first line is: "EXT. HOUSE - NIGHT." Riveting, I know. I'm also starting to put together a few ideas for a feature, so there will be some good stuff coming soon.

Until next time, I leave you with a picture from last night as we were driving to the Universal lot...

A Request

falcon913@gmail.com (Scott Marden) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:05:00 +0000

Hello again, Scott here, coming in under the one month mark since my last post.

Barely.

I'm assuming that if you have found your way to this blog, and if you have taken the time to read it, then you have also found the FarStorm Productions website, and probably viewed a few of the videos on the youtube account (if not, follow the links and enjoy!).

The beautiful thing about both of these is that they give you a direct connection to what we are working on, and allow us to show our projects as soon as we are ready, sometimes Michael will post working edits just to get feedback from people. While it of course feels wonderful to hear things like "zomg I luv this video sooooo much!!!!!" and "wow Gr8 work, marry me?" nothing can replace the value of constructive criticism, and to be honest, that's what we're looking for.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I spent my college years studying theater at Southern Oregon University. I completed the acting and directing tracks in addition to taking classes in lighting, scenic and costume design and construction. Throughout those four years, we were constantly receiving critiques from our professors, but we were also encouraged to critique our peers on a regular basis. To provide feedback that would help them improve not only the project they were working on, but their overall skill and creativity. As my acting teacher used to tell us, "You're all very nice Christians... now don't be. Be honest." It's true that telling us how we messed up or what we could have done better does not stroke our egos the way a purely positive "I LOVE IT!!!" does, in the end, it is infinitely more helpful.

So if you continue to follow the work FarStorm Productions puts forth, please please please let us know what you think, whether you loved it or hated it, let us know why! It's the only way for us to continue to improve the quality of work that we do, work that we love doing, and work that we love sharing with you.

Also, if you haven't already done so, subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog. We are trying to update it fairly regularly, but that will ensure you perfect knowledge of all our posts.

Until next time,

--Scott

Michael's Sick/Some Thoughts

falcon913@gmail.com (Scott Marden) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:02:00 +0000

So first, if you're reading this, send Michael lots of healthy thoughts, he needs it. I'm not sure if it's swine flu or something less angry, but that's been going around our group with a vengeance, and it's better to be safe than sorry.

Second of all, I should introduce myself. Again. My name is Scott Marden, and my last post on this blog was in March of 2008. Crazy right? Anyways, if you missed that first post, I played Andrew Stills in The Reunion, and also Sam Sorrow in the Shatter Heart movie. I've known Mr. Tucker since I was a junior in high school, and have been fortunate enough to work on Floridian Farr, 421, The Visitants, The Prologue, and The Reunion. I studied Theatre Arts at Southern Oregon University and have worked as an actor, director, stage manager and production manager in California's Bay Area. I run an after-school technical theater program in Oakland, which has occupied most of my time lately.

I find it interesting that I needed to tell you my history, both with Michael and with Film/Theater. It seemed as good a place as any to start, and I've been spending a lot of time dwelling on my past.

I think it's incredibly easy to get caught up in all the things that have already happened. The good times and the bad, our greatest moments and our biggest failures, moments of incredible glory and moments of terrible shame. These can overwhelm us, they can mount up to the point where it's a struggle to focus on today, let alone tomorrow. On top of that, we fall into a trap of wondering where all our potential went. As 20-something adults, we are at a place where things are becoming locked-in, we've spent time on the career path, and that's a scary thought, especially when the path looks nothing like we expected.

I want to end this with some kind of solid conclusion, but I really can't. This is just something that I'm dealing with these days, and thought I'd throw some thoughts out there, see if they come down in a coherent way. Maybe tomorrow. Hopefully my next post will be more relevant to the project. Until then, thanks for reading, stay well, and keep checking back for more Farstorm updates.

--Scott

"The Reunion" is Online; New Film in Works

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:43:00 +0000

Within a week of the last post! Not too bad.

The original purpose of this blog was to chronicle the process of writing, producing, and polishing the short film The Reunion of Amilia Marbleberry and Marcy Stills. After the endless nights of filming, and the arduous post production process, we sent the film off to a number of film festivals. We were accepted into two of them, and were honored to win the Jury Award for Best Feature at NFFTY '09. Now, the film is up on YouTube and ready for viewing.

It has been a long, difficult, and very rewarding process. I'm very proud of all the work that everyone did on this project, and I hope that you enjoy it.

Since then I've worked on a couple other projects, like The Royal We Music Video, and now I'm writing what should become the next film project that we all take on. Besides the screenwriting school I attended in Seattle, I've also been digging in to the major books on screenwriting, Story by Robert McKee, and Screenplay by Syd Field. In Seattle I was taught by some really talented people that I have a lot of respect for, and I've now conceded that I can't expect to become as good as them or better without reading all that they've read, seeing all that they've seen.

It takes a concerted effort and dedicated work to get better.

And so I've also been reading a number of screenplays (The Royal Tenenbaums, A Serious Man, American Beauty, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and An Education, to name a few), as well as a few plays that Scott Marden (Andrew Stills in The Reunion) recommended to me. Those who know me know that reading is not traditionally a thing I'm a fan of--in fact I hadn't read a book recreationally since the beginning of high school.

But now all that is changed, and I'm more motivated than ever to learn all I can about the storytelling process. This is all to say that I am expecting this next project to be one of our best projects yet.

Thanks for reading; next week maybe I'll talk about some details, as well as introduce you to a few new friends that I met down in LA that are sure to be new cast members on this TV show called life. Until then!

~Michael

12,000 Views? Really?

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:40:00 +0000

So after about six months of kind of forgetting that we had a blog, I came back to check on it to find that the page counter said that we have almost 12,000 hits.

I personally feel like this is some kind of internet glitch, or some computer somewhere is stuck on this page while perpetually refreshing.

Nonetheless, I've decided to make a concerted effort to start actually updating the blog frequently.

To begin.

This summer was a bit crazy, both in personal life and movie-making wise. I spent three weeks in July at a screenwriting school in Seattle, which I had won a scholarship to at NFFTY. It was a really good course, the teachers were great, and I learned a lot. Most importantly I gained new inspiration and motivation to keep pursuing filmmaking and to always be learning as much as I can.

I returned from Seattle just in time for Jourdan Lance's wedding! She is now in fact Jourdan Strain, but for movie-related things we'll continue to refer to her as Jourdan Lance. I got to be the "man of honor" and the wedding was fantastic and beautiful and I am indescribably happy for Jourdan and Wyatt.

Somewhere in there, I became obsessed with the band Silversun Pickups and we made two music videos to their songs. One was a test for-fun video, and the second we actually put some time into. And so I end this first of hopefully many new blog posts with our latest video production: The Royal We by Silversun Pickups.

~Michael

Excitement!

noreply@blogger.com (Jourdan) — Mon, 04 May 2009 02:11:00 +0000

Excited...overjoyed...humbled....pick your positive adjective, we felt it last week at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth.

Here's the rundown.

Now, I can't give a full account of the whole weekend, though I wish I could. I was unfortunately graduating that weekend (what a drag), and wasn't able to come until the last day, which was when our film would be closing the festival weekend. But! What I was there for was phenomenal and a weekend we will never forget.

There were some serious nerves (especially Michael's, Scott's, mine) and some uncontainable excitement (Michael's parents, my parents, friends/significant others), but the show inevitably started. Now, I can't speak for everyone else, but I remained pretty white-knuckled throughout the whole showing. We've shown The Reunion to friends and family, but never to a theater full of people who have no obligation to like our film, or us, for that matter. Talk about scary! Having your face humongously displayed on a theater screen puts you in a super-vulnerable place. It is certainly not for the faint of heart.

Luckily, I had little reason to be scared because the response the film got completely exceeded expectations. People loved it! A Q&A afterward gave people the opportunity to express their thoughts on the film and ask Michael and the actors questions. It was completely wonderful--the other filmmakers and audience members were so complimentary and supportive of our little film. I felt so humbled that all of these amazingly talented people loved our film, our film that we worked on for countless hours, our film that kept us up all night, our film that somehow, in our naïveté, we thought nobody could possibly love as much we do. I am so happy and proud that our film touched and impacted other people, if only in a small way.

The night just got better at the awards ceremony following the film, where Jesse Harris (everyone's new crush) announced that our film won the Jury Award for Best Feature. I wish I could adequately describe how excited we were--I mean, the Jury Award is the BIG one! And THEN things just got better, as Michael was chosen by a screenwriting program for a special scholarship. I mean, whoa! Over one hundred filmmakers, and they chose our Michael!

We met a lot of awesome people that night (and weekend) and are eternally grateful to the folks at NFFTY for believing in our film and bestowing us with the honor of choosing it as their closing night film. To all of you young aspiring filmmakers out there, NFFTY is an invaluable opportunity to display your work and network with other talented and creative people. We can't recommend it enough! We had such an amazing and memorable experience. It's surely one we'll never forget.

JURY AWARD FOR BEST FEATURE!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:52:00 +0000

Hello!

I am very excited to announce that The Reunion of Amilia Marbleberry and Marcy Stills played last night at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth, and at the end we were given the Jury Award for Best Feature Film!!

We are soo excited!

The entire weekend was amazing and really fun. It's such a great festival and if you don't know anything about it you should definitely check out their website: www.nffty.org . We had a lot of fun, and the founder of it, 23-year-old Jesse Harris, is a really cool guy.

We will have pictures and a more in-depth description of everything soon! But for now, Yay!

Film Festivals Galore!

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:26:00 +0000

As we are approaching the one year anniversary of the first day of shooting for the Reunion, we are getting ready to go to TWO film festivals that have accepted the film.

The first is the National Film Festival for Talented Youth, which I have mentioned before. Our film is the Closing Night selection, which is a big honor. It takes place in Seattle this coming weekend, the 24th through the 26th. Myself, Jourdan, Scott, Ryan and a couple other friends will be flying up to attend the screening and the Q&A afterward. We're SUPER excited.

The film festival's website is here: www.nffty.org . And you can visit our specific page here.

The Reunion of Amilia Marbleberry and Marcy Stills has also been accepted to the Santa Cruz Film Festival!

It's like a nice full-circle situation. The movie will be screening on May 7th as part of the Student Film portion (along with Alex's movie, Another Way!). It'll be nice to head back to Santa Cruz and watch the fruit of our labors where it all began. The Santa Cruz Film Festival website is: http://www.santacruzfilmfestival.org/

Check it out!

It's so nice to have official recognition for something we worked so hard on, and we're honored to be a part of these festivals.

Check back soon with pictures and tales of how everything goes!

~Michael

Our First Film Festival!

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:21:00 +0000

The Reunion of Amilia Marbleberry and Marcy Stills has officially been selected for the National Film Festival for Talented Youth!

It's a film festival for films made by young filmmakers, 22 and under, held in Seattle. We are super excited to have been accepted and can't wait to go. If you want more information about the festival, check out their website:http://www.nffty.org/

That's all I have for now. I shall keep you updated.

~ Michael

A Shatter Heart Christmas - Episode 03 - FINAL EPISODE

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:21:00 +0000

Here is the last episode of A Shatter Heart Christmas 2008. Enjoy! And watch to the end...

A Shatter Heart Christmas - Episode 02

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:29:00 +0000

The second episode of A Shatter Heart Christmas is now up! Check it out!

A Shatter Heart Christmas - Episode 01

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Hello!

I am here to announce that the first part of our Christmas movie, A Shatter Heart Christmas, is now available for viewing. It follows Shatter Heart, an emo/boy band that is actually a group of secret agents as they try to save Christmas from the evil villain Mr. Spins. You can watch it, here:

Episode 02 will be released tomorrow

The Trailer of Amilia Marbleberry and Marcy Stills

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:30:00 +0000

Hello all.

The time has come to release the wonderful trailer for The Reunion of Amilia Marbleberry and Marcy Stills. It's now been over a year since we completed the Prologue, and around this time last year I was in the writing process for the movie. Time flies.

The last few weeks have been ridiculous; both film-wise and personal life wise. There has been a pretty exciting development with Jourdan, and everyone in general has been figuring out where our lives are going to go in 2009. I'm pretty sure everything will change, but in a good way.

As far as the Reunion goes, we've submitted to around 14 film festivals now. The first four that we've heard back from we did not get into--this includes Sundance, the Las Vegas Film Festival, and the Zero Film Festival (a festival for no-budget horror movies i found out, so, no real surprise there). But there are still a lot more to come, and soon the movie will have an IMDb Title page, which is about as thrilling as all get out for us.

I've been updating the youtube profile in anticipation of the new website, which should be coming along soon. Our YouTube page now contains the trailer, the new promo video with us talking about the movie, and an HD Version of the Prologue, as well some updates to other videos and a previously unseen film that we made a year and a half ago, called "McGuffin."

I'm not sure exactly when I can put the Reunion online publicly--some film festivals don't like that--so I think we may have to wait to hear back from some of them first. But! Soon I will be posting the goofy for-fun movie that we made for Jourdan's Christmas party. We almost killed ourselves making it (a common theme, no?) so I think it'll be worth a look. Anyway, without further ado:

The Trailer of Amilia Marbleberry and Marcy Stills:

The Behind The Scenes of Amilia Marbleberry and Marcy Stills:

&ap=%2526fmt%3D18>&ap=%2526fmt%3D18 type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="390">

And last but not least,

McGuffin:

I'll talk to you guys later!

~Michael

The Film Is Done.

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:43:00 +0000

It actually has been for over a month now. After the completion of the film came the authoring of the DVD. It took a long time to get it all right, but it turned out really well. It's just a friends and family DVD, as I don't have permission to sell it, but now it is on DVD and been given to people and it's exciting. It feels like the hard part of the journey is finally over.

So what now?

The biggest thing is the completion of the website. It's very close to being done, and I want it to be up before we release and video involving the movie (cause I'm so ashamed of our terrible site now - sad face).

And in the mean time we're waiting to hear back about film festivals. Some festivals don't like it when you post the film online before it gets screened, so i'm going to wait a little while before putting the film up. THAT BEING SAID, if you're interested in seeing the movie, shoot me an email and I can see what I can do. Movies are made to be watched after all.

I've been really busy doing a number of things (right now I'm actually in Chicago doing a shoot for Apple), as well as developing a for-fun Christmas movie. Every year Jourdan has a Christmas party and we make a movie or something of the like--this year the Christmas movie is going to be ridiculously epic. Almost prohibitively so. That's the way I like it. So keep an eye out for that, which will definitely be posted online cause it will have no chance of getting into a film festival.

More news as it breaks.

~Michael

(the possible theme for the Christmas party is Hanukah)

A Well-Meaning Blog Entry by Ryan

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 08:19:00 +0000

Hello all and everyone! This is Ryan McDuffie, the "trusty-do-everything-man" of the production of The Reunion of Amilia Marbleberry and Marcy Stills. I'm a relative newcomer on the Michael G. Tucker filmmaking bandwagon, but am certainly glad to have joined on just in time to have taken part in the making of this movie. I was more than happy to go into battle with such a fun and gifted group of people, and looking back I remember the whole experience being pretty intense at times, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. Making movies isn't supposed to be easy. During production I really didn't realize all I was doing. I simply looked at every individual task in the larger scope of just "getting the job done." My most official and thorough job was as sound man, but I also was a general production assistant, camera assistant, stand-in, grip, extra, runner, pretty much whatever had to be done. This was not only for Michael's film, but also for the DP Alex's musical which we shot back to back.

I'm trying to think of some specific behind the scenes stories or anecdotes, but nothing really sticks out.. what does jump out it me is the memory of shooting in bathrooms. Lots of scenes that take place in lots of bathrooms. Recording sound was always especially difficult in a bathroom, because there's such little space on all sides to really position oneself and a boom pole anywhere that wouldn't be seen in frame. I think for the most part, I had to be lying on the floor of the bathroom for the wide shot, then I could contort myself to fit in the extra space I was allowed in the close-ups. Yes, so contorting myself on bathroom floors is one thing I'll always remember. In a weird way I did enjoy it, to an extent: I always liked the initial challenge and task of finding the best way to get the job done, and I never found this task demeaning or overlooked because I know how important every aspect of the filmmaking process is.

Okay.. one specific anecdote I do remember, which I don't think will be amusing for us for at least another five years because it was so horrible at the time, took place during the wee hours (and I mean as wee as hours can get) of the second night we were shooting the big party scene. The numbers had dwindled until it was just me, Michael, and Alex for crew, and the three leads (Jourdan, Shashona, and Scott). Bare bones. Michael and I were setting up lights outside for a shot of the three friends arriving at the party; a long tracking shot following them from the car to the front door. The actors were (I believe) sleeping until the shot was set. We were having a tricky time lighting it, was racing against the sunrise, and there were more important shots to do, so we killed the lights and started to bring everything back inside... and then the sprinklers went off. Alex was on his way out to help us out just as it happened. I screamed something at him, we rushed all the equipment inside, and all was well.

After we had a moment to breathe we realized 1: how lucky we were that we had just turned off and unplugged the lights seconds before the sprinklers went off, and 2; how horrible it would have been if they had gone off when we were all outside shooting the scene amongst three electricity-fueled lights and a sneak attack of water spray. Hot damn that was actually really terrifying.. did we even tell anybody about that? I can't remember. I'm hoping it's at least long enough ago that this happened that nobody will be too disgruntled, especially any certain equipment checkout managers that may read this some day.

It was a cool shot in theory, but I have to say I'm really glad Michael made the final call and axed it while on location.
I watched a rough cut of the film a month or so ago, and have to say that the absence of that shot really doesn't detract from the overall experience. Thank God! Seeing that cut did get me really excited to see the final version, which I hear from Alex is done and really awesome, and is now in the stages of DVD production and trying to get festival rights for a few songs (correct me if I'm wrong). One of the songs which I'm sure will be that "Every day's a fantasy" song, since you put it in every video related to the movie, Michael. I hope it'll work out! I'm really looking forward to having a "Reunion" with all the cast/crew, hopefully either at a screening of the finished film which I can't wait to see, or while working on any future projects that will be sure to follow this one.

P.S.
agh I actually was really hoping to have something more fun or amusing to talk about; that near-death-by-sprinkler story is just such a bummer... I do remember this time someone took a crap in one of the bathrooms we were doing a scene in, right before we were going to film in there, and it really stank. That was pretty funny.

See? Bathrooms, Michael. Bathrooms.

Me (donning the John Hammond hat), Alex, and Michael rolling the final shot of the shoot.

When actresses meet free association...

noreply@blogger.com (Jourdan) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 05:39:00 +0000

Michael and I were shooting today for another project. I was asked to just sit and type for some stock footage. Of course, for it to look realistic, I had to actually type. This was the result:

I hope that I go to UC Berkeley because it’s the greatest school ever. My Dad went to this school and played football! He was really great. If I don’t get in, he’ll probably never speak to me ever again. I love my daddy. Why won’t he love me back? ALL I WANT IS HIS LOVE. Berkeley, pleeeeeeeeease! If I don’t get in, I will KILL myself, and EVERYONE on that stupid campus. You will pay for ruining my dreams. I’m talking to YOU admissions office. I have OCD—obsessive compulsive disorder, so sometimes I freak about about different things. Sometimes I can’t open doors because I’m afraid of touching the doorknobs. And it’s not always—just sometimes. Recently I can’t let any liquids get on my hands, which has gotten in the way of my painting. If I could just get the paint to the canvas without gloves. STUPID EMILY. STUPID STUPID STUPID EMILY. Anyway, that’s what happened at the party tonight. I didn’t tell you because—I just don’t want people to know. I HATE YOU EMILY. STUPID STUPID EMILY. DRINK YOUR FRIGGIN’ ORANGE JUICE YOU FREAK. Except, stay? I want you to please stay? But why do you think you know me Emily? This wretched place Lafayette can help, but my stupid middle school is in the way. Your only excuses for friends are dead animals. Michael is going CRAZY. He’s shaking like a leaf—a really shiny silver leaf. Goodnight moon.

Don’t know why you didn’t call. Sometimes we say things we don’t mean. Still typing, still typing, but maybe we can end soon. Sometimes the Michaels say funny things. They yell and play rock band but most of the time we don’t know what’s going on. I sort of like acting.

The Apocalypse (Otherwise known as Jourdan has finally written on the blog)

noreply@blogger.com (Jourdan) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:46:00 +0000

After relentless pestering, Michael has finally guilted me into writing on the blog.

As an actress in the film (and dedicated reader of the blog), I suppose it was about time. It wasn't that I didn't want to...but how do you sum up such a huge experience in a few blog posts? of course, that thought process is ridiculous. Michael has about nine million more things to think about and do for this film, and he's managed it.

I guess I should start from the beginning. Michael pitched the idea to me some time last year, and I immediately fell in love with the idea. It was such an interesting concept. I was intrigued y the idea of two young women who have grown separately but in similar ways. I immediately related to the character of Marcy, who at times is paralyzed by her fear of failure. Perhaps the prospect of failure at blogging is behind my delay. Regardless, I remember telling Michael that I had never been as excited about a project than I was about this one. We both felt that this film would be a turning point--the culmination of what we had learned from Michael Tucker films past. All of this before we had even fully developed a plot.

Perhaps the most interesting experience was finally meeting Shashona (who plays Emily Marbleberry) for the first time. We had never met somehow, even during the making of the Prologue. I had heard about her, seen her work, and had developed a slight panic at the thought of actually meeting her. I'll admit it: I was flat out intimidated. She was the Santa Cruz version of me. How weird is that? Even stranger was the fact that in all my years making movies with Michael, I had seldom worked with another female. The extent would be a brief dialogue and then I'd be back to acting with the boys. This film would be an adventure to be sure.

I am happy to announce that Shashona and I clicked immediately. The first night I met her, it was literally like encountering a dear friend I had not seen in several years. I thought, "This just might work." And work, I believe it did. Whatever you have seen of Shashona in other films, let me just tell you... you ain't seen nothing yet. This girl is the real deal. Shashona is this fantastically perky spirit--but when she snaps into the character of Emily, it's like a switch has been flipped. Her character and change in demeanor are almost palpable. It's unreal! The way she can take herself in and out of that character is insane. I can't wait for all of you to see just how phenomenal she is.

I intend to write more about the people involved in the production of this movie (not to mention, the fabulous director, who deserves a blog post of his own, to be sure), but I think I'll leave it at this for now. This is a pretty meaty blog post--and if I write about everything now, what will you have to look forward to?

Until next time.

The Poster of Amilia Marbleberry and Marcy Stills

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:16:00 +0000

Hello hello.

I present the poster for The Reunion of Amilia Marbleberry and Marcy Stills.

I've been working on it for a little while now, and with a little help, it is now ready to be shown to people.

Other updates:

- Still working on the fine cut, and soon it will be put through the sound editing process

- Starting to go about getting music clearances for festival showing

- Still finishing up that feature that we are editing

- New website is being worked on...with the launch of the new website will come the trailer for the movie, etc

Side note--we went to disneyland this weekend! It was awesome! We all had lots of fun. That's all.

More news as it breaks.

~Michael

Update -- Rough Cut Done

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:46:00 +0000

The rough cut of the movie is done. It has been shown to a number of people...and I've gotten a lot of really good and helpful feedback. It's also been nice because all of the feedback has been very positive!

At the moment I'm sitting next to Alex in the Colemanfilm studio (my friend's place) where Alex and I have been editing this other feature film project.

Today, however, we're taking a break and going over each others' movies to help each other make a final cut. Hopefully he'll have his picture locked by tonight, but at the moment he's editing the first pass of a trailer for The Reunion. So far, it looks awesome, and I'm glad he was excited about doing it because it's hard to be objective enough about your own film to edit a trailer for it. So anyway, that will be coming soon.

As always, I will try to keep you updated. I'd like to take this opportunity to say that if anyone who reads this (I think there are some) has any questions or comments, suggestions, requests, etc. please let me know! Any kind of anything to help give me some direction and structure would be awesome.

So, let me know! Until next time,

~Michael

The First Screening

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:00:00 +0000

Families flying in from out of state. Fellow film students and professors. This is the audience that the first clips of the movie screened to tonight.

Let me back up.

When last I wrote, we had just survived the craziest weekend of our lives, where we drove to my home town of Pleasant Hill where we filmed about 40% of the movie in three days. I'll break that down even more. Friday night we arrived, got settled into Jourdan's house (our shooting location), and rewrote a key scene from the end of the movie with the three main actors. I had written the scene knowing that it wasn't perfect, and figured that writing it with the actors on location would be better anyway. It was. We finished that around midnight, and then we all went to our various sleeping quarters in Jourdan's house to prepare for the next day.

The next morning, we awoke at 7:00AM and gathered, and then hit the ground running. We had a number of scenes to shoot during the day, and we had to get some of them done before Scott had to go to work on the show he's currently helping put on in Walnut Creek. We got it all done, and then everyone took a break while Alex and I (loyal DP and Assistant Director that he is) planned out the rest of the day and kept setting up along with Ryan McDuffie, the tireless do-everything man (hopefully he'll add to the blog soon too). I don't remember everything that we filmed that day, as it was a blur, but I remember we finished around 2 or 3:00 am--you see, we decided to stop early because we knew the following night was going to be the long one.

Got some sleep, and then began once again the next morning. Alex and I woke up at 7:00 AM. We filmed like a marathon until the following night, when we wrapped and were able to go to sleep around 5:00 AM. Everyone was so ridiculously tired, but we kept going. My cast and crew is amazing.

Finally, Monday morning we awoke, and filmed one of the last scenes of the weekend. Then Shashona and Ryan headed back to Santa Cruz, and Alex, Jourdan and myself filmed the final scene. Alex and I got back into Santa Cruz at around 11:30PM Monday night.

Some statistics for the weekend:

17 - Scenes Shot

80 - # of Shots Accomplished

20 - # of hours of continuous shooting on Sunday

5 - # of pizzas eatten

7 - # of hours of footage we shot...this means the camera was rolling for a total of 7 hours, which means...

13% - percentage of the weekend that the camera was rolling. Including sleep time.

So, that weekend was ridiculous. Then, we did it again.

This past weekend, we filmed the biggest scene of the movie which I will refer to as the "party scene." Without giving too much of the plot away, a significant portion of the film takes place at a party. We shot the party scene at Alex's house, which meant that Jourdan and Scott had to come back Santa Cruz once again. This time we also had the pleasure of working with Nika Pappas and Dan Beckner, two excellent actors who agreed to be in the film. (Dan is also the lead in Alex's movie). Besides having a cast of characters larger than ever, we also had to do scenes with a bunch of extras...which is always a headache.

You must feed extras. You must make them feel like they're important (because they are). And, most of all, you must not waste their time. Thus, we filmed the party scene CRAZILY out of order; end, beginning, middle, it didn't matter, we just had to get all of the shots with the extras done first. So, the weekend went like this:

Friday night, meet with Jourdan and meet Nika for the first time--she's awesome. Saturday morning, do the last shot of Alex's movie.

2:00pm - gather all of my actors, get costumes.

5:00 pm - Set up Alex's house for the party (I still owe coleman some money for the food).

7:30 pm - Extras arrive

8:45 pm - do first shot.

12:00am - wrap extras

3:00 am - wrap cast, get some sleep.

The Next Morning!

-- Film with Jourdan and Nika on campus

-- 7:00 pm - continue filming the party scene

-- 2:00 am - wrap the last extras

-- 5:00 am - wrap the last shot of the party scene...just as the sun has finished coming up, which made it physically impossible to film any longer :)

The NEXT Morning (aka two hours later)

Meet at my house to film the last shots of the movie.

-- wrap Shashona.

-- wrap Scott.

-- wrap Jourdan (got a little teary-eyed).

-- wrap The Reunion of Amilia Marbleberry and Marcy Stills.

The movie was done being shot. That was it. Finished.

Well, ya know, sort of.

The film was done being shot on Monday the 9th, and I had to turn in a 12-minute version by Wednesday the 11th in order to graduate. Now, I know you've not read the script (right? otherwise--awkward...), but this is not a 12 minute script. The probably running time of the film will be about 45 minutes to an hour. It is hard to make this into 12 minutes.

So, since Alex and I both had to get our movies down to 12 minutes, we lived in my room, editing our movies on my HD Plasma, giving each other feedback and working together, alllll nighttttt longgggg. There was some freaking out, but we got it all done. And our reward?

This evening, at 7:30 pm, we had the final screening for our Film 196 class. Everyone in class got to show their work to a huge audience of family, friends, peers and professors. My family is in town for my graduation, so it was very nice to sit between my mom and my dad and watch the 12 minute clip/version of the movie in front of an audience. And, the audience really liked it. There was laughter throughout (which was good, this was the funny part of the movie), and people responded really well to everything. Also, soon after my movie showed, Alex's movie showed, which people also loved. It was a very good night, and rewarding to finally get so show people the work that we've been doing.

So here I sit, at 2:45am, updating the blog with the longest entry so far. I would love to post the 12 minute version...but it's not the version of the movie I want people to see. So, I'm going to mean and withhold it, because I want you guys to see the full-length, true version. But don't worry, a teaser will be coming soon I'm sure. In the mean time, here are some fun goodies to keep you entertained.

Over the Pleasant Hill weekend, I asked my housemate and good friend Stephen Mejia to walk around and capture some behind-the-scenes footage. This is on the second morning, Sunday, when Jourdan was somehow feeling extremely energetic. Hang on...

Thanks everyone, keep reading...we're getting so close. From Script to in the can..getting there.

~Michael

P.S. -- If any of you know any bands that are Garden State-like that want their music in a movie...please send me an email cause I'd love to hear them!

We Survived

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tucker) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:37:00 +0000

It was insane, but we survived. I will have more details later, but I just wanted to make sure everyone knows that we're all alive. That I needed to say that gives you a hint of how insane the weekend was.