September Was Television Heaven

Well, OK, in Television Heaven I’m a member of the DGA and I’m directing an episode of television, but barring that eventuality, September really was full of television goodness. Right out of the gate I went to a taping of one of my fav shows, “Accidentally On Purpose” on October 4th. It was both wondrous and fascinating to be in the studio audience. I could observe some things, but not others. It was definitely a good introduction, though.

And then, two major toppers at the end of the month, one on top of each other. I attended a taping of another one of my fav shows, “Big Bang Theory,” with a friend on September 29, and got to go backstage after the taping. I met the director and reconnected with some old friends, which was super cool. I totally resisted accosting Chuck Lorre about my desperate desire for more, more, MORE geeky girls on that show. In my mind I grabbed his lapels, crying “Girls are geeks, too!” or “When I play, I use card protectors!” lol

And I’m going to pull into my September report – both due to timing and theme – the “Accidentally On Purpose” tweet-up on Friday October 2nd. Where I actually did get to finally step out of the audience and observe from behind video village, not to mention meet peeps and generally have a grand ‘ol time. Total bliss.

I also attended one of the most amazing, useful weekend seminars I’ve ever been to in L.A.: The Power Up Writer Producer Television Workshop. It was AMAZING. You can read all about it on Cyndi Greening’s blog Cinematik: Day 1 ; Day 2. Seriously, this month was SO about the TV love. And yeah, I’m not a writer, or a producer, or a lesbian for that matter, but this weekend experience was seriously money well spent for this aspiring television director. Stacey Codikow led the workshop, and she was awesomely inspiring and on and on with the practical take-away. And the women who came to speak to us were just amazing and amazing and amazing again.

Not to be completely full of win, however. As part of The Power Up Writer Producer Television Workshop, there is an opportunity to submit a script and potentially get a meeting with LOST Executive Producer Elizabeth Sarnoff. It’s a great opportunity, and I figured if I was selected I could talk to Elizabeth Sarnoff about whatever I wanted, so even though I haven’t screen-written in an age, I thought I should go for it. But at this point I’ve pretty much blown it. It’s not going to get done. That said, however, I do think I’m still going to sit down and try to do some more screenwriting. I’ve just joined a new creative group, so I have a team to bounce stuff off of, and honestly, they make me want to create things to show them!

The thing about television writing, however, is that my worst nightmare would be to be in the writer’s room while production is going on. I shudder to think of it. This girl wants to be on set!

Now, the biggest news of the month! YOU CAN WATCH MY SPEC WEBISODES ONLINE AT WWW.EARTHFORCE5.COM!!! Yes, they are completed. Honestly, the post process was really challenging and rushed, and so I have frustrations, but on the other hand, the webisodes aren’t dying in post and there is much, much funny goodness. They live! Please check them out and feel free to let me know what you think. I definitely value your honest opinion, always.

And in other big news, I took a six-month gig at Sony working in their awards office. The drive is a beast, but honestly I’m enjoying the audio book thing A LOT. And I love FINALLY working on a lot, and doing something totally new. So far, my favorite part of my job is talking to Academy members on the phone, and I’ll be manning the check-in at various screenings, so do say hi if you run into me!

Miscellaneous goodness filling out my September… I attended BlogHer Food in San Francisco, a Real George performance, and a premiere party for new, most adorable web series (not up on the web yet) “Marisa Rules.”

I am expecting my Sony position to be rather all-encompassing, and I won’t be blogging about my job beyond what I’ve said here, of course, so while this update is admittedly quite an update, the next six months may be a little quieter. I’m really looking forward to just focusing on working hard and enjoying and learning what I can from this new experience. The other thing I’ll be working on through the end of the year is post-production and marketing for still-in-post web series, “Juanita Saves the World,” and doing some writing and sketching. Oh, and I’m moving. To a 1-bedroom apartment just upstairs from where I live now.

Never a dull moment!

So Done with Summer

August is my least favorite month of the year. It’s long, and it’s hot. And it’s over. Huzzah!

So most of August I spent applying to full-time jobs, tearing through boring personal items on my to do list (think: dentist), networking with awesome peeps, having fun with friends, and working on post stuff for Earth Force 5. Lots of listening to awesome music and marveling at opening animation for Earth Force 5, which will definitely be done in the next two weeks. At this point we’re picture locked and music locked. Our VFX shots and our sound are almost done. I am over the moon about it, and I can not wait to be able to share the finished project!

I should mention that I finally made it to the cemetery for Cinespia this summer, for Paper Moon, which was awesome. I went to my 20-year high school reunion in Florida. Totally bizarre to finally take a vacation while I’m laid off, but it was already booked, so there you go. I went to a day spa for the first time, Burke Williams, compliments of my friends at Brand About Town and Nintendo. (It was wonderful.) I went to a blogger press day at CBS for their new shows.

I also took an introductory call with life coach, Paula Gregorowicz. This was another first for me and very interesting. Both the call and preparing for the call really got my mind working. Among other things, I found that I made decisions about the rest of this year.

First off, of course, I’m going to keep doing what I do to try to get another directing gig going. I’m working that in multiple directions, as always. And I’m going to do what I can to help move my previous project, “Juanita Saves the World,” through to completion. It’s currently sitting in post production hell, and I only have so much control over the project as I only directed one episode.

In terms of what I do directly control, I’ve decided that I’m determined to be able to sketch my own decent-looking storyboards by the end of this year. This is a very tall order. This is based on my belief that just about everyone can learn to draw to some serviceable extent if they really put their mind (and their fingers!) to the task. Because, my friends, my storyboards currently take place in stick-figure city. And I’ve had this item on my biggie list of things to do for absolute YEARS now, and I am going to take care of it. By the end of this year.

So, moving into my *favorite* month of the year, September, I will be working on my sketching, working on directing stuff, working on some awesome blogging, finding a full-time job, and doing two big, most awesome other things:  I’m attending the Power Up TV Writer-Producer 2-Day Intensive Seminar & Workshop, and I’m going to San Francisco for BlogHer Food.

This month is going to rock.

Summer Lovin’

I feel like I worked my ass off in July, and I’ve got nothing particularly earth-shattering to report. Ah, summer.

What I worked on most this past month – besides hunting for a new full-time gig – was post production stuff for Earth Force 5. I spent a long weekend in the editing room and have had many wonderful meetings regarding editing, music, and animation. If there was any lesson this month it was that being laid off doesn’t make anything easier. My schedule is still packed and a whole weekend in the editing room or going out numerous nights in a week is still challenging, even when I’m getting up at 9am and setting my own schedule.

Although, don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely reaping some flexibility benefits!

Currently, the completion date we’re aiming at for Earth Force 5 is Friday August 14th, so it will definitely be exciting to see what happens after that. It has been amazing working with such a great team who are driving the project forward at a wonderful clip. I’m really pleased with how it’s coming together.

Beyond my work on Earth Force 5, I did lots of great networking this month with cool peeps, and I went to some great screenings and various events including the Christopher Ashe opening at Wax Poetic, the premiere of The Ugly Truth, and a Real George performance at The Bootleg Theater. My earliness curse was in full swing when I headed to The Bootleg, so MBF and I went for a walk in L.A., Oh Yeah We Did.

On the blogging front, there was a little conference called BlogHer in a little town called Chicago. I enjoyed My Successful Quest for a Slightly Calmer BlogHer, which was immediately preceded by Blogger Prom in L.A., which was superfun as well.

And hey! I totally got my first two projects, Outside World and Are You Cereal? up on this site, so check them out if you’re interested. I have to say, it’s a bit crazy to look at the side bar and see what ten years of my life hath wrought. Once Juanita Saves the World and Earth Force 5 are up, it will be ten projects in ten years. Little ones, but still. My work.

Overall, I’m feeling somewhat afloat, or as we say in the biz, I’m “in between gigs right now,” and I’m not loving it, truth be told. I’m eager to find my next major projects to sink my teeth into. On the full-time front, I’m thinking lately that it would be great to find something that pulls all my worlds together, something in new media AND entertainment. I know that when I’m working on the Internet I feel most in my element, that’s for sure. I’m thinking something community and/or content related.

It will be interesting to see where I’m at next month. But then, what else is new?

La La

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

So that goal to blog a monthly update on the 1st is going well. I also haven’t gotten the pages set up for my older pieces I had digitized, but they’re coming!

June 2009 started off with a bang, aka a full-day casting session for “Earth Force 5,” a new comedy web series (written by Matt Vancil and produced by Cindi Rice and John Frank Rosenblum of Epic Level Entertainment, Ltd.) that I directed 3 spec episodes of on June 20th & 21st. Casting was super fun; it’s always one of my favorite parts of directing. Ultimately, we put together a most awesome cast who I fell madly in love with and totally posted on my fridge. Early on in the month we also had a location scout, also fun, and meetings meetings meetings.

Then I got laid off from my day job on Thursday June 11th. Major life wrinkle. I had to go right from packing up my desk to a table read and rehearsal. *That* was a challenge. I waited until the cast left to let my producers know I’d been laid off. And then I had a rough weekend. There was a lot of “now you’ll have time to work on the production” sentiment to be had, but it doesn’t really work that way. Instead, I immediately had to be updating my resume, applying for unemployment, applying for jobs, and dealing with major life upset. It shot my entire schedule and mindset to hell for a few days there, but I pulled it together as fast as I could.

Shot design on the weekend previous, and then we were off! 16 pages in a day and a half.

Two key things for getting shiny-as-possible coverage with that sort of a schedule: We had a full blocking rehearsal in the second half of the first day while art department worked around us finishing the sets for the next day. So on day 2, our full day, everything was already blocked and rehearsed. And we shot with two cameras – A first for me and I am in love! Digital Filmmaking, I Love You.

What we lost: Ability to really tweak the shots in terms of lighting and framing. And I learned an important lesson about trying to split the line with five characters and no time for that sort of coverage. Good times, good times.

Another lesson learned, multiple cameras increased the need for video village. That was the one thing I think we didn’t quite realize what we were giving up by skipping to save money.

All in all, it was a great day! I was so incredibly grateful for the opportunity, and I really felt like we rocked it. The crew was wonderful. It is always a challenge to come together for such a short gig, but everyone worked really hard and (I hope) had a great time together. I’ve come to think of these sorts of shoots where everyone is volunteering and at different experience levels as similar to a one-room schoolhouse. We all play and learn together, and it’s pretty damn cool.

The webisodes should be completed by the end of July. They will be going out to peeps for a potential series pick up, so cross your fingers they sell, and I get to direct some more! Here’s some cast pics:

The Earth Force 5 team is (from left to right) Brett Jacobsen, Phoebe Parker, André Meadows, Claudia Perea, and Henry Watkins:

The irrepressible Jason Marsden under attack:

Nathan Rice looking Nefarious:

And my favorite scene featured Jeremy Spray and Phoebe Parker:

Here’s Phoebe a little later in the show:

And just a little later…

Good times, good times. The movie blood totally washed out of my pants.

In other projects… I’m so behind right now! I had a meeting early in the month on one totally awesome project I’m really looking forward to diving back into, and I’ve got about a million things to read right now. We had a meeting at the end of June about marketing for “Juanita Saves the World,” the project I’m doing with GRIT. Hopefully those will start to air on the Internet by the end of the summer. We are deep in post at the moment and working on getting a site up with a shiny trailer – Which I will be *so* happy to have a link for you OMG!!!

Finally, GRIT had a roundtable with director Vanessa Parise, who was kind enough to come and talk to us about her path and experiences, and I went to an interesting panel at the Writer’s Boot Camp with Jimmy Hutcheson, President and Founder of Ego TV. I also attended two truly excellent advanced screenings: District 9 and Julie & Julia and a great play at the Chandler Studio Theater, Breaking the Code. And all of that peppered with resumes, resumes, resumes. If you know someone in the L.A. entertainment industry who needs an executive assistant, please do give me a shout.

Getting Ready

So, May 2009. Busy month, but not too bad. I attended a handful of business lunches, an ABC/Disney Fellowship Q&A, a comedy acting showcase called The New Comedy Adventure, an EP release party for “So Long Now” by Real George, a webisodes pilot premiere, and my first feature premiere ever, of “The Boys, The Sherman Brothers’ Story.” I submitted to the BlogHer Community Keynote. I went to my day job. I went back to yoga. I visited Portland and hiked in Washington. I saw Star Trek twice, the second time with screenwriter Q&A. Bliss.

My webisode shoot thankfully pushed to June 20-21. Preproduction ensued and continues. Production Meetings! Auditions! Location scouting! Shot design! Rehearsals! Much fun.

You might even call it heaven.

Schedule crunch be damned, I also made it to No Budget Film School this month, which I can report was very good and definitely worth the price of admission. Excellent course materials, too. My only warning, if it’s something you’re interested in, is that it ran over both days. Thankfully, the final session on Saturday was about alternative distribution, which I’m up on so I was able to leave right at 6pm since I had an evening commitment. On Sunday, however, I was very interested in the final speaker and so stayed until it ended at 7:30pm which was quite painful schedulewise. *Way* worth it, though.

Many things of interest from No Budget Film School, but perhaps the most interesting to me in terms of why-did-I-never-think-of-this is that if I ever decide to create a no-budget feature, I should totally be the field mixer while I’m directing. Sound has always been one of my fortes (and something that’s near impossible to get done for free) and one of the directors who spoke said he often held the boom. I love to field mix when it’s boom into the camera, or mixer on your hip. I can talk to the actors about their roles while I’m miking them up! Add a DP and a producer and I’m in No-Budget Business! So I’ve got a brain gerbil starting to run on the no-budget feature concept in the back of my mind.

Branded web content, however, definitely in the foreground. Actually getting a paycheck for directing in 2009 is so close I can taste it.

So I am way focused on my upcoming webisode shoot as well as various tasks still coming from my shoots at the end of last year. *Definitely* looking forward to the GRIT webisode project we shot last year hitting the web this summer! Web stuff is so fun; it really rocks. It feels like playing on my home turf.

I’ve also realized that I’ve sort of organically started studying the 1/2 comedy form in its various iterations, so that’s interesting. I would really love to shadow on a half-hour show in the fall, that’s for sure!

My big fail for May is that my business finances remain a mess. I bought new software… and that’s as far as that got. I’m still at receipts-in-a-shoebox status. Sigh. I also really need to clean up and organize my computers and drives. Not to mention my room!

Finally, on the plus side, I got my first projects ever – a music video shot half 16mm and half digital and my first digital short from film school – transferred from VHS to Quicktime last month. So I plan to get those up here in June. I think you’ll get a kick out of them.

Prepro Prepro Prepro

So much is going on! Which is pretty awesome.

Let’s see, last update was March 10th… I’m going to try to post these on the 1st of every month now…

In March, I pitched 4 webisode series to my friend Cindi Rice from Epic Level Entertainment. Two of them are in various stages of development. I love both of them very much! Very excited about both of the writers I’m working with who are also good friends.

We also began preproduction on 3 spec webisodes currently scheduled to shoot June 6 & 7. (Hooray!) The concept and scripts are AWESOME FUNNY. (Another great writer! How blessed am I?) They are designed to be a branded concept, so once we’ve shot the specs we’ll shop it around. We already have a company who’s claimed first look. Which seriously rocks! I am very excited to have a shoot coming up and really looking forward to working with the great group of talented peeps involved. May will be all about casting and shot design and working with the art department and all that fun stuff. Cindi and I attended the Cricket Feet Showcase to scout acting talent, and it blew me away it was so good. I believe we are going to another showcase type show in May. Certainly not the only way I find talent, but I do enjoy them.

I finished my business taxes and got them in, which was a huge relief. I’ve since purchased an accounting program for my business so I can be more prepared for my 2009 taxes. I was hoping to get that set up in April… and now I’m hoping to get it set up and my business finances up-to-date in it in May. I actually enjoy working with finances, but it’s difficult to find the time to work on it.

Business lunches and networking have slowed down since the insanity of January/February, but I did finally attend a TubeFilter WebTV Meetup, which was cool. I hung out with the great guys from my project that fell apart in March. It was good to reconnect with them. Hopefully we will work together in the future! I’m trying to regularly watch more WebTV and blog about it on my personal blog, Everyday Goddess. There’s A LOT of new WebTV this year! I’m really enjoying seeing what everyone’s doing. I met some very cool peeps at the meetup, too.

Lately, for me, I’ve been seeing a path where I direct branded web content. I believe there may ultimately be profitable career path there. It would be great to get into directing commercials that way, too. At the same time, there’s also the path of narrative web content leading to television directing. That’s a less sure path, but luckily I think I can work at that simultaneously and hopefully end up somewhere where I’m a working director! Meanwhile, I really enjoy working on web content, so it’s win win.

We had a GRIT meeting last weekend where we discussed the ongoing plans of the group and also the status of the webseries we shot at the end of 2008. Currently, five of ten of the webisodes has been through the director’s cut (including mine!). So there’s a lot still to be done on that. I’m not currently actively working on that project, although at some point I will jump back into it as it moves through the various stages. *After* my upcoming shoot!

And finally, I’m registered for the Low Budget Film School at the end of May. The timing isn’t great because it’s the weekend before my shoot, but I’ve been wanting to go and I didn’t want to miss it again. It only goes to 6pm each day (Saturday/Sunday), so I’ll just have to schedule meetings, rehearsals and the like for the evenings that weekend or during the week. I’m definitely hoping I don’t regret trying to fit it in, but I think it’s going to be really educational.

Happy May Day!

Be Specific!

This is what happens when you email right when you roll out of bed. A good friend sent me a message this morning that FSU Film School has a webpage with links to alumni websites. (Which is great!) So following the directions on the page, I pop off an email that reads: “Liz Rizzo (MFA 2002) blogs about becoming a working director in Hollywood and showcases her work to date.  http://lizrizzodirector.wordpress.com.”

And it ends up in the email newsletter. Where it reads like an announcement. Like I’ve become a working director or something. Oy vey.

Well, I am a director. And I am working.

But just to be clear, still an executive assistant, still working towards becoming a paid working director. Right now my big step is graduating to directing things someone else wrote and someone else is paying for. Which is pretty damn cool, and I’m having a ton of fun.

So there’s that.

So February flew by…

The plan is a monthly update here. So that’s going well.

I’ll have a scene I directed up on this site this month. It’s done; I just haven’t uploaded it and created the page yet.

I’m done with the director’s cut of my webisode from the web series I worked on with my directing group GRIT. There’s a lot of work still to be done on the series, so personally, I’m hoping it’s up on the web this summer.

There’s one more night of the Film Independent Directors Series left. This year has been great! I definitely picked up some practical directing tips, especially from the session on casting. That said, attending the series seriously stresses out my schedule, so I am *really* glad that this week is the last week.

I committed to working on my feature film book adaptation every Tuesday in March.

The deal fell apart for three spec webisodes I was supposed to direct end of March. I was quite bummed because I’d enjoyed working with the writer/actors and become rather attached to the material and excited about my shot design… but at the same time I learned a ton from the process for as far as it got, and I felt like, well, this is going to happen about a million more times during my career, so here’s what it feels like on a small scale.

Learning. Directors are directors (for many reasons but also) because they are addicted to constant challenge and learning. So there was plenty of that, which was good.

The producers I was working with on that project immediately set a different project with a different writer into motion, and I’m planning to direct three spec webisodes for that, hopefully in May. I am really looking forward to that!!!

Finally, I have multiple writers getting me webisode ideas which I will pitch to my producer friend in the hopes of directing (or split directing with one other director) a full web series by the end of the year. There’s a real chance that I could direct a web series this year. Whew!

Post Production January and Other Fun

OK, so part of my concept here is that I’m using the blog space for updates on what I’m doing, directing career-wise. And this month, I’m so fortunate to be in post on two projects!

The first is a web series I directed with a bunch of directors from GRIT. I was in charge of the casting, and I directed the 7th episode. Tomorrow I’m doing my director’s cut, and I am *so* excited!!!

Today I worked with my regular editor on a group of scenes I shot with a bunch of actors who put together a great little three-day shoot. I directed one day, the same scene three times with rotating talent. It was a really great experience, and I’m really happy with how it’s coming out. I guess I’m going to have to pick one for my reel, but I think I will put them all up on the site, because it was really interesting to see the differences in performance dynamics and how the scene developed through the day.

As it’s the beginning of the year, of course my eyes are on the ABC/DGA Television Directing Fellowship. Last year the deadline was the end of February, but with everything going on in the industry, I believe it will push. That said, I *must* have both these pieces ready for the application.

The best part? I didn’t write either of them, so they’re totally new and different. Plus, the web series is a comedy, and the scene was an interrogation. So: range.

Basically, getting into the ABC/DGA Television Directing Fellowship would be like living in my heaven for a year! I strive to have a better application every time.

Finally, I believe I will be shooting something new in February or March, and it’s funny, and it’s sci-fi, and I didn’t write it. OMG, I can’t wait.

I am so, so thankful for these opportunities, and even though it’s so challenging to do this work on top of everything else – Well, it’s the reason I get up in the morning, so I’m just really thankful and loving it so much!

More work on the website, soon. My editor is trying to get me Quicktimes of some shorter pieces I have on VHS, so cross your fingers, ’cause it’s a couple things I’m really looking forward to sharing.

Slow and steady wins the race?

OMG Earthlink this weekend is killing me. Trying to upload media while your DSL craps out a million times a day is just not fun. Sigh.