Five Sisters Productions Blog Archive (2006 Entries)

Archived: Happiest Day Film Shoot, January to June 2005, July to December 2005

December 30, 2006

Maria has been making a documentary about the a cappella singing group, THE BOBS, and she is now completing the editing with her co-director Alex Stein. We watched a rough cut of the movie; it’s energetic and funny -- like the group, and Bobs fans are going to love it!

December 14, 2006

Time for a company retreat! As this was a semi-annual meeting, we had a short one day retreat to discuss what we've accomplished and what direction we want to go -- including discussing the projects on our slate and which we will focus on. Maria is going to focus on THE MERCURY 13 astronaut movie. Ursula is spearheading THE HAPPIEST DAY OF HIS LIFE, finishing it and applying to festivals in the coming year. Jennifer is working on a book right now, as well as working as the company's CFO; she is also starting a documentary on parenting -- so her hands are full. Charity continues to teach in a Central Los Angeles public school; she's passionate about the work and the kids. We continue to work on promoting MANNA FROM HEAVEN, and we also decided to get TEMPS and JUST FRIENDS put out on DVD this coming year. That will involve a lot of work, but we're excited about having the films available on DVD.

December 10 & 17, 2006

MANNA FROM HEAVEN played theatrically in Denver and Fort Collins, Colorado this week. We got this feedback in an email: "The film was well received and thoroughly enjoyed! I finally got to see it on the big screen and so enjoyed seeing it again. I did see so many more details that seem to go over your head in the first viewing especially if you view it on DVD."

December 9, 2006
entry by: Ursula Burton

Gabrielle and I flew on frequent flier tickets to New York City, as MANNA FROM HEAVEN was invited to screen at the Television Academy yesterday. Sumner Glimcher, a documentarian, had seen MANNA and thought it would fit in perfectly to their film series -- what an honor! New York City was all decorated for the holidays; the weather was beautiful and FREEZING! It was a lot of fun to talk with the academy members about MANNA after screening it, and we really enjoyed posing for pictures with Emmys! This was a busy and terrific week!

December 7, 2006

At last, after many delays and a few hiccups with the post-production (the effects were all lost at one point and had to be recreated), Ursula got a test print hot off the presses of the wonderful people at Color By Deluxe (Deluxe was one of the sponsors of the movie), and she flew to Columbus to preview the movie with a special talk at the prestigious Wexner Center museum. The response to the film was fantastic, and we're excited to take the movie out to festivals. A short film is an interesting kind of work, as it doesn't typically have distribution outlets other than festivals and it’s generally impossible to make back the budget; however, THE HAPPIEST DAY OF HIS LIFE appeals to both special interest groups who consider gender roles (including college courses in sociology and gender), and the general public. We're going to look into wedding expos, as the film will make a great wedding shower activity or present. It's a fun, playful look at weddings and the assumptions we make socially, especially at big, traditional celebrations like weddings.

December 5, 2006

We had a screening of MANNA tonight for the United Way of Delaware. It was a fun event, taking pictures with audience members and talking with them about the film. If you want to get involved with the United Way, they are a charity that does a lot of community work. Here's the website of the chapter that hosted the screening of MANNA FROM HEAVEN (http://www.uwaydelaware.org).

December 2, 2006
entry by: Gabrielle Burton

My mom and I went to Buffalo to see friends and attend the honoring of our friend, poet Jimmie Gilliam, at Kleinhan's (the symphony hall featured in MANNA when Bunny and Ed pick through the lost and found). As with the world now with global climate change, Buffalo has been having bizarre weather -- last night, the wind was so strong, it was blowing people sideways. On October 13, the barometric pressure had dropped so precipitously and suddenly that snow fell on the trees that hadn't yet lost their leaves -- thus breaking most of the tree limbs off under the weight of the snow. It was awful. The gorgeous old elms lining Delaware Avenue and park were all terribly damaged. It was so sad to see the trees all over Buffalo broken and snapped from the earliest snow on record, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that they will rebound quickly. The city is still so beautiful with its green spaces and architecture, there's so much to capture that we couldn't fit all into MANNA FROM HEAVEN. We hope to be able to shoot another movie there someday.

November 10, 2006
entry by: Gabrielle Burton

I went to a "Conversation with Ellen Kuras." Kuras is a terrific cinematographer; she's well known for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind": she's also collaborated with Spike Lee, Jonathan Demme, Mary Harron and others. She was a wonderful speaker, talking about taking risks, trying out techniques, and, (though there are plenty of women cinematographers) being one of the only successful women in the field. As with everything in the film business, there is a combination of talent and great deal of luck for breaks to come one’s way, and coupling that reality with the fact that cinematography is such a male-dominated field makes it particularly hard for women to get successful. Kuras was inspiring, and I enjoyed speaking with her briefly after the event. We're going to keep in touch.

October 23, 2006
entry by: Gabrielle Burton

I did an interview with the Rotary Club International Magazine. I won a scholarship from them to go to France, where I studied film... and thus became a filmmaker. I had a fantastic experience in Toulouse at the Ecole Superieure d'Audio-Visuel, which had 29 students for classes eight hours a day. I still have friends there whom I'm in touch with. Many are working in film in Paris or Toulouse. I feel so lucky and grateful to the Rotary Clubs for giving me that opportunity. They are a wonderful foundation, doing great work in their home countries as well as overseas to help others with their needs (my sponsoring club of Amherst South built a hospital in Nepal, for instance), and giving scholarships every year to hundreds of young people so they can live overseas and learn about other cultures.

October 10, 2006
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is doing the show from Columbus, Ohio ("the heart of it all!") at the end of this month, and we're all going to be there, so we've requested tickets. It's a great show, and we admire Stewart and all involved in it.

October 1, 2006
Ursula is acting in the TV comedy THE OFFICE, as a character named Hannah. She's having a lot of fun and says the crew is great. One of her coworkers is Ed Helms, who you may know from the Daily Show. She says he's got a great sense of humor in true life too. Look for Ursula on the show in upcoming weeks!

September 26, 2006
MD Dundon, our website designer, is updating the information architecture of the site. It's neat to rethink these things and also work creatively with all the information that we keep on our site. We'll retain the same basic visual design for the site, but will streamline the content and simplify the navigation. This is cool stuff.

September 20, 2006
We're working on getting the DVDs of TEMPS and JUST FRIENDS out. We've got extras to put on -- deleted scenes, filmmakers' commentary, trailers, photos and text docs about the film, actors bios, etc. We're deciding whether or not to go with a distribution company to release the films, or to make DVDs with a middle-company and put them on our website, as well as engage the partnerships that company has with Netflix, etc. The latter option means we retain the rights for our investors, so the potential for profit is better, considering we can control costs and know whom we're dealing with... ourselves! We're tempted to do that, although it is nice to have other people excited about your work and wanting to promote it / sell it / get it out there. We're going to wait to see the offer terms before deciding.

September 15, 2006
Got some notes on the Mercury 13 second version we sent out from two writer friends -- some comments were very helpful, others not so much. It's good to hear how other people interpret a story, and it helps us in our direction for the next pass -- affirming some of our thoughts, pointing out some surprises. One comment was that we had referred to Jerrie Cobb's old lover Jack in passing, and each reader wanted to know more about that relationship (see the note below about people wanting to see women in relationships!) -- how fascinating. We cut it out for the next reader. We're waiting on two more readers before we dive back in again. Like with film editing, you listen to what people say, take what resonates and really listen to what everyone says in common, and then plunge back in.

August 16, 2006
We've finished our second version of Mercury 13! It feels so great! We're going to give to a couple of people for comments now. Wow, what a ton of work, and it's so great to feel we've written a really solid, exciting script.

August 8, 2006
This is a poem by John Gillespie that Jerrie Cobb and other pilots like a lot. Cobb even put it in the opening of one of her autobiography. We're thinking of opening the Mercury 13 film with part of it, read in Cobb's voiceover.

HIGH FLIGHT
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds -- and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of -- wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hovering there,
I've chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark, or even eagle, flew;
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

August 2, 2006
Working hard on the Mercury 13 script every day. Reading, researching, thinking, rewriting. Really digging into the characters and what motivates the story's progression. There are some real stumbling blocks for making a "typical" movie structure/story with something this historical, so we are working on that. Also very interesting to work on a film that focuses almost entirely on women -- not very popular in filmmaking (especially big budget filmmaking), and many characteristics that would be seen as automatically heroic for a man -- or maybe quirky or funny -- would likely not be interpreted as such for a woman. If she's independent and strong, or the strong silent type, audiences are more likely to assume she's an unpleasant or selfish person. They also want to see her in a relationship with a man, which is not part of our story. So these are interesting challenges.

July 28, 2006
Ursula has booked an acting job on THE OFFICE, playing a character named Hannah Smoterich-Barr. She's a character who has recently had a baby, and works as an accountant in the Stamford office on the show.

July 7, 2006
We're digging back into the Mercury 13 script. What an exciting and interesting story. Such courageous and heroic people. Lots of research. We're working to put everything in historically accurate order, which is hard, as many sources have different "facts" cited, so we are looking for multiple confirmations on a timeline and other details. It's really interesting work.

June 15, 2006
entry by: Gabrielle Burton
I've been working on the Law & Order script for the Disney fellowship. It's a fun exercise, and I'm enjoying the storyline. It's about a religiously themed movie who's director is shot at the premiere, and the issues of religious division that are so prevalent in our country today. It's also about the fear of terrorism and the jumping to conclusions by the media and the public in situations of violence.

June 13, 2006
entry by: Gabrielle Burton
Did another script reading. Tonight was the run-through, and tomorrow is the reading -- it's a horror film set in a hockey rink that's really entertaining, written by a local screenwriter Angie LeRoy. I play a producer -- ah, typecasting!

May 15, 2006
We had our annual company meeting in Los Angeles, and it was very productive. We listed all of the projects that are of interest, that other people are interested in having us do, or that we have on our plates now. Putting everything in perspective regularly and prioritizing is important for streamlining any business, and particularly helpful for a small business and/or an artistic company. We were also able to come up with a work schedule that's more realistic / less stressful and reactive to the I-need-this-yesterday mentality that is pervasive in the film industry. A lot of work of running a business is rather boring (to us, at least!) -- filing, keeping the email address book updated, etc. -- and can take a lot of time, which we'd rather be using on making films or writing scripts. So, we worked on getting that as productive as possible within a limited time each week. It's also important to check in with colleagues to make sure we are all on the same page -- even though we're sisters, we have different passion projects and opinions on what we want to do first. So, it was a great company retreat for getting us all on the same page and motivated on our work for the next six months. We decided to meet again in six months.

April 14, 2006
entry by: Gabrielle Burton
I am going to apply for the Disney/ABC writing fellowship -- a very competitive fellowship for, I believe, six spaces, to write for one of their television programs. You have to write a script for a show that is currently on the air, so I am going to write a Law & Order episode, as I worked on that show in their directors-training program. I am now looking at scripts and will be studying shows to get familiar again with the format as well as, making idea outlines to get myself organized.

April 6, 2006
entry by: Gabrielle Burton
Taught an acting class today and on Monday. It's great to work with actors, talk to them about the reality of auditioning and what filmmakers are looking for, what they may like or dislike. One major lesson I gave them was that the audition starts from the moment you walk in the door to the moment you walk out. Often people have commented that an actor either has the job or not a second after she or he walks in the door -- and that's a good point for any interview. It's not just about the interview itself or the commercial or script reading, but also about self-presentation and interaction with the room/people before and after -- about who you are and how you are to work with.

February 27, 2006
entry by: Ursula Burton
Got some more music for THE HAPPIEST DAY OF HIS LIFE from the composer. It's great to get some music and listen against picture.

February 24, 2006
Worked more on THE MUSE PROJECT (THE XX FACTOR). There are a lot of puzzle pieces to fit together, as this is a project that involves a distribution and marketing plan. It's a big financial plan, and that's also what makes it very solid. It will take an investing company that sees the vision (and safety) in making a series of lower budget films together. We are working on all of the details with marketing and cross-promotion too, so that it's a win-win for all companies involved. Exciting work.

February 9, 2006
entry by: Gabrielle Burton
I did another commercial shoot, this one for a casino in Louisville, Kentucky. A steamboat casino which is now permanently docked. I played a casino manager. While we were working in the background, I got to talk with a number of the workers there who were also used in the commercial. Casinos are such unusual places, which are entertaining and can be really fun, but they are also filled with so much sadness -- people who clearly don't have the money to spend just plugging dollar after dollar into the slot machines. I sat next to a couple of people, and they kept winning, so one woman called me her lucky charm. That was sort of fun. However, it's such random luck on slot machines with a fixed algorhythm and computerized output -- we watched as the managers fixed the machines to win for the commercial -- interesting! I was surprised to see that casinos now have changed their machines mostly so that you don't put coins in and get coins out -- it's all credit card based, so there's no clinking and cups anymore. I had to search for a machine that took coins; I had promised my mom I'd play a dollar for her. We lost. Ah well, guess we'll have to make our fortunes elsewhere! I met a really neat woman also in the commercial, and we discovered that her uncle Patrick Gilfillan is also a screenwriter in LA -- and in fact won the Nicholl Fellowship the same year as my mom! Turns out my whole family knows him! Small world.

While I was shooting the commercial, all of us sisters worked together (on cell phones) on THE MUSE PROJECT. We came up with the film series title for the long-term series, which would start with this series (The Muse Project). We'd spoken with our lawyer about it, and it's definitely an innovative project, and she thinks it's an excellent idea. The whole thing will be called THE XX FACTOR. We are going to be working on the proposal packets in the next few months and then will start sending it to some people.

February 8, 2006
entry by: Gabrielle Burton
There is a script-reading series here in Columbus that a friend of mine has organized. Each month or two, she has hosted a screenplay reading with a group of actors, so writers and directors can hear the film aloud and get feedback. As the series grows, people feel more comfortable giving feedback, I think, and it's a great idea for a way to encourage open creative dialogue and community support of other writers/filmmakers.

January 31, 2006
entry by: Gabrielle Burton
My friend Marlin, who owns the Delaware Square movie theater in Delaware, OH, is having troubles keeping the theater open. It's been a tough season with movie grosses. People are turning out less and less to theaters, waiting to rent most movies on DVD or to buy them. Ironically, people wait to see independent movies and dramas, and mostly are showing up only to big action films to see them on the big screen. That is really tough for theaters as well as for filmmakers, as the business is like a dog chasing its tail -- financing will finance movies less who don't pull out big audiences to theaters currently. Also, advertising budgets are so huge (average $33-35 million!) that it's nearly impossible for smaller films to compete -- and also for smaller theaters to get film prints that draw more crowds. Thus, there's a vicious cycle set up here, and my friend's theater is really suffering. He is in a market that is considered both competitive with Columbus, but also not big enough to warrant its own prints in the first few weeks of a run -- so he's been having woes particularly as theater attendance goes down everywhere across the country. He's trying creative ways to keep the theater running, and he's been very community focused (as small theaters often are) -- doing Bollywood screenings of Indian films regularly, doing free screenings of children's movies, doing indie movie screening series for lower ticket prices -- but audiences are just not as interested in coming out to the movies now.

So we've offered to do a fundraiser for the theater with MANNA FROM HEAVEN. Hopefully that will help him get over the hump of the typically dry winter/spring season until the summer blockbusters, and maybe then audiences will start attending movie theaters more.

January 25, 2006
Jennifer is starting a documentary on parenting. She is also working on a book with Henry Louis Gates which takes priority, so she is taking a long-term view on the doc. Maria has been working on a doc on the business of dating, which is really interesting. Maria is also shooting a concert video with MD Dundon (our famous web designer) and a few other people of THE BOBS singing group, and they'll be editing that in the coming months.

January 18, 2006
We went through the TEMPS pictures for shots for "delivery" -- for the poster, for other promotional materials, etc., and for the website. We are working on a design for the poster/DVD cover, which we'd like to have as the main shot of ALLY (played by Gabrielle) bored at her desk, and the papers on the desk having other stills from the film with all the characters. We will forward them onto the dvd company and see what they design. It'd be fun to know all the programs, like design programs, etc. and to be able to play around with this ourselves...