Hello everyone. I wanted to give you a heads up on my next project: Matinee Idle. It will be a mockumentary style T.V. show for The Peoples Channel about a group of movie theater employees. I haven't started casting yet but I have been scowering the internet for the pictoral embodiment of the characters I've created. Here's what I envision the cast to look like. Will-General Manager Tatanka-Usher Keke-Concessionist Grace-Box Office Darren-Projectionist
Hope these photos give you some idea of the comedic tone I had in mind for this colorful group of characters. Hopefully I will find the actors who embody them. Wish me luck!
Well here it is my first blog, and so, to celebrate this occassion I want to post my first film. A mini doc titled: Everything Must Change, in it, Jay and Brody discuss the major events that have shaped Jay's life: Becoming an orphan, his struggle with homeless, and his one true love....music. I filmed them walking through UNC campus on February 7 and over the past four days have been editing using Final Cut Pro. I should point out, that I didn't choose the subject, that was Brody's idea. He and his mother met Jay while volunteering at the men's shelter in Chapel Hill. They soon developed a friendship that inspired this film. I felt especially connected to the subject matter because once upon a time I too was homeless. My son and I stayed at the women's shelter and though it might sound strange, it was there that I realized I wanted to become a filmmaker. After days,weeks,months, and eventually a whole year of watching rented movies in my tiny room as a means to distract myself from the grim reality of destitution. I began to lose myself in the stories (the better ones anyway) and after listening to a directors commentary on one film in particular (Manito) I realized I too could tell a story with a camera. I've always been a lover of great story telling. A voracious reader as a child, my favorite stories were the ones that transported you, that painted a picture so vivid you could smell the air, hear the sounds, and experience the pains and joy's of the story's setting with only words as your guide. To me, movies are the ultimate culmination of all the great mediums of story telling: The written word, the spoken word, music, fashion, even the location tells a story. To be able to create and contribute to what I consider to be the highest form of story telling has given me such an overwhelming sense of purpose, satisfaction, and especially gratitude when I think about where I was this time just two years ago. How down and out, how miserable/suicidal, how hopeless and now, I feel a new energy, a spark, a new found excitement where there once was only dread when I think about my future. The perfect example of 'Thriving over Striving'(which I'll delve into in a later post) And I owe it all to this wonderful, challenging, and all encompassing of mediums. And with that I give you: Everything Must Change (and so it has) :) Much Love, Mercy
