Pre-Production - 'She Cried Alive'

Well its been a turbulent week. We were meant to cast over the weekend but the SAG Conservatory Office has been overwhelmed and no phone calls were made - so that stopped that plan.

Next casting was Monday evening 4-7. At 2.30 that afternoon no actors had been called - SAG quickly got into action and we started to see a trickle of people - this fed into Tuesday and Wednesday. Set an additional casting for Thursday as male leads had been sparse. In the end Monika and Karl in the SAG Office did a good job at mustering talent.

Locations has been a pain. We were set to use DWP, then it looked as though it had dropped out only after a lot of angst it was back on again - communication problem there, but now all rectified. Its a great location and exceeds my expectations. Finding a bar and strip club has again been difficult. Cheetahs was on the table then dropped off as did a couple of other places. We are now using a Mexican club in Los Feliz - extraordinary place, sleazy and effective. Needs some set decoration, ie stripper pole but definitely workable and full of character. So La Monde is on the case.




Still looking for two appartments - Steve's and Abby's - so its now Sunday evening, 5 days left and we need a solution.

OK what else. Fanshen has been approaching breast cancer centres and UCLA Medical has been amazingly supportive. Also spoke to a wonderful producer/director called Susan Cohen who was on teh Women in Film course at the AFI and has shot a film on a similar theme. She has introduced me to a source where we can borrow some prosthetics. It looks as though we have a lead on a survivor who is interested in helping us out - would be amazing at it would add the required authenticity to pull teh film off and make it a touching piece which would really have an impact. Keep your fingers crossed.



So casting is now finished and I am so surprised - we will be using Fanshen and John from bootcamp! Its great they have a distinct look which works for the film. It hasn't been easy but it will work well. Met some great actors and some less well developped so its been a useful exercise.



Still some concerns over production design, balancing the budget etc.

Jennifer our makeup artist has also been a star. She is looking in to how we can pull off the revelation using prosthetics and makeup - its not easy but may act as a last resort - I feel that the emotional impact will be a lot less.

Days to go. Oh a funny one, Sophie told me she was 26 - I just found out she is actually 23 - really odd as most women want to say they are younger than they actually are. Nobody has heard from her which is a shame.



Jeff (Cin) hit by bird shit - lucky guy lets hope the luck feeds into the film!



Jeff is a little less lucky when it comes to location scouting as he is generally asked to be the 'actor' of the moment - here he clocks out an Abby moment!