Nomination for Best Documentary

The Cape Fear Independent Film Festival in Wilmington, NC has made When Cotton Blossoms an Official Selection for their 2010 fest which runs April 29th - May 2nd... which is great... but here's what's even greater:

They have also nominated When Cotton Blossoms for the Best Documentary category! Stay tuned to see if it wins, but as always... "it's an honor just to be nominated."

More festivals!

When Cotton Blossoms continues its impressive festival run with four new festivals. For the complete list of upcoming & past festivals, CLICK HERE.

... And don't forget to spread the word!

White Sands Int'l Film Festival April 15-18, 2010 (Las Cruces, NM)

Screenings: Fri. April 16 at 2pm, and Sun. April 18 at 2:30pm

Crossroads Film Festival April 16-18, 2010 (Jackson, MS)

Screening: Sat. April 17 at 3pm

Tupelo Film Festival May 13-15, 2010 (Tupelo, MS)

Screening: TBA

Vineyard Film Festival June 3-6, 2010 (Nicosia, Cyprus)

Screening: TBA

Let the Festivals begin!

Festivals around the globe have begun to invite When Cotton Blossoms to their celebrations of quality independent cinema. We're still waiting to hear back from many others, but at this point, it will screen at FOUR very different festivals. Check www.pineywoodsmovie.com for updates as more festivals (hopefully) jump on board.

San Diego Black Film Festival

January 28th - 31st, 2010 (San Diego, California)

UPDATED: SCREENING TIMES

Thurs. 1/28 at 3pm (Click HERE for tickets)

Sat. 1/30 at 1:30pm (Click HERE for tickets)

Africa World Documentary Film Festival

February 4th - 7th, 2010 (St. Louis, Missouri)

SCREENING TIME: Fri. 2/5 at 10am (FREE admittance!)

February 18th - 21st, 2010 (Cavehill, Barbados)

SCREENING TIME: TBA

March 19th - 25th, 2010 (Hamilton, Bermuda)

SCREENING TIME: TBA

Thin Line Documentary Film Festival

February 17th - 21st, 2010 (Dallas, Texas)

SCREENING TIME: Sat. 2/20 at 11am (Shorts Compilation 2)

Click HERE for tickets.

International Film Festival South Africa

November 1st - 5th, 2010 (Dargle Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa)

SCREENING TIME: TBA

When Cotton Blossoms - Trailer 1

If you have speedy internet and a computer that can handle 24 pretty pictures per second, then skip the embed and view this trailer in HD at vimeo.com by clicking HERE instead.  (Be sure to click the "HD is off" button.)

When Cotton Blossoms - Trailer 1 from Scott Magie on Vimeo.

For more info, go to www.pineywoodsmovie.com...

Mississippi film shoot wraps

When Cotton Blossoms

In mid-May, our amazing cast and crew descended upon the Piney Woods School for a day of soundtrack recording and five LONG days of shooting.

For a look at the production journal, CLICK HERE.

It's Official!

The FMPC is proud to announce the upcoming production of WHEN COTTON BLOSSOMS for the Piney Woods School of Mississippi. This documentary, featuring archival and reenacted imagery, as well as brand new recordings by the school's own Cotton Blossom Singers, will premiere in November at the school's centennial celebration during Founder's Week.

The film will be produced, written, directed, and edited by Scott Magie, with coproduction services provided by Heather & Jamie Mathews of Distant Lands Entertainment (Greenville, MS) and Brad Walker of The Lighthouse Film Company (Wilmington, NC). Production is scheduled for mid-May before school lets out for the summer, so a ton will need to happen in the next few weeks!

To follow the film's progress, CLICK HERE.

New York screening for The Only Thing

Rachel Greenberger and Derek Tindall's dreamlike short film The Only Thing, starring Samrat Chakrabarti (Law & Order, She Hate Me, Kissing Cousins) has been selected for screening at the South Asian International Film Festival in New York City between October 22nd & 28th!  I had the pleasure of participating in the editing of this beautifully photographed film, so I'm proud to applaud its continued success.  Keep those festivals comin'!

Office now open in Michigan!

Yes, that's right... Michigan!  The land of Spectacular Peninsulas!

Although I'll be keeping some clients and future projects in North Carolina, my main office for all editing and post-production work has moved to East Lansing, Michigan.  I'm very excited to pursue new opportunities here, while still working as much as I can with my good friends back in Wilmington.

Michigan just passed a 42% film incentive (the biggest in the history of film incentives) earlier this year and there are plans in the works for a studio to be built right here in Lansing, so this just may be the next little Hollywood!  I certainly hope so (but without all the plastic surgery or plastic personalities of course)...

So, Michigan... here I am!

If you've stumbled across this site and you're a local filmmaker here in the Lansing area, I'd love to hear from you.

Two down... ? to go...

The 2nd rough cut of NO LIMIT is now complete... and now we're really getting somewhere!  After taking some time away from the project and showing the first rough cut to some trusted friends and colleagues, I found the direction the story needed to go.  And most importantly, I figured out its weaknesses and strengths.

So I threw out the original structure of the script and started fresh.  The scenes themselves are pretty much the same (although a bit tighter), but they're now in an order that keeps the viewer more engaged and less confused.  It's always been a non-linear story, which can be hard for the viewer to follow, but somehow making it even MORE non-linear has clarified things a bit.

Another big change I made was cutting a lot of the voice-over narration.  As an audience, it's just plain more interesting to wonder what a scene is about than to have somebody tell you up front.  It didn't feel that way when I wrote the script, but it stuck out like a sore thumb once it was up there on the big screen in the first rough cut.

So needless to say, I'm a much happier director than I was after the rough cut, although there's still a long way to go.  There's more tightening to do... plus special effects and sound editing... and of course music.  But this step is in the right direction and it feels like a big one!

I'm heading into another busy season of other projects again, but I'll try to keep pecking away at Draft #3.  Until then...

One Down... ? to go...

The first rough cut of NO LIMIT is now done.  This means two things:

1) The raw footage is now beginning to come to life.

and...

2) It's not even close to being a good film yet.

You see, this is the worst point in the process of making a film.  It's the point where, as the filmmaker, you see all the things that didn't pan out the way you once hoped.  When you write a script, you're only limited by your imagination, but once you enter pre-production and production, the compromises begin... (We only have this location for three hours... The poker table hasn't shown up yet... The baby won't cry on cue anymore... and by the way, did somebody ever figure out what happened to lunch?)

But there IS hope.  There IS life hidden beneath the rough edges of this early draft.  There's beautiful cinematography.  There are captivating performances.  And there are happy accidents... those wonderful little surprises that weren't in the script but that enhance the story so perfectly that someone MUST have scripted them.

So now I'll put this draft aside for a bit while I work on other projects, then I'll return to the next draft with a (hopefully) new perspective on what the story needs to catapult into the next stage... the stage when I get to fall in love with this story all over again, but in a whole new way.

NO LIMIT wraps!

After months of preproduction and four and a half grueling (but fun) days of production, NO LIMIT has officially wrapped production. I originally wrote the script as something that would be "fun and easy to shoot here in Wilmington on a very minimal budget"... well... at least it was fun! Definitely not easy, but mostly because we all wanted to make the best film possible... so what started out as a small pet project suddenly became a fairly big, full-fledged, dolly-track-and-green-screen sort of moving picture production. But we still only had two weekends to shoot it, so that made for some looong days.

When it was all said and done though, we managed to shoot about twelve hours of gorgeous footage (thanks to the always fantastic Director of Photography Brad Walker & our crew!) and capture some fabulous performances (thanks to our amazing cast led by David Clemen, my brother from another mother)... all of which I now have the pleasure of editing into one kickin' short film!
And through it all, the cast and crew were kept informed, fed, and (hopefully) happy as clams by our awesome coordinating duo of Jennifer and Jeanene, who saved the movie multiple times by thinking for me when my brain sat down like an ornery donkey and refused to cooperate.
And they weren't the only ones who saved the movie, but you know who you are because I've probably already thanked you at least seventeen times, so I won't try to name you all here.

So... to my cast, to my crew, and to all the locals who donated their time, their houses, their businesses, their equipment, or their newborn babies.... here's one more big THANK YOU!
Being the recipient of your generosity was a truly humbling experience.
And that's saying something too, because normally I'm the opposite of humble! :)

I'll post some other behind-the-scenes pictures and screen-grabs soon, so check back.

NO LIMIT cast announced!

The Flipbook Moving Picture Company is proud to announce the cast for the short film "NO LIMIT: The Extremely Short Story of My Poker Career", which will begin lensing in mid-May.

LEAD ROLES:

ME
David Clemen (Cougar News, Justice for All)

David's experiences in acting, stand-up comedy, poetry, fashion design, storyboarding, and fine art make him perfect for the role of ME, our lead character. He's even a life-long Redskins fan, which was already in the script! David is represented by Talent One.




ANGELA
Angela Kennedy (The Punisher, The Marc Pease Experience)

Like David, Angela seems born to play this role. Her impressive list of accomplishments includes film & television experience both in front of the camera and behind, as well as commercial and theatre acting. Angela is represented by Coastal Talent.





SUPPORTING ROLES:

RON STANLEY
Aaron Mills (Three Apples Fall, The Artifact, Two Soldiers)











MARTHA STANLEY
Leah Marie Parker (The Mill, Racing for Sage, 3 Apples Fall, I Do?)









CARL ST. CLOUD
Rusty Goins, Jr. (Cabin Fever 2, One Tree Hill, Surface, IQ-145)











SOPHIE ST. CLOUD
Marcia Lichtenberger











STEVE DORTMEYER
John Michaletz (4th and Long, Harold Knows the Difference)









KELLY DORTMEYER
Amanda Hunter (Larry Does Hamlet, Sissy's Day, Awaiting Time)











POKER EXPERT
Mojo Collins











MOVIE STAR
Philip V. Bruenn (The Needs That Kill, Slipping Away, Port City P.D.)











MOVIE STARLET
DaNae West (Running On Indian Time, Sabrina the Teenage Witch)











KITE BOY (ANGELA'S SON)
Dawson Newman (J.Crew Ad)











YOUNG ME (AGE 6)
T.B.A.

YOUNG ME (AGE 12)
T.B.A.

YOUNG ME (AGE 18)
Kameron Scott King











MY FATHER
T.B.A.

RESTAURANT FATHER
John Boldizar











RESTAURANT MOTHER
Nanci Boldizar











RESTAURANT GIRL
Helena Boldizar (Surface, The Other Side)











RESTAURANT BOY
Will Boldizar (Surface, The Other Side, Healthy Living PSA)

CASTING CALL for NO LIMIT

LOW-BUDGET SHORT SEEKS WILMINGTON-AREA ACTORS OF ALL AGES TO BRING AWARD-WINNING SCREENPLAY TO LIFE.
(NO PAY OTHER THAN LUNCH, BUT IT WILL BE FUN & IT SHOULD DO WELL ON THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT.)

SCHEDULE CHANGE!!
We now plan to shoot the weekend of May 12th!

CALL FOR AUDITIONS
The Flipbook Moving Picture Company
in association with
The Lighthouse Film Company, Inc.
presents
"NO LIMIT: The Extremely Short Story of My Poker Career"
Written & Directed by Scott Magie (Harold Knows The Difference)
Produced by Scott Magie & Brad Walker (Pale Blue Moon)

CASTING CALL:
WHEN: Thursday, April 19th 1pm-7pm
WHERE: Calvary Chapel of Wilmington (**this film is not "religious"... my church was just kind in letting me use the facility**)
ADDRESS: 2831 Carolina Beach Road - Wilmington, NC
DIRECTIONS: A few hundred yards south of Shipyard Blvd on C.Beach Road - don't look for a steeple, look for the blue dove-sign by the road.

PLEASE EMAIL scott_magie@yahoo.com IF INTERESTED IN AUDITIONING FOR A ROLE. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR PREFERRED TIME between 1pm & 7pm on Thursday, April 19th.*
YOU WILL RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION EMAIL WITH YOUR EXACT AUDITION TIME (15 minute increments) AND ANY OTHER PERTINENT INFORMATION. PLEASE ARRIVE AT THIS CONFIRMED TIME, NOT THE TIME YOU REQUESTED (if different).

PLEASE BE ON TIME SO WE CAN STAY ON SCHEDULE AND FIT EVERYONE IN.

*If no times between 1pm & 7pm work for you, state that in your email and we'll try to figure out an alternative time & place for us to meet you on Thursday or Friday.

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE:
The bulk of the scenes will be shot the weekend of May 12th, but additional shooting will be conducted, if necessary. Our shooting schedule will depend heavily upon the availability of locations, but most actors will only be required on set for less than one day. Some of the principles may be involved in scenes shot over two days. Only the main character is required for more than two days.

THE STORY:
The film is a quirky comedy with very stylized cinematography and editing. This isn't physical comedy or gross-out comedy. This is life comedy, because life is funny. The script won the Woods Hole Film Festival's short screenplay competition and was named a Top 25 Finalist in the American Gem Short Screenplay Competition through Filmmakers Magazine (www.filmmakers.com) so the finished film should play well on the festival circuit. We are mainly doing this film for the fun of the experience and the exposure it will bring to all involved, so actors should be prepared to have fun with this too.

THE CHARACTERS:
I've included fairly specific physical descriptions of the characters, but I would rather have someone who can act than someone who exactly matches a physical description. Quality actors should not be discouraged from auditioning if their physical appearance or age is slightly different than the description given. For example, Carl's description says he has a grey ponytail and Indian heritage. That's just what I was picturing when writing the character, but if you can act and you're an Irishman with a crew-cut and freckles, that works too. I mainly want people who look "real" not plastic.

My biggest concern is finding the right actor to play the main character ("ME") and the character of Angela. These actors need to have extremely natural line delivery and be able to say things with their eyes.

CHARACTER BREAKDOWN

FYI: Despite the title, this story is largely fictional and an actor will play the main character, not myself.

LEAD ROLE:
ME (white male, 30 – tall, not dark, & almost handsome)
- Main character and narrator of my own sadly comic story.
“I was one of those talented kids with lots of potential… but now look at me. I’m a complete failure.”

PRINCIPLE ROLES:
ANGELA (white female, age 30 – natural “girl-next-door” look)
- Her confidence, laid-back demeanor, and carefree personality lead her to approach me, a total stranger, at a critical point in my life. After I tell her my story, she tells me something that shifts my perspective on success & failure.
CARL ST. CLOUD (male, 50’s/60’s – grey ponytail, American Indian?)
- Restaurant owner who fires me, then shows up unexpectedly at the poker table where my poker career starts and ends in a single hand.
RON (male, 30’s – clean-cut, preppy, always a sparkling smile)
- His good looks & overly-friendly attitude make him a loveable, yet slightly annoying character. He invites me to his home for the ill-fated poker game and is the dealer for the opening hand.

SUPPORTING ROLES: (asterisk designates non-speaking role)
YOUNG ME* (white male, age 6 – skinny, blonde, quirky)
- Shown in flashbacks.
TEEN ME* (white male, age 12 – skinny, blonde, quirky)
- Shown in flashbacks.
MY FATHER (white male, 40’s – tall, distinguished)
- Shown in flashbacks. The quintessential father figure who encourages me (his talented, yet quirky son) to “Shoot for the moon… even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars!”
MY SON (white male, age 3 to 5 - skinny, blonde, quirky)
- Shown in flash-forward. Pouts, then smiles.
POKER EXPERT (male, age 50/60 - mean, mustache)
- Explains his rules for achieving poker success directly to the camera, deadpan.
MARTHA (female, 30’s – polished, preppy, born to host a party)
- As Ron’s wife, she serves as the hostess of the poker party and as mother of their screaming baby.
SOPHIE ST. CLOUD (female, 40’s/50’s – petite, quiet, Asian?)
- Carl’s wife. She’s not really into poker, but comes to the game to keep her eye on Carl, who she adores by criticizing.
STEVE DORTMEYER (male, 30’s – clean-cut, heavy-set)
- A player at the poker game who has more confidence than skill.
KELLY DORTMEYER (female, 30’s – fun-loving, cheerful, heavy-set)
- Steve’s wife, who cheerfully loses money in the poker game.
MOVIE STAR (male, 20's/30's - achingly handsome)
- Shown onscreen in cheesy fake movie.
MOVIE STARLET (female, 20's/30's - achingly gorgeous)
- Shown onscreen in cheesy fake movie.
RESTAURANT FATHER & MOTHER (male/female, 30’s/40’s)
- These tourists & their kids are my nightmare-table during my short stint as a waiter.
RESTAURANT DAUGHTER (female, 9 – cute & mischievous)
- She overwhelms the restaurant scene with the sucking noises from her straw.
RESTAURANT KID* (male or female, age 6)
- Quieter than his/her sister, but no less mischievous.

grey branches

Paul Foster has finished principle photography in New Hampshire, so now the edit begins. He brought the footage down here to my office in Wilmington for a brief but intense few days of initial editing. So far so good. It's a thoughtful and dream-like story about a man dealing with tragedy, inspired by foreign films like The Spirit of the Beehive, Ratcatcher, and The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser. In other words, heavy on mood and imagery... light on plot and action... which makes the editing even more important than usual. It looks to be a very interesting project to work on, so stay tuned...

Woods Hole Film Festival

I just returned from the Woods Hole Film Festival in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where my short script entitled "NO LIMIT: The Extremely Short Story Of My Poker Career" won 1st Place in their Work-In-Progress Screenwriting Competition. The festival seemed like a good excuse for my wife and I to drive up to New England and visit my family for a few days, so we threw our tent in the car and a mere 17.5 hours later, we were searching for our Cape Cod campsite by flashlight.

Woods Hole is an adorable little ferry-stop town jam-packed with tourists and scientists (nearly the entire downtown area comprises a famous Oceanographic Institute that I had never heard of before, but everyone else apparently has). But for seven days a year, the tourists and scientists share the many seafood restaurants and the ONE coffeshop (a great one, I might add) with what must be to them a particularly unseemly crowd: INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS! Armed with our all-access filmmaker badges, we were easy to spot all over town, eating in restaurants, corralling tourists into screenings off the sidewalk, and constantly waiting to cross the drawbridge (which is so low that it apparently needs to be raised for even the smallest of dingys).

SIDENOTE:
The underside of the aforementioned drawbridge is the only place in town where I saw graffiti, but it was the worst kind of graffiti... Bathroom Stall Graffiti. Every time the bridge was raised, the poor westbound vehicular travelers were faced with the red spray-painted words, "KISS MY BASS!" What kind of lame gang-activity is Woods Hole harboring?! For the sake of all anglers and graffiti-purists, I hereby recommend that the town of Woods Hole commission a REAL gang-member to paint over this atrocity with something better... something indecipherable, yet aesthetically pleasing to the eye (if you can't afford one from Boston, try Providence). Or here's an idea... repaint the bridge and install a simple security camera.

Sorry, back to the fest. I saw some great films (LIVE FREE OR DIE was my favorite feature), met some great people (JP, Roy, Jeremy, Corey, Erin, Andrea, DB, Jason, Mark, John, Kim, Kevin, Courtney, Tze, David, Gorman, and a bunch more who I had great conversations with before promptly forgetting their names), and ate some great food (italian sausage sandwich at the Lee Side B&G).

Now we're home and it's back to the editing bay I go. I am no longer a celebrity with an all-access badge... I'm just a guy in a dark room watching children have more fun than me.

HAROLD WINS!

Produced from script to screen in just 24 hours as part of the 2005 Final Cut Film Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina, HAROLD KNOWS THE DIFFERENCE is an odd little film about an odd little... well not-so-little... fellow named Harold, who... well... knows the difference.  Numerous vignettes reveal slices of his life to create a portrait of a man who almost relishes the sadness of his own lonely existence.

The film was loved by the judges & received 3 awards at the fest:

Top Ten Finalist

Best Cinematography (Brad Walker)

Best On-Call Actor (John Michaletz)

Congratulations, guys!  It was a lot of fun!