I’m still trying to figure out a way to give hints at what LOBL will be like. The following video is an animated storyboard concept. It’s the 5th one I’ve done.

Joining the Cast of Legend of Black Lotus will be

Emayatzy as DAIYU

Steffinnie Phrommany as EMPRESS CHUNTAO

Irene Park as MINGZHU

I’M CROWDFUNDING!
Click here to help my turn the epic fantasy into a reality. Donate as little as $10 to the production budget for cool perks and a copy of the film!

www.indiegogo.com/blacklotus

One thing I learned about casting is that my gut instincts are generally on point. My selections (to be announced) after two days of callbacks were the same selections I would have chosen after the first day of auditions. More on that later.

Two Projects Linked:
I was working on my project, Resurrection of Serious Rogers and found some video that was perfect to highlight the animatic trailer for Legend of Black Lotus. So here is a new trailer illustrating the concept.

Legend of Black Lotus is a revisionist telling of the legend of Mulan. in our story, a Chinese Empress gives birth to a black daughter who must rise to unify the lands that her father, the emperor has divided with war. You can help make Legend of Black Lotus a reality — show your support by contributing here: http://www.indiegogo.com/blacklotus

VIDEO

Today I had audition callbacks for my short film, Legend of Black Lotus. Black Lotus is an epic fantasy martial arts film — a revisionist tale of the legend of Mulan. It’s a thematic hybrid of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Gladiator. However, I also wanted to do more than  squeeze some family time in so my mind got working on a way to do both.

Since the callbacks were only scheduled two hours I drove up to CAZT, the studio where I hold auditions, with my wife and four children. We live about 45 minutes south of the City of Los Angeles. My family hung out in the car and in the studio lobby while I conducted auditions.

Auditions went well and I wrapped early. Afterward I drove my family to Hollywood where we had pizza and hotwings at Raffalos on the corner of La Brea and Hollywood Blvd. Out bellies satisfied we then went for a drive through Beverly Hills to look at all the big houses and dream.

From Beverly Hills we headed to Santa Monica to the Third Street Promenade and then to the pier. My daughters rode the rollercoaster as my wife changed diapers. It was chilly outside so we cut our walk on the boardwalk short, grabbed some churros and cotton candy and then made our way back home… another 45 minute drive.

We stopped for dinner at In-n-Out Burgers. We actually got out of the car and sat inside the restaurant to eat. On the way home we stopped at Blockbuster Video for movies (Tooth Fairy, Up In The Air, and Edge of Darkness) and headed home.

Tomorrow we do it all over again because I have more callbacks.

Being an independent filmmaker is a tough life, but add a family to the equation and you’ll get a glimpse of how truly challenging it can be. But with optimism, planning and flexibility anything is possible.

I am raising money to help with the production costs and financing of my next film. If you’d like to donate to Legend of Black Lotus, even $1, please go to Indiegogo now and pledge your support.

By the way, did you know you can now use your existing Paypal account to help fund movies?! How easy is that! In 20 seconds you can make a pledge, so do it now.

I can guarantee this, you’ll be happy you were a part of this film and I will work double-damn-hard to make the film a success.

Eating at Raffalo's Pizzeria

My beautiful wife Kathy

Chillin' @ Raffalo's Pizzeria

Santa Monica beach view

Auditions are set for Legend of Black Lotus, my epic fantasy romantic drama. I’m really excited about what’s about to happen. This is a big project for me even thought it’s only a trailer. This is a project that can single handedly change the course of my career.

Casting

There are two young girls submitting for the role of Young Daiyu (age 6). Both are amazing, beautiful and have incredible talents that will play a big role in the trailer. I just need to know they can bring it dramatically.

I very happy with the  people coming in to read for the role of Daiyu. I think this will be my best casting session ever, even though I’m disappointed with the number of people who have submitted for the role of Mingzhu. I thought there’d be more young Asian women submitting for this role. In contrast, I’ve gotten more submissions for the older Asian female role. Odd.

Photography and Score

Don’t know who I’m going to use for the DP and composer. One composer I’ve contacted about the score for the trailer hasn’t responded to my email. I told him I envision traditional Chinese music fused with the beat of African tribal music with a big orchestral score. Hmmm…maybe that was too much.

There are two options for cameras: the RED camera or the Canon EOS  7D. Since I envision big sweeping movements on jibs and dollies I think either would work. I hear handheld isn’t recommended for the 7D. Here is an example of some test dolly shots with the 7D on a home-made dolly.

EOS 7D + DIY dolly / 1st indoor test from Aalto on Vimeo.

But I ask myself,  am I overthinking this? Is the flashy new technology of the 7D sufficient? Is the Red One overkill? I used the Panasonic AG-HPX500 for Broken Hearts Club. We had dollies and jibs and it was awesome.

The last thing I want to deal with is unexpected problems in post because of my choice of camera.

Callbacks have been scheduled. We’ll, the first round of callbacks anyway. After reviewing the videos on Cazt.com a few times I decided to  bring one or two extra in for callbacks. More than likely I’ll need another day sometime before Christmas.

The lead role is a tough call. The women I’ve called back are very good. Now we get to test chemistry with the other actors. A couple of red flags have  been raised in some other areas, but I’ll wait to see how it plays out. This casting process serves  as a guide for picking talent, choosing “look,” determining performance chemistry — and since this is a low budget project, making sure I don’t inadvertently hire any prima donnas.

If funny but if this were a bigger production I wouldn’t worry so much about attitudes, personalities, and whatnot. But because we’ll have a small crew, tight locations, and some long days I must consider who I want to work with. It won’t be like I can walk to the back of the soundstage, smoke a cigarette and cool off.

The other thing that this casting session and other recent events have re-taught me is that not everyone is truly in the game to make things happen. Some people simply want to be a part of what’s happening. Me, I don’t want to simply go along for the ride. I want to initiate the process, steer it, direct it. I want to be a driving force and that means I have to be the one who takes action, gains momentum and just keeps swimming.

Today felt like I was in a Casting 101 Class for Casting Directors. It had been nearly two years since I held my last auditions (for Broken Hearts Club) and I felt out of touch. I guess one of the main things that concerned me was professionalism — not from the actors, from me and my crew.

I’ve prided myself on being professional and detailed throughout all my auditions. I give an overwhelming amount of information to the actors because I believe it helps with their performance. I also believe it’s just damn respectful. I mean, these folks are traveling distances to come stand in front of me and basically be judged. Far be it from me to make their experience even more traumatic with flimsy info. I’ve been told more than once that I run a tight, professional but laid back ship. I try to keep that going.

So this morning my nerves were so bad my stomach ached. Seriously. I must’ve went to the bathroom three times before I finally said, “Get it together, Angelo!” I arrived at the CAZT Studios almost an hour early, went to Starbucks on La Brea and Santa Monica and had coffee. Then I walked three blocks to the studio.

I got my room, which was much smaller than I am used to having. In the past I’ve done all my casting in boardrooms. Rooms that fit 25 people around a table and another fifty standing around it. The small 10 x 10 room seemed, well… small. But the camera was free. And that meant there’d be no need to import two hours of tape to hard disk. Thank God.

James Rhodimer was the first to arrive and he definitely was a sight for sore eyes. We chatted for a while and then Chantal, the first intern showed up. Ryan was the second intern. Then Elena Campbell-Martinez. Then Kevin Huie. We had all worked together on Broken Hearts Club.

It was quiet for15 minutes as the first actors on my confirmed list were no-shows. I had deliberately attempted to pad the audition close together to avoid down time. It didn’t work — or I suck at padding.

Soon we were on our way. I began to recognize the faces of folks who I’d been corresponding with through emails. Some I’ve chatted with for nearly six months, dating back in June when I first tried to launch this project. Some I’d only spoken with over the past 2-3 weeks. Some less than that. I may forget names, but I never forget faces.

The primary roles in WOMAN ON FIRE: the Resurrection of Serious Rogers are Trixie, Serious Rogers, Hooper and Martin. The supporting roles were Vanity, Max, Senator. We saw plenty of Trixie’s but not as many Serious Rogers as I would have liked to see. The guys were almost nonexistent accept a few notables like Jaime Fishback from Twitter.

The previous day I’d prayed to God to bring me someone who knocked my socks off.  I wanted someone like Maya Gilbert who was in my films, Nanny and the Professional and Broken Hearts Club. I wanted a guy like Sean Ross from my films, Renounced, Love is for Democrats, Nanny and the Professional, Broken Hearts Club (short) and Broken Hearts Club (feature).

I was shocked when one handsome guy came in to read for an important and recurring role in the film. I wasn’t shocked that he was handsome, I was shocked that he didn’t turn off his cell phone for the audition. It buzzed. But I was flabbergasted when he answered the phone in the middle of his monologue. Wow. All I could think was, “He probably wouldn’t have done that if I were Spike Lee or  Antoine Fuqua or F. Gary Gray.” He tried to play it off and stay in character as he told the person on the other end to call back. It didn’t work. He lost it… and he lost our attention as well. It was disrespectful and unprofessional.

Then it happened. One of the women I’d been speaking to came to read for Serious Rogers. The sides are three pages long with an emotional monologue at the end. She got it. She did it. Her performance matched everything I’d envisioned in my head. Physically she was right-on too.

A few auditions later and someone came to read for Martin. I’ll be damned if he didn’t hit every note I wanted him to hit, without direction.

Then we had a Trixie. Appearance-wise she was perfect. She toyed with the provocative playfulness of the character and she knew how to use her blue eyes in just the right way: playful but deadly.

It seems actors like playing bad guys and bad girls. Vanity is a small but meaty role, but actresses seem to love it. That when I had the mother of all sock-knocker-off’ers. Someone came to read for Vanity, the paramilitary homicidal maniac with a grudge to bear. She HIT it out the park. As she left, Jim turned to me and said something like, “I thought she was going to kill me the way she looked at me.”

Then the gamble. The Senator. I’d called five guys to come read for the senator. One showed up. But as an alternate I decided to have a woman read for the role as well. Hell, a woman can be a power-hungry SOB too, right? Turns out that it was a good thing I squeezed in my friend from Facebook. She came in. She hit that shit out the park. The gamble paid off.

We had other great performances. A guy with a Russian accent (which totally disappeared during his reading) did a remarkable job with Hooper. So did one other actor.

I have a couple of pet peeves though. My biggest gripe is my lack of understanding concerning actors who aren’t off-book even though they’ve had the sides for over a week. Simply put, one’s performance is automatically better when you can directly engage the person reading lines with you. That’s why I asked Elena and Nicole to come read with me. They are professionals who’ve been on the other side of the casting table hundreds of times.

Although I would have liked to have seen much more people, I am satisfied so far. I was trying to avoid callbacks but I think they’ll be necessary. And it’ll be fun too as I watch my script come to life in the hands of these professionals.

I drove one of the interns, Chantal, home to Silverlake since she took the bus to the auditions. She’s cool and I want to help her gain as much production experience as possible. On the way home we smoked cigs in my car, talked casting, revered each other’s age. Then she said, “You have good energy.”

I have good energy. I like that.  I’ll try to keep that going.

You can help support the film by donating here:http://www.indiegogo.com/Woman-on-Fire

The schedule has been as dynamic and changing as the sea, add one, remove two; reschedule one, delete two. It’s an ever present reminder of the challenges of independent filmmaking, especially when there is NO budget.

My mind has been changing as well. The challenges that have come my way with just a simple casting call speak to what is yet to come. Luckily experience is on my side and I have a sufficient enough grasp of the inevitable to attempt to prepare for it. Sometimes I believe Mr. Murphy, the dood who came up with  Murphy’s Law, was a filmmaker.

But there is one thing I have decided and I am 100% sure of it. I will do whatever it takes to complete this project and I will have fun doing it. I’m prepared to be flexible, resourceful, and committed to completing this project and realizing its full potential. Tomorrow I setup an account on IndieGoGo — a film funding site. I will use this tool to launch the new name of the series –

WOMAN ON FIRE
-The Resurrection of Serious Rogers-

What is that potential? Web series. DVD. Independent TV. Graphic novel. Merchandising.

So l’aventure commence.  The adventure begins.

Now these aren’t huge names, but rather recognizable faces, which makes selling all the more easier — according to the distributor’s creed. This may allow me to go after pre-sales to finance the film and or just get a distributor to put up the $$ to make the film. I’m not looking for a grip, maybe $1.5 million.  This way we atleast guarantee a ROI with a DVD release (but I am aiming for limited theatrical).

I’m also expecting notes back from my Board of Advisors from the Wall soon. When they come I’ll jump into rewrites of the script and then start sending it out.

On Broken Hearts Club, I’m expecting the final cues/compositions from my composer later this week or early next week. Then I’ll move to picture lock and sound mix/design.