allieciné

Gasp!  I’ve been going non-stop since before the holidays and realized that I’ve been a bit off the grid because of it.  Well, I’m still here.  Busier than ever but coming up for a breath of air before the next round of productions.  So what have I been doing?  

November started with a video job for Prolacta BioScience, a company who takes breast milk donations from mothers with excess, processes and fortifies the milk and then provides it to hospitals and doctors for premature babies.  The videos I produced are “How To” videos for donor mothers to walk them through the steps of becoming a milk donor.  We had a great two day shoot and a quick post schedule.  Our cast was awesome: Chenoa Mitsui and Tanya Ihnen.  Also, huge props to our team including Maura Concannon (Director), Jorge Urbina (DP), Eli Benavidez (Script Supervisor), and Moira Taylor (Hair & Make Up)! 

In December, we went into production on the drama, “Cost of Capital,” a new webseries created by Brian DeCherase, produced by Goldie Chan and myself, Allison Vanore, and directed by Jorge Urbina.  We had an ambitious 9 day shoot and rocked it out just before the holidays.  We’re now well into post-production.  I can’t wait to get these episodes online for you all and especially for Brian’s investment banker audience!  

Literally within 24 hours of landing in LA after the holidays on the East Coast I was back on set.  This time for a feature horror film by Todd Johnson and Mike Campbell, The Rental.  We shot for 3 weeks with a small but very talented cast: Kimberly Browning, Mike Campbell, Ashley Love, Leah Verrill and Tiffany Walker.  Our crew was amazing and included some who I’ve worked with before: Frederick Snyder (1st AD), Erin LeBre (Make Up, SFX, Hair), Moira Taylor (Make Up SFX, Hair), Mike Halper (Sound), etc. And I met some new people: Rick Greenwood (DP), Mohnish Sawaswat (Gaffer) and their teams.  Now Todd is going to hybernate for a few months editing and creating the VFX for the film.  At some point he’s going to emerge to hand over the edit to music composer, Rob Gokee.  For more updates about the film check out the Facebook Page and follow on Twitter!

Now there’s more to do so I’ll be updating you about that soon.  Happy New Year!

Here we are, time to jump into Replaced Series pre-production!  We have less than a month to plan our shoot dates and I can’t wait!  We are so lucky to be working with such a talented cast and crew and to have so many resources at our disposal!

Firstly, I wanted to announce the newest members of our cast, Brian Majestic and Dave Reaves.  Brian is a co-star on the recently released GOLD: Night of the Zombie King series.  Dave Reaves has been filling his time on the set of Criminal Minds in SWAT gear!

What are our biggest tasks at the moment? Locations, Picture Cars, Wardrobe and the possibility of shooting an additional scene or two.

Locations:

We are looking to shoot in Orange County.  Why?  Firstly, our creator, Heath Vinyard, and DP, Jorge Bicer, live in the OC and secondly, permits are a lot cheaper there than in LA.  We are scouting for alley ways and industrial areas – think good chase scene locations.  Our interior locations are locked down already – offices are easy to come by.

Picture Cars:

We are in need of unmarked cop type cars as well as one cop car with lights.  I have a few people looking into this for us and so I’m confident that we’ll be able to pull this off.

Wardrobe:

Dealing with cop and US Marshal uniforms are both fun and expensive if you’re renting them from a rental house.  We’ve opted for a combination of both – make some of the items and rent the things we can’t make.  Arts and crafts time!

Additional Scenes:

There is an additional location that we can shoot if we are able to come up with the dough and the access.  This additional location will add a huge amount of production value to the show as well as introducing another character – which is yet to be cast.  If we can secure an awesome actress for this role as well as the money to lock down this location, it’ll be a go!

Replaced is set to shoot the first 2 episodes March 25 – 27.  We are actively looking for investors and distributors who are interested in seeing the entire show produced.  Please contact Allison Vanore for more information.

Tonight Indie Intertube announced their nominations for their 2010 Award Show.  Among the shows nominated, SOLO The Series was nominated for 5 Awards:

Best Set Design

Best Dressed

Editing – Frank Mohler

Best Actor in a Comedy – Jonathan Nail

Audience Choice

Thank you to Indie Intertube and to our fans for the nominations!  Congratulations to all of the shows who were also nominated.

The award show will be streamed online on January 20, 2011 on Indie Intertube.

Check out my interview on the Replaced website… here’s a short excerpt form the interview:

How did you become involved with Replaced?

I met Heath over a year ago at a lunch that was inspired by a Twitter conversation.  A few of us were discussing how to market and promote our shows online.  Bernie Su and Matt Meeks had amazing insight as to how they were promoting their shows and so we all decided to meet for lunch to discuss.  At the lunch: Bernie, Matt, Jamie Fishback, Jonathan Nail, Heath Vinyard and myself.

Continue reading….

After a successful IndieGoGo campaign we were able to put the $7100 raised towards shooting Episodes 4 – 9 of SOLO The Series which will finish out Season 1 of our series.  Our goal was to raise $13K and if we had been able to do that in time, we would have been able to pay a small stipend to our cast and crew for their time, energy and creativity.  Luckily, we have a passionate team that stood behind us regardless of the pay!

Ext. Drizhal House - Night.

Here’s a run down of our week of production:

Thursday

Production Meeting with our Team: Frederick Snyder (Director), Raphe Wolfgang (DP), Chris Szadkowski (Production Design), Andrew Seely (AD), Jonathan Nail (Creator) and me – Allison Vanore (Producer).

Friday

Meeting w/ Corina Spadoni – Wardrobe

Equipment Pick-Ups

Saturday

Prepare and send out Call Sheets

Finalize the remaining crew & cast schedules

Sunday

Shooting in the Artemis Breakroom.

Pre-light: Spent the night lighting the spaceship in Jonathan’s garage, building dimmers and eating pizza.

Art Load-in: We were wow’ed by Chris’ props and techy/electronic capabilities.

Wardrobe fittings

Rehearsal on set / choreography

Monday – Day 1 – Spaceship

Call time 5pm

Wrapped at 4am

Tuesday – Day 2 – Spaceship

Call time 5pm

Wrapped at 4am

Scott (Jonathan Nail), PHAL, and Gaffer, Brian Carroll in the Artemis.

Wednesday – Day 3 – Spaceship

Call time 5pm

Wrapped at 5am

Thursday

Since we wrapped early in the morning this is a “day off” however due to running out of time on some coverage, our camera team decides to shoot for a couple of hours to get coverage of PHAL and Scott in the ship.

Friday

Call time 6am

The morning scenes were supposed to take place outside and included a pool and hot tub… this morning was extremely cold and the yard we were shooting in was shaded so the look and the performance of the actors was greatly affected by the location and weather.  After discussing these problems, running through the first shot a few times and then trying to subdue an extremely excited and loud squirrel in the tree above, we decided to scrap the location and change the scene.  This scene will be shot on an upcoming weekend in November.

Becks (Michele Boyd) in bed & Production Designer Chris Szadkowski preps for the shot.

Wrapped at 5pm

Saturday

Call time 7am

This day consisted of a lot of blocking and dialogue between characters, Gerry and Ratish, as well as a few new additions.  We ended the night with a lot of laughs as we added a few touches to the Becks bedroom scene that has to do, yet again, with shoes.

Wrapped at 7:30pm

Sunday

Call time 11am

Sunday felt a bit schizophrenic because we shot Yakuza scenes in the dining room, Green screen in the living room and then Office scenes in the office and Ext. night shots… we were all over the place!  At the end of the night, we were borrowing Jonathan’s neighbor’s car for the last scene and after about 45 minutes of the car sitting there with the headlights on… the car died.  Go figure.

Lexi Collins (Kimberly Atkinson) of Entertainment Wow

We didn’t have the car on due to sound issues but the lights were on for the look.  A dead battery ended our night a bit early and a shot or two short.

Wrapped at 11:30pm

After wrapping these 6 days we began the editing process with our editor extraordinaire, Frank Mohler.  At the same time we have about 2 and a half days left to shoot so our time is spent location scouting and getting wardrobe and art set for the last few scenes of the show!

At this point I have seen rough cuts of Episodes 4, 5 and 6 – and I’m excited because it’s looking great!

More to come soon!  For more photos from the shoot, check out our Facebook Fan Page for SOLO and the official website.

Producer Steven Deeble (Thursday’s Lovers) and Producer Allison Vanore (S.O.L.O. – The Series, Hopelessly in June) have joined forces to create a new situational comedy webseries called Compassionate Cleaning Service.  Pre-production is well underway so check back regularly for new information, casting notices, and more!

Follow Compassionate Cleaning Service on Twitter and become a Fan on Facebook!

This Thursday (tomorrow) marks the beginning of the Independent Television Festival in Los Angeles, CA.  We are lucky enough to be attending and screening SOLO The Series at the festival on Wednesday, August 4th at 5:45pm.

The festival starts with a Show Creator Luncheon where we will receive our credentials and information about what to expect at the festival.  After getting my passes I’ll head home to get ready for the ITVFest Gala that night!

Those in attendance from our show will me (producer & director Allison Vanore), creator & star Jonathan Nail, composer Rob Gokee, cast Michele Boyd, Jason Burns, Amol Shah and casting director Laurie Records.  There will be a red carpet event prior to the Gala: photos and interviews for the cast.  At the Gala I’ll be mingling and networking with the other show creators, actors and producers.  We’ll be promoting SOLO to the party goers in the hopes that we will fill the theatre for our screening on Wednesday.

Outside of our screening I’m also looking forward to many of the panels/seminars they are hosting.  Saturday there are two panels that I’m looking forward to hearing: Development: Selling Your Show and Building A Career as a TV Writer.  Sunday I’ll also attend Representation: Getting That is Half The Battle and The Studio System. Then on Tuesday I look forward to attending Getting Sponsors for your Show.  It will be awesome to hear what the festival has to offer the show creators while we screen our shows and meet each other.

Shows I’m looking forward to seeing at ITVFest: Anyone But Me, Hamilton Carver, Fall of Kaden, Squatters, Cell The Web Series and Going to Pot.  See the trailers here: Page 1 & Page 2.

If you plan on being at ITVFest please let me know so we can meet up!  I’m hoping to hit up a few of the coffee mixers and a few of the night events.

Again, SOLO The Series screens Wednesday, August 4th at 5:45pm at Laemmle Sunset 5 for ITVFest.  Buy tickets here.

Jenn Page of Makin’ It Happen were at the SOLO The Series Premiere Party on June 10th to talk to Creator/Lead Jonathan Nail and Producer Allison Vanore about their experience making SOLO.  Check it out and don’t forget, SOLO launches tomorrow at 10am EST at watchsolo.com and on Blip.tv!

The Biggest Event Since 1776

Your favorite patriotic web series, SOLO The Series, is launching Episodes 1 – 3 beginning Tues., July 6th on The SOLO Official Site.

Episode 1 – Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Episode 2 – Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Episode 3 – Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Don’t miss it!  Tell your friends, neighbors, agents, managers, alien abductors and therapists!

About SOLO

Our hero, Scott Drizhal, is chosen to go on a solo, 3 year mission to Mars as part of a reality series. Unfortunately the show is canceled and Scott is now stuck on a round-trip ticket to Mars and back. With no company in deep space other than a smart-ass, artificially-intelligent ship computer (PHAL), his wife declaring him legally dead so she can claim the millions in insurance, a Napoleonic producer whose hubris lands him and the show into Japanese mafia infested waters and a malfunctioning, prototype ship that was never meant to fly to Mars… Hilarity ensues.

Starring Jonathan Nail, Michele Boyd, Jay Caputo, Jason Burns, Amol Shah, and Melissa Dalton.

SOLO The Series Premiere Party, Cinespace, Los Angeles, CA, June 10, 2010 photo by: Alan Heitz

All I can really say is WOW.

The SOLO The Series Premiere Party was off the hook this week!  We had such a huge crowd of postive, supportive and energetic people.  I know Jonathan and I couldn’t have asked for more from those who came.  With our cast and crew in attendance to take part in the Q&A hosted by Kristyn Burtt, Michael Nicklin heading up our raffle, Alan Heitz handling photography and both The Web Files and Makin’ it Happen camera crews complete with hosts, Kristyn Burtt and Jenn Page, the night was wild!

The beginning of the night was all about mingling and meeting those who we have only met via Twitter and Facebook and seeing those who we have worked with on SOLO and other projects.  It was a like a reunion (though half of those I was reunited with I actually met for the first time that night).  People like Kristyn Burtt, who has probably been at the same events that I have numerous times and who I’ve conversed with only via Twitter, I was finally able to say hi to and chat with for a few minutes – on camera – for The Web Files.

Actors Ronnie Butler, Tohoru Masamune, Jonathan Nail, Michele Boyd photo by: Alan Heitz

We screened the first three Episodes of SOLO (18 minutes total) and I truely enjoyed hearing the gasps, laughs and applause coming from the packed audience.  Following the screening we had our cast including Creator/Lead Jonathan Nail and I up front for a Q & A.  The overall theme of the night was of support for our craft and of each other.  It was truely an inspirational evening.

Thank you again to everyone who attended.  For those of you who missed the party, don’t worry, SOLO The Series will be coming out via the web really soon and something tells me that regardless of the state of the webseries world, we will have enough fan support for the show that it will continue on!

For information on funding or distribution please contact Producers Jonathan Nail or Allison Vanore.  For press inquiries please contact Allison Vanore.

SOLO Producer/Director Allison Vanore, Actor Amol Shah, and Composer Rob Gokee photo by: Alan Heitz

For more event photos please visit our Facebook photo album.

For more info on SOLO The Series check out http://watchsolo.com.

To join other fans in supporting SOLO The Series, make a tax deductible donation here.

Join the SOLO The Series Newsletter by clicking here.

Okay, Solonauts, signing off!

Allison Vanore, Producer SOLO The Series