Donnybrook Production Services

So it’s looking like I’ll be making the ever-popular ‘Turnpike Trek’ tomorrow, when I head up to the Big Apple bright & early for my latest field-producing assignment.  Teaming for the first time with Director Doug Spangenberg, we’ll be jumping around the City capturing some EPK footage for Universal Music.

The camera, helmed by local Philly-based DP JR Campbell, will be pointed in the direction of the trio of teen sensations “Il Volo”.  These Italian youngsters, on the heels of their crowd-raising appearance on “American Idol”, will be in NYC for just over a day.  While there, they’ll embark on a marathon PR tour that will witness them making pit-stops at a number of national talk-shows.  In between their scheduled visits, our crew will look to capture the teens taking in some of the sights and sounds synonymous with New York, with Times Square, Central Park, and Little Italy set to make our list of backdrops.

I think that my Caribbean-bound vacation plans are coming just in time, as I’m sure I’ll need my stint in Jamaica to recover from and abusive day in the ‘City that never sleeps’…or, as I’ve come to know it as, the ‘City that kicks your butt’!

Over the years I’ve taken to including a variety of daily sponsors for call sheets I’ve developed for my many shoots.  At first, it was a ‘beg, borrow, steal’ approach that followed in the footsteps of my brother Gary when it came to listing a “song of the day”.  Moving forward, and always having harbored a love for words as much as music, I opted instead for the inclusion of a “word of the day” in an effort to expand the vocabulary of the crews I put together…they were eternally grateful, I’m sure!  No wonder there are a slew of eloquent set technicians running around the streets of Philly these days.

Now, with my looming involvement in this summer’s Philly-based indie “Backwards”, I’m thinking of shaking things up again with the notion of a “hat of the day” approach.  My goal will be to show off a variety of what has come to be a staple of my daily attire…the ever-popular baseball cap!  While I’ve never actually taken the time to count all of the hats I’ve accrued over the years, I’m willing to bet I’ve got at least enough to cover the film’s planned 21-day shooting schedule.  In fact, it’s likely I could make it to the project’s halfway point on a steady diet of Phillies caps alone.  It will be interesting to see how deep into the ol’ closet I’ve gotta reach in order to go the distance, as some of the hats in question haven’t seen the light of day in quite some time.  Hopefully there’s nothing stuffed back there that would be too embarrassing, as I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten rid of those Sesame Street hats from my younger days…here’s hoping, anyway!

While the wheels of progress for any indie film in development are tough to keep in motion, it’s highly likely that most indie-filmmakers would list the fundraising campaign portion as the most arduous.  The entire process of bringing an indie film to life is unquestionably and uphill battle, but perhaps nowhere along the way does the incline feel quite as steep as securing funding.

Unfortunately, easy or not the process of fiscal hide & seek is the most integral part of the journey, and the notion of funding a film through private equity is what truly defines a project as an independent.  Having said that, and outside of hypnosis, there are no shortcuts to finding the funds.  A project’s chances of finding money are directly commensurate with that of its fundraising plan, and only the strongest of fundraising packets are able to succeed in these stingy economic times.

Never one to back down from a challenge, I’m looking forward to working with the production team behind “Sufferance” in helping them to develop a sound (and hopefully convincing) financing game plan.  From there, Producers Gary E. Irwin, Jason Contino, and Courtney Custer will begin pounding the pavement in search of philanthropic support.  Plans for moving the indie-horror film into full-speed development and pre-pro are being slated for spring of 2012.

Well, it’s seeming pretty official…local Director Ben Hickernell will be helming this summer’s Philly-based indie film “Backwards”, which is set to commence principal photography sometime in mid-July.  Written & Produced by Sarah Megan Thomas, and Line Produced by Brian David Cange, “Backwards” is a dramedy focused on an Olympic-hopeful rower who’s faced with  a few 30-something life decisions that leave her at an emotional crossroads.  Thomas will also play the lead role of Abi Brooks, in addition to producing.

As it stands, I’ll be joining Mr. Hickernell as well this summer in the role of UPM for the film.  I’m looking forward to yet another chance to team with Ben, as we’ve developed a long-standing relationship of successful collaborations over the years.  It’s good to see another indie select Philly as their backdrop of choice, as the CoBL will be featured pretty heavily in the film.