Welp! That Was Frustrating But The Sun Is Shining Anyway

It's been a while and things had been quite hectic at times, disappointing at other times but I can honestly say, everything has been a learning experience.

With that said, I am grateful for the opportunities I had gained while learning the ropes of the filming world.

Last summer was when the rollercoaster through a whirlwind of crap gave me most of my lessons.

Picture this, I'm rolling right through pre-production steps smooth and free. I had my cast, crew, filming insurance, had most of the locations locked, began the process of obtaining permits to shoot, schmoozing with management of the mall up here for permission to shoot a scene, script was precise, had a couple table reads, working on storyboards and the shot sheet was almost complete, when all of the sudden...my crew decided to tell me in a text that they were no longer going to be able to work on the project. That's it. No other explanation was given.

I admit, I was stunned, perplexed and yes, a little hurt but I soon realized that it was a c'est la vie moment and sulked to myself and gathered the courage to tell the cast. To my surprise, the cast was very supportive and understanding.

I continued with moving forward to launching the crowdfunding campaign to help produce the feature film Merciful Shock.

If you guessed more disappointment ensued, you are absolutely correct and you earned yourself a bonus 20 points!

I was only able to raise $800 out of the $23,000 needed for the whole production. It wasn't all for nothing though. I was able to purchase: 5 lighting reflectors, 2 studio lighting kits, a boom mic, boom mic stand, window camera mounts, four walkie talkies, a small drone, a tripod dolly, 2 pop up dressing rooms, a DSLR shoulder rig, a 60 cm camera dolly slider rail, 2 wireless mics, and a partridge in a pear tree!

So, yes, it was off to a good start, until my trouble of obtaining hype and support went poof! I had arranged for a paint and sip as a fundraiser via Eventbrite/Zoom where I provided the paint, brushes, canvas, and glass to sip whatever the participant wanted to sip.. but no one other than me and the actors showed up. Whomp whomp whooooomp!

I felt like a flea in the middle of a huge dinner party with hundreds of guest chatting and laughing amongst each other, hopping up and down trying to get attention, desperate to get people to see me, notice me. It was useless. I couldn't get anyone to share the event, or talk about my project and the videos I made only got about ten watchers. I was like, (and still am) what the heck!?

So guess what I did? I gave up.

I packed up everything and sat the equipment in the garage, boxed up the many books on filming I had gotten, unenrolled in the filming workshops I was in and boo hooed myself into a self pity sulking fest for weeks!

That was until a friend of mine talked me into getting back on the horse and try again.

I talked to a local producer/cinematographer and he said that he would work with me and I remember telling him that my goal is to try to have my hand into bringing Louisville, KY on the filming map with my and his talent.

I smiled, and gained a little confidence. The producer advised for me to write a short so that the film could be entered into festivals and garner interest for support of the making of the feature film.

I was down! This is when Merciless (Merciful Shock .50) was born. I love it, and it only took me about two weeks to write. Of course it isn't like Merciful Shock but elements of Merciful Shock is blaring in it. That was fun to me.

So anyway, the producer that was helping me began to take on many many projects (kudos to him by the way!) and little ol' Michelle got pushed to the side and forgotten.

But that is okay because I got this!

So, here we are!

We are at the beginning stage of pre-production with a brand new filming crew who has promised via contract not to run away!

Over the past year, I managed to gain a small social media following of 3.5k followers across all platforms and gaining every day.

At this very moment, I am placing finishing touches to the new crowdfunding campaign and my fingers are crossed so hard that I can barely type all of this out! I also am hoping this one will be most successful! I have a feeling, you all. And I think everything will be alright.

If you haven't so far, please follow me on Tiktok, Facebook and instagram and sign up for the newsletter! This way you can stay in the loop of how things are going!

I will update this blog once a week and give everyone the rundown of what went on for that week!

Until then, let's stay focused, let's show 'em what we got, aaand ACTION!

Michelle