The Second, our First

Waaay back this time last year, I wrote The Part. Soon after I designed a simple poster to help me actualize my script. I didn’t have a cast to feature in the poster so I had to come up with a concept that would fit the story and since the story involved an acting job, what better way to represent it than by showing a script and this is that poster.

So that was our first and below is our second, but it’s also the first. Confused? Bear with me there is a method to my madness. So how can our second be our first? This is our second poster, but the FIRST to feature our cast. Our man of many talents Gino designed the poster with the photos I picked. There will probably be more posters to come, but this is the first with our great cast.

Director's Cut-Edit 5: Our Transition Team

FROM THE OFFICE OF
THE PRESIDENT OF
'NOTHER BROTHER ENTERTAINMENT

Last Sunday, November 16, 2008, we started filming some of our transitions. In editing we saw that we needed some stuff to help transition from one scene to another. We even had some actors come back to film new stuff. What exactly was that stuff? We’re hoping you won’t be able to tell until we tell you. The point of going back and filming additional material and scenes is to make it look like it was all filmed together and we hope we accomplished that. So who was on our “transition team”? Me and the Second Unit Director.

Gino’s been promoted yall. He’s now not only the editor (or EIC) he’s also now the Second Unit Director and Music Supervisor.

The job of Music Supervisor is both creative and logistic; music supervisors select music and negotiate usage licenses. Music supervisors play diverse roles in the creative process of films, helping to emphasize storylines, emotion, time period and cultural location. Gino will help me select the music and I'll negotiate usage licenses. I wanted Gino to be Music Supervisor because he’s a musician and has his own rock band (shout out to Rubberband. That’s him on bass to the right.). As a musician he has an ear for music and knows about keys and chords whereas I just know what sounds good.

As far as his other new title, a vital task for the second unit is to shoot inserts and B-roll (supplemental or alternate footage). Sometimes, and as it is THIS time, the editor will take charge of a second unit to film B-roll or inserts as he will know what footage he is missing. Gino could have easily have been my DP (Director of Photography) because he has a great eye for filming too.

Like myself Gino is an artist and a man of many talents, I guess that's why we get along so well. His artistry in music and eye for visual art is what makes him an excellent editor. Anyone can pick up an instrument, but it takes an artist to make it sound good.

Principal Photography-Take 4-And in Conclusion

We finished shooting around 5:30PM. I let the crew go around 5 o’clock and shot the last bit of footage with Andrea myself. I didn’t actually get home until about 9PM so that made it a FIFTEEN-hour workday for me. Imagine if we had more than a one-day shoot?

I’m going to digress here for a moment. Fifteen plus hour days on a film shoot are typical because it is hard work. That’s why no matter how crappy I think a film is I still have props for the filmmakers because whatever the result, it took a lot of work, time and effort to produce it.

Back to the production, how do I remember such details? Ever since I was a child I had the uncanny ability for total recall. I can remember everything I experience to the last detail. Well not really, but that sounded good right? :p The answer is cell phone! They can record your whole life can’t they? I just checked the times I made the phone calls that day and approximated the times. I’m not a magician so I can reveal my secrets. LOL.

I have to give props again to my uncle and aunt for letting our little production take over their home…and their street. We had to stop traffic momentarily while we were filming our scenes in front of their house. Don’t worry, after we shot each take, we let the cars go through. Each individual take wasn’t that long and the neighbors were very courteous. We shot in front of their house, in their house and in back of their house (deck, backyard). We even stopped my uncle from entering his own house while we were filming in his kitchen. Thanks again Uncle Rommie and Aunt Gwen and thank you for being so gracious.

Previous “Takes” on Principal Photography

Principal Photography-Take 1-The Definition

Principal Photography-Take 2-You Can’t Mess With My Crew

Principal Photography-Take 3-You Still Can’t Mess With My Crew

Principal Photography-Take 3-You Still Can’t Mess With My Crew

I have to say what an AWESOME job the whole crew did. I received so many great compliments about how well we worked together. I’m also so proud to have had an all African American cast an astounding SIXTEEN actors as well as a mostly African American crew. Our goal at ‘Nother Brother Entertainment is not only to further propagate diverse images through development of films, but to also give work to African Americans behind the scenes also.

I have to give props to my man Jack who absolutely kept our production on track. I truly could not have done it without him.

Props to the Director of Photography Laylla. She has a great eye for detail and made sure all of shots had great composition.

Props to my man Preech. He made sure all of the sound equipment was working and most importantly sounded great.

I can’t forget our P.A.’s (Production Assistants) Yvette, Patricia, Steven and Wanda. They all worked tirelessly and were equally significant to our production.

I can’t thank my crew enough for the tremendous job they did! They were FANTASTIC!!!

Previous “Takes” on Principal Photography

Principal Photography-Take 1-The Definition
Principal Photography-Take 2-You Can’t Mess With My Crew

Principal Photography-Take 2-You Can’t Mess With My Crew

On August 30, 2008 we had our principal photography.

My day started around 6am. I had to pick up breakfast for my crew and my producer Amy. Here is my crew and basically what they were responsible for:

Producer
Amy Frost
My second set of eyes and ears. She was with me through every step of the production and helped me audition all of the actors. During principal photography she also was on set to help with everything as well as the administrative part of the shoot. She had to make sure EVERYONE signed a release form. Anyone who appeared on camera had to sign a release giving us permission to put him or her in the film.

Director of Photography
Laylla Strand
The DP (Director of Photography) (or Cinematographer) is responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image. On a large production (not this one) the rest of the camera department is subordinate to the DP, who, along with the director, has the final word on all decisions related to both lighting and framing.

In other words, she framed all of the shots and made sure everything in the frame of the camera looked right. She was also responsible for where we put the camera to get the best shot of not only the actors, but also what is in the background of the scene. Even when I was behind the camera she was behind the monitor to let me know if everything looked right.

Assistant Director
Jack Sherman
An assistant director (AD) is a person who helps the director in the making of a movie or television show. Jack's duties as an AD was, tracking our daily progress, arranging logistics, maintaining order on the set among other things as well as shooting some footage with our second camera.

Key Grip/Boom Operator
Torrance "Preech" Hopson
As Key Grip Preech helped with pretty much any technical aspect including help setting up the lights as well as the monitor. The principal responsibility of the boom operator is microphone placement, sometimes using a "fishpole" with a microphone attached to the end and sometimes, when the situation permits, using a "boom" (often a "fisher boom") which is a special piece of equipment that the operator stands on and that allows precise control of the microphone at a much greater distance away from the actors. He or she will also place wireless microphones on actors when it is necessary.

We didn't place wireless mics on any actor's but the kitchen scene was so small we just need to place them on the set and out of sight of the camera. The boom operator must decide where to place the boom microphone based on a combination of factors, including the location and projection of any dialogue, the frame position of the camera, and any unwanted noise sources.

Production Assistants
Yvette Moore
Patricia Cooper
Steven Cooper
Wanda Campbell
A Production Assistant, also known as a PA, is an entry-level job title used in filmmaking and television for a person responsible for various aspects of a production. The job of a PA can vary greatly depending on the budget and specific requirements of a production as well as whether or not the production is unionized.(Which our was not.)

PAs work on the physical set of the production, whether on location or on a sound stage. They report to the Assistant Director (AD) department and key set PA if one is so designated. Duties include pretty much ANY tasks as mandated by the AD.

On our film the PAs did everything from operate the slate (pictured at the top of this entry), stop traffic while we were shooting a scene on the street, taking pictures as well as moving stuff out of the shot. PAs usually work 12- to 16-hour days and are regularly the "first to arrive and the last to leave".


So that's technical whos and whats NEXT will be the props. Not set props, but MY props 2 my crew.

Previous “Takes” on Principal Photography
Principal Photography-Take 1-The Definition

Principal Photography-Take 1-The Definition

Let’s start with exactly what the heck “principal photography” is.

Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is actually shot. It’s called “principal” not only because it is the most imortant element, it’s when the majority of the film is shot. Lots of times after most of the film is shot, during or even after editing, the film may need additional scenes to further convey the story. Some times “test audiences” don’t like the ending of the film and they go back and reshoot the ending. That will NOT be happening on The Part.

Even though we may shoot additional material, there won’t be any test audiences. Whatever I think is the best representation of the film is will be final. I plan on enjoying my “final word” while I can. All filmmakers hope to be successful, but with that success comes many other elements. You no longer have that total control of your films and have to answer to studios, producers and such. So until that time this film is not to be altered or undone!

Next Time: Meet the crew!

You can read about Pre-Production in the below entries:
Pre-Production-Scene 1
Pre-Production-Scene 2: Proverbs 10:7
Pre-Production-Scene 3: Leap of Faith: The Andrea Ross Story
Pre-Production-Scene 4: Pernicious Precipitation, The Final Scene

Pre-Production-Scene 4: Pernicious Precipitation, The Final Scene

This is not about the final scene of the movie, but it is the final “scene” of my Pre-Production blog entries. That “Pernicious Precipitation” is what this entry is about.

It hadn’t rained in Baltimore in about six weeks, but lo and behold August 29th, the day before principal photography, it poured down. This was the first time I ever checked the weather online that frequently. My Aunt Gwen, whose home we were shooting at, called me around the 27th because of the rain forecast to ask me if we were still going ahead. I said “yes”. I had actor’s coming from out of town and I was determined to shoot on August 30th. Was I going to try and film a cookout scene in the rain? Of course not, but I was going to film. Rain or shine we WERE going to film the kitchen scene! Three of my four main cast were in that scene and we were going to film it.

I kept checking the weather because if it didn’t stop raining I was going to tell the rest of the cast NOT to come. August 29th was a Friday. It rained Friday morning, it rained Friday afternoon. Even when I got off of work and had to pick up the equipment, it was still raining. As soon as I got home I went online to check on the weather. The forecast called for partly sunny until about 4pm. That would give us enough time to shoot everything. When I called my Aunt that rainy Friday night to make final arrangements she asked me again if we were going to shoot and again I said “yes”. Just like situation I spoke of in Leap of Faith: The Andrea Ross Story I had to pray and have faith that things would be ok.

Saturday, August 30th the sky was cloudy, by the time we commenced shooting it was not partly, but completely sunny. God is good (all the time). The sun stayed out the whole shoot and about a hour after we finished shooting a thunderstorm poured down. Again, a true a testament to God and his power.

So that’s it. Everything (well mostly everything) I had to go through to get to principal photography. If you have more questions you can always email me at Dankwa@NotherBrother.com.

Is that all I have to say about our production? Of course not. I have to talk about my wonderful crew.


Previous “scenes” of Pre-Production:
Pre-Production-Scene 1
Pre-Production-Scene 2: Proverbs 10:7
Pre-Production-Scene 3: Leap of Faith: The Andrea Ross Story

Director’s Cut-Edit 4:In the Still of the Byte

Forgive the bad pun, but it came to me in a dream, well more like when I woke up. Does that count as a “vision”? Let me explain myself. What I’m bringing you in this post is photo “stills” from The Part via computer in the form of (mega) “bytes”. See it all makes sense. :/ They say if you have to explain a joke (or pun as it were) then it’s not funny. :( That very well may be true, but I had to explain the method to my madness anyway.

I woke up thinking about this blog entry because I was supposed to post these stills last night, but was too tired. After watching a late overtime Monday night football game (Baltimore Ravens, they lost), I had to go to work the next morning and then edited again last night after work. After all that, I just went to bed. I wanted to post the stills because I’m just as excited to show them as I am for the cast to see them. These are actual stills from our film (as opposed to photos from the actual shoot).

Monday and Tuesday Gino and I worked on the “kitchen scene” pictured in the stills. The last scene is from the “reveal scene” I spoke about here. I’ll try to post more stills in the future. Enjoy :)

Previous editing blog entries:
Director's Cut
Director’s Cut-Edit 2
Director's Cut-Edit 3:Meet the EIC

Director's Cut-Edit 3:Meet the EIC

Since I wanted you all to know who this infamous Gino I keep refferring to here he is, the EIC-Editor in charge, my pinoy brother Gino.















I almost had to fire Gino tonight though. :/ Gino recommended, make that insisted that, he have some snacks while he edit. “We need some snacks man”. Well while he edit changed to before he edit. He loaded up on salsa and tortillas and then caught “the itis”. For the uninitiated “the itis” is slang for the general feeling of lethargy and well-being experienced after eating a satisfying meal. In other words he got sleepy.

He didn’t sleep, but he was lethargic. I was almost about to get my Donald Trump on (you’re fired!) when he snapped out of it. See I got the snacks because I know what a long process editing is. In college I spent upwards of 14 hours editing a 3-minute piece. I was just kidding about firing him. How can you fire someone who’s willing to work for snacks? Suffice it to say though he WON’T be getting any snacks before editing again though LOL.

For real though Gino is the EIC because he is an excellent editor. “The editor is the one who ultimately creates the production......The editor has to analyze the given material and make intellectual and aesthetic decisions that will result in the finished work." 1

The person who performs editing (in consultation with the director) on a movie in my opinion is one of the most important people on a film. We could shoot film all day and night and it won't mean a damn thing if it isn't edited together into a coherent piece. So for now I guess I’m gonna have to stick with Gino…


at least until this film is finished. LOL.

You can see a piece Gino edited in the official ‘Nother Brother Entertainment blog post Here's to the Heroes

1 The third eye: critical literacy and higher order thinking skills are improved through a film studies class; Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Nov 2002 v46 i3 p220(11)

Previous editing blog entries:
Director's Cut
Director’s Cut-Edit 2

The Part-The photos

We finally have our photos up for view. I must give MAJOR props to Yvette and Joy for taking the pictures. The photos are displayed in pretty much the same order in which they were taken throughout the production. I will caption EVERY photo...eventually, but for now without further adieu...

You can see a bigger version of the slide show by clicking the camera below :-)

Pre-Production-Scene 3: Leap of Faith: The Andrea Ross Story

Well this isn’t the story of her life, this is not even about how she was cast. (You can read that here ) This story is about what happened AFTER she was cast.

As I said before it was quite a feat even auditioning Andrea (pictured left). When we finally offered her the role and she accepted there was a problem. She couldn’t come to rehearsals. We only cast her twenty days before our shoot date and she had a pre-planned vacation for the date of our rehearsals August 17th. This is a short film and I didn’t want to rehearse numerous times our even that far in advance of our shoot date. I needed the rehearsals fresh in my actor’s minds.

So even though I had my lead I could not even rehearse with her. That’s where my “leap of faith” comes into play. When I had everyone cast BUT my lead, I didn’t lose my cool. I knew that I would find her in time without having to reschedule the production. I had faith if it was meant to be that it would happen. When I saw Andrea’s audition I liked it, but I would still have liked to rehearse with her in person. My alternative was to have her rehearse with her “mother”. Kesha Afrika Oliver was cast as her mother, referred her, and they both lived in VA. I asked Kesha to rehearse with Andrea before they came to Baltimore. Even though this short story is all about the character of Aisha and she is in almost every scene I had to hope and pray that when Andrea got to the set she was everything I saw (on video) and heard (from Kesha) she was.

You can probably guess because I’m writing this that it was not a disaster. The result was everything I could have hoped and prayed for. The mother/daughter chemistry I had in mind when I wrote it was brought to fruition through their performances. Even my editor Gino who was not there on set during principal photography and has only seen their performances on film really likes their performances. I can’t wait until everyone can see what a FANTASTIC job they did.

Well that is the story I promised waaay back when I introduced Andrea as our lead. It was truly a testament to God and his power. God is good; let the church say “All the time”. :-) When you plan something like this you can’t anticipate every contingency, but you must pray, “roll with the punches” and go with what you have and sometime you just gotta do like a George Michael song and “have faith”.


Previous “scenes” of Pre-Production:
Pre-Production-Scene 1
Pre-Production-Scene 2: Proverbs 10:7

Pre-Production-Scene 2: Proverbs 10:7

Proverbs 10:7 states Good people will be remembered as a blessing . . .

Kesha Afrika Oliver (pictured left) has been just that to our production, a blessing. As told in a previous post she was one of the first people we cast. She called me to tell me of a fantastic actor she knew who would be perfect for the role of Aisha. I said sure we would like to see her. The problem was she didn’t know if she could make it to our auditions on July 19th. Turns out she couldn’t and she didn’t know if she could make it up to Baltimore (from Virginia).

We saw a lot of good actors on the 19th that we cast in other roles, but none for the role of Aisha. We had ALL of our actors, but the starring role. How could we proceed with our shoot without our star?

It was getting to crunch time. It looked like we had to have another audition. I had a tentative date for a second audition for August 9th, TWENTY days before our shoot date. That didn’t leave a lot of time for rehearsals and such. The location where we had our last auditions was booked up for August 9th so I was about to schedule them for August 16th THIRTEEN days before our shoot date and ONE day before our scheduled rehearsals on August 17th.

I’ve read about other films where an actor was cast three to four days before shooting began, but I sure didn’t want that for my little production. During this time I also tried to arrange an audition with Kesha's friend, the actor from Virginia, but couldn’t narrow down a date. It was my co-producer Amy’s idea to get an “Internet audition”. I asked the actor to send me a video audition by email and she did. What I saw was great, but I wanted a second opinion. After Amy saw it she said “yes” offer her the role.

Serendipitously I got her audition on the tentative date I was going to have my second auditions August 9th. One day when I release The Part: Special Edition DVD you might just get to see that audition. LOL. So who is this "actor from Virginia"? Who is she? Well I gushed about her in another blog entry You can call her Miss Ross

Well now that we had our lead role everything was groovy right? (yeah I’m bringing groovy back) Not exactly. There is still more tell.

Previous “scenes” of Pre-Production:

Pre-Production-Scene 1

Pre-Production-Scene 1

I would have called this post “Part 1”, but with a film called “The Part” throwing “parts” around can be a little redundant and confusing. :-\

Pre-production should always start with a script. Sometimes they start with just an idea and an actor in mind, but the script is the skeleton that the body of the film is built upon.

I wrote this script in December 2007. Throughout my college days I studied screenwriting so I wrote several short scripts. Those scripts were about 20 to 25 minutes long and I wanted something shorter, i.e. cheaper to produce, I could shoot in one day. My other scripts were perfect of course (LOL) and I didn’t see a way to shorten them without losing the story.

I needed a new idea that could be told succinctly. The idea finally hit me and in December, dead of winter, I decided to write a story surrounding a cookout. As long as there wasn’t any snow on the ground we could fake a cookout right? Well maybe on a Hollywood multi-million dollar budget, but not on my film. I wrote it knowing I couldn’t film it until at least the spring.

Now that I had an idea where do I film it? Well that’s where being a writer/director and overall creative genius (LOL) comes into play. I could have staged this reveal (what exactly “the part” is) anywhere, but I know my u&a (uncle & aunt) always gives these big cookouts in their backyard so I wrote that into the script. Since my u&a have always supported my artistic endeavors I kinda knew they would let me film it there, but the question was when. I wanted to film it in June or July, but my u&a, both retired, were understandably busy. It was summer and they aren’t exactly in the “rocking chair” phase. It took me until about March 2008 to even narrow down our August 30th shoot date.

So after the script is done and the location has been booked, it was time to find some actors. I spoke about the casting process in these earlier blogs:
Cast Away
Cast Away 2 or How I Met Ms. Holley
Cast Away 3

It was also time to find my crew. I'm happy to say that I found most of my crew through personal contact. For the past few years I've been going to film/art events all over the area as well as working on cable public access shows. NETWORKING is the key ladies and gentlemen. :) I also found some great people after putting a position posting on the Internet. I’ll speak more about my crew in a future blog.

So I had a crew and most of my cast. Problem was I didn’t have the lead role yet. How did I find my lead role? You have to stay tuned (can you tune into a blog?) to find out.

What's the score?

You can hear one of my favorite scores below. After you click it you can read the rest of the blog while it plays...or you can just read. :-)

A film score is a broad term referring to the music in a film which is generally categorically separated from songs used within a film. The term film score is frequently synonymous with film soundtrack, though a soundtrack may also include the songs used in the film while the score does not. A score is sometimes written specifically to accompany a film, but may also be compiled from previously written musical compositions.
-Wikipedia.

Now that you have the technical term, a film score is basically background music used to accentuate the mood of the scene.

On the budget of this film (zero is a number right?) I can't afford to have music written specifically to accompany this film. I probably can scour the Internet to find a music composer willing to do it on my budget, (I did say zero right?) but at this point I will compile music from previously written musical compositions. How can I afford that? It's called "royalty free" music. You can buy or find royalty free music on the Internet that you can use in any form of media you wish as long as you provide credit to the artist.

I began the search about a week before principal photography (when we shot the film) and am still looking. I found some good selections, but since I want to finish editing the shots together before I add the score it will probably be the last thing that we do.

Director’s Cut-Edit 2

Gino and I just finished editing again. This was actually our third editing session. Our second session was actually spent re-editing the first scene with Andrea and Brittley. On second look we noticed a few things we wanted to change.

I know last time I said we were going to edit the “kitchen scene” next, but Gino decided he wanted to edit the “reveal scene” next. Who’s in the reveal scene? EVERYONE. All of the actors are in the scene. It’s explosions, helicopters, it’s an EXTRAVANGANZA! I know the actors are saying WOW I don’t remember, explosions and helicopters, but that’s the beauty of post production. I didn’t tell you that Gino is a special effects wiz.

Jus’ kidding. Besides the edits, everything is the way we shot it.

The scene isn’t finished, but most of it is done. Like the first scene, we’ll probably see some things we want to change the second time around.

At this point I don’t know what scene we’ll edit next, but I’ll tell you all…in vague terms of course. LOL.

Previous editing blog entries:
Director's Cut

Director's Cut

When you see this film, you'll see the "Director's Cut". Why? Because there is no studio involved fighting to make their cut. I am the EP (Executive Producer) so there is no need to worry about an EP's fight over what the final cut of the film should be. What you will see is what I feel is the best version of the film that I wrote.

I just finished the first "slash" in that cut a couple of hours ago.

I'm going to be intentionally vague about the scenes I'll talk about to keep the plot as secret as possible. The cast and crew will know what I'm talking about because they were there. Ain't it good to be "in the know"?

My editor Gino and I just finshed the FIRST scene. Andrea and Brittley were GREAT.

(From left to right Andrea Ross and Brittley Hardrick)

If I didn't know I'd swear they were related before (They play sisters in the film). They are "related" now since they are a part of the " 'Nother Brother family" :-)

There is no [music] score yet, we'll do that last (after the whole film is edited). There are some other sound issues we have to clean up, but the lighting looked great, the shots looked great and the performances were...well you know GREAT.

Very nice job Brittley and Andrea. Gino wants to edit "the kitchen scene" next. Stay tuned.

Principal Photography is DONE!

It's done, I'm tired. I'll write more later. LOL

Plus 3

"Plus 3" is not that new group you heard on the radio, but they are still three talented young ladies who will be in our production. Appearing in non speaking roles are:



Gabi Hayes











Gabrielle Holland









and Yemaya Rich









These three young ladies auditioned for our film and even though we couldn't find a role for them we still invited them to participate in our production and are pleased that they will.

You can call her Miss Ross

Allow me to introduce herself

Her name is Andrea, RO to-the-S-S

We saw others but she was the best best
Naw I didn’t stutter she was just that good
If ya didn’t know her before now you wished you would

Ok enough of that. LOL. I’m just SO happy to find my star that I had to bust out in song, or rap as it were, like some musical or something. Yes the open was an homage to Jay-Z (My Name is Hov). I’m not a poet and didn’t know it. I don’t bust a rhyme all the time. I don’t always talk like Mother Goose or Dr. Suess. Ok I’m finished. Seriously.

I will go into more detail about how she was cast later (and it is a story!). Right now I want to praise this young actor and give her her just due.

Ladies and gentlemen, Andrea Ross

Insight on my creative process

I can now reveal why I named this character Aisha. Her parents are like my surrogate parents. They have always supported my artistic endeavors and I even named two of my main characters in my televised play Love, Rhythm, & Blues after them.

My cousin and I also share something else. We were the only kids, so far, in our generation to graduate from college. We often talked about school and most importantly getting a job after school. I even started my own personal rivalry. I say personal rivalry because I don’t think she knew that I wanted to beat her to the graduation finish line. She is younger than me, but we were in college at the same time because I didn’t start college until my early twenties. I just couldn’t let, wouldn’t let my “little cousin” graduate before me and I’m glad to say she didn’t. :-)

Anyway, that is just a little background on the relationship my cousin and I share and why I named the character after her. In tribute to her and her parents. When it came time to name the other younger cousins in the script I named them also after my other cousins. When it comes to naming characters in my scripts everything is often relative.

Cast Away 3

I don’t have a Cast Away joke for this entry, but fo’ real though they were getting tired. Ain’t nothing worst than a tired joke. Well there ARE a couple of things worst, but you get the idea. It’s called a colloquialism.

We had our auditions July 19th and from it we found a lot of fantastic actors. I have to thank Ms. Holley again for getting me several actors to audition whom we actually cast.

First up our little movie family is almost complete. We have cast the superfantastic Brittley Hardrick as the little sister DEE DEE.








As her cousins we have

Samara Caton as TIA









Billy D as DINO









Kendall Forbes as EJ







Donald Barnett as COUSIN WILL







Marcella Price as COUSIN ANGELA











Playing her Aunt is Rosita Matthews as AUNT DINA









Playing GABRIEL we have Omar Bah








Playing GABRIEL’S WIFE is Cynthia Forbes (yes Kendall’s mother)







Insight on my creative process




The characters of the younger cousins are named after my actual cousins Tia, Dante (nickname Dino) and Everette Jr…EJ. The older cousins I kind of picked out of the sky. Cousin Will might have been named after Will Smith, but I don’t remember. If you’re a fan of Will Smith I SURE DID name the character after him. :-)

I named Aunt Dina after my...get this…Aunt Dina. (I also named a character after her before in my televised play Down With The King ). Gabriel I picked out of the sky and I thought it sounded slightly uppity. Aloisius? Too uppity.

Dee Dee is the one character I kind of named after myself. My full name is Donald Dankwa Brooks or D.D. Brooks, but I’ve never been called that and never want to be called that. D.D. sounds like a girl’s name to me hence…Dee Dee.

Other characters I’ve written named after myself? Danika, a variation on Dankwa one of the main characters from my televised play Love, Rhythm, & Blues, Daniel Braxton a variation on Donald Brooks one of the main characters of another televised play Without A Doubt and so forth. Does that make me narcissistic? Well it’s not like I’ve talked about my past accomplishments and the great stuff I’ve written…I just hyperlinked them. :-)

Previously on Part Blog, Part News:
Cast Away
Cast Away 2 or How I Met Ms. Holley

Coming Soon to a blog near you

The next post in our blog series Cast Away is in progress. I've already written most of it, but I'm still waiting for commitments from several actors and there are still several roles I'm still trying to assign. I also want to post the actor's headshots, but those will have to be edited too.

I know you're "starvin' like Marvin" (how's that 4 an old school reference) for a new post, but don't worry it's "Coming Soon".

In case u missed them:
Cast Away

Cast Away 2 or How I Met Ms. Holley

Cast Away 2 or How I Met Ms. Holley

No this is not about a sequel to that Tom Hanks movie, but it is a sequel to my previous blog post Cast Away

In total we had 13 actors to audition. Most of them came from Stonehenge (see Cast Away 1). Some of them came from a good friend of mine LaFonde Holley.

In casting I wanted to explore the avenues open to me through my contacts with the local African American theater community. A main advocate of mine in that quest was Ms. Holley.

Ms. Holley called a list of her best actor friends and several were available to audition. Ms. Holley also surprised me by showing up to my auditions. Of course I invited her to sit next to me and she helped me audition the actors. It was such a pleasant surprise. Even though we have talked over the phone I hadn’t seen Ms. Holley in years. I met Ms. Holley when she was the stage director of a televised play I wrote called Love, Rhythm, & Blues. She has always been an advocate of my “great writing” (Her words, not mine, but I can agree that her words are pretty accurate. LOL) and even referred me for a nice paying freelance writing job.

Anyone who knows her know Ms. Holley is a force of nature and I’m blessed to have her as a friend.

From the auditions I cast many of the roles, but exactly what those roles are and who will be playing them will have to be in a future blog post. I know how wicked of me. >:(

AAQ

No AAQ is not that new fraternity you heard about it, it’s not that new sorority either. It stands for ANTICIPATED ASKED QUESTIONS. These are not questions that I’ve been asked, but I anticipate that they will be asked. Does that make me psychic? Not really, just very insightful.

Can you tell me more about the script?
Not really. The script is SO SHORT that if I reveal any more you will figure out what “the part” is and ruin the surprise of the story.

Why is the script so short?
For the people lucky enough to read the script, it is very short. I wrote it that way for two reasons. 1. To put it on the Internet. A lot of sites don’t allow you to upload anything longer than fifteen minutes. 2. Because I’m aware that my cast and crew have “day jobs” and I didn’t want to commit them to successive weeks of shooting for an extended period.

I wrote this with a ONE-DAY shoot in mind. I want to get it on and over with so I could move to the next production phase.

What is the “next phase”?
Editing it. Cutting the scenes together. Adding ambient (background) noise and then music. After that it’s marketing it to film festivals.

Why not put it on the Internet when you finish editing it?
Because for film festivals stronger consideration is given to films that have NOT had significant prior exposure and that means the Internet.

Is this film going to make money?
No. Short films don’t make money. Plain and simple. No one is going to pay more than $5 to see a film that is only 15-20 minutes long.

Why make a short film if it’s not going to make money?
Because feature length films take a lot money to make, at least if the film is going to look like anything. Short films are a representation of the skills of the cast and crew and a means of advancement. No one can see what you can do until they…see what you can do.

How do you say your name anyway?
Well I wrote about that in another blog right here

If you have real questions to ask me please email them to me. The email is info@notherbrother.com . If you do email me you’re giving me consent to publish your question in whole or in part. If you don’t want it published just say so and that’s fine too. If I do publish your question, don’t worry I won’t use any “real names” except my own. :)

Cast Away

I know the blog title is corny, but that’s the best I could think of on short notice. I want to talk about my cast and my casting process.

On Sunday, May 18, my producer and I attended Stonehenge. This is their description:
Stonehenge is a one-day casting event held several times throughout the year in various cities. If you're an actor, think of it as a mass audition. You'll be able to perform a monologue in front of 20 or more production companies looking to produce films in the near future. If you're a filmmaker, think of Stonehenge as a mass casting tool, showing you over 100 actors whom you might call back to read for a specific part.

I was hoping I would some fantastic actors and I did. From this casting session I found










Kesha Afrika Oliver and she will be playing “Mary”.








Tony Martin and he will be playing “Kenny”.






The last casting I found wasn’t really through Stonehenge, but he was there.

I met Archie Williams in 1996 when he was cast in another televised play I wrote called Without a Doubt. I’ve been in touch with him over the years and even worked with him when we volunteered for the Maryland Film Festival. He will be playing “Uncle George”.










Insight on my creative process

• The character "Mary" was named after my favorite female singer whom I’ve loved since What’s The 411? Since she is worldwide and “mainstream” now, you can probably figure out who she is.
  
• In keeping with the “music theme” I named Mary’s husband after Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds.
  
• “Uncle George” was named after my dear departed uncle who was every bit as raucous as the character I wrote.

I’ll reveal the inspiration for the other character names when I cast those roles. I know you can’t wait, but you’ll have to. LOL

Start Here

Welcome to this new blog. I created this blog because I want to update everyone involved (or just the nosey LOL) about what’s going on with my film The Part.

I want to update everyone in “real time” ASAP so forgive me in advance for any typos. Having said that, let’s get on with the posts. :)