In 2013 I decided it was time to make my first feature. I’d put together many shorts over the last few years and it was time to step up to something bigger. I came up with a concept that played on some of the themes I’d been toying with and started writing a script. That film was eventually called Meme. Near the end of that year I tried and failed to crowdfund for Meme. I took a break from the project and dug into a few more shorts. Mostly they were quickly put together projects shot with what was on hand on weekends whenever people were around. Then, I did Time Signature in 2014 and I again felt like I could pull off Meme, but I decided I should just try and make it as I’d made so many of my shorts, with the change in my pocket and favors from talented people. Our first day of shooting was November 23, 2014 in Brooklyn. We shot a whole subplot of the film that weekend that takes place entirely in a conference room. It was very satisfying to get such a big chunk of the project complete in the first 2 days. Due to holidays and how difficult it can be to schedule during the end of the year, we weren’t back at shooting Meme until January of 2015. We shot Meme on weekends whenever we could get the people and equipment together. On August 22, 2015 we wrapped on principal photography 9 months after our first day of shooting. We shot for a total of 17 days.
We also had a three day shoot in the middle of all that for Beneath the Black Moon, a horror parody, which will premiere online this fall and which will also appear in a limited form in Meme. I’ll write an update on that soon.
There’s still a little more to do but for the most part Meme is complete. It’s on to post-production, much of which has already been started (having everything spaced out so much allowed for me to put together an assembly as we got things done). Post-production will take up most of the next six months as there is a lot that needs to happen from editing it together, to some relatively minor effects work. Then there is sound editing, music, and color correction that all needs to happen. Our goal is to start submitting to festivals before the middle of 2016 and to make the film available to the public one way or another before the middle of 2017. You can follow the progress of the project on our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Trust me, you’re going to want to follow us. We’ve got more than a few fun things planned for the next year that tie-in to the movie and build on what we’re doing. Come and be a part of it.
Before I wrap this up I just want to thank a few (dozen) people without whom this project just would not have come together: Jessica Mannion, Carolyn Maher, Peter Westervelt, Sarah Schoofs, Kitty Ostapowicz, Nicole Solomon, Erin Clayton, Diana Molina, Cheryl Hampton, OneGlassVideo, Stephanie Testa, Shivantha Wijesinha, Lauren A. Kennedy, Rory Lipede, Chaz Cleveland, Alley Scott, Kima Baffour, Warren May, Matt Gershowitz, Ryan Kramer, Christina Raia, Liam Billingham, Jeanette Sears, Jessica Cele, June Dare, Alex Bone, Philip Andry, Tara Cioletti, Matt Addison, Lauren Shaw, Jeremy Mingaro, Heinz Liu, People Lounge, Corinne Fisher, Krystyna Hutchinson, Nurah Stanley, Valerie Opielski, Singularity & Co., The Creek and the Cave, Ian Bibby, Karen Fleisch, David Jackson, Josh Johnson, Katie Carman-Lehach, Julian Barbosa, Lisa Hammer, Levi Wilson, Ginny Leise, Zac Kish, Alia Janine, Annie Such, Sarah Albonesi, Lizzy Andretta, Jason Keith Davis, and everyone else who was part of the film or helped or even offered to help in the two years since I first started working on this film.
Here are a couple of photos from our final day of principal photography:
