Sean Mannion

Tag: feature film

  • Meme Update

    Meme Update

    Sarah with the Tape-Small

    Production on Meme has been continuing for the last few months. Our shooting around schedules and working on the film mostly on weekends process has made the production a little extended, but the end of principal photography is in sight. Our most recent shoot days were Memorial Day Weekend in May (or as Producer/AD Carolyn Maher called it “Meme-orial Day Weekend”). Three fun days at some great locations. We returned to People Lounge in Manhattan for some key bar scenes. We shot some beautiful exteriors in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Then, we got some great footage at The Creek and The Cave and some exterior scenes in Queens. At this point, there are only two scenes left to do. They are important scenes, as they are the ones in which Jennifer (Sarah Schoofs) actually meets people from the Meme tape, but other than those two scenes we pretty much have the story. What else is there?

    Well, first of all we’ve got to shoot our films-within-the-film elements. There is additional footage we need to get for the Meme tape and for another video shown in the film. There is also Beneath the Black Moon, a horror film that Jennifer’s boyfriend, Tommy (Shivantha Wijesinha), is looking for in Meme. We will be shooting Beneath the Black Moon the second weekend of July. It promises to be a really fun weekend. We’re planning to shoot a little bit more than what we need for Meme so that Beneath the Black Moon can also be released on its own as a short film. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

    So, Meme is close to wrapping on principal photography and then we have all the fun of post-production to get through. I’m excited to share more of the film as that progresses. Below are some photos from our recent shoot days. I’ll share more about the Beneath the Black Moon shoot once we finish it. Follow Meme on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to keep up. Or subscribe to my newsletter for updates in your email. 

    But first … I’ve got an announcement on July 6th. Come back for that. It’s going to be pretty cool.

  • Meme Shooting Update

    Meme Shooting Update

    VHS hangout-twitter

    Well, I was going to update about the progress on Meme on a much more regular basis, but keeping on top of the whole process and trying to stay on top of life beyond that has made that just not happen so much. Well, we’ve got almost 60 pages shot with only about 15 pages left to do. We’ve done all but a few of the major scenes. A friend of mine asked me the other day: “if you died tomorrow, could someone make a movie out of what you’ve shot?” I’d say, yes. We’ve got the major plot points covered and what’s left is mostly connective and thematic material that builds it all into a better story, but as of right now there’s a beginning, a middle, and an end. Wouldn’t be much of a movie, but there would be something.

    We’ve shot out several locations and we’ve had good days and we’ve had long days. We’ve had frustrations but we’ve also gotten a lot of great shots and seen some excellent performances from all of our actors. We’ve wrapped our male lead, Shivantha Wijesinha, who delivered consistently throughout the shoot and was always striving to bring his best even when the rest of the world seemed hell bent on us not getting our scenes shot. We also wrapped actress/producer Kitty Ostapowicz, who is always one of my favorite people to work with on set. She’ll still be with us on our future shoot dates helping behind the scenes, but she’s been great in front of the camera in all of her scenes.

    What we have left to shoot are mostly bar scenes and exterior scenes. We’ve been waiting on the exterior scenes until it got warmer, as it’s been a little cold the past few months here in New York. We’ve shot some of our bar scenes already but we have some key ones still to shoot and are looking at some new locations (and, hopefully, affordable locations) for the bar scenes.

    While we’re hoping to find some cool new locations, none are likely to be as cool as our March 15th shoot day at Singularity & Co. a Brooklyn genre-oriented bookstore that had shelves full of weird, fun stuff. Here are pictures from all of our shoot days since the last update. We’ve worked hard and we’ve had a lot of fun.