Tag: meme

  • Three Questions with Lisa Hammer

    Three Questions with Lisa Hammer

    Three questions is all about sharing more about the fun people that I have had the pleasure of working with. These brief interviews appear in my monthly newsletter (which you can subscribe to here) and I am republishing them to the blog. The following interview with filmmaker and musician Lisa Hammer was originally published in the January 2016 edition of the newsletter.

    I’ve been producing Lisa’s web series Maybe Sunshine and she also starred as the lead virgin hunting witch in Beneath the Black Moon. You may recognize her voice from playing the role of Triana Orpheus on Adult Swim’s the Venture Bros.

    What do you do?

    I make movies, I make music, I make acting and my voice is on the Cartoon Network. Sometimes I shoot or edit other people’s movies. I always try my best to create top shelf work that makes people laugh or cry or say “what the crap?” People called me a cult filmmaker in the 80’s, then a feminist filmmaker in the 90’s, now it’s Independent Filmmaker. I’d love to be called the lady version of John Waters. How about Mrs. Madam Filmmaker? For example, take this new musical comedy feature film I just finished with my partner Lisa Ferber called The Sisters Plotz. It’s got a technicolor “Old Hollywood” slapstick look and feel. It’s a very elegant and wacky take on guerrilla filmmaking, created by ladies who wear vintage cocktail dresses and drink champagne.

    My music was labeled as “Goth” for decades, even though we never set out to be that. I was in the bands Requiem in White, Mors Syphilitica and The N.C.S. We played with Type-O negative, Christian Death, Biohazard, Sex Gang Children and so on. Now I’m in Radiana, which has more of a New Wave, Mod, Shoegaze sound. I started it as a studio band in 2008 with my best friend Steven Deal, but then he passed away a few years later from cancer so I decided to stop playing music.

    Around 2014 my darling husband Levi Wilson urged me to start up again. This time was different: I felt too old and sad to just start a new band from scratch. Levi had the brilliant idea to instead create an original series about a fictional Lisa and her struggles to start a new band at the age of 48. Thus, Maybe Sunshine was born. We somehow found this amazing team of producers: Sean Mannion, Carolyn Maher and Myles Tyler-Vassell. With an all-star cast and crew, we are finishing up on post production for season one and will launch in the spring.

    Why do you do it?

    I know no other way to stay alive. If life doesn’t include making art and being creative, I can’t really function. It keeps me awake almost the entire night. Keeps me daydreaming so I forget where I’m going. No way out!

    What do you want to share?

    All that I do in this life is meant to be shared. My films, music, words, voice, my creativity. It’s for the world, so I have to keep going. If it helps 5 people or 500 or 5000, then it has all been worth it. I get very moving emails and messages from fans who have used my music to get through hard times and who’ve been moved by or enjoyed my films. A few of them I’ve had to talk down off a ledge. Mostly they’re just melancholy dreamy types like me with dark senses of humor. A few critics have even called my films “important” and “psychedelic”. They screen at festivals all the time. A highlight for me was a near-riot at my screening of Pus$bucket. There were chairs and beer bottles thrown across the room, and then an drunken impromptu reenactment of the film on stage while it played. I was just grinning like a Cheshire Cat. The prison mail has also been a highlight. Get a P.O. box, people! Stalkers can’t find you.

    Here’s a thought: everyone’s a filmmaker these days- make yours great. Make it something that deserves to be seen. Don’t get any sleep. Let your creativity flow out 24 hours a day. Keep a notepad with you at all times. And make your music. Do it as a hobby unless you have 24 hours a day to promote it and go on tour and do nothing else. Otherwise, get it into films, give it away. It’s most likely going to be pirated anyway. If you put it all on your own web site, sell ads to make money. Help other filmmakers out by giving it to them for free.

    Also- if you have elderly neighbors, check in on them. they are lonely and awesome and probably would love to tell you tales that will knock your socks off. Write it all down.

    Lastly, hug your loved ones and friends all the time. Brush and floss, and stop sitting all day. Get up and walk around, get a standing desk. Start lifting weights, it’s super fun. Then you can eat more chocolate.

    Goodnight!

  • Three Questions with Nicole Witte Solomon

    Three Questions with Nicole Witte Solomon

    Nicole on the set of Meme in January 2015
    Nicole on the set of Meme in January 2015

     

    Three questions is a new thing I decided to do because I like the people I work with and want to share more about them and what they do and what they care about. These brief interviews appear in my monthly newsletter (which you can subscribe to here) and I am republishing them to the blog. The following interview with filmmaker Nicole Witte Solomon was originally published in the December 2015 edition of the newsletter.

    Nicole served as our Art Director for Meme, helped me produce Beneath the Black Moon, I frequently work with as an instructor at the I Was There Film Workshops, and we are now business partners in 4MileCircus offering Social Media Management and Consulting Services. Here’s what she has to say about herself.

    What do you do?

    I write things–screenplays, essays, short stories, reported articles, cook books, but mostly emails–as well as direct films and videos. I’m moving more into producing more as well.

    I also freelance as an editor and consultant. My primary client right now is I WAS THERE Film Workshops, where I serve as the Communications Director. I Was There provides free, therapeutic filmmaking workshops to veterans, active duty service members and military families coping with Posttraumatic Stress. I also am also a film instructor at these workshops.

    Why do you do it?

    I work with I Was There because it’s rare to be able to get paid to do something you actually believe in. I have personally found filmmaking to be tremendously therapeutic, and I love sharing that with other people, and seeing the very real, dramatic shift that occurs within people who have been seriously wounded once they’ve been empowered with the tools to tell their own stories, on their own terms.

    I write/direct/produce things that I would like to see that don’t yet exist. I’m generally interested in amplifying less-heard perspectives and narratives, whether my own or other people’s. Also I have always just have a compulsion to create and share stories.

    What do you want to share?

    You can learn more about I Was There at http://iwastherefilms.org. My short horror film, Small Talk, is currently in festivals and should be available for home viewing in 2016–we’re on facebooktwitter and tumblr as SmallTalkMovie, and the website is smalltalkmovie.com. The “Joan of Arc” segment I directed for the anthology Bring Us Your Women will be made publicly available in the latter half of the year. You can watch it and the rest of the film on demand now, though.

    Also keep an eye out in 2016 new projects–a feature I wrote that will be produced/directed by Flavio Alves and is in preproduction, a short I co-wrote with Jeanette Sears called Happenstance that’s in post, a short I’m line producing for Christina Raia, a couple video projects for The Shondes that I’m directing, and several scripts I’m currently writing. Also a comic book that I’m writing with my friend Che Broadnax, about which I’m extremely excited but probably should bite my tongue for now. You can visit NicoleWitteSolomon.com for more.

  • Three Questions with Carolyn Maher

    Three Questions with Carolyn Maher

    Producer, AD, bounce holder ... Carolyn Maher does it all!
    Producer, AD, bounce holder … Carolyn Maher does it all!

    Three questions is a new thing I decided to do because I like the people I work with and want to share more about them and what they do and what they care about. These brief interviews appear in my monthly newsletter (which you can subscribe to here) and I am republishing them to the blog. This interview with Meme Producer Carolyn Maher was first published in my September 2015 Newsletter.

    Carolyn was my Assistant Director for Time Signature, she is the Producer and AD for Meme, and she’s Producing and performing AD duties again on Maybe Sunshine.

    What do you do?

    I produce things! I take steps to bring different parts of the filmmaking process together to actually shoot things like scheduling, organizing, planning and communicating what needs to get done. I also keep one eye on the “bigger picture” to make sure a project is ready for the next phase of its life and what we can do now to help that next phase.

    Why do you do it?

    Film is a powerful storytelling medium and my objective as a filmmaker and producer is to tell stories that spread empathy, promote understanding and creative expression. Stories are one of our most important ways of creating a common ground and platform for discussion, debate and understanding. There’s also a joy I get from bringing someone else’s vision to life.

    What do you want to share?

    SO MUCH! My first feature as producer Trichster just got accepted to Cucalorus (which is the best festival on the planet) and is soon entering the wonderful world of distribution! Meme just wrapped principal photography and I’m always so impressed when I think about all the amazing people who were so generous with their time and talent to make it happen. The Cape House (feature #3) is starting to come together and it’s a whole different kind of challenge than anything I’ve done before. And if you want to spend 10 seconds watching some ridiculous stop motion animation, check out my Vimeo page.