Early Casting Notice for an Independent Feature and 2 Short Films.

3 Films (2 shorts, 1 Feature) Written and Directed by Daniel Laabs

The shorts are going into production in January and early February and the feature will have rolling auditions throughout the year until the director and producers are ready to set a date for production. Our hope is to find one or two actors to perform in all three projects.

"Haggle," 5mins, HD (Improvised) (Production: Early/Mid January)

Two white philosophy students, Fred and Nick, are approached by a black teenager, Aaron; who is trying to get his start in underground hip-hop by selling demo CDs on the street. The students lead him on to the point where Aaron is compelled to confront them and their actions.

Fred, (19 – 22), Caucasian or Hispanic, an opinionated and pessimistic, young intellectual, lives off of meager budget but manages to stay stylish. He only watches foreign and art house films and is in the process of growing his first beard. Given the opportunity, Fred will and can rant. He is a stern believer that talking about problems helps to make things better.

Nick, (19 – 22), Caucasian, spirited, optimistic, studious and often inspired by Fred’s rants. By nature Nick is a follower and is prone to following trends. He is less opinionated than he is logical, but will always seek the reasoning behind an idea. He thinks before he speaks, and in situations he doesn’t agree with he will always take a passive role.

"Dirty Faces," 10mins, HD (Production: Late January/Early February)

A couple of drifting petty thieves, Curtis and Jenna, find an opportunity to take their work to the next level by lifting a small time drug dealer who is old friends with Jenna.

Curtis, (19 – 22), a drifter, a thief, quiet and confident, takes care of himself and attempts to live outside the system. Very introverted.

"Brentwood Stair," 90mins, HD (Summer 2010)

Will, a, embittered 19 year old misfit, has been kicked out of his mother’s home and is thrust into the world of becoming an adult. When a friend, Herold, mysteriously disappears he finds himself replacing and fulfilling Herold’s responsibilities with his sick mother.

Will, (19 – 22), Caucasian, an embittered misfit, who withholds his emotions, and desires. Rarely comfortable socially he doesn’t like people in general.

Instructions:

- Please send any and all inquiries with a headshot to our Casting Director, Amy Childress, amy.adrianmakemovie@gmail.com

- She will book you a time to come in and read, after we have received enough responses and the holidays are over. Auditions will be held by appointment only.

Information:

- Compensation: Actors who are cast will receive union level accommodations during production, transportation, food and payment (only for the feature). In addition to that scenes and other promotional materials will be provided for reels, and a DVD of the finished product.

Videofest Recap & Lonestar

I completely dropped the ball, and this blog is about a month late. Seriously! The first dumb thing is that I forgot to announce on here is we were accepted into Lone Star, meaning we somehow managed to screen at 3 hometown festivals. So Thank you Videofest, Lone Star and of course the venerable AFI Dallas/Dallas International. I will try to construct some memories of the two weeks in November.

VIDEOFEST!

This was in many ways a homecoming, the Dallas Videofest has long been a festival I attend annually, and never had a film play. So to have two films play was really exceptional! As always Videofest leaves you feeling inspired create, but this year in particular it left me with a sense of security. Sleet/Snow played to a sold out crowd, and afterwards I fielded lots of questions and it won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short. But the whole thing was just super, I got to hang out with the Prime Eights at a few of the parties and that was great. Those guys made an excellent doc called "Walking Fish and Big Red" which I highly recommend and it can be seen here. It was definitely an honor to hang out with such prolific and passionate folks as they. I got to see Kat Chandler's new film which was pretty cool too. My favorite short though was Drew Xanthopoulos' Western Brothers' Adventure Story and a clip of which can be seen here. The film leaves with the sense that you've experienced a full narrative but the way it is expressed, shot and editing is truly unique. It is story telling at it's most pure. I was more then a little frustrated that I didn't meet the filmmaker afterwards.

Start a Band also won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Comedy Short, a prize that was won last year by Clay Liford for My Mom Smokes Weed, which just got into Sundance. Thanks to all the Jury for the awards and we shall see if anything comes of them. Also to Bart Weiss and Johnny Rutledge, for doing an exceptional job with the festival overall... Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

onto LONE STAR!

It is fantastic to see the community come together to put on a festival, and reinforce it with the city's excellent cultural infrastructure. The convenience of Sundance Square and the Museum District of Fort Worth make this festival really step up. I drank my way through this one, I saw some really nice films including Oren Moverman's triumphantly subtle The Messenger, as well a second viewing of You Won't Miss Me. Which I didn't enjoy as much as I did the first time, but still it was quite an awesome screening at the Kimball Art Museum. The auditorium there has to be seen to be believed, its a very odd venue.

Sleet/Snow played near midnight, and I was able to attend the screening with Gideon who had yet to see the film with a festival audience. The following night I ran into a friend I made at BendFilm! whose film "Haze" also played AFI last year, Pete Schuermann, and we went a very weepy eyed award ceremony for Kris Kristofferson. Not quite feeling that we retreated to the "Disney Party" and which was a blast. (Haze can be seen in full here on snagfilms) I got to meet quite a few really fantastic people at the festival and I am very grateful for the screening. A lot of things are said about Lone Star, but through it all this year was an exceptional one for them. Great Work!

To be continued as far as Sleet/Snow goes, last night was the one year anniversary of its first screening at the SFVO Fall Screening. Which was unfortunately the first of many screenings of the film that I ducked out of.