Dubai and the Maldives

I just got back from a trip to Dubai and the Maldives! I'm so lucky to have the best travel gigs with Sisterhood Travels capturing video footage of all the highlights with a fun group of ladies. The desert in Dubai was awesome and Arabic Coffee is delicious. There were not super cars everywhere, but you could definitely feel the opulent wealth of the place. They have to desalinate ocean water to drink and our guide said that at one point water was as expensive as gas. 

The Maldives are a tropical paradise, but honestly you could go to the Caribbean for a similar experience and skip the 26 hours of travel time it takes to get all the way over there! Still the natural beauty is something to see and I loved the giant fruit bats that would glide around the tree tops every evening. I snorkeled a bunch and every time it felt like I was swimming in a tropical fish tank!

One Hell of an Angel Trailer

Need help deciding on a poster

Which shot do you like best?  Pocket watch or pocket watch in pieces?

Saving Jake

Shooting our flash back scenes were so challenging,  We had a multitude of actors, locations, hair and make up changes and props to keep track of!  Thankfully I have the dream team cast and crew who made it all happen.  This film production is comprised of the best quality I've ever worked with.  I'm so excited for everyone to see this movie!

Saving Jake Behind the Scenes

It was a cold, wet shoot for all our present day scenes.  The cast and crew were incredible!  Working in tough conditions and never complaining.  So excited to see this footage.

Hope is in so many film festivals!

Hope has had such great success on the film festival circuit and there's still more to come!  Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this film.

Winner - Social Justice Film - Holden Village Film Festival
Winner - Best Cinematography - Micropolitan Film Festival
Winner - Best Actress - Micropolitan Film Festival  
Winner - Best movie poster - Longleaf Film Festival
Winner - Best Audio and Music - Colorado International Activism Film Festival
Winner - Best Titles - Colorado International Activism Film Festival
Winner - Best Actress - Colorado International Activism Film Festival
Winner - Silver - Queen Palm Film Festival
Winner - Best movie poster - Alternative Film Festival
Official Selection - Colorado Activism Film Festival
Official Selection - Women Deliver Film Festival
Official Selection - Show Me Justice Film Festival
Official Selection - Carrboro Film Festival
Official Selection - Underexposed Film Festival
Official Selection - Cinema Soup Film Festival
Official Selection - CatFly Film Festival
Official Selection - Guacamole Short Film Festival
Official Selection - Northeast Mountain Film Festival
Official Selection - Charlotte Film Festival 
Official Selection - Women of the Wold Film Festival Tunisia

See my Indie, Comedy, Feature Film on the Big Screen!

September 13th at 7pm 

at the

Fine Arts Theater, 36 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801

Get your tickets here (be sure to select the 13th) Order Tickets Online Now

more info at: www.fineartstheatre.com

A demon with an existential crisis and an angel with PTSD team up to save the career of a washed-up rocker.
Demon, Kyle, is a stabber on the third level of hell. He knows his business. But when he starts wondering about the nature of life and death, his superiors shut him up and send him to the "Angel in Training Program."
Angel, Mezudio, has been around a very long time-so long that he developed PTSD and goes catatonic at the sight of blood. Relegated to feeding parking meters and cleaning up dog poop, Mezudio is afraid to trying anything new, but his boss has other ideas. Mezudio is charged with training the stabber, Kyle to be a good angel and earn his wings...or at least stop stabbing everyone.

Katie Damien is an Asheville based award winning Writer, Director, Photographer, and Producer. Support local film making, get your tickets today!
Tickets $10 and are available at the Fine Arts Theatre box office, or online here

Ghost Image Behind the Scenes

Thanks to Ben Avivi my set photographer for these great stills!

I won 2 Emmys!

I just picked up two Emmys this year for a news promotion I worked on with David Saich and short form directing!  I'm so excited to be honored for my directing work.  I've always loved being a director and to get that kind of acknowledgement from my peers, feels amazing! 

I'm so blessed and so grateful to all my family and friends who have given me their love and support my whole life. Every artist has to survive their share of rejection and criticism and through it all, it's friends and family that lift us up so we can keep striving for excellence.  If you know an artist of any kind, give them a hug and tell them they are awesome because sometimes they forget and it's you who keeps them going.

I went down to Atlanta for the awards with my good friends David Ostergaard and Tina Herring.  They are both tons of fun and we had such a great trip.  David also won that night for a commercial he worked on and you can see the elation in this behind the scenes video I put together:

4 Emmy Nominations!

Last night I was nominated for writing, directing, and photography!  I was also nominated for a News Promotion Campaign with David Saich.  I watched with David Ostergaard (who also got a nomination for a commercial he worked on,) Tina and Erin at the Battery Park Book Exchange.  When the people around us heard our cheering and found out what it was about, they stared cheering with us and someone bought us a bottle of champagne to celebrate.  It was a great night!

The Awards are in June and both David and I are going.  So stay tuned for lots of red carpet action.

Katie

The Other Time Lapse Spot for News Thirteen

It took me forever to get these time lapse spots finished.  I shot these with my old Nikon D200, using an intervalometer (triggers the camera at the rate you set it for) and some times I triggered the camera manually to make the action flow the way I wanted it to.  Most exposures were 1 second long, with the night time shots, especially the star trails as long as 1 minute for each frame.  That means for some of these 3 second shots, I spent over an hour just letting the camera go.  It was a great way to spend an evening.  Sometimes my job is just awesome.

Katie

1 minute director's demo reel

I've had my 1 minute demo up for a while, but I don't think it's been on my blog at all. So here it is:

Check out this video: 1 Minute Demo

About This Blog

I call myself a filmmaker first, a director if you want to get specific. But that's not the only thing I do. Actually I do other work to pay for my filmmaking habit. Someday I'm confident that I will be paid to make movies, that day just hasn't arrived yet. So in the meantime I work as a photographer and Broadcast Tech on cruise ships (person in charge of all the programming that goes out to the TVs on board: satellites, computerized programming, tape decks, etc.) I'm in the process of fulfilling one of my other ambitions in life, to be a world traveler. I work on cruise ships sailing the globe for half the year and the other half I spend on land working as a photographer and making independent films.

Some of this blog will be about travel and ship life, some about making movies and working on independent films, and some about photography, commercial work, weddings and more. Please feel free to make comments and ask questions, but know that if I'm on a ship I have to pay for my internet access by the minute and I might not get back to all the questions asked until I'm back on land.

Disclaimer: This is part of a bigger email list where more pictures are attached. In this blog I can only attach a couple pictures per post so I might sometimes make references to pictures that aren't attached here. I'm a hopeless optimist. I'm one of those people who can't see problems coming because I'm just blind to most bad things. I tend to present an idealistic version of reality. I make ship life and film work look fun and easy…it's not always that way.