Emmy for Best PSA Campaign!

 I just won an Emmy award for best PSA campaign for Literacy Together.

You can watch a video of the whole campaign here: https://vimeo.com/699220793

Hope Reviewed

Hope got a great review on Film Threat! 7 out of 10.

"It is powerful"

https://filmthreat.com/reviews/hope-2019

By Chris Salce | July 29, 2019

The suicide rates in America have been growing year by year. Suicide is currently the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S. It is a growing epidemic that is hard to understand, and it is hard to control how often it happens. There are many hotlines and counseling services available if one feels the need to harm oneself, but it is not always easy to ask for help. Hope is a film that may help someone who has felt lost or needs help.

Based on a true story, Hope (Emily Tynan McDaniel) is a widowed single mother who is suffering from depression after losing her husband. Hope feels that her son would be better off without her. After an attempted suicide, Hope is taken to a mental facility where she will stay for some time. Once she gets out of the mental facility, she is homeless and has lost custody of her son. Hope struggles to get her life back on track but uses her son as motivation to pick herself up from rock bottom.

“After an attempted suicide, Hope is taken to a mental facility… Once she gets out, she is homeless and has lost custody of her son.”

The short film tells a very real story in a matter of roughly twelve and a half minutes. It does this by displaying quite real and sometimes graphic scenes and gets through the rest with montages. The montages are necessary to help the film move forward in a timely manner. Even though half of the film is done through montages, it is a film that has a lot of emotion.
McDaniel, who plays the lead, does a great job at making her character seem real. It is based on a real person, but that person wishes to remain anonymous (as it is later mentioned just before the credits). The name of the character is the title of the film–and it is quite clear why writer and director, Katie Damien, chose the name.
Hope is a very real film. It is powerful because the subject hits home for quite a few of us. Most of us have known someone that has either hit rock bottom or attempted–or died of– suicide. This film is meant to bring hope to those who feel lost. The short film does also feel almost like an ad or promotional video for Homeward Bound, which is a homeless shelter. In this way, not only does it tell a story about the fall and rise of a woman, but it also lets others know that there is a program that can help them if needed.

One Hell of an Angel Trailer

New short film: Saving Jake

Synopsis

Based on a true story, a hardworking orphan grows old on the streets as a homeless man until a friend convinces him to find housing and hope.

One Hell of an Angel Production Stills

 

Drone

As I write this, my drone is long gone.  I crashed it gloriously over the ocean in Paradise (not on purpose, but what a way to go.)  Before it's untimely demise, I managed to get some amazing footage.  Here are the highlights from a trip to Florida, complete with beatific beaches and marshland in the shrinking wilds of that state's undeveloped countryside.

Florida from the Sky from Katie Damien on Vimeo.

Biltmore Estate Commercial Work

I was lucky enough to score a gig with the Biltmore Estate!  I made a few how-to style videos and this behind-the-scenes look at the spring garden design.


Sketch by Travis the head gardener at Biltmore Estate.  I had such a blast shooting at the estate all day!

The Cannes Film Festival Video

I finally had the chance to go over all the little snippets of video footage that Lela and I grabbed at the Cannes Film Festival with our GoPros and iPhones.  Here's a short video of our amazing time at the festival (including our celebrity red carpet walk.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSllW851SMY&feature=youtu.be

Magazine Article about Me

My film school Alma mater published a great article about my recent film success and my trip to Cannes:

http://today.ucf.edu/cannes-cannes-cannes/

Because She Cannes Cannes Cannes

Alumna's short film honored at world's most prestigious festival

Cinematographer Katie Damien, '01, started working in film before she was a teenager

Growing up in a family of movie buffs and watching the Oscars every year, it seemed Katie Damien, ’01, was predestined for a future in film. In fact, she made her first movie when she was 12 years old. And, she hasn’t stopped making movies since.

Born and raised in Florida, Damien chose to attend UCF because, in her opinion, it had the best film program in the state.


“Film students could direct their own work, they got to keep all the rights to their films, and Orlando is the perfect place to be for filmmaking, with all the studios nearby and the city being so production friendly,” she explains. “’The Blair Witch Project’ had just come out, and UCF’s film program was the place to be.”


Today, she’s the owner of Kd Multimedia, a writer and director, and one of five producers in Gorilla with a Mustache Films.


Damien started the film company with a team of filmmakers she joined in 2010, in order to compete in the 48 Hour Film Project. After winning the competition’s top prize for their short film, “Touched by Angels,” they decided to make more movies together.

Last year, the group competed in the National Film Challenge. But, instead of competing against other local filmmakers, they were competing with filmmakers around the world. In addition, each team was assigned a genre, a character, a prop and line of dialogue that had to be used in its film.


After a long session of brainstorming, one of Damien’s teammates told a story about a friend who rented a car and ended up with the same make and model someone else at the agency had already rented. He didn’t realize he drove off with the wrong car — until he stopped, opened the trunk and found it full of drugs. So, it got them thinking: What would you do if you suddenly found yourself accidentally in possession of a bunch of drugs? And, again, the group won for its short film, “Joint Effort.”


“I was out of my mind excited [when I learned we won],” Damien says. “I was screaming on the phone with the other members of my team. I was in an office full of people when I found out, and they all started to gather around as I was jumping up and down, screaming like a fool.”
But, the excitement didn’t stop there. The National Film Challenge win sent their film to the Short Film Corner at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.


“I knew that Cannes was the top prize, [but] I had to get on a computer real quick and look for myself to make sure it was true,” Damien continues. “When I saw the win with my own eyes, that’s when the screaming started [again].”


Not surprisingly, Damien’s biggest dream is to some day win an Oscar.

“But, in the immediate future,” she says, “I’d just like to have a big enough budget that I can do all the things I want to in a given movie, and be able to pay all my cast and crew properly.”


Q&A REEL


Q. Who was your favorite professor, and why?


A. Sterling Van Wagenen was the director of the film program when I was there. He also taught a directing class that I took. He was amazing. It wasn’t just the knowledge he imparted or the extremely helpful real-world advice he would give, but he had a soothing demeanor about him. He had a way of squeezing your shoulder that just made you feel like everything would be okay. And for a stressed-out film student, sometimes a shoulder squeeze was exactly what you needed. Mary Johnson was a fantastic screenwriting teacher! I still use her template for creating characters when I write scripts. Mark Gerstein and Lori Ingle were also amazing editing teachers. I learned so much from them. And, I can’t skip Jonathan Mednick, my documentary film teacher. He gave me the best advice my senior year. I was working on a short documentary, and he watched it as a work-in-progress and told me: “Make it about the people. Tell their story and the rest will fall into place.” He died suddenly and unexpectedly that summer. I will always carry those words with me.


Q. How has your UCF degree helped you in your career?


A. Having a film degree, while not essential in this industry, has certainly opened a lot of doors for me. I think the quality of the education I received helped boost the professionalism of my work by leaps and bounds. I was able to try new and difficult things, take risks and fail, all without losing credibility, because I was in a supportive learning environment.


Q. Describe some of your previous films.


A. I’m just now releasing my first documentary feature film, “My Toxic Backyard,” about a community that has been fighting for clean, safe drinking water for decades since it discovered its water was contaminated by an old manufacturing plant where toxic chemicals were dumped into the ground. I’ve made a few comedy films — one comedy/horror about a vampire with a toothache. I made a short drama, “Second Parent,” about how gay parents can’t jointly adopt a child. And, I made a horror film about a couple that accidentally run over a guy with their car and soon find themselves victims of an elaborate scheme.


Q. Are you currently working on any other film projects?


A. I’m currently in post-production on my first comedy feature film with the same group I made “Joint Effort.” It’s called “One Hell of an Angel,” and it’s about a demon who gets in trouble for asking too many questions in hell and is punished by being forced to work with an angel on an impossible mission to get a washed up rock star to write a song that will change everything.


Q. All-time favorite movie?


A. “Strictly Ballroom”


Q. Worst movie you’ve ever seen?


A. The first movie I ever made as a kid. It was so bad I destroyed it.


Q. Favorite movie genre?


A. Action


Q. If someone made a movie about your life, what would the title be?


A. “The Mad World of a Creative Mind”


Q. What or who inspires you?


A. In the film world, Robert Zemeckis. That man can make any kind of movie and make it well.


Q. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?


A. Beer taster. I’ve heard that’s a thing…


***Check out Katie Damien’s day-by-day journal of her experience at the Cannes Film Festival.***

Thin Line Film Festival Video

Here's a little video I put together of my trip to the Thin Line Film Festival.

Press: Watered Down

BY DOROTHY FOLTZ-GRAY, Bold Life Magazine

Katie Damien surveys the Superfund site, that is the subject of her documentary, My Toxic Backyard, from across the street. Photo by Rimas Zailskas

Five years ago, filmmaker Katie Damien searched for a home to buy in South Asheville off Mills Gap Road. "Prices were so much lower than in other places in Asheville," says Damien, a five-time Southeast Regional Emmy winner. "But my friend said, 'Don't buy there. There's something wrong: People are getting cancer.' I stopped looking, but I couldn't stop thinking about the people living there. It haunted me."
The haunting resulted in Damien's first feature-length film, My Toxic Backyard, an hour-long documentary about the South Asheville Superfund site leaking toxic chemicals into the ground water surrounding the area.

CTS Corporation, a global manufacturer of electronic components, purchased the site in 1959, closing it in 1986. But the Environmental Protection Agency did not name it a Superfund site until 2012. The Superfund was established in 1980, when President Jimmy Carter signed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA, or Superfund) into law. The law enables the EPA to clean up hazardous waste sites.

The EPA first assessed the Asheville site in 1985, finding no evidence of contamination. In 1991, CTS itself notified the state of contamination, but EPA again signed off on the site. Residents believe that 74 cases of cancer have occurred with a mile of the site. And residents' complaints have kept EPA returning, each time finding more evidence of toxins in the ground water.

Damien's film focuses on several affected families: Aaron Penland, who opens the film by pointing to family members, victims of cancer appearing in a family movie, "a death video," he says; Tate MacQueen who moved his family into a tiny apartment to get them away from the water; and Shannon Mead whose constant illness forced her to miss the first seven years of her first child's life.

As the film proceeds, Damien highlights community meetings with EPA officials who appear puzzled by the residents' anger. She alternates such scenes with alarming pictures of toddlers running in sprinklers or drinking from icy water glasses.

Damien toiled on the film for five years, completing it in December 2013. "I thought it was going to be a one-year project," says Damien. "But I was shooting, editing, and doing the research and audio by myself."
For the final year, she was joined by others, including the film's editor, Jamie Byrd, also a filmmaker. "I was so tired, and I had collected so many interviews and so much information," says Damien. "Jamie breathed new life into the project. I was trying to pack in information, but she is more about heart and telling people's stories."

Damien invested more than $10,000 of her own to buy equipment she needed. And she raised $5,000 through Kickstarter, an organization that allows supporters to pledge money for creative work in return for small rewards such as a free ticket to a screening.

Now, she's busy submitting the film to festivals, accepted so far by The Thin Line Festival in Denton, Texas. And she's sending copies to state legislators who are deciding whether to loan Asheville the money to connect affected families to city water.
Damien wants the film to stir up questions about what's happening in our own back yards. "I feel like the society is so concerned about the economy, saying 'We'll deal with the environment once the economy comes back,'" she says. "But the longer we wait, the worse the environment will get."

Damien doesn't begrudge the money she's spent on the film: "Everyone contributed more than they were paid," she says. Besides, she didn't get into filmmaking to make money but to fuel her early passion. "I started when I was 12, making plays with my sister and cousins. And then my uncle gave me a movie camera. My first film was so bad I erased it, but I had so much fun. I thought, 'This is what I will do for the rest of my life.'"

After high school, the Fort Lauderdale, Florida native headed to the University of Central Florida, a place where film students can direct their own projects. Her first documentary — a film about Florida cowboys, Cowmen — won third prize at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. "I knew the cowboys probably wouldn't be around long, and I thought I should tell their story," she says.

Later, for five years, she worked in broadcasting on cruise ships, traveling the world. Then she followed her parents to Asheville, taking a job at WLOS, where she is Creative Services Producer.

Her next film is a comedy, One Hell of an Angel. "It's about an angel and demon forced to work together to help a washed-up rock star write a song to save the world," she says.
The theme's not surprising: For Damien, teamwork — and perseverance — are key to good filmmaking: "Asheville's great for independent filmmakers. People here open their doors. Still, it can be daunting and frustrating. So many films never get finished. You have to make an investment in yourself and trust your own work. And the end goal is to do the story justice."

My Toxic Backyard
Coming to Asheville
this spring
www.mytoxicbackyard.com

Press: A Look at Filmmaker Katie Damien

By Dan Thornton on December 5, 2013

 

Some people just know what they're destined to be.  For me, I reached the last day of high school and still didn't know what kind of career I should pursue.  I thought I'd work a bit and take classes until it became more apparent. Eventually, for better or worse, I sorted it out and found some semblance of a trajectory in my life.

Katie Damien is one of those people that always knew what she wanted to do.  What a luxury that must have been to know exactly the field of work that was right for you. By the way she had made this decision before she was even a teenager.  So when the time came, she applied for film school at the University of Central Florida.  No backup plans.  No other school choices. The film program at UCF is where she intended to be, period.

 

After completing her studies and working in the Florida market Katie decided it was time to see the world.  How do you do that?  Her way was to work, under contract, in broadcasting on cruise ships.  It agreed with her and she spent several years sailing the sea and earning her keep.  

"And if you've surrounded yourself with a really good team, when everything clicks and everyone can set their egos aside, it's like magic."

During this time, when she was doing these tours aboard ship, her parents had moved from Florida to Asheville, North Carolina.  Not really needing a house or apartment since she was away so much of the time she started calling Asheville her home base and stayed with her parents when not aboard ship.  After the cruise contracts ended she took up permanent residence in Asheville.  Which leads us to her soon to be released feature length film.

The seed from which My Toxic Backyard unfolded came from her attempt to buy a house in Asheville. A rather continental city skirted by the Pisgah National Forest.  Progressive, with a touch of the old and new, it receives people from all over the world to see the sites and to enjoy the fresh mountain air.  It does have a dirty little secret though, as Katie discovered.

After finding some nice homes that were affordably priced just outside the city limits, it seemed too good to be true.  Most homes in Asheville are very expensive.  Thank heavens she was curious enough to find out why.  Many of the homes in this area have wells where the toxicity levels of the water reach hundreds and  thousands of times the amounts the EPA considers safe and has resulted in a higher than normal rate of cancer among the residents.

My Toxic Backyard tells the story about what happened in this area.  Katie investigates the history behind the contamination and talks with the residents about the issue and what can be done to resolve it.  Hopefully, having seen this film, we will understand better how to prevent it in the future and how to deal with it if it's already happened in our  community.

One thing I've noticed about Katie is she likes to "play" with her equipment and effects, as you will see in her demo reel below.  This experimentation has paid off with some dramatic footage and five Emmy awards for her.  In fact, she made a fun little film of her trip to the Emmys using her iPhone and a lens attachment that looks like it's done with a pro rig.  Proving, once again, that it's not the equipment but the talent behind it.

I see you majored in film production at the University of Central Florida.  How did you know a life in the film business was your calling?  Did you have a backup plan?

Fortunately or unfortunately, I had no back up plan when I went into filmmaking.  I was twelve at the time and just decided that that's what I was going to do the rest of my life.  Whether I could make a living at it or not was irrelevant.  I was just going to make movies until I couldn't make movies anymore.  As it happens, it all worked out pretty well.  I didn't even have a back up film school (which in retrospect seems like a silly thing to have done.)  I only applied to UCF's film school because I had decided that's where I was going to go.  I didn't apply anywhere else because it didn't occur to me that I wouldn't get in, even though I knew it was very competitive (the Blair Witch Project had just come out and the filmmakers were UCF film school alumni.)  Maybe that's a part of the secret to success: don't leave yourself any other options and you will find a way to make things happen... because you must.  That, and be really lucky.

The irrelevant part of making a living as a filmmaker factors in when you just have a passion for something.  It doesn't matter whether or not people like what you do, as long as you love it and you know that you don't need the approval of others to make yourself happy in what you're doing, then you are free.  You might be limited in the type of film you can make on your own and that's not to say it doesn't hurt when you get rejected (and if you've spent any time in any art form, you've had your fair share of rejection.)  The difference is that if you're really passionate about what you're doing, you can keep going after you've been turned down, turned away and in all other ways turned inside out.  Just keep going.  That's how I do it.  

I agree with you 100% Katie and I think that is the way all true artists feel.  They must do it so they're all in, odds be damned.   What drew you to Asheville?

I'd been doing freelance work in Florida and had gotten by okay, but I was doing a lot of below the line work, which was very fun and good experience, but I really wanted to direct and that's a hard thing to break into.  No one wants to hire you without the experience, but you can't get the experience because no one will hire you.  I already had a good body of work in short films, but that wasn't enough.  Plus, I'm impatient.  I also wanted to travel the world and I saw no need to wait until retirement to do that.  So I started working in broadcasting on cruise ships, doing 6 month contracts.  I was going to do 2 contracts for 1 year figuring that would be enough to get the traveling bug out of my system.  5 years later, I finally decided I was done.  I packed everything up and moved it into my parent's basement because I didn't want to pay for an apartment when I wasn't living in it most of the time.  My parents had moved to Asheville and when I wasn't working on a ships, I would stay with them.  When I decided I was done with ships, I didn't want to move back to Florida.  I liked Asheville too much, so I stayed.

That's very interesting Katie.  What led you to My Toxic Backyard?

A: It all started because I wanted to buy a house. In Asheville housing prices are generally high no matter where you go. So when I found a section of town where the houses were affordably priced, my first thought was, what's wrong with this area? There was no high crime rate, no dilapidated houses, it was close to city limits, but not too close. I thought I might have stumbled upon a hidden gem. My realtor showed me multiple homes in the area and I started to get excited. I told a friend of mine about this amazing find and as soon as I told him where it was, he stopped me. "There's something bad in the water out there. Don't buy a house there!" he said. "What's in the water?" I asked, perplexed that I had never heard about this before and I had lived in Asheville for more the five years. "I don't know, but it's making people sick."

I stopped looking for houses in that area, but I was curious and started digging. There were newspaper articles, and TV news stories, it was no secret. There was a whole community fighting for clean, safe drinking water that I had somehow managed to remain oblivious to. Even when I had been actively looking for a house in the area, there were no red flags, no warnings from my realtor or anyone else. If I had not done my own research, I never would have known that there was a toxic Superfund site leaking chemicals into the water table. I felt like I had dodged a bullet, but I couldn't stop thinking about all the people still living out there who weren't as lucky. That's when I started making the documentary.  It was just a story that needed to be told.  I was amazed at what I had uncovered in making this film.  Most of my work in film is meant to entertain.  With this documentary, I feel like I have the unique opportunity to make a difference.

Hard to imagine the realtor didn't know this and if they did shouldn't they be required to inform you of it.

Property disclosure is not always as cut and dry as you might think.  For example, if your water has been testing negative for contaminates, but your neighbor's water is contaminated, you don't have to say anything.  You only have to disclose what is on your property.  Even though common sense would dictate that if there's something bad in your neighbor's water and there is a large source of contamination near by there's a good chance it's heading your way.  You don't have to speculate about what might happen in the future when selling your property.

What stage of development is My Toxic Backyard in and what are your plans for it when it's released?

It's nearly finished.  I just have to review everything one more time to make sure that there aren't any errors I've overlooked.  The first chance it will have to screen in public will be at film festivals (providing it gets into any of the ones I have chosen) from January till May.  After that I'll submit it to local PBS on UNCTV.  I'm also sending copies to the state legislature who are right now deciding whether or not to loan the city money to run municipal water to all the houses in a one mile radius.

The EPA hasn't been testing more than a one mile radius, though it could reach further especially where rivers are concerned.

Tell me about your other films.  What other genres do you work in?

I've worked in a lot of genres.  I've made dramatic films, comedy, stop-motion animation, horror and even a western. 

I imagine that finding actors and crew is fairly easy in Asheville and there are lots of varied locations to work with.  Is that assumption correct?

The more time I spend in Asheville, the more talented people I run into.  I've found if you have a decent production going on, film professionals will come out of the wood work.  There are a lot of industry professionals living in the mountains who travel for work.  They leave for months at a time working on a picture and come back home for a few months before their next gig.  There are also a lot of really talented actors that I am finding here who have only done theater work, or  who have never acted before, but some of these people you put in front of a camera and they will blow you away with their performances.  I think this town in particular draws a lot of artists and creative types in general.  That makes it easier for me to find talent.  

And as far as locations go, everything is amazing.  You can go to a number of national and state park to get rivers, waterfalls, woods and mountain vistas, but sometimes you'll find those amazing scenic views in someone's backyard.  We get every season too.  In the winter there's snow, in the summer everything is lush and green, in the fall there's plenty of color.  And because we have kind of a small town feel, you can go up to business owners and private residents, tell them about your project and most of the time they are happy to work with you and let you use their space for shooting.  Everyone is just super nice.  This really is an ideal area for indie filmmaking.

You've won five Emmy Awards. Is that right?  How does it feel being  nominated by your peers much less winning one?

I do have five Emmys and it's so freaking awesome!  It is truly an honor.  When friends and family tell you how great they think your work is, that certainly feels fantastic and helps bolster confidence, but they're biased.  When complete strangers who are industry professionals honor you with an award like that, it's validating in a different kind of way.  I think it gives me the confidence to take on bigger projects.  Those kind of wins definitely make you want to reach even further and strive even harder.

I've noticed you often work with Eruch Adams, Rebecca Morris, and Matt Shepard.  Should I be keeping my eye on these people and what they're accomplishing?

Yes, yes and yes!  Eruch is a brilliant writer who is working on his first novel.  He's very funny.  Comedy is a hard thing to master, but he does it effortlessly.  I'm terrible at comedy, but I make good comedy films mainly because of his scripts.  Rebecca is super talented, so is Matt.  Rebecca has a very diverse range.  I feel like I could throw her into any role and she would nail it.  She has the ability to hold in character, something I find most actors have difficulty with.  She can give a brilliant performance with her eyes and nothing more.  I find with many actors, they perform better if you give them something to do.  It helps them to focus and act more naturally.  Rebecca can just be and she can do it in character.  It's brilliant to watch.  She's a hidden gem in this area.  Matt has a great look.  The camera loves Matt.  If you meet him in person, he's still good looking, but it's not the same as when he's in front of a camera.  He just has a natural charisma that translates well to film.  He's also very raw and not afraid to go to dark places that might appear false in less skilled hands.

Do you know Kira Bursky?

I've worked with Kira a few times.  She worked on my documentary a little bit and she also worked on the comedy feature, One Hell of an Angel that I directed (in post now.)  Everyone in the crew wanted her in their department.  People were literally fighting over her.  I wished I had had ten of her on that shoot.  She reminds me of myself when I was younger, only she's leaps and bounds ahead of where I was at that age.  She has a ton of natural talent and good instincts, and you can't teach that.  She's also honing her craft and it's great to watch.  I've seen so much improvement in her abilities from film to film.  She will make it.  Not everyone can make it in the industry, it can be really brutal, but she will.  She has a great attitude and people just want to work with her.  She is also crazy talented on multiple fronts.  She writes music too.  She's like a one man band of awesome.  I'm always excited to see what she'll do next.

What excites you most about about making films? 

I think production is the most exciting part for me.  I love being on set.  I feel like when you're shooting, that's the biggest culmination of all that you've been working toward.  It's generally the largest gathering of people all there at the same time to make a movie happen.  There's generally a lot of down time on a set, but everyone is there for a reason.  From the cinematographer who shoulders the formidable responsibility of the visual end of the film to the lowly PA who fetches coffee, everyone on set is important.  And if you've surrounded yourself with a really good team, when everything clicks and everyone can set their egos aside, it's like magic.

What do you know now that you wish you'd known early on in your career?

That's a great question. I know now that there are some stories I can tell well and some I can't. You should always do what you know. And if you want to tell a story you don't know anything about, be sure you do your homework. I've learned to find stories that resonate with me. I've also learned to say no when a project isn't a good fit. I think that just comes with experience though.

You have a catalogue that includes a  mixture of commercial work, photography, writing, and film.  This must keep you very busy.  Is the variety something you prefer or just the way things worked out?

All my work has to do with story telling, so to me it's just different disciplines that accomplish the same thing.  I love doing all of them.  When I was a kid, I had to take one of those tests that grade schools make you take so that they can figure out what job you will have as an adult.  All the other kids had jobs like detective, fireman, scientist.  My job came out as "undefined."  I was mad at first because I wanted it to tell me I'd have a cool job too.  Later someone told me that I had so many interests that I could probably do just about anything and enjoy it.

I am always very busy, but I love it.  Some day I'll find balance.  Maybe tomorrow.  Right now, there's just too many fun things to make.

- See more at: http://www.gigspotting.net/a-look-at-filmmaker-katie-damien.html#sthash.PursQUEt.dpuf

PSA Homeward Bound

I just finished an incredibly awesome, incredibly painstaking PSA for Homeward Bound (www.homewardboundwnc.org) We shot over the course of 2 weekends, almost entirely stop-motion animation using real people.  Keresey Proctor was so wonderfully patient and displayed amazing stamina holding poses on the ground for hour after hour as we moved her into place inch by inch. Brian Alexander and Cythina Smith who both work for Homeward Bound and who helped me with the last PSA, were also heavily involved in the making of this one.  Shane Meador was our incomparable art director giving everything the right tone and personally taking care of every detail even down to the little girl's drawing.  And speaking of little girls, I was blown away by Vivi, our young actress who preformed brilliantly. Silas Hite (http://www.silashite.com) who I met at the Cleveland International Film Festival was the marvelous composer.  You can see the finished PSA here:


http://youtu.be/Ta4T-B08dNU

and the making of here:


http://youtu.be/STIkImP-BgQ

Katie

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: