My Movie "Second Parent" Won First Place!

Matt Shepard and Emmett Winton in "Second Parent"

A short film I just made ("Second Parent") just won the top prize in the Prestige Subaru Competition!  It will be screened at the Asheville Cinema Festival in one of their short film blocks.  This film is touches on a very important issue that is close to my heart and I hope to share the film with you as soon as the festival is over.  In the meantime if you're near Asheville on Saturday around 1pm go to ACT (Asheville Community Theater) at 35 East Walnut Street, Asheville, NC and check out the movie along with some other really great films.

More info here: http://2ndparent.blogspot.com

Katie

Video for YWCA Equality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em6NZ0_s3N0&feature=share&list=UUi2RBqmNRwGEe2VDZq2bExg

I was lucky enough to get a gig shooting vignettes for the YWCA of Asheville.  There are three videos of women in the community that are making a difference.  Dr. Liz is an awesome woman who is working to fight health care disparities.  She was awarded for her work in equality.

Katie

The Tattoo I Want

Ever since I was a teenager I've always wanted a tattoo, but could never decide on what or where.  Now that I've lived my life with a pristine body and I'm safely through my twenties, I've decided I'm ready.  I designed this compass rose to represent my time spent on ships and I like my wrist as the area where I can see it and remember.

This picture is just the ink pen drawing I did on my wrist.  I decided I should wear it temporarily to make sure that's what I will like.

Katie

UPDATE: I was not able to get what I wanted where I wanted and here's why: the rose compass I designed is too intricate and overtime the details would bleed into each other and it would eventually become a blob.  It might take a few years, but that's what would happen.  Also the place on my wrist where I drew this temporary tattoo has creases in it and the creases would cause weird healing and scabbing and an uncertain outcome.  I'm lucky to have gone to a reputable tattoo artist who was able to steer me clear of making a big mistake!  I did a redesign and with some modification I was able to get a small anchor on my wrist close to where I originally wanted it.  I'm very happy with my new tattoo.  The lesson?  Go to a reputable tattoo artist and trust what they tell you, they know a lot more about tattoos than you do.

GoPro Camera Test Footage with Leon

I recently shot some test footage with a new GoPro Hero2 HD camera, in slow motion and underwater.  So I put this little video together of the random footage.  You can see Leon riding around the porch, he's so cute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTZVdlblxKA&feature=plcp

Katie

Katie's High Flying Adventure

Start your engines!  With chief flight instructor David Shields.

I just had a flying lesson at WNC Aviation!  It was an amazing experience.  The instructor let me take the plane up!  Of course he had a hand on the wheel because I was so distracted by the fact that I WAS FLYING A PLANE that I wasn't steering very well.  What a awesome feeling.  If you're in Western North Carolina and you want to learn to fly check out: www.wncaviation.com  Here's a video of my experience.

Katie

Family Visiting

Leon playing with Mom and Dad

Group shot.  Thanks Brian for taking this one.

Nothing like watermelon on a hot summer day.

They were all making faces, then I caught the good smiles right after.

Leon catching fireflies...and his own head.

Music Video Asheville

Scott Duncan, Eruch Adams, David Ely, and Katie Damien photo by James Warrick

I attended the Music Video Asheville screening and awards ceremony where I picked up an award for "Most Inspiring Music Video" for the song "Heart of an Eagle" written and performed by Kipper Schauer.  It was a really fun event, they had a red carpet and awesome handmade trophies.  Really fun.

Keresy and me at the awards.  Photo by Paul Clark

New Web Series for Comedy Feature Film

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233019965/touched-by-angels-feature-film/posts

I'm working on a new web series called "The Adventures of K.T. and Mezudio."  It's a comedy.  We started doing the series as a way to promote the feature film I'll be directing in June.  Right now the only place you can watch these is on kickstarter at the link above.

The series stars Matt Shepard (pictured to the left) and David Dietrich (below.)  Matt plays the demon K.T. who is forced to work with Mezudio an angel who is trying to teach the demon his angelic ways.  The webisodes are only a couple of minutes each and there will be 5 episodes.  In the meantime check out the introduction here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233019965/touched-by-angels-feature-film/posts/204379

And keep up with the feature film as we release more webisodes and work to raising funds to make out movie in June.

My documentary "My Toxic Backyard" is still in it's slow post production phase.  My editor is back from Ecuador and we're meeting next month to work out how we will transfer footage and share editing time lines over different systems.  I have a great music supervisor Michael Greer O'Shea music producer at Solotechne Records.  I have also been working with Bryan Matthew Warren on computer animation and graphics.  Things are moving along for the project.

In bigger news the CTS site was just accepted onto the National Priority List!  This is huge!  This means the site is a big priority for the EPA.  This is what's supposed to get the site cleaned.  I say "supposed to" because I've been hearing from residents that they will not be getting hooked up to city water like they need.  I imagine this will be a long process and the battling with no doubt continue.  I do feel like this is a step in the right direction and I'll be following the developments and let you know what happens.

Katie

Ringflash photo shoot

I got a ring flash for a couple of days to see if I liked it and the answer is yes!  I don't know if I'm ready to make the investment to own it just yet, but maybe down the road.  It's so fun to shoot with.  Thanks to Satori Kursh and David Ostergaard who were my guinea pig models for the evening.

Katie

I'm Making a Movie!

YWCA shoot for PSA

My next epic PSA for the YWCA of Asheville will be coming out soon... I hope. This one involves some major special effects with breaking glass, which I'm told is one of the most difficult things to animate. I have everything shot for the PSA and it's pretty much together, but getting the FX work done is proving challenging. I've had some great actors and locations to work with, even the gang of middle school kids really impressed me with their performances and enthusiasm. When it's done, it's going to be awesome!

Katie

I'm making a Comedy Feature Film!

The documentary is still in the works. I'm still editing and there will be just a little more shooting to be done with that. For the past 2 years I've also been developing a comedy feature length movie with a local production company (Gorilla With a Mustache Films) and we're about to start our fund raising so we can shoot this summer.

On Wednesday, March 28th we'll be launching our kickstarter campaign. A lot of you have already given to my documentary and I expect the rest of the group will be doing most of the fund raising. What I'm hoping to get from my friends is $1. Seriously, just $1 on Wednesday will help boost our interest level on the kickstarter site and hopefully get us listed prominently.
I'll be sending a link to the campaign on Wednesday. If you want a copy of the movie or want to give more, that's awesome. Just know that giving $1 right in the beginning will really help our visibility. Thanks everyone!

Katie

Chris and Sarah's Wedding

I don't shoot weddings very often anymore. But sometimes I'm persuaded. This was the case with my good friends Sara and Chris. They are just awesome people and they make the work seem more like play. Aren't they just the cutest couple? I really enjoyed being a part of their wedding.

Katie

Kickstarter Success!

We did it! I really was loosing hope in the end, but I got my Christmas wish and funding for my documentary was successful! The campaign was 104% funded by 85 people! Everyone who pledged played a part in making this happen. I’m so grateful to my friends and family who helped and also to the complete strangers who contributed. Now I’m able to move forward and get this documentary finished. It’s back to the grindstone. My goal is to have this documentary finished by this summer in time for some big film festival deadlines. Thank you everyone!

Katie

Trick or Treating at the Hospital

I belong to this group of female, horror filmmakers and one of them posted a story about when her son was in the Hospital over Halloween and how bummed he was missing out on trick or treating. That night a group of actors came through in costume and handed out toys for the kids and visited with them and that just made his Halloween.

She told her story to us and challenged everyone to visit the children's hospital in their home town on Halloween. So that's what I did. It was so rewarding, the kids really loved it. I collected lots of donations from local businesses, including a local comic book shop that gave every kid two comic books. It was awesome. So the next time Halloween or another holiday rolls around in your neighborhood, don't forget about the kids stuck in the hospital.

Katie

Would you like to buy a documentary?

I have always hated asking people for money. Ever since I was a Girl Scout peddling my cookies to neighbors and friends, I knew any job with the word “sales” in it would not be in my future. “Would you like to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies? You don’t have to, if you don’t want to. They’re kind of expensive. That’s okay, I’ll just go.” That was my sales pitch going door to door.

I hated it, even when it was a product I believed in. I believed in Thin Mints. I ate many a box growing up…probably because I couldn’t sell any, my parents took pity on me and bought a bunch. I never liked pressuring people to buy something. And yet I find myself very much in “sales.” Every time I try to book a gig, I’m selling my services. Doing freelance work you’re always having to market your talents, convince potential customers that you have something the other guys don’t, you pretty much have to sell yourself.

So here I am, trying to sell something. Something I believe in. And this time it’s not cookies and it’s not me. It’s a project. A documentary about clean drinking water and a community in Asheville, which at this very moment, is fighting for that very thing. I’m selling their story, their suffering, and a peek into the system we have set up to take care of problems like toxic waste leaking into people wells and coming out their faucets.

After putting everything that I have and everything that I am into the project for almost two years, I’ve realized that it’s too big for me. I need to hire some help. So I’m doing this fundraiser that is dangerously close to failing and almost equally as close to succeeding. I’m $2000 away from the funding I need to finish it. Maybe that’s too much to ask in times like these. Maybe it’s too much for a town where jobs are hard to find and people don’t have money to play with anymore. Would you like to buy a documentary? You don’t have to if you don’t want to. It’s kind of expensive…That’s okay, I’ll just go.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233019965/toxic-asheville-feature-documentary/posts/152588

Here's a Clip from the Documentary

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233019965/toxic-asheville-feature-documentary/posts/152588

Only 4 days to go. I'm burnt out on trying to get the word out about this kickstarter campaign. I only have a few hours in the day to devote to this project and I need help. I need all of you to google environmental groups, bloggers and other communities with superfund sites that might be interested in seeing this movie. Send them an email, give them this link, tell them to contact me. Whatever you can do, even if it's just one community leader, one environmental group, one other person that you contact on an individual level, it will be a great help.

Thank you,
Katie

Only 9 Days Left!

Screening a Clip of Toxic Asheville!

This Friday and Saturday at the 7pm and 10pm shows I will be screening a ten minute cut from the documentary and will be there before and after the movies with a table by the ticket booth to answer questions. I'll also have some prints to raffle off. So if you're in town, come see a movie and support my documentary!

http://ashevillebrewing.com/2011/index.html

Katie

P.S. - If you can't show up, you can still pledge: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233019965/toxic-asheville-feature-documentary

Over $1000 Pledged to my Documentary!

We passed the S1000 mark and someone from Japan even pledged. There's still more to go. Please share this project with friends and help spread the word and thank you everyone who has already supported the project.

Katie