Stiff to play at Asheville Rejects Film Festival

I bring the latest and greatest news on the short film I produced, "Stiff." The film was rejected from the Asheville Film Festival, which was a bumper, but also a highly competitive festival with over 400 entries, only 80 of which got in. Film is subjective anyway so you can't take a rejection personally.

The good news is "Stiff" got into the Asheville Rejects Film Festival. So we'll be playing at a local venue after all. If you live in the area, skip the Asheville Film Fest with their 80 stellar films and come to the Asheville Rejects Festival, where all the really cool misunderstood films will be. For more information go to:

http://www.theagentheadquarters.com/rejects.html

Katie

P.S. – the photo I attached was something I shot when we were still location scouting. Nelson, the director, is being the dead body. I walked around him and took 360 degrees of photos of the location. I merged a few together to get this funky panoramic.

Old photo booths

Remember those old photo booths they used to have at malls and fairs, where you'd jump in with a bunch of people and take silly pictures and they'd come out in a strip? Don't you miss those? I was at a wedding recently where they rented a booth and had it set up for guests to get their photos taken in. It wasn't one of the newer digital ones either; it was the old fashioned kind. I thought it was such a great idea. Everyone at the wedding enjoyed it, including me.

Katie

ASMP show River Arts District of Asheville

The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) in Asheville is having a show to promote artists in the River Arts District of Asheville. I went around one day and snapped a few photos of artists at work. My idea was to shoot portraits of artists without really focusing on their faces. Of the ones I submitted for judging, these four made it past the first round.

Katie

Graveyard Pie

A while back Mom, Becca and I went out picking wild berries near Mt. Pisgah. There's a place off the Blue Ridge parkway called Graveyard Fields. The place has nothing to do with graves though. In the early 1900s the mountains were heavily logged for timber. In this one valley near Mt. Pisgah they cut a very large section of the woods down and left a bunch of tall stumps in the wake. Eventually the stumps degraded to the point where they looked like tombstones, hence the name. The stumps are gone, but the name remains. Now there are wild blackberries and huckleberries (wild blueberries) growing all over the place and folks who live in the area go out to pick and camp and whatnot.

Mom made the best pie from what we picked and dubbed it "Graveyard Pie." Half the pie was already eaten before I could get a shot off with the camera. There were enough berries left to make some jam. It's been decided that there isn't enough jam to be given away, however, anyone who comes to the house to visit will have the opportunity to sample some "Graveyard Jam" if they ask and man oh man is it good!

Katie

8 things you don't know about me

Okay, so I got tagged by Brian and Gry at Woodward + Rick Photographers to do 8 things you don’t know about me on my blog. So here goes:

1. I’ve shot full frontal nude photos of myself…when you can’t get a model, what’re you gonna do? The great thing about owning the photos is I can control who sees them and no, you can’t.

2. I worked for the New York Film Academy for 3 years, I didn’t go to school there, it’s actually not a school, but a series of workshops. The workshops I did were in Disney/MGM Orlando and I lived on Disney property the whole time I worked there. It killed the magic for me.

3. I currently own a fish, that’s about all the responsibility I can handle and I’m about to give it away because it’s just too much. Anyone want a beta fish, bowl’s included?

4. I was drum major of my high school marching band. I wasn’t just a geek, I was the head geek.

5. I’ve never owned a vehicle with an automatic transmission.

6. My middle name is not trustworthy, it’s tekhla.

7. I’m writing a novel.

8. I hate snakes.

Mine

This is a series entitled "Mine." The idea was inspired by characters done by Edward Gorey. The plan was to have the models murder each other in twisted ways over a lollypop. They were to act out the murders behaving like siblings fighting over a toy. I absolutely love the performances in this series. Everyone did such a fabulous job. I think we all had great fun shooting this.

Katie

Group Fashion Shoot

Meet Zach, Ariel, and Satori (who you already know from the first of my cool fashion series shoots). I had the fortuitous opportunity to shoot all three of these models together…well they aren't models by profession, but for a day they were models for me. Ariel is a friend of Satoris' and Zach owns Drinkin Beanz Coffee shop where some of my photography will be displayed. We spent a very long afternoon and evening shooting a few different set ups. I had a mind to do some casual sophisticated fashion shots and another set of darker less traditional shots. Look for that darker series of shots I'm calling "Mine" in the next Chronicle.

Katie

Male Model Shoot

In continuing with my self assigned photo shoots, I shot a sports manager who wanted a headshot. In trade, he gave me his body as a model. I made him chop wood. No he wasn't just posing with an axe, I had him split a few logs, and dad didn’t seem to think we had the shot right and kept suggesting we do more. That's not his real sweat though. I had Crystal, the same make-up artist that did our movie STIFF, come out and do make-up for the shoot.

We walked down to the river and played in the water and I had the poor guy twist this way and that and made him do pushups, he was a good sport. My favorite shot is the one with the clock. I wanted to do something reminiscent of the old dreamy silent films the Lumiere brothers did. This shoot was defiantly fun to do.

Katie

Fashion Photo Shoot

Today I had a fashion photo shoot just for fun. I've come a long way from the "glamour shots" I used to do with Rebecca and Jessica when we were kids, but this shoot still held the same playful atmosphere of those days long ago. Come to think of it, those days haven't been so long ago since I still use Jessica as a model whenever she's around.

Featured in the photos is my friend Satori. She was both model and make-up artist. I met her when we were looking for a make-up artist for the short film. She wasn't able to do the movie because of her schedule, but we made plans to one day get together and do some work…play…well both I guess. I wanted some really fun dramatic fashion photos and some dark creepy portraits and Satori wanted some photos for her portfolio so we were both able to help each other out. And the location outside couldn't have been better. I got the creeps just standing outside the place. It was awesome.

Katie

Magazine (Rally to Rescue) Cover Shoot

A while back I did my first magazine cover shoot. The assignment was to shoot a man and all the cats that he'd rescued in a cattery he built here in North Carolina. The magazine is called Rally to Rescue. It's put out by Purina and it's all about animals that have been saved in one way or another and the people that rescue them. I shot for the cover and the featured article.

Cats are not the easiest animals to shoot, especially rescued cats. You can pet them and call them and wave toys at them and it's all for nothing. They will either look your way or they won't. My technique was to just keep shooting until I got something. I had hundreds of photos by the end of the shoot, but all the work paid off in the end. I had some great shots for them to use in the magazine. Attached are the pages from the article.

Katie

Next fourth, skip the sparklers

What is required to have a good time on the 4th of July in America? Sparklers? Fireworks? A picnic? For me it took only my sister, my camera, a tripod and a mini Maglite. Rebecca and I decided to lay on the mountain by our house and watch the spectacle of little fireworks set off in our neighborhood. Our neighbors didn't disappoint. They seemed to be in competition and I set up my camera just to play around and get a few shots. Once the display was over, I decided to focus on the tree of lighting bugs behind us. There was a nice gate so I illuminated it with the mini Maglite Rebecca had brought along. Then I remembered seeing some long exposure shots where a photographer had run around with a flashlight creating some cool effects with streaks of light, so I decided to give it a go.

Rebecca saw the results and wanted to play at it herself. Generally, Rebecca hates to have her picture taken, but being a student of philosophy I asked; if you're invisible in the shot, is your picture actually being taken? I guess she decided not, because she and I took turns playing with the light. Who knew playing in an empty field at night with a flashlight could be so much fun? Next fourth, skip the sparklers and give your kids a flashlight.

Katie

martini party

We had a fantabulous martini party at the house. Mom had said that Kim, her friend from work, had been in a band and was brining her guitar to the party to play for us. And I thought, okay live music is always good. I imagined her playing in a garage somewhere with some kids. I had known plenty of people who "played in a band" before and I just wasn't prepared for how good she was. I didn't know that she played professionally and that she was a fabulous singer. We were all serenaded on the porch while we sipped on Martinis. The evening was…fantabulous.

Katie

The Sea Beckons Me Back

The sea beckons me back once again. I'm taking a six-month contract going out in December. This itinerary is the one I've been waiting my whole cruising carrier for. I'm joining the ms Statendam to do the Australia/New Zealand run followed by a sojourn across the South Pacific then on to Asia and finally I'll be ending out my contract in Alaska via Russia.

I could not have asked for a better contract. New Zealand has been my main traveling goal since I set out to explore the world, but over time I've also been drawn to Australia and the many exotic islands of the South Pacific. In the Far East, I may have a chance to see the Great Wall of China and the Buddhist temples of Japan. So get ready to follow me on another exciting adventure at sea, across the International Dateline, South of the Equator, on the other side of the world.

Katie

Pick up Shoot for Movie: STIFF

Shortly after my return from Pennsylvania, I went to the last little bit of shooting for the movie Stiff that we needed to pick up for a montage scene. This was probably the most fun of any of the shooting we've done. Nelson, the director, played a homeless man. Crystal, our make-up artist, did a fantastic job making him over.

My cousin, Paul, happened to be in town for a visit and though I'm sure he hadn't expected I would have him turned into a corpse for the shoot, this wasn't the first time he'd preformed for one of my movies. Way back when, he acted in one of my earlier works.

I just had a chance to view the footage and everything looks fantastic. I'm very excited about the finished product. This is going to be a fantastic movie.

Katie

A Trip to Pennsylvania

Rebecca and I had a little retreat to Pennsylvania to visit my grand parents at their cabin. It's been a tradition since we were children. My mother would pack me and my sister into her truck and drive us all day and all night to the cabin. We'd stay all through the cool summer swimming in the creek and playing in the woods until my father would come up at the end of summer and bring us back home to Florida.

Since Rebecca and I have gotten older, we don't get to make it up as often. Rebecca had some vacation time and she decided she wanted to go to the cabin. I, being a freelancer and enjoying a certain flexibility with my schedule, agreed to drive us up. Our purpose in the trip was to simply get away. We got away from everyone and everything and just enjoyed the nice quiet cabin days with games of Canasta, swimming, hiking and lots and lots of good cooking and eating.

I told only a few people that I would be going and I'm sorry for all the Pennsylvania friends and family I neglected to visit. My purpose in going was to relax and have some quiet time to finish my book. Though I didn't quite finish, I'm now only a few chapters away. One day I took my camera out and snapped a few nature pictures. Of all the places I've been to in my travels, this one is my favorite.

Katie

CPR

We had special CPR and AED (Defibrillator) training. I did the training one day and went back to snap a few photos later. We had a firefighter come from Seattle to conduct this voluntary medical training. In the pictures are some of the shore excursions team in red, the front office staff are in white and the guy in black is our stage manager Jason. They published this picture in the Holland America Line company magazine.

Katie

Ushuaia, Argentina

I love Ushuaia, Argentina. I’ve been a couple times before, and it remains one of my favorite ports in South America. The countryside is cut with the jagged line of the Andes Mountains. There’s one spot where there’s a glacier hidden under snow at the top of the mountain. You can take a ski lift halfway up then hike the rest of the way. I had done the hike before, but the weather wasn’t as nice as it was this time. At first it was overcast and we even got some hail and sleet on the way up, but then in the span of two minutes the sky cleared and the sun smiled on us with a rainbow.

This time I went with Harrie the engineer. Some of the other engineers were supposed to go, but they chickened out at the last minute. It was probably for the best though, because Harrie is an avid hiker and we were able to keep up a pretty good pace and get up to the snow quickly. Harrie doesn’t like getting his picture taken, but he’s very photogenic and I was snapping away until he finally had enough. He kept saying we would moonwalk down, and I didn’t understand what he was talking about until he did it. I was thinking Michael Jackson. I finally saw what he meant when he came bounding down the mountain through the snow like an astronaut.

Katie

Ending the transatlantic crusing and the year

On this ship we have two satellite dishes. A little while ago one of the dishes lost power. The dishes are at the top of the ship inside giant domes. I’ve never had such a problem before and I’ve never done any work on a dish. My assistant, Noel, and I have been up a lot to do tests and take pictures to email back to the technicians who work on these things. One time we took some pictures of ourselves. The power loss is happening at a really difficult spot to get at. We need to replace a part that's in the middle of the pedestal so basically we would have to take the entire thing apart. I hope they send a techinican soon.

So that ends the transatlantic part of my contract. I’m so glad I only have to do that once, it was a tough part to get through. I’ve been in South America a few cruises now and I have so many great things to share. It’s New Years Eve and everyone is excited about the parties tonight. We are also getting to the first part of our cruising through Antarctica. Tonight the sun will set around 11pm and rise again around 2am. I should be seeing ice bergs before the year is out. Happy New Years from the bottom of the planet!

Katie