THE J.H. GUNN PROJECT JOURNAL ENTRY #106

I'm back this time and I'm wide awake so I can give a real update on what's going on. So in 7 days I will be on set of my first short film. How exciting right? Well I'm excited but mostly worried about making sure that everything goes smoothly. This past two weeks has been filled with mostly searching for the right crew members to make me look good. PA's, DP's, AD's, Grips, Gaffers, Sound Mixers, etc. All these people and I have to pick the right one. So the pressure is definitely on to make the right decision and to make it fast since our shoot day is quickly creeping up on us. My Producer and I have been playing a daily game of tag team to get things done and to keep them in order which is definitely a challenge. However, if everything on the set runs smoothly, all of this chaos and disorder will definitely be worth it.

Oh something interesting that I did two weekends ago was to star in my Producer's student film that she had to produce for school. I figured it would be a great way for us to see how we vibe on set and it would give me further insight into the whole acting process so that I would be able to relate to my actors a lot better while directing them in my film. I'm totally glad I did this little exercise because it definitely showed me how much of a challenge it is to act a certain way when you are not necessarily in that mindset. Acting is hard work and doing this film really made me appreciate what actors do and the hard work and dedication that they put into their craft.

As far as the crewin up detail, I hired an Assistant Director today which is going to hopefully take some of the load off of my shoulders. We found some really great sound guys who have worked on a lot of much bigger projects but like our project enough to work on it, so that's definitely a blessing. I think once I have everyone hired I'm going to finally be able to take a breather and really focus on what I'm going to say to my actors this Thursday at rehearsals and on set next week. I really am looking forward to working with all of these very different people who all saw something in this little ole project that came from a corner of my brain. It's all very surreal but I am definitely looking forward to delving into this journey with them.

To all of my folks out there who want to help out in other ways, please consider donating what you can since we're still struggling to make this happen with a very minimal budget. The more donations we get, the more things we can get to make this film reach it's full potential by looking as best as possible.

I'm going to try to do one last post on here after rehearsals on Thursday which will probably be my last post until after we shoot. Keep your fingers crossed. And again, the donation button is to the right :-).

Shequeta

THE J.H. GUNN PROJECT JOURNAL ENTRY #105

OOoooh it's been a loong time and a lot has happened since the last time I blogged. I'm gonna try to keep it within a few paragraphs so you don't hurt your eyes reading..lol. So I finally think I'm hitting my stride. You know how sometimes you feel like you're completely lost and then something happens and God reminds you that you're right where you're supposed to be? Well that's what's been happening for the past few weeks with me and this film.

So after weeks of praying to find the right student producer, I had a friend at USC (thanks Codie) send out my ad and I got two responses from two young ladies. I sent both of them the script and two days later I met with one of them. About halfway through our meeting, we both discover that her first cousin is one of my many Godmothers back in NC and that she used to spend summers in my tiny hometown of Salisbury or Spencer and East Spencer to be exact. Even more ironic is the fact that my Godmother/her cousin had just mentioned me to her in July and told her I was working on a project. So we were definitely supposed to meet and so far things are great. She really knows her stuff and has been a BIG help in pulling stuff together.

Last week, we did three sets of auditions. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was a lotta fun and a lotta hard work at the same time. I definitely have a new respect for casting directors and for actors. We saw some really talented folks that left me wishing I could have just picked them all and fit them in somewhere but unfortunately that's not how this business works. Not only do you have to find talented actors, you have to find folks that might be able to look AND act like the characters they're auditioning for. So that made the selection process quite tedious but I'm certain we've made the right decision.

Okay I must end here...my eyes are heavy with sleepy...Check out the rest later and check out my other blog in the meantime http://www.theblackhollywoodfiles.com/