Film Update: Here's How Production is Going For Our Indie Film
Week 1 Of Our Film is in the Books
It's official, our next feature film "The Sound of Southside" is underway and after a week of shooting 6-7 scenes a day, the word exhausted is an understatement. The only thing keeping my fingers typing this very article is an unbridled excitement of the project that we're creating. This indie film is a labor of love -- and it feels like the entire community is coming together to ensure that it goes well. 2022 has been all about telling this story. And as tiring as it is, it's super rewarding too.I started off the top of the year by writing a 75,000 word "The Sound of Southside" novel that is currently being pitched to publishing houses by Howland Literary. Immediately after typing "The End" on the novel, the focus became raising over $40,000 to create the film. Naturally with all that money at stake, there was some nerves coming in to making this project. But the actors, crew, location hosts and everyone in between have made everything feel so seamless -- and for that I'm thankful.
This past week, we started out shooting at The Broadway bar in Brooklyn and then took things back to Jamaica Queens to shoot at landmark locations like Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning and Jamaica Performing Arts Center. I've been fortunate to work with some returnees from my last film and we've also had powerhouse performances from veterans like Ron Brice, who you may know from Spike Lee's Clockers and other classic black films.We still have a long way to go -- we're planning a big performance scene on September 10th that is made possible through a grant from the Queens Council of the Arts and a sponsorship by A Better Jamaica, and we have scenes coming up at the legendary VP Records store and more. I guess I just wanna say, I feel like we're on the verge of something special here -- and if you're reading this -- just wanted to thank you for your support in this journey.We have some fantastic film photos of this production in the stash, but for now enjoy these quick iPhone photos of us in action. Stay tuned for more to come!
