Nicole Pacent & Shannan Leigh Reeve, IHTF Episode #3

AfterEllen.com, the largest resource we can think of for lesbian entertainment news, said:

…more authentic lesbian relationship development than Grey’s Anatomy, Glee and Pretty Little Liars combined have done so far this season…

AND

…there is something singularly satisfying about watching a love story written specifically for a lesbian audience. My goodness, how it resonates. (Check out the full AfterEllen review.)

SoSoGay, a fast-growing UK LGBT online mag, said:

Lesbians, hold onto your hearts. I Hate Tommy Finch, developed and produced by Christin Mell, written by Julie Keck and Jessica King, will have you laughing and tearing up in equal measure. (Check out the full SoSoGay review.)

We’ll take that. We worked hard to make this web series successful, and we’re excited that it’s striking a cord with our core audience.

We wrote I Hate Tommy Finch based on an idea by Christin Mell of tello films. Jess co-directed the play version of the story (which was performed live in Chicago in October of 2011) with Mell as well as the web series, which was filmed at the same time. It stars Nicole Pacent (Anyone But Me) and Shannan Leigh Reeves (tello’s Cowgirl Up.)

Want to know more?

• IHTF trailer & extended sneak peek
• Current episodes are up in tello.com’s Premium Content section. The 5th & final episode will premiere on Valentine’s Day (2/14).
• And yes – we ARE already working on our next web series for tello…

We Won Something!

This was our second year attending the filmmaker-focused, no-submission Flyway Film Festival in Pepin, Wisconsin. It’s no secret that we’re big fans of this intimate, vibrant regional film festival, and not just because there are many pie eating opportunities in the Pepin area. Last year we were proud to present our short film Libidoland and the teaser trailer for an indie feature we wrote called TILT; this year we contributed a silly short for Flyway’s opening night (see DIY Film Fest below) and screening our feature documentary with 5414 Productions, A Second Knock at the Door.

Imagine our surprise when we were presented the Flyway Spirit Award on opening night (by last year’s winner Gary King, no less). They say the award is for filmmakers who support and promote other filmmakers. We are proud to fit the bill and honored to be amongst such creative and hardworking people. Also, the actual trophy is a 10lb slab of marble shaped like an axe head, so…that’s pretty cool.

New Collaborators in 2011:

• 5414 Productions – In 2011 Chris and Leigh Grimes and Travis Edwards of 5414 Productions welcomed us into the fold and gave us the opportunity to further hone our social media savvy and exercise our intellectual side. They brought us in in early 2011 to help complete A Second Knock at the Door, a documentary on friendly fire which has done really well on the film festival circuit (7 fests, 2 Top Doc awards, 2 Runner Up awards) and will be available for all to see early in 2012. Details coming soon.

• tello films – Christin Mell of tello.films ushered us into the world of the webseries, which we had no idea could be so much fun. Our first web series, I Hate Tommy Finch, starring Nicole Pacent and Shannan Leigh Reeve, was originally performed here in Chicago as a live play (we sold out the house 2 out of 3 nights!) and will premiere as an episodic web series in late January.  Get ready to have your socks knocked off, folks. In these last weeks of the new year, we’re nearing completion of a second tello/kfink webseries, which should premiere in early summer.

New films:

Since so much of our creative time is spent in a cave writing (side by side, coffee IVs firmly in place), we also like to come up for air to make fast, silly short films. These finky (and sometimes kinky) cuties are our way to test new types of jokes and humor and a way to stay visible so that you remember what our work (and our faces) look like during hibernation season.

2011 was the year of:

• Mixin’ Vixins Prom edition:

Click here to view the embedded video.

• DIY Physics (in which we terrorized our friend Kelly by killing (or not) her cat):

Click here to view the embedded video.

• DIY BigTime (our pitch to Sir Richard Branson in which we boldly launched our intern, Finklet, into outer space):

Click here to view the embedded video.

• DIY Film Fest (our love letter to the hard working film festival directors in our lives):

Click here to view the embedded video.

• This year, we added another Kinky Cutie to our repertoire: more news about Tooshie Smooshie coming soon.

So, what’s in store for us in 2012?

• SHOPPING…no, not for new clothes. We’re trying to find the right home for our quirky stoner anti-rom-com Holy Tokes, based on the naughty memoir by Kevin Keck (Nerve.com). Yes, dear producers and directors, we would love for you to read it. Just ask.
• COOKING…nope. Not food. We’re cooking up several new webseries for tello.films, as well as stirring up some new documentary projects for 5414 Productions (including one we’ll start shooting in Austin, TX, in January!)
• SKIING…um, yeah, no. We’re Sundance-bound to see what the hubbub is all about. Have any tips for newbies? Are you going to be there? Gives us a holler!
• PANEL HOPPING…that sounds hot. We’ll be at SXSW with Cinekink director Lisa Vandever. Come see us talk about sex in indie film!
• AND….after we take a nap…we’ll continue working on some super-secret new indie feature collaborations with new and exciting partners.  Yes…we DO like to surprise you once in a while.

What will YOU be doing in the New Year? Tell us all about it in the comments section!

Those who have seen our first two Kinky Cuties, LIBIDOLAND (2009) and WIGGLE ROOM (2010), will recognize our unique take on sexy situations. Those who haven’t, well…hopefully you’ll just enjoy the ride.

Singer Sami, Director Jess & Music Director Kathy seem excited (the dude in the back, not so much)

Singer Shannon Nicole looks confident, but now Jess & Actress Shannan Leigh seem a bit on edge...

Don't even talk to Director Christin right now. She might throw up on you.

The road to IHTF has included:

• Fall of 2010: our introduction to tellofilms by a beloved TILT backer (@geologylady)
• Spring /Summer of 2011: a live tello/kfink game show (Who Knows Her Better?)
• Summer 2011: Julie’s kooky interviews with the stars and musicians of IHTF (teaser)
• Summer 2011 to Present: Professional recording sessions for the IHTF soundtrack in a studio housing a soundboard used by Prince (yes, THAT Prince) to mix the Purple Rain soundtrack
• Summer 2011 to Present: Skype rehearsals with Chi-town directors Jess (of Kfink) & Christin (of tello) and LA-actresses Nicole Pacent & Shannan Leigh Reeve. (Last one tonight – Fri, 10/7!!)
• Still going on: LOTS of laughing, eating, and dancing, often at the same time.

If you’re near Chicago next weekend, come see the show! Tickets are $25 at the door, but you can save $5 by ordering in advance online.

Wanna save even more? Enter code “IHTF” for Fri or Sunday tickets and received ANOTHER $5 off!

Not able to come to the live shows in Chicago? Let us know where you live, and we’ll see if we can bring the show to a venue near you. And don’t forget…there’s an IHTF web series on tap for this winter…

What is I Hate Tommy Finch?

I Hate Tommy Finch is an unique project that aims to bridge the gap between live performance and new media distribution.  First I Hate Tommy Finch will be performed in front of a live audience in Chicago from October 14-16.  During that time, the play will also be filmed and later released as a web-series on tellofilms.com.

What’s It About?

I Hate Tommy Finch follows Alyssa (played by Shannan Leigh Reeve) and Stephanie (played by Nicole Pacent) throughout a 20-year friendship that includes growing up, coming out, and getting together…not necessarily in that order.

Are We the World?

How Is King is a Fink Involved?

We wrote the play based on an idea by Christin Mell of tello films, and Jess is co-directing with Mell. This involves Skype rehearsals with the LA-based actresses and many hot, Euro-style Americanos with splashes of soy. Don’t ask.

Anything Else I Should Know?

Why yes, I’m so glad you asked.  We are collaborating with some incredibly talented people on this project. In addition to the web-series/play, there is also an original soundtrack in the works performed by the extremely talented Sami Grisafe and Shannan Nicole and directed my the highly organized and incredibly creative Kathy Kuras. (If we suddenly skyrocket to stardom as a boy band in 2012, Kathy Kuras will be the reason behind it.) As a matter of fact, Julie clapped along on one of the tracks and will now be eligible for a Grammy, should things, of course, go our way, and this play/album/web-series/thing-a-mah-jig takes off the way we hope it will.  Julie has already put up a shelf for her Grammy.

Is There A Real Tommy Finch?

The character of Tommy Finch just represents all of the kids in grade school who pulled our pigtails and stole our joy, but we have no beef with anyone (dead or alive) named Thomas Finch. In fact, if you know a Tommy Finch, bring him along. We’ll let him in for free with a valid ID. We promise to show him a good time.

How Do I Get In On the IHTF Fun?

Catch up on the IHTF hijinks here, and then buy your tickets for the Chicago shows. Hopefully we’ll be coming to other big cities (we’re looking at you, LA & NYC), but the first time is always the best.

A SECOND KNOCK team w/ David Sharrett

‘Friendly fire’ is defined as “the discharge of a weapon which results in death or injury among fellow soldiers or allies.” It’s accepted as an unavoidable consequence by most in military circles but can lead to great heartbreak for families of the fallen, especially when the truth about their loved ones’ deaths is obscured by the very institutions their sons/daughters/fathers/mothers/husbands/wives gave their lives for.

A SECOND KNOCK follows several families as they search for truth, understanding, and closure. The experiences of one of the families featured in the documentary, the Sharretts of Virginia, are currently being chronicled in a series of posts in The Washington Post.

Jess & Chris pounding out the voiceover script for ASKATD

Learn more about our road to A SECOND KNOCK, our collaboration with Chris, and what we expect from Vegas in this audio interview we did with Patty Fantasia of Filmmaker’s Notebook. Chris’ interview with Patty will be up soon.

If you’re within driving distance of Vegas, we hope to see you on the 26th. The three-dollar steak dinners are on us; Celine Dion tickets and ones for lap dances are on YOU!

Expatriates have always intrigued me.  In college, I was obsessed with writers like Gertrude Stein and James Baldwin who, for not altogether different reasons, left the U.S. to live abroad in Paris.  I had a brief taste of this life myself when I spent a year in China after graduating college.

Being immersed in a foreign culture is both shocking and illuminating, as you constantly run up against your own cultural barriers and socio-centric thinking while simultaneously learning about and exposing the idiosyncrasies of the culture you’re a guest in.

In addition to embracing new ways of doing things (Ex. “When it’s hot, sharing a bowl of steaming soup with your friends is better than eating a triple decker ice cream cone.”), the best thing about living abroad is the break-down of social barriers that allows you to get to know people in an entirely new way.

The sorts of conversations that are taboo in America were small talk in China: “What’s your nationality?” (They didn’t assume that white + speaking English = American.)  “Can I touch your hair?” (Some of the younger Chinese students, as well as strangers on the street and on the bus, had never seen hair as curly or as blonde as mine.) “Why do you dress like a boy?” (I was there just after college and in a major David Byrne oversized jacket phase.) “I hear America is like heaven: what’s it like to live in paradise?” (I had no idea how to answer this question: I’d just run away from all post-college decision-making by signing up to teach English in a far off land.)

When people in China found out I was from America, they wanted to know more: what was my family like? What did I eat there? Did I like China better than home? These are questions you rarely hear people ask each other in the US, not even between people who are obviously from different cultures – perhaps especially not between people who are obviously from different cultures. We’re taught to be color-blind, race-blind, nationality blind, but this doesn’t result in equality for all – it simply results in people being too scared to ask one another about one another.

Conversations regarding ethnicity and culture are at the center of the new (and very funny) film KINKS, directed by German expat Juliane Block and Virginia Kennedy. KINKS is a mockumentary about two estranged sisters, one light, one dark, who are reunited when Jay, played by the hilariously taut Ms. Block, comes to Malaysia to film her American reality TV program in which Malaysian girls compete to marry an American man for a green card. I was lucky enough to see a preview of the movie last fall and was very tickled by it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now that the film is almost ready for release, Juliane and Virginia’s team is trying an interesting strategy to build audience involvement and engagement: the Kinks Reality TV contest.  The gist of the contest is that people make fake videos designed to make themselves an appealing candidate to marry a foreigner. The prize: $500.

Months ago Juliane encouraged us to make a video for this contest. Our first reaction: “Of course! We love making funny videos.”  And then we took pause.

In many ways the Kinks Reality TV contest is right up our alley.  We love pushing boundaries and walking, straddling, and sticking our tongues out at the line between what is appropriate and inappropriate.  While we love pushing up against the boundaries of sex and gender expectations, pushing against racial and ethnic stereotypes is something we don’t feel qualified for or comfortable doing.

And yet the project stuck in our brains. Here are the questions that emerged up for us, questions we’d love to get feedback from YOU on:

• How does something like this fit into the current climate in the U.S. (or the country YOU live in)?
• How does this fit into what indie filmmakers are currently doing to garner interest in their movies?
• Who, in the U.S. (or the country you live in), is the audience for this type of humor?

Let us know if YOU enter the contest! And good luck to Juliane and Virginia, from whom we expect a full report on how this contest helped them build an audience!

And so this summer we’ve devoted ourselves to thinking big.  What kind of big?  Think “conquering the space-time continuum” big.  Think “breaking the sound-barrier” big.  We’re shooting for the moon, and that’s no joke. Welcome to DIY Big Time.

P.S. If you know Richard Branson, be a love, and tell him to give us a call.

John not only asked us what we’re working on, but what animals we want to be and if we believe in aliens. Not the normal interview fare. Count us in!

"It all started when I was 5..." Jess w/ her dad

Check out what John got us to spill as well as the other filmmakers he’s tricked into sharing their secrets (we’re looking at YOU, MJ Slide, Sid Kali, and Orly Ravid).

We were also interviewed in Script Mag this week by writer Jeanne Veillette Bowerman for her BALLS OF STEEL column. Color us flattered!

Jeanne w/ Jess & Pericles Lewnes in NYC

The only things Jeanne DIDN’T reveal in the article were what we ate for breakfast this morning and what color underwear we’re waiting…oh, wait…that’s probably in there, too.

Keep up with what Jeanne’s doing on Facebook, follow her on Twitter, and, if you’re a screenwriter, check out her twitterific online writing community, #scriptchat.