Lissette Blog

Rewriting

Neon Venus — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 23:25:02 +0000

I’ve been tighting up the screenplay, shortening the amount of pages and making sure I don’t have unnecessary repetition in it. It’s been quite the task at hand. I haven’t had much time for blogging because we have been marketing our filmmaking meetups, our art exhibitions, our First Fridays and the list goes on.
However, all the projects are going well and I’ve been networking with some really great filmmakers. It’s all good!

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Catwoman Outfit

Neon Venus — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 01:52:21 +0000

Choosing a catwoman outfit for our short has been quite hard!
Most Halloween outfits look cheap and costumy, which is great for trick or treating, but not so good for a short.
So we just ordered a custom fit outfit. Hopefully it will work!
We need a location to shoot this baby at!
The short is coming along slowly, but it’ll be done before summer!

Screenplay Writing Process is Going Great

Neon Venus — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 01:49:30 +0000

I’m actually really liking the way the screenplay is coming along. By the end of March it should be ready for the WGA. And by April, the screenplay should be ready for table readings!

Rewriting A Screenplay

Neon Venus — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 23:12:56 +0000

I’ve been spending a lot of time going over story structure for my screenplay (with the help of my screenwriting books) before I go back into doing another draft with Peter.

We’re also going to be reviewing all our materials and books regarding raising funds for production. After we’re done with writing, we’ll be budgeting and knocking on some doors for funding.

Meanwhile, we’re working on our short for Catwoman. Hopefully, we’ll finish 2-3 shorts before we’re ready to shoot our feature, so our muscles are in shape for a big production.

It’s a lot! Whew! But it’s all good. And of course, Neon Venus the band, will be scoring the film…

Getting close to finish a screenplay draft for a table read

Neon Venus — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 07:40:34 +0000

By Friday I will be done with the last draft I edit by myself.
In February, Peter and I will be editing a draft of ‘Zeroes’ together.
With any luck by April we’ll be casting roles and doing a table reading, so that we can get ready to make ‘Zeroes’ into a play and then into a feature film. I have been so focused in the writing that I have not worked on this blog.
This is actually good news, at least the work is getting done!

Anne Hathaway as Catwoman

Neon Venus — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 19:40:40 +0000

So we’ve been working on our little fun Catwoman short, and suddenly I read that the next Batman will include Catwoman.

I think that it’s a great idea to finish the Christopher Nolan series with Catwoman. How can you leave her character out? If they picked Anne, I’m sure it’s because her audition kicked some major butt.
Lots of luck to her.

In the meanwhile, I’ll try to have fun with creating a Catwoman character for myself. As an actor, I wanted to do something playful and mischievous for my first short.

Most actors would probably pick drama or comedy. But as always, I know how to complicate things a little. In the name of having a little fun though.

Meditations, writing my screenplay, working on the Catwoman short

Neon Venus — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:40:03 +0000

It has been such an awesome beautiful day. Since I’ve been consistently studying relationships books (about dealing with partners, family, friends, etc), my inner life has improved greatly. And I’m much more confident about making important life decisions depending mostly on my own council…which is delicious soul stuff For a few years I studied a lot about dealing with relationships externally and also learning about my career. But the switch to really look inside myself every day has brought me a lot of happiness. That’s because you start noticing certain areas that need to be addressed within your heart. It’s like having an inner ‘apartment’. If you don’t clean it on a daily basis, do occasional painting jobs, etc., one day you look at your ‘apartment’ and it could be, well, a bit of a mess.
But with daily work you can make your inner ‘apartment’ a fantastic place to be. You fix little holes, remove any weed among your roses, etc.
I also made great discoveries about myself today talking to a dear friend in Spain, Carmen.
She called me and I was thrilled to hear from my sweet dear friend, whom I met in Los Angeles a few years back.
We had a lot of good info to exchange about meditations actually, she is also cleaning her ‘apartment’.
Today though, for the most part, I had to do a lot of marketing for our business, but tonight I will be able to work a ton on my screenplay, do voice exercises, play the piano, etc.
And I’m sure that the fact that I’ll have a good 3 hours of non-stop work on my screenplay will take it far.
I also did meet today with a great make-up/costume artist about creating a look for our Catwoman scene. Doing that scene will be a challenge, but a welcomed one! Yes!

Successful film class

Neon Venus — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 03:13:16 +0000

Today Peter Valentino and I taught a class to about 26 film students. Everybody had great questions and they got to network with each other and learn the basics of filmmaking.
We covered lighting techniques, sound tricks, camera placement, camera angles, color temperature, lighting and grip equipment, etc.

I was glad that I was able to use my teacher’s book, Mick Hurbis-Cherrier’s: “Voice and Vision: A Creative Approach to Narrative Film and DV Production”. Mick Hurbis-Cherrier was my screenwriting teacher at the University of Michigan, where I studied Film and TV Production (Master in Telecommunication Arts).
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After the class was over, we saw potential clients for theatre rentals (for classes and events). And after that, Cynthia Llanes came by to hang up her paintings, and last but not least Christina came back to plan our upcoming art/rock rock scheduled for February 5th.
I’m completely exhausted and ready for dinner.
It was a great day.
Lissette

Co-Owner-Neon Venus Art Theatre/Lead Singer, Neon Venus
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Getting ready to teach a film class tomorrow

Neon Venus — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 02:28:05 +0000

Tomorrow Peter Valentino and I will teach a 2 hour film production seminar on blocking film scenes for actors, arranging lighting set ups, and directing actors in shorts. We will be teaching this class at our Melrose location, and I’ve spent my day organizing the class materials. I haven’t had much time to do anything else today except for my daily Facebook postings…

Organizing Photography and Videos

Neon Venus — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 02:13:02 +0000

I wanted to have more time to finish editing ‘El Momento Perfecto’ but this week has been more about cleaning and organizing my garage. I’m finding my artistic work that I have done throughout the years and placing it in organized files. Because in the past years we have traveled to NYC, LA and Vegas I’ve got most of my creative work in boxes. And because we have so much paperwork from our vacation homes as well, which creates a lot of ‘stuff’, I am taking as a daily project to get all my things meticulously in the place where they should be, all classified in detail. In other words I’ll be finding a precise way of organizing my digital videos and photos so I’m ready to produce much more work at a faster pace…