"Vivienne Again" Wins Its First Award!


This past weekend "Vivienne Again" won a Kickstarter Jury Award at the 2012 Flyway Film Festival! It was an extraordinary  weekend of great films, events and people, all in beautiful Pepin, WI. We were thrilled to win this award and sincerely thank everyone who voted for our film. The award itself is as unique as this festival -- it's an 8"x8" "axe" head made from gray granite. I'm holding it in the photo above and it's heavy as hell. Which, as it turns out, is exactly how I like my awards. Thanks, Flyway!

October & November Screenings of "Vivienne Again"


VA_upcoming_screenings.jpg

The dates, times and locations are now set! "Vivienne Again" will be screening in October & November at the following film festivals:

FilmColumbia Festival (Chatham, NY)
October 19, 2012 - 3:00pm
Venue: Morris Memorial
BUY TICKETS

Flyway Film Festival (Pepin, WI)
October 19, 2012 – 10:30pm
Venue: Lake Pepin Art & Design Center Gallery
BUY TICKETS
*I will be in attendance at this screening.

Big Apple Film Festival (New York, NY)
November 17, 2012 – 1:15pm
Venue: Tribeca Cinemas (New York, NY)
BUY TICKETS (Tickets on sale 10/15)
*I will be in attendance at this screening.

"Vivienne Again" Making Its West Coast Premiere at HollyShorts!

I'm Hollywood-bound! Nope, this New Yorker isn't moving, but it is time for me to make the filmmakers' pilgrimage to Los Angeles. And this isn't just any trip or any screening, this will be my first time in LA... ever.

I was one of those kids who dreamed of being in film since I was a little girl, so thoughts of landing in LAX, five dollars in my pocket, and sleeping on the sofas of friends until I got on my feet wasn't ever too far from my mind.  I never thought it would take me this long to set foot on Hollywood soil.

But as they say, the best laid plans...

The obstacles life threw my way that keep me from pursuing a career in film until just these last few years are mostly in the rearview now. This is my chance and I'm taking it with all I've got.  The upside is, for my first trip to LA, I now have more than five dollars, I'll be staying in a nice hotel, and the day I land, I go straight away to screening my first film. Not bad for a kid from the old rough-and-tumble neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, NYC.

Here are the details of our screening:

AUGUST 14, 2012 at 9:00PM
GRAUMAN'S CHINESE THEATER, CHINESE 6
6925 HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD
HOLLYWOOD, CA 90028

Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite and be sure to buy tix for the 8/14 9pm Short Film Program: Action.

LA friends, I hope to see you there!

"Vivienne Again" is Going to Dragon*Con!

We're all excited about the latest news on "Vivienne Again." The film was just accepted into the Dragon*Con Film Festival and will be screening at the con in Atlanta, GA, over Labor Day weekend. The film festival schedule will be published soon, so please "Like" our film's Facebook page for the latest news on screenings and events.

I'll be attending Dragon*Con with our film's Executive Producer (who is also my hubby!) Matt Garland and we couldn't be more amped for four-days of geeky con goodness. This will definitely be an event where my updates will come mostly in picture-form because, trust me, that will be the best way to share this wild event with you all.

In addition to this great festival news, we just completed the trailer for the film. Thanks so much to Editor Justin Lachance and post-sound house Gift of Sound for crafting this 30-second goodie of a trailer for us. Check it out and let me know what you think in the Comments below!
 

Announcing My New Film: "Deal Travis In"

The time has come and I'm ready to make my next film! I'm writing and directing another short titled, "Deal Travis In."

While in pre-production on my last short, "Vivienne Again," I started thinking about telling more stories from this world where people resurrect from the dead. I was left curious about my own story, partly about the literal "what's next" at the end of "Vivienne Again," but over time my real question became how would resurrection affect other characters in this same world?

I decided to create three short films, all stand-alone and told in no chronological order, each offering a glimpse of the people learning to survive when death isn't necessarily the final chapter.

"Deal Travis In" is the second of these three shorts and is the origin story of one of the guys in gray - the bloodhounds - like those we first met in "Vivienne Again." Travis is a new character but through his story you'll learn who these men are and how they became ensnared in this world.

If you've seen "Vivienne Again" (or when you get the chance to) you'll see I open the film with an illustrated map of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood in Manhattan, the neighborhood where I grew up and where we shot the film. The film's title is plotted on the map as the location of where this story is set. "Deal Travis In" will also open with the neighborhood map, with its title plotted on it, and I'll do the same for the third film. In setting these stories in my home neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, I hope to add some of my own lore to this Manhattan neighborhood with a shady name and a shadier past.

These three shorts will in essence be my film school and the first body of work I'm putting out to an audience.  Please continue on this journey with me by letting me keep in touch and updating you on the progress and availability of this trilogy:

> Sign up for my email newsletter

> "Like" our pages on Facebook:
Official Kim Garland                    Deal Travis In (short film)
Vivienne Again (short film)        City Kid Films (our production company)

Thanks, and I'm looking forward to bringing you more stories from the supernatural!

"Vivienne Again" World Premiere in NYC!

"Vivienne Again," my directorial debut will have its world premiere at the inaugural NY Shorts Fest on May 29th! (yeah, that's a lot of firsts!)

Official Selection NY Shorts Fest 2012 Vivienne Again
Official Selection NY Shorts Fest 2012 Vivienne Again

I'm thrilled that our very New York film will have its premiere at home in New York. If you live locally, please join us!

MAY 29, 2012 at 7:30PM LANDMARK SUNSHINE CINEMA 143 EAST HOUSTON STREET, NY, NY

Tickets can be purchased through the NY Shorts Fest website and I will most certainly be in attendance. I hope to see you on the 29th!

"Vivienne Again": The End is the Beginning

"Vivienne Again," my first short film, is now officially complete! The film, that is, because the work to bring it to an audience is only beginning. I'm very pleased with how it turned out and I'm nervous and excited to see it in a theater with an audience. I'm steeling myself for them to laugh at places I didn't intend to be funny or get restless in moments where I thought I was building tension. Or maybe it'll just go over great. The only way for me to find out is to get out there and screen it. So that's what I'm gearing up to do.

Vivienne Again IMDbI learned a tremendous amount making this short, but many of the lessons are in hindsight and can only be applied to future projects. That's where the next film comes in. And the film after that. And the film after that.

Since this was my first short, there was always the chance I could get to the end and be glad I tried directing, but ultimately found it wasn't for me. I'm astounded by how completely sure I am that the opposite is true. I love adding the directing side to my writing, and how fulfilling it is to take the seed of a story and grow it all the way to a finished film.

I'm ready to turn right around and start again. I'm currently in rewrites on my next short film and hope to announce it soon (I just need to shore up a bit of casting first to be sure I can pull it off).

I'm so grateful to everyone who worked on this short with me and to all of those who gave feedback and encouragement along the way. There simply is no question that I could have done this without everyone of you. I hope the final film will make you proud to have joined in.

It's a wonderful feeling to have the end of a project be the beginning of a career and I look forward to seeing many of you at film festivals very soon!

Cheers to the Writers Who Pitched at Screenwriters World!

(excerpt from on my January 2012 email newsletter) Last month, I volunteered to help run the pitching sessions at the Screenwriters World Conference 2012 in NYC. This was my first pitching event, and if these events are new to you, too, then the following is basically how this one worked.

Over 100 screenwriters came to pitch their work to film & TV execs and talent managers hoping to get a request to send in their script to be read. Since most top production and management companies will only read your work if you are referred to them by a trusted source, a pitching event is a chance to bypass the usual rules and get your ideas directly to those who can help get them produced.

The screenwriters pitched their projects to the reps one after the other, trying to connect with as many reps as they could over a period of four hours. It was without question an endurance challenge for those pitching, for those hearing pitches and even for us volunteers trying to keep it all running smoothly. In the end, I heard stories of varying amounts of success from both sides of the table, but no one I spoke to said their day hadn't been well spent. Hail Mary passes were thrown that day and I hope some of them were caught and new careers were born.

Hats off to everyone who participated in the event, and as a volunteer, I learned a ton about pitching and it was definitely a cool way to spend a Saturday.

(addendum to the newsletter excerpt)

In a nutshell, what I learned about pitching: For those who are planning to pitch someday, the key seemed to be preparation, mostly to achieve a very concise and very clear pitch. More than any other concern, those hearing pitches struggled most with pitches where they couldn't detect the genre and were confused by story and character details. Keep the pitch short and very clear, focusing on your best hook or two, and then be prepared for follow up questions. A strong hook minus any confusing details seems to be a great way to start building your pitch.