Measuring Matthew Film in NYC, May 31

The film version of Measuring Matthew made it into the New York Shorts Fest.  This will be my New York film debut!  It will be screened on May 31, in Program 8 at 7:30pm.  You can now buy tickets online here. The festival is at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema, 143 E. Houston Street.  The screening room only seats 100, so if you're going to go, buy your tickets early. I won't be able to be there, but my producer and director will.

If you're in New York next Thursday, I hope you'll check it out.  With any luck, this will be just the first of many festival appearances around the country.

Measuring Matthew film

Back in October, I was on set for a short film being made of one of my ten-minute plays, Measuring Matthew.  The film is directed by Boston filmmaker Gul Moonis and produced byJeanne Shapiro and Shemoon Films, with the intention of sending it various festivals and competitions around the country early next year.  So who knows, it might be coming to a theatre near you someday.  (And certainly will be available on the Internet.)

The whole thing happened purely by luck.  Gul stumbled across my web site and started reading some of my script samples (Sure am glad I finally added them).  Several caught her interest and we had lunch.  In no time, I was adapting Measuring Matthew for the screen.  The stage version is published by Brooklyn Publishers, and has been produced by small theatres and schools across the country.

When I showed up for my two days on set (they shot for five days total), I was brought back to my college days, when I was making lots of short films and was certain that I was destined for a career as a screenwriter.  (Hey, I did eventually get one optioned by Hollywood.)  Except this crew was a lot more experienced and a lot bigger than anything we ever put together.  There were twenty people on set working to turn this into a film worth watching.  I did my fair share of standing around watching people work, but I also got to act as security guard, stand in for corpse, sherpa, and grip.

Back in the day, we shot everything on actual film, either 8mm or 16mm.  Measuring Matthew will be in HD video, shot on a camera that looked like a regular old SLR camera, but was a lot more powerful.  We had a great cast, including actor Nael Nacer, with whom I've worked before and whose work on stage I've always admired.  The two lead actresses, Renee Donlon and Audrey Claire Johnson, are talented young women I think you'll see often in the Boston film scene.

I was reminded how much the process of producing a film differs from producing a stage play.  There's a lot more control over the final product of a film, but the process can sometimes be tedious for the people involved--there's so much waiting involved.  (I happen to love the initial writing process for films--they may be the most fun of all scripts to write.)  For theatre, half the fun is in the process, and sometimes the process of putting the play on stage is more fun and fully engaging for the people doing it than for the audience.  For me, I'm grateful that 2011 has had me working on books, stage plays, films, and radio plays. 

Now Measuring Matthew is being edited.  I can't wait to see how it all comes together.  I'll paste some photos from the shoot below.  And the film has its own Facebook page, where you can lots more photos and links to interviews with the cast and crew, and find updates on how it's coming along.  And the DP, Chris Portal, has a nice post with lots of photos, too.

Lots of people crammed into a small balcony, for a ledge scene six flights up.

 Inside a very nice apartment we borrowed, all for some very quick shots that might take up all of about 10-30 seconds on screen, by the time it's done.

This an exterior shot that goes with the balcony scene.  The character is out on a ledge, way up high, but the magic of movie editing allowed us to shoot part of it only a few feet off the ground.  This was my first day on set, with nice and warm weather.  We shot at this location again a few weeks later, and it was cold and damp.

And this is me on the final night of shooting.  Talk about super long day--we were on set by 7:30 am, and worked until midnight.  I was acting as a stand-in for a character who gets run over by a car, so I had to lie on the cold ground while they got the lighting right.  Ah, the glamorous life!  At least I got to wear a coat and gloves--the actor who was in the shot had to be on the ground just in plain street clothes.  He was tough.

That's about it.  I'll let you know when the actual film is ready to be seen.

See Measuring Matthew in the Meisner Slam Boston, March 15-17

My short (and very fun play) will be part of SlamBoston for the next three nights, March 15-17, at the Factory Theatre, 791 Tremont Street, produced by Another Country Productions.  The show starts at 7:30pm and will feature a variety of short plays--the audience gets to vote for their favorite (so come cheer on your playwright friends).  You can buy tickets here.  The Slams often sell out, so I definitely recommend buying a ticket ahead of time (even though you might have to get there by boat, if the waters keep rising).

(I'll be at the show tomorrow night, Tuesday.)

Best Ten-Minute Plays, 3 or More Actors

My copy of 2008: The Best Ten-Minute Plays 3 or More Actors (published by Smith & Kraus, edited by Lawrence Harbison) came in the mail today. My very own Measuring Matthew is one of the plays included in addition to plays by friends (including Kathleen Warnock and Mark Harvey Levine).

I've been in a bunch of these anthologies, but I never get tired of the book showing up on my doorstep and seeing my play inside. The concreteness of the book is immensely satisfying. I know they sell a good thousand copies or more, which is cool, and I imagine libraries carry it. It's pretty rare to get a request from a theatre for permission to produce a script in one of these anthologies, but I do get e-mails about the plays in them every once in a while. I assume that actors use the scripts in scene classes, for the most part. I'm glad that people are at least reading them, and that the book might still be on the shelves twenty years from now.

It's been a fairly discouraging week, in terms of the writing-business, so this book's arrival was perfectly timed. (The fact that I'm about 20,000 words into the first draft of my new middle-grade novel has also helped wipe away a lot of anxieties around publishing stuff right now--my mind is elsewhere).

Opening Night Tomorrow

Measuring Matthew opens in the Dragonfly Festival here in Boston tomorrow night at the Devanaughn Theatre. I've been to a couple rehearsals so far, and it's been going well. I'm looking forward to seeing the other plays, too.

Measuring Matthew, May 10-13, Boston, Devanaughn Theatre

Five Days of Rain

This is spring break week for the kids, but it feels like we haven't seen much of spring (well, my daughter has, because she's in Italy with her grandparents. Brat. I am so jealous.). We're on our fifth day of rain today, with more on tap for tomorrow. Yesterday, we went to the newly revamped Boston Children's Museum, as did half of the other children in Massachusetts. Wow. I'm not sure how to describe the energy level in that place, other than overwhelming, surely measured in megatons.

I do get a bit of a treat tomorrow night, with the first rehearsal of Measuring Matthew, for the Dragonfly Festival (May 10-13, in Boston). This is a play that's been produced successfully in other cities, but I've never had the chance to be involved in any of the productions or even see the show. First rehearsals, especially with unfamiliar actors, are a bit like going on a first date. I'll be both nervous and excited, and on my best behavior, trying to make a good impression (and I assume they'll do the same for me and for the director). The day before first rehearsal can sometimes be the moment of peak potential--everyone involved has the potential to have this be a transcendent experience--the actors will all understand their roles perfectly, the director will fully grok the piece, and the playwright will make the perfect tweaks to the script. It's definitely a time to savor, before the hard work and reality sets in (though sometimes the experience actually exceeds expectations).