Dorian Production Photos

So I don't start filming my scenes until the 13th of October but I wanted to help out with the film so yesterday I got to boom for the opening scene. It was fun except for the fact that my arms are now killing me from holding that stupid mic all day. Plus between that, rollerblading right after, and getting pushed through the window by Jackie I now have 12 bruises. It's a hard life. Anyways, here are some photos I took between shots. We filmed it in the gardens at Thanksgiving Point.

Picture of Dorian Gray

Well Dad and Maddie know all about this film since I made them watch it during my recent visit, but few people know just how much I love this awesome film! But that's beside the point. The point of this post is to announce that the choreographer from the play I was in last summer is directing an independent version of "Picture of Dorian Gray" and asked if I would be Sybil Vane. So basically I'm ecstatic. I love this movie and I love the part of Sybil. The director from the same play from last summer is also in this film and I get to play some scenes with her so that's wonderful. This adaptation of Dorian is a dance drama. So it's kind of like a Victorian version of Chicago. The real world is the real world and the things that happen in Dorian's mind are dances. I only have one dance in the show but that's good because I'm a horrid dancer. Last night was my first rehearsal of the dance I do with Dorian. In the story Dorian is influenced by his less than upstanding friend to ask his sweetheart Sybil Vane to spend the night with him. While Dorian isn't so sure it's a good idea he agrees to do it. So Sybil (me) goes over to Dorian's house and when he asks me to spend the night that's when we have our little seduction dance. It shows the reluctance on both of our parts as well as Dorian's desires and my wish to not lose him. It's a wonderful dance and I really love the entire depiction of the scene. Kevin is such a great director to work with and Taylor (Dorian) is a gem. I didn't feel at all stupid trying to learn the dance or speak with a british accent because he was just so nice about it. We aren't scheduled to start shooting my scenes until October 13th, but after that I should be all wrapped up by the end of October. I know Kevin (the director) is planning on submitting it to some festivals but I'm not sure which ones. Either way I will definitely let you guys know what's going on and I'll try to take some pictures on the 13th. Wish me luck with my horrible British accent! Oh and here's the link for the movie website... keep in mind that Dorian doesn't look nearly as young now as he did when he took the picture so I don't look like I'm being seduced by someone half my age.


Doriangraydancedrama.com

The Fall

So my roommate Jackie and I happen to be quite obsessed with the TV show "Pushing Daisies", which, incidentally means I happen to be very obsessed with Lee Pace (the quirky, cute pie maker). So with my carefully trained eye and my Lee radar on I happened to spot him on an ad for a newly released movie... he was only on the ad for a split second so naturally Jackie and I had to check it out. So we found out some information and after deciding from the pictures that it may just be the most beautifully designed film ever we bought it. We just finished watching it tonight... it's about 3:30am at present... and I must say that it was the most stunning movie I've ever seen. The little girl is most definitely the best actress her age and of course Lee was absolutely amazing. Everyone really should check this film out. It's mostly practical effects. Even the things that look like and (money wise) probably should be computer effects are practical effects. It was shot in 18 different countries over a 4 year period. So much work went into it and it completely paid off. It's stunning, beautiful, and breathtaking.

Generation Dead

Well I went to Barnes and Nobel with my mom a few days ago because she wanted to read "Pretties" by Scott Westerfeld and couldn't wait for me to get my copy back from my friend. While we were there I decided to look for "Sovay" by Celia Rees even though I'm not quite sure it's out yet. Oddly enough I couldn't find any books by her so my mom suggested we look in the "New for Teens" section. So we walked over there, unassumingly, without a care in the world. The shelves are filled with Libba Bray and Stephanie Meyer books, nothing out of the ordinary, until a highly made up teenage cheerleader catches my eye. I look at the book cover, mildly intrigued and read that the book is titled "Generation Dead". Suddenly a thought strikes me that goes a little something like this: 'Huh... Generation dead. Well that sounds like it could be a bit like the book I'm writing right now where this girl dies in a plane crash then wakes up at her funeral... wow... I sure hope it's not similar since I thought that was a really good idea... and there's also that little fact that this book is already published and mine is only half way written....." So the panic builds within me and I decide the only way to settle my nerves is to read the inside cover to see what it's about. The inside cover said something to the effect that the book was about teenagers dying all over and mysteriously coming back to life though no one understands why........ Yep. There it is. My future writing career destroyed... alright so that's being a bit melodramatic but needless to say I'm not very happy with whoever wrote the book... it was a very "Secret Window" moment for me... though of course they've been published so in all honesty they should be the ones mad that I had the same idea. So. My solution? Don't read their book until after I've written and hopefully published mine. Then at least I can plead ignorance. And keep the e-mail I sent to myself with the first half of the book so that I have a date to prove when I started writing it... not that I think there will be any problems... lots of people have similar stories.... but still, it's quite upsetting. Either way, I'm still going to push through and finish mine happily downing huge cups of water and eating my weight in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as I do so.

Until next time,
Shannen

Book Update

Alright well I've sent my manuscript off to DAW publishing. I enclosed a stamped postcard so they can at least tell me when they've received it. So far no news back but I could have a good three months before they get to it... which is slightly discouraging, but I'll just use that time to look for other publishers to send it to. DAW has this weird rule that if you send your manuscript to them then you can't send it to anyone else so I have to wait for a bit before I can send it off to any other publishers. Anyway, I've already plotted out the second book in the series, which looks like it will be much longer than the first (the first came to a grand total of 240 pages by the way) so I can't wait to start writing that one. I am, however, a bit engulfed in another project that I just happened to come up with in the airport in California on my way back to Utah from dad's house... and most everyone in my life will be in this book but with different names... that's right Maddie, you make your big entrance within the first five pages :) So I think I have to get this story out of my system before I can go back to the second book in Robin's series. So there you have it. My overactive imagination will forever be running my life. Wish me luck with that! The end.

Here's a picture of a book cover I made just for fun. The actual photo isn't mine, I just put the text over it :) I thought it went nicely with the story.

My Book!

Well it's official. I've finished writing my first novel. It took me forever, which is sad since most writers can whip out three books a year (or more) and this one took me about seven years. In my defense, I hadn't been working on it seriously until last month. The funny thing is it took me 7 years to finish the first half and one month to finish the second half... that shows you what a little dedication will do. So I've gone through the whole thing and edited (the first half needed some major reworking since I wrote some of that back in my freshman year of high school) and now my mom is editing it again. She's up to page 70 so not too far to go. I know of a publishing company that is accepting manuscripts from new authors and their main focus is young adult fiction (which just happens to be what my book is). So I'm pretty excited to send it to them... though they did say it could take 3 months to even get to the point where they read it but I'm not too concerned. I've waited 7 years I can wait a few more months. I know it's really hard to get published so I don't expect too much, but there is this binding company down in Lindon so if all else fails I can at least get my book in book form. Either way, I'm very excited and if it ever does get published I hope everyone will go get a copy :)
~Shannen

Festival of Colors and movie making

As of late I've been busy with my major. So far I've made a 20 minute documentary, a 2 minute music video, and a 3 minute short narrative. It's been a blast but very very VERY busy. Anyways, for my final project in my 185 class we had to make a short film based on a script we didn't write. So I, naturally made one about very serious subject matter... aliens :) It's a very cheesey B movie type of thing but I had tons of fun making it and once I figure out how to convert the video file I'll post it.

My Lovely cast and I

Can you tell I've been inspired by Sweeney Todd?


Also, a few days ago I went to the festival of Colors at the Indian temple in spanish fork. It was very fun! Everyone throws chalk dust at each other... it's wonderful... though it's difficult to breathe... or see... or live after that but after you've coughed up all the chalk dust you can look back and enjoy the expirience.
After the festivalA picture someone took at the festivalPretty messy stuff


Lastly, I went to Wal Mart last night at midnight to buy Sweeney Todd on dvd the second it came out. We can thank my natural love of Tim Burton and Maggie's influence for this new found obsession!

Until next time :)