Back to work on a film adaptation!

Good morning everyone!  Once again I have been a deliquent blogger.....gack!  I have been very busy working on training my dog for film work, and in the mean time my husband and I are both going to be working on the film adaptation of "The 19th Wife" by David Ebershoff.  We will be shooting for a month sometime in June.  I have no idea who will be in it, but it is a movie for the Lifetime Network. 

 I am beyond excited to finally be working again, and even as I type these words I can hear my two children fighting over what to watch on TV (and since they are 3 and 10 it makes for very interesting and ear splitting arguing) it just makes me even more excited to be with grown-ups for awhile.  I won't be working with animals, I'll be doing my regular thing of 3rd Assistant Directing, which means I'll be co-ordinating the actors work day along with a bunch of other production stuff I have to do.  It has been a looong time since I have been able to work, and my parents have generously offered to move our girls into thier house for the duration of filming (except on weekends when they come home).

The book looks really good, and I may pick it up in the next day or so just to read it for my own interests as I love historical fiction.  And actually, I just found out it is Kindle ready, so I'll just buy it on that!  WOOT! 

The winners of my contest have all contacted me, and my grand prize winner managed to order 6 books with her 50 bucks!!!  Fantastic!

PILLARS OF THE EARTH MOVIE INSIDE PEAK COMING SOON!

Remember the special feature I told you all about?  Weeellllll, the friend/colleague of mine who was the first assistant director on the mini-series has agreed to do a vlog interview!!  WOOOOT!!! 

He and I will be scheduling that fairly soon.  I cannot WAIT to hear what he has to say! 

So, here is a little bit of background in case you are interested:

DEFINITION OF A 1ST A.D..:  He/she is responsible for scheduling the film in pre-production.  While filming the 1st AD runs the set, he/she makes sure that everything is being done ON TIME.   The safety of the cast and crew is the 1st A.D.'s responsibility.  So, when you see a battle scene or a difficult stunt, you better believe that the 1st AD has made sure that all of the safetly elements are in place before the camera rolls. 

While the director works with the actors when shooting, the 1st AD is his right hand man, he makes sure that all of the other elements of the scene are in place so when the director is ready to shoot everything is ready to go. (props, lighting, set dec, wardrobe, etc.).  He works closely with the Director Of Photography who is responsible for the look of the film, as in lighting.  The Director, 1st AD and DP work closely together throughout shooting, and on set they are often standing near eachother. 

Phil Chipera is the 1st AD on Pillars.  He spent 8 months shooting in Europe and has been an AD since 1996.  When we work together he is MY BOSS.  I am in his department.  There are 4 of us plus any PA's we may have.  There is him, his second AD, ME (the third AD) and our Trainee. 

Phil has done many many productions, feature films such as Passchendaele, and The Last Rites of Ransom Pride (which was shot here in Alberta and will be released soon and looks INCREDIBLE!). 

I am thrilled to offer you guys an inside look LOOONG before the release of the project and before anyone is really chatting about it! 

See this guy right here on the left with the blue and white shirt?  That's Phil on set of Pillars. 
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Phil and I will see you in the next week or two, so stay tuned!

CLICK HERE to visit the official site of the film.

REVIEW: THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE CLUB

The Christmas Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman

First I want to say a huge THANK YOU to Simon and Schuster Canada for sending me the ARC for this book! 

The opening line of this book is pretty good, I have to admit:

I am the head cookie bitch and this is my party.

And the premise for the book is also not bad.  Every year a group of twelve diverse women gather to exchange cookies that they bake along with the latest happenings in their lives.  As can be expected with this kind of story each woman has something unique to bring to the table like: one has adopted a baby internationally, one has a father who is having an affair with her bestfriend, the narrator, Marnie's daughter is in the last stages of a high-risk pregnancy, that sort of thing.

I enjoyed the recipes at the beginning of each chapter, and I have to admit to the craving of cookies throughout the entire book, but the predictable and wooden dialogue left me stale.  I think I have mentioned several times on my blog that I love how an author can give a distinctive voice to each character, and in fact I believe that is one of the many markers of good writing.  Unfortunately, to me, every single character sounded the same, despite the authors attempt to give some variation in the word choices or mannerisms in some of the characters. 

Although Pearlman gave each character an issue or life circumstance, I really had a hard time caring about any of these women, despite really wanting to. 

The Christmas Cookie Club is being made into a film to be seen on television.

RATING:  1/5