SFAA: Hollywood Shoot, Part Two

Our Hollywood shoot is officially over. We had some great moments with our cast and crew. Here are some film stills from the last two days.

(Brad Warner, Bebe Zeva, and Travis McFarland)

In one of the scenes in the film, we have SAM reading at Skylight Books in Los Angeles. Two fans, AUDREY and JEFFREY meet him at the reading and they go hang out afterward. Here is a shot of our actors in the audience before the reading.

(Christi Columbo, Bebe Zeva, Travis McFarland, and Brad Warner)

After the reading, some other fans ask for autographs.


(Bebe Zeva, Travis McFarland, and Brad Warner)

Then the three main characters walk around what is supposed to be Florida and have random conversations about STAR FUCKING HIPSTERS and what foods they like to eat.
(OJ)

While at the park, they start throwing around an orange juice drink and it bursts after a bad throw from SAM.
(Bebe Zeva, Brad Warner, and Travis McFarland)

The threesome look down at the spilling orange juice. SAM offers to buy JEFFREY another.

(Drew Crighton, Ivan Cano, and Pirooz Kalayeh)

For our behind the scenes shots, we made use of the great acting pool in L.A. by asking random strangers to be in our film. Ivan Cano volunteered to help us, and provided some of the funniest scenes in the bookstore. I improvised with him about why he thought he was part of the fucked generation.

(Ivan Cano, Pirooz Kalayeh, Travis McFarland, and Bebe Zeva)

Then we all saluted his performance by doing a group hug and making our thumbs kiss.

(SFAA Cast, Noah Cicero and Jordan Castro in "The Body Slam")

In another behind the scenes shot, Noah body slammed Jordan. I was unsure about this, but Noah said, "Come on! It'll be funny." Then he did it. I laughed for a while.

(James Roehl)

In our last day of shooting in Hollywood, James Roehl had to play both actor and associate producer, asking one of his neighbors to stop power sawing long enough to get the goodbye scene at the end of the film.

(Bebe Zeva and Brad Warner)

I was afraid for how everything would look. Did we get the shot? Did I do well? I'm pleased to say that everything looks great thus far. Bebe, Travis, Brad, James, and Jen did a fantastic job. I couldn't ask for a better cast or crew. We are having fun, and hopefully that shows in the film as well. Onto Ohio and NYC in two weeks.

SFAA: Hollywood Shoot, Part One

(Drew Crighton and June during SFAA Hollywood Shoot, Cassavetes Cam)

Life has been busy. We are now officially shooting the Hollywood scenes for SHOPLIFTING FROM AMERICAN APPAREL. Things have been going well. Aside from the lack of sleep from working three jobs while simultaneously making a feature, I have absolutely zero complaints. Everyone is doing an excellent job, including chicken nuggets and Hollywood Boulevard.

(Jordan Castro and Noah Cicero)

Here are Jordan Castro and Noah Cicero putting chicken nuggets on James Dean's star on Hollywood Boulevard. Believe it or not, Jordan did not know who James Dean was. Noah and I were flabbergasted. Then we quizzed him on who he did know. Apparently, Jordan knows who Tom Cruise is, but he doesn't know the guy lead in Twilight's real name. We continued to school Jordan about Hollywood stars. We decided to stick with James Dean though. Marlon Brando's star was too scuffed up.

(Brad Warner, Pirooz Kalayeh, Jordan Castro, Noah Cicero, and tourists)

We weren't sure if we would get this shot in front of the Chinese Theater, but we did it without having any issues. In fact, we even got shots of the some of the cast putting their feet into the cement molds of C3PO, R2D2, and Darth Vader's feet. From behind, there was also an American Apparel store directly across from us. Very serendipitous.

(Brad Warner and Jennifer Bishop)

On our first day of shooting in Hollywood, Jennifer Bishop flew in from New York City to play the character of SHELLY. Jen really made everyone fall in love with her. Ahem, I mean her character. In all seriousness, these are some of my favorite scenes in the film thus far. Like the novella, we have SHELLY and SAM discuss what they would rather be, "a vacuum cleaner or suitcase?"

(Brad Warner, Pirooz Kalayeh, Jordan Castro, and Noah Cicero)

With my belly protruding with a lack of sleep and exercise, I managed to have one good shot in the film thus far - when I smile. Here we all are outside the Chinese Theater again. I believe this is when we discussed money, fame, and what Noah called, "The Society of Attention."

(Noah Cicero and Jordan Castro)

Noah Cicero and Jordan Castro put more chicken nuggets on James Dean's Hollywood star. People passing by asked: "Are you on drugs?"

I'll post some more pics from the Hollywood shoot tomorrow if I wake up. Also, if you haven't donated to the film, or would like a tee shirt, etc., please visit our IndieGoGo campaign.

A Little Help from Our Friends...

SHOPLIFTING FROM AMERICAN APPAREL is getting ready to be shot very shortly. Right now we’ve raised about 7K of the 10K we need. That means we still need help to get to our final goal on IndieGoGo. If you haven’t made a donation, viewed the updated trailer, or passed on the link to fellow indie film lovers, we need your help.

How can I help exactly?

Take a look at our trailer, order an advanced DVD or tee shirt, or share the following trailer link (here or directly below) on your Facebook page, Tumblr, etc. Any type of word of mouth from you will make a huge difference in bringing the film it into being.

Trailer Link: http://www.indiegogo.com/Shoplifting-from-American-Apparel-Movie

Someone said you might need actors in Hollywood? When will that be?

We might need extras and some speaking roles for a shoot on May 16th. We’re still working out details, but audition notices will be posted on the Sangha Films website and on the AMDA bulletin board.

What is the latest with THE HUMAN WAR?

We placed third in the Appalachia Film Festival. Right now Mark Parsia is currently putting the film through a second edit, and we will hit the film festival circuit in full force once we have a polished film.

Here is the trailer for THE HUMAN WAR.

You’ve gotten a lot of press for SHOPLIFTING?

That’s right. If you’d like to read the press the film has already generated, I’ve listed a bunch of interviews with various magazines that have already gone to print.

• Nth Word Interview by Ryan O’Conner


• Buzzlegoose Interview by Alexa Santoro
  


• Indiewire Feature
  


• Impose Magazine Interview by Josh Spilker


• Bark Mentions SFAA by Amaris Ketcham
  

Thank you to everyone for your help in spreading the word these last couple months. This film wouldn’t be possible without all of you who have helped thus far.

Best,

Pirooz

SFAA Movie Fundraiser Surpasses $6K in Donations!

The SHOPLIFTING (movie) fundraiser has now raised $6K in a week. That's incredible! We still have a ways to go though. We want to raise at least 20K to make the film in Los Angeles in June. If you want to get a tee shirt, the DVD, or other great merchandise, please visit and share the link below to make a donation and pass the word.

LINK: http://www.indiegogo.com/Shoplifting-from-American-Apparel-Movie

SFAA Now on IndieGoGo!

We have switched our fundraiser from Kickstarter to IndieGoGo. We have a new featurette up, and have included a tee shirt with any $20 donation and above. For those of you that need to re-donate, please be aware that any who donate again will receive a free additional tee shirt for donations over $20.

SFAA Trailer Shoot

(All photos by Geoffrey Hauschild)

We first shot in Akron for the Brad Warner documentary. Noah Cicero and Jordan Castro met up for the Zero Defex show. I showed them a rough trailer for THE HUMAN WAR.

Randy Blythe from LAMB OF GOD came out to support ZERO DEFEX during the show. He even got up to sing a few songs.

After shooting in Akron, we went to Solon, Ohio to begin filming a trailer for SHOPLIFTING FROM AMERICAN APPAREL (SFAA). Here is a shot of Andrew Crighton and TJ Hellmuth inspecting a camera before shooting one of the opening scenes for the trailer.

James Roehl and Brad Warner contemplate the screen as we shoot one of the first scenes in SFAA.

Noah Cicero lays out his lines on the table in front of him to help him get through the scene.

After several days of shooting, we began to watch dailies at night. As you can see, we were all pretty exhausted. I don't even think Jordan is awake in these pictures.

Andrew Crighton (Director of Photography) adjusts lighting for a scene in SFAA.

James Roehl and Andrew Crighton during an opening scene in SFAA. James found a ukulele lying around.

(More pics in the coming days. We'll have the trailer up on Kickstarter for donations by March 1, 2011.)

SHOPLIFTING TRAILER in February!

Dear Friends, Crew Members, Investors, and Actors,

We are making progress towards filming SHOPLIFTING FROM AMERICAN APPAREL.

Brian Lee (animator) is working on the powerpoint and making all our skins to avoid copyright issues for anything shot in-screen for SFAA. Drew will be shooting a test to make sure we get no flash lines for the opening scene on camera.

Jeffrey Brown (cartoonist) has sent the uncolored poster for SFAA. It's pretty fabulous. He has also volunteered to send original drawings of the trees and porno images to auction and help us raise funds, etc.

Steven Andrew has gotten up the new refurbished Sangha Films website (see below).

LINK: http://www.sanghafilms.com

Things are going really well.

If we all keep plowing forward, and make a solid push at this virtual fundraising campaign, we will have a full-fledged movie on our hands come June.

Here is a rough schedule of what will be happening in February:

2/9 - Shoot Brad talking about his life in Akron and film the rock show at THE MATINEE with Zero Defex for BRAD WARNER: THE ENLIGHTENIZER.

2/10 - Shoot opening scene (YouTubeClip) and LOTR debate scene at Jordon's house in Solon. Afterwards in the late evening, we can film some improvs dealing with the "fundraising" portion of our extended trailer.

2/11 - Shoot gmail chat sequences with Brad at Jordan's house or a house in Youngstown that could pass as a NYC apartment.

2/12 - Shoot James in gmail chat sequence at Noah's house, and then shoot Noah doing a Q&A outside; possibly shoot at abandoned factory.

Chat with more details soon,

Pirooz