We are LIVE - LIVE - it's ALIVE!!!

Lunar Wolf Productions is proud to present...

www.LunarWolfProductions.com

Our very own cyber-home! Horrah.

Check it out :)

Miri
from Lunar Wolf Productions
"We make films!"

A sad time for our industry

As the sadness of the news of Heath Ledgers death swept through the world a few weeks ago, I posted a comment on the SMH newspaper expressing my sadness that such a talented young man and father's life had ended so abruptly. I was surprised myself at how moved I was by the response - heartfelt and honest - that was outpouring from people all over the world.
What a talented and courageous actor to have touched so many.
My thoughts are with his grieving friends and family.

Here was my comment as posted on a forum of smh.com.au in response to the sad news.
You can read other's comment here:
http://blogs.smh.com.au/newsblog/archives/your_say/017048.html?page=fullpage#comments

Such a young & promising life. A tragedy.
I am a filmmaker and I think Broke Back Mountain was an incredible film.

Heath was an incredible actor who was really taking control of his career as an actor and taking on some intelligent and challenging roles. Including the recent "Joker", Bob Dylan in "I'm no there", among others. My thoughts are with his friends and family.

I ask the press to give his family and friends the breathing space they deserve to
express their grief.

It's brought me to thinking that in today's film industry - where we are chomping production times harder and harder to get films through shooting & demanding more and more of our cast & crew - we should reflect on the health of the professionals who are working in this high-stress environment - especially the actors - who have to not only work in those conditions - but also inhabit the emotional world that we are creating.

How can we take better care of each other? How can we look out for our friends & respected fellow industry professionals? As an actor and film maker what practises can I take on to promote mental and physical longevity and foster a strong network of friends and family who can be a grounding influence for the work.

I would also like to take a moment to say I admire those in the film & theatre industry. I have many incredible friends & collegues, and I would like to acknowledge you all for what you are taking on and creating in your life.

Thank you for being a part of mine.

Take care,

Love & Inspiration

Miri

Please feel free to share with me by commenting on this blog as to how we can
look after our friends and family members who are both in the industry and
experiencing such pressures and for those in the rest of our lives who may also
be under similar strain.

I believe community and open conversation are the key...

Love and Inspiration,

Miri

from Lunar Wolf Productions

http://mirina.leonti.googlepages.com/lunarwolfproductions

http://bathroomsandbustops.googlepages.com

also to note - I've set up my own home page!

Hey guys

I wanted to let you know that I've set up my own film home page as a professional working in the industry here in Sydney and abroard. My filmmography is available there, so is my CV and various other sites and current projects are up there too.

Have a squizz and let me know what you think!
http://mirina.leonti.googlepages.com

love and inspiration
Miri
"I make films happen"
filmmaker, producer, actress, writer and composer

P.S.

TWO GREAT EVENTS COMING UP IN SYDNEY:
1) Next Metro Screen Speed Networking Night on March the 4th, 6:30pm, Paddington RSL. Registration is a good idea at:
http://www.metroscreen.org.au/network.html
They also have a facebook group which is great for hearing about what's hot and coming up fast.

2) Next NAFA Choc Top - thoroughly recommend this group if you live in Sydney - it kicks ass for great speakers and opportunities to make films happen/get involved in other people's projects...
For more info or to check out this year's calender, Visit:
http://www.nafa.net.au/

They also have two great film festivals coming up - great way to get your film seen and out there!

Remember:
If you are into it, just keep following your nose - even the smallest the snow ball sized action you take on your paths, will turn into an avalanche!

Bathrooms and Bustops - the online revolution!

Bathrooms and Bustops - the update

Phew! Since my last blog, Bathrooms and Bustops has been taken over by a Video Artist & his team... they are really going for it!

Here's what the video artist and his co-creators have to say about this underground online movement:
"Bathrooms and Bustops is a multi-media interactive experiment exploring the insatiable need for video content by today's YouTube generation.
We are creating an online video experiment, filming short videos of people at bustops and in bathrooms who are unaware they are being filmed. It's about observing people in their natural habitat. It's about their public versus private faces. It's about the act of observation.
Why do we watch people on the internet?
Why do we film ourselves and put our own lives online for all to see?
What's the line between curiousity and voyeurism?
Do you know the the line?
Do I?"

You can read a bit more at

http://bathroomsandbustops.googlepages.com/

For now - that's all I can tell you as the rest is hush hush - as the project is in 'gestation' phase.


Take care,
Miri
www.lunarwolfproductions.com

PS if you haven't seen STARDUST or GOLDEN COMPASS and if you love fantasy even half as much as I do, then you are missing out!! Catch them at the cinema if you can...


Bathrooms and Bustops is copywright protected as of 2006.
Copywright for Bathrooms and Bustops held by Mirina Leonti, Gillian Emmett and Peter Humble.
It is in production with ‘Lunar Wolf Productions’ and ‘Humble Media’.

Gueilla filmmaking coming to a bustop near you!

.... aaaaah. this post has dissapeared... but you may have returned after reading it before... all is hush hush... the filmmaking has gone underground...and when it resurfaces, who knows what form it will take?

Miri
from mystery film projects
brought to you by Lunar Wolf Productions...

Having just mentioned WITHOUT-A-BOX in my last post...

here is an awesome article by filmmaker magazine about the guys that set it up, where they are going and what they stand for...

Go David Straus and Joe Neulight! Two film school graduates from UCLA & they launched without-a-box in 2000. Some extracts I likes from that article called

HITTING SEND: Withoutabox prepares for the big time BY LAURA DAVIES

follow below:

While at film school we [Straus and Neulight] made a number of films together, and through that process I saw that anything was possible in terms of making one’s art. But we knew there had to be a way to empower filmmakers so that they could attain their goals without ever having to “ask for permission,” and that’s where Withoutabox comes in. For me, Withoutabox is all about choosing to make something happen, because as an independent filmmaker you have the power to make it happen.

What is The International Film Festival Submission Service?

Straus: It is a product that connects filmmakers from around the world with festivals from around the world. Filmmakers can put all the information about their film — their marketing materials, press kits, trailer and anything else they would need to submit — into the system. They can then search our database of festivals and look for the festival that best matches their needs and submit that information to the festival. What one festival gets is different from what another festival gets, because [its submission] requirements are different. And festivals = manage their submission process through us as well. The filmmakers that use our product are [everyone from] Academy Award winners [to filmmakers] right out of high school. Our filmmakers make 30-second films and 2½ hour films. They use 35mm and they use digital. It’s on all extremes.

Have you abandoned the camera for the business
suit?

Straus: Just to put things in perspective, I’m sitting in my office with Birkenstocks on. If you ever tell me I can’t wear my Birkenstocks, I’ll get upset. The thrill that I get when I log in to our system at three in the morning and I see a filmmaker in India or New Zealand or the UK using our system, I’m incredibly fulfilled. I never saw myself as abandoning filmmaking; I just saw myself participating at a different level.

How do you expect a site aimed at industry professionals to compete with other services that encompass much wider general audiences when it comes to the marketing of indie films?

Joe Neulight: We are not trying to compete so much as to organize differently. Our goal is to empower our filmmakers to use whatever tools are at their disposal to get the word out on their films and to get their work out to audiences. Withoutabox is a professional bridge from more general sites like MySpace and YouTube for filmmakers who want to take the next step, monetize their work on the world marketplace and perhaps make a career of it. Filmmakers and festivals are already beginning to run Audience as a “private label” platform beneath their own Web sites, and we expect Audience will come to distinguish itself as “the source” of independent film, whether their work lives on our site or on those run by our partners and competitors.

In order to read the rest , go to:

http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/fall2006/line_items/hitting_send.php


Love & Inspiration,
Miri
Lunar Wolf Productions
www.myspace.com/lunarwolfproductions

Have you guys checked out facebook groups lately?!

Did you know...

As a creative, I have found a HUGE amount of incredibly helpful groups on facebook.

There are groups for filmmakers, actors, directors, genre groups for filmmakers and their fans, festival groups....

Some I can remember off the top of my head that I have joined and benefitted from have been:

*Actor's Centre graduates (private)
*AFTRS
*Sydney Actors
*All Actors on Facebook
*All Directors on Facebook
... and many more!

So go check out groups on facebook and get busy in your community - people post crew and casting calls, triumphs, festival call for entries, upcoming seminars for filmmakers or training in your area of the craft. It's been awesome to keep in the know and also just to meet like minded people who are out there making inspiring projects.

Break a leg and go knock yourself out *getting connected*

www.facebook.com

Other online info hubs to check out are

* SCREENHUBB
For job listings, upcoming opportunities and industry news. You can even post your projects for free...
http://screenhub.com.au/
You can even do a great trial for 3 months to see how you like it.
There are jobs & opportunities listes that are from all over AU, NZ and some international jobs also.
I've found the news breifs excellent too for keeping up to date with the industry and major influences coming up. Also some timely reminders for entry deadlines for upcoming festivals.

* ARTS HUBB
Ditto for screenhubb - though these days there is a small fee to post your own projects...
For AU
http://www.artshub.com.au/
or for US
http://www.artshub.com
or for the UK
http://www.artshub.co.uk/
The good thing about these guys is there is info across a wide range of the arts & you have the multi-national searching capabilities for jobs, auditions and projects to collaborate on.

I have also just joined without-a-box.
Which is a free online distribution hub to submit your film to festivals over the net. Cutting down on countless filling out of paper entry forms and I understand they can even send your film digitally/post you DVD for you. I haven't fully explored it yet, but it's been recommended by a number of on-to-it producers in the industry... and anything that's going to save me time getting my film out there and free up my time so I can focus on my next film, gets me excited :)

Check them out at:
http://www.withoutabox.com/

Just reading the terms and conditions was a learning spree!


Love & Inspiration!
Miri
Lunar Wolf Productions
lunarwolfproductions@gmail.com
www.myspace.com/lunarwolfproductions