"The Burden of Choice" Now Available Free Online

Good news folks: you can now watch The Burden of Choice, in its entirety, for free online. I'm still meddling with the web site itself but the video is up and ready for your viewing pleasure.

There's no catch, but there is a donation button. If you enjoy the film, please consider donating a little bit to Warm Milk Productions so we can recoup costs and keep providing you with thought-provoking shorts like this and Halina. Every little bit counts (and is appreciated)!

Enjoy The Burden of Choice!

"The Burden of Choice" Wins Best Story at Long Island International Film Expo!

Last night was the closing ceremony of the 2016 Long Island International Film Expo and as usual, it was an amazing night that involved hundreds of incredible upcoming filmmakers. To my surprise, our 13-minute short film The Burden of Choice was nominated in two categories: Best LI Film (which Halina took home last year) and Best Story.

I'm so proud to say that The Burden of Choice is the winner of the 2016 Best Story award!

Here are a few pictures I snagged from the festivities. It starts with a red carpet walk with myself and the star of The Burden of Choice, the infinitely talented Elisa Pupko.

Here we have some of our key crew members, including Peter the grip, DP Marc, and Rob the sound guy.

This year's honoree at LIIFE was film and TV legend Ed Asner!

Here we are the the after party with our award. DP Marc and Peter were also each nominated in the Best LI Film category for short films they each directed.

Last we have Elisa and Kevin "Dot Com" Brown making loser signs for not nabbing the actor awards. I say they were both robbed!

I generally do not enjoy doing the film festival circuits (as those closest to me will tell you) but LIIFE continues to be the exception. Besides the recognition I receive from my Long Island community, they constantly put on an amazing ceremony with the effort you just don't see in many other festivals. I really appreciate how LIIFE goes the extra mile to support indie filmmakers, which is why it's always an honor to screen there.

How to Make Hard Choices (and the Inspiration for the Newest Short Film)

My secret sauce for writing has been taking a fear of mine and turning it into a story (I'll leave it up to you viewers to determine if it's working or not). Purgatory Comics is about fear of maturity. Halina is about rejection and individualization. And now we have The Burden of Choice, the short premiering soon that tackles one of my biggest fears yet: decision making.

It's not the first time I've given this subject a go. About 10 years ago I tackled indecisiveness in the 35 minute short film If, a no-budget comedy/drama about a young adult still coming to terms with a choice he'd made back in college (despite living a very happy life). I played the lead (ugh), and of course the story itself was very personal.

In fact, it was a decent way to describe my issues with decision making. It's not that I regret choices... it's that I recognize how each major choice sets off entirely new trajectories in life. This can be a lot of pressure on creative types such as myself; we can get caught up on the stories that take place in each trajectory. Some people live in the past... people like myself live in the past, future, and alternate present timelines. It's sometimes fun, sometimes sad, always exhausting.

While If was about a man who's overly curious about those trajectories, The Burden of Choice is about a woman who's convinced that only one trajectory can be "right". Therefore she sees each decision as a stressful burden, and she would do anything to lose that burden (even if it means surrendering her free will). If you can relate to this, then this is definitely a film for you.

This all brings me to an amazing TED Talks I watched recently on the subject. In the video below, philosopher Ruth Chang explains why choices don't have to be burdens... but rather reminders of the power we possess in our own lives. Choices should make you feel empowered, not lost - and she does an amazing job summing this idea up in a clear and profound way. I highly recommend this video (it's just shy of 15 minutes):

I hope you all check out The Burden of Choice while it makes its rounds, and if you want to check out If in all it's no-budget glory, it's on this blog. But I ain't linking it... because ugh.

"The Burden of Choice" Accepted into the 2016 Long Island International Film Expo!

Here's some exciting news: for the 2nd consecutive year, a WM Production will be screening at the Long Island International Film Expo!

The Burden of Choice, a 13-minute dramatic sci-fi short, will premiere in Bellmore NY on Sunday July 17, 2016 at 1:30 pm. There will be an online service to buy advanced tickets soon, and I'll put the link up on this blog.

If you're a longtime reader of this blog, then you already know this festival means the most to me personally, and it's always a tremendous honor to be invited back. Congratulations to the cast and crew of The Burden of Choice for this win, and thank you to the Long Island International Film Expo for having us back again!

"The Burden of Choice" on IMDB, Mini Cast Reunion

The Burden of Choice, along with its official poster, is now listed on IMDB. While I was editing this page, I also took the time to update the poster on the Halina page.

Also last week I had a mini WM Production crossover event at Ripley-Grier Studios! I enlisted the voices of Hannah Jane McMurray (Halina), Patricia O'Neil (Halina) and Elisa Pupko (The Burden of Choice) to help me record some radio work for my job. It was an exciting reunion and it's ALWAYS a pleasure to direct these talents. 

If this isn't a "meaty" enough crossover for you, pay close attention to the first scene in The Burden of Choice when you see it. There are references to both Halina AND Purgatory Comics...

"The Burden of Choice" Preview Scene

I'm excited to reveal this teaser/preview for The Burden of Choice! For best video quality, you should make sure to click the little "HD" icon and pick 1080p.

As of this writing, the film is 98% finished. DP Marc did an excellent color correction job last week, and this week our friend Ken at Sound for Indies is wrapping up the final audio mix. Also I need to finish the end credits.

The final cut is on track to being exactly 13 minutes long . . . so you can imagine why I wouldn't want to make a full trailer for this at 2-minutes or more. But I hope you guys enjoy this scene and I hope it gets you as pumped for the film as I am. Also, I absolutely love the score from returning composer Steve Goldstein; you'll get a little tease of that in this clip as well. Enjoy!

"The Burden of Choice" Poster Revealed!

Check out the official poster for the upcoming short film The Burden of Choice, which should be completed in January/February 2016. Click to view full size!

The short is roughly 12 minutes long, so it's not the kind of project I'd cut a 2-minute trailer for. However I will be whipping up a little 15-second tease over the next couple of days and posting it to my Twitter account, so be on the lookout for that!

"The Burden of Choice" Rough Cut Done

I'm a little embarrassed about how long I'm taking in post with The Burden of Choice, mostly because the amazing cast and crew deserve a quicker turnaround . . . but as I've mentioned on this blog, I got hit with quite a few things that took my attention away from this short film for a little bit.

I think one takeaway for me is to space out my projects a little more. At the time, I thought I was being super-productive because I'd finished Halina and then jumped straight into this film, but promoting Halina demanded a lot of time.

But it's all good, as post-production for The Burden of Choice is back on track. The rough cut is just under 15 minutes, which is a little more than I wanted since this was written to be a 10 minute film. Like Halina, I'm just going to cut it to make it the best it can be . . . and if the end result is a weird running time, so be it. 

Also like Halina, the time flies when watching this film, so that's a good sign. There's still a lot of work to be done, including some sound effects, the scoring, color correcting and audio mastering. But hopefully now the pace will pick up and I can get this one wrapped before the end of the year, or at least in January (I feel like it's a good theme for a New Year).

Update on all 2015 WM Production Projects!

This year has been a super productive one for WM Productions, but with so many different types of projects going on simultaneously, I thought it would be cool to post a recap of where everything stands.

Purgatory Comics (The Comic Book)

This is a one-shot comic based on the characters from my film Purgatory Comics. The comic was written by myself and illustrated by my frequent collaborator Rafael Rivera. Very soon (hopefully within the next few days), this will be available on Indyplanet.com. It will be FREE to download. For a few bucks you'll be able to order a print copy as well. I'm currently holding my print copy, and it looks AMAZING. I'm very happy with it.

Halina (Short Film)

The short film Halina - which did incredibly well this year with both critics and audiences - is available to rent or download at Halinafilm.com. It costs $1.99 to rent and $5.99 to buy and own forever. I may be biased, but I think it's worth it.

20 Minutes Gone (Podcast)

The new podcast we launched this year is a lot of fun to produce. As of now, 6 episodes are available on iTunes to listen to FREE. I have 3 or 4 more unedited episodes in the can. I want to get a few more recorded, and then maybe I'll do another 6 consecutive weeks of new episodes like last time. I'm hoping the show will make its triumph return this November/December.

The Burden of Choice (Short Film)

I edited a rough rough cut of this 10-minute short film, and then it kinda fell down the list due to promoting Halina and also my job. My goal is to get back to this (now that the comic book mentioned above is finished) and have it done around November/December. I haven't figured out my distribution plan for this one yet; I MAY skip festivals and go straight for On Demand this time. We'll see.

Keep checking back here as I'll continue to post updates on these exciting projects!

Set Photos from "The Burden of Choice"

We shot The Burden of Choice about a month ago, but for the last few weeks post-production had to be put on pause to do some festival Halina work. Today I wanted to post some of the behind-the-scenes pictures taken from our set photographer Vanessa from both days of the shoot.

We start with a pretty picture of Elisa in hair and make-up...

Here's Mara the Assistant Director and I.

 Cool camera shot.

 On set with Tarion and Elisa (and resisting the urge to eat the cookie props).

 Crew guys - the team behind the magic.

 Little man Dane in hair and make-up.

 Adorable picture of Dane and Jessica on the set.

 Our "band photo!"

 Pooya posing on the set during her scene with Elisa.

 Cramming a decent-sized crew into a tiny room.

 Jessica and Pooya give us their "tough girl" pose...

 ...then Elisa joins them for a superhero pose...

 ...then it goes full-on Charlie's Angels...

 ...and finally they're joined by some handsome guy.

Post-production will be resuming so check back for updates, clips, and maybe even some poster art in the near future!

On the Set of The Burden of Choice: Day 2

I didn't get to snap many photos during day 2 of the shoot, so we'll all have to eagerly wait for the set photographer's pictures to be delivered before we get the really good pics.

Day 2 focused almost entirely on Elisa and Pooya and the interaction of their characters. We shot in a pretty small room, but DP Marc did a fantastic job of making it work with multiple angles and some creative dolly work. Since the majority of Halina was two people sitting across from each other talking, we came up with a new look and set of angles to differentiate this project more. For example we did some profiles shots, like this screen grab below:

I really liked watching the conversation in this scene play out because there is a wide array of emotions in Elisa's character, and she jumped from one to another with ease. There's a part where she has an outburst that pretty much spills out my personal feelings more than I've ever scripted before, so seeing her do that monologue was magic. Then there's Pooya, who is just a fascinating character actor and so much fun to watch.

I plan to start editing this week. As usual I'll log the footage first - which is the more time-consuming part - and then I should be able to get a rough cut done fairly quickly.

A few notes in case anyone's wondering: I don't cameo in this one (boo!), and there are no actors in here that appeared in Purgatory Comics or Halina. However, there are hidden references to both of those films. I'm not trying to create an expanded universe; I'm actually trying to create an expanded multiverse. I'll explain what that means...one day.

On the Set of The Burden of Choice: Day 1

Now that the  dust has finally settled, I can do my customary blogging on the production days for The Burden of Choice. This was a 2-day shoot and probably one of the smoothest shoots I've ever been a part of. A big factor in that was the location, which was my own house. No comic book stores, no giant castles...I had an environment completely under my control for the entire shoot, and I felt that relief every second of the project. 

Another big reason this was such a relaxing and enjoyable shoot was the crew. It was mostly Halina people, and it was a bunch of good people, there to make a good movie. No egos, no cynicism; just a team that wants to make it happen. As with Halina, equipment came in via Elefant Films who made a special delivery the morning of the shoot.

Then there were the actors. How many nice things can I say about them before it's weird? Seriously, how much can I gush before it stops meaning anything? They ruled.

For day 1 we shot all of Tarion's scenes, most of Jessica's scenes, half of Elisa's scenes, a fun cameo, and all of Dane Peevy's scenes. Dane is our child actor who now holds the record for the youngest actor in the WM Production universe. He came in with high energy that absolutely reminded me of myself as a kid...but then when I called "action," he performed like a champion and stayed focused (unlike I would've been able to do as a kid).

All-in-all, this was probably one of the most relaxing shooting days for me personally because I was able to just enjoy it.  Yet another reason for that was Mara, my amazing Assistant Director who did a lot of the heavy lifting

I can't wait to get some footage up. I can't wait to you guys see Elisa, or the scene with her and Jessica together, or the hilarious cameo. I'll try to blog about day 2 tomorrow. Until then!

"The Burden of Choice" Cast Rehearsal!

This weekend it was back to Ripley-Grier Studios for The Burden of Choice rehearsal. Because this script is so short, we were able to work through it multiple times, try different styles, and really hone in on the characters. I can't believe the shoot is a week and a half away already!

Meet the Cast of "The Burden of Choice"

A few posts back I introduced you guys to the incredibly talented Elisa Pupko, who is playing Piper in The Burden of Choice. Now I can finally announce the rest of the major players! Next to Elisa is Pooya Mohseni, who will be playing the character of Mae: a woman with a unique gift who helps people like Piper through her home business. Then on the second row is Jessica Zinder. Jessica will play Mae's younger sister Meredith who helps Mae run her business while caring for her young son. Last but not least is Tarion Taylor-Anderson, who will play Jacob: a regular to Mae's business who meets Piper in the waiting area.

In addition to these four will be a few other faces popping up, including a special appearance by Russ Camarda. Russ is a New York actor and director who I'm very excited to finally do a project with.

This is going to be a very fun and relatable story with characters unlike I've ever written before, so I'm eager to finally bring it to life. More to come!

Casting "The Burden of Choice"

This week we held a two day casting session at Ripley Grier Studios for The Burden of Choice. Auditions were held by myself as well as my casting director Enge, with help from some friends of WM Productions: my old friend Chris (who did a cameo in Purgatory Comics), my pal Shane who helped with the Purgatory Comics casting many moons ago, Lamis who did a lot of graphic work on Halina, and Lilly's husband Nick who is also an actor.

As always we met a lot of great actors and as always the choice will be tough. A new challenge here is having several key characters who are related in the script, putting restrictions on race and age that I'm not used to. Stay tuned for more casting announcements for The Burden of Choice!

Elisa Pupko to Learn "The Burden of Choice"

Casting for the upcoming short film The Burden of Choice is underway, and while some auditions aren't being held for another couple of weeks, we have snagged one of our leading ladies! I'm excited to report that Elisa Pupko will be participating in this production!

Elisa is a New York City actress originally from Seattle WA. In addition to acting she has worked on many professional and personal projects as a host, a model, and a singer. You can check out her web site and portfolio right here.

I met Elisa last year during an audition, and reached out to her because I thought this role would be a great fit. She'll be playing Piper, a smart and ambitious business woman who comes to a tough choice in her career and reaches out to our other lead for help.

While I only met Elisa last year, I've seen her much earlier in some of my favorite College Humor sketches. I'm going to post one below because this sketch still cracks me up.

Now Casting Via Actors Access

It almost feels like this project is moving faster than I can blog. Enge has officially kicked off casting for The Burden of Choice. As of now, casting is exclusively via ActorsAccess.com. That could change, should she decide to open casting up wider. I'll post here if that happens.

When we cast for Halina, I didn't bring Enge in as the official casting director until the jobs had already been posted. This time around, Enge's fully in charge - right down to actually picking the casting days and location. It sure gets a lot of the work off of my plate, so I have more time to wear my Spider-Man pajamas and jump from couch to couch shouting "Walloping Websnappers!" 

All this is to say: don't bother flooding my LinkedIn or e-mail. Enge's in charge.

New Short Film: The Burden of Choice

This year is the 10 year anniversary of a short film my friends and I made called "If," which explored one man's fascination with a choice he'd made in the past, and his curiosity of the alternate life he might've lived. A decade later, "choice" is still a subject of wonder to me because it's simultaneously the greatest gift, and the most overwhelming burden. So from this wonder, I'm re-visiting the theme in my next short film: The Burden of Choice.

WM Productions will be teaming up with members of The Majors Productions to create a unique, entertaining and philosophical 10-minute piece.* It takes place in a world where, if you're stuck at a fork in the road, a certain gifted individual can see down both paths and tell you both outcomes. 

I like the way the character says it in the script:

Do you remember those books for children, where you choose the adventure? The book will say, if you want to take the car, turn to page three. But if you want to take the train, turn to page six. That’s what my gift is. If your life is one of those books, I’m able to look ahead at those pages. I can tell you what happens if you choose the car . . . or the train.

In tone, this will be somewhat similar to Halina. In fact I like to think that both of these projects are siblings in what I hope can become a larger family of projects over time.

Each film is a tremendous learning experience and something I'm trying out this time around is bringing the crew in very early into the pre-production stages. In fact as of this writing, the majority of the crew is solidified and casting hasn't even begun yet (this is a first for me)!

Acting as DP for this go-around will be Marc Riou, returning to sound will be Rob La Rosa and my buddy Sean King will be returning as gaffer. Also returning is Enge Atef, who will once again be handling auditions as Casting Director (stay tuned for announcements).

Last weekend the three crew guys and I explored the shooting location and determined this will be a 2-day shoot in mid-to-late June, so it's coming up fast already. The rest of the pre-production schedule is being put together this week and the next two months are going to fly, so keep checking here for updates on the new project The Burden of Choice, as well as for potential festival or screening announcements for Halina!

*My film projects are getting shorter and shorter, from 90 minutes to 30 minutes to 10 minutes! At this rate my next project will just be a Vine.