Hello. My name is Matt McNeil. Together with my brother-in-arms, Nik Zeltzer, there is a film project we are trying to produce this summer: its name is Jug. Jug is a sort of (post-modern...hate to say that!) fairy tale about a girl, Sarah, who digresses into childhood fantasy... petrified by the stark and upsetting realities of adulthood, she scares-up the (imaginary) friends of her adolescence and sets out on an adventure- an escapade that proves more harrowing and trying than the reality she had escaped.
-We are looking for a model to play Sarah.-
Nik and I have worked on several short films together over the years. One of them, Roommatey Again: The Strange Case of the Gay Pirate Penguin, played in several film festivals and was a finalist at PXL This 13, a touring festival that played in Santa Monica and San Francisco, as well as a few dates on the East Coast. Earlier, in 1999 and 2000, we produced a 16mm feature-length film called Slipknot. It went grossly overbudget and two years of intense summertime shooting pretty much assured that things would run aground. We were left with 11 hours of footage, an unused (commissioned) film score, and a mountain of debt. Since then, we've been trying to keep things short- Jug s estimated to clock-in at under 25 minutes.
I recently helped a friend of mine- Chris McCaleb- shoot and market a short film called Welcome to ManBottomless- a comedic mash-up of Bob Fosse, bad male nudity, and ballet (the film can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye-r6Eyg8J4 ...I'm there in the end credits). I managed the online marketing and was able to garner 100,000 hits for the film in less than two weeks by exposing it on other websites- which made ManBottomless a Top 100 Most-Viewed and Most-Discussed clip.
Currently, and for the past several years really, I've been working on a photobook of the Sonoran desert: it was shot entirely at night- from June 2000 through April 2005- and features car crashes, monsoons, the cotton harvest, migrant farm workers, strip mining, floods, sprawl, etc. I've already worked out publishing arrangements with Arizona Lithographers and City Press, though I'm taking the book to other publishers in Sante Fe, Phoenix, and Los Angeles in October. Nik is a law student at the University of Illinois. He's looking to sell his soul in order to put away enough money to pursue his lifelong interests: animation, film, and board games.
We are both graduates of the University of Arizona. I have two degrees- in American Literature and Poetry (yes). Nik has a degree in Religious Studies and certification in Middle Eastern Studies.
We've met a lot of actors and actresses through the years but Jug has a special requirement: namely, nudity. But this is *not* a porno film. Not even close. Everything will be artfully handled and tasteful- nothing that's any more graphic than Suicide Girls. And by nudity, I mean it will be you and you alone onscreen. Although there is a 22-page script, the film will be told in a series of 100-150 still images, all shot on BW medium-format film; about 20 of those stills would contain some nudity and a number of them will contain computer-generated characters (from Sarah's mind; think: Alice in Wonderland). The girl we cast to play Sarah for the photography is not required to voice the character- though if you want to try that, we'll certainly consider it. There will be narration, a score, pans, and editing- but no video or anything resembling motion. The style is similar to a Ken Burns documentary or the experimental short, La Jetee (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056119/).
This is an inventive piece and would be a great addition to any of your resumes/reels/etc. It will also be a fun, interesting shoot! We're looking to produce over six days in July and while we'll be using a lighting rig, equipment will be kept to a minimum and the crew would only be Nik and myself. If you'd like to bring someone along for your comfort, that is definitely OK. Our schedule is flexible and if you have any free time at all, I'm sure we can work things out. We can pay $75 per day, and also provide: meals; re-imbursement for travel, makeup, and costumes; digital prints or files of photography; and DVDs of the final film.
Nik and I are excited to have the time to finally produce this project! We'd like to have it edited and completed before the year is out. Our aim is the film-festival circuit and we feel confident that it would become a finalist or winner in several of them. If you're excited about the prospect of making a memorable, complex, and intelligent film, please contact us! There is a profile of the film at MySpace: www.myspace.com/jug_movie. If you'd like a copy of the script in PDF, please e-mail us at jug_movie@yahoo.com. Thanks. Matt
-We are looking for a model to play Sarah.-
Nik and I have worked on several short films together over the years. One of them, Roommatey Again: The Strange Case of the Gay Pirate Penguin, played in several film festivals and was a finalist at PXL This 13, a touring festival that played in Santa Monica and San Francisco, as well as a few dates on the East Coast. Earlier, in 1999 and 2000, we produced a 16mm feature-length film called Slipknot. It went grossly overbudget and two years of intense summertime shooting pretty much assured that things would run aground. We were left with 11 hours of footage, an unused (commissioned) film score, and a mountain of debt. Since then, we've been trying to keep things short- Jug s estimated to clock-in at under 25 minutes.
I recently helped a friend of mine- Chris McCaleb- shoot and market a short film called Welcome to ManBottomless- a comedic mash-up of Bob Fosse, bad male nudity, and ballet (the film can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye-r6Eyg8J4 ...I'm there in the end credits). I managed the online marketing and was able to garner 100,000 hits for the film in less than two weeks by exposing it on other websites- which made ManBottomless a Top 100 Most-Viewed and Most-Discussed clip.
Currently, and for the past several years really, I've been working on a photobook of the Sonoran desert: it was shot entirely at night- from June 2000 through April 2005- and features car crashes, monsoons, the cotton harvest, migrant farm workers, strip mining, floods, sprawl, etc. I've already worked out publishing arrangements with Arizona Lithographers and City Press, though I'm taking the book to other publishers in Sante Fe, Phoenix, and Los Angeles in October. Nik is a law student at the University of Illinois. He's looking to sell his soul in order to put away enough money to pursue his lifelong interests: animation, film, and board games.
We are both graduates of the University of Arizona. I have two degrees- in American Literature and Poetry (yes). Nik has a degree in Religious Studies and certification in Middle Eastern Studies.
We've met a lot of actors and actresses through the years but Jug has a special requirement: namely, nudity. But this is *not* a porno film. Not even close. Everything will be artfully handled and tasteful- nothing that's any more graphic than Suicide Girls. And by nudity, I mean it will be you and you alone onscreen. Although there is a 22-page script, the film will be told in a series of 100-150 still images, all shot on BW medium-format film; about 20 of those stills would contain some nudity and a number of them will contain computer-generated characters (from Sarah's mind; think: Alice in Wonderland). The girl we cast to play Sarah for the photography is not required to voice the character- though if you want to try that, we'll certainly consider it. There will be narration, a score, pans, and editing- but no video or anything resembling motion. The style is similar to a Ken Burns documentary or the experimental short, La Jetee (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056119/).
This is an inventive piece and would be a great addition to any of your resumes/reels/etc. It will also be a fun, interesting shoot! We're looking to produce over six days in July and while we'll be using a lighting rig, equipment will be kept to a minimum and the crew would only be Nik and myself. If you'd like to bring someone along for your comfort, that is definitely OK. Our schedule is flexible and if you have any free time at all, I'm sure we can work things out. We can pay $75 per day, and also provide: meals; re-imbursement for travel, makeup, and costumes; digital prints or files of photography; and DVDs of the final film.
Nik and I are excited to have the time to finally produce this project! We'd like to have it edited and completed before the year is out. Our aim is the film-festival circuit and we feel confident that it would become a finalist or winner in several of them. If you're excited about the prospect of making a memorable, complex, and intelligent film, please contact us! There is a profile of the film at MySpace: www.myspace.com/jug_movie. If you'd like a copy of the script in PDF, please e-mail us at jug_movie@yahoo.com. Thanks. Matt