DORIS NEWS
6/30/11 E-BLAST
APOCALYPSE (According to Doris) receives top prize at Akasha Metaphysical Film Festival !!!
We had a terrific time in Carmel, meeting some really great people and participating in some of the most inspiring conversations and sharing ideas with filmmakers and visionaries from all over.
Personally, having our film selected to be included in the lineup of about 40 absolutely inspiring and beautifully crafted films was award enough for me, but the great suprise came Saturday night, right after the screening of DORIS, that the awards ceremony named us 2011 SPIRT IN FILM winner.
Next to Carolyn Cobelo festival founder and director I gratefully accept!
Nicholas Downs, Elise Robertson, Myself, Sheila Goss, Cynthia Dane, Brynn Horrocks, and Christian Meoli gleefully boast the Spirit in Film award.
Shinsho-Mugen Daiko TAIKO drummers rock the Sunset Community Center launching the Awards Ceremony After-Party.
Here's a film clip from the After-Party of all the kooky goings-on in Carmel.
And then, of course, the After-After-Party at Chez DORIS, shortly before the police arrived and shut us down for staying up past 10pm.
Elise speaking on the Metaphysical Filmmaking Panel and giving excellent pointers on communicating with actors during the critical casting process.
The happy lunch wagon crew had some fantastic eats every day with an excellent Tri-Tip BBQ that was outta site.
The Carmel Sunset Community Center is known throughout the area for showcasing top musical and artistic talent throughout the year.
The New-Age crafts market in the lobby kept filmgoers busy between shows.
Filmmaking panels and workshops raised challenging topics and questions.
Chez Doris at the Coachman's Inn about a block from the center. We never miss an opportunity to invite new friends into the world of DORIS!
Stay tuned for upcoming events and screenings in your area.
6/13/11 E-BLAST
CAST & CREW REUNION in CARMEL, CA 6/25/11 - ALL DORIS INSIDERS INVITED
Nine cast members are confirmed to attend the 2nd Annual Akasha Metaphysical Film Festival in Carmel where APOCALYPSE (According to Doris) is being highlighted with a screening Saturday afternoon, June 25th at 3:00 pm followed by an Awards Ceremony and Gala Party.
Elise Roberston, "Doris"
Jaime Gomez, "Felix"
Ula Gomez, "Tallulah"
Christian Meoli "Apperson"
Nicholas Downs "Mike"
Brynn Horrocks "Natalie"
Ameenah Kaplan "Serena"
Bob Saenz "Willard the Postman"
Dylan Mooney "Reporter"
I will be there beside my lovely Executive Producer and wife,Sheila, where we will be supporting all the DORIS INSIDERS. There will be an open door after-the-party-party directly after the Saturday night festivities at our room in the Coachman's Inn in Carmel, where most of the festival guests will be staying.
We will participate in various panel discussion as well, subject to last minute changes, as usual, but it promises to be a great fun weekend in one of the best spots on earth with a bunch of awesome people!
Elise will be speaking on the Metaphysical Filmmaking Panel which is a nuts & bolts presentation of filmmaking - hopefully she will update us on her nearly completed feature DONNER PASS.
Jaime is scheduled to appear with the Spirit in Film panel discussion, along with myself and other panelist/filmmakers.
The key Saturday 6/25 events for our group will be:
1/ APOCALYPSE (According to Doris) screening at 3pm in theater "A"
2/ The Awards Ceremony and Gala Party at 6:30pm
3/ The After-The-Party-Party at Chez DORIS at The Coachman's Inn
Thanks for supporting your film...
5/18/11 E-BLAST
START UP THE VOLVO AND LET'S GO TO CARMEL FOR THE WEEKEND!
AKASHA METAPHYSICAL FILM FESTIVAL
http://www.metaphysicalfilm.com
PICKS UP AS A HIGHLIGHT SELECTION
APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO DORIS
Our festival campaign is just getting started and we've got another official selection at one of my most desired festivals because of the rich speciality of imaginative topics that identify the exact center of our audience with DORIS.
This is a highly prestigious event, not only because of the wonderful location, but despite it's highly exclusive nature, this festival is also very industry related. Presenting (just before our screening!) is LINDSAY WAGNER (yes, Johnny, she's the Six Million Dollar Woman!) with a special keynote talk, "Quiet the Mind & Open the Heart."
We will be attending (any excuse for a drive up Big Sur) to spend the weekend in one of our favorite places on spaceship Earth! We'll be networking, promoting, partying, and meeting lots of people who know what we're about.
Everyone is invited - what a great weekend away from L.A. this is going to be! Throw your overnight bag in the car and come on up with us for a pile of fun.
Get ready for fantastic parties, panel discussions, networking, and wonderful films (and I want to see all of them!) from all over the world!
The 2nd Annual Akasha Metaphysical Film Festival will take place June 24th through June 26th, 2011 in Carmel, California. The festival presents dynamic films with spiritual and supernatural themes from ghosts and out of body experiences to UFO encounters and artificial intelligence.
4/15/11 E-BLAST
SYDNEY LEVINE HEADLINES APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO DORIS ON HER indieWIRE BLOG!!!
indieWIRE is one of the three leading industry news sources that inform and enlighten independent filmmakers (as well as studio executives) alongside the old powerhouses, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
Sydney Levine focuses on international film industry developments and analysis of the international film market related to buyers, sales agents, filmmakers, film festivals and distribution.
Her subscription list includes the leading luminaries of the international indy production, distribution, and film festival world and now positions APOCALYPSE ACORDING TO DORIS well on the radar of the international film community at a time which has tremendous impact as we move toward the CANNES MARKET the second week of May 2011.
GO TO THIS LINK TO DOWNLOAD BLOG ON PDF
You might have a few lines to say about wanting the film to get a REALLY GREAT domestic distribution deal... which we're now lobbying for.
Thanks Sydney, for picking up DORIS's story....
4/1/11 E-BLAST
IN SYNCHRONICITY WITH OUR WORLD PREMIERE AT CANNES 2011
WE HAVE BEEN CHOSEN AS AN OFFICIAL SELECTION AT THE SPIRIT QUEST FILM FESTIVAL!
DORIS WILL BE PART OF THE OPENING NIGHT CEREMONIES ON FRIDAY APRIL 15TH!
The Spirit Quest Film Festival is an annual celebration of
inspirational and thought provoking independent films from
around the world shown over a three day period at
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania APRIL 15 - 17, 2011.
DORIS INSIDERS are invited to attend!
We invite any of our DORIS INSIDERS in the area to take part
in the festival and share in the celebration of our film!!!
2011 Spirit Quest Film Festival Schedule
Friday, April 15th
4:45pm – 6:45pm
“Surviving Hunger” (3 mins)
“Lonely Planet” (15 mins)
'APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO DORIS" (98 mins)
http://spiritquestfilmfest.com
Greg Ropp - director (814) 873-2483
John Walkiewicz - marketing
Spirit Quest Film Festival, Inc
PO Box 99
Edinboro, Pa. 16412
(USA)
2/10/11 E-BLAST
APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO DORIS CONCLUDES IMPORTANT INTERNATIONAL SALES DEAL!!!
Invisible hands at work? ....Or was it the firey ju-ju on the lake-bed that night?
Blairwood Entertainment from offices at NBC Universal Studios in Hollywood has just picked up our film for their brand new 2011 sales slate!
Blairwood Entertainment is a new international distribution company headed by James Dudelson, former President and CEO of Taurus Entertainment Company, a well known and long respected veteran of the business.
Joining Mr. Dudelson as his Executive Consultant is former VP of Production and Post Production of Taurus Entertainment, Ms. Ana Clavell, under her new outfit The Henwards Group.
With their combined experience over four decades of production and distribution they aim to position Blairwood Entertainment as the go-to independent distributor for producers of speciality and high-end product seeking representation in the international arena, while partnering with The Henward Group as their development and production arm.
Blairwood Entertainment will be launched officially at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it will premiere its latest acquistions.
APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO DORIS WILL PREMIERE AT CANNES IN MAY!
While Dudelson and his team will be dealing with international acqusitions, I will also be in attendance at Cannes meeting with North American distributors regarding our domestic launch calendar which will be posted in the next weeks.
This comprehensive campaign will include all traditional platforms as they become available to us - but the best news will be some of the direct-to-market events including screenings and special events.
Needless to say, I will be talking up the film with everyone from doormen to studio executives and posting blog comments/video as events progress.
As a side note, I will also be presenting Deja NOIR, a quality art-house thriller with a PARANOMAL EDGE....(and crown jewel of my production slate). You WILL BE INCLUDED in the telling of this story as the package materializes.
BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, we have some really exciting events coming up this Summer for APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO DORIS now that the distribution cycle has begun in earnest.
Stay tuned for more video updates on this channel - and our distribution calendar for 2011 due out very shortly.
Endurance. Vision. Intention from the heart. The path is the goal!
And our FUTURE ACCORDING TO DORIS.
Also check our facebook page frequently for updates:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/THE-APOCALYPSE-According-to-DORIS/68927523156
2/9/11 E-BLAST
WORLDWIDE SALES AGREEMENT COMPLETED - WE WILL PREMIERE AT CANNES 2011 !!!
After three long months of negotiation, we have finally landed and important international sales agreement with BLAIRWOOD ENTERTAINMENT.
11/1/10 E-BLAST
THE OCT 21st PREVIEW SCREENING AT THE MAJESTIC CREST THEATER in Westwood was a HUGE SUCCESS.
THANK YOU DORIS INSIDERS!!!!
WATCH THE EXIT VIDEO
WATCH THE ENTIRE CAST Q&A
We are off to The American Film Market here in Santa Monica to plan our commercial debut next year to the world of international sales. We are congregating with many industry friends, and meeting new players and building alliances in the crazy and choatic charade of marketing movies around the world.
From our meetings, contacts, and conversations will come a multifold plan of distribution in all the platforms available to us. It's a long process where deals are made, and then fulfilled - followed by a too-long-delayed trail of revenue that will bring about new films in the future.
Endurance. Vision. Intention from the heart. The path is the goal!
And our FUTURE ACCORDING TO DORIS.
The October 21st Preview Screening at
THE MAJESTIC CREST THEATER in Westwood was a HUGE SUCCESS and a lot of fun for DORIS INSIDERS! Subscribe now, (it's totally free!) become a DORIS INSIDER, and view the AUDIENCE EXIT VIDEO and the
COMPLETE Q&A SESSION with the CAST!
9/12/10 E-BLAST
4 MINUTE SCENE FROM FILM
A complex design covering 1.5 square miles has appeared on a remote dry lakebed. This intricate and mysterious symbol is discovered to be an ancient meditation mandala used by the Vedics at least 5,000 years ago, and would have taken a team of surveyors several days, if not weeks to make - yet it has appeared overnight...
RANDOM EARTH ART & OTHER (UN)KNOWABLE THINGS
Seems like yesterday when I threw a dart in the calendar and we started casting, but knowing it’s been over a full year causes me to reflect back on a few of the themes that moved us to make this film.
It’s true - this film is about crazy people. Crazy people, maybe a little bit like you and me, who are dealing with life issues and wondering about strange events we don’t understand, things not investigated, even suppressed by our bought-and-paid-for media.
First case in point is the earth-glyph or massive carving on the dry lake bed near our fictional town of Searchlight, California that backgrounds our multifaceted story.
This design was claimed to be made by Felix, an unscrupulous broadcast journalist who knows no bounds to creativity, including the outright faking of a news story to get worldwide attention as a celebrity reporter.
The way this mysterious symbol actually appeared in real life on a wilderness lake bed in eastern Oregon on August 10, 1990 and the controversy over it’s origin is documented, for example, on Kathy Doore’s fascinating site Labyrinthina! http://labyrinthina.com/sriyantra.htm and also at Mark Fussell and Stuart Dyke's authoritative and popular Crop Circle Connector on the Homepage of ilyes, http://cropcircleconnector.com/ilyes/ilyes9.html author of "An Hypothesis: The Transmission of a Crop Circle.
Quoting ilyes: ‘Interestingly, the skies above the Sri Yantra are regularly used as part of the Idaho Air National Guard's pilot training area. According to the lieutenant pilot who first spotted the huge Pattern on August 10, no pilots had reported a design-in-progress; the Pattern had simply 'appeared' one day...’
On a routine training mission Air National Guard Pilot Bill Miller spotted this gigantic earth-art 70 miles southeast of Burns, Oregon. This design was immediately recognized and identified as an ancient Hindu meditation symbol.
Again ilyes: ‘Four jokers claimed it - the joke was that they alleged they pulled a 'garden cultivator' like a plow for OVER 13 MILES, in an officially designated Wilderness Area, in the August desert heat - where not even cars are permitted. They concocted the story that they hauled all their gear 3/4-mile to the site each day... A second discrepancy: In their initial 'confession letter' to the newspaper they wrote that all four of them were hitched up simultaneously to pull the cultivator, but the video (these men had created) shows only two of them attempting to pull it.... One can reasonably conclude that the only creativity these four expressed was through their over-active imaginations and not through any grand desert artistry."
This story was analyzed and reported on in it’s entirely by Dr. Jim Deardorff in UFO Magazine volume 6, #3, 1991, “A Symbol on the Oregon Desert.”
Kathy Doore adds some salient points from her website:
“Don Newman and Alan Decker visited and found a furrowed line consisting of 13.3 miles of linear groove ten inches wide and three inches deep in the soft alkalai - and the area was noticeably missing any tracks or marks, even though their own car left clear marks in the lake bed...”
“A year later, Jennifer Brown-Jacobs (head of a Portland, Oregon UFO group) told Deardorff of two campers who had a UFO sighting in the area at the time. Their sighting was on the evening of July 5th or 6th around 10PM and saw "lights for about 20 minutes over the area...”
“Later, well dressed men from out-of-state claimed they had created this Sri Yantra, but their claims were found to be baseless.
“The four men who claimed it, of course, offered no in-progress proof of their 'creativity', but made a feeble attempt in a hastily put-together, poorly thought out video piece to show, through reverse engineering (for the Formation was in fact already on the ground when they arrived on the scene) 'how they made it'.
The problem, as clearly shown in photographs and the video, is that the lines forming the Sri Yantra *already existed* - they extended in front of where they were dragging their 'plow' - at the time they were claiming to be in the process of making them!” - ilye
The mythical quality of this hugely significant event became a stark and personal reality to me as we began the pre-production phase of creating APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO DORIS. This is where the history became alive as it took on a present, personal and realistic note.
As can be viewed in the 4-minute clip from our film (posted above), Felix and his news cameraman Bauer hire two local goofballs named Doug and Curly (named after the two lovable UK fakers of crop circles, Doug and Dave) to do exactly what is described, tripping over ropes and beer cans making fools of themselves re-creating a similar, fictional design on Cuddeback Dry Lake near the town of Boron, California, about three hours northeast of Los Angeles where our first day of shooting began on July 28, 2009.
In the mid-‘90‘s I had seen two still images of the original/authentic Oregon Sri Yantra on Google Images that we’d copied for our fictional movie version. Since then, these images have disappeared (with the exception of a postage-stamp-sized file that can’t be enlarged sufficiently for computer graphics animation)... so, we began a search for the original photographer to obtain rights to use one or both of these original images.
My plan was to deliver a high-quality photo file to my graphics animator so we could digitally “fly” the camera over the still photograph for use in the TV news clips taking place in our film’s story.
But surprisingly, our researcher discovered that actual aerial video footage (previously unknown to us, taken by a local TV station) did exist of the original/authentic Oregon Sri Yantra.
This is when the fun and games began - with an updated, far more elaborate version of the mysterious origin of this beautiful symbol on the Oregon desert.
I have included a few e-mails between myself and my research person to describe the soap opera that followed:
On Jul 6, 2009, at 4:36:51 PM PDT, Tatiana <tat@starvingfilmstudents.com> wrote:
Hi Vic, I just received confirmation….the gentleman I contacted is the person who created the Sri Yantra in the two images we’ve been looking at…..he has the originals and is the copyright holder. Before moving forward…..I know the goal is permission to use the two images, however since we’ve found the creator of the crop circle, I wanted to check to see if there were any additional questions? He sent two links which might be of interest as well. Apparently some of the broadcast TV from Portland was used by NPR in Iowa, and he suggested it might be possible to get some of that footage as well….. Tatiana
http://www.theskyfactory.com/about/billvid.html Part 1
http://www.theskyfactory.com/about/billvid2.html Part 2
(both of the above links have since been removed - v)
On Jul 6, 2009, at 5:22:21 PM PDT, Victor <vg@starvingfilmstudents.com> wrote:
Hi Tatiana. Fantastic work! I’ve got news for you. You’ve found the REAL FELIX from our story! This guy did NOT make the design in those pictures he claims he did. These films which I have never seen before, contain clips I have known about since 1992, when they were de-bunked as fakes by credible researchers. The film contains it’s own evidence of fakery. Look at the last few cuts, and you will see that once they brought in the heavy equipment, and large crew, the area became torn up by foot prints and wheel marks which are not visible in the first photographs. There is no way that a ten-ton tractor could have laid that red dirt without completely screwing up the crossing lines, and everything else. I also think it’s funny, as this guy speaks dialog as if I had written it for Dave and Curly: “We like art!” .... Exactly the same story as those ale drinking fakes Doug and Dave from England with the crop circles in Wiltshire... In fact, the knowledge of this phoney “making of the Sri Yantra” film (without having seen any of it at the time) is what made me think we needed to tell this part of the story. This film is an elaborate fake. Why does it exist? Who paid for it? That’s the biggest mystery of all.
v
On Jul 6, 2009, at 5:31:51 PM PDT Tatiana <tat@starvingfilmstudents.com> wrote:
Hey Vic- This may be true, but I tracked this guy who took the photos down through a journal from MIT. Couldn’t get the entire thing without subscribing. Don’t know who did what, but the images are supposedly his. He’s obviously been linked to this for some time so he’s an interesting source... though of what I don’t claim to know. UFO Magazine featured this Sri Yantra, but they don’t have their archive system digitized... Up to you as to what kind of evidence you want as far as copyright ownership.
Tatiana
Following these leads, we tracked the “newly” discovered video footage to the Portland TV station that had flown the original/authentic Oregon Sri Yantra in 1990 recording the event.
On Jul 6, 2009, at 6:18:15 PM PDT, Tatiana <tat@starvingfilmstudents.com> wrote:
Hey Vic - Since the images are from the early 90s, when most professional photographers were still using film….if he has the negative, then it’s pretty safe to assume he’s the owner of the image. (If) he did not take the photo himself, it would be best to know he has permission from the photographer.... Naturally we’d have to have verbiage in the agreement saying that he attests to having the right to give permission to use the image, however I don’t know if there is anything you’d want additionally. That was my first thought….however the mention of the NPR footage was interesting as they would have had to have done their homework, supposedly, in order to air the footage….might be a way around the copyright concerns of using a photograph. Keep your fingers crossed. Tatiana
On Jul 15, 2009, at 3:03:45 PM PDT, Tatiana <tat@starvingfilmstudents.com> wrote:
Hi Vic - Got a hold of the people at Iowa Public television network. They’re trying to track down the particular episode containing the footage we’re interested in….Living in Iowa has not aired in a long time. (I’ve given them all the info I can, including the producers name (who is retired but they still know where he is in Iowa so we might be able to track him down if needed.) They’re very helpful and we’re working on it. Assuming we can get that particular footage tracked down, it will then be up to their local director of programming as the possibility of gaining permission to use the aerial footage of the Sri Yantra. They don’t have a set system, so here’s hoping we can arrange for permission fairly easily. When the footage has been found, I’ll let you know.
Tatiana
On Jul 16, 2009, at 4:17:02 PM PDT, Tatiana <tat@starvingfilmstudents.com> wrote:
Sri Yantra - Still searching for the footage. Tracking down the producer of the segment. NPR believes they did not obtain the rights to the footage, therefore I’m going to go to the network which they obtained footage from. I’m getting that tracked down today so I may hopefully get in touch with someone tomorrow. Bill and his photos are also on standby in case we need to go with stills rather than live shots. Would still need to verify his ownership of the images, however I haven’t not pushed that too hard as I’d really like to get this aerial footage tracked down. Tatiana
On Jul 20, 2009, at 2:34:07 PM PDT, Tatiana <tat@starvingfilmstudents.com> wrote:
I have a whole new appreciation for the De-Bunkers! - (Seems) .....some of the aerial footage used for the Iowa show on the Sri Yantra actually came from Bill ..... They gave ...KGW-TV a credit, but they actually got the footage from Bill. I’ve called KGW-TV and they (won’t) make their footage available, they’ll only make it available to (contracted) partners.....(and will not discuss it further).
I’ve contacted Bill on the off chance he has aerial footage he happens to own, however (it appears that his footage is the footage of the stuff he “had” shot in Iowa and NOT Oregon) The kink in this is that Bill has supposedly (suddenly gone) on vacation for awhile.... (and cannot be reached). Tat
We have tried connecting with the “Earth Artist’s” website, but it is no longer up.
It’s also worth mentioning that in this first part of the NPR/Iowa news magazine story the original/actual Oregon Sri Yantra video (supposedly the unavailable Portland TV station footage) is intercut with similarly stylized aerial footage of this “Earth Artist’s” work in Iowa suggesting by association that they were the same work and location... by this one man. However this is fraudulently misleading in it’s very character.
http://www.theskyfactory.com/about/billvid2.html Part 1 (since removed)
You will see in this second part of the NPR/Iowa news magazine story, that the mimicked image shot had much larger, deeper lines, with huge tractor wheel marks alongside and it does not match the design of the authentic/original Sri Yantra in Oregon very closely, i.e.; NOT the same.
http://www.theskyfactory.com/about/billvid2.html Part 2 (since removed)
The result is ridiculous, and purposely confusing. A well-crafted example of “double-speak?” You have to ask yourself why would anybody go through such trouble to do this?
Despite the fact that I needed that low-altitude aerial shot of the original/authentic Oregon Sri Yantra, I wasn’t going to get it . When we offered to license or purchase the footage, the television station abruptly refused further conversation.
My only remaining question is how did this “Earth Artist” obtain the prime still image I needed for my animator - a still image which was photographed from an altitude that only a military aircraft could fly at... or a spy satellite? Did someone give him the photograph which he later copyrighted in his name? To add to his body of “Earth Art?" .....WTF..............?
Let’s return to the Homepage of ilyes, http://cropcircleconnector.com/ilyes/ilyes9.html regarding some concluding thoughts on the fabulous ancient design found on the Oregon lake bed in 1990:
“...After the story broke a few people claimed they had created the Sri Yantra, but their claims were found to be baseless.”
“...After reviewing all the evidence of this case and the improbability of what these men claimed, a serious question must be asked as to the origin of this desert etching and why this group of older, well dressed men from another state, have gone to such lengths to convince the public that they are responsible.”
Can you say, “Men in Black?”
THESE VIDEOS POSTED 9/10/10
CLIP FROM THE MOVIE
Mike (Nicholas Downs) is the leader of an exopolitical group called THE AMBASSADORS TO OUTER SPACE, and is contemplating the recent confirmation of Doris' prediction of the end-of-the-world. He is joined by love seeking runaway Marilee (Cynthia Dane) who has come to cheer him up with a bag of money stolen from her church's "Help Africa" lottery.
INTERVIEW with PROMINENT EAST COAST INTUITIVE DEB MANGELUS
Jaime Gomez (Felix in THE APOCALYPSE... ACCORDING TO DORIS) tells our wonderful and amazing psychic intuitive Deb Mangelus (who we love so much!) how the hardest part of the emerging consciousness shift is for us to remain open about something more than just, "...this." Deb then remembers how as a child she experienced naturally occuring intuitive abilities being "unlearned" by teachers and cultural conditioning.
INTERVIEW with AUTHOR, SCREENWRITER, and SPEAKER MIKE BARA
Mike has co-written the New York Times bestseller DARK MISSION: The Secret History of NASA with the controversial Richard C. Hoagland, and is a favored Lecturer on the convention circuit with The Physics of 2012. He has a new blog (link below) where he'll comment on more than the ongoing government conspiracy to cover-up the existence of extraterrestrial artifacts and continue to address issues raised in DARK MISSON.
8/22/10 E-BLAST
BIRTH OF THE DIVINE FEMININE
Almost there! After Playback, Layback, Check Screening and a few more tweaks in the mixing we will Compress, Output, and ready our Exhibition "Prints" of APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO DORIS during next week. As part of this process watermarked DVD industry screeners will follow for promised viewing with disitribution and sales individuals.
As soon as both our major venues are locked we will have locations, dates, and info on how DORIS INSIDERS can get their tickets for the red carpet screening hopefully in the next E-Blast. The minions (me!) are hard at work. And hey, don't keep yourself from wanting to help!
I have posted a new clip from the film on YouTube this week for all to view. Apperson is a preacher on an obsessive mission to find his redeemer, a woman from a dream he had (Doris). After three weeks on the road, he and Marilee have come to a dead end watching TV news in a motel room...
This story arc in the movie deals with religious fanaticism which bugs a lot of us nowadays. It seems our attitudes about religion are changing with many leaving traditional memes behind while searching for new kinds of truth - and all the while there is this increasing sense of intolerance among differing views.
Has this leaving behind made us feel even more uncertain in our lives? A little less comfortable in this vast "lonely" cosmos?
"Why This Movie Was Made" is part of the literature of indie filmmaking nowadays, a familiar item in the press kit for a film, and now the one I wrote comes to mind so I include it here. It's a reminiscence of experiences that shaped my childhood and awakened me to a greater perception of our existence, possibly familiar to others:
"When I was twelve, I lived in a typical California farm town up the coast and my parents took me to a little wooden Baptist church near our home. I was impressed by golden rays of light shining through the stained glass, the choir in white robes, and the joyful voices of the congregation.
When the preacher called for sinners (I knew I was one - I was constant trouble!), I shocked myself by stepping forward to receive redemption of the severest kind. Two weeks down the road, the preacher nearly drowned me in the baptismal tank, ran off with the Deacon's young and beautiful wife - and took the church building fund to boot! I decided this was bullshit... but something in that little white church remained stirring inside me in some deep place.
I decided if religion was spiritual kindergarten, I was looking for higher education. I began a journey toward the unknown - reading Whitman, Thoreau and Blake - and the psychedelic explorations of Huxley, Lilly, and Leary. I met psychics, mystics, gurus, fringe scientists and saints. I discovered the spiritual metaphor of Joyce, and was awed by the starry, starry night of VanGogh. It's been a bittersweet adventure, worth sharing with my fellow travelers.
APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO DORIS is the result of my journey. My quest has become an existential laugh - like the guy looking for his glasses all day long - only to find them on top of his head."
I don't know how to put this into words, but it's dawned on me that my almost manic compulsion to find the identity and the nature of THE SOURCE from other dimensions is completely absurd.
It could become a pathological head-trip, an intellectual perversity and a hopelessly ridiculous quest to grasp the ungraspable, tailspinning into delusion and a hell of my own making (like Apperson!).
Maybe the reason religions originally focused on deity-figures (images of G**) as their loving paternal reference - was to surrender this obsessive mental mind-fuck: of something that cannot be described or known.
Then this is like the Zen koan, FINGER POINTING AT THE MOON: The Finger remains a finger, it is NOT the Moon.
And then of course we immediately forgot this and started praying to the finger... So is it a finger, or somebody giving us the finger?
Maybe it's just luna-cy.
Oh, and I wanted to share a REALLY interesting trailer for a feature documentary a good friend has made about a subject that is so misunderstood. But it continues to fascinate and amaze:
WHAT ON EARTH?
And I cannot help but to include pictures of a few crop images that have been placed in the fields in the last month or so (and yes, those are peole walking around inside of them). If you want to see more, these and others from this year's season can be found at this link below:
DEATH AND REBIRTH OF THE FEMININE
While recently cleaning up the office of DORIS writing notes I found this. I can't remember what Sci-Fi project this was intended for, but it so captures the spirit of DORIS that anyone who sees the film will understand it immediately:
She jumped down from the metal grate of the rover and looked toward the sun-seared strip of coast that jutted out, stabbing toward the molten sea. For the first time she felt that the gold-yellow fire in the west was beckoning directly to her, almost calling her by name.
She belonged here. Most had left, but this was her land; she ruled here now... in a way that would have seemed funny had she thought of it years before... when the girls romped recklessly through the high night dance looking for that shimmering, ungraspable thing that lay before them like an open highway.
Battles fought and won... battles fought and lost. It didn't matter anymore because it was the rush of wind in her face, a head-long soar that brought her to the top of the moutain she looked out from now.
She felt power radiating through her body, remembering each prize as if it had been torn from the sky with bare hands, shaping the things that were her destiny.
The sun relented against the edge of the evening's purple blade; she watched the evanescent sheen of the metallic bay-water reflect on her bronzy arm, youthful and powerful still but now softened with a knowing.
As a woman she stood strong and had taken what she needed, not always in order, but certainly paid for with the humble pride of independence.
Now a deep rising tide moved up, engulfing her with something she had only vague dreams of as a child. Something she had not taken, but something she was taken by. Turning closer to that unseen warmth, it was the very molten heat of the western sky she felt within her.
She was different now and she couldn't tell when she had changed. Everyday brought a surprise, and she had learned to wait for it... to listen for it... with cat-like ears.
The echo of those earlier times still tore at her heart, but now it was more like a story she had heard a long time ago, like fragments of photographs left in a box.
And as the rivulets of liquid fire spilled into the sunset bay, it asked again, and she turned to it, becoming the light itself when she spoke.
And she said, "Now, I am Born."
ON THE SUBJECT of the sacred feminine, I included this inspirational video about Clarissa Pinkola Estes and her seminal classic
...because a friend of mine (a guy) said he read it, and I should read it too. I thought it was for chicks, but quickly realized it's about the birth of a new human being, and a new world. If you haven't read it, I strongly encourage you to do so - and it's a fun read, fascinating.... click on the link and you can buy it at Amazon (I'm not benefiting from the sale).
8/15/10 E-BLAST
Is it true? Yeah, it's been a FULL YEAR since APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO DORIS came before cameras in the hundred-and-twenty degree heat on a dry lake bed near Boron, California!
With lots of gratitude I acknowledge your support and anticipation of the delivery of this beautiful and unlikely spiritually subversive "PSI" - Fi movie. In the next two weeks you'll be getting some exciting news about the completion and viewing of this long-awaited film.
It's turned out ruthlessly funny and emotionally shocking, telling the story of CRAZY PEOPLE, maybe a little like you and me!!!! ...who are trying to make sense of strange events we don't understand, things not investigated, even suppressed by the powers-that-be.
It's been a challenging birthing process, but alas, she's about to be born to the world. APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO DORIS now begins the wild and winding journey into the international flim marketplace. I'm assembling the sales team, and screening dates are being scheduled - including an exclusive special by-invitation-only sneak preview!
INVITATION ONLY RED-CARPET PREVIEW SCREENING
In the next few weeks DORIS INSIDERS will receive information via this E-Blast about how you and a guest can attend TWO exciting EVENINGS of events as our VIP's!!!!!!!!!
iNVITATION ONLY RED-CARPET PREVIEW SCREENING
of
APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO DORIS
Additionally, other really off-the-leash events are lining up in our sights for the rest of the year.
I NEED YOUR HELP to get the word out because I want this film to be a catalyst of change for the future of the human race. Is that too big a goal? Well screw me, i'd rather end up being the world's biggest fool than to keep moaning about the crisis in the Gulf and all the other horseshit going on. How about YOU?
It's our goal to DIRECTLY reach 100,000 people this year, and ultimately over 1,000,000 people worldwide with the unique, entertaining, offbeat and funny message of this movie and we CAN'T DO IT WITHOUT you.
Stay tuned for how you can participate and be a key ingredient in the spreading of the message, ways I GUARANTEE will be FUN and make this a very REWARDING and EXCITING experience for ALL of us as APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO DORIS reaches out into the world.
Spread the word to your friends. WE NEED YOUR HELP! It's only through the person-to-person, word-of-mouth of dedicated film enthusiasts like us that we can get this movie seen by people who we want to see it! Have your friends log onto the website and become DORIS INSIDERS if they haven't already, and have them spread the word to their friends and family!
It's the only way they can get tickets to the invitation-only screening.
Also coming in the next weeks is a complete 4-MINUTE SCENE from the film that will be posted on the BONUS EXTRAS page for DORIS INSIDERS only.
Supporting this four-minute clip will be an in-depth report that makes the connection between the dry lake bed "crop circle" anomaly in our movie and the REAL-LIFE mysterious earth-glyph that appeared in Oregon in 1990, including links to archival video and info... with stories about Men-In-Black too!
Be well and happy, and stay in touch! - Victor
HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2010 - THE YEAR OF DORIS!
During this “quiet” period where everybody in the industry is vacationing and spending time with their families, I have been able to get an immense amount of finishing work done. The editorial process requires time, reflection, and “sitting” time to mature, and I have had a chance to go over the more than one thousand different camera set ups and all their multiple takes to really see deeply into what nuances and inflections are really happening within these scenes that are now so familiar to me that they play back in my sleep, and echo in my ears when I walk to the post office or take a shower.
Of this time, I was able to spend over two weeks completely rebuilding the “Channeling of Julie” scene, which, personally, was gratifying. It’s the one scene in the script at the writing and pre-production stages that I was most concerned about. Would it work? Could we pull this off?
I mean, in ‘real life,’ if I was to have experienced such an actual event – I would have trouble believing it’s authenticity anyway – and I am far more “out there” than your average guy. So how could I expect an audience to sustain their suspension of disbelief – on something that we all know was staged in front of a camera and "simulated" by an actor?
Elise Robertson is a genius as an artist. I recognized this when she first walked into casting. When she read the part – chills ran up and down my spine as I watched her experience this scene. I shocked me, for frankly, as a writer, I had never supposed I had written anything so real!
Although we were fortunate enough to get nearly two weeks of rehearsal, we didn’t rehearse this scene at all. One, because I knew intuitively it crawled around on all fours deep inside her in some dark place, and secondly, to be honest, I was so emotionally upset by her channeling this terror, I couldn’t take the repeated intensity of it.
I do know that Elise, from the time she knew she had the part, worked on the material by herself constantly, because when I visited her house, her two daughters, 6 and 4 years old, would repeat lines from Doris’ mouth they’d heard when their mother drove them to school in the morning, and walked them to the library or the park near their house.
So the day comes to shoot this big scene, and I tell our producer, Cathleen Alexander, that I can’t do this in one day because I’m going to be a COMPLETE asshole about staying on this until we have it exactly as it needs to be, no matter how long it takes.
I kept thinking, "Why did I write this difficult, huge, complicated scene?"
I wasn’t certain that I could make it work in just ten hours because of the massive size of the cast (about twenty people on two cameras) and the length of the scene, and the tremendous energy and emotional drain on Elise to do it, multiple times, and who knows how many takes it would require – since even if she was perfect on her first try, wouldn’t the camera miss a cue, or a motorcycle race by and ruin the sound, or someone blow a line, and so on.
So Cathleen says, ‘It’s your money.” And her detachment was so sobering - It wasn't just my money, what about the investors? I knew we had only that one day we had scheduled. So we did it.
And I was amazed, and ecstatic we had pulled it off, and moved with deep respect and admiration for Elise making this happen so beautifully, and then, when Richard (our editor) did the assembly edit, the scene was incredible! So what’s the big deal?
Well, I poured again and again over every shot and angle of the hours of footage that was that day’s work. I reviewed over and over, every single shot of Elise, each of the 8 long takes that we had done of the long scene, and every one of the different camera angles that had been set up.
I came to know every look, every kink of her eyelid, every angle of the corner of her mouth, every tilt of the head that was stored in the editing machine..... even every thought going through Doris’ mind I imagined….. including of course, every movement, every beat of Felix, Flo, Serena, and all the members of the audience as they were transfixed and transported by Doris’ visitation of this other-worldly entity, this wraith of Felix's lost daughter.... into her body as she filled that room with her six-year-old presence that night.
And after grokking each of these nuanced expressions of face and intonations of voice and spending two weeks putting them back together in a huge Chinese jigsaw… the scene rose up in front of me alive on the screen, alchemically, and took on a level of story it never had before!
So this is THE process, creating and recreating this living, breathing organism called THE APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO DORIS - and I have adjusted our finishing plans and marketing plans somewhat to allow for this intuitive creation experience – and since this is the time of the year that industry sleeps, it’s well to be working on the level of the soul of this film at any rate.
After the new year things will awaken again.
I have taken on a new post sound crew who are top guys in the industry headed by sound editor/designer Chuck Michael (X-Files movie, Simpson’s movie) – not only because we weren’t getting what we wanted from our previous group but because the new guys are the best in the business – and as timing would have it, things are a bit slow in the studios right now and so we now have the best talent and facilities at our disposal.
I am also meeting next week with a fantastic Emmy winning composer to take a look at the footage and see if she will do it… And Christopher Knell of Fireline Studios in Burbank has taken on the web-building task with me... Its been vexing trying to do this all at once, but we are shooting for a web launch date somewhere around the beginning of February - it's really exciting!
2010 is not only going to be a good year for Doris, it is going be the Year of Doris!
IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS PLEASE CONTACT ME at vg@starvingfilmstudents.com and even if I do not reply, I read every e-mail.