Getting close to finishing this unique 4 minute "trailer" for a mock documentary!

 

Thank you Andrea, for lending your voice to "Tax Experiment," -- our quirky short, soon to be released.

Andrea Klunder is the creative media strategist and podcast producer behind The Creative Impostor Studios. She calls upon her myriad experiences as a singer, actor, director, business owner, yoga and meditation teacher to produce and edit podcasts for social impact organizations and entrepreneurs. Andrea has developed podcasts with the Santa Fe Opera, Institute for Justice, Chicago Reader,  the NARM Training Institute, and more. She has been a featured speaker and trainer for Podcast Movement, Podfest, She Podcasts Live, the University of Florida, The Wing, Next Door Chicago, After School Matters, and many, many podcasts.

Andrea believes in the power of podcasting to immerse your followers in an authentic brand experience through engaging, entertaining, and educational audio media. Her podcasts are The Creative Impostor and Podcast Envy. Her mission is to help your voice to shine!

www.thecreativeimpostor.com
Instagram @thecreativeimpostor

Lovely to have such talented colleagues and friends!

Our talented friend Donna Steele (from "The Clown," "The Split," and our upcoming, "Tax Experiment") is in this show, airing tonight (Monday) at 7pm CST. Yeah Donna!!

Beginning to film the professors in "The Tax Experiment"

 

Planning productions for 2021

We will be tackling" Jammed: A stop motion drama" -- based on the stage play "Jam" by Vince Gatton. 

We are thrilled to produce a stop motion version of this fantastic script! 

Vince Gatton is a New York-based playwright and Drama Desk-nominated actor. His full- length play ALEXANDRIA won Sanguine Theatre Company’s Project Playwright Festival 2018, and his short play BETTER was one of the winners of the 2018 Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival. Other shorts have had readings in mtp’s annual CHERRY PICKING at the Wild Project in NYC; IN THE WHOLE HISTORY OF HI-Q, BETTER, and HEY were both finalists for the National Playwriting Award at City Theatre in Miami; and another short, JAM, won Best Play in the 2015 LIC Short Play Festival at the Secret Theatre in Long Island City. WAKE, his first full-length play, was a semifinalist for PlayPenn, and a finalist with readings at Dayton Playhouse’s FutureFest, Boomerang Theatre’s First Flight Festival, and Vintage Theatre Productions’ Mystery/Thriller New Works Festival. He received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Play for David Johnston's Candy and Dorothy, which he also performed at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre in Cape Cod. Other notable acting credits include Leigh Fondakowski’s SPILL at Ensemble Studio Theatre; Cock and Clean Alternatives at the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca; I Am My Own Wife and Fully Committed at Barrington Stage Company; I Am My Own Wife again at Coachella Valley Rep (Desert Star Award Nomination) and Two Turns Theatre Company; Taylor Mac’s The Hot Month at Boomerang Theatre Company; and The Temperamentals at New World Stages, standing by for Michael Urie. You can also catch him being himself on a certain rerun of Jeopardy, in the documentary Married & Counting, and in the Pippin episode of Encore! on Disney+.

Trailer for our new dramedy, "The Split."

 

Another laurel for "Stockbroker!" Grateful to Depth of Field Film Festival.

 

Inspirare Theatre and Films

 We have updated our mission!  (Getting the paperwork out today to update our 501c3 paperwork.)  

·        Help the public appreciate and understand classic comic structures in short and feature films. 

 ·        Use film to teach classic fairy tales updated for modern sensibilities.

 ·        Preserve knowledge of fairy tales and their psychological uses through the creation of short films.

  ·       Create short films to aid in the discussion of current cultural trends, norms, and controversies.  Films may be packaged with discussion questions.  

 

Still from "The Split"

 

Thrilled to be part of this festival. Get your tickets here.

 Get Your Tickets Here!

Images from "The Split."

 

Thank you to John Weagly for sharing his talents with us!

We are thrilled that John Weagly is joining us again and offering his comic and vocal talents to "The Split." John was also featured in "The Clown," and "Would You Rather I was Dead."

Our filmmaking intro to the Ridgway Film Festival

 We were delighted to submit a short film into for the online screening of our "Stockbroker and the Goddess," part of the Ridgway Film Festival in Colorado.

Backstage on set of "The Split"

 We are continuing to film this upcoming dramedy.  

Seeking angel investors for this fun romantic comedy.

 

Backstage, a new set being built for our upcoming dramedy, "The Split."

 

We're very happy to have Emma voicing Bet and other characters in our upcoming dramedy "The Split !

Emma Belair is twenty-two and has been acting her whole life on stage and in film, but is new to the voiceover scene. She loves trying new accents and digging into different roles. She hopes to do more voice acting in the future!

Thrilled to have Kat Evans voicing Amy in our upcoming "The Split."

 Kat Evans is a performing artist based in Chicago. With City Lit Theatre, she performed the roles of Bridgett in The Safe House, Grace Harkaway in London Assurance, Io in Prometheus Bound, and Anne Morrow Linberg in Hauptmann. She performed the roles of Parker and Harris in both productions of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde with Promethean Theatre Ensemble. With Black Button Eyes Theatre, she has played in the creepy ensembles of Shockheaded Peter and Nightmares and Nightcaps. Other favorite musical theatre roles include Mercury in Thespis (The Savoyaires), Lucy Brown in The Three Penny Opera (The Hypocrites) and Trix in Fanatical (American Demigods at the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival).

As a voice actor, she played the roles of Loamy, Cumulus Jane, Dora, Time Traveller Linsday, and Eunice for sci-fi serial podcast Our Fair City, and is currently a frequent voice for GATEWAYS, bringing new sci-fi short stories to life. Kat also currently writes and performs in the ensemble of Starlight Radio Dreams and is the creator of serial comedy TRUTH KITTENS.

On camera, Kat has been featured in web series Lucky Jay (Seasons 1 and 2), Why Don’t You Like Me? (Episode 3), and Geek Lounge (Down & Dirty). She played combat veteran Erika Byrd in the feature film NONTRADITIONAL. Kat is represented by Hayes Talent.

Interview with Artistic Director AJ Campbell of Quarantine Players

Such a fun time with Quarantine Players last night! They recorded my "Ditching Destiny on Halloween," a romantic comedy. Great cast. I'll post the link to the reading when available. Here's an interview with Artistic Director AJ Campbell.

Happy to have the voice of Nate Nelson as Sam in our upcoming "The Split."

Nate Nelson is an Award winning Voice Actor. His career in entertainment has been highlighted with professional wrestling, producing and co-hosting a radio morning show, and appearing on popular shows for HBO, Netflix, and Investigation Discovery. When he isn't acting, Nate volunteers as an EMT and Firefighter in Baltimore County. Find him at www.natenelsononline.com 

 

 

First laurel and screening for "The Linguist!"

So thrilled to be part of this online program with the fantastic "Women of the Lens Film Festival."  We love the mission of this London organization.

This platform was created because the underrepresentation of black women in the creative industries remains stubbornly low. We want to reveal the complexity, diversity and multiplicities of these women, which is ordinarily overlooked in the conventional media-sphere. We arrive because their stories are our stories, human stories with varied narratives - and as such, wider audiences beyond those of colour can truly engage with complex tales, which move beyond the common tropes reserved for these women in typical media representations.

Whilst our stories are by, of and for black women, we sincerely welcome allied women - and men, who will support the ethos and spirit of Women Of The Lens through their own work.

Another festival for "Dead!"

We are an official selection for the upcoming virtual festival next month with qFLIX!

Lots of room to keep things safe!

The Clown is part of the LIVE lineup in the upcoming Hobnobben Film Festival. Yea! The venue -- The historic Embassy Theatre in Downtown Fort Wayne! 

"Stockbroker" will be part of Ridgeway's virtual festival Nov. 6th through Nov. 12th. Yea!

 

Next project, "The Split"

During this pandemic, with our extra time, we are trying to keep focused. Here are some characters in our next dramedy project.

Thrilled to be interviewed for a Q and A will Mint's Executive Director Murnion

 Fun!  This interview appears after the film in the fabulous Mint Film Festival.

The Clown will be live, 8pm on Saturday!

 

Screenshots from our upcoming "The Linguist"

 

Fantastic time at MLC awards screening yesterday

Voice over artist Donna Steele and Director Laura Lewis-Barr both received Outstanding Achievement awards for "The Clown."  

Such fun.  Grateful for the wonderful weather and grateful to Freddy for hosting this event.  

Another Official Selection for "The Clown" Congrats to Persephone, Donna, and John!!

 The New York Long Island Film Festival will be screening some of the films in October!  Even if they can't screen all the films, it is fantastic to be recognized.

Technologies of the Soul

Love this quote.

Technologies of the soul include dancing, drumming, chanting, and storytelling, among others.

“Technologies of the soul tend to be simple, bodily, slow and related to the heart as much as the mind. Everything around us tells us we should be mechanically sophisticated, electronic, quick, and informational in our expressiveness - an exact antipode to the virtues of the soul. It is no wonder, then, that in an age of telecommunications - which, by the way, literally means "distant connections" - we suffer symptoms of the loss of soul. We are being urged from every side to become efficient rather than intimate.”
― Thomas Moore

Another win for "The Clown!"

 Waiting to hear about the screening in October in Fort Wayne, IN

"Dead" is an official selection for MINT Film Festival

Waiting to hear when "Would You Rather I was Dead" will screen.  MINT is combining virtual screenings with live screening in Billings MT.  We're honored to be a part of their program. 

 

A good week for laurels!

MLC will be screening "The Clown" on September 13 at the Starlite 14 Drive-in Cinema in Richmond Center, WI!

Filming begins again.

Our new short, "The Linguist," began filming today. Always an adventure to find creative ways to get that shot!

Another laurel for today!

"The Stockbroker and the Goddess" is an official selection!

The art of storytelling

I've been studying storytelling since childhood.  Amazingly, after friends gave me feedback questions on my latest stop motion film, I felt momentarily lost.  As if I never had told a story in my life.  I consider this a good thing.  To stay in the "beginner's mind" allows me to keep learning.  The "art" of storytelling means that the learning never ends.  

One friend asked me about adding some "darker" elements during a happy segment.  This started me thinking about choosing a "tone" for a piece and how delicate it is to switch tones within a piece.

Another friend asked about resolving stories or leaving them ambiguous. Another deep subject that I've been exploing.  

New 4 minute stop motion film!

This had new green screen challenges and lots of deep thinking about how to end a story.  (Resolve or leave ambigious).  

What does the ending mean to you?

Having fun with posters

Quarantine focuses the mind -- newest project -- "The Goddess and the Stockbroker"

Sheltering in place-- in the basement -- working on a new fairy tale short. 

More Good News Bad News

Here's a note from a local event -- Festival of the Arts at Starved Rock.

It was our intent to make you an official selection for our festival but will refrain from changing any designations until next year to give you time to withdraw if you so choose. We are completely understanding of the frustrations that independent filmmakers must be feeling and want to be as accommodating as possible. 

😭

Good News, Bad News

"Would you rather I was dead?" is now an official selection of the Shropshire Rainbow Film Festival.  

Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, the festival has been postponed.  

Nice to be recognized!

"The Clown" written by Persephone Vandergrift, has been recognized by Frostbite International Online Film Festival. Yeah!