Life in the Fast Track

We’re sorry, Jenny and Kristin can’t come to the phone right now, they’re busy in L.A. schmoozing with fancy producers, financiers, and other highfalutin’ Hollywood pros. Please leave a message and they’ll talk to their people who’ll talk to your people, and you’ll do lunch. K bye!

Well, you guessed it. Jenny and Kristin are off to Los Angeles, this time for Fast Track, one of Film Independent's major programs to help indie productions receive funding. The program is highly selective and only seeks the most inventive, original scripts – like ours! Hopefully we can snag this nice little Sloan Grant, get a few seminars under our belt, and after Kristin and Jenny meet some moneybags at the financing conference, the film will be on the Fast Track to production. Corny pun? Maybe a little. But still! It’s exciting! Oh, and while they’re out there, they might as well check out the L.A. Film Festival with their fancy free passes, right? Right.

Stay tuned to catch ‘em tweeting from Tinseltown. Good luck, ladies!

URGENT: A Call to Action (and a few Representatives)

On your toes, green commandos! Gas drilling is polluting water supplies all over New York and Pennsylvania and the time to take action is NOW! We need your help to place some calls before noon tomorrow, June 17^th. Below are the straight facts, but for more detailed information on these issues, bills, votes, and deadlines, click here.

Pennsylvanians:

Call House Speaker Keith McCall (717-787-4610 or 717-783-1375), House Majority Leader Todd Eachus (717-772-0744 or 717-787-2229), and Senate Minority Leader Robert Mellow and urge them to make sure they’re IRRC appointees vote for Chapter 102 and Chapter 95.

Call your PA legistator to express your support for House Bill 2213.

Lastly, call your PA Senator to vote for a Senate bill that mirrors Rep. Greg Vitali’s House Bill 2235.

New Yorkers:

Call Senator Smith, Chairman of the Rules Committee at 518-455-2701 or email Senator Bonacci and ask him to move out of Committee to the Senate floor the Englebright/Addabbo Bill which would impose a 2 year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for the extraction of natural gas.

Also call Senate Leadership in support of a moratorium bill this month:

• Malcolm A Smith - Chair 518-455-2701 masmith@senate.state.ny.us
• Jeffrey D. Klein 518-455-3595 klein@senate.state.ny.us
• Pedro Espada, Jr. 518-455-3395 espada@senate.state.ny.us
• Ruth Hassell-Thompson 518-455-2061 hasselit@senate.state.ny.us
• John Sampson 518-455-2788 sampson@senate.state.ny.us

We’re counting on you, commandos, help keep our water clean and environment safe!

Calling All Mollusks to Co-Star in Feature Film

We’re looking for a talented young mussel to play the role of the Ohio Pigtoe in our upcoming film. Candidate must be bright and ambitious and well-versed in the sediments and freshwaters of the Midwestern United States, particularly Southern Illinois. Imperative that aspirant understand his or her crucial role in freshwater ecosystems: filtering and aerating the river or stream, creating a structural foundation and shelter for invertebrates and small fish, and occasionally playing the role of prey to larger fish, invertebrates, and even mammals (apologies).

Casting call for this position has been open for quite some time now as the freshwater mollusk is part of the most endangered family of animals in the United States with over 70% either extinct or facing extinction. But that does not mean we are desperate, we seek talented mollusks only! The applicant must fulfill role as a barometer for the health of the ecosystem and understand that their own well-being can easily be affected by poisonous runoff from land (such as pesticides, fertilizer, road salt, etc.), change in flow due to river damming, competition with nonnative mollusks for survival, and lack of fish hosts because of similar causes. If the ecosystem begins to fail, you will be among the first to feel it; faint-of-(mollusk)-heart need not apply! But don’t worry, because we are doing everything in our power to preserve the existence of the Ohio Pigtoe, which is why we need your help, so that it can also live forever on the screen.

Please send in your 8x10 clamshell shots with relevant acting experience on reverse.

Why Our Film Set Might Smell Like Onion Rings

We’ve been doing our best to follow ‘The Code,’ most recently researching the possibility of using biodiesel to run our on-set generators and possibly our vehicles (like those nifty Patagonia surfers). But it sure is trickier than we thought. First of all, biodiesel is made a few different ways: directly from vegetables (virgin oil), recycled from used restaurant grease (recycled oil), or from a combination of restaurant grease and rendered animal fat (yellow oil). Now, any diesel engine can run on biodiesel, however special modifications would be needed if we were to take it a step greener, by enabling our engines to run directly on the used (unfiltered) restaurant grease. Of course, these modifications are expensive (anywhere from $900-$2500), but the combined long-term benefits of saving money on fuel and relieving stress on the environment by recycling used restaurant grease may be well worth it. Those prices are for a professional kit, however for Jacks and Janes-of-all-trades out there, you can convert your own engine following some do-it-yourself videos we found. Heck, if these guys can do it, maybe we can too. Hmm. First we need access to diesel vehicles. More on that to come!


For more information on recycled biodiesel production in the area, check out Black Gold Biofuels and Tri-State Biodiesel.

Hollywood Comes to Delco

Roll out the red carpet , Chester, movie stars might be moving in across the street. With the groundbreaking of Sun Center Studios scheduled for June 10, the Greater Philadelphia area will see the construction of its very own film production studio. At the completion of this ninety million dollar project, the facility (built on the former site of the Tri-State Sports Complex) will include five studios, a tourist museum, and a 4-D Movie Theater Not only will this state-of-the-art studio provide the local area with over 1,000 jobs, but it will also provide itself with energy - Sun Center Studios Corp. has received funding to install a geothermal heat pump, which will service 153,000 square feet of the facility with renewable, geothermal heat and cooling. Now isn't that nifty? By the way, the owners are still seeking LEED certification.