MERRY AND HAPPY TO ALL A GOOD DAY AND NIGHT!

DRY MOON is always shut down at Christmas Holidays, but a shout goes out to all the cast crew and other interested parties, HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND HERE'S TO A NEW NEW YEAR--BEST EVER 2014!

PHOTO?

The offending image.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
A picture is a lie.
period
.

Gracie, or Ophelia...I prefer a happy ending, even in the cold drizzling rain of December...My real life has begun, again, perhaps I will now continue my journey to create my legacy.  Or maybe I'll just finish this movie so I can make another one!

WOMEN ARTISTS

Another year, seems like a lifetime ago when this picture was taken.  My dearest fellow artists at the COOP, supporting and inspiring me to finish DRY MOON.  Jennifer and Jayne --I have carried on, sometimes just riding on the fumes of your support.  I hope and pray this will be the year I am able to say WE DID IT because without you, I would not have had the fortitude to go on.  I love you both so very much.  Thank you for your brilliance and constancy.

NEW UPDATED WEBSITE: WWW: DRY MOON-MOVIE.COM--CHECK IT OUT!

The COOP toasting to my new updated website...please take a look there is still some filler, but it is getting there and my kickstarter video is in the works and soon we will be trying to raise money (something I have never been very good at!)  WOMEN MAKE MOVIES is still my fiscal sponsor after all these many many years--a fantastic organization (CHECK THEM OUT!!!!!!!)
KEEP THE FAITH!

and the light comes streaming in!

we worked on the website today while the light came streaming in the windows...we remember not to look AT the window but THROUGH the window into completion...
until tomorrow....

Idyll, Idol, doll, dolly, dollop, dollar...dally, daily, days, daze, daisy...from the general to the specific and back again.  Is that narrative, is that universal?

I wonder about DRY MOON, why did I write it, why did I spend so many years working to finish it and make it as good as possible...why did I care?  Why do I care?  As I have spent so much time and money (with no investment save the time and energy of my phenomenal cast and crew)--what is the point?  Riches?  Fame?  Art Film and Profit not "often found in the same sentence"...or is that "documentary".  I should be

We used to have video stores to walk into and look around--reminding us of the work in a physical realm, and before that all the archives that housed the precious negatives--silver light!  Now we peruse the links and digital language of our precious moving visual images...the films are left in the universities, in the hands of kids who never had any chance to "feel the material"--and that was true.  By actually watching the shadows and light wind through the flatbed we could feel the pacing, experience the actual timing of the cuts, even on the rewinds...even going backwards.

Yellow Gracie

...the sunlight streaming in...this is how it feels to be alone, but surrounded by light.  And the light from Gracie pours out until there is none left-- poor thing.  But then, a miracle!  Gracie gets what she wants and the artists sell their paintings for big bucks to a dealer from UP NORTH!
You go Gurrlll....

WHERE IS THE D*** MOVIE?

My friend asked me to see DRY MOON.  Where is it?  She looked everywhere and couldn't find it, couldn't find my Kickstarter --NOTHING but confusion.  I told her welcome to my world...all I need is a good soundtrack, some decent post-production and we can send it out!  I will push this through I promise Jojo!!!

The security of arms...

Well here is another meal around the old table, Mama and Gracie looking comfortable, but maybe it is because of the gun hung up behind them-- reflects the feeling of security, or does it?  Does it create insecurity to see the gun it the shot?  Isn't that the same gun she used to shoot Granddaddy Groundhog? 

Another scene on the cutting room floor...that's the same issue really if you think about it.  Does it exist if it is not in the film?  Does the gun create security if it is never fired.  What is the point? 

My boys are always discussing the sound of the tree falling in the forest and INSIST it makes a sound...humans are so filled with self-importance...Yes there is a whole universe out there that exists even if we will never see it or know it in any concrete way...including the real work that went into the electronic signal that will not become a finished part of the film...but it is there, somewhere.  Preserved on the last of the tapes...

Halloween dress-up...what is the era?  Definitely an era gone by...where are the dollies now?  The rolling kind and the ones you hold onto as tight as you can for safety.  Gone.  Our cameras are light, and we are all too old for dolls.  Right?  Except the live and sexy ones that parade around every movie by men.  And a bunch of women too...I read all about how the film establishment wants to create better parts for women, more films by women, but what does the film-going public want?  Sex and Violence.  I have never understood that on some level....Now a good John Waters spoof, well that's different, (My students are studying CRY BABY).  But some will be interested in DRY MOON--the kids and their old folks who taught them to appreciate art and beauty.  There are more of us then you might think!

This invite nearly a month and some years ago...and it still shines!  I have my Kickstarter product ideas:
1-A pack of DRY MOONSHINE--just add the liquid of your choice!
2-The usual t-shirts, posters and mug-shots!
3-For the big spender--an actual or VIRTUAL TOUR OF HILLSBOROUGH with all the trimmings!  Such an adorable little town tucked away off the map--only trouble is that embarrassment to the....
4...and for those BUDGET-CONSCIOUS your choice might be an actual or virtual TOUR OF WEST HILLSBOROUGH

Both tours complete with characters, locations and very funny anecdotes from the making of the film...all the aficionados for this type of thing will be very pleased with their donations!  Now I just have to make the Kickstarter campaign and get KICKIN!

Dry Moon: Then and Now

Monday, October 28, 2013

This invite nearly a month and some years ago...and it still shines!  I have my Kickstarterproduct ideas:
1-A pack of DRY MOONSHINE--just add the liquid of your choice!

2-The usual t-shirts, posters and mug-shots!

3-For the big spender--an actual or VIRTUAL TOUR OF HILLSBOROUGH with all the trimmings!  Such an adorable little town tucked away off the map--only trouble is that embarrassment to the....

4...and for those BUDGET-CONSCIOUS your choice might be an actual or virtual TOUR OF WEST HILLSBOROUGH

Both tours complete with characters, locations and very funnyanecdotes from the making of the film...all the aficionados for this type of thing will be very pleased with their donations!  Now I just have to make the Kickstarter campaign and get KICKIN!

Blog Archive

• ▼  2013 (10)
  • ▼  October (10)
    • Magic Hour
    • Here is green Gracie on the Dias.  (As I write my ...
    • Bluebelle runneth over...with baskets.  It is alwa...
    • the times they are....
    • What google does to remind you....
    • Flowers babies and children...they grow up!  Looki...
    • All I can think when I see this picture is that I ...
    • RANDOM STILL FROM FLASHBACK IN DRY MOON: Here is a...
    • I have been told that people like to see images o...
    • Here is Buddy in his "crib"--he appeared in Dry Mo...

About Me

Andrea DeGette

DRY MOON is the story of Gracie Lee, a simple wild crafter who lives in harmony with nature near the old farmhouse where her mother scrapes a living selling at the local farmers market. Gracie encounters a vagrant, she becomes pregnant and then she is forced to change in order to get her baby back from social services. Her simple way of life is lost as she becomes part of the present day culture and loses touch with her roots in nature, though the bonds of three generations of women remain. Dry Moon will change the conception of what it might mean to live in harmony with nature in the modern world, perhaps what has been lost forever.

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Magic Hour

The magic hour with knives and a ripe pineapple--what's not to like?  Cut correctly by Mama, with the promise of things to come for everybody in DRY MOON...
Nowcoming up again on that time of year.  Cold and colder, old and older.  But this is our fate.  I wrote my epitaph last night and placed the little cut-out gravestone with the others sitting in the candle-lit graveyard--part of our "INALIENABLE" show at the Coop.  Mine said:  Loving Mother (and other things)...
Q:  How are you doing?
A:  Fabulous, never better!

Here is green Gracie on the Dias.  (As I write my students are editing "Makeup guys and Sleepovers" and "Catfish"--their first foray into narrative...)

This green Gracie when she told her story, what happened, her narrative and the narrative of the film, both together... Her story of love and loss.  But we couldn't use the footage!  All the building and preparing and crew and carpentry and angst as the dias turned and the green-screen all around, and the camera like a voyeur...
At least the great photographer of our film, Nick Graetz, had a show with an image like this one, at the Horace Williams House, a great success.  Which I unfortunately missed due to an unexpected appendectomy.

Bluebelle runneth over...with baskets.  It is always the case, too many baskets and not enough beans!  Not enough gas in the truck ETC.... or the rest of what one needs.  I think that is what is causing the slow-down in completing DRY MOON..Too many baskets and not enough beans!

the times they are....

Well Gracie getting handcuffed...imprisoned for nothing except the desperate desire to return to the simple life of love with her new baby which was taken from her by a system doomed by its own bureaucracy...  This is what is behind the scene...getting punished for being yourself, being different.  And everybody knows that is very UN-American, but this punishment, it happens all the time.  It is a state of affairs that everyone tacitly agrees to, no matter how politically correct, or open-minded.  It is the 'WAY IT IS"  Get along, don't make waves, there is no culture of any benefit for rebellion...the days of not fitting in are over it seems.  Fit in or stay on the outside which is NOT cool.  You don't get hired, you don't get ahead, and you barely survive that way.  Bob Dylan was right, the times they are a'changin... but they are a'changin to stay the same for everyone.  If you are rich you get richer.  If you are poor you better take a hand out or die...and the humiliation and self-effacement that comes with it.  Forget about dignity.  The only ones entitled to that are the rich or those who humbly accept their lowly position...where those in power pretend to care.  The dignity of the decent person with sterling character is a thing of the past, the way past.  That is why the youth of today don't care at all...they are superficial and realize that is the only way to get along.  Depth takes too long, is too messy, and does not result in anything that will pay the bills.

What google does to remind you....

Here is a trailer made a good while ago...it is a piece of the puzzle.  Reminding me of that summer when students were in my studio editing for days, the same scene in various iterations, almost none of which made it into the final cut.  My idea is if you don't have money, you have to shoot more then enough.  My memory is fading, but the digital age preserves it all for what I wonder?  I just ran across the Swans "Time is Money" (Harry Crosby RIP)--searching for the elusive third element of production:  Time, Money and...what?  I just can't remember the third element.  Maybe that's why I can't seem to finish DRY MOON...

Flowers babies and children...they grow up!  Looking at this old photo of the girls (now young ladies) that play Little Gracie and her best friend Celia-- I am reminded of time and distance and that effect on growing UP.  The days go slow, the years go fast, but true friendship remains in one's heart.  I still believe that (I think so anyway).  I hope it is true!  I got in touch with a yoga sound man today (who has heard of such a thing?) via linked-in...maybe that will be the way I find my music for DRY MOON...or if anyone out there has any other ideas, PLEASE COMMENT!
Until tomorrow, good night and sweet dreams of youth--hopes dreams and schemes...

All I can think when I see this picture is that I was so happy shooting DRY MOON...and how long my hair was, (and blond)--I guess like everyone else I associate blond with happy... blondies...better then brownies.  I remember shooting this scene at the old farmhouse, getting the shots (overshooting) and having fun with cast and crew.
I hesitate to mention the lost chicken incident... however, (not to put a damper on this revery), sometime during this location I lost my friend's chicken in the thickest thicket ever.  I thrashed around those blackberry brambles chasing that pin-headed thing-- tearing the flesh on my legs arms and everywhere-- until I eventually retrieved that stupid bird...
My children, quite young at the time, remember that incident clearly...mom not giving up... (everyone encouraging me to forget about the chicken)--

But here I am a few years later, DRY MOON shot, edited and waiting waiting waiting...but
mom is still not giving up!!!!!!!!

RANDOM STILL FROM FLASHBACK IN DRY MOON:
Here is a familiar pose I think...boys clowning around while the studious girl is inside doing her work...why is this so easy to predict?  What about a group of goof-off girls with the boy inside?  These boys are the ones much more likely to get the "green light"...they will make more money for the same work as the girl...

There are many times I experience the unfairness of being female in this male-dominated film world...I ask my students at least once every term to name women filmmakers, mostly the can't AT ALL...when asked about male filmmakers the list goes on and on.  This is NOT because women aren't making movies, but these movies are not popular I suppose, only rarely.

We have kids, we raise kids, we have first things first and one definition of a "good-enough" mother is one who can put the children first.  And I do not believe this means having enough money for someone else to raise the child, (except maybe it does)--

All I know is when I had my three children my ability to make movies came to a near-standstill--I wrote and shot DRY MOON, but it has stalled out every since because of first things first...

But when this movie is done it will embody all of that which came to pass in the making of this film, and that girl in the background, my young daughter, is still inside doing her homework THANK GOD~!

I am blessed beyond measure, and I have learned what I did not believe for many years:
LIFE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ART.

I have been told that people like to see images of dead people.  This character is not dead anyway, no one in Dry Moon dies...sorry folks.

I do remember when we shot this scene of Ravena's journey to give Gracie her childhood things...determined to give her back her childhood somehow, her innocence.  She
collapses under the strain....it is impossible to do such a thing.

Then Ravena is saved by a strong man on a white horse!  As if that were possible...

I hope so!

Here is Buddy in his "crib"--he appeared in Dry Moon briefly as a kitten, before his run in with a car...another story...

Welcome to my new blog which will give you an idea about the history and hopes I have for my feature film which is going to be a big hit with the art crowds...unless that is a contradiction in terms now.  Maybe it always has been.
I digress...
I hope you will follow me and my progress getting DRY  MOON finished...it is shot, edited and waiting for a great soundtrack and final post..sponsored by Women Make Movies, and over-ripe.  Check out my new website, available because of the amazing dedication of BAIRD--my hero!  More on the crew later, and everything else you might or might not have wanted to know!
Cheerio for now,
Andrea
check back tomorrow for videos, pictures and more updates!