Shelli Ryan & Lance W. Lanfear

Guests: Shelli Ryan (Writer/ Director) & Lance Lanfear (Producer)

Project: Jake’s Closet: Psychological Thriller

http://www.jakesclosetmovie.com

Tonight I had my first show with two guests at the same time, woo, could I handle it? See for yourself. Shelli and Lance made a great team. One thing that was interesting is that the lead of their film is a talented child actor, Anthony De Marco, who is nine years old. We had a great discussion about working with kids in film, and some of the issues that come with it. A lot of the books say, in low budget indies, don’t work with kids, or animals, in film or at least it is very risky to do so. (By the way, they also worked with a cat!) I agree there are risks but it’s up to you to determine if the risk(s) are worth the reward. And like anything else, know what you are getting into, plan accordingly and you will minimize risk (as much as can) and maximize opportunities for success! Shelli and Lance did a great job with Anthony and the cat (I apologize to the cat for not knowing his name to give him proper credit :)).

I worked with a child actor in my film who had a supporting role and that worked out great as well, but there were challenges.

Shelli mentioned if she had it to do over again she would have a better sense of humor during the making of the film. Wow what a great point to bring up, I’m glad she did. We’re artists for many reasons. One of them presumably is that we love what we do. For many of us we struggle so hard to do it, that when we do, I think it’s so important to enjoy it and have fun with it; as there are no guarantees we’ll be able to make another movie again. Let’s leave the stress to Wall Street!

Lance later balances out the topic by pointing out that filmmaking is also serious business and be prepared to work and not take it too lightly. Ditto Lance.

There has to be balance between taking your work seriously, and not underestimating the task at hand and having fun with it!

Cast for Jake’s Closet also includes:
Brooke Bloom
Sean Bridges

For complete cast & crew, go the movie’s website or imdb.com.

Thanks for reading

Jeff Schubert
www.myspace.com/powerofnow