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Working on a low-budget indie film is new to me. When I worked in Hollywood I worked for big people and therefore there was big money put into the films (in other words I worked on pieces of crap). Everything was taken care of on set- food, transportation, accommodations- and you only had to worry about your own duties and not making eye contact with ANYONE.
On a low-budget, guerrilla-style indie feature, none of this applies. Typically cast and crew wear many hats, eat homemade meals, and sleep on air mattresses. As stressful as it sounds, it can be a lot of fun because the ego involved in Hollywood is nonexistent. Everyone is the same and all working towards the same goal. They’re working on the project because they believe in it.
Currently we have 6 people sleeping in a 3 bedroom house with only 1 bed and 4 couches including one couch from the set of Tree of Life. We are all sleep-deprived and pushed to the max. Daily needs like eating, showering, and peeing have gone out the window. (more…)
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| photo by Keye TV of Bastrop, TX |
Right now, surrounding Austin is on fire.
Small pockets in Austin are on fire.
Yesterday, I was having drinkings with a friend at the Black Star Co-Op (the world’s first co-operatively owned and worker self-managed brewpub) and noticed a plume of black smoke behind her shoulder. The smoke cloud could not be more than a few miles away in Central Austin and we both got concerned. The entire city is combusting, I thought to myself. We scrambled to Twitter to see what was going on (both our first go-to for news) and didn’t see anything. Later we learned that a fire started about a mile away but was quickly extinguished. Over 40 counties are on fire in Texas and local news reports new fires in Austin daily.
Everyone is on edge right now and heartbroken over the destruction the fires have caused, most notably the Bastrop fires. Over 550 homes have been damaged in Bastrop.
It’s eerie how this complete annihilation can be occurring so (more…)
Holy crap, we’re making a movie!
I can’t believe it’s actually happening.
One day Geoff and I were writing a treatment, next thing I know we’re starting production.
Today we’re on day 5 of production. Some of us have gotten very little sleep.
From the support of friends and fans, we were able to reach our US Artists goal. We have a terrific cast and crew on board whose talents have been showcased in Cannes, Sundance, and SXSW. Trieste Kelly Dunn (Cold Weather, Canterbury’s Law) is playing our flawed heroine and Francisco Barreiro (We Are What We Are) as our loveable knight in hipster armor.
So besides being the co-writer and general extra hand on set, I’m also handling all the social media and PR for the film. If you have a moment, please check out our Tumblr page which we will update with photos, videos, and fun stories about independent filmmaking. Same with our Facebook page. I also finally set up an Instagram page which I’m having so much fun with!
I will update more later. (more…)
Austin, Texas is a film city. It is not always easy to find film work in, but it’s an excellent place to write your script or make your movie (see why here).
Moviemaker Magazine named Austin, Texas the #5 place to Live, Work, and Make Movies In.
We host arguably the #3 film festival in the U.S. (SXSW) and a respectable up-and-coming festival that features big Hollywood movies and players (Austin Film Festival). We have studio directors who got their start in Austin and continue to shoot their productions in here (Richard Linklater, Mike Judge, and Robert Rodriguez) and we have a plethora of indie filmmakers whose work has been seen at every festival on the planet, literally.
So needless to say, some pretty interesting and creative stuff comes out of Austin.
A perfect example of this is the “reimagining” of Richard Linklater’s perennial indie classic Slacker, which will be premiering tonight at the historic Paramount Theater on Congress Avenue. If you went to film school, you (more…)
There comes a point in every young person’s life where they have to make the jump.
Have to because they can’t kid themselves that they’re happy with the safe route anymore. Working jobs that mean nothing to them and waking up every morning trying to kid themselves that they care. Ignoring the hunger pains of a creative appetite gnawing away at them.
“But life is sometimes about working jobs that you don’t like!” the age-old sentiment kept cycling through my head. “But not if I have any say it!” I finally answered back one day. Last week. When I realized that now was the time.
I was born from a musician and an artist. One took the safe route her entire life and regrets it, the other jumped on the Autobahn to creative anarchy. My father tried going the safe route- which included marriage, kid, and steady employment- but ultimately he couldn’t handle the confines. Do I blame him? No. Because I’m just like him. “And that scares me,” my mother can often be found saying. But we live (more…)
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Somehow I wrote a movie and somehow it premiered at SXSW. I still don’t know how the hell that happened.
We’re pretty stinkin’ proud of Loves Her Gun. The film won the Louis Black Lone Star award at SXSW 2013 and was chosen as a Critic’s Pick in the New York Times. We also received favorable reviews from the Village Voice, Variety, Salon and Think Progress.
The film, which was picked up by Devolver, is currently available online and DVD.
The film stars some pretty kick-ass indie talent such as Trieste Kelly Dunn (Cold Weather, Banshee), Francisco Barreiro (We Are What We Are, Here Comes the Devil), and Ashley Spillers (Saturday Morning Mystery).
If you’re interested in learning more about our film, you can check out our website here and our Facebook page here.
Picture by Patrick Rusk
I’m a writer for hire!
Email me at laurenmodery at gmail dot com for more info.
My services have been sought out by numerous companies, startups and apps including Google, the LIVESTRONG Foundation, the City of Austin, Medium, the Sundance Institute, Virgin Atlantic, MassMutual and Alternative Apparel, and my writing has appeared in The Guardian, xoJane, AOL, Austin Monthly, Austin Chronicle, Austin Insider Mag and CultureMap. This blog was selected as Google/Blogger’s “Blog of Note” in 2009, I was named Austin’s “Blogger of the Year” at the Austin Blogger Awards in 2010 and I was named “Best Local Blog” in the Austin Chornicle’s annual “Best of Austin” for 2015. My writing has been mentioned in Texas Monthly, National Geographic, Mental Floss, Mashable, Huffington Post, Houston Chronicle, Le Temps and Le Soir.
Please find selected writing samples below and send me a shout (or sweet nothings) if you want to work together!
I have a NY driver’s license, an LA mailing address and an Austin physical address. My biggest fear is that I’ve been summoned for jury duty in one of these states. (Update: I no longer have the LA mailing address. I hope I’m now in the good graces of Austinties who hate Californians. Update to update: I now have a TX license. I’m now a Texan…good God.)
Here, this guy said it best, “Hipstercrite bridges the gap between blogging about yourself and blogging about pop culture. For all you English Studies people out there, I’ll translate that: “She transgresses the socio-political boundaries between the Cultural and the Personal”.
That sounds pretty good to me…and no, I didn’t write that in the third person.
Hipstercrite, a.k.a. Lauren Modery, was born in Central New York during the Reagan administration. She enjoyed wearing suits and fantasized about being middle-aged Jewish men as a child, most notably four out of the five Marx Brothers and Rod Serling. Her childhood (more…)