Today was my last day of casting kids (I think) and it has been quite an experience. I was watching the boys read today and they were so damn cute I couldn't stand it.

When they finished with the audition, I was tempted to ask "why don't you hang out for a little while, we can go get a hot dog at Crif Dogs, a sundae and go to the park?" But obviously it was time to leave, so instead I tried being creative and not end the audition with the cliché line, "we'll be in touch" but I couldn't come with up anything...my mind drew a blank.

One of the boys was hilarious, he was 10 years old and walked in reading the musical Sweeney Todd. Tom (the writer) asked if he wanted to shoot some hoops, he replied "no, I don't like sports" and continued to read his book. After a few minutes the two started conversing and the boy began describing the play which he's currently writing, "Phantom of the Auditorium". He explained how it's a take-off of "Phantom of the Menace" and then asked Tom about writing in general and said how he was having difficulty sitting down everyday to write his play.

The boy was 10 years old!

He was also an incredible actor. Tom asked if he wanted to look at his part before reading, he replied "no, thank you" and went back to Sweeney Todd. When it was time for him to read, he nailed the part, without any preparation or knowledge of his character, he simply nailed it and it was amazing.

I was in awe because it seemed as though he knew the part better than I and I've read the whole screenplay, not to mention, I've never read or seen Sweeney Todd.

This kid is the theatrical version of the character Doogie Howser.

Today was a chock full of back to back meetings focusing on our summer reading series which is just 12 days away. The film and reading series are an interesting mix because the film series is entirely our responsibility and

the reading series is based on trust...

- trusting the writers to deliver and follow through
- trusting the readers, their valuable opinions and voices
- trusting the casting directors to find appropriate & talented actors
- trusting the agents to get the scripts to the actors
- trusting the actors to prepare for the readings
- trusting the actors to give 100% at the reading
- trusting the audience to attend and support the live performance
- trusting the caterers to show up and feed the actors
- trusting the development companies to be in attendance
- trusting the theater to be accommodating
- trusting the directors will be prepared
- trusting the directors to be creative with each screenplay

no choice, but to trust

I participated in my first 'kid casting' session today, and it wasn't even close to what I had expected. First, all of the the boys attended and were on time and second, the mothers were really nice, not pushy and not your typical "stage moms".

On the way to the theater I was visualizing a group of kids similar to those who participated in my school plays.

Once again, dead wrong...but I'm used to it.

The boys were shy, timid, insecure, so adorable, talented and charming, but not over-the-top charming. Also, they were all so different from each other; there was the athletic-looking/ easy going kid, the skateboarder kid, the young'un, the eager-to please kid, the well-spoken kid, etc...

What I found to be most amusing, was the whole issue of puberty. Although the kids were born within 24 months of each other...relatively speaking, there was such a fine line between the post-pubescent and the pre-pubescent. The post-pubescent boys were all 5'1 with a very distinct voice and the pre-pubescent kids were 4'6 at the tallest and had very young voices...not to mention; their posture, walk, stance, conversation, interest and confidence were entirely different.

The changes that come with puberty are common sense, only without having parenthood or education on my resume the only opportunities to witness this phenomenon up close was the puberty episode on the The Brady Bunch and when I was their age, but at that age boys were either really gross or really cute, depending on whether I was pre-p or post-p.

Taking on the task of casting kids is not an easy one to do.

We're currently preparing for two screenplay readings; the first is on Monday June 7th, the second reading is on Monday June 14th and it has a KID ACTOR!

It's the first time I've ever worked with a kid, aside from babysitting when I was 13.

Kerry Lea, who works with kid actors is extremely nice, incredibly talented and has offered to assist with the 'kid casting'...most casting directors don't work with the young'uns.

We're scheduled to meet with the kids this week, only Kerry had her 'kid acting' classes today, therefore I stepped in to help find "the one" and Kerry sent the list of kid's names, mother's names, telephone numbers and descriptions.

I was feeling a little uneasy due to the pretense of kid actors, stage moms and seeing how kids develop in the spotlight.

I put my conscious aside, began calling mothers of prepubescent boys ranging from 10-12 years old and found that I was incapable of completing a sentence. Not only was my conscious present, but it was center stage and shinning so bright it was blinding.

Here is what I said:

"Kerry Lea recommended I call regarding a reading on June 14th. We're planning on meeting with boys this Wednesday at 3:30pm. (this is when it became a little awkward) It's a casual meeting between the boys and the writer, Tom Noonan. (and this is when I became really nervous, which transformed into a nervous laughter, and I began apologizing to the mothers and explaining how this was more difficult than I expected)

If capable, I'd continue "We're interested in meeting with "Jacob" to see how his chemistry is with the adult actors before moving on to the next level."

I was prepared for the mothers to hang up, but to my surprise they were really understanding. Here I was calling mom's from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, and although the conversation was uncomfortable and amateur, the result was 100% successful. Each of the mothers I spoke with will be attending with their kids this Wednesday.

We'll see what happens when the kids come around?

Without knowing or hearing anything about Van Helsing (because I live in an indie bubble), I decided to live on the edge and see the movie... I'm just crazy like that.

What a fun movie! The opening scene sounded as though it was a conversation between a filmmaker and a studio...

the scientist (aka filmmaker): "It's my project, I made it and I deserve to keep creative control.

Dracula (aka studio): Well, I own it now. Ha ha. I am going to take your project and make millions. Ha ha

Okay, that wasn't exactly the dialogue, it's an exaggeration because my memory has failed me. But throughout the scene, I kept picturing Michael Moore (the scientist), Harvey Weinstein (Igor) and Disney (Dracula).

FYI: I became bored with the whole Michael Moore/ Disney story and stopped paying attention to the industry's version of Page Six. So, if you do see Van Helsing, I am actually referring to the part when Moore's story first broke.

Back to Van Helsing, the movie creatively combines all the scariest aspects of the the most classic horror films and turns them into a witty, smart and over the top film. Off the top of my head, there were either characters from or references to Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Haunting, The Birds, Night of the Living Dead, Jason, Alien, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Psycho, The Exorcist, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Blob and Dracula's Daughter.

Pretty incredible, eh?

Then there were the non-horror stories and non-horror films which also played a role in Van Helsing; Romeo and Juliet, Tarzan, Superman, Spiderman, Pulp Fiction, Star Wars, King Kong, Apocalypse Now, Mummy, Wizard Of Oz and James Bond...to name a few.

The animation was great, the images and scenery were quite impressive and it is filled with non-stop action.

I felt as though the movie was tribute to all of our favorite classic horror films. How often do we get to see Dracula and Frankenstein hanging out on the silver screen? It was fun to see a new movie with these old familiar faces.

The cast was great... including, "the" Hugh Jackman... in the beginning of the film he is completely covered...head to toe, as the movie unravels so does his clothing, piece by piece. First he takes the cloth off his face, then he puts his cowboy hat on Kate Beckinsale's head and by the end of the film, he was wearing Tarzan's little outfit, just a piece of cloth. If he were on a stage, it would have been a two hour Chippendale show. So, that was an additional bonus.

As for Kate Beckinsale, I think she and Janet Jackson have the same costume designer. The only difference between the two outfits was that Beckinsale's top stayed on.

Van Helsing was written and directed by Stephen Sommers, if I had any suggestions for Sommers I would recommend cutting 20 minutes out and lowering the sound a bit. The music was great, but because it was so loud, it seemed to drown itself out... if that makes any sense.

"So what are you doing for the summer?" seems to be the common question these days now that The Film Medley, our weekly film series, has ended. Although The Medley series is full of various weekly events and almost always has a few surprises thrown in, it tends to be much more routine than the non-Medley season.

The summer is busier than any other time of year. Currently we are preparing for Stage One, our screenplay reading series. We're in the middle of casting our June readings, working with the writers, casting directors, theaters, agents, actors and their schedules...which for me, is the most foreign area of the industry, at the same time it's wonderful learning and watching how each agency and casting director works independently of each other.

We also work with all of the screenplay submissions; break each one of them down, hold meetings regarding our future participation with each of the screenplays, if we should send them to managers, competitions, development companies and/ or read as part of our series... or none of the above.

We are also presently in discussion regarding representation of one film, working on the DIY distribution with another film, and servicing four other filmmakers which includes; screenings, promotions, press, advertising and EPKs. Finally, we are upgrading our site which is long overdue (F.Y.I. the firewalls are gone).

When the summer comes around; it's time to smell the trash & urine on the streets, wait for subways on the 100+ degree platforms, hope the person standing nearest on the subway resists from raising their arm.... and for us, time to roll up our sleeves and get busy.

1. Catching Raz Mesinai's Badawi perform at Tonic (107 Norfolk St, between Delancey and Rivington). Badawi has gone far beyond the realms of dub, electronica, middle eastern and avant-garde music while remaining true to his roots. Mesinai's fifth Badawi release "Clones and False Prophets" is yet another turn in this never ending journey.

2. Watching The Honey Brothers perform at the Living Room (154 Ludlow St at Stanton). The Honey Brothers are a comedic and ukulele-driven mish-mash. Ari Gold, director of Helicopter, is the head of the band and Adrian Grenier, the actor with the "million dollar face" is their drummer. Over this past weekend Grenier was replaced by Belle Honey, an equally as cute in her own way, Cooper Union student.

3. Barbecue on a roof, courtyard, street, or any exterior location. I recommend Fairway for vegetables, fruits and fish. So fresh and so cheap.

4. A park, any park or garden will do. Everyone has their favorite park, but the parks are the icing on top of a lovely weekend.

I had a meeting on Tuesday with the director of marketing from PhilipsNizer, the law firm where my lawyer Peter Fields is a partner. PhilipsNizer is interested in putting together a series of discussions for filmmakers, producers and writers and I suggested dedicating a discussion to Not-For Profit film organizations. Vikki, the marketing director then asked if I would attend a meeting for Not-For Profits the following night (last night) which coincidentally PhilipsNizer was hosting.

If you ever feel a strong desire to doubt your existence, I suggest you attend a meeting for Not-For Profit Organizations.

Understanding that many art oriented organizations are Not-For Profit, none of them were represented at last night's meeting. So not only was I the only non Not-For Profit Organization, I was the only organization representing the arts community. The evening consisted of an hour of networking prior to the guest speaker, therefore people began introducing themselves and their companies and enquiring about The Reel Roundtable (it was on my name tag). I suddenly realized that I was ignoring their questions and continued to ask them about their organizations.

As much as I love film and what I do; listening to the people who founded organizations and have spent their lives focusing on helping battered women, the homeless, the hungry, war veterans and disabled people to name a few...I simply did not feel up to discussing my story... veteran filmmakers, hungry artists and disabled studios.

There was one organization in particular, which I felt had made an amazing difference, so I offered to forward his information to some documentary filmmakers and if they were interested in working with him, then maybe it would help in getting more exposure. Seeing his face light up made me a feel a little better...for about 30 seconds.

After the event, I was heading over to pick up my friend Adam who lives about 15 blocks from PhilipsNizer. While I was walking and pondering over the lives I had just encountered, one of those guys on a bike with a carriage pulled up along side and kindly offered a free ride in his carriage. So I jumped in and enjoyed a beautiful evening ride up Fifth Avenue. The tranquility of midtown at night allowed me to forget my non Not-For Profit existence.

Last night we hosted an open forum discussion for folks who participate in The Reel Roundtable's film, screenplay and/or networking events. The goal was to receive feedback regarding prior events and to open up the programming to the audience by brainstorming for next season's events. It was the first time we designated an entire evening to audience programming.

The turn-out was positively overwhelming and the evening exceeded all expectations. At first, it took a while for the group to warm up and think outside the box and outside the evenings that had already been programmed. All in all, the audience programming was a complete success.

Once the momentum had begun; the ideas started rolling, influencing more ideas, growing rapidly, and they were all intelligent, creative and fresh. The evening added even more excitement to an already engaging film series.

Saturday evening was the "Live At The Battery" free outdoor concert in Battery Park presented by American Express, in celebration of the Tribeca Film Festival.

The concert had a wonderful line-up of musicians; the Black Eyed Peas, Macy Gray, Steve Winwood and headlining was one of my all time favorites, Van Morrison. American Express also included a few guests to fill the space between acts.

The first act was a comedian?...no, a political activist?...possibly. Actually, I'm not quite sure who he was or what he said. I did hear a few references to Bush and Pataki, but mostly he just was shouting and cursing. I think he was a cursor...a professional cursor and an interesting guest to book, because their were a handful of kids in the area.

Chris Tucker, the comedian from Rush Hour, did some stand-up and mentioned his work with Bono & the Save the Children's Program in Africa, then Tucker introduced Bono.

Bono addressed the issues of ongoing poverty and disease in Africa and like always, did his best to bring awareness without preaching. Standing on the stage, looking as sexy as ever, he spoke about his love for NYC, for America and then mocked himself for being so corny. Bono held the stage for quite a while and was beginning to look bit uneasy as he was running out of things to say. As for me, I was enjoying looking at Bono on the enormous screen next to the stage and listening to his heartfelt brogue.

Bono introduced the legendary Van Morrison, who shined through his entire set. He looked great and sounded fabulous. The performers prior to Morrison were displayed on 50 foot screens and heard on speakers placed throughout the park. As for Morrison, all of the screens and speakers were off, except the speakers on the stage, bringing everyone closer and resuscitating the performer-audience energy. Morrison played a low-key set with less rock and more jazz/blues/swing, altering his songs which allowed you to only recognize most them by their lyrics. I loved it, it was wonderful, his brilliance came alive with a tender cozy sound.

An interesting part of the evening was how few people attended the concert. A free concert with Van Morrison and the place looked empty? I believe American Express allocated 6000 tickets to the concert, so I suppose it was simply not advertised.

Had Mark Rabinowitz not told me about it, I too, wouldn't have known. So, thanks Rabbi. You rock!

After a long day of The Roundtable and endless meetings; my friend Dawn and I went to see Kill Bill Vol 2. I never saw the first Kill Bill, but I really enjoyed the second one. I thought Daryl Hannah and Uma Thurman were superb. It's not often that I'll leave a movie theater feeling like an empowered, audacious and ass-kickin woman. Usually I leave feeling either overly-sensitive, vulnerable, cheap, giddy or moved. Contrary to expectations, I personally enjoy Quentin Tarantino's portrayal of women, much more so than Nora Ephron's. Anyway, his writing, canny sense of humor and rich soundtrack intensified and electrified yet another Tarrantino project.

On my way home, I bumped into Jack Turner from United Artists on the street and kudos to him...he was so relaxed and stress-free. Hats off to Jack...it's the night following UA's big premiere/ extravaganza at Tribeca, still 4 days to go of this fest and only 6 until Cannes.

Writing amongst the iW bloggers is one thing, going out with them is a whole other story.

Last night began at the DGA when a friend and I watched the final evening of films presented by the Columbia University Film Festival.

To make a long and colorful story short; I awoke to my mother's voice saying "wake up, the Verizon guy is outside" on my answering machine, opened my eyes and saw a well-endowed shirtless woman lying next to me, I looked to my left and saw The Rabbi sound asleep.

FYI: Both the Rabbi and I were fully clothed...honestly.

I'd go into detail but my storytelling skills are, quite frankly, undesirable.

Now I know to take extra precaution when in the company of a Texan, a Floridian and a few NYers.

Last night, The Reel Roundtable finished the season screening Bukowski: Born Into This. The reception was buzzing...or should I say, the audience was buzzing from the Reingold beer being poured by Roundtable volunteers. Magnolia Pictures proved themselves once again, with another smart release. The film is full of interviews from Bukowski, his friends, his wife, his daughter, and some celebs (Bono, Sean Penn, Tom Waits). The story is told extremely well, and the film is not just for Bukowski fans, because it tells the story of a person, his life, his inspirations, his determination, his hard work, his insecurities and his shortcomings. The film allows you to understand and feel for this person and the person just happens to be the one and only, brilliant poet, Charles Bukowski.

A symposium with John McCarron from Magnolia Pictures, followed the film and he explained the production of the film and the need to have releases of every still photo used in the film, amongst many other things.

The momentum continued across the street to Patio (2nd Avenue, betwn 1st and 2nd Streets). We set up a microphone and Jon Solomon & Andrew McGraime brought a variety of Bukowski books. The audience was drinking and reading Bukowski poems at the mic through the night. Eventually everyone who was there read, and most said it was their first time reading in public, including myself.

I recommend this film! It's NY release is on June 4th at the Cinema Village. It's also being released in other cities this month, so definitely check it out.

1st Day at the DGA:

Program A at 5:30pm-
Headed uptown to 57th Street, where the energy was bursting. The program began with the short Extreme Mom by Joyce Draganosky. A charming drama about a mom who is taking care of both her daughter and her mother. Her mother has Alzheimer's and is now at the same level, mentally, as her daughter. It's filled with humor, integrity and develops with grace.

Program B at 8:00pm -
I enjoyed each of the films in both programs, although two films come to mind as being the most original. The emphasis on these films was the storytelling and the ability to breathe. The first is a quirky comedy American Exquisite by Keith Goldberg. Keith's film is about a girl trying to find her father, only the story is told by different people around the country, each starting where the last one ended. The stories were then scripted into one story, cast and the storytellers are included throughout the actual film. The result has a lot of twists and turns depending on who is telling the story.

The second film was Swan Dive by Kathleen L. Murray. Swan Dive has stunning performances and was beautifully shot. The film relies on facial expressions, body language, capturing sudden moments of realization and appreciation of one's true self. The story is about a young girl spending the day at a community pool in Oklahoma, she sits alone observing the characters around her, always glancing back at the high dive which she ultimately desires.

I bumped into Ira Deutchman from Emerging Pictures, and his wife Beth. Fortunately, the 8pm screening had a full house.

The 2004 Columbia University Film Festival kicked off its' 17th anniversary on Saturday, May 1st. Some of the more recent notable accomplishments of Film Division alumni include the 2004 Oscar nomination for American Splendor (Best Adapted Screenplay), written and directed by Shari Springer Berman ('95) and Robert Pulcini ('94). Other important releases include Cold Mountain, produced by alumnus Alber Berger ('83), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, on which Michael Hausman (faculty) and Scott Ferguson ('96) both served as Assistant Directors.

The festival is held at the DGA Theater on 57th Street, between 6th Avenue and 7th Avenue. The festival has two programs daily (5:30pm and 8:30pm) and is running through Tuesday, May 4th.

On Thursday, May 6th, they are hosting a faculty select screenplay reading series at 6pm at the McGraw-Hill Theater on 1221 Avenue of the Americas.