Bruce and I are beyond ecstatic that Filipina actress, Ivory Aquino, is confirmed to play a leading role in our new project, Legacy Breed, shooting later this month.

Ivory Aquino: TV and Film

Ivory Aquino at NY Fashion Week. Photo Credit: @MsIvoryAquino

Ivory was part of the main cast of the Dustin Lance Black ABC miniseries “When We Rise,” winner of the 2018 GLAAD Award for Outstanding Limited Series. Her portrayal of Cecilia Chung earned her a nomination for Best Actress at the 2017 POZ Awards (POZ spotlights the best representation of HIV/AIDS in media and culture). She was last seen on HBO’s “High Maintenance” and the feature film The Fever and the Fret.

Upcoming projects include Ava DuVernay’s “When They See Us” and the revival of Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City,” both on Netflix, as well as the upcoming feature film, “Lingua Franca”.

Ivory Aquino: Theatre

Ivory has portrayed a number of Shakespeare roles. She played Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and Isabella in Measure for Measure with The Drilling Company for Bryant Park Shakespeare. Other Drilling Company credits include: Othello (Desdemona), Julius Caesar (Marc Antony), Henry V (Katherine), Over the Line (Amanda) and Faith: On the Possibilities of Endings (Edna). With Leviathan Lab’s Shakespeare Quartet Project, she played Rosalind in As You Like It and as a company member of The Bats at The Flea Theater, she appeared in Offending the Audience and Waiter, Waiter.

Ivory’s off-Broadway credits include: Ma-Yi Theatre Company’s 365 Days/365 Plays at The Public Theater, and developmental readings of Ms. Oriental at Lincoln Center and The Butterfly Club at Playwrights Horizons and for the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Ivory is a member of The Actors Center.

Ivory Aquino: Personal

As a first-generation immigrant, Ivory dedicates her work to those who follow their dreams wherever it takes them…and “to anyone who feels different and out-of-place, but is truly special and one-of-a-kind.”

Follow Ivory on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram: MsIvoryAquino

Casting for our new project, Legacy Breed, shooting in April has been set. I’ll be sharing the details over the next few posts.

First up, Lilli Hokama, who plays the protagonist — a college student with a deadly family secret she can no longer avoid.

Lilli Hokama is an experienced stage actress

Lilli Hokama. Photo Credit: Deborah Lopez

Lilli recently worked with Baltimore Center Stage’s Mobile Unit for their production of “Antigone”. Her other theatre credits include: Understudy for “The Wolves” at Lincoln Center Theatre; “Matt and Ben” (Ben Affleck) at Kitchen Theatre Company; “I and You” (Caroline) with Chester Theatre in Massachusetts; and “Greenland” (Jasmine) at Dixon Place in New York.

Before moving to New York she toured to California with the new musical, “I Am Alive”. Credits from her hometown in Colorado include,  “Troilus and Cressida” (Aeneas) with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival,  “The Arabian Nights” (Scheherazade) and “She Kills Monsters” (Agnes) with the Aurora Fox.

Lilli has been a part of numerous new works, including “The Wave That Set the Fire” and “Companions LLC”, as well as the first reading of “The Rape of the Sabine Women” by Grace B. Matthias. She performed a one woman show, “Foundations”, which was presented as a part of Theater Esprit Asia’s production, “Coming To America”.

Is it writer’s block if I should be working on the screenplay revisions for the April 27 shoot, but I’m blogging instead? It also might be another form of resistance that I’ll christen “partner’s block” for purposes of this post😊 I have my first draft, and I have input from Bruce, and now I have to meld two very different voices together.

I have co-authored books before, but my writing experience on this project has given me a new window on partnering. My last partner effort was nonfiction, and a text book at that, so it was pretty straightforward in terms of the tone and the structure. My text book writing partner and I just divvied up the chapters based on our preferences and expertise, and it was smooth sailing after that.

My only other partner effort was contributing to an anthology, which is really not partnering, except with the editor. I do work with editors on some of my other writing, but that type of collaboration is its own beast, and every writer does that. Not every writer chooses to write fiction with a partner, as Bruce and I are doing for the April 27 shoot.

Aneesh Chaganty. Photo Credit: David Ko

But screenplay collaborations are not rare. In my Forbes interview with Aneesh Chaganty, writer/ director of Searching, he credits collaboration, not only with his writing partner, but with the various technical experts involved in filmmaking, as critical to his growth as a director:

…when I asked Chaganty what he has learned from his creative journey to feature film director, he mentioned the value of not doing everything yourself. In the beginning, he assumed he had to learn and do everything firsthand. Over time, he realized that it’s better to know how to communicate about everything and work with others on it, while you focus on just one thing.

Cecilia Mejia. Photo Credit: Aviva R. Pusey

Producer Cecilia Mejia is another interview I recently did in Forbes, which underscores the benefit of collaboration. Mejia is not a writer, but takes a lead creative role in her projects. Her upcoming feature film, Yellow Rose, began as Diane Paragas’ project. Mejia joined as the first collaborator several years into the idea, and the partnership has culminated in a film that opens the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival in May:

Seven years ago, [Mejia] was working for the Filipino American Legal Defense and Education Fund, when Diane Paragas, the Filipina director of “Yellow Rose”, contacted Mejia for information on social impact issues. They hit it off and created a documentary together, which became proof of concept for what is now, “Yellow Rose.” Mejia has raised over $500,000 for the project over the last seven years.

Clearly, partnerships work, and I just need to buckle down and work out those revisions!

We are casting for the new horror short FBC Films has picked as its next project. Filming starts in April. While we were hoping to bring on some of our cast from The Battle Below, there was only one character who matched one of the actors from that earlier project, and that actor is now out of NYC (still in the arts thankfully, but a different city). This means we are full speed ahead with our casting, with just a few weeks before we start filming.

Shooting will be done on a SAG, low-budget contract. Filming will be one day, Saturday, April 27, in Manhattan. If you fit the specs, or if you know someone who fits, we’d like to hear from you.

Please email a link to your website, IMDB page, or a resume and headshot to caroline@fbcfilms.com.

Cast list:

Kate – Asian female, 18-21

Nicholas – Asian male, early 20’s. Kate’s older brother

Mom – Asian female, mid/ late 30’s. Mother to Nicholas and Kate

Joe – multiracial, Black/Asian, late 40’s/ 50’s

Young Kate – Asian female, tween/ early teens. This role is cast, though we will look at submissions for alternates

This project is a horror series in development, so we are not releasing a lot of story information. However, previous projects by FBC Films have been screened at festivals and off-Broadway. We’d love to have a strong cast for this next project!

FBC Films has picked its next project, a horror series, and filming starts in April. The goal for the first shoot is to pull together a sizzle reel representing a few minutes of the arc of the series that we can then use to raise funding.

Based on an idea I pitched and Bruce agreed to on one of our many Sunday breakfasts at IHOP, we will co-write and co-produce, and Bruce will direct.

We’re hush hush on the idea until we get through the funding stage, but we’re staying true to our focus on science fiction/ horror and diverse casting.

We’re hoping to bring on some of our cast and crew from The Battle Below. Updates coming soon!

FBC Films is thrilled to be off-Broadway as co-producer of this world premiere! Theater provocateur Brian Dykstra returns to 59E59 with an explosive new play about free speech, the dangers of polarization, and using art as a means for change. See the play March 9-April 8 and join the conversation by following #ArtIsActivism on social media.

A high school senior is suspended when he tries to burn an American flag for a school art fair project. Undeterred, he conspires with his classmate, a slam poet in trouble for an expletive-laden poem, to enter a controversial new piece, setting off a free speech firestorm in a small Ohio town. Education is a provocative new play about two young people who fight for their right to express themselves in a society hostile to and fearful of change.

Get tickets here

In the last few months, three very different pitches came across the FBC Films radar looking for project funding – a horror movie, a dramatic film, a dramatic play. We’re participating in the play and will be sharing more about that in the next few months as we help with the rest of the project funding. Here are some factors that we looked at in making decisions on project funding:

Amount needed to participate

All three projects came with varying project funding requirements, with minimums ranging from several hundred to $5,000. With small minimums, there is the possibility to fund more than one project at a time. Of course, you have to look at what a small minimum actually gets you. In this case, the small project funding minimum was from a crowdfunding project, and it didn’t get you a producer credit.

Potential upside

With the type of projects we fund, the upside from any one project funding decision is more about building the FBC Films brand and reach than financial upside. Straight plays typically don’t make money so project funding for plays is really a passion play. Horror movies do make money, but given the crowdfunding aspect of this project funding opportunity, our individual potential is limited. The dramatic film was the middle ground here – the subject matter didn’t seem very commercial but with fewer participants in the project funding and more total upside than the straight play, it probably had the best risk/ reward balance.

Fit with our interests

The horror project sparked my interest immediately – FBC focuses on horror and science fiction, after all. It also was a female-led project, which fit into the diversity angle at FBC. Neither the dramatic film nor play didn’t fit our genre, but the film has a Japanese subject and both the film and play have a diverse cast, so in that way both are still a possible fit for our project funding pipeline.

Who is involved

Bruce, my FBC co-founder, is acting in the play, so the play got to the top of our project funding queue given the very personal and immediate connection. The horror movie was introduced to me via a professional association, of which I’m very active, but still not so personally invested. I didn’t know anyone else involved and since you’re sharing the limited resources of money, time and attention, it really matters who else is involved. The dramatic film was pitched to us cold, so the biggest risk – however, the writer at least researched our company in advance and personalized his pitch. He also followed up quickly when I asked questions, so the cold pitch became a warm pitch pretty quickly.

Timing

In the final calculation, timing carries a lot of weight in project funding decisions. The straight play is entering a big fundraising round in the fall, and based on other projects (I just did a string of comedy shows, and Bruce started a recurring role on The Blacklist) there is a limit to how much we can devote to producing right now. So while the other films were interesting and arguably doable from just a financial standpoint, we wanted to reserve time and attention for the play.

So the play’s the thing for the next few months. Bruce has been working on his fundraising deck, and the iterations of what to include and what to emphasize will be the subject of a future blog post!

My favorite zombie entertainment choices are still the George Romero classics, 28 Days Later more recently, and The Walking Dead for the small screen. But recently, I’ve come across additional fun entries in the zombie genre:

book by Kevin Wayne Williams

Kevin Wayne Williams is an engineer and author of Everything I Know About Zombies I Learned In Kindergarten. The book is set in NYC and features a 7-year old protagonist shepherding a dozen kindergarten kids to safety after a zombie outbreak hits the Eastern seaboard. I loved reading about the survivor outposts in Riker’s, Randalls Island, and Governor’s Island, and the raids on stores in upper Manhattan and the south Bronx. This is a fun book for New Yorkers. It also is much more diverse than your typical action fare – younger heroes (elementary school kids!), black and Hispanic central characters, and strong female roles.

Train to Busan is a Korean film, and Netflix bills it as the first zombie hit out of Korea. Apparently it was the biggest film of 2016 in Korea, and I can see why. I LOVED it. I don’t usually cry at zombie movies, but this one plays out the estranged father/ daughter really well. It has all the fast-paced action you expect in a zombie outbreak movie but with characters you care about.

I haven’t seen the TV show, The Returned, but I did see the 2013 movie on Netflix, and it’s a good example of the zombie in everyday culture, as the premise has a cure for zombies, such that the dead are returned to a pre-zombie state. At least, they are “Returned” as long as they can get their hands on a fast-dwindling medicine. Clever premise, good acting. If you’re a zombie fan, I definitely recommend it.

I enjoyed The Returned more than The Rezort, though The Rezort has more of the fun elements of the zombie genre if you’re looking for a popcorn movie. There’s a very thinly veiled subtext tying zombies to our treatment of immigrants (in the film, zombies are rounded-up and shot for sport), but the movie doesn’t try so hard as to ruin the fun. It’s my least favorite of the above, but still fun. I guess I just love all things zombie.

My recent movie queue has filled up with films that feature nature as a key character in furthering the plot:

The nature in Life is a speck of Mars dust gone amok – maybe it’s on a separate planet for a reason??? While I agreed 100% with Wired’s review of Life as essentially an Alien rip-off, I enjoyed it nonetheless. After all, the Alien franchise is one of my favorites. At the very least, the real-life teams prepping for a trip to Mars can use Life as a catalog of what not to do for just about everything – don’t jab your finger at an unknown organism, don’t leave a sharp object in the near vicinity of same unknown organism, don’t ever open the door when unknown and now clearly life-threatening organism is on the loose, etc. I did appreciate the diversity in casting.

Kong: Skull Island featured nature thrown out of balance, in this case by humans threatening Kong and not realizing Kong was, as scary as he seemed, the one thing keeping in check something even scarier. I want a separate movie with those lizard monsters! Like Life, Kong: Skull Island is the kind of movie I would like regardless – I love monster movies – but it’s a good movie even for non-monster lovers. Who doesn’t appreciate Samuel L. Jackson playing yet another character going off the rails?

In my Amazon queue, I happened to watch The Bay, Nature’s Grave and Dark Harbor in close succession, with nature as nemesis in the form of parasites, a hard-to-kill sea cow and other Australian jungle creatures and a poisonous purple mushroom, respectively. Just as with Life and Kong: Skull Island, the real problems were man-made but nature just exaggerated it all. My favorite was The Bay, though you have to look past the budget filmmaking. I can’t recommend either Nature’s Grave or Dark Harbor in good conscience except as a curiosity – Nature’s Grave features Jim Caviezel playing a decidedly un-Jesus like character; and Dark Harbor features a young Norman Reedus (yes, Daryl from The Walking Dead) and the late, great Alan Rickman.