(This post first published Mar 24, 2011 on Posterous) News of documentary film 365 Grateful just arrived in my email box from Toni Powell and Hailey Bartholomew. They call it a documentary about living on the sunny side of life - and the ripple effects of a gratitude experiment. More in their own words... "This documentary was born out of a project created by Hailey - the '365 Grateful Project'. In early 2008, in an effort to fight depression, Hailey started a year long photographic project which involved taking one Polaroid photo a day of something she felt grateful for. Initially this was a chore but eventually it became a delight. The discipline of having to look for the good things that happened every day changed her life in so many ways. Hailey found not only her marriage, spiritual life and health improved, but this project accidently, wondrously impacted the lives of others." 365 Grateful - the Documentary is a film about uncovering what happens when ordinary people unlock the remarkable powers of gratitude - told by filmmakers Toni Powell and Hailey Bartholomew. Thanks for reading this post! If you want to see pictures of the things I'm grateful for - click here and see the photos on my two TwitPic Feeds. (1)Here for Random pic and (2) Here (mostly food & wine pics) If you want to read more about things happening in Melinda's world of entertainment - click here to like the Melinda's Facebook Fan Page - or Follow on Twitter as @PowerHungryFilm (This post first published March 24, 2011 on Melinda's Posterous blog.)
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Trusting your new year is moving in a productive direction. I hardly ever wear my crown anymore, but I did wear it for New Years this year. Make this year a good one for you and your loved ones, and one or two strangers, too. :-)
Well, one of life's worst turns, a sick child, Zoe, came to my attention through Jonathan Browning at Screaming Frog Productions. Precious child, just 5 years old has leukemia. Here's a picture of Zoe in her rainbow skirt, just a few days before her diagnosis. Precious, right? Right. Jonathan is a friend of Zoe's and her family and is helping to raise funds for Zoe's medical bills with a day long film festival and silent auction on Sunday, Nov. 14 at Pollution Studios in Los Angeles. My film "Three-Fifty" will be screening in the 5pm slate of films. An autographed script and autographed DVD of "Three-Fifty" will be on sale in the auction, too. Please join us on Sunday, Nov. 14. Address, directions and times of films are here: http://screamingfrog.com/zoe/ And read about the silent auction items here: http://screamingfrog.com/zoe/silent-auction/ Thanks for stopping by to read my updates! Be sure to sign up for the email list so you can get super-duper sexy emails from me in-between What's in the emails? Links to other things I'm working on like my wine blog, web series updates, links to fun things to do in Los Angeles, special appearances, etc. Click here to sign-up on the home page. WHAT'S NEW? Happy to announce a new collaboration with my new friend the hilarious actress Karla Guy. Can't tell you too much right now, but it's a special blog that you'll want to check every day around 3:00 PM. What can it be??? So be sure to watch the Facebook Fan Page and Twitter for updates and links! You can read more about Karla right here. FILM FESTIVALS: My comedies "Eco Ninja" and "Going Green" have strong festival schedules this fall! I had the best time making these films, so I hope they are screening in your area soon! Next festival? Naples International Film Festival - sounds nice right? A quick trip to the Mediterranean? Except it's not that Naples. Naples Florida which from the photos looks fantastic! You can see it THURSDAY, NOV. 4 at the Silver Spot Cinema, Naples, FL. Full schedule is not yet posted, so watch the FB Fan or the IMDB page page for specific time. TELEVISION: My comedy "Three-Fifty" is having more fun than I am, that's for sure. Now it's going to be screening in Turkey and Cyprus. Another big THANK YOU to NBC/Universal. This is the second contract our distributors Network Ireland-TV were able to secure with them for "Three-Fifty" and we appreciate it! Remember, you can wait for Three-Fifty to make it to television in your city, but that could take YEARS! Why wait for the laughs? You can buy your own DVD of "Three-Fifty" right here and be laughing all weekend! HALLOWEEN! It's no secret Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! I scared the beejeesus out of my husband our first Halloween in my super-scary witch makeup - oh wait - that looks like my morning face! I wish you a SCARY, but HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEN! A peaceful all saints day and a rollicking good time with Dia de los Muertos. Hollywood Forever Cemetery is the best place in Los Angeles to pay respects to those who have paved the way for us and are now gone. Click here to see Dia de los Muertos photos!
Film Festivals:
Melinda Augustina in "Going Green" has won it's first award, the Jury Award at Marin County Int'l Film Festival. Congratulations to all of my colleagues in the cast & crew and especially the great comedy minds of Jonathan Browning, Jason Pardo and Leslie McManus. You can see the trailer and read more about "Going Green" right here. "Eco-Ninja", where Melinda's charater is not afraid to sick the Eco-Ninja on a non-eco-complying fellow employee, has begun playing film festivals, too. Click here for latest updates on both films with Screaming Frog Productions. YouTube: Another music video with the comic minds at Back of the Class - I'm "The Mom" in pink for the video GRADUATION SUCKS. Watch it here! "My Mom's On Facebook" has over 1,000,000 views now. Watch it again right here! Last month Melinda wrote and shot a short parody on Sue Lowden's "Chickens for Checkups" health care plan. In case you haven't heard, Sue Lowden (Nevada (Republican) candidate for Senate) has a fantasy that as a culture, we might be able to return to old fashioned ways of paying our doctors for our medical bills. With chickens, horses and chores. Didn't make it up. These are facts we pull from the news. Crazy times. We'll post a link here as soon as it's ready. The video stars yours truly, Melinda Augustina, plus the beautiful and uber-hiarious Iris Braydon and the very hot and very funny Jeff Pride. SAG AWARDS: Melinda was invited to be on the nominating committee for SAG Awards in the category of Prime Time Television for the 17th Annual Screen Actor's Guild Awards. Melinda says, "There are so many great Prime Time Television performances right now. It's an honor to have the opportunity to nominate them." April 2010 Highlights:
My Mom's On Facebook -- Hilarious music video with Back of the Class comedians reaches over 800,000 views on YouTube. Watch it here. April 14 -- Speaking engagement at UCLA. Speaking to MFA Directing students about the success of comedy "Three-Fifty" and how to use social media marketing to build their audience in advance of a film's completion. Eco-Ninja -- completed. Hilarious comedy from Jonathan Browning and Jason Pardo. I play a co-worker who follows all the Eco-Ninja's rules. Read all about it here. THREE-FIFTY -- Another award is on it's way to us. This time from Australia's Forster Film Festival! Apparently we won it in November, but we just learned of it. Very cool! Personally, I think we should get an award just for longevity...for real! All month -- Collector's Edition DVDs of short comedy THREE-FIFTY starring Melinda Augustina, Evin Grensted and Michael Angelo Stuno are now available. Be the first on your block to own the Collector's DVD! Click here for the DVD. Couldn't be happier that the music video "My Mom's On Facebook" has over 69,000 views in it's first day on YouTube. Comedy geniuses Brett Weiner, Max Dionne, Jesse Porter and Dan Roe from Back of the Class are a comedic force to be reckoned with. They're working w/Ashton Kutcher's team over at Katalyst HQ right now, so expect to see more from them very soon. I'm "The Mom" and I know what you're thinking... "wasn't she dating boys this age just a few years ago?" and I say, "No comment..." LOL! Derry O'Brien and Bill Kroyer The country of Ireland was bursting with pride the last 30 days... FIVE Oscar nominations. You can read about all of the Irish Oscar nominees here. Since my short film THREE-FIFTY is distributed by Network Ireland-TV as are the two Oscar nominated shorts from Ireland, ("Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty" and "The Door") I was able to meet and spend some time with both production teams. First, we saw the special screening of all of the Oscar nominated shorts at The Academy on Tuesday night. Apparently the event sold out just 15 minutes after tickets went on sale. That's fantastic! This year, once the Oscar nominated short films were announced, they scheduled them to screen in over 100 cities. See schedule for remaining cities/dates here: http://www.shortshd.com/theoscarshorts/ If you can't see them in the theater, they are also available online at iTunes for just $1.99 each. All you have to do is look at my Twitter page to know my personal favorite. Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty. Precious, hilarious, creative, artistic and genius. That's about all I can say. I've posted it for you below. ENJOY! Granny O'Grimm earrings! Kathleen O'Rourke is the creator, writer and voice of Granny O'Grimm. And she is as precious in real life as her creation would suggest. I became Granny's #1 Fan, creating Granny O'Grimm earrings to wear in support on Oscar night....LOL ! The Granny O'Grimm earrings should show up on Irish Television today... too much fun. Kathleen O'Rourke Oscar night! When a "fashion emergency" arrived regarding Kathleen's shoes for Oscar night, distributor Derry O'Brien knew just who to call -- Yes, that would be me. I stepped into "big sister" mode and was ready to have my shoe designer friend Krista de la Harpe overnight some of her gorgeous Millenium Shoes shoes from Dallas if necessary. My god -- fashion on Oscar night -- that is a true fashion emergency!! We spent just 1/2 a day shopping and we were all ready. (Thanks to Roderigo at Bloomingdales for the crystal theme!) She ultimately chose mirrored tiled strappy shoes, crystals on her toes, a loan from Swarovski Crystals for her bag and her crystal bracelet and she was GORGEOUS!! The dress was on loan from a young Korean designer who is married to an Irishman, the earrings, smashing 10 carat diamond earrings from Irish designer, she did her country up proud. Later, I'll share with you the fun from watching The Oscars at the Irish Film Board Party. ;-)) The short comedy "Going Green" that I shot last summer with Jonathan Browning and Screaming Frog Productions is receiving extra screenings count 'em - 5!) at the Lake County Film Festival in Vernon Hills, IL (near Chicago). So, how does a short film get accepted and screened at a film festival AND get not one screening, but five screenings? Here are the whys and hows: 1) "Because it's really funny!" said the festival spokesperson. "Going Green" director Jonathan Browning is a comedy master, no doubt. His first short "The Job" has been screening in film festivals for three years and shows no signs of slowing down. 2) It's super-short: TRT of just 90 seconds makes "Going Green" very easy to program either in a short film program, or at the front of a feature film. 3) It's uber-current: Environmental topics are hot right now and since they can create very heated arguments, what better way than to defuse the situation, but with a big laugh? Because of it's environmental theme Going Green will screen in front of two environmentally related feature length films. Those feature films are receiving a total of five screenings ergo, Going Green will also screen five times. If you've known me for longer than 30 minutes, no doubt you've heard me talking about one environmental issue or another. Not only is "Going Green"a great comedy, but I can vouch that all of our production waste was recycled after the weekend shoot. Read "Going Green" Lake Country screening details here: http://bit.ly/9o611F Watch "Going Green"trailer here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1512141/ If you have friends near Chicago or Vernon Hills, IL, let them know! As always, thanks for your support! Melinda Click for Habitat info on Haiti. Please remember the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers and if you have the means, please donate for their recovery or join in volunteering for a Haiti project. Habitat for Humanity is one of my personal favorites. My husband and I spent a week on a build in Louisiana after Katrina and here are a few things I learned: 1) I learned that we cannot disconnect philanthropy from the economic injustices that cause the need for philanthropy. (Thanks MLK) We went on our Habitat Build in Louisianna a few years after Katrina and there were still hundreds of people living under highways, and hundreds of buildings still not re-built. I sense that if family business of the then president had been construction instead of oil, that Katrina areas would have been rebuilt in record time. 2) I learned a deep appreciation for the amount of human energy that builds a house. I've always had a love and appreciation of architecture and homes, and even participated in renovations. This gave me a front row seat to the amount of human labor that it takes to build a house from the ground up. Humbling and overwhelming. Hammer, hammer, hammer and then hammer some more. Holy, moley! 3) Take a palm nailer - there are a lot of great tools that can speed up the building process if you know about them. If you join a Habitat for Humanity build, I suggest you make a visit to your local hardware store, tell them what you're going to be doing. They can advise you on tools you can take to make you a power builder on your team. 4) Pack ear plugs and your favorite pain reliever. All that hammering is noisy and hard on your ear drums. And all that hammering and lifting will give you a few aches, so arrive prepared. |
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Melinda Augustina is an actress and producer. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and his wine collection. If you'd like more musings from her universe, you can follow her on Twitter as @PowerHungryFilm or become a fan on her Facebook Fan Page Categories
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