A Beautiful Belly

Another Huge Milestone: Less Than $500 To Go!

Andrew — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:53:09 +0000

Why are these brave firemen smiling? Because you’ve helped us reach 2/3rds of our $1,500 30-Day fund-raising goal in just two weeks! As most of our fans know, we recently launched an Adopt a Line of Dialogue, We’ll Upload a Scene promotion in which YOU, our fans, get to support our post-production fund and choose which full-scene we’ll upload to our website in April. The response so far has been tremendous, and we can’t thank our fans enough for their support. We have less than $500 left to raise in two weeks, so if you haven’t made a contribution yet, please consider making one today. You can use the PayPal link to the left, or you can visit our Support Tab to learn how to make a tax-deductible donation through the Enzian/UCF Film Graduate Production Fund. Even $2 can make a huge impact on our budget.

How else can you support us? Become our fan on Facebook and rate our trailer on YouTube! Those are both two excellent ways you can help us get the word out for A BEAUTIFUL BELLY.

News On Our Other Passion Project: Calliope

Andrew — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:23:24 +0000

Taking a brief break from shamelessly begging for post-production funds (but seriously, please give us money), here’s a little update on our unborn bundle of joy, Calliope. Angelyn (pictured at right) is now at 22 weeks (almost as far as Danny is in the movie), and her belly’s really popped, as you can see! So far Calliope and her mother are as healthy as could be hoped for, though we did have a brief scare a couple of weeks ago. The doctors found what’s called an EIF on the ultra-sound, which basically means Calliope’s heart is brighter than most. This isn’t a big deal, except that it can sometimes indicate a higher risk of Down Syndrome. They ordered some additional blood tests, however, and a few sleepless nights later, everything came back normal, which was obviously a huge relief. Since then the biggest headaches have been arguing with our insurance and picking out a stroller. Still, it was the first time I really understood what it is to love my daughter. The moment in last night’s episode of The Office, in which Jim learns he’s having a little girl, really hit close to home for me. The first time I felt her kick, I’ll admit she got me a bit misty eyed, and I teared up again last night watching The Office. Now she’s dancing up a storm in there, which tickles Angelyn and makes her burst into spontaneous laughter.

Anyway, that’s the pregnancy update for those who’ve asked. We now return to our regularly schedule fund-raising drive!

Half-Way Mark! Only $750 To Go To Meet Our Goal!

Andrew — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:24:32 +0000

Wow! Thank you, thank you, thank you! On February 19, we set a goal to raise $1,500 in gifts and donations by March 21, before Lauren Brown and Chris Worley arrive to record their ADR for several scenes. Today, in less than two weeks’ time, your generosity has brought us to the half-way mark of that goal! We now have only $750 left to raise. That’s 75 people giving $10, 150 giving $5, or 375 give $2. We have more than 450 fans on Facebook, so I know we can do this! As a reminder, when we raise $1,500, one of our investors will kick in another $2,500, so every dollar you give is actually worth $2.67 to us!

If you haven’t yet contributed, please consider giving just $2 to our post-production fund. For the price of a couple of bean burritos, 375 of our fans can pool together their support to buy us 75 minutes of studio time to record ADR. Don’t forget that if you Adopt a Line of ADR, We’ll Upload a Scene from the movie in April. You can also visit the Support Tab to learn how to make your donation tax deductible through the Enzian/UCF Film Graduate Production Fund, which we recommend for anyone wishing to contribute a larger amount to our fund. As a thank you, of course, all contributors will receive an exclusive link to download an iPod/iPhone version of our trailer.

Again, we can not say thanks enough for all the support we’ve already received. This truly is an audience supported film, and with our fans behind us, we will meet this fund-raising goal by March 21!

Gratefully,

Andrew & the whole cast and crew of A BEAUTIFUL BELLY

Wish Worley a Happy Birthday by Supporting ABB!

Andrew — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:09:33 +0000

Today is our star Chris Worley’s birthday. As Jason Ackart, an aspiring children’s entertainer coping with a fear of impending fatherhood, Worley brought his gifts as a stand-up comedian and improv actor to bear on a serious romantic drama, lending his character a goofy likability and accessibility that might have been lacking in the hands of a lesser performer and bringing a lighter touch to the film as a whole. I’ve never had the pleasure of working with a more dedicated or humble actor. Working all but one day of our production schedule, Worley lead a team of talented performers through a tough low budget shoot, often taking time out of his work to give the crew a pep-talk or words of encouragement through our more grueling days. Worley occasionally misread his calltime and would show up at Crew Call, hours before he was due on set. When this happened, you could usually find him at the catering table, serving the crew breakfast and coffee. He loved the process and loved our crew, and we loved him right back.

On Christmas Day 2009, Worley sent me this note, which I hope he won’t mind me sharing (slightly abridged): “So I’m sitting at the train station about to go to Philly, when I started to reflect on the things that happened to me in 2009. Hands-down, the greatest thing I did this year was shoot a movie called A Beautiful Belly. I still have not been able to find the proper way to express my sincere joy and elation for shooting my first movie and feeling so comfortable and happy in the process. I look forward to the day when I can show my appreciation in a way I deem worthy, but until then: thank you. From the bottom of my heart.”

Worley, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you right back. Making this movie has been a dream of mine, years in the making. I’ve poured every ounce of my soul into it, and I couldn’t have done it without your steadfast dedication and equal investment. Thank you for all the laughs, the drinks, and most of all, an incredible performance! Happy birthday, buddy! May 2010 bring even better things for you!

To all our fans and friends of Worley, I hope you’ll join me in helping to launch this tremendous actor into stardom. Please support Worley’s artistic work by contributing to our post production fund through Paypal. How awesome would it be if Worley’s friends raised $500 on his birthday? Also, please remember to rate Worley’s performance in our trailer on YouTube below. Give Worley the five star rating he so richly deserves on his birthday!

Adopt a Line of Dialogue, and We’ll Upload a Scene!

Andrew — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:31:50 +0000

During every motion picture production, no matter how talented the sound engineer or advanced the recording technology, some of the audio recorded on set will be rendered unusable. Why? Because life happens. A neighbor refuses to stop mowing his lawn. A restaurant has too many freezers we can’t unplug. Planes fly overhead. Birds chirp. Some crazy guy likes to do push-ups in his driveway in the middle of the night and breathes like a woman doing Lamaze (that actually happened to us!). Whatever the cause, some audio won’t be as good as it should be before the movie goes into distribution. When this happens, the actors are brought in to re-record their lines in a process called Automatic Dialogue Replacement, or ADR.

The ADR process takes time and money. An ADR studio requires a sophisticated setup in which the actors can watch their performances on screen and say the lines over and over again until they sync up just right. Because 15 minutes of studio time will cost us between $10 and $20, your $10 contribution through Paypal buys us about one line of dialogue, give or take. This realization lead us to a new fundraising idea.

Many of our fans have asked us if we might consider posting a full scene from the movie. You can now make this happen by adopting a line of dialogue from the list below. Simply choose from the lines listed below, click the Paypal link and submit a $10 contribution, pasting the line you would like to vote for in the “Add Special Instructions for Merchant” field. The first line to raise $200 in sponsorship will be the winner. We will then post to our website the full scene in which the winning line of dialogue appears.

See below for the lines of dialogue we have selected as contest candidates. **Please note that we won’t be able to post this scene until some time in April, after our ADR sessions are complete.

“Nothing X-rated. Just something a little racey. You know, like Top Gun.” - spoken by Pastor Dave (played by Raymond D. Sweet).
“Not anymore, I shot ‘em all.” - spoken by Nathan Long (played by Peyton Lee).
“Is it okay to say ‘Jew’s Harp,’ or is that some kind of a slur?” - spoken by television producer Patty Lewis (played by Susan Morgan).
“Little man.” - spoken by Rachel Ackart (played by Michele Feren).

Vote with your $10 today! And if you haven’t rated our trailer on YouTube yet, please do here!

Rate Our Trailer On YouTube!

Andrew — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:08:37 +0000

I know what you’re thinking: “Awesome trailer, but I can’t watch it on my iPhone because Vimeo uses flash!” Fear no more, friends, because our trailer is now live on YouTube, and we need you to rank it! We’ve all heard the stories of indie filmmakers getting development deals with major motion picture studios based on their highly-rated YouTube videos. Now with a click you can help get our site out to thousands of people. Please rate our YouTube video today!

Of course, there’s another way to watch our trailer on your iPhone. Contribute just $10 today, and we’ll email you a link to an iPod/iPhone supported file of the trailer that you can download!

First Trailer for A BEAUTIFUL BELLY is Live!

Andrew — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:36:53 +0000

Trailer for A Beautiful Belly from A Beautiful Belly on Vimeo.

Dear Belly Fans:

If you enjoyed the trailer above, I have a rather bold request. Please consider contributing a gift of $10 via the Paypal button to the left or making a tax-deductible donation via the Enzian/UCF Film Graduate Production Fund via the support tab. We hope to raise $1,500 in new funds in 30 days, and your $10 will get us about .6% of the way there. These funds will go to scoring, ADR sessions with the cast, and finalizing our sound mix before we send to festivals in the summer. If we raise just $1,500 more, an investor is ready to contribute another $2,500, but not before we raise our part. Please support indie film and A Beautiful Belly in particular today with your contribution. As a thank you for your generous support, we will send you a link to an iPod/iPhone ready version of the trailer for you to download. Thank you for helping to make this dream happen!

Sincerely,

Andrew Kenneth Gay

ABB Trailer Coming In Mere Days

Andrew — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:48:42 +0000

Hey, everyone. Just a quick note here to announce that our trailer is FINALLY complete and will be launching right here, on this blog, very, very soon. We’re just going to do a few site updates and get ready for our big new fund-raising drive, in which we hope to raise $1,500 in gifts and donations in one month. If we reach this new goal, one of our investors has agreed to purchase another $2,500 share in the company, so really, there’s $4,000 at stake here! These will be important funds to help us complete ADR work and the shooting of a new scene to replace the original opening of the movie, as well as to create original music. Our hope is that everyone who watches the trailer will be so impressed, each will give no less than $10. In return, every new contributor will be sent a thank you email with a download of the trailer file in iPod/iPhone format, so you can show your friends the movie you’re supporting! Keep checking in, because again, this is all going to launch within the next week or so.

Get excited!

-Andrew

She’s a lady.

Andrew — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:41:04 +0000

So today I learned I’m the father of a little girl. It’s odd that learning the gender suddenly makes this all so very real. Angelyn and I had taken to calling our androgynous baby bump “Celly” — because “it” started as a clump of cells — but now that it’s a “she,” and she has a name, it’s like a whole new experience. Her name is Calliope, by the way, like the goddess of epic poetry. Or the circus organ. Whichever.

Anyway, in honor of my little Calliope, I present “Bicycle Built for Two,” played on a homemade calliope.

“I’m half crazy, all for the love of you!”

New Old News

Andrew — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:22:47 +0000

Happy February all. Just stumbled on this story today, a nice little write-up on the production from the Central Florida Future. Not sure how I missed it at the time.

Also, I know I’ve said this before, but we’re really close to launching the trailer. I hope to get it to DP Marco Cordero on Monday, so he can complete color correction and ready it for the web. If all goes well, we’ll have it up by the end of the month in time for our big new fund-raising push for post-production.

In other news, we’re in the midst of scheduling ADR and a minor reshoot for late March, in hopes that we can begin test screenings in April! Stay tuned for more details and the debut of our trailer very soon!