First MERIWETHER Trailer!

The editing of The Meriwether Device is going strong, and we almost have the first cut finished. In the meantime, here is the first teaser trailer for it, complete with the awesome musical stylings of BAGOTRIX!

Awesome Music News #2: EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE!

In other non-movie news, we are happy to announce that Brian Lillie's 4th album, EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE, will be released in the next week on the website CD Baby.

A website for the new album, with lyrics and full credits for the awesome musicians contained within, will be going live next week at http://brianlillie.wordpress.com/

We will keep you posted on this album, which we are told makes a wonderful gift for the grad in your life...

Awesome Music News #1: BLACKWATER BALLAD is back!

From rehearsal of the EMU dramatic reading of Blackwater Ballad

We received cool news last week: the Eight Wonder Theater troupe is going to be putting on BLACKWATER BALLAD, the musical written by Lionbelly stalwarts Joe Zettelmaier and Brian Lillie, this summer at the beautiful Village Theater in Canton, Michigan.

We'll post more information on exact dates, cast, etc., as it is known...

The Funnest Shoot of ALL TIME?!

On the morning of March 19th, 2010, a small group of movie makers got into their cars and headed up north about 200 miles to shoot their latest short, The Meriwether Device. 6 cast and 5 crew, 2 cameras, lots of DV tapes, frozen pizzas, tomfoolery, and one really cool house by a lake. It all added up to our most successful and enjoyably exhausting shoot yet. It was 3 days of solid work, but the comraderie and creativity of the thing kept us all going...

Some highlights:

• Jim Roll, bless his giant fuzzy sideburns, managed to work through the pain of KIDNEY STONES (which he thought was just a really bad stomach ache), and finish his role without missing a single scene!
• Al "Owl" DiBlassio was along for his first movie with us behind the camera, and he and Jen were like a 2-headed cinematography beast. I do believe this is the best-looking footage we've gotten so far.
• Once again, as is our custom, we ran out of time shooting at night and had to cover windows with garbage bags and tarps in order to finish the indoor portion of the shoot. We at Lionbelly are considering hiring ourselves out as garbage bag wall engineers for other filmmakers. Whoever invented contractor-grade garbage bags deserves a whole bunch of wet kisses right on the mouth. From Jim...
• For the first time, we were able to watch dailies of the shoot each evening, as a group, which was quite helpful. It takes a lot of the tension out of the equation when you KNOW you have good footage to work with as you go, rather than praying it will all cut together later, sight unseen.
• Joe Sacksteder did a great job slating everything and taking copious notes as the shoot progressed, as well as overseeing many of the production and assistant director duties.
• Maggie Meyer, who played "Angie", was along for her first acting job with us and she fit right in and did great work, throughout. The other actors consistently hit it out of the park, and it felt like a true ensemble. Carol Gray, Tom Szymanski, David Serra, Kristin Beckett, Jim Roll and Ms. Meyer were all on their game and managed to keep the energy level high, even at the end of an 18 hour day of shooting.

The movie is now in post-production mode and coming along nicely. We will post more about it as it gets beaten into shape during editing, scoring and mixing. Overall, though, it seems like a very fortuitous beginning for our 2010 slate of projects.

Yahoo!

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