Score One For the Orchestra

One of the most fun aspects of making this movie is the music.  Composer Joel Douek has written a brilliant score - eerie, lush, mysterious and moving.  Seen here with orchestrator Greg Pliska, we had the thrill of hearing the score come to life as performed by the Slovakian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Johannes Vogel.   As you see on the screen, all 53 players and Johannes were visible via Skype from Bratislava while we could hear via Source Connect in the studio in LA.   They sounded just amazing and we were able to work closely on the interpretations as if we were in the room.  It was a really thrilling experience to be able to say "molto misteriouso" and on the other side of the planet it get's discussed in German and then a world class orchestra plays it again with more mystery.   Now that's some movie making fun.

Locking

I’ve spent a lot of time in an edit room, starting as a teenager.  My career started as an editor. I love editing.  The magic of creating meaning that Eisenstein discovered when splicing one image against another still surprises me.  Living in the Manhattan Nocturne edit room these months has been intense and thrilling in large part because editor Andy Keir is a Jedi Master.  He’s a craftsman to his core and a storyteller of untouchable integrity.    Everyday we cut and add and trim and sharpen and invert and reverse and whittle and build and imagine the film a little bit closer to what it will ultimately be.   Now on the morning of locking picture, and I’m savoring every second.  I’ll go to bed tonight complete with the 14 and a half million choices that I’ve made to this point and will wake up excited to start the next phase of post production.  I mean what’s more fun than music, visual effects, color and sound?!

That's A Wrap!

We wrapped photography on Manhattan Nocturne and I couldn't be happier.  Now that the dust is settling and editing has begun, comes a chance to breathe and say thanks again to outstanding cast and crew who put so much of themselves and hard work into this movie.  It all shows in the footage.   I started a folder called "Happy Director" of pictures from set.  The joy of shooting is best seen in my face than in words sometimes.  Here's just a few snapshots thanks to our wonderful stills photographer Paul Sarkis.

CLIO WINNER!

Congrats to Mindshare Entertainment for their Clio Shortlist winning campaign for Fruttare!  Great work guys.  Proud to be associated with it.

See the campaign overview here.

NOC LOG - MN START DATE

Lot’s of people have been checking in and asking what the time table is for our feature film Manhattan Nocturne.

The schedule is as follows:  We will be doing some small unit / 2 days of shooting in October.  We will also be doing some casting in October for Principle Photography which starts December 1.  

We are shooting union in NYC.  Made in NY proud.

It’s a very exciting time here as we are starting to get into the creative fun of planning the shoot.  Thanks for all the support and well wishes and stay tuned for updates!

INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS SHOWCASE!

Happy to announce that our short film The Worst Thing I've Ever Done has been officially selected into the Independent Filmmakers Showcase in Los Angeles.   Screening details below if you click the image for those that want to attend.

BIG EASY!

We are so honored to announce that our short film 'The Worst Thing I've Ever Done" has been selected for the Big Easy International Film Festival in New Orleans.  It will screen as part of the Drama Shorts program Friday evening April 4th.  

NEW YEAR WISHES!

We are feeling very grateful as we look back on 2013 and even more excited as we look ahead to the coming year.  2013 was our best year yet, and the most creatively satisfying by far.

We really enjoyed working with a wide variety of awesome people in 2013.   With our new friends at Zero Point Zero Production we are working on a top-secret show of theirs developed for the Syfy Channel, and we also helped on their show The Tim Ferriss Experiment.  With our long time friends at Scratch we collaborated on another top-secret original show developed with Spike TV....ssshhhhh!  Brian directed some clips for the good people at Minus L Productions and Mindshare Entertainment.  We had some branded fun with Cher Lloyd and Ne-Yo for client Fruttare.  

We were honored to have our original content in four different festivals:  The Nantucket Film Festival and the Cape May Film Festival, ( short doc film SEA BRIGHT RISING) The New York Televison Festival  (FAMILY TREE - semi-finalist at both A&E and History Channel, and  CITIZENS a finalist in the NBC competition) and at The Big Apple Film Festival (THE WORST THING I'VE EVER DONE - a short noir film staring Campbell Scott and Kathleen McElfresh).  We're also excited to have developed an original reality show with J.E.T. Stables (RACING HORSES) that we are currently talking to networks about.  Stay tuned for updates on these.

Music creation was at an all time high with the release of the Cuban Missile Crisis EP through The Orchard on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and more, as well as great partnership with fellow writers/artists/producers Mike Sabath, Elza and Jay Levine.  

Our Feature film project Manhattan Nocturne took a big step forward thanks to our great team including our new friends at Paradigm and an amazing attached cast.  So looking forward to the realization of this film in 2014.

Winning a Telly Award for "CHRISTMAS IN SEABRIGHT" on VH1 was also a real treat this year.  But for us, the real reward of 2013 was working simultaneously in areas of Film, TV, Branded Entertainment and Music with such incredibly talented people!  

Here’s to all the creative possibilities that 2014 offers us all!   We'd love to hear what you have been up to!

Warmest wishes for the New Year, 

Brian and Diana

BIG APPLE FILM FESTIVAL!

We had a blast last night premiering the short film "The Worst Thing I've Ever Done" at the Big Apple Film Festival.  Being a New Yorker, it's easy sometimes to not appreciate the New Yorkness around you, but last night I was so proud to be screening at home in the best city in the world.  Whether it was the Tribeca Cinema on the corner of Canal and Varick, or that colorful festival crowd all jammed up in the lobby, it was a New York night to remember.  Such a thrill to experience the film with an audience so engaged.  Nothing like having strangers come up after and say how much they loved it and want to discuss it beyond the Q and A.  Shout out to all the team that made the film.  So fun to have most you there last night.

"The Worst Thing I've Ever Done" gang. From left cast Walter Masterson, Kathleen McElfresh, and Campbell Scott, writer/director Brian DeCubellis, Producer Ted FitzGerald, Exec Producer Andy Kadison, Co-Producer Brooks Hale, Cinematographer Chris Scarafile

TWTIED IN BIG APPLE FILM FESTIVAL!

The short film I wrote and directed "The Worst Thing I've Ever Done" will screen as part of the Big Apple Film Festival on November 6th at 8pm.  It's a suspenseful noir tale of an immigration lawyer (Campbell Scott)  who pays the price for bending the rules to help a beautiful Russian woman (Kathleen McElfresh) get her green card.   Come join us for the fun!

More info and g et your tickets here     

SEA BRIGHT RISING IN CAPE MAY FILM FEST

Our doc short Sea Bright Rising will screen THIS SATURDAY in the Cape May Film Festival.  Good to see the neighborly support of this important cause.  Proud to be a part of it.  More info here.

NYTVF

Today launches New York Television Festival week, and we are psyched to be attending as "Official Artists" (their words, not ours) representing our entries, Family Tree, a semi-finalist for both the History Channel and A&E Networks, and Citizens, a finalist in the NBC Drama Competition.   Today Diana was treated to talks with TV vanguard Evan Shapiro, the President of Pivot.TV and cult comedy hero Mitch Hurwitz, creator of Arrested Development.  Takeaway from the Industry Sages: "You are what you cannot do." Hmmm...  Mull that over, and we'll be back soon with more NYTV updates. 

We Won a Telly!

We're thrilled to announce that we have won a Telly Award in the category Social Responsibility for our work on the VH1 special CHRISTMAS IN SEA BRIGHT.  After making the short doc,  SEA BRIGHT RISING,  we returned to Sea Bright, New Jersey to capture the story of Grammy winning band Train visiting the devastated town and performing for the residents and first responders.  We created short pieces that ran at the top of every hour on Christmas day on VH1, driving interested supporters to  SeaBrightRising.org  to help.  We really appreciate the partnership with VH1 on this production and are proud to share the award with them and Sean Moran of Viacom who was the initiator behind getting Sea Bright some big on air love at a difficult holiday time.

Nantucket Film Festival

On June 28th our short doc SEA BRIGHT RISING had its festival premiere at the Nantucket Film Festival.  Project initiator and Producer Sean Moran, and Cinematographer Chris Scarafile and myself were in attendance as the film kicked off the Environmental Documentary Program.  It was a real treat to see the film projected on the big screen with fantastic sound in the venue filled with a very attentive audience.  This film continues to help raise awareness and money for the town of Sea Bright New Jersey, which is still recovering from the devastation of Super Storm Sandy.  I'm so glad Sean called me up that day and said "Buddy, people need to know what's going on in Sea Bright."