Kickstarter

Welcome Pembroke Circle fans! You are reading the new and improved P.C. blog with updates every Monday.

As filmmakers, we want to bring more awareness to a widespread issue here in Florida- domestic servitude. A recent case in Miami exposes this devastation and how it has become a common occurrence in our major cities.

In 2010, a couple in South Florida were caught forcing nearly FORTY immigrants to work in country clubs and hotels throughout Miami. The workers were threated with deportation on a regular basis and stripped of their passports. They were housed in nearly intolerable conditions without adequate food or water supply. With practically zero compensation, these immigrant workers suffered a great deal.

The case was taken to federal court and the couple, Sophia Manuel and Alfonso Baldonaldo Jr., were charged and sentenced to 4-6 years in federal prison. On top of the trafficking charges, the couple were also found guilty for perjury and fraud.

This case is considered human trafficking, as opposed to just poor labor conditions, due to the deportation threats, force of labor, and insufficient living conditions.

Modern slavery has become prevalent throughout Florida and is considered one of the top three destinations for trafficking victims, alongside New York and California. The victims are forced into unskilled labor throughout large cities with tourist spots. As common as this devastation is in Florida, so few people know it.

We hope to accomplish this, in a small way, with our film. Together, we can make a difference and bring an end to this tragedy.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1004/100428miami.htm

Yesterday, we had a mini-reunion with some familiar people for a photo shoot and voice over recording with Mario Nalini who plays “Samuel Rojas”.

You’ll see some familiar faces in the photos below.

The photo shoot is the first of a number of benchmarks we have this month.

On the 18, 19th and 20th, we are doing our final round of pick-ups for the film.

With these final scenes, the film will be picture locked, hopefully by February 15th. This means that we’ll have three months for sound design, color correction and score.

We will have a booth at the 5th Annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day Event on Saturday January 26th, held at Lake Eola in downtown Orlando. We were invited by the president of Florida Abolitionist, Tomas Lares and we’re honored to be a part of it! You should certainly visit us if you can!

For more information, check out: http://floridaawarenessday.org/

We’d also like to welcome back Katherine Fisher to the Pembroke Circle Team! She will be our Social Media Guru. She has some awesome things planned as we march towards our May 2013 completion.

As you can see, our new year is off to a good start! Hope yours is as well :)

You can check out our official blog here: http://pembrokecircle.blogspot.com

2012, while not without its challenges and hardships, was a great year for Pembroke Circle. I think everybody involved in this project has grown tremendously. If you look back at this time in 2011, we had only raised ¼ of our budget, we didn’t shoot the PROMO scene yet, we had only one cast member attached and virtually no key crew-members.

Now, we have 1 hour and 24 minutes of a feature film on its 15th cut.

It’s a miracle that any film gets made, especially on the micro-budget level. The only way it’s possible is if many passionate, caring individuals come together and dedicate themselves to a vision. In this case, I’m extremely fortunate that it is my vision.

I want to thank you all for your support this year. You have given a number of promising artists a time to shine.

I hope that 2013 will bring you a lot of happiness and fulfillment. I also hope that in 2013, you will take risks. If you’re not taking risks, you aren’t working towards your dreams, and I think that is something everybody can and should do.

You will hear from me next year (by Friday ☺) about what we have in store for 2013.

Be safe and Happy New Year!

It has been a while since I’ve written an update and I apologize for that. This has been a crazy two months packed with teaching, planning for graduation (in May) as well as making some really big progress with the film.

We’re currently working on cut 12 right now. Most of our work has been focused on hammering out “the Gestalt”. Now, Kyle and I will be using the time off from school in winter break to go scene by scene and make miniscule adjustments. The devil is in the details, as they say.

Why does it take so long? Well there’s a saying in film, “fast, cheap, good - pick any two”. Features with budgets in the millions can be in post for years with teams of people working full time. Add the fact that I’m a part-time filmmaker (and Kyle is a part-time editor), my timeline suddenly becomes much more rigorous.

Yesterday, I showed a cut to my thesis committee and two colleagues of mine (pictured below). The room was divided with some very strong opinions either way, which is a good thing. The only thing I fear is indifference.

The difficulty after a feedback session like that is how to proceed, because either direction is mutually exclusive. I think a few goodnight sleeps and some time away will tell me what to do.

I have learned so much from post-production on this film. This is experience that you can’t get any other way. I can only expect that there is much more learning awaiting me in between now and May!

Again, I apologize for the break in posts, and we will do our best to check in on a weekly basis.

P.S. I just got a new iPhone 5, so posting on the go will be much easier for me! I've included a picture of my previous phone that carried me through production. I'm sure some of you will gasp in horror.