Rewards have been sent out to our backers. This includes DVD’s and Posters. We are working to organize another cast and crew meeting to sign all of the fabulous post cards! Hopefully we can get this done soon and send these out just after the ink is dry... Some of our supporters still need to send their contact info in order to receive their reward.

If you elected to not receive a reward that is perfectly fine too. We appreciate all of the support and encouragement that kept this project going all the way through completion. It has truly been one of the most rewarding experiences in our life. Friends we have never even met in person helped to make this film a reality. When you decided to support our film you became part of our project and part of our team.

Thanks for your support and commitment to A Musing short film!

A Musing short film has been an Official Selection of the following film festivals:
The Breckenridge Festival of Film has selected A Musing short film to be part of the 31st Annual Festival, June 9-12, 2011 http://www.breckfilmfest.com/home/index.php

A Musing short film has been accepted into the Long Island International Film Expo July 8-14, 2011. LIIFE is sponsored by the Long Island Film/TV Foundation, the Nassau County Film Office, and the Nassau County Planning Department. http://liifilmexpo.org/home.html

A Musing short film was an Official Selection of the San Joaquin International Film Festival (SJIFF), the annual flagship festival of the San Joaquin Film Society and California Central Valley's leading festival of cinema. A Musing screened on March 19th at Empire Theatre, 1825 Pacific Ave., Stockton. A Musing was well received. http://www.sjiff.org/festival/index.html

A Musing short film was an Official Selection of EgoFest Film Festival held in Brainerd, MN. A Musing screened March 18th at CLC Chalberg Theatre in Brainerd, MN. A Musing was well received. http://www.egofestfilms.com/EgoFest/Home.html

A Musing screens at EgoFest in Brainerd, MN! Here is a newscast from EgoFest that features filmmakers Phil Holbrook, Phil Seneker, Jessica King, Julie Keck & Lucas McNelly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmf0dLdRiR0

A Musing screens at the 4th Annual San Joaquin International Film Festival. The audience response was great! A Musing was well received. http://sjiff.org/festival/films.html

A Musing Wrap Party was held Sunday April 3rd. Cast and crew enjoyed prescreening appetizers and drinks while catching up with all in attendance. Conversation flowed and laughs were had while exchanging stories and talking about the good times we had on the set of A Musing. Posters were signed by the cast and crew and DVD’s are ready to send out!

The screening started with a collection of behind the scenes segments that were filmed and edited by Tom Gilbert. Each segment highlighted an actor from A Musing and included commentary by Phil Seneker and David Spies. Backstories were revealed piecing together how several actors and crew first found themselves working on A Musing.

A Musing Cast - Andrew http://vimeo.com/16650122  "A behind-the-scenes vignette for the short film 'A Musing'. Here the filmmakers describe meeting Andrew McMasters, and the circumstances leading to his being cast as Pete. Andrew McMasters describes working on the project, and states his philosophy behind choosing the right ones."

A Musing Cast - Tonya http://vimeo.com/19948314  "A behind-the-scenes vignette for the short film 'A Musing'. Here the filmmakers talk about casting Tonya for the roll, and inspiration found in a painting. Tonya talks about the character she plays."

A Musing Cast - Stephanie http://vimeo.com/19957658  "A behind-the-scenes vignette for the short film 'A Musing'. Here, the filmmakers describe the casting of Stephanie Hilbert for the roll of Constance. Stephanie describes her character, and her experience working on the film."

A Musing Cast - Paul http://vimeo.com/19963944 "A behind-the-scenes vignette for the short film 'A Musing'. Here the filmmakers talk about casting and working with Paul Eenhoorn, and Paul describes his roll."

A Musing screened to a wonderful reaction of recognition and applause! It was quite an experience to see the end result of an idea that started on a plane. So many wonderful people dedicated a great amount of time and energy to ensure we made a high quality film. It was truly a pleasure to work with such talented and dedicated individuals that made A Musing possible.

A musing was a success because each and every one of our backers believed we could make this film. Not only did we make this film, we made a great one! We will be sending out all rewards to our wonderful supporter’s soon!!!

The ‘A Musing’ Team

It’s been a long slow calculated process getting A Musing short film to its final polished state. As of Feb 2, 2011, A Musing short film is complete. Phil Seneker worked on editing; Joshua Svare worked on sound and Ross Hotchkiss pulled the whole film together with fantastic color correction. There were some changes along the way that primarily took place in editing. Every writer must know that you will not see every scene you wrote played out on film. It’s just the nature of the filmmaking beast!

When it came time to editing; only key shots in the sequence were utilized to complete the film. Several shots were cut in essence of time and to keep with continuity of the story itself. It’s was imperative that only the essential key scenes were utilized in the final cut.
What this means… We have a fantastic short film and an extraordinary amount of footage for DVD extras and behind the scenes clips!

A chance meeting with a film director at Seattle Airport lands Andrew McMasters lead role in A Musing short film Andrew McMasters

A Musing – Andrew McMasters Behind the Scenes

There were some fantastic changes to the music and film score along the way as well. Be sure to visit www.amusingfilm.com and read about Matthew Laurion “Featured Artist” and Catherine Grealish “Featured Composer”.

Art work is complete and we are currently working to get A Musing posters and postcards printed so we can get those out to our backers. DVD’s will be pressed soon. Once we have a more definitive timeframe on the turn-around for the print work and DVD pressing we will let everyone know when to expect their rewards.

We are excited to announce that A Musing short film is an Official Selection of EgoFest Short Video Film Festival in Brainerd, MN. - Phil and I look forward to our visit in Brainerd and meeting Phil Holbrook, Julie Keck, Jessica King and all the fine folks that make the magic happen in TilTtheTown!

A Musing short film has been entered in several film festivals across the United States. We will share the news on each film festival selection and the outcome. We know it's going to be an "A Musing" year!

Thanks to everyone for your wonderful support!

Checkout my interview with Jason McKinnon “Finding Your Muse: Creating A Short Film”. Interview with David Spies - Screenwriter/Director

The last six weeks, the A Musing Team has been working on all aspects of post production for our film. Phil Seneker is continuing work on editing and titling. We’re about 99% complete with the final cut. We found that we needed to get a few pickup shots that will tie in the story a little better. Hoping to get those shots on film and have editing at 100% complete in the next week!

Tania Backus has been working to align the music score for our film. We are working with several local artists that have volunteered their work for consideration. This has helped quite a lot and definitely the route any independent filmmaker would want to go in terms of music for your project. Tap into your local resources and stay away from paying royalties to signed artists. The license for one song could be as much as your entire film budget. Use indie music for your indie film.

Josh J. Svare is A Musing Film sound engineer technician. He’s responsible for volume control and overall sound quality. Josh also worked on A Musing Film as our audio mix/boom technician so he is very close to the work that needs to be accomplished. Volume control can be quite tricky: loud noises must be loud but not blaring to an audience and an actor's whisper must be soft yet loud enough to be understood by listeners. Josh is using the sound from live action on the set and completes the soundtrack by adding and blending in other tracks such as background music, additional dialogue, and sound effects. The mixture of the many tracks results in one complete soundtrack, which will match the visual portion of the film perfectly.

David Spies is currently working on several different poster designs for A Musing Film. David has years of experience using Photoshop and due to budget, took on the responsibility of Graphic Art design for A Musing Film poster and prints. When designing a movie poster it does help to be very close to the film. It definitely helps to know the plot, characters and the story when working on a design. This has helped in my decision in utilizing certain images, text and even the layout. Some things to keep in mind when designing a poster; the aesthetics should be pleasing to the eye, It should focus and communicate a single message to your audience, It should have order and make people want to watch your film. A Musing Film poster will be awesome! Next step is locating a local print shop that has outstanding rates!

Overall we are definitely getting close to wrapping up post production on A Musing Film with the first week of December looking promising. Our anticipation and excitement is growing as we get close to finishing this wonderful project. We can’t wait to share A Musing Film with our backers and those in the community that have helped to make our project possible. We could not have done this without the wonderful help from our supporters.

Thank You,

The A Musing Team

Filming began on Thursday September 30, 2010. Our first shoot location was the Sloop Tavern on Market St. in Ballard. Our entire Cast and Crew arrived on-time and filming began shortly after 7am. Jordin Mitchell (Production Design) performed an outstanding job transforming a “beer only bar” into a liquor haven for the night crawling crowd. Melanie/Melanie (Hair and Makeup) worked her magic on our actors, ensuring they had the perfect look for each scene.

Christopher Taylor (Gaffer) performed lighting magic scene after scene. His professional attitude and attention to detail ensured he captured and maintained the correct lighting for each scene. Tim Reilly (Grip) worked in tandem with Christopher Taylor to produce some of the most exquisite lighting, making each scene for A Musing Film a “signature scene”. Tim moved around each set with grace and precision to capture and cast the perfect light.

Joshua J. Svare (Audio Mix/Boom) performed a wonderful job as our sound master and boom operator for each scene. Joshua worked in tandem with Phil to ensure we captured exceptional sound during our entire shoot.

Will Chase (UPM) performed an outstanding job securing many of our locations and working in tandem with Tania Jensen to ensure we remained on budget for our entire shoot. Will provided his expertise on set, lending his strategic and creative problem solving skills that was a real asset to our production.

Tania Backus (Associate Producer/1st AD) Tania performed a fantastic job setting the shooting schedule, preparing daily call sheets, tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arraigning logistics, checking arrival of cast and crew and maintaining order on the set.

Samantha Jensen (Production Assistant) when it came time to call quiet on the set, Samantha was ready to step in with the clapboard to designate and mark A Musing scenes. Samantha provided much needed assistance with moving materials and helped to setup each film location.

Phil Seneker (Producer/DP) performed a fantastic job operating his Sony EX3, facilitating camera setup positions based on script and ensuring equipment stability remained at 100% during our entire shoot. Phil’s expertise as chief DP really shined through working with the lighting crew and audio crew to achieve artistic and technical decisions related to each image we wanted to capture.

Ross Hotchkiss (1st AC) performed a stellar job as cameraman/focus puller. His attention to detail ensured that Phil captured image sharpness for every scene. Ross is a lens master when it comes to changing lenses, pulling in focus where needed and capturing sharp detail.

Tom Gilbert (Behind the scenes video) Tom was so good at capturing the behind the scenes video, I didn’t even know he was at our shoot location most of the time we were rolling… Tom performed a brilliant job collecting great outtakes, interviews and behind the scenes video that will be an excellent addition to our DVD (behind the scenes collection).

Rhona Rubio (Script Supervisor) performed an outstanding job, providing script continuity for our production. Rhona even stepped outside her scope of responsibilities to recommend a particular action/moment for an actor that would coincide with camera moment during a pivotal scene. Rhona’s recommendation was put to use.

Brendon Fogle (Grip/PA/Catering/Craft Services) performed a stellar job, wearing many hats during the production of A Musing. Brendon provided wonderful assistance, taking care of everyone on set throughout our entire shoot.

Michael Clinard and Tori Dickson (Stills) each performed an amazing job capturing hundreds, maybe thousands of still images during our entire shoot. Michael and Tori moved around each set location like photo ninjas capturing images that will undoubtedly be a great addition to a behind the scene book for “A Musing” film.

In addition to filming at the Sloop Tavern in Ballard, we also filmed at Greenlake, a convenience store in Ballard, an office on the 17th floor of 1 Union Square, a loft and an Art Gallery in Pioneer Square.

A Musing short film Cast and Crew:

Director/Screenwriter David Spies
Producer/DP Phil Seneker
UPM Will Chase
Assoc Producer/1st AD Tania Jensen
1st AC Ross Hotchkiss
Production Design Jordin Mitchell
Audio Mix/Boom Joshua J. Svare
Gaffer Christopher Taylor
Hair/Makeup Melanie
Key Grip Timothy P. Reilly
Grip/PA/Catering/Craft Service Brendon Fogle
Script Supervisor Rhona Rubio
Stills Michael Clinard
Stills Tori Dickson
Production Assist Samantha Jensen
Production Assist Ethan Seneker
Behind Scenes Video Tom Gilbert

CAST
Pete Matthews - Andrew McMasters
Bill Skinner - Paul Eenhorn
Clerk - Stuart Thomas
Art Gallery Woman - Tonya M. Yorke
Scatz – Bartender - Mark Jacob Carr
Old Man - Andy Tribolini
Constance - Stephanie Hilbert
Street Performer - Tess Henley
Customer 1 Man (30 – 35) - Will Chase
Customer 2 Woman (30-35) - Wonder Russell
Customer 3 Young Man (20-25) - Locks Deli Employee
Customer 4 Woman (30-35) - Lisa Coronado
Young Couple Guy - Rick Walters
Young Couple Girl - Naz Taheri
Klepto - Andrew Guthrie
Jogger - Katie Butler

Thanks to our backers for helping to make our film possible.
The “A Musing Team”