S Mohen

Sums it up

2009-01-07T10:01:00.001-08:00

Heart Comes the Sun - 2008

2009-01-06T10:16:00.000-08:00

So here is my 2008 blog which for some reason I've found myself putting off and off.

Typically I take a blog space to reflect on what happened in the year, the ups and downs and try and figure out what sense to make of it all.

2008 was a difficult and wonderful year for me. I finished school at Chapman, moved to LA, got a real job in the industry, completed Happy Holidays and started my next two Features 'True Perfection' and 'On the Verge.'

But I feel like beyond the surface of the career goals I achieved a great deal more happened in terms of my personal growth. I learned to shed many problems of my past to grow up into the adult self I strive to be. Since I did go through so much, I felt like each trial was a trial to see if I could make it in the life I want.

See, I think the biggest lesson I learned (or am learning) is how the "real world" more specifically "Hollywood" works. Years ago when I first made Happy Holidays I had this sort of naive thought that people would see how awesome the film was and I would be discovered then fame and fortune would shortly followed. But the thing is people aren't very eager to dish out free rides and everyone is scratching for the same thing. Furthermore, you have to work your ass off to get anywhere in this town. People are fake, deceitful, materialistic, hungry and selfish. But through all the bullshiters, there are a few good people who are willing to make something of their lives, commit to you and be real. And whats more, I love the Hollywood game. It's like everyone is so outright with it all. With the sex, drugs, problems, art, everything. Everyone is just out there and crazy and ambitious (in the right circles) and the energy is just amazing!

There have been points this year, where I, along with i'm sure many other people in the country almost gave up. Where I was flat broke, almost homeless, persecuted, betrayed, heartbroken, but each time I did not give up and I did not settle. It took a while but I got through it and in the end I'm walking away with so many better friends and prospects for 2009.

And I mean out of all the goals I had for 2008, (Move to LA, make the pilot of True Perfection, get a job and of course start going to high end clubs for free), I accomplished all of them.

So I suppose my goals for 2009 are

1) Find a kick ass luxury apartment in Mid-Wilshire, Hollywood Strip, Larchmont or West Hollywood

2) Get funding/Make True Perfection the feature

3) Make On the Verge the Feature

4) Get a manager

5) Get at least one somewhat major magazine article written about me/my films

that sounds like a good year to me!!!

Liz Lemon

2008-12-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

I want a disco christmas

and I also want more sleep

At Last

2008-12-10T17:35:00.000-08:00

These are the movies I want to see!!

Cadillac Records

Frost/Nixon

Doubt

The Day the Earn Stood stilll

The Tale of Desperadeux

Total roughly : 65$?

Electric Feel

2008-12-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

I'm getting slightly something, but i dont know what that slightly something is.

New episodes of On the Verge should be coming out this weekend, plus stuff with True Perfection. I'm re-writing the script every day...

I realized last night that I'm in a weird transition period between my past and my future. I'm not where I want to be but i'm definitely progressing every day. But I'm still pretty restless, I'm giving myself a transition time till July when I move into a sweet ass apartment somewhere. By then I will be in pre-production for True Perfection and ready for season 2 of On the Verge. Yup that's what I've just decided while writing this post

So I guess new goal time is 8 months of transition period. I think I can live with that!

ramble ramble ramble ramble ramble

The Sweater Song

2008-11-18T11:44:00.000-08:00

Things seem to be settling on a nice little plateau. A calm before the storm if you will. But I don't think it's going to be a bad storm, more of a promotion of s storm, when True Perfection and On the Verge start taking off! Right now it's just waiting, waiting on a new episode, waiting on a new cut, waiting on an updated website, waiting, waiting waiting.

I think Dangerfield is a cool name.

I got invited to Opera the other night! It was really fun and cool to be invited :) I can't wait as the storm of awesome-ness progresses and I get invited more places so I can dance! It was fun to go with Katie!! and I had a feather in my hair!!

Baby, it's cold outside

2008-11-10T17:26:00.000-08:00

so turns out I need to get on my own ass about blogging. I hate that verb. I heard people on the news say it on a respected show, like "post your responses on my blog" and I was like ahhhhhh what has the world come to, between that and teleporting or whatever the hell the black eyed peas dude did on CNN.

The economy isn't in the most prime condition right now. I am very very thankful for every pay check that ends up in my bank account. I hope they keep coming especially through the next year. It looks as though the vergers are going to be getting a house or a sick as three bedroom apartment somewhere fun.

And then today I realized soemthing. I got handed a moped helmet for free. And i'm taking it as a sign. It's time to get back on the course for a mo-ped. I know i'm saving now for a deposit on the next house and rent $$, but once i get my deposit back from the place I'm in now I will use that money for what it should have been used for in the first place. A MOPED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Girl from the North Country

2008-10-27T13:42:00.000-07:00

hmmm, so I just ate a subway footlong sandwich. yummmmmmm. that will lead to me going to the gym for like 90 minutes tonight, but whatever

Im beginning to come out of my feeling of displacement. After a rift with my landlord which got me very fed up with where I live. It's just a huge pet peeve to be accused for making noise, when in fact it was the person above me. But whatever, I know i'm right and I know that he's a liar.

I'm thinking about moving into a house in July, that of course would mean I'd have to get a car somehow, so maybe a house isn't in the nearest future. I can't wait to move in July. Hopefully at that point we'll be shooting a season two of On the Verge!!!

the fish that hangs out by my desk is really cool. He's got personality

P.S. I love you

2008-10-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

I'm finding myself hardened a bit after living in Hollywood for only 5 months. Things happen very quickly here and rejection is the name of the game. If you find yourself too sentimental and filled with hopes and dreams you must make your dreams mathamatical as apposed to ideas.

However with thta I'm finding it easier to know how to "play the game" more. How to talk to people and who to actually talk too.

I feel that my dreams are more of a reality now than they were before as long as I can go along for the ride. I will not give up and I can't

I really hope Obama wins the election. lately I've been getting more into politics, reading more newspapers watching MSNBC....the daily show...the colbert report. hahaha. Its like waking up a part of me that died when Bush got elected. I shut off the politico in me because if I thought about it too much I would get so upset. Also in California people seem to not care.

But i've finally found a group of political people who actually care about the world and what happens in it.

also i got a cool obama shirt. I know it looks like im showing off my boobs but whatever

Clean Living

2008-10-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

The economic crises. Seems to be on a lot of people's minds. And frankly I'm quite sick of it. Not that i'm sick of hearing about it but I'm sick of being freaking poor as hell. I know that a lot of money went to my shooting True Perfection and stuff.

But just as much money is going to go to bills next pay check as the one before PLUS we're still shooting some stuff

But this is the path I've chosen, so i will bite the bullet and spend lots of money on OTV, True Perfection and hundreds on HH festival fees.

On another note, I saw Ghost town and thought it was quite funny. Sometimes it's nice to have a good laugh.

Duchess

2008-09-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

I saw the Duchess last night and it was terrible!

how these types of movies get made is beyond me, with these blazee characters. I mean the acting was great, but the writing was awful.

But on the good news I found out I can write off going to movies as a tax deduction since I am a filmmaker. It's weird and very cool to be called an "artist" technically.

Beyond that, I'm going to the Samuel French store on Saturday to get the book of agents in the LA area, I'm going to spend the next few months dedicating myself to getting a directing agent and a literary agent and by god I will do it!

DSC_0030

2008-09-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

evidently blogger has a scheduled outage at 4:00PM

I feel the awkwardness of this inbetween stage to be overwhelming. In the sense that I love directing so much and the shoot of True Perfection turned out so well, then I had to pick myself up Monday morning at 8:15 and bike over to my low level job at a Production Company.

It's a pain in the ass to require money to do what I do, but I know I couldn't survive without this job. Right now so many things are in the midst tho. I am in the works of getting an agent for directing and literary. I am also in the midst of selling Happy Holidays and OTV just got picked up by a small Indie Channel which is rad!!! I know this will all pay off in the long run and I'm sure that by May 2009 (my projected goal) I will be getting paid for doing what I love. It's just a matter of getting there.

BAM

America

2008-09-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

Ohhhh so many things to post about!

The pressure of shooting is upon me again which is never fun. I wish that I had money to make this short and it wasn't like Happy Holidays in the fact that we have to cut corners for everything.

The one good thing about it however, is it is not like HH in the fact that getting people to help me cut corners is much easier. It's nice to have the confidence of friends and co-workers that I am doing the right thing, that they trust me as a filmmaker.

However, at my job I, like when I was a server am getting quite tired of people. This might sound weird to someone who doesn't understand what its like to constantly have to interact with human beings, but it's really disgusting how rude and cut throat people are. I would say about 70% of the people I interact with, mostly the regular people at work are great! But it's the people that come in and out, the phone calls that are just revolting. It makes you loose hope in humanity when even on a small scale, people are so eager to create a caste system, to treat younger people with no respect because they feel their age entitles them to be assholes. That because they have an extra zero at the end of their paycheck beyond yours, they have the right to disregard you as a person.

There is a difference between deserving respect and feeling entitled to service.

I worry that human beings are naturally assholes, that our natural state is to fuck over everyone around you in the hope of staying alive for a second longer. Those people are selfish and only see out of their own eyes. They make rash decisions not understand how what they do directly effects everyone around them, from people in a store to friends and family. They are polluting the earth not only with toxins, but with negativity.

The optimist or "real" me, wants to disagree, wants to believe that we can all get along and disregard social class, race, sex orientation, gender, and just progress into a happy future. But the cynical part of me thinks McCain will be elected.

Man that felt good to write!

Fresh off the Boat

2008-08-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

So I'm not quite sure how this happened, but in the past week i've been contacted by people to

1) Review HH
2) interview me
3) Screen HH for possible investors for my next film/promotion for HH

it's nice that finally everything I dreamed about while making the film is actually happening. And also bittersweat that it's happening now. I've fought really hard to get here, and now so many things seem possible.

On Sunday we blocked scene two of True Perfection then went out on the street and "faux" shot it with the On the Verge camera.
It was incredible to see the actors bring it to life and I cannot wait to make this film. It's going to be 20 times better than HH. Of course not to say HH was bad, but one would hope in three years I'd learn a thing or two.

Check out the first review of HH. I am actually quite happy with it. There's a few things I don't think it did justice too, but overally 3.5 stars is better then lots of bigger films.

http://insulinfunk.net/2008/08/18/happy-holidays-s-mohen-2008/

Abundance

2008-08-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

So we have another camera person for On the Verge now, named Tessa.

She is amazing. And she said something along the lines of "I really admire and commend you for what you're doing. When I was in college I wanted to make narrative features but then my path lead me to make documentaries. It's so hard to think about all the set backs there are, but you have something amazing, you have an abundance of accomplishment and people supporting you. That is hard to achieve"

And it's so easy to get swept away in how hard everything is. But when you sit back and think about it. It's like wow. I have accomplished a lot. that's great.

the fish on my desk is swimming

3 Projects for the Price of None

2008-08-15T12:09:00.000-07:00

Right now I am working on three projects.

Not only am I working on them, I am running them.

Still submitting HH to festivals which takes up time and money. I've spent to much on it already so I have to cool off with submitting for a while and just stick to everything else for two weeks

Doing on the verge which requires funding. and then now rehearsals for True Perfection every night. Although I love each, I'm terrified of True Perfection becoming Happy Holidays pt.2 in terms of funding because I don't want it to be.

In fact I will make it not be. But RIght now we're just making everything in order to get the money. Oh complications. If only I were born rich or the daughter of Steven Speilberg, this would be less hard.

but then when I do accomplish something it makes it so worth it. But while you're in the middle of struggling so hard it's very difficult to think that way.

On top of working 9-6 every day.

I need a vacation. I need time for a vacation. Money for a vacation?

oh well, at least i'm doing this all for something I love. Imagine if it were something I hated like Chemistry. YECH

Tired

2008-08-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

is the best emotion to describe me right now.

I found myself getting sleep this weekend but waking up just as tired as I did on Friday. Looks like I'm going to be calling it an early night tonight. I will try and be asleep by 1030

again just so it sinks in. I will try and be asleep by 1030.

Good I think my brain processed that.

True Perfection is in the top 1% in the first cut film series competition "www.firstcutfilmseries.com" If we win, the movie will get a one million dollar budget. If we don't I have the comfort of knowing my script was better then 99% of the submissions.

sleep now. jk i'm working till 6. yuck

Blackbird

2008-08-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

I'm happy that my blog is no longer defective like it used to be.

And now back to normal. There's going to be some major changes to OTV that i'm really excited about!

whats more exciting is I have officially begun my next film. WOW.

that is insane to think about. I mean i'm still sending Happy Holidays off to festivals and probably will every day for the next 6 months, but here goes film number two. True Perfection.

We were having call backs the other day, and for the first time I saw my words lifted into the thoughts of actors and a movie appear. That will never stop to thrill me. I remember in Happy Holidays it happened in the "five person scene" and robert was auditioning for charles, and actually got up and threatened to hit Russell who was reading for Thomas.

I can feel a change inside of me, almost indescribable. I don't know what it is. I'll probably figure it out by my 22 birthday. Wow, where did the last year go?

2008-07-24T15:59:00.001-07:00

the blog is being defective!!

oh mi gee!

Life changing

2008-07-18T14:11:00.001-07:00

I've decided to spend the next 10 days re-thinking my life and dealing with everything that needs to be dealt with. One might call it self-exploration. It will be really cool and very scary.

First I need to figure out who I am.

Advanced Global Personality Test Results

Extraversion	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	90%
Stability	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	42%
Orderliness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	62%
Accommodation	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	34%
Interdependence	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Intellectual	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	38%
Mystical	\|\|\|\|\|\|	23%
Artistic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	83%
Religious	\|\|	10%
Hedonism	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Materialism	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	90%
Narcissism	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Adventurousness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Work ethic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	83%
Humanitarian	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Conflict seeking	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Need to dominate	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	90%

Romantic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Avoidant	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	36%
Anti-authority	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	83%
Wealth	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	36%
Dependency	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Change averse	\|\|\|\|\|\|	23%
Cautiousness	\|\|\|\|\|\|	30%
Individuality	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	83%
Sexuality	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Peter pan complex	\|\|\|\|	16%
Family drive	\|\|\|\|\|\|	30%
Physical Fitness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	%
Histrionic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	76%
Paranoia	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Vanity	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Honor	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Thriftiness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality test by similarminds.com

According to the online statistics this quiz has provided me, this should reflect my personality....although I think the best thing for me to do would be think about who I am and not trust in a computer generated thing

Disgusting

2008-07-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm tremendously upset with the state of the world and human existence.

We are so quick to want to destroy one another. What every happened to Love? I wonder if it even exists anymore.

We commend people for large acts of kindness, because they are so rare these days. In health class, we are taught to yell "FIRE!" if we're being mugged or raped, because if you yell help, no one will come.

Doctors are afraid to diagnose because of law suits, politicians are no longer measured on merit, but on their sex/personal life, large corporations are interested in screwing over millions of people as long as they stay rich.

I know there's a big world out there
like the one that I saw on the screen
in my living room late last night
it was almost too bright to see.

and I know that it's not a party
if it happens every night
pretending there's glamour and candelabrum
when you're drinking by candelight.

What am I upset about? among having to move because I have a cat, my friends lives falling to pieces, my boyfriend having to work from 8pm-4am and hating it, and working my butt off and Happy Holidays won From Here to Awesome but can't be in the final selections because it didn't pass a clearance test....???

fuck shit.

Heel

2008-07-08T14:57:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting True Perfection to a point where I really really like it!

Okay, I've always really like it but, no pun intended, I am a perfectionist with my work and with my actors. They'll tell you how i'll have incredible amounts of rehearsals. But I mean, if people are going to spend time watching a movie, I feel like they're owed a good performance

Speaking of good performances, I just watched "Monster's Ball" and wow. that movie is amazing, and has a great cast! I mean okay P.Diddy...stretching it...but here's whats cooler...I got to watch it at work!

I love my job here, and I guess I feel entitled to a good job since I've had so many shitty ones. If we want to recount...

Hostess - Outback Steakhouse Aug 2003-February 2004 (With a 3 month hiatus to direct my senior thesis)

Hostess - Spoons Bar & Grill - May 2005- Aug 2005

Sales Rep - Charlotte Russe - June 2005-Dec 2005

Sales Rep - Lucky Brand Jeans May 2006-July 2006

Hostess - Cask N'Cleaver July 2006-Sept 2006 (Quit for HH)

Waitress...ehrm. excuse me...server April 2007-April 2008

on another note.

black & Gold

2008-06-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

We had true perfection auditions this weekend.

and i now have two thoughts

we are having another round of auditions and call backs

and i am re-writing the script. Again.

mostly this time focusing on Lucas, because he is sort of characterless right now. Maybe just because I find myself more angry at men then compassionate towards them. or maybe that's not it at all. Mayve I just havent found lucas's voice yet, but I think I may have just stumbled upon it.

Also, I seriously love the new girltalk album.

And I am seriously more and more stoked for the new harry potter every day!

Ol' Faithful

2008-06-27T17:20:00.000-07:00

So I'm not feeling very good right now! But I'm trying to make the best possible effort to be cheery!

It's hard when your work schedule is 9-6PM and your boyfriends is 5:30PM to 2AM

so im sitting here at work being all meeeehhhh, my eye isn't working and I'm tired and my knees hurt and I want to have the funding I for On the Verge and True Perfection.

but then I watched something that always makes me laugh

Y control

2008-06-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

So lately there's been this heat wave in los Angeles that's been like........WOW.

but that's really not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about how it's funny that weather is so commonly talked about. I know it's like the safe subject so it's the first thing everyone brings up when you see a person you don't know very well, like,

"Hey! How are you?"

"Great, yourself?"

"..Great! How about this weather, huh?"

"Yeah, so intense!"

"Yeah!"

......

5 awkward seconds later

"I wonder if it's this hot all over the country"

"You know I have no idea."

End conversation

on another note

Happy Holidays got into "From Here to Awesome"!!

www.fromheretoawesome.com

This is what we will probably win, if we pass the clearence test