At the beginning of a new year, we love to reflect on all of the accomplishments we have been blessed with, but most importantly think about what we can all improve on and continue to grow. Before we get into our 2018 New Year Resolutions for Moth to Flame, here are some of the goals we set to accomplish in 2017.

We focused on the following film production goals for 2017:

1. Period piece content
2. Episodic storytelling
3. Shorter shorts.

Period Piece Content

We have accomplished most of these goals, some better than others. The one goal we excelled significantly in was our goal to venture into period piece content.

Shakespeare on the Range

Our short film Shakespeare on the Range, for the Louisiana Film Prize took place in 3 periods, the mid 80s, early 90s, and early 2000s. It was quite a challenge for me as a producer to have to rely heavily on my wardrobe head, Denise Hutto, on time period appropriate clothing.

For my past films, I had been spoiled and lucky enough to select wardrobe pieces from places with great return policies or the talent’s own personal closets. For this film, we had to search through thrift stories to get the correct costuming. I personally researched, looked at old music videos and films to get the right look and feel. I think our end results paid off.

This is what my living room looked like for a few months…

Moth to Flame props and wardrobe boxes

Thrill Theory Parkside Music Video

For our music video “Parkside” for local Austin, Texas band Thrill Theory we conceptualized a world taking place during the 1950s. Again, another challenge, but luckily we discovered that retro pinup clothing was still very fashionable for collectors and pinup hobbyists so it was actually not too difficult looking through Amazon for items to try on and eventually return.

We lucked out with one of the of band members having connection to a 1950s vehicle which really helped transport the audience into the time period.

Episodic Storytelling

We dabbled in episodic storytelling. In the middle of the year we helped created a proof of concept trailer based off of the award winning play “A Girl Named Sue” written by Christine Hoang.

A Girl Named Sue Proof of Concept Trailer with Moth to Flame and ColoredArc Productions

Early January 2018 we will be a part of the webseries called “Public Displays of Insanity” written by Paulina Manseau and Jeff Brody. We are currently developing a few other series concepts as well that we hope to film or pitch in 2018.

Shorter Shorts

Making Shorter shorts was a challenge. In fact, one of our 15-minute short, My Heart – Ya Albi actually got longer. Though I as a writer did not focus on writing shorter shorts, I did have the opportunity to direct content from other filmmakers in this category.

We helped to produce “The Reunion” a short film written by Joy Lin, which is in the process of entering film festivals.

The Reunion by Joy Lin directed by Christine Chen of Moth to Flame and Danyelle Cavaness-Weatherford

We also joined up with PictureSafe and created several small short form sketches to help hone various skill sets on set that we otherwise would not get to practice since they are outside what we usually get hired for. For example, my forte is not gaffing and I had an opportunity to be the director of photography on some of the micro shorts.

We also produced a musical (our first musical, I caught the musical bug after “La La Land”) for local gym, Dane’s Body Shop inspired by “The Spanish Inquisition” by Mel Brooks that was extremely fun and challenging.

Dane’s Body Shop Musical Behind the Scenes with Moth to Flame

2017 was a lot of up and downs for the company. We had an extremely strong start at the beginning of the year, but our focus on the business itself was diluted by our year full of film festivals, which is not necessarily a negative thing. This was the first year we really focused on Texas film festivals and put ourselves on the map creatively. I think prior to 2017, people suspected that Moth to Flame created quality creative narrative content from the trailers we released and the film festivals we attended outside of Texas, but we rarely had an opportunity to screen in our own Austin hometown. This year we had multiple great opportunities to finally share our work with the Austin community.

Year of Festivals

Our first Austin screening was of Ya Albi for the Austin Film Society curated film event “Stories Matter: Response Through Film Screening” focused on social issues. We screened at Austin Public on Feb 8, 2017 with other awesome socially conscious films.

Our next great opportunity was screening at the Hill Country Film Festival in Fredericksburg and also for Film Femme Fridays at Bob Bullock. The Bob Bullock screen was incredibly exciting and helpful for us because it was the first time the Academy Qualified cut would be screened. It helped us catch some issues with our DCP just in time for our Academy submission.

Finally, we ended our Texas festival run with a screening at the Austin Revolution Film Festival. We won Best Short Audience Choice and I won the Female Filmmaker of the Year award. It was pretty rad.

From left to right: Diana Rose – Best Actress, Christine Chen – Female Filmmaker of the Year, Lisa Belcher James Joplin Award

Academy Qualifying My Heart – Ya Albi

Our greatest highlight of the year was qualifying My Heart – Ya Albi for the Academy Awards. Out of 10,000 short films created annually, we were amongst the 165 films that qualified. Though we did not make the coveted Top 10 Short List, the journey and learning opportunity was priceless. Now, we are more familiar with the process and know exactly what to expect the next time we decide to Academy qualify again.

Screened at an Academy Qualifying Film Festival – New Orleans Film Festival

This was the first year we made it into an Academy Qualifying A tier festival as well! We had such a great time at the New Orleans Film Festival and my co-producer Adam Duncan and I finally had the opportunity to celebrate it with some of our team members, lead actress Diana Rose and Darrell Mitchell.

New Orleans Film Festival with the My Heart – Ya Albi team

Founder’s Circle – Louisiana Film Prize

Though we did not make Top 5 this year at the Louisiana Film Prize, we finally after 4 years received the Founder’s Circle Prize which provides us a $3K budget to be used towards next year’s Film Prize film. This is a HUGE opportunity for Moth to Flame. $3k goes a long way considering all of our shorts have been made for less than $4K.

Shakespeare on the Range booth at the Louisiana Film Prize

1. Film or pitch a TV pilot/scene
2. Raise Funding for a feature film or Pilot
3. Grow Moth to Flame commercially

2018 will be a lot of pre-production and development work. Having made so many ultra low-microbudget films, we feel that it is time to move beyond no-budgets and spend the time raising money from investors to be able to accomplish and bump up the quality level of our shorts. We would love to work with equipment such as pursuit cars or hydro-scoping jibs and be able to pay all of our hardworking crew and cast members.

Since Funemployment, all of our films have been financed by our company. It has been very challenging since it significantly limits what we can and cannot do due to budget constraints. We plan to reach out into the community and show our expansive portfolio in hopes that investors will take a chance on us and invest in the new projects we have currently in store.

If you happen to be reading this and want to be a part of our projects, please let us know. We need your help!

Helping other companies has always been a huge passion of mine. I love nerding out and thinking about brand strategy and ways for businesses to better reach future clients and grow their businesses. For the past 7 years, Moth to Flame has relied completely on word of mouth to grow the business, this year, we will focus on marketing content such as reels and targeted landing pages to help grow and expand the business nationally.

Our primary wish is to partner with companies who are interested in telling their stories in a creatively narrative and heartfelt way. We want to do more Dane’s Body Shop commercials that celebrate a brand’s personality rather than make content that emulates what everyone else does. If you have a company that wants to think outside of the box, let us know!

To another year completed and a new and shiny one ahead for Moth to Flame in 2018!