Plague/Cold of Death

My wife has given me her plague/cold of death. I take this as proof of a feminist plot to murder me. Anyway, it's hard to write about filmmaking when your only two thoughts are "tissues" and "sleep," so forgive this week's short blog.

There's a lot of things in action behind the scenes on Women's Studies right now that I'll hopefully be able to talk about in upcoming blogs, such as:

--Our Art Director, Stephanie Petagno has shown me some preliminary designs for the "cult tattoo" that all the academy girls sport.

--We're in talks about our main campus location. I'm really excited about this because the location is in many ways a character in the film.

--I'm almost done with my "director's script," which has a boatload of notes for all my department heads, mainly the camera, lighting, sound, and art departments.

--You're probably already aware, but the new Women's Studies website is live at www.womensstudiesmovie.com or www.ross-prentiss.org. Keep your eye out for "easter eggs."

I also want to take the time to give a big shout out to Gary Ugarek and his zombie film, Deadlands: The Rising. Gary helped Cindy and I out on our short film, Under the Bed, and has been a major cheerleader for Women's Studies from the beginning. Cindy and I both returned the favor by appearing in and helping out behind the scenes on Deadlands. In about a month, we'll again lend the assist on some pick-up shots he's working on. I'm also going to be contributing to the sequel, Deadlands: The New World. I won't say exactly how yet, since Gary may want to tell folks that himself.

Anyway, Gary's a great guy who knows his zombie films. As a filmmaker, he's not only aware of his strengths, but also his weaknesses, which makes me have a lot of respect for him. A little bird told me that a lot of folks are going to get the chance to see Deadlands here in the next six months, and I encourage you to check it out if you get the chance. Zombie fans will not be disappointed. More info about Deadlands: The Rising can be found at The Official Deadlands: The Rising website.

Next week will kick off a series of five blogs spotlighting the cast and characters of Women's Studies. I tried to figure out the best way to approach it, and just decided to go alphabetically by character. Therefore in the next blog, we'll introduce you to Beth, Mary's quick-witted, "take-no-bullshit" best friend.