cat bird pictures

Jerome Foundation Grant!

2010-05-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

Thrilled to announce that Kaz received a Jerome Foundation Travel + Study grant to travel to Malaysia and Indonesia and research her period spy drama feature film project. Tentatively entitled "Wilhelmina Vandereen Takes Revenge," the project tells the possibly true story of a Eurasian woman spy who turned the tide of WWII and might have been the illegitimate daughter of Mata Hari.

Check back for updates!

Megafauna at Brooklyn International Film Festiva!

2010-05-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

Fantastic news! Megafauna is Official Selection at BIFF 2010, running June 4-13th! Check back for info about screening times and dates! Hurray!

http://www.brooklynfilmfestival.org/films/detail.asp?fid=1059

DWW Showcase Promo site is live!

2010-04-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

Check out the awesome promo site for the upcoming DWW showcase!

http://www.afi.com/showcase/dww/default.aspx

New CBP script "The Forest Primeval" in development!

2010-04-12T05:43:00.000-07:00

When an American dance company's tour to a small festival in rural Poland crashes and burns, they think things can't get any worse. But when they decide to kill time and explore the old-growth forest that surrounds the village, they unwittingly play into the hands of an ancient and devious entity that wants to escape its prison in the forest at any cost...

Not ONLY was the script loosely based on real events with a real dance company, BUT, the recent tragedy of the plane crash that killed most of the executive branch of the Polish government happened en route to an event in Russia commemorating the anniversary of the Katyn Forest Massacre, an event that hearkens uncannily to one of the centrol plot points of the story.

From wiki:

The Katyn Forest in the vicinity of the village was the site of the Katyn massacre in the time of World War II, in which captured Polish officers and other citizens were killed. The Soviet Union was initially blamed by Nazi Germany and in 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev admitted that the NKVD had executed the Poles and confirmed two other burial sites similar to the site at Katyn: Mednoje and Pyatikhatki.

A number of earlier mass graves of victims of the Soviet system have also been found there, as Katyn Forest had long been used as an execution site for Soviet citizens.

“It is a damned place,” former President Aleksander Kwasniewski told TVN24. “It sends shivers down my spine.”

Stay tuned for more on this project.

MEGAFAUNA Premiere set for Saturday March 13 2010 at AFI!

2010-02-06T07:20:00.003-08:00

More info to come, but mark your calendars!

MEGAFAUNA Premiere set for Saturday March 13 2010 at AFI!

2010-02-06T07:20:00.001-08:00

More info to come, but mark your calendars!

Megafauna Film site is live!

2009-10-13T07:37:00.001-07:00

Check out Megafauna's new dedicated site! www.megafaunafilm.com

Megafauna Wraps Principal Photography!

2009-07-26T21:45:00.001-07:00

Many thanks to our amazing stills photographer Kat Marcinowski for her amazing work! Megafauna is in the can and begins post production next week. Check back for updates!

Megafauna signs on critically acclaimed DP Reed Morano!

2009-07-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

Most recently recognized for her stunning work on multi-Oscar nominated Frozen River, Reed will be joining the production team to bring her virtuosity to the photography of Megafauna. Check out reviews of Reed's recent work at http://reedmorano.com/press.html This is Reed's second project with Cat Bird Pictures.

2009 Tony-nominee Marin Ireland joins the cast of Megafauna

2009-07-01T08:19:00.000-07:00

Straight off her critically acclaimed and Tony-nominated run on Broadway in Neil LaBute's "reasons to be pretty," Marin joins the Megafauna team to portray the canny and complicated Anna.

Megafauna gears up for Preproduction

2009-05-24T10:35:00.001-07:00

Having completed the three-week AFI Master Directing Workshop, Kaz is launching into pre-production for Megafauna. Principal photography begins July 16th. Stay tuned for updates!

HAGADDAH rocks.

2009-03-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

HAGADDAH (or THE PASSOVER STORY) opened at LaMama ETC on Friday and has already garnered one very favorable review. http://culturebot.org/2009/03/21/haggadah-rocks/

"...with radically edited footage from iconic swords & sandals epic The Ten Commandments, the music of Metallica and contemporary performance practice, Safer has created what will come to be seen as a seminal work in the history of Jewish theater."

Playing through March 29th!

FUGUE @ 2009 Palm Beach International Film Festival!

2009-03-18T10:47:00.000-07:00

CBP is thrilled to announce that Fugue has been accepted to the 2009 Palm Beach International Film Festival.

PALM BEACH INTERNATIONAL
FILM FESTIVAL
Palm Beach, Florida - USA
April 23 to 27, 2009

Named "One of the Top 10 Destination Film Festivals," byMovieMaker Magazine, the PALM BEACH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (PBIFF) commits itself to identifying, recognizing and honoring emerging filmmakers of today and tomorrow with the support of appreciative and enthusiastic Palm Beach audiences.

For the past 13 years, the Festival has showcased thousands of award-winning films and hosted countless filmmakers, actors, industry heavyweights and media representatives from around the globe. PBIFF offers Jury Prizes for Best Feature, Best Documentary and Best Short, as well as Best Director and Audience Awards. Through these and other programs, PBIFF gives filmmakers the rare opportunity to network with industry professionals, attend premiere events, and showcase their work in this glamorous, welcoming city.

It's no wonder that artists like Jason Reitman, Anthony Hopkins, Nia Vardalos, Samuel L. Jackson, Woody Harrelson, Michael Caine, Salma Hayek, and many others have made PBIFF visits a priority. MovieMaker Magazine proclaims, "Class is the name of the game and PBIFF has it in droves."

AFI Directing Workshop for Women

2009-03-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

We're thrilled to announce that Kaz has been accepted into the 2009 AFI Directing Workshop for Women! Kaz is wicked excited, and can't wait to begin the workshopping process for the AFI supported short film Megafauna (wt). Check back for more news soon!

The Blue Bird gets a great review in the New York Times!

2009-01-19T22:22:00.000-08:00

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/theater/reviews/20bird.html?ref=arts

THE BLUE BIRD!

2009-01-08T13:22:00.000-08:00

Catch THE BLUE BIRD at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center thru Jan 24th, 2009!

Video & projection design by Cat Bird Pictures.

CBP Gears up for The Blue Bird

2008-12-16T21:19:00.000-08:00

CBP is designing a video projection component for the upcoming Witness Relocation show, The Blue Bird. Written by Mikuni Yanaihara and directed by Dan Safer, the play is based on an Anime series that was based on a French play by a Belgian writer (Maeterlinck). With dance numbers, a bear, ladybugs, scientists, a love song, absurd comedy, poetic beauty, and a lecture on the dangers of leaving your mouth open.

Featuring "Fugue" star, Laine Rettmer as Sakada the Mammalogist!

Check it out at the Clemente Soto Velez cultural center from Jan 7 - 24th!

New Script in the works: Megafauna

2008-10-29T08:28:00.001-07:00

Cat Bird Pictures has completed the first draft of a new script, a feature called "megafauna" (WT) which revolves around a man and woman whose troublesome marriage is put in perspective after a terrible accident. Set in the Pacific Northwest, the story investigates the divide between the impracticality of love and our deep need for it.

Fugue Stills available for download.

2008-10-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

Go to www.catbirdpictures.com/films.html and click on the thumbnails at the bottom of the page for high res downloadable stills from the film!

The count down is on for festival acceptance notification... Stay tuned for updates!

FUGUE Star James Warke stars in PLAGUETOWN @ the Two Boots!

2008-10-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

James, who played "Tracey" in Fugue, (you will recognize him in the poster below!) will be making his feature lead debut in slick slasher flick "Plaguetown" at the Two Boots Theater at Avenue A & 3rd Street in the East Village at 9pm on Friday October 10th!

Halloween magic to be certain. Check it out if you get a chance!

Fugue: Onwards and Upwards

2008-09-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

The team at CBP want to give a huge shout out to our still photographer extraordinaire, Alex Berg, whose incredible work on set has provided literally thousands of beautiful images with which to beautify our press kits, email updates, and of course, the Cat Bird Pictures blog. At this point we're packaging up submissions and sending them out daily-- submitted fests include Sundance, SXSW, Rotterdam, Berlin and Seattle-- but we won't hear back from anyone until December.

Check back for updates!

Fugue Completed; Soundtrack features songs by Balkan Beat Box and Telepathe!

2008-09-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

Cat Bird Pictures would like to extend special thanks to everyone who made this last post-production push such a roaring success. Sound designer Ryan Maeker made it sound like a movie, the wizards at Postworks Soho made it look (more) like a movie, and Dan Huron and Michael DiSanto provided incredible original music for the score.

We'd especially like to thank all the musicians who licensed their songs to us for use in the film; Busy Gagnes & Melissa Livaudais of Telepathe, Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskrat of Balkan Beat Box and Dragan Otasevic of nihiti. We could not be more stoked about the Fugue soundtrack. It rocks.

Special thanks to Aaron Bisman at JDub records, Janis Shen at Howard Sadowsky for all their help!

Submissions are already underway, with Sundance, SXSW and Rotterdam featuring prominently on the wishlist.

Check back for updates... this is where it starts to get fun!

Fugue Update and New Projects for Winter and Spring

2008-08-10T04:05:00.001-07:00

The CBP team is gearing up for the first submission deadline for Fugue-- August 29th for the Turin Film Festival. We're very excited to be working with award winning sound designer Ryan Maeker (www.ryanmaeker.com) and musician/composer/Stay Gold Studios recording engineer (TV On the Radio; Yeah Yeah Yeahs) Dan Huron on crafting a smooth, spooky and beautiful soundscape to float the film on.

A high def version of the Fugue trailer is now available on the CBP site.

Also, a recent update by my web designer gurus operationcmyk.com features a whole new page for Vicious Dogs On Premises, including a short trailer of some selected video design moments from the show. Check it out!

And there's lots more to come in the video design world. CBP will once again be joining forces with Dan Safer and Witness Relocation on several projects throughout the Winter and Spring: "Bluebird," a Japanese play by playwright Mikuni Yanaihara is scheduled to open January 6th 2009 at the CSV Theater in Manhattan; a new production of William Inges' "Bus Stop" will open on March 4, 2009 at Ramapo University in Mahwah, NJ and "The Passover Show," Safer's exploration and evisceration of the Jewish holiday produced in conjunction with the Six Points Fellowship & The Foundation For Jewish Culture will open at La Mama on March 19, 2009.

CBP is greatly looking forward to designing the video for all three productions.

Check back for updates about Fugue Festival status!

Dogs Closes; Rock and Roll Acid Test Premieres

2008-06-17T06:38:00.001-07:00

While completing the run of Vicious Dogs on Premises at the Ontological Theater, CBP director Kaz Phillips has also been working on a little side project; writing a TV show for Fuse TV. Described as Mythbusters meets Jackass, with a music angle, Rock & Roll Acid Test premieres tonight (although writing continues through mid July!)

Check out this link for more info and some online video. http://www.fuse.tv/ontv/shows/rock-and-roll-acid-test/index.html

Vicious Dogs On Premises Teaser Video

2008-06-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

Featuring awesome stills by VDOP Lighting and Set Designer Jay Ryan, this short video gives a taste of what's in store for you at Witness Relocation's latest show.

Vicious Dogs on Premises starts its run at the Ontological-Hysteric

2008-05-31T22:23:00.000-07:00

The show opened this past Thursday the 29th and runs through June 14th. Here are a couple of stills from the opening featuring performers Sean Donovan, Laura Berlin Stinger, Heather Christian and Mike Mikos. Costumes by Pandora Gastelum. Lights, set and photographs by Jay Ryan. Video by Cat Bird Pictures.

Fugue Update and Vicious Dogs News

2008-05-09T13:11:00.000-07:00

The last day of shooting for FUGUE is scheduled for July 2nd, 2008, after which point we'll be burning the midnight oil to get the film finished in time for some critical festival submission deadlines at the end of August. More news on that in the coming months.

In the mean time Cat Bird Pictures is gearing up for start of rehearsals for Witness Relocation's VICIOUS DOGS ON PREMISES, an original theater piece about "following instructions, having too many options, making choices, torture, paranoia, shifting loyalties, dog fighting, violent criminals, never taking things for granted, dance numbers, falling in love, and a possible happy ending." CBP will be designing a multi-media component for the production, which premieres at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater's Summer Incubator Series on May 29th.

For more info about the show, go to www.witnessrelocation.org. To buy tickets go to www.ontological.com

Fugue Trailer

2008-03-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

Fugue Completes Principal Photography!

2008-03-11T06:36:00.000-07:00

Fugue is in the can and it looks incredible! After an intense and awesome six day shoot we are wrapped with the majority of production. Our incredible still photographer Alex Berg took an enormous amount of pictures, so we'll be posting some images here very soon, but suffice to say, Ms. Reed Morano and her team worked their magic and the footage looks absolutely amazing.

Biggest thanks and love to everybody who was involved in making this shoot so fun and seamless; Reed and Matt Walker and Rusty and Waris in the camera department, Micah our sound recordist, Marybeth and Jen our Production Designers, Danielle our Make Up Artist, Meissa our Associate Producer and SAG paperwork wrangler, the hotness Dan Safer our choreographer, Production Assistants Jordan, Nicolena, Colleen and Fran, our superhuman (and huggable!) Assistant Director Matt Binetti, all the extras that showed up and danced their asses off and last but certainly not least, our incredible principle performers, Laine, James, Maia, John and Shannon, who knocked our socks off on a daily basis.

We also want to thank The Farm on Adderley, Arthur Purvis and The Slab, The New School, Victoria Herbert and the MTA for providing our beautiful, cinematic shooting locations.

Stay tuned for great photos, a trailer and more Fugue news!!

CatBirdPictures.com Goes Live!

2008-02-11T22:20:00.001-08:00

With an enormous amount of gratitude to OperationCMYK.com for their awesome design, swift implementation and willingness to give late night mail server coaching sessions, Cat Bird Pictures is thrilled to announce the launch our official website, www.catbirdpictures.com

Yay!

Currently in full-swing on pre-production for "Fugue", our original HD short slated to be shot in March, we're also eagerly anticipating a video design project with Witness Relocation at the Ontological-Hysteric in May and a possible trip to Romania in October.

So check back for updates!

Fugue DP Reed Morano's last feature won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 08!

2008-02-04T17:47:00.000-08:00

Cat Bird Pix gives a big shout out to Reed in the wake of her incredible feature Frozen River winning the Grand Jury Prize out in Park City.

Reed is slated to shoot Cat Bird's short film Fugue next month! Nice work, Reed!