Happy Holidays Film

Check out the latest from On the Verge! SPIF Productions/aM's newest project.

Episode 3 stars HH supporting Actress, Brigitte Ashley!

S. Mohen recently graduated from Chapman University, but before academics achievements she graduated as a filmmaker, when I asked her who are you? she said "I am just a regular girl, I love dancing, love to go to the movies and I have a cat, but if I have to define myself, I've to say that I'm a filmmaker".

I don't consider her to be an ordinary girl though, at 20 years old she already made a feature film against all odds, including some teachers at Chapman that said to her, "you cannot do this it's just too ambitious". It took determination, but she recouped her money, she's developing her second feature and she's producing a web series call On the verge. I think the risk was worthy.

She writes about what she knows. After finishing the script of Happy Holidays her friends started encouraging her to do it. 33 days on set over 6 months, a winter break, a summer vacation and $5,000 later she had it in the can. (A winter break and a summer vacation, I'm wondering if the title of the movie comes from doing this).

It took a lot of courage and support from the crew and actors, sometimes they had to bring their own food to the set, sometimes they took advantage of the meals plans at Chapman but the reality is that they confronted every obstacle, they endured they learned and they made a movie. Dillon Morris, director of photography of the film gave me this trivia: All the people involve in this film were under 22 years old. Kudos to them.

Here the interview.

...and if you want to see the film, you can get it here.

Check out the interview at : http://guerrilla-filmmaking.com/

Check out the latest episode of On the Verge!

Starring Happy Holidays writer/Director: S.Mohen
and Actress: Brigitte Ashley

Happy Holidays is a bit of a strange, but good, film from the mumblecore school of filmmaking. It follows the trials of a teenage painter as she leaves home and her boyfriend behind in DC to attend art school in California and the strains the separation cause. It’s told roughly as a series of chapters taking place before, during and after holidays and how everything has changed in the intervening time.

The debut film for writer-director S. Mohen, it come with all of the unfortunate trappings of an indie first feature, especially as video shooting becomes more cost effective and available to more people. By now we’re used to the charming nature of no-budget films with sub-par acting and overly personal stories, but Mohen gets away with it by the skin of her teeth here. It has a lyrical pace, and the (assumed) use of ADR in many of the scenes lends it a kind of European quality in presentation. The subpar acting is kept mostly to the secondary roles in this. Everyone who absolutely needs to hit a cue can, but it sometimes feels like a filmed play more than a film. What it has over other films of it’s ilk is that it contains the A, B and C that so many mumblecore directors seem to despise or fear. It tells a story. Isn’t that what movies are supposed to do?

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



http://www.robixsmash.com/?p=1331

Guess what! Happy Holidays just got distribution on IndieFlix!!

Now available for immediate download at:

http://www.indieflix.com/Films/HappyHolidays

Check it out!!