DIRECTOR’S NOTES
Arun Vaidyanathan
Writer/Director/Producer
Finding my story:
The idea for “The Séance” floated around in my head for several months but I never sat down to write something seriously. I jotted down ideas for two short scripts but I was never able to shoot because of budget constraints. And, since I'd already done six short films, I wanted to move on to something bigger.
Finally I decided to develop “The Séance” idea as a feature and things happened faster than expected. Thanks to my wife’s understanding, I hid myself away at a nearby Café for a week and hammered out a first draft.
I knew there were things that needed improvement, so I sent it to few of my friends for feedback. Everybody liked the idea so I decided to enlist a writer who could get behind this project and work it out with me through each phase of development. That's when, thanks to Triggerstreet, I found Carl Salminen. Carl had wonderful, well-reviewed scripts on Triggerstreet, all of them rated with a top-ten blue star. He became interested in joining with me in the project and things just took off.
Carl and I examined the project's potential in detail. He liked the concept, took it very seriously, and exceeded my expectations by delivering a great new draft of the story. We revisited the script again and again until one fine day, we had something we both loved. The next task would be to seek funding, but that can take time, and the director in me had an itch to scratch. So, in the interim, I decided to shoot a short based on the opening scene of the full-length script. That is what we have here, in “The Séance”.
Recruiting a team:
Chris Freilich, who acted as director of photography on one of my earlier shorts (Stinking Cigar) liked the idea and joined up. The involvement of Chris and his cinematography skills proved invaluable to the project.
Next I recruited Rick Pisarro, a dedicated, top-notch actor who also worked with me on an earlier film (As You Wish). Rick plays the role of Chris in “The Séance”.
I had high expectations for the Theodore Robertson role and so conducted an audition in New York. Tom Cappadona e-mailed me that he really liked the synopsis of the short and would love to come for audition at my home. He immediately impressed me in both his presence and his delivery of the material. He was kind enough to accept he role when offered, and that left one more role to be filled.
That’s when we got Dianne Wesley, the voice talent for Rosy’s character. Dianne came by Carl’s recommendation. She not only nailed the role of Rosy, but is a talented singer, too, with ambition in many performance fields.
Things were coming together. Next, I confirmed Ingrid as makeup artist and she told me that she would be more than happy to provide props for the short, too. Josh Isaac, sound mixer was a friend of my D.P and he also confirmed his availability and interest.
I was amazed that everything was coming together so easily. Or so I thought.
That was when, just before the shoot date, my production designer had to drop out due to an unfortunate health problem. Luckily, I was able to find Stan Harris, an experienced and talented production designer who ramped up for the project with only a week's lead-time. What a trooper!
All of the D.P.'s crew, including Rene, Chan and Louis were so helpful in the production. My friends Sabbir Ahmed, Anand Alagappan, Maruthu Karuppiah and Veera contributed to the project, too, and I can’t thank them all enough.
I contacted Bill Brown (Composer on Mohammad Ali and Any Given Sunday) for music, but he wrote me a nice e-mail saying that because of his schedule he could not do this project and also recommended young Steve Mazzaro. Steve did a fantastic job. We added some special effects to the movie with the skills of Tomas Elles, a student of NYU who has done work in television commercials.
When it came to Editing, I was very happy to find and work with Allison Evezell. She was very patient in listening to my ideas and contributed her own thoughts and ideas to bring the film into something real.
And so, in the end, we all pulled together to churn out one fantastic short film. Evey one put their love and care into each aspect of the film and I think it shows. I hope you can see the passion and energy we invested in the making of “The Séance” and that you enjoy viewing it as much as we enjoyed making.
One last thank you:
Last, but not least, this project would not have happened without the love and understanding of Glen & Joanne Madsen, along with their young actress daughter, Megan, who provided their big basement for shooting this little film. I can't thank them enough. Peace!
Arun Vaidyanathan
A post script:
The experience of moviemaking is tiresome, demanding and unforgiving at times. This is especially true for independent filmmakers, who don’t have personal assistants to fetch the coffee. We have to do it all ourselves, even buying the nuts and bolts that hold the sets together. After three months of great labor, that involved lots of creative and budget-oriented decisions, “The Séance” slowly transformed from script to storyboards, to rehearsals and finally into celluloid. It’s a strange feeling of excitement and sadness that the efforts are finally over. But now the feature-length script is in my hands, waiting for its own celluloid metamorphosis so I want to put out a big, fat thanks to everyone for visiting The Séance Web site! Our efforts are, after all, done for you, the viewer. Enjoy!
THE SÉANCE - CAST & CREW
Arun Vaidyanathan (Writer/Director/Producer)
http://www.arunhere.com
http://imdb.com/name/nm2082582
Arun’s penchant for writing goes back to his high school days where he began writing poems and short stories for the local dailies and magazines. That passion combined with his skills as an entertainer soon lead him to a successful career in the regional Tamil (one of the southern languages in India) television industry. There, he wrote, directed and hosted more than 50 shows including ‘Hollywood Special’ for Raj TV that was highly rated by both the public and the critics. Arun was also popular for his engaging interviews with leading Tamil movie stars and singers through his series titled ‘Star Time’.
Soon after he moved to US, Arun ventured into film making with his short films after completing a moviemaking course in NYFA. His short film “As you wish” won accolades at the recently concluded Lower East side film festival in New York. One of his highly acclaimed and popular films, “Br(a)illiant” won the ‘Exile Award’ in London Vimbam Film Festival. He was selected as Mania TV’s ‘Featured Film Maker’ twice and his short film “Stinking cigar” was selected as the ‘Featured Film’ and went on air for an entire week. His “Power cut” was reviewed by the Internet Video Magazine while his most recent Tamil short film “Thaniyoru Manidhanukku” had the honor of featuring in three film festivals including IAAC, New York . Some of Arun’s movies are also popular at Triggerstreet, Online community for independent movie makers founded by Academy award winner Kevin Spacey and Dana Brunetti.
Chris Freilich (Director of Cinematography)
http://www.virtuosofilms.com
http://imdb.com/name/nm1241313/
Chris Freilich started making movies when he was 13 years old, and has been working as a cinematographer in New Jersey and New York since 1996. Having studied film making at New York University and the Maine Photographic Workshops, he has photographed projects running the gamut from feature films to music videos and commercials. He works in all formats from 35mm to HD to DV, with extensive experience wringing the best possible image quality out of each medium. His clients have included Pep Boys, DirecTV, Nickelodeon, and Jadakiss
Ingrid Okolo (Makeup Artist)
http://www.ingridsmakeup.com
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2019133/
Makeup artist, who loves everything from beauty to special effects.
Done styling and art direction too. Continually and fortunate enough to work on a striking variety of projects including live events, such as “Dom Perignon Vintage” advertising launch party hosted by ‘Karl Largerfeld’, as well as, television shows like ABC’s “All My Children” and “Llegamos” on Latin TV, Plays like “Angles of America” by the Brooklyn Heights Player Club, “Hamlet” and “Fata Morgana” Cabaret.
Collaborated with awesome filmmakers and photographer, as well as, incredible talent, like Harvey Keitel, Adrian Grenier from HBO “Entourage”, Lucy Arnaz “ I Love Lucy’s Daughter”, Blanch Baker of “Sixteen Candles”, Angie Martinez “of Hot 97” and Carlos Leon “of Oz and CSI”. Honored, that my work in commercials, print, music videos and independent film has been shown around the world.
Dianne Wesley (Rosy)
Dianne Wesley is proud to be a part of the Séance, her other film credits include Suddenly Dancing, Violations, Dark Side of the Night, and was awarded Best Supporting Actress for Scanarell. Dianne Wesley is a professional film, recording, and voice-over artist. She is also, a song writer who’s Single I Can’t Wait and album is soon to be released with Gossip Records. Dianne has done voice-overs including Ford/Chevy, Steinbach, Asbury Park Press, Trop World, Mama Leone’s, Bridgewater Mall, and all types of characters for books on tape, commercials, television, and movies. Dianne started training at the Rose Bruford Professional Drama Academy in London, and then went on to perform in the West End. She was the Radio host of “Women in Jazz” series and radio host and singing artist BBC London. Since then she has been the lead vocalist for many live bands in the US and abroad, including television performances. She is a private instructor for voice, acting, dance, public speaking, and stage performance. Dianne is also the proud creator of her revolutionary new stress management course Hooked On Breathing.
Rick Pisarro (Chris, the Goth)
http://imdb.com/name/nm1102122/
Native New Yorker, Rick Pisarro, is pushing his way off the records, and onto the screen. Written about in the classic Hip Hop journal, “XXL” magazine, and offered a chance with several indie music labels, Rick opted for a life out of music & onto the screen. Rick says, “The contracts just didn’t cut it, and left me frustrated with the entire music business. So I studied acting in college, and vowed to fulfill my goals.”
His first on screen role proved to be lucky, landing himself in viewable scenes with Uma Thurman, in “Hysterical Blindness.” Although sometimes fate lands an actor on the cutting room floor- Rick was cast into a speaking role for Spielberg’s “War of The Worlds,” and as Pam Grier’s partner in “Love The Hard Way,” which can still be viewed on the Making Of section on DVD. Rick played the lead in Writer/Director, Arun Vaidyanathan’s “As You Wish,” and much to his delight, was asked back, and given a chance to play a character in the darker, scarier world of “The Séance.”
Although he’s half Italian, with the rest of his DNA comprised of Irish & German, Rick’s look lends itself successfully to Latino stylings, as seen by his appearance in Truth.com commercials aired in the Latin market. Other commercial credits include, Nokia Wireless, and Bacardi.
Late 2006, early 2007, will give us another look as Rick emerges in a small role playing a drug addict in a Warner’s Bros. film. He has also been approached by a comic book creator who has modeled his character & likeness after him, and can be found in comic book stores when it’s released in 2007. The character will be named after Rick, and known as “Pisarro.”
Steve Mazarro – (Music composer)
http://www.stevemazzaro.com
Steve has been composing music since the early age of 14. He has previously taken Film Scoring classes at the UCLA's Extension program, and performance piano lessons for 15 years. Steve has received numerous performance awards at competitions on piano, alto saxaphone, French horn, and bass guitar. He is located in Los Angeles, California, and is currently composing large orchestral scores for several video games for the PC, many of which can be heard on his website, www.stevemazzaro.com.
Tom Cappadona (Theodore Robertson)
http://imdb.com/name/nm0135459/
A native of Jersey City and a refugee of the road, Tom’s New York stage appearances include The Viy, The Heist, The Thing That Kills Me, Common Ground, The Dreamer Examines His Pillow, and Golden Boy. The signature role of the agonized underworld kingpin Chaz Lupo in In the Parlance was created especially for Tom by writer Richard Harland Smith, for whom Tom has also played the character in Prelude to a Hit as well as in two dozen sketches as part of Dashboard Theatre which ran for eight months at The West Bank Downstairs Theatre. Tom’s Television credits include NYPD Blue, The Sopranos, Law & Order, L & O: SVU, L & O: Criminal Intent, and Sex and the City. Tom has made several appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and was the “weasel guy” in a popular commercial spot for Target department stores. His films include Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead, Sue with Anna Thomson, True Convictions, David Salle’s Search and Destroy and the indie thriller The Orchard. Tom’s latest film role was that of Sonny Telesta in Confessions of a Dangerous Mime.
Allison Eve Zell (Editor)
http://www.allisonevezell.com
http://imdb.com/name/nm1347858/
ALLISON EVE ZELL is a freelance film and video editor. She edits primarily narrative and documentary features as well as commercial and corporate material. She has premiered two features at The Tribeca Film Festival, one of which, ALCHEMY, featuring Tom Cavanagh (ED), Sarah Chalke (SCRUBS), Illeana Douglas, and Celeste Holm, aired on ABC Family and is now available worldwide on DVD. She owns an edit suite in her home in The East Village where she lives with her family.
Carl Salminen (Screenwriter)
Carl has been at the screenwriting game for only a few short years but has endeavors to bring his unique voice and personality to everything he writes. Meeting and joining Arun in a partnership to bring "The Seance" to life was simply a gift from above. This partnership has resulted in a great story in "The Seance", with promises to bring the public even more great stories in the future. Carl has written more than seven feature-length scripts in the action, comedy and horror genres.
Stan Harris (Production designer)
http://www.devedog.com
http://imdb.com/name/nm0365347/
Stan Harris is an experienced production designer and he is in the game for past twenty years. He was educated at Art center college of Design, pasedena CA and he is a member of Art Directors Guild Local 800, SAG.His works can be seen at First Blood Part II, Malibu express and numerous popular commercials. His website has extensive collection of most of his popular works
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