Episode 1

Episode 1 has a few of my favorite parts of the entire movie. I still love the opening sequence. Gabe managed to integrate the visuals of Ben opening Annie’s box with Megan Slankard’s great song “Give Life”.

The original opening was supposed to be much different, with shots of an assembly line and a shipping dock, the whole process of getting Annie into Ben’s house… but time and money led us to search for a simpler sequence. We still had no idea what we were going to do until the night of the shoot - and an inspired thought led us to stuffing our DP, Jason Hafer, into a large refrigerator box, covering him lightly with bubble wrap, and having Jabe Hammond, who played Ben, slowly open it to reveal the light at the beginning of the tunnel… Annie’s symbolic birth into life. We also had a little fun with this sequence that you’ll see if you make it to the bloopers and stuff we cut into the final credits.

Then we cut straight to the big fight scene - pulled off so well by our lead actors that the room fell silent after the shouting was done and Gabe quietly said “Cut.” Everyone applauded. Filmmaker’s advice to fellow filmmakers… never, NEVER, schedule your big shouting fight scene on the third day of production. You run the risk of having your leads LOSE THEIR VOICE for the rest of the shoot! Again, this scene came out very different than what was on the page. The script called for a more comedic fight, with kicks and pushes and a general ‘over-the-top’ acting style. Our leads brought much more depth to it than I had imagined. As an aside, I absolutely LOVE Deja’s startled jump during the fight when Jabe yells ‘You know it!’. Watch for it.

You can find the next two episodes of Finding Love for Annie, as well as the trailer, on our episodes page.

–Rod

Annie on the web

We got a little tired of getting feedback from film festivals that said something like this:

“We really liked your film. Unfortunately we received 120 entries for your category and only have space for 10. And we were emphasizing women directors. Thank you for your entry!�

Really, we think it’s a great movie and we had a lot of fun making it and we think it’s a shame to keep it sitting on the shelf, so Gabe and I decided to put Annie up on the web for everyone to enjoy.

If this is your first time here, and you’ve no idea what Finding Love for Annie is about, check out our About page.

Those feeling a bit bolder can jump straight to our Episodes page to view our trailer and the first three episodes of Finding Love for Annie.

Thanks for stopping in!
–Rod