A film’s look is very important in setting the period, social class structure, and unique visual characteristics of each character. I have asked Louise to talk about the wardrobe, and Andrea and Sonya about hair and make up. Here’s their experience working on It’s Me, Matthew!

The Lens, The Look- On A ShoeString!

As an associate producer on “It’s Me, Matthew!”, and one who believed in Michael’s vision, I was ready to step into what ever role was needed to support the team, to help make this project come to fruition!

Michael needed a wardrobe stylist to create the right look for the different periods we were trying to capture. Unfortunately there was not that much money in the budget for this department. So together we took on this task. I researched on the internet and went to thrift stores for period pieces. Together we collaborated on colors, styles ext. so the actors would each stand out and didn’t blend into the furniture. Now, I have a better appreciation of the work stylists do and I enjoyed doing it!

Louise Devery

It was a pleasure working for Michael on his film! I am a Makeup Artist/Actress and friend thru the acting
community. We have worked together at the Upright Citizens Brigade and I knew Michael was a person that
I wanted to get to know as soon as we met. His energy and laughter are infectious!!!

When he asked me to help out with makeup on his shoot I of course, said yes! The production was on time and the actors were so down to earth. I was very impressed with his organization. I know how tirelessly
he has worked to make this happen and how appreciative he was for all of the help he received to get this in
the can!!

All the Best!!

Andrea Kooharian

Working on “It’s Me, Matthew!” was a great experience, especially since Michael is a dear friend of mine, and someone whom I’ve known for the past six years. He first told me about the project a year ago and I whole heartedly supported his ambition. As a hairstylist/make-up artist, I gave him a new look for his role, and I helped him with the drag make-up in the backstage scene. He wanted Christina Aguilera from Moulin Rouge/ a Vegas look as his inspiration. So, I did some research and was like, wow, she had a ton of rhinestones on her face! Ok, so we skipped the rhinestones, but did a campier, glam look. The trick was to make it a progression, as he was applying his make-up in the scene. I did one eye, and he did the other. And he had to apply lipstick for at least 5 takes. My concern was how he was going to get all of it washed off before shooting the next scene. It’s hard to cover stubble. Working the wig with the sunglasses was a bit tricky, but I think we pulled it off.

I don’t usually work with drag make-up, as most of experience comes from working with women, and especially brides. So, this was a challenge, but a real fun one! Michael gave me some pointers about doing drag make-up, so together we created his look.I enjoy working collaboratively, and most of all working on a project with so much meaning.

I am truly honored to be part of this production and stand behind Michael and his work. I know he is a talented artist, and I am so proud of his commitment and vision.

Thanks,

Sonya

I would like to start off by thanking everyone for your wonderful comments and support on the BLOG, for we gratefully appreciate the feedback.

The Director of Photography plays a huge role in capturing the visual reality of the story a director is trying to tell. Michael LaVoie was a great collaborator and huge asset to this production. Here is his “take”.

A Cinematic Eye

It’s always a big responsibility when you have to accurately represent someone’s vision on the screen, but even more so when it’s a script that they feel very strongly about. Shooting in NY is rough but you find locations that are hard to come by in other cities. We got some great spots and it all came together. I usually advise against weekend shooting but when you’re wrestling with NY, the calm of the weekend can become your ticket to getting in and out fast and easy and that was the case on this film. “It’s Me, Matthew!” is an intimate story of love, loss, and transformation and I was glad to be a part of bringing those difficult themes to the screen visually.

Michael LaVoie

Many of you have been asking when we will have a premier date. “It’s Me, Matthew!” has been submitted to many international festivals. Our team is gearing up for our promotional debut. Thank you for your faithful interest in the film, and I appreciate your eager anticipation of its debut. Unfortunately much of it is out of my hands, but as soon as the film receives positive recognition and makes a debut, I will let you know immediately. In any case, please log in because many fabulous things will be revealed on this site in the future. Please stay tuned….

In the meantime I asked Lisa Dotolo, to share her experience writing and performing the original score song for the film “It’s Me, Matthew!” (See the blog entry on Lisa, 2-17-2008)

Lisa’s Lyric

Songwriting and performing my songs have always been such a great joy for me. One of my greatest passions in life is to write a song and bring it to life within the recording; in the studio. For me, taking a simple idea that we call can relate to and creating a whole song around it and adding the instruments and the vocals is truly a blessing. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to create and use my writing, singing and live performance express my inner most thoughts and feelings.

Whenever I am asked to write a song, or whenever I write a song I always like to relate it to a personnel experience so that I truly understand how the song unfolds. My hope is that the listener can hear my honesty and my truth within the song and somehow relate it to their lives as well. So they take something away from my work or my song. Maybe a song they like reminds them of a love that has passed or maybe a song reminds them of a happy day where they had no worries. Whatever the case may be, my goal is not only for personnel expression, but to evoke a certain feeling within the listener. Basically, let them stop for a moment, hear the song and listen and feel something.

As a painter may paint a picture and it is viewed by many evoking a sense of calmness or sadness even. I have done my job truly if my words and my voice make the listener feel an emotion.

When Micheal asked me to write a song for his movie “Its Me, Matthew!” because of our friendship of so many years, I had a very strong idea of what he was looking for, so I was able to write the song fairly easily. I related to the song because I wanted it to be a song about not giving up, standing strong and tall and moving forward through life no matter what comes your way- good or bad- you are a survivor; something I personally believe in. So I was able to convey this message while creating a lasting melody and straight forward simple lyric. To sing the song was an honor as well because we are friends and that is what friends are for! To help each other! I know this project meant and still means a lot to Micheal so the fact that I created the tune and performed it certainly was the least I could to “add” to his endeavor while allowing me to be creative.

Within us all there lies the seeds of creativity and passion. To find your passion and life and being creative with it frees our minds and allows for even more happiness. I hope all of you who read this find your passions in life and use your creativity for the betterment of mankind and our world today.

Writing this song for the movie “It’s Me, Matthew!” allowed me to do just that, use my passion of songwriting to evoke positive feelings in the listener while freeing my voice and creative inner spirit.

God bless you all and thank you Micheal for the gift of your friendship and wonderful opportunity to write this song.

Best of luck to you and all of the viewers!

Lisa

This week I have asked our editor Patrick, to share his experience working on “It’s Me, Matthew!”

Patrick’s Take: An Editors Angle

For me, the beginning of working on “It’s Me, Matthew!” was very 21st century. Michael found my reel and called me while I was at Trader Joes. I read the script via email. We met for the first time at the Apple store, and I looked at some raw footage online. But the script is not hyper-modern. The script contains a voice that is unique (Michael’s voice) and has a message that is timeless. This raw, unique voice attracted me to the story.

I am a documentarian by trade. I work with all kinds of subject matter, Hezbollah, land mines, Palestinian stand up comedians, Congolese rappers, the last surviving Nazis etc. Often I am overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material. I sift through hours of video and pages of transcript to create a story.

Editing narrative stories is a different challenge. In this case, Michael knew the story, it was inspired from his life. My job, as the editor, was to enhance the pace and dramatic tension of a story that has already been created. “It’s Me, Matthew!” was driven by the performances of the cast, there isn’t a lot of action. Michael, Stephaun, and I spent a lot of time trying to find the best combination of performances that did justice to the gravity of the subject matter, and drove the onto the dramatic tensions in the script. I loved this process, it was a refreshing change of pace for me but it was new for Michael. I think it was quite nerve racking for him to have to see the performances over and over again. But Michael is a generous collaborator. He trusted me when I told him we could meet deadlines. He trusted my opinion on helping pick out the right performance that was effective for the project. I trusted that he had the commitment and dedication to finish this project, and he didn’t let me down.

Editing “It’s Me, Matthew!” was fun and challenging for me and I hope to
collaborate again with “In the Cann”.

Patrick Flynn

Last night a friend of mine asked me, “What it was like to write about my life story?”

In my past BLOG entries, I have come to you wearing the hat of a producer. Now I would like to introduce another role that I played in this production, as the writer of the story.

Writing my story was one of the most challenging and gratifying experiences in my development as a person and artist, moving me to a higher stage of enlightenment. It required me to confront my inner most truth and be vulnerable at work. Basing people in my life as characters, I had to detach myself from my nuclear family, and treat them as roles in a metaphysical world and understand their logic and illogical behavior.

As a writer telling a story, I needed to choose information I felt important to fit the setup of the plot. As a creator who loves all of its characters, I searched for their bases of conflict and began to feel overwhelmed by emotion. My eyes started to fill with tears, as I was able to empathize, feel compassion, and let go of my judgments. Now I can see the people in my life on a human level, for whom they really are. People who lacked a sense of authenticity, identity, and acted out their anger out a sense of helplessness.

In the process of making this film, I grew to understand the reality of my past, and forgive the people in my life in a more profound way then I could ever imagine. Bringing me to another level of conscious awareness, and liberating me in many ways. Now I can see the sun and why I was called to do this project, and now I am home.

As a creator of stories, I wish to direct my energy out into the world, to teach people the most valuable truth about life, humanity, and the world around them. My passion is to create works of art that have meaning and purpose and which provoke thought, make people ask questions, and showcase different angles on humanity and the laws of nature.

“An unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates -As someone introspective and constantly needing to ask questions about life, and who seeks true answers to those questions. I Have a desire to learn and challenging myself fearlessly to experience new things. I have reached a new awareness of the evolution of man; man is nothing but what he makes of himself.

Now as I embark on my next project with a unique concept. Having a revolutionary spirit, I turn to my creative artistic vision as a way of expressing my feelings about life and the reflection of the world around me. I translate it into the world of appearance and allow the mystery to work through me and the logic of colors, to photograph my vision in a story of the international human language and be captured in space in a timeless motion picture.

Dedicated to my mother, Maria Luisa Ferreira, who was born on this day, March 21.

P.S. Let me know what subjects you would like to read about in the future; I am open to suggestions.

This week I have asked Kelsey, who plays the Stage Manager to share her thoughts on “It’s Me, Matthew!”

An Actors Take- Kelsey’s View

As a friend of Michael’s, and an actor in his film, I’m very excited to see it all come together. I know how emotional this work has been for Michael, and how important it is for him to get his story out there. I feel it was really daring of him and it took a lot of courage to be able to tell such a personal tale. I hope, as I know he does, that it will help others that may find themselves in similar situations of abuse.

It was really interesting for me to see my friend take on the various roles of writer, producer, director, and actor. It was a long journey from the auditions to the final product. It was fascinating for me to see the detail given to each step. I’m glad I got the opportunity to work with Michael in this new type of dynamic for us and be a part of his project. His passion for this project is both motivating and inspiring.

Kelsey Ruvolo

There are so many people who collaborated on It’s Me, Matthew! and made this film come to fruition. I have to say, I could not have gotten through this without my Charlie’s Angels. My two associate producers Louise Devery and Antonia Kasper, and the production manager Tracy Strumpet, were my right hand and rocks at different points during the course of this journey. Most importantly they believe in me and my vision.

Each and every member of our crew was vital to this project. Michael LaVoie, our wonderful Director of Photography, beautifully captured the visual of each scene. Thank you to Neil Stephens for his technical support and Stephaun St. Paul, who captured the essence of each performance. The post production editor, Patrick Flynn, was unparalleled with his collaboration, because of his deep understanding of of my vision for this project and making it come true. Jo Cunningham, our sound designer and mixer, enriched the product with expertise, filled out the tone and subtext, and gave the film a third dimension. They all gave the film realistic and believable colors and detail that made this project something I am proud of.

Melissa Russo gave a vulnerable performance in the role of Maria. Monique Crous played the hard-edged Roommate, true to comedy. Thomas Harlan was believable as a menacing Doctor and Kelsey Ruvolo was authentic as a light-hearted Stage Manager. These key characters were essential to the film’s back-story and kept the story line moving. These actors/actresses played their roles truthfully and were delight to work with.

Make-up artist and hair stylist, Sonya Tsuchigane and Andrea Kooharian, added to “the look” of each differing character and stayed within the period of the film. The crew including: Kim Marcelino, James Madrid, Matt Bryant, and Andrew Roddewig graciously worked long, hard hours, and remained professional even under some very difficult circumstances. Johnny Pisano diligently came to the production’s rescue with a song hours before our deadline. Dan Bocchino, our promotions designer, who collaborated with me on the telling of a visual story. My production staff Margaret Baker and Mikal Saint George.

Without these wonderful people, “It’s Me, Matthew!” would never have had the production value that it has. I am very proud to have worked with each and every one of them and what they represent in the film. I wholeheartedly appreciate and want to thank the entire team for all their talent, hard work, and contribution!

I am happy to report that The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs has decided to support me and put their name behind, “It’s Me, Matthew!” in order to help others, who may be dealing with issues of violence or abuse.

When I decided to make this film, “It’s Me, Matthew!” one of my driving motivations for telling this story was my love for humanity and to help others. I want my work to have meaning and purpose in the world and not just to serve my career. Since I have been blessed with having been given so much in life and in the making of this production, I also wanted to be able to give back. If this project can reach and help one person then that goal has been met.

I chose to team up with Anti-Violence Programs, because many years ago I found their organization helpful when I was victim of a street assault, and I had heard that they were of service to others in the community. I believe in their mission and felt they would be a good fit for this film.

For more information on The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, please check out the links area on our website.

I have known Lisa Dotolo for many years, and she has shared in many growing moments in my life, from meeting me in high school where I was shy and introverted; to being the person to join me on our many “Rhode Island Adventures”. I loved driving up in my old Jeep Wrangler to visit Lisa in Rhode Island, while spending time by the ocean and with her. I have always been a big fan of Lisa’s vocal talents.

Lisa and I have always connected, and felt as though we have lived parallel lives and understood one another. Both of us being in the arts have always been quite supportive of one another and always had a passion to follow our true calling. We would visit each other through out the years in different cities such as Rochester, Westerly, Providence, Nashville, and New York. We would have many intimate conversations about our trials, tribulations, and dreams for the future. In many ways she is like family to me.

Being one my closest friends, who actually knew a lot about my life story in detail, Lisa was the perfect person that I trusted to translate a part of my life into lyrics and perform the soundtrack. I approached Lisa, in pre-production about doing an original song for the film. She was excited for me, not only as a fellow artist but as a friend and said “She was honored to do it”. She immediately rounded up her people in Nashville and started composing the song.

Saved by bell, the song arrived two days prior to our deadline to end sound design. This was no surprise, since Lisa was always reliable, not only as a friend but as a professional artist. When I heard it for the first time, I was touched. She captured my spirit in the lyrics and beautifully interpreted the message of the movie. The theme song has an original Indie sound, grasps the theme of the film, and the lyrics are moving and heartfelt. Again, I have been blessed with a wonderful friend, and I could not be more thankful to her and her presence in my life!

.

I had a completely different image of the character of Brice in my head, prior to meeting Paul Anthony Stewart. Originally I was considering Paul for the role of The Therapist, or possibly for the role of Brice. As I sat down reading The New York Times, suddenly, in walked an actor for our appointment, who looked too young for the role of The Therapist, and had the look of a romantic lead.

Someone I respect, a mentor, who has taught me the value of authenticity, gave me a golden compass for my college graduation. She said “For me to always follow my inner North Star”. Well the universe seemed to be trying to tell me something, because my intuition kept telling me that Paul was the perfect actor to play the role of Brice.

As I started talking to Paul, I felt a connection. He seemed to have a sense of authenticity, a high intelligence, but yet, he possessed true humility. At the same time, it felt like my golden compass was talking to me. Ironically, he was a lead for many years on the daytime soap Guiding Light, which I always interpreted as equivalent to the North Star. Later, I was honored to find out that Paul was willing to take the time to do my film.

When I worked with Paul, he seemed to be good natured and easy going. During his takes he was very organic and brought the role to life. He was a strong, charismatic actor, that easily engaged the audience. He was on cue all the time and very powerful to work off of. I admired his work greatly and it was a pleasure to work with him!