"Brian", "Dragged" and short films

Well Happy New Year I guess. At least to the ones that haven't heard from me this year yet.
Anyway. 2014 is going well and I wanted to tell you about what I have going on.
  "Brian" - my next feature film as director, fell into my lap about 6 months ago or so. One of my wonderful actors from my first feature film "Willa" referred a friend to me - and that was David Bold, the writer of Brian. I read the synopsis of several of his screenplays but fell immediately in love with the script. As with Willa, there was no doubt in my mind that this had to become a film so I started the machinery. Pretty quickly the film was mostly cast, we had our first reading and a bunch of meetings and right now we are in very active pre-production, collaborating with JAJ Productions on finding crew, funding, locations and everything else we need. Planned shooting is July this year so it feels like it's right around the corner. And I am very excited to get started.
  Late last year I co-produced a short film, "Talk To Her", shot in Chinese. A film dealing with difficult choices and a man split between what his heart wants and what traditions dictate. Around the same time another short film  "A Surprise" was shot. This one I wrote and hired two brilliant people to shoot it, Rob Margolies as director and Tony Xie as Director of photography. Both films are in the last stages of editing and should be ready in a matter of weeks. I am excited to tell you more about those as well.
  Then something else happened. I decided to make a documentary about drag queens. Why you ask? Like many others I have followed the RuPaul's Drag Race show and from watching that show I felt the need to take a deeper and more profound look into their world. So this I quickly put on track as well and the plan at the moment, is to follow some of the most popular drag queens around on their Drag Race tour of the US as well as some relatively new performers in New York City. This I am also very excited to do and at the moment we are seeking funding for that project as well.
  So 2014 is off to a wonderful start. I am doing what I was hoping to do when I started Alpha Tree Productions in 2011 - creating and employing! And it's great. My hope is that we will send out more and more excellent productions and that I will get the chance to work with and for a whole bunch of talented people. Keep posted on our progress and maybe I will get to work with you too.

         Christopher Birk
www.alphatreeproductions.com

A Couple Of Short Films

Well - though we just posted that "Brian" was our next, big venture - that's not completely true. Next up are 2 short films, "Talk To Her" and "A Surprise" - both filming within the next month. You can see the posters here. "Talk To Her" is the next short film by award-winning director/writer Leon Le. This is the story of a young man and his struggle between what's right according to tradition and what his heart is telling him to do. Many people today still face the terrible choice of having to do something their hearts aren't into, simply because family, traditions etc demand it from them.

 Starring Zilong Pu, Min-Wen Huang & Charis Chu, this film is shooting late this month in New York City. Visit the website and follow the progress of this film.
  "A Surprise" is written by Christopher Birk. It tells the story of a man coming home to a surprise he didn't quite expect. Starring Brooke Haney and Trent Fucci, this film is directed by Rob Margolies and the cinematography is by Tony Xie. Rob Margolies recently directed the film "She Wants Me" - starring Hillary Duff, Wayne Knight and Charlie Sheen.

http://alphatreeproductions.com/talktoherthemovie/index.html

http://alphatreeproductions.com/in-production/asurprise.html

Next Step For us: BRIAN

Behold the temporary poster for "Brian" - our next feature film.
  After "Willa" I took some time to write my first feature screenplay. This proved to be a harder task than I had imagined - but an interesting change from adapting "Willa" and directing/producing it. The working title of that script is "The Right Death" and it's a journey that will take me some time but I know I will end up with a result that I am proud of.
  Then, out of nowhere I was contacted by one of my actors and friends from Willa. He wanted to put me in contact with a friend of his, David Bold, who was a writer of several screenplays. I figured this could be an interesting next step, since I clearly would not have my own script ready anytime soon - so I read his synopsis of his different screenplays and pretty much immediately was intrigued by the story of "Brian".
  The thing about me is, that when I see a great story, I don't sit around and wait for all the things "you should" secure before you throw yourself into it. I didn't with Willa and I didn't with Brian either. When you have a good story, I firmly believe that good things will happen around it. So in what seems to be a matter of days I met up with David for a chat, some more chats and before we knew it we were casting.
  Casting a film is such an amazing experience. Not only do you often see "the one" walk into the room but it's also inspiring just to sit and see so many people and their interpretation of the different roles they are reading for.
  We saw a great number of people for the roles in Brian. Over 100 people were seen at the personal auditions and around 50 sent us their video auditions. Cut to a few weeks later we have now cast all the main roles of the film.
  This is all early - about 8 months before filming! Why? I did a similar thing with Willa, though it was only about 6 months before - and it didn't seem like too much time at all. In fact, I think it makes everything better. There's time to get to know the roles, the script, for adapting some scenes a little better to the actors in them - time for ideas, suggestions and most importantly for me to get to know my actors so I know how they work and how we will ensure a good relation and a great outcome.
  Willa had it's flaws! But only on the technical side. I can honestly say that I continue to be impressed with the performances of the actors in that film, every time I see it. And that's the most important thing for me, as a director. To feel that the result was exactly as it should be and even better! No regrets there! And I know that I will have a similar journey with Brian. We have found an amazing cast, we have a talented and dedicated writer who cares about every step of the production and we have me, the director and producer, who also really cares about this story and who falls deeper and deeper in love with it and its people every time i re-read it.
  This, for me, is what it's all about! There is no greater thrill for me than to see this all come together, seeing the excitement and enthusiasm of the cast and the dedication of everyone involved. And everything started with a simple email, suggesting I take a look at someone's work.
  This is only the humble beginning for this film. The excitement from people involved and around everyone involved is already astonishing and I know that this will be a proud piece of work for all of us once the fun, hard work and creativity is unleashed and settles around what will be a feature film we all will remember.

Christopher Birk
Director of "Brian"

'Helicopters' Update

Well, it took a while. Over a year in fact since I teamed up with Joe Thristino to get something going with his amazing (then one-act, now a full play) 'Helicopters'. I'm so proud to be at the point where we are now. With the help of some amazing people, financially and practically, we are doing the first workshop production of the full thing at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in May.
  This is important for me! Not just as an actor and a producer. But it's important for me because I set out with Alpha Tree Productions to help others too, not just myself! To get things rolling that would make other things roll. To start projects and ideas for projects for the future. Sure not everything goes as planned every time and a lot of things don't happen as fast as we always want them to but all in all the journey there is so much part of the experience as well.
  Any actor out there knows that as much as we like that 'opening night' - we are always, somewhere inside, a little sad that the process to get there now is no longer there in the same way it was before. And I hope we all remember to appreciate that part of it. Because that's where the magic happens, the enthusiasm and the passion to do this!
  I'm so grateful for Joe Thristino, the playwright, for his willingness to put this in our hands. I'm honored every day to be working with my co-producer and fellow cast member, Jennifer Fouche and our director Hajjah-Khadija Mohammad! And now the group is growing and soon we will have our first read-trough where we get to introduce our third cast member and the stage manager and assistant stage manager to the group. It's going to be the beginning of something great for the group and for our production. Keep posted about the progress of 'Helicopters'.
- Christopher Birk

Where Have We Been?

Where have we been in the last few months? very simple - it's been summer so we are back from a little pause. Production of 'Helicopters' is still underway, still with planned opening in February 2013. More news on that as soon as we have found a suitable location for the play. 'Willa' is being sent to festivals around the globe at the moment and as soon as we have news on that front we will naturally also let you all hear about that!
  The production of 'The Right Death' is also still going on, though it is in very very early stages and has been going through quite a few rewrites to make it as amazing a story as it should be.
  In the meantime, however, enjoy yet another look at the theatrical trailer for 'Willa' or the full short film 'Alone' we produced earlier this year.

What's Next?

Our first fundraiser for 'Helicopters' on Indiegogo just finished! And what a start it was! We had hoped to raise about 1700 dollars and ended up with nearly 2,000! A great big thank you to everyone out there who are just as excited to see this play produced as we are.
  So what now? Well, it's probably going to be a bit quiet on the 'big news' for the next month or two while we make sure we have a nice space for the play, take care of rehearsal schedule and have the full cast ready. And then we will take off in style, we will launch a more detailed website and have a second fundraiser - we will have plenty of news and dates for everyone and we will probably also be ready to tell the world the exact day of the world premiere - expect it in late August or early September this year.
  So do keep posted for smaller updates on Facebook - and soon enough we will be ready to fully present 'Helicopters - by Joe Thristino' . http://www.facebook.com/#!/HelicoptersByJoeThristino

The Helicopter Takes Off!

We have started production on 'HELICOPTERS' by Joe Thristino.
  About a year ago, while looking to team up with some new playwrights to get some original stuff out there, I came into contact with Joe Thristino, who wrote ‘Helicopters’. At the time the play was just a one-act play but I enjoyed it immensely along with another one-act play, ‘Release Note’, he sent me. It actually didn’t take long before we had already done two private readings of the play and we quickly knew we had something special here. Inspired by (or at least that’s what I would love to think) our brilliant readings Joe added a second act and it only made everything even more exciting. There was never really any doubt in my mind that I wanted to see this play produced but exactly how I was not sure of! After planning it for a while we had a reading for an audience and though the audience was small the feedback was absolutely great! This was in January 2012 and right after, Jennifer (who plays Kira) and myself started getting together on a regular basis to plan the production of this play. So where are we now? We are ‘shopping’ around to find a nice theater and we may have already found it. We are looking to set the dates so everyone out there can make sure and be there for the World premiere of this play. We are planning to start rehearsals later this spring and you’ll all get some updates from that once we start, and all kinds of other fun updates. The best thing about all this is how we realized that this play can be made with very little money – and that’s what art is all about. This play definitely needs to get out there and the world needs to hear and see the brilliant work of Joe Thristino who has a long and exciting career ahead of him.
  At the moment we are looking for a suitable venue for the play as well as doing a little fundraiser on Indiegogo - so do visit the site and support the production, be a part of the very first premiere of this amazing play! On the site you can also download a 12 page preview of the play to see what it's all about.
Official website for the production will be coming very soon!