Turnip News for March 2014

Greetings from Turnip. Here's the latest news from the world of Turnip Films.

 First Kiss - the current film project

Last year, we had the good fortune to get to know Robert Wallace, a Durham novelist and writer of short stories. Naturally, we began to explore the question of whether one of his stories might be adapted into a short film.

In the spring, Bob wrote a short (ten-minute) play called, First Kiss. The play was honored by a writers' group in Winston-Salem and I was asked to direct a staged reading for the awards get-together. The play is set in the family kitchen as the Mother returns from attending her 50th high school reunion. Her adult son has been home watching over his Father, who is in the early stages of dementia. The reunion evokes memories, of course, and reflections on life, love and memory. She recalls her first kiss in high school.

After the staged reading, the core drama stuck with me. Bob generously agreed to let us mangle his baby so, eventually, we wrote a screenplay, adding brief glimpses of some of the things remembered or described to punctuate the core scene around the kitchen table. The lovely and talented Maigan Kennedy played the Mother at age 16 (picture on the left).

That's the film project which has just completed principal photography (Thanks again to Aravind Ragupathi) as this newsletter goes out. The Mother is played by Cheryl McConnell, the Father by Owen Daly and the Son by Eric Morales.

We are now in post-production. Stay tuned. This film is part of our ongoing effort seeking ways to go "deeper" in the meaning of a film (as opposed to "wider," i.e. more vistas, gunplay, crime stories, supernatural, etc.).

McQuaid Directing & Cinematography Reels on Vimeo

We've finally assembled a decent "reel" of both our cinematography and our work with actors. You can see those on Vimeo - start with these links.

The Directing reel is here: https://vimeo.com/80413402

The Cinematography reel is here: https://vimeo.com/80504396

Other Film Work of all kinds

In December, we were delighted to serve as AD for four days shooting on Robert Wagner's film, Bragg N East. It's always satisfying (and, yes, hectic) to facilitate the work of a lot of talented people. If you need an AD, it's our hobby!

During this year, we will be transitioning from offering DVDs to offering video on demand access to all Turnip Film productions. We'd like to hear your thoughts about that.

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