zombies vs robots prose project!
Posted January 17, 2012
on THIS FRIDAY, you can download the first installment of the Zombies Vs. Robots prose project.
mine is called Pammi Shaw: Creator of Gods and Also Blogger
more info below!!
NEWS OF ALL SORTS
3 Comments
Erik Redin on said:
I was going to ask you this on Twitter, Brea, but it would’ve taken too many messages to fit it all in. ANYONE WHO HASN’T READ THE STORY YET, SPOILERS AHEAD!
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Pammi is the only survivor of the zombie attack in UnderCity, and later wonders at one point if she is a zombie and she just doesn’t know it. After she builds System, he teaches her to suppress her brainwaves. Pammi basically deifies her creation, System, and over time her entire personality (and much of her humanity) is wiped away. She becomes less a person and more an instrument for System.
My question: was it your intention for System to transform Pammi(having survived and not turned into a literal zombie) into a metaphorical zombie? The brainwave suppression and religious zealotry is System essentially eating her brain.
It is entirely possible I am either reading too much into this or projecting my own views on organized religion onto your story. But the book is called Zombies vs. Robots and at the end, System was clearly the robot and it felt like Pammi had become the zombie.
Brea Grant on Zombies vs Robots: 8×8 :: Lincoln Crisler on said:
[...] information to be had now, and I figured you might enjoy hearing it from actress and fellow author Brea Grant instead of moi. You can pick up her story, the first installment of the eight-story weekly series, [...]
grief and rage.
Posted January 16, 2012
zane sent me this quote from Anne Carson. thought i’d share.
“Why does tragedy exist? Because you are full of rage. Why are you full of rage? Because you are full of grief. Ask a headhunter why he cuts off human heads. He’ll say that rage impels him and rage is born of grief. The act of severing and tossing away the victim’s head enables him to throw away the anger of all his bereavements.
Perhaps you think this does not apply to you. Yet you recall the day your wife, driving you to your mother’s funeral, turned left instead of right at the intersection and you had to scream at her so loud other drivers turned to look. When you tore off her head and threw it out the window they nodded, changed gears, drove away.
There is a theory that watching unbearable stories about other people lost in grief and rage is good for you —- may cleanse you of your darkness.
Grief and rage —- you need to contain that, to put a frame around it, where it can play itself out without you or your kin having to die. There is a theory that watching unbearable stories about other people lost in grief and rage is good for you —- may cleanse you of your darkness. Do you want to go down to the pits of yourself all alone? Not much. What if an actor could do it for you? Isn’t that why they are called actors? They act for you. You sacrifice them to action. And this sacrifice is a mode of deepest intimacy of you with your own life. Within it you watch {yourself} act out the present or possible organization of your nature. You can be aware of your own awareness of this nature as you never are at the moment of experience. The actor, by reiterating you, sacrifices a moment of his own life in order to give you a story of yours.”
what i learned in 2011.
Posted January 02, 2012
usually at the end of each year, i make a list of bands i liked or books i read or a combo of both. but this year, i was a little more tired or maybe a little more self-reflective.
so instead, i made a list of things i learned.
1) some people will like you more when you are successful. some people will like you more when you are a failure. that’s more of a reflection of them than you so don’t worry too much about it.
2) a good song can still fix anything.
3) red lipstick. it’s a friend for the tired face.
4) remember that kid you were when you were 8-years-old and you thought you could do anything? you’re still that kid. you’re just that kid all grown up so now you actually can do anything.
so. go do it.
5) the best leaders aren’t multi-taskers. the best leaders are good at delegating and letting people do their jobs. on the same note, when people say they will do a job, most of them will. trust people. they will appreciate it and probably do exactly what you need them to do.
6) turning 30 isn’t so bad.
7) you’re never as important as you think you are.
8 ) sometimes the thing you want has been sitting in front of you the whole time.
9) create something. you’ll feel better.
10) there’s good in humanity. i’ve seen it.
also. beth ditto is a goddess.
Erik on said:
#1 – It’s good to know folks who like you regardless of your success.
#2 – Music can definitely inspire and improve one’s mood. I wish there was a song that could fix my computer. 
#3 – I’ll take your word for it.
#4 – When I was eight I wanted to be President. I’ve since changed my mind.
#5 – Yes. I suspect directing a movie illustrates this.
#6 – It’s certainly better than the alternative.
#7 – I suppose one’s importance is relative to the situation, other person(s), etc. In general, I don’t know that I consider myself particularly important.
#8 – Hmm…I suppose this best applies to an abstract concept. Or not…
#9 – Creating things ALWAYS makes me feel better.
#10 – This is true.
Kenny Gordon on said:
I love #4. So true.
#5 – Definitely. I think the best leaders are the few that you want to work with rather than have to work with. Charisma and a sense of direction is a killer combo.
Cheers.
that’s a wrap!
Posted December 07, 2011
best friends forever is officially wrapped.
check out our blog at bestfriendsforeverfilm.com
directing. a list.
Posted November 30, 2011
tomorrow is our last day of shooting best friends forever in texas. maybe i’m feeling sentimental. maybe i’m just inspired. or maybe the exhaustion just keeps my mind going. regardless, i’ve been asking myself why i chose to do this. i’m not sure if i’m a good director and i’m not sure if it’s something i’ll ever do again. but i’ve enjoyed the process and i’ve been mulling over my reasoning.
so here are a list of reasons why i chose to direct. the first list are things that i think i thought before i went in and turned out to not be so important. the second is a list of things that i remind myself every day.
reasons not to direct.
1) because someone said i couldn’t.
when i first decided to this, i had a long conversation with a friend who said it was a terrible idea. he thought i’d have to quit acting or would get too stressed out or wouldn’t be able to do it for a number of reasons. (i should note that the majority of my friends encouraged and supported me.) i’m the kind of girl who, when someone says i can’t do something, gets determined to do it.
turns out that stubbornness or anger or whatever you want to call it doesn’t actually carry you through on the day to day. sure, every once in a while, i think that i have to finish each day because he said i couldn’t. but overall, it now feels more reactionary than pro-active.
2) to prove that i’m more than a dumb actor.
this is something i struggle with a lot. no one treated me as unintelligent before i became an actor. i was a history grad student and people treated me like i might have a brain cell or two. i’m sure you can imagine how things have changed.
in the end, i haven’t really proved anything. as many first time directors, i’ve struggled with decisions and knowing what to do. in fact, i probably look dumber overall. i haven’t really proved anything to anyone except with the possibility of proving that i have a big enough ego to direct a movie i’m acting in.
3) boredom and a need to leave LA
you wouldn’t think this is important but it’s something i struggle with a lot. life as an actor can get boring. i can go a month without an audition. i can go months without working. november and december are generally slow so it seemed like a good idea to make best friends forever happen.
i was right. i am definitely not bored but i don’t know if exhaustion was the answer for Los Angeles-inspired stagnation.
reasons to direct. (the more positive list)
1) to honor and work with people i respect
i met vera miao in an acting class about a year and a half ago. we had a mutual love of feminist theory and horror movies. how could we not write a movie together? and vera was not only a good actor, she was very determined. her dedication to her acting in a classroom was inspiring. i want to be as dedicated to my craft as vera.
watching her work her ass off to get the movie written and then put it together is one of the main reasons i have stuck with it. when thinking about making the movie move forward or the many times i wanted to give up on it, i kept thinking about how much she had dedicated herself to the project over the past year. it was inspiring. and i am constantly reminded of why i get up every day to get it finished when i see her calling to get the use of some weird park in west texas or cleaning dishes for the crew or dealing with bureaucracy on top of acting as a lead in the movie. i’m not sure if i match her dedication but i try.
i’ve known stacey storey for a few years now. she has been wanting to produce and i knew she would dedicate her life to getting it done. for a first time feature producer, she has worked her ass off driving cross-country with me, having faith that i’ll get the job done, and treading all the unknown waters of producing. it’s been amazing to see her put it all together, finding deals for a tiny movie of our size, working to get crew, and then, when all else fails, just straight up doing the job herself. no job has been too big or too little for her to get done.
and of course, two amazing people believed in vera and me from the very beginning. enough to help us put money and know-how together and get the movie made. those are our EPs, tim and mary larson. tim and mary take care of the people they love and believe in first-timers, people with no experience but a lot of heart, and women trying to make a go of it. i hope that the final product can stand up to what they saw in us.
2) to show a story i haven’t seen
i wanted to make a movie with two strong, funny, interesting female characters who made a lot of mistakes and recovered from them. i wanted to look at real friendships and see how they progressed, how people hurt each other, and how they struggled with internal conflicts to fix their pain.
that’s what happens in my life. i hang out with the strongest, most interesting, complex women in the world and i want to see my life and my friends on screen.
and of course i wanted it to happen in a post-apocalypse (i mean, did you forget whose blog you’re reading??).
3) to pay back those who have inspired me.
early on, stacey sent me an email asking me why i was making this movie. who was i doing it for? what was i proving? at the time, i didn’t really think much of it.
but later i started thinking about when i learned to play drums and every time i’d find out a band had a girl drummer, i would get really excited. it seemed like a miracle to find someone just like me doing something i was trying to do. i grew up in a small East Texas town and to see women doing things like that completely blew my mind. when i discovered tons of female musicians and artists, it was like a whole new world had opened for me.
we have hired a largely female crew for this. it’s been an amazing experience.
so i guess i’m trying to do that for someone else. attempting to inspire. even if i fail at making a good movie, hell, at least i tried.
so tomorrow we go out and make an independent feature. and here’s a good reason why.
for all the girls who grow up in small towns and don’t quite fit in and find solace in music, movies and things that don’t make sense to the other people around them.
for the artists with no formal training but lots of heart who make things because they don’t know what else to do with all the love they have to give.
for the teenagers who pick up handheld digital cameras to make movies with their friends and who know deep down their movies are better than anything else at the box office.
for the actors who write and are scoffed at but keep writing anyway.
for the girls everywhere who want to grow up to be filmmakers and don’t know where to begin but hold on to the dream. dreams are really all we have.
to prove possibility over impossibility.
to change the knee-jerk response from no to yes. because no’s just stand in our way. and yeses are all we have to hope for.
see you at the movies.
brea.
Jim D. on said:
This isn’t just about good reasons to direct (and not to) but about good reasons to create anything at all. Inspiring. Bravo.