"Broken Wings" Clip

This has been up on the video page since earlier this month, but I just thought I'd bring it to your attention here. Just below is a clip from the short film I did back in July with Running Storm Productions. This clip is an interesting one because it shows some humor that we inserted into the otherwise creepy, dramatic story. We also get a good look at the bird makeup I worked on, so give it a look-see:

Scene from Broken Wings from Regan Garcia on Vimeo.

Dean and Regan did a fantastic job in editing... I couldn't be happier with how it looks!

-Vaness.
www.vanessastrickland.net

"Do Some Magic!" trailers are up

Peter and Matthew Wood, excellent magicians and good friends of mine, have posted trailers for their "Do Some Magic!" How-to series online. I'm featured in the DVDs as a party guest who participates in some of Peter's coolest tricks. Take a peek at the previews:

"Do Some Magic! Party Magic" Preview



"Do Some Magic! Table Magic" Preview

If you're interested in purchasing the DVDs, they can be bought through the Do Some Magic! Store! I'll soon be adding these previews to my videos page on my website.

-Vaness.
www.vanessastrickland.net

"Broken Wings" & the 29 Days Later Film Project

Summer's already on it's way out and as per usual, it seems that I've been busy!

At the end of June, Deviated Theatre's production of "LORE" went up for an evening at Bishop Ireton in Alexandria. The space was enormous and for having as short a marketing period as we did, it worked out well: we pulled in a good crowd and turned in a good amount of donations from our ever-popular baked goods & concessions table.

In July, I found myself as part of Deviated Theatre's Mash-up project, "Token," for the Source Festival. The short piece revolved around several characters at a bus stop who come across a special Token that gives them everything they ever wanted... but for each character, it gives them something that perhaps they weren't bargaining for...

Of course I won't be spoiling it for you here, as you can come check out "Token" for yourself at UMBC this October along with "LORE". I'll be posting more information about it here once we're closer to opening.

I also had the great pleasure this July of FINALLY being able to make it to several productions in the Capital Fringe Festival! Of the 100+ performances that were going on in the area, I caught "Please Listen: A Musical Chaos" (Open Drawer Theatre Company), "Headscarf and the Angry Bitch" (Zehra Fazal), "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead" (Nu Sass Productions) and "Skywriter" (Angry Young Theatre Company).


Dean Storm, myself, and Sutisa Storm at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson in Baltimore

Towards the end of July, I spent a weekend shooting a short film with Running Storm Productions. Dean Storm, the director, along with Dawn Campbell, are organizers of the inaugural 29 Days Later Film Project, in which filmmakers are given a specific prop and 29 days to write, cast, produce, shoot, and edit their films. This is much like the 48 hour film festival, but with more time, the filmmakers have a longer opportunity to polish their works.

Dean contacted me and formulated a script around my makeup design for "The Birds". My character became the lead and I was happy to be able to have the opportunity to work on a longer piece of work (the abridged edit is about 22 minutes), but also I was proud to have one of my original makeup designs featured. Dean and DP Regan Garcia did a magnificent job editing and with some camera and post-production effects to make the bird look majorly creepy! Here's a before/after look at brave model Tina Martello:


"The pretty ones always make the best monsters!" - Tina Martello before (L) and after (R)

Transformative, huh? After a few short hours, I pretty much forgot what she looked like as a normal person! Hopefully before long I can get a clip of some sort up here on the site for you all to check out.

That's it on the homefront for now; please stay tuned for more updates as they come in!

-Vaness.
www.vanessastrickland.net

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Hi everyone,

I've been doing a lot of traveling in the past two months and have finally settled back in at home for a while. When I wasn't spending all this time moving around from place to place, I started to re-assess my purpose and priorities in terms of my career, the arts. One of these priorities is to change my site in order to more properly represent myself as a person.

Since high school, I've always been told to present myself professionally; at auditions, when submitting, everything. I have always followed that rule, even with the creation of my professional website. However, I think it's become a bit stagnant as I feel more like a mouthpiece and less like a person. I need to do more (or perhaps less), to allow myself to come through personally in this site. While I am the product I try to sell, I am first and foremost myself and I believe that has been lacking a bit in terms of this page as well as the news blog.

This can only serve to benefit me more, for all the successful artists and actors I admire are accessible to the extent that you know what kind of person they are, but professional in such a manner that they are able to generate and receive work. If I'm able to put more of my personality in my site online, it'll give casting directors a better idea of me while at the same time being able to clarify for myself what kinds of projects I am drawn to, and which ones I am not.

For those of you who are keeping up, my thanks and appreciation to you as I wind through this journey. Not only of a site change, but the journey an artist takes through all changes.

-Vaness.
www.vanessastrickland.net