Famous People

Hey!

I just posted on my website some of the people I've been working with. Check it out.

There are many more people but ask me individually if you're interested. I'd like to protect the privacy of some and promote those that are hoping for more recognition.

A Revelation

There is something that I absolutely love about Sundance to the core and it's not what you would expect either.
Yes, it's fun to be able to beat everybody at ping pong because they are super drunk.
Yes, I love the people I am meeting and the fact that so many went to Full Sail (which was the university I was really hoping to go to before I was convinced not to apply.)
Yes, it is amazing to be with people who have such incredible work ethic.
Despite all of it, my biggest scariest part about starting this internship was I worried that they were all coming to my turf. Let's just say, there seems to be a pattern in my life when people come to Utah and then all I hear are complaints about this place. Do you know how heartbreaking it is that I automatically expect that reply now? Well, guess what.
The people who come to the Sundance Labs LOVE Utah. They appreciate the beauty. They appreciate the history. They don't necessarily like the price of alcohol but they get over that. They respect that I don't do all of the same activities as them and yet I feel accepted.

Main point, I hear the kindest words about Utah from those I've met through Sundance and it fills me with a pride I've been longing for.

Sundance Directors Lab

Filming Osso Buco. cred: Peter

Scene for the crew short. cred: Peter

We are about to get blessed by a Ute Native American in this picture. cred: A.J.

Yes, these are pictures others have taken. My phone camera just doesn't happen to be as awesome. It's like a whole different universe in Sundance and I'm loving the experience.

After a long day of hard work up here, I love to simply sit in the dwindling light.
Possibly curled up with book in hand or silently observing visitors photographing the area.
Everything begins to sparkle.
The finale of the show starts approximately at six thirty three pm when the sun streams lay on the water.
Winking at you.
You can see the rippling reflection on the tip of your nose and the epiphany emerges that the heavens are truly rewarding you.

I am in awe. Eyes wide open. Chills run down my spine.
I used to think I had some creditable qualifications when it comes to film.
Now, I realize the MIRACLE it is that I have this opportunity at Sundance.
I'm here, enthusiastic, and ready.

Press Release

I realized that starting on Saturday, I can't really update you about the contents of my day, for the majority will be working on a film that has to be kept hush hush. I signed an "agreement," a "release" and a lot of papers that emphasize the confidentiality of the program.

However, here is the press release of the films that will be worked on in the labs this year. You can see the full article on the Directors and Screenwriters lab by clicking here. I'll give you a tidbit too.

The projects and participants selected for the 2013 June Directors Lab (May 27 – June 20) are:

1-Pamela Romanowsky (writer/director) / The Adderall Diaries (U.S.A.): Writer Stephen Elliott reaches a low point when his estranged father resurfaces, claiming that Stephen has fabricated much of the dark childhood that that fuels his work. Adrift in the precarious grey area of memory, Stephen has to navigate the unstable terrain of truth and identity, led by two sources of inspiration: a new romance, and a murder trial that reminds him more than a little of his own story. Based on the memoir by Stephen Elliott.

2-Jan Kwiecinski (writer/director) / The Incident (U.S.A.): When a young man decides to cover up an accidental murder, his whole life comes into focus in ways he never expected.

3-Eva Weber (co-writer/director) and Vendela Vida (co-writer) / Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name (UK/Germany/U.S.A.): Twenty-eight-year-old Clarissa discovers on the day of her father's funeral that everything she believed about her life was a lie. She flees San Francisco and travels to the Arctic Circle to uncover the secrets of her mother, who mysteriously vanished when Clarissa was fourteen. Based on the novel by Vendela Vida.

4-Russell Harbaugh (co-writer/director) and Eric Mendelsohn (co-writer) / Love After Love(U.S.A.): Love After Love is a messy and desperate love story about grief, sex, and the separation of a family.

5-K’naan (writer/director) / Maanokoobiyo (Somalia/U.S.A.): In war-torn Somalia, an artistic orphan named Maano joins the mercenary killing squad of a notorious warlord, only to discover his adoptive father and gang leader is responsible for wiping out his family.

6-Ian Hendrie (co-writer/co-director) and Jyson McLean (co-writer/co-director) / Mercy Road (U.S.A.): Based on true events, Mercy Road traces the spiritual odyssey of a small town housewife and mother, as she becomes willing to commit violence and murder in the name of God.

7-Meredith Danluck (writer/director) / State Like Sleep (U.S.A.): Under the surreal cloud cover of northern Europe, a young American widow reluctantly revisits her past when her mother is hospitalized in Brussels. While coping with the bleak reality of parental loss, Katherine explores her deceased husband's secret life of underground sex clubs and finds comfort in a relationship with a stranger as equally broken as she is.

8-Miguel Calderón (writer/director) / Zeus (Mexico): Sporadically employed and still living with his mother, Joel finds his only joy in falconry in the flatlands outside Mexico City, until an encounter with a down-to-earth secretary forces him to face reality.

Fine Tuning Family Premiere

Sunday is Laura Mae Pace's birthday so on Saturday afternoon, those in her family will be the first to see her documentary. The event is on facebook here. Fine Tuning is the Senior project I've been working on for the last year, here's the trailer and here's some more information about it.

Now, the step next is...where do I go from here? Most fiction capstones have a screening at the school but I don't even know how to set that up (or if it's appropriate with this particular film.) Also, the composer will probably need some more time so there is only sample music in the film right now. I'm glad it will be seen and that I'll be able to make some adjustments after but since I'll have my hands full with internships and my last class, I'm hoping to finish a final cut asap. I know there are some of you who glance at this blog every once in a while who have worked on their fair share of capstone projects, what do you suggest?

Weekends

Brigham City.
McKenzie P.
Sonia mini-road trip.
Snow cones.
Spanish Fork Canyon. Lost. No cell-phone reception.
Hot springs.
Night hiking.
20 dollar bill.
Sunday morning walks.
Bell tower.
Primary.
Dinner with Family. Soup.
Ava and other Feslers (and of course Bradshaws.)
No bake cookies.
Squaw Peak.
Claire. "Come back, Daaaaave."
Children. Lots of them.
Food. With a dash of liquid smoke.
Meryl Streep.
Shalom (no seriously, I got the definition of this word right in a board game. Thanks agl.)

Horses, Running, Nature, Love....what more could you ask in life?

The Whisperer [Horseware] from Piers McGrail on Vimeo.

These are what my good dreams feel like; both sleeping and awake.

"The history of mankind and civilization rode with us."

Sundance Filmmakers Lab Internship

I have wanted an internship for a long time, I don't know why but I felt like it would get my foot into the door for something more. It would give my filmmaking and degree more credibility and now I will be able to attach the name of "Sundance" with the rest of my qualifications on a resume but Sundance has meant so much more to me then that.

Erika and I at Sundance 1992

While I didn't know about the independent filmmaking prestige then, Sundance and I have always been good friends. Some of my earliest memories are of my mother piling me into the back seat of the car and driving me up through the canyon. I played on the indian (sorry about that by the way) and ran through the softly lit trails. I watched outdoor classic movies, took the ski lift in the summertime to go hiking and in the wintertime to go snowboarding. Also, Sundance is where my dear husband and I spent many evenings walking around figuring out where our relationship wanted to go before it had even begun.

I. Know. Sundance. Well, at least the environment.

I have been through a lot of applications, resume adjustments and interviews. Many in the location I had hoped, with organizations that had very wholesome objectives but weren't familiar with the process of film. When I heard about this opportunity with Sundance through the BYU TMA Faculty, I was so desperately searching for something outside of my home state that I almost missed it.

"Reservoir Dogs" Quentin Tarantino || Sundance Filmmakers Lab

When I sat in the Park City office, the individuals I came in contact with were so respectful and easy to talk to. I remember hearing about those who have come before me to be a part of the filmmakers lab and my heart was full with pride for Utah (and surprised to learn that I had been working with the festival co-founder Sterling VanWagenen all along.) It had been a long time since I felt complete honor to be from here. I had been poisoned by lies (usually from people who always find something to complain about so I don't know why I started to listen to them anyway) from those who probably have never explored the wildlife. These hills, mountains and rivers are my sanctuary and I'm excited to rekindle my roots with my former stomping ground.

Once again, I believe in mixing passions.

Sundance Filmmakers Lab

Elizabeth Richards Fesler

May 25-June 27, 2013

7am-9pm Daily

Like a Bee Sting

Eric is hilarious....and bees scare me even more than they did before I shot this film.

Learning from the Places Where you are Presently Living

I found these words very inspiring.

10 Things I learned at BYU

1. I learned to love Charles Ives, Lyst, Arvo Pärt, Mahler, Shostakovich, and many other artists.
   
2. My eccentricities are wonderful and your cargo pants can’t do anything about it.
3. With enough Mormons in one place, I’ll find people who live the Gospel like I do.
4. My success is directly related what I do.   It’s a given that music industry people don’t care about my degree but I learned a lot about grabbing any opportunities that passed my way.
5. This one is a little more personal:  God put me here.  In fact, God’s cool with me pursuing music as a career.
6. Love is and is not what I thought it was.
7. I can make a home anywhere, it just takes work.  I love The Dollhouse and I’ve called it “home” for years now.
8. I shouldn’t worry about how other people live their lives.
9. The way to get better at something is to keep doing it.  Always.  Right now.  Keep doing it.
10. Being a proactive member of the community is enriching and more satisfying than I ever imagined.  Lots of people complain to me about Muse and some of their complaints are valid.  As annoying as it is to hear those ‘suggestions’, I find it much nicer to be one of the people that can fix issues than someone who just notices them.

More from Colin Hatch can be found here: http://thechatch.tumblr.com/post/50101604508/10-things-i-learned-at-byu.

Bryant and Amanda Smith Wedding Film

If I seem to be too busy because I'm filmmaking, having a new nephew be born or it's sunny outside; it's safe to say I'm happy.

Mentos

Dave tried Mentos for the first time last night.
He has put them  up his nose and made rockets out of them before but he never actually tasted them until last night.

It was the most daring act I could get him to do. We're making progress in the mischievous department quite slowly.

Such a Crack Up

I've seen this face a lot btw. Define it as: "Lizi, what do you think you're doing?"

"You're such a crack up" is a term coined and often used by my parents. So it seems fitting to quote them during our spontaneous photo session on Sunday. They thought I was insane bursting through their doors, (my mother didn't even have all of her clothes on but that's nothing new) and told them I needed them outside pronto. Then, we practiced engagement poses with them and they literally couldn't stop laughing the entire time. My mom was trying to hold her photo smile the whole time but my dad was purposefully trying to do the poses as awkwardly as possible. 

I've been taking a lot of photos lately but you can't blame me, look outside! We're in beautiful time of year my friends. These are the outtakes, feel free to see the final products on my "serious" and "mature" website at feslerfilms.wordpress.com/blog/

Beekeeping

Dave took this shot of me while we were filming Weevs with his new beehive. It was refreshingly new yet very scary at the same time to witness this. I could feel their little bodies running into me and that noise of 30 bees near my ear is not something I'm going to forget anytime soon. Happy it happened, glad it's over with.

The Stories that Bind Us

Dr. Duke said that children who have the most self-confidence have what he and Dr. Fivush call a strong “intergenerational self.” They know they belong to something bigger than themselves

Mr. Collins recommended that families create a mission statement similar to the ones companies and other organizations use to identify their core values.

Decades of research have shown that most happy families communicate effectively.When faced with a challenge, happy families, like happy people, just add a new chapter to their life story that shows them overcoming the hardship.

The bottom line: if you want a happier family, create, refine and retell the story of your family’s positive moments and your ability to bounce back from the difficult ones. That act alone may increase the odds that your family will thrive for many generations to come.

----This excerpt is taken from New York Times "The Family Stories that Bind Us" and illustrates principles I strongly believe in (I'd be surprised if you didn't believe in them as well.)

Spring Fever

CHERIE 25 Habillage from MATHEMATIC SAS on Vimeo.

I've got spring fever. How about you?

If I Could Take Pictures in Church

There are a lot of times I wish I could take pictures in church but today it definitely would have been when I was teaching Primary. Last night, Dave and I had a late Macey's run and I realized I had to teach today so I grabbed some stickers and had a really horrible idea which I'm glad I didn't do.

Remember the story about the puppets with dots and stars titled You Are Special? The puppets that did something good received star stickers and those that weren't awesome received dot stickers. Well, that was my idea for singing time. Good, not great. During Sacrament meeting, I realized how rude and horribly wrong it could go and panicked a bit. Instead of giving them dots when they sang badly, I just had them get stars if they sang at all and if they didn't sing, I got to put on a sticker.You'd laugh out loud if I had pictures of some of the creative designs the kids ended up with.

We had sticker goatees, stickers boogers, sticker eyebrows, sticker fingernails and lines of stickers right down the middle of their face. I had my rainbow bright sticker and let the kids decorate the rest of me after the activity. Then, some very confused parents.

A Love Note

One of our senior missionaries at work went into surgery a couple of weeks ago. He later received this note with a plate of cookies.

"Dear reader

your life has almost ended so before you die enjoy the cookies

I know you will be happy up there.

from Activity Grils"

We both had a good laugh.