Faust Films

Screen Shots: Where the Action Is in VT Film

Morgan Faust — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:24:46 +0000

From Seven Days Vermont (www.7dvt.com)
State of the Arts
BY MARGOT HARRISON [05.26.10]

One day, Brattleboro-based filmmaker Morgan Faust was reading the New Yorker when she noticed an ad that read, “Do you need to buy some time?” She remembers thinking, What if you could buy time? Fun time or alone time? If you could buy it by the quality, not just the quantity?

Those questions inspired “Tick Tock Time Emporium,” a short film that Faust and a crew of 25 will shoot in Bellows Falls this July. Faust, 32, describes it as a “Tim Burton-meets-Amélie-style film … about a little girl who finds herself in a fantastical time shop, where time can be bought and sold.”

Faust, a Boston native who’s splitting her time between Vermont and her MFA program at Columbia, has plenty of experience behind the scenes. She produced Bess O’Brien’s film version of Shout It Out! in 2008 and has been involved with the naturalistic, ultra-low-budget filmmaking movement critics call “mumblecore”: She produced director Andrew Bujalski’s Mutual Appreciation and associate-produced Funny Ha Ha.

More recently, Faust edited the indie film 3 Backyards, with Edie Falco, which was well received at Sundance. She’s cast another of that film’s stars, Broadway actress Rachel Resheff, as the heroine of “Tick Tock.”

Faust says when she saw Adams Grist Mill in Bellows Falls, she realized it was “exactly what I imagined for the film” and contacted the local historical society about filming there. The Vermont shoot is scheduled to take about six days; the 15-minute film has a projected budget of $22,000.

That may seem low for a fantasy. But Faust hopes to “use colors and light to bring out that fantastical look,” she says. Though she’s working with a visual-effects team, she adds, “we’re trying to make as much of it as possible really exist.” That means delving into the historical society’s trove of “old machines and devices and cameras.” Faust and her brother, a production designer, are repurposing the quaint-looking objects as props. For instance, she says, “something that looks like an old camera could be something you could use to monitor how much time you’re wasting.”

Like Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, the film’s young heroine feels her mom never has enough time for her, but when she tries to pilfer some from the Time Emporium, untoward consequences ensue. The lesson, says Faust: “You can’t really control what someone else does with time.”

Tick Tock Time Emporium (2010)

Morgan Faust — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:14:44 +0000

Click here to make a contribution to support the production of Tick Tock Time Emporium!

The Production:

Tick Tock Time Emporium will be shot on location in Windham County – principally in Bellows Falls – in July of 2010 with a crew comprised of film industry professionals, students from Marlboro College, and local artists. We are working with the VT Film Commission, the Bellows Falls Historical Society, Green Mountain Railroad and a number of other arts organizations from across Vermont throughout the production of this film. This project will truly be a community event – from the building of the set to the first screening, we are excited to be collaborating with so many different groups and individuals to bring this project to life.

Once completed, the film will be screened in Brattleboro, Bellows Falls, and hopefully dozens of other towns across the state either as a solo work or, ideally, partnered with other short films by Vermont filmmakers for collective screenings. Our distribution plan also consists of a targeted approach to film festivals in the U.S. and internationally, including Sundance, Cannes, Telluride and Berlin, the Los Angeles International Children’s Festival, online festivals as well as local festivals such as the Green Mountain Film Festival and the Women’s Film Festival in Brattleboro.

Press:

Screen Shots: Where the Action Is in VT Film

“3 Backyards” playing New Directors/New Films

Morgan Faust — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:44:19 +0000

“3 Backyards” premieres in New York at Lincoln Center’s New Directors/New Films series (March 24- April 4) accompanied by short film “Looking at Animals.”

Click here for full article

Columbia University Film Festival Spot (2009)

Morgan Faust — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:54:49 +0000

Columbia University 2009 Film Festival Trailer from Morgan Faust on Vimeo.

The Shopkeeper’s Daughter (2008)

Morgan Faust — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:31:00 +0000

Press

08/04/08 – New York Sun: Hospice Patients Focus of Film Contest

08/17/08 – Bronx Times: Bronx women featured in VNSNY film competition

Burlington Free Press| Post Sundance Interview (2/4/2010)

Morgan Faust — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:39:56 +0000

A follow up interview with Sky Barsch Gleiner at the Burlington Free Press after Sundance awards announced.

Click here for full article

3 Backyards (2010)

Morgan Faust — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:01:46 +0000

Images:

[View with PicLens]

Press:

Eric Mendelsohn wins Sundance Best Director award for “3 Backyards” (1/30/2010)

Morgan Faust — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:42:12 +0000

Eric Mendelsohn returns to Sundance 11 years later and once again takes top honors.

Click here for full article

Variety| “3 Backyards” review (1/25/2010)

Morgan Faust — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:19:17 +0000

Following Sundance premiere, Variety critic John Anderson calls “3 Backyards” a “surrealist carousel” and an “exquisite example of calculated execution in pursuit of elusive ideas.”

Click here for full article

The Burlington Free Press| Interview with Morgan Faust (1/25/2010)

Morgan Faust — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:06:17 +0000

Burlington Free Press interviews Morgan and “3 Backyards” director Eric Mendelsohn on editing the Sundance competition film.

Click here for full article