What aspect of the film have you been working on recently?

Well, last weekend we flew all the way to North Carolina to interview a remarkable woman named Suzette Foster whose story may feature in the movie. A few years ago she had a serious mountain bike accident, broke her neck and ended up with the same injury as Christopher Reeve. She was instantly paralysed. We interviewed her because it turned out she used Tom’s Sound Healing CDs and the methods in the Magdalen Manuscript to completely heal herself.

Why is that important for the film?

Part of Tom’s work is using sound as a healing force for psychological, spiritual and physical conditions. Suzette is a great example of a profound physical healing. When she arrived at Duke Medical Center after the accident, the Doctors feared for her life and thought she would never walk again. She was walking eighteen hours after her surgery and is now fully functioning. It really is an incredible story.

Isn’t North Carolina Tom’s old stomping ground?

Yes, the second reason for the trip was that Tom got his degree in Psychological Counsellling at University of North Carolina in Greensboro. So we drove up there to shoot some location footage and also visit with two of Tom’s best friends Marty and Kim Goldstein, who gave Tom a place to stay when he was a lounge singer in his twenties.

And what’s next for the film?

This weekend we were on Orcas Island filming what we think will be our last shoot with Tom and Judi. Our next step will be to incorporate our new interviews into the script and start to lay our the film ready for our editor. One thing I’m especially looking forward to is searching through all our footage to find tonings from Goddesses of different traditions to feature in the film.

What role will these Goddess tonings have?

A big theme of the film is Tom’s life work to bring forth the feminine energy of the world’s various spiritual traditions and we’re hoping these special tonings will provide a powerful feminine energy that will carry throughout the film.

Why does a lot of your work focus on the feminine?

Because I have an instinctual call to tell stories that inspire people and help change consciousness, and I feel the feminine is a key to this, at this time in human history. I’ve felt for most of my life that the feminine aspect of our culture was underfed and suppressed and that it’s full expression is a key to the survival of our planet and our evolution.

What’s been your greatest challenge in the movie so far?

To figure out a compelling storyline that has the drama that movies need to keep people on the edge of their seats.

Do you think you’re achieving it?

Yeah, I’m excited, we’ve spent the last two months looking at the film from every angle and trying out various ways that we can craft a story with a beginning, middle and end that will hold an audience’s attention. As well as do justice to Tom and Judi’s powerful work in the world.

What has been your funniest moment so far?

Some of the funniest times have been listening to Tom’s life stories with his trademark wicked humor. Working with the talented and hilarious animator, Drew Christie who is currently working on various sections of the film has also been a blast. We were looking around for over a year to find the right animator for this film, someone who could combine creative genius with a unique style and had a sense of humor that could open people to Tom’s life of divine comedy.

Why use an animator?

The reason an animator is so important is that a lot of this story involves realms we can’t see: sound, the brain, and mystical experiences. So it was essential to find someone who could open a doorway into these unseen worlds, with an original look that doesn’t feel too woo-woo.

What are you thinking of in terms of distribution?

We’re aiming for worldwide distribution. Films are released across numerous platforms these days, we hope this film will be distributed theatrically, on TV, DVD and video-on-demand. Our best case scenario would be a theatrical release in North America first. To achieve that we need to attract the attention of distributors, whether large or niche market, like New Age and spiritual film distributors.

So how close are you to that?

We’re beginning work with our Editor on April Fools day. We’re ambitiously aiming to have a rough cut ready by the end of May. We would then send this rough cut out to attract various distributors and to get into select film festivals – hopefully Toronto.

Lastly, what is your wildest dream for the film?

The vision I’m holding with my Co-Producer Beloved, Sophie is that hundreds of thousands of people around the world will experience this transformative film and that it will help inspire and deepen consciousness.

You’ve said in the past that you want to ‘trick’ audiences into a transformative sound bath…

Yes, we want to create an alchemical cauldron in the movie theater or person’s living room. The ingredients inside the cauldron will be comedy, entertaining stories about Tom and Judi’s lives and Tom’s tonings.  Through laughter and story we want to open people’s hearts and minds, so the sounds can help awaken them to new possibilities, to the great journey into their own potential as human beings.

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The support for The Boy Who Sang to the World has been so dramatic and inspiring that from time to time Sophie and I feel impelled to perform thank you rituals. So on the first day of spring we headed out to Discovery Park in Seattle.

The wind was coming off the sea like a stampeding herd of elephants. It bucked and rocked us as we hiked down the forested hillside. The trees and bushes around us thrashed about wildly and sand flew into our eyes.

It made us think of the efforts it takes to birth an independent film into the world these days. It can sometimes feel like a constant push into the headwinds, sometimes two steps forward and one step back. Often blowing us off course, searching for the trail (the story!) We felt as if the wind was searing right through our skin into our souls and clearing away any obstacles that would keep this film from having a magnificent future.

We made it down to the shore. The wind frothed the tops of the waves into cream. The sun shined brightly and the tide washed the beach silver. We hiked to the end below a large bluff and cleared away a large oval of sand.

After offering a prayer of thanksgiving I read out the names of each person who has giving money to support the film while Sophie picked up and placed a stone down in a pattern. 432 stones of thank you! And when we were done we looked above. The almost full moon appeared over the bluff between two trees and a lone bald eagle circled overhead.

Thank you, each of you, for being the bedrock of our work, supporting us every step of the way, even when the winds have picked up and made the journey more of a challenge. Thank you for being the moon in daylight and the eagle that circles our work. 

The post Thank you in the Sand appeared first on Woody Creek Pictures.

Creating a new website is like getting a new wardrobe, haircut, facelift and having your house remodeled at the same time. It’s nice at last to move in. Its inspiring to now have a house that fits our creative vision. Please visit any of our rooms and make yourself at home!

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As we headed down, I started to talk about Woody and my life in Alaska. “If I had ever written that book, I said…” letting my voice trail off.

I stopped to tie my bootlaces. Sophie stomped off.  I followed, expecting to see her around the next corner waiting, but no, she had kept on. I hurried up and found the same empty trail at the next switchback. After ten minutes I began to wonder if I hadn’t passed by her. A young couple was hoofing up the mountain.   “Did you see a woman in a red coat?” I asked. The fellow thought a moment, “Yes,” he said, “A ways down.”

“Wow, I thought, she’s really booking.” I picked up the pace until I was nearly trotting, determined now to catch up with her. Another ten minutes and I turned a sharp switchback. There in the middle of the trail stood a fearsome figure.

Dressed in red, a woman that once had looked like my wife stood. Gone was her sweet and gentle demeanor. Her head was tilted down, her blue eyes turned dark and piercing. Her legs were spread apart with no way to get by her.

Her arm jutted out with her finger pointed directly at my heart. “YOU!” She boomed. Her teeth had become fangs; hot saliva was dripping onto the cold forest floor.

“YOU! REGRETFUL WRITER…,” she bellowed. 

The woman who once was my wife seemed to tower over me, as if she had sprouted two feet taller from the sheer force of her simmering rage. Kali jabbed the air again and reached inside my chest to grab hold of my beating heart. Like an Aztec priestess she held my life force in her hands as I lay on the altar.

Her words echoed through the woods, giving any bears emerging from hibernation second thoughts. A voice that made the cones fall prematurely from the Douglas firs and squirrel babies have nightmares for weeks.

 “…SHALL NOT PASS!”

Her eyes blazed with dripping blood from my severed head, steam poured from her nostrils and her arm made a sweep along the ground that made it clear that should I try and pass, my soul would beg for release from its bodily cage, no torment imagined by god, man or woman would compare.

And so I did. I laid it down right there. I vowed to leave behind the 100-pound rucksack of my regret. All the years I packed it around waiting for I don’t know what. All the years I felt as if I couldn’t start this book because there was just too much, I had written in too many journals, packed it away in too many boxes. I had forgotten too much.

I dropped it all, like a heavy wet wool coat, I flung it off behind me, grabbed Kali and kissed her black tongue and took it inside me until I was infused with her crystalline purpose.

She relaxed then satisfied at my offering and returned my lovely gentle wife to me. I held a spontaneous funeral right there on the trail half way down Mt. Si for my regretful writer and on that spot I vowed to have a first draft of Woody the Dog,Liife with a Canine Avatar ready to go by March 1 2013.

And with the help of my high school English teacher and mentor, Don Bunger, to whom I send a chapter a week, it looks like I just might make it. If I don’t I’ll have Kali to deal with…

The post Kali on the Mountain appeared first on Woody Creek Pictures.

“You’re a dumb-ass, he said. “You’re a dumb ass for two reasons. First because you are. The second is that Sean Penn is down here at the Duchess (a tavern) and he wants to meet you.”

I wasn’t sure if Resler was trying to pull my leg. I had played enough pranks on him over the years that I knew mine was due. This might be it. If I didn’t go and Penn was there, Resler’d have me. If I went and Penn wasn’t there, he’d have me just the same. So I had to go. I tossed on a pair of pants and drive down to the Duchess.

And there sure enough, there at a corner table was Sean Penn, along with Bill Resler.

To my astonishment, Penn told me that The Heart of the Game was one of his favorite movies. In fact, he had watched it about thirty times, showing it to friends, the most recent of whom was Jack Nicholson.

But what was he doing here? Turns out he had recently been back stage at an Eddie Vedder concert and he got to talking to a young woman. She said she was from Seattle. He told her that one of his favorite movies was from Seattle, and she said, “Well I’m in that movie.” Penn recognized her from The Heart of the Game. He had just met Shannon Costello, who became his girlfriend.

A few months later I met him at his place in Las Angeles to seek advice on how to make The Heart of the Game into a dramatic adaptation.

We’ll keep you up to date if anything comes of it… 

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Editing is a very, very long process. First we have to log and transcribe every second of footage we have. From that we lay out a possible story line. Next we have to figure out where the holes to the story are, where we need to do some additional shooting to fill (we discovered three or four such holes). Then comes one of the hardest parts, how to outfit the story with the visual imagery. In this case, it is a very wonderful creative challenge. What do we see on screen during the tonings and also how do we illustrate some of the inner journeys that Tom describes?

To solve the latter case, we are working with Drew Christie, an immensely talented animator whose work now regularly appears on the New York Times Web page and who recently had screenings of his work at Sundance and has won a number of festival awards.  Over the next few months we will be working with Drew to animate some of the features of the film.

Then, assuming we can get the needed shooting done this spring to fill the story holes we have discovered, we hope to begin editing April 1. April Fool’s Day is a good day to begin!

The post Following the Sounds appeared first on Woody Creek Pictures.

What’s the big deal you ask? Well, every day over three billion people cook over open fires or inneficanet stoves that cause mass deforestation, global warming and the deaths of over 2 million women and children a year. The indoor smoke causes pnemonia, emphasyma and other bronchial ailments that lead to serious chronic illnes and worse. And right out our back door, on Vashon Ialnd, was a man tryign to do something about it.

We realized the story had more depth and scope than could be done justice as part of TreeStory, so we developed it into feature on its own and Catching Fire was born.

Our greatest need right now is funding to allow us to travel with Peter to Kenya and meet some of the women and children whose lives will be benefitted by these stoves.

Catching Fire will msot likely be a one hour television show. We have secured a broadcast deal from KCTS 9, the pubic TV station for the Pacific Northwest to air it when it is done, most likely in early 2014.

The post Catching Fire – the Story appeared first on Woody Creek Pictures.

Meanwhile our Facebook audience is nearing 25,000 friends and we want to thank our over 200 supporters whose kind and generous support has allowed us to make the progress we have made. Our supporters are like the water and sunlight needed for our tree to grow.

On the filming front, we recently completed a three-day shoot with a true tree action hero, Bernie O’Brien. Bernie spends his weekends and vacations rescuing trees from people’s property that are threatened to be cut down. It is back breaking work that Bernie does all by hand, taking most of a day to rescue one single tree. From these lone rescues, he has created a farm with now over 800 trees. Bernie is “fighting the good fight” and  is also a tree philosopher and we look forward to bringing you his story and wisdoms when TreeStory comes ultimately to fruition.

Thank you again for your continued support, patience and interest and we will keep you informed as the tree grows.

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Meanwhile, the film’s facebook audience has grown beyond 19,000 people!

Join in here to receive the latest news about the film and tree inspirations every day – https://www.facebook.com/TreeStoryMovie. With 50-100 people joining each day, it’s inspiring and affirming to see how may people connect with the message behind this film – the interconnection between humans and trees.

On the filming front Director Ward has been continuing to pick up local stories in Seattle – interviewing artist Konstantin Dimopoulos, who recently spread his amazing blue trees all over the city to surprise people into an awareness of deforestation. He’ll also be interviewing the fabulous Bernie o’Brien in the fall, as he quietly saves and replants trees all over Pacific Northwest. More about him here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017919677_treerescuer31m.html

And Konstantin here:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017895829_bluetrees.html

Thank you for all your ongoing support, thank you for believing in this film, thank you for being Tree People! We look forward to sharing successful fundraising news next time, so that we can realize the vision of TreeStory.

The post TreeStory Update – June 2012 appeared first on Woody Creek Pictures.

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