Mount Airy Mercer

            Two years ago I was working in healthcare, and if you told me I would end up being the type of person who couldn’t travel anywhere without my laptop, I’d have laughed. Yet here I am, stuck in bumper to bumper holiday traffic coming home to New Jersey from Maryland, laptop out in the car, using my iPhone as a hotspot so I can read the script for episode two. The Delaware Bridge is closed so it’s looking like I’ll have plenty of time. This web series has turned me from frequent flyer to “can I purchase WiFi in advance, so I can work through this flight?” Now when I check into a hotel, I look for the outlet before I hang up my clothes. I spent a solid hour of my Sunday at my niece’s christening answering e-mails. My sister in law asked me, who could you possibly need to talk to right now? My director and my leading lady, of course. The only two people I remember to correspond with these days! All jokes aside,...

           Last week we filmed three scenes from our pilot episode and it was a wild night to say the least. I began my day at 3 PM blowing up props and making sure the crew was eating dinner before we began. I walked in the door to my house 10 minutes before 2 AM. I felt the shoot went great overall. I was lucky enough to sneak a few behind the scenes photos which have been posted (with permission! That’s important guys) on my Instagram account (@princessmarcelline) and the twitter I’ve created for the series (@MtAiryMercer.)             So, how was my first night of shooting as producer on a web series? I’ll be brutally honest because I know no one is here for the sugar-coated after school special version. It was exciting, challenging, stressful, frustrating, mesmerizing and downright fun. Truly a wild ride from start to finish. There was an argument about pizza, a serious discussion ab...

Hello all! Thanks for coming back for the next installment on our journey to Mount Airy Mercer. In this post I want to talk about hiring SAG-AFTRA actors for the first time and what that entails. For those of you not in the television and film industry, SAG-AFTRA is the actor’s union and basically all the professional actors you can think of are registered with SAG (Screen Actors Guild.) When I was told that we would be casting SAG actors I was really excited. Honestly, I’m a student, it’s my first time named as producer on a project that will outlive my legacy as a student, AND I get to work with professional actors? It’s truly a dream come true for my resume and demo reel for after graduation.             I knew the paperwork would be a little tricky since it was my first time doing it. My biggest mistake was waiting until after the casting to begin the paperwork. Although I didn’t have a definite choice for casting...