Issue 10: just so much short film preproduction and comics stuff!
What’s this? Another newsletter?
Hey, that’s what you signed up for.
You did sign up… right?!
NEW STUFF
Our trans sci-fi short film has just over a couple weeks left, and we’re only 31% away from being funded! Not only do we want to hit 100% so we get all the funds needed to make the film, but if we can get just a little more we get to add some amazing things… like an exclusive behind the scenes photo gallery from our lovely friend and amazing photographer, J.W. Hendricks, whose work you’re likely familiar with from the amazing shots he got of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes a couple years ago. They were everywhere, and so good!
And just beyond that stretch goal, we have the licensing fee to use the Queen song that shares a title with our short, and was a partial inspiration for it. A Queen song can be in our short film?! When will we ever get that chance again? Holy crap.
Please help us get there! And spread the word, even if you can’t (or already have) supported the campaign. Word of mouth helps so much! If people who care about you know that you care about this, they’ll be much more inclined to support it too!
Check out the crowdfunding campaign, see all all the cool rewards, and watch our kinda goofy intro video here:
https://seedandspark.com/fund/long-away
Last time we mentioned the LA Strong book that we’re honored to be a part of! It’s a charity effort to raise money for victims of the recent Los Angeles fires.
You can still pre-order it (it comes out March 19!) on the Mad Cave website, or by taking Lunar code 1224MA843 to any comic shop.
In a few weeks there’s going to be a big signing event in LA with a lot of the creators, and we will be there! Look for more details on that in the next issue of this here newslettery thingamabob, and if you’re in LA, come on out and get your copies signed by tons of cool people (that includes us, we can be cool people! …sometimes?).
The two graphic novels that we wrote last year continue through art production! Neither has been announced yet, but one of them is a YA queer trans romcom from Mad Cave, and we just did the lettering script revision for the first chapter of that book. If you don’t know what those are, or why you do them… it’s basically just revising all the dialogue (and captions and visual sound effects) based on the final art. Sometimes the art will cover everything and you can cut a line, sometimes you might need to add more explanation, sometimes you shift dialogue balloons around from one panel to another to make it all flow as smoothly as possible. And you wanna make sure to do that before it goes to the letterer, so they don’t have to redo a bunch of work!
Comic pitches updates:
Still waiting to hear back from The Deciders on our original, creator-owned graphic novel
Still waiting to hear back from The Deciders on a work for hire pitch, the one the editor really loved and wanted to really fight for. Nervous about this one!
Annnnnnd we hear the something we’ve been working on with IDW comics should be officially announced before the next issue of this newsletter is out! Whatever could it be? Be bold and go forward with your eyes open!
WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON
We’re steamrolling through pre-production for our short film. We have the cast locked in, and they should be announced soon! We did another location walkthrough with the producers and director of photography, examining shot locations, looking for logistical issues, problems we’ll have to solve, and all that good stuff.
We also sat down with our DP to build our shot list, so we know exactly what we’ll need to get on the day of the shoot. It’s incredibly fun and really fascinating in how incredibly similar to comics it is.
In the middle of all that, the Deciders got back to us on the comic outline we turned in and asked for revisions, which we just turned in. Now we’re waiting for final approval, and as soon as that comes in… we’re off to the races with scripting (or more outline revising, sure, if you want to be all negative about it!).
TRANS TUESDAY UPDATE
Ask Tilly Anything concluded, with questions on how to support someone you think might be trans, how to tell if you're a chaser, where crossdressers fall under the trans umbrella, creative dreams, fitness regimens, hottest Star Trek takes, getting over transphobia, advice for people whose spouses just came out, and every installment so far of Tilly's Progesterone Dream Theater! (you are not prepared, they are bananas)
And then we began a four-part series on the trans allegory of that classic comedy from the 1980s, Real Genius! Yes, it’s actually deeply trans, and that’s because a trans woman wrote it! Which you probably didn’t know, as most people don’t seem to. The first installment is devoted entirely to its screenwriter, PJ Torokvei, because you have to understand the conditions she was living under for trans people at the time, to truly understand all the beautiful things Real Genius has to say about transness. Join us for the ride!
RECOMMENDATIONS
Yellowjackets is back for season 3, and we’re delightfully terrified/excited. The show’s an amazing blend of really dark comedy and spooky supernatural weirdness. It’s also got a cast of mostly women and girls (playing younger/older versions of each other), and on top of that they’re all complex and complicated and flawed. That it exists at all feels like a miracle, and for it to then be as good as it is on top of that feels like an absolute gift. It’s also got one of the best (and most unsettling) opening title sequences of any show ever. Watch it in the dark under a blanket, and bask in its funny dark weird spookiness.
This month we’re also recommending But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo. It’s a novella about a woman who works with a giant spider who is also her boss, and that’s all we’re gonna say.
THE DIRTBAG DISPATCH
Dirtbag Henry continues to have a rough life (just ask him). Just look at where he was clearly forced to lay because there are not literally a dozen other soft, comfy places for him to sleep in our apartment. The poor baby.
Izzy, meanwhile, continues the grand cat tradition of enjoying playing with things that are not cat toys far more than she enjoys playing with actual cat toys.
WHAT’S IN THE BIG TIME?
In Issue 10 of the Big Time, we talk about trying to figure out every single shot in your movie, and how you can use that (and things like costume) to further reveal character, communicate theme, and tell story. It’s really cool!
Annnd you get page three of our early comic anthology creation, Cannibal Planets! Now with actual cannibal planets!
You wanna show us you love us? That’s so nice of you! You can sign up at birdguestbroadcast.com!
THE END
Do you have any trans people in your life? Be sure they know you’re there for them in every way possible, life is so hard for us right now.
And if you think you don’t have any trans people in your life, yes you do. They might not know they’re trans yet, or they might not know you’re safe to come out to. So be sure your support for them is loud and constant. They need to know you’ve got their backs and will fight for them.
SOCIALS
Tilly’s Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/tillybridges.bsky.social
Susan’s Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/susanlbridges.bsky.social
Writing website
http://birdguest.com
