meli5

Southern Gothic Productions Blog

A little over a year ago, Hilarie Burton and Kelly Tenney started Southern Gothic Productions. We both feel strongly that Wilmington, NC is the right setting to create quality films for reasonable budgets. Since then, we have been developing multiple projects for both the feature and television markets, along with working on the hit TV series One Tree Hill.





SYNOPSIS:

Lincoln Booth is a successful rags-to-riches photographer.
He has the vision of a truly gifted artist.
He is young and handsome.
He is good with women.
He has a lump.

Confronted with mortality, and the realization that his world in New York is far from supportive, Lincoln decides to return home to North Carolina so he can reconcile a life he left at 15 years old. But does he really have the nerve to go back?
Lincoln finds courage, and even better, a beautiful distraction, in the form of Mona Mills; a designer-label, Pedicab driving, human antidepressant. Mona, the embodiment of his over-active imagination, is in turn drawn to the mystery of Lincoln, and the challenge of cracking his self imposed isolation.
After a few chance encounters, and an undeniable spark, Lincoln invites Mona on a road trip to North Carolina; an invitation she readily accepts, although naïve to the excursion’s real motivation.

Their journey down the east coast is punctuated with colorful characters, shared vulnerability, and the hope of new possibilities. That is, until the true purpose of the trip surfaces. Feeling used and discouraged, Mona heads back to New York, forcing Lincoln to face his weaknesses alone, and remedy the choices he’s made; past and present.

Can he reestablish the family ties that were severed years ago? Will he find a way to get Mona back? Most importantly, does Lincoln have the strength to let down his guard and overcome his fears of love and reliance?

Touching and relevant, PEDESTRIAN reminds us that we all have what it takes to be more than just a nameless face in the crowd.

QUOTES
“I’m taking a road trip. I’d like you to come.”
“Where to?”
“Somewhere grossly rural.”
“Will there be goats.”
“I can promise cows.”

“There is a kind of person,
a kind of person that wants
to be more than they are ...
... I'm that kind of person.
You are probably said person.”

“You make me feel like ... something's gonna happen”

Booklet

meli5

Sunday, January 18, 2009

First Blog for Southern Gothic!!!

Hey guys! Thanks for coming by to check out my Southern Gothic Productions blog. From here, I hope to keep you all aware of Southern Gothic's current and future projects, send you updates and interesting news straight from our film sets, and most importantly, keep all my fans and supporters close and informed as Southern Gothic Production grows. Keep checking the site; you'll hear more from me soon.

Thanks again -

Hilarie Burton

Monday, January 26, 2009
Monday, Jan 26th - How To Make A Movie...

Find a wonderful script. Done.
Get really talented people to agree to work on it. Done.
Do your homework and make budgets and schedules. Done.
Get money.........?
And thats where we are folks. Obviously,everyone
knows that we're in a strange place economically in our
country. Back before the holidays, Kelly and I decided to
take a break from fundraising and work on other parts of
our production company.....specifically distribution.
If you know anything about film, you know that thousands
of movies are made every year. And only a tiny, baby-sized
fraction of those receive distribution. So we've been
working on a new approach to all that, and as the puzzle
pieces fall together, I'll give you guys a heads up as
to what to look out for!

So, now that we're past the holidays, and there's a new
president and it's a brand new, promising year, Kelly
and I are fundraising again. I wish it was like high
school student government, where we could do a bunch of
car-washes to raise money for prom......but this is the
big leagues. And I think I'd have to wash like half a
million cars. I'm good, but I'm not that good! So until
I form the amazing car-wash army I've been dreaming of,
we're going to keep forging ahead.
Cause i like telling stories, and this script we have
is a damn good one.
xo
hilarie

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Welcome aboard

So after this last post, I got an email from Kelly
telling me to check out how many subscribers we
have to the blog already. I am so flattered and
humbled by your kind words and support. This is something
I've always wanted to do and I really feel like Wilmington
deserves all the action it can get. Your interest
helps out so much. Investors see the number of people
who already are following our progress, and it gives
them confidence in our operation. So invite all your
friends! It's going to be a fun ride. I'm glad you
all are along for it.
xo
hilarie


Sunday, February 1, 2009

It Keeps Getting Better!



Hi all.

I have big news. Huge news.
You-won't-be-able-to-stop-smiling news.

But first.
I feel the need to fill you in on our project.
Kelly and I have made the decision
to lead off our Southern Gothic adventures
with a film called "Pedestrian".

Maybe you've heard me talk about it in interviews.

We have a couple projects
that we are working hard to move forward with,
but "Pedestrian" seems to be the crowd favorite
to everyone we show our roster to.

Essentially, it's the story of a 30 year old man,
Lincoln Booth,
and his journey to conquer his past and reclaim his future.

That obviously is an over-simplification.
But if I tell you everything,
then why would you come see this movie??
Oh, wait......I know why.
Cause Austin Nichols is going to play Lincoln!!!

I can't tell you all how happy I am about this.
The script for this film landed in my lap a while ago.
And it is filled to the brim with amazing characters.
Our writer, Nick Gray, is such a dialogue-wizard
(wizards. ha).
He really has a knack for mixing sincerity with absurdity
and having it come across as completely natural.
But I could never get to the casting
of all these quirky and fantastic parts,
because I did not have my Lincoln.

And then the talented Mr. Nichols showed up.
He is the real deal guys.

Our characters on One Tree Hill are supposed to be exes.
So before we ever shot together, we went and grabbed dinner.

The first thing I realized about Mr. Nichols is that
he is strange.

People as good-looking as he is don't really need
personalities.

But like Lincoln, Mr. Nichols exhibits that overwhelming
combination of charisma and mystery.

He is the man who has learned every crew member's name
and is respected for his kindness.

He hides away on the weekends, and is a master of rumors.
He is an artist,
that takes pride in exploring and exposing all the layers
of his characters' personalities.

He uses pet names for women that are old-fashioned and funny.
He is someone you can talk to all day,
and still be completely stumped by.

And that is why he is Lincoln Booth.
We had a reading at the Cucalorus Film Festival down
here in Wilmington, for a different project Kelly
and I were helping out with......"Goat".
(Go buy the book. It's by my dear friend Brad Land)
Austin volunteered his time and did the reading for us.
Not only that, but he also helped set up the drink table
beforehand and shook hands and kissed babies like
a politician afterward.

Then, one day Kelly and I got to talking.
The lightbulb was blinding.
What hadn't we thought of it before??
Here, in the shape of Mr. Nichols,
we had the real life Lincoln Booth.
Fate is a funny thing. It's easy.
We gave him the script, he loved it,
and now he's our teammate.

So we continue to move forward.
I have such confidence in this project
and in Austin
and in the team we have assembled.
Got some big meetings this week,
so think good thoughts!
I can't wait to watch this circus come together.

xo
hilarie

Gaining Traction

Hello all,
Yesterday was chock full of SGP meetings, morning to night, exciting stuff. Eddie Jones, our VP of Sales and Marketing set up our first investor pitch meeting since we retooled our business model... what a difference... more of that boring stuff later...

Back to our meeting, the SGP team ran through our pitch and with "plan B" in place we could tell that the investor was at ease, his questions seemed to be positive in nature and I got a great vibe from the entire experience. Best of all, he has agreed to a second meeting... Kudos to Hilarie and Eddie!

We're working with Candace Plummer on our SGP logo, what a wonderful job she is doing on it, we should be unveiling it next week and can't wait to show you all.

Lastly, Hilarie and I went to dinner with our wonderful friend who also happens to be the talented writer of Pedestrian, Nick Gray. Nick had great news about one of his plays that had a table reading in NYC last weekend to glowing reviews, so much so that he might be produced by an organization in NY soon... I'll let Nick tell you all about that whole experience... that man has such creative juice, we're lucky to have him on our team. We talked mostly about possible casting choices for Pedestrian and its schedule. Lastly, we worked on one of our other projects that Nick is writing the pilot for and hopefully will be able to share with you guys at the end of the month...
Onward!
kt

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

MY NAME IS AUSTIN NICHOLS AND I AM LINCOLN BOOTH


A smart, beautiful producer lady handed me a script
one day. Her name is Hilarie Burton.

The script, PEDESTRIAN.

People hand me a lot of scripts and most of the time,
they are less than extraordinary.

This script was light years beyond extraordinary.
After I read the opening monologue, I sent the pretty
producer lady a text message. It said something like
this.

"WHEN DO WE START?!!!"

Then I went home to finish reading and found pages 3-117
to be far richer and more illuminating
than pages 1 and 2. I have been called many things, but
"careful" is not one of them. My whimsical
approach is usually always rewarded, but not what others
would recomend or call, "fruitful."

But I believe that it is the only way to be.

The only way for me.

And it proved fruitful that day.

Our scribe, a man called Nicholas Gray, posesses a
wisdom far beyond his young years. His characters'
tongues are sharp as knives, their journey's devastating
and inspiring, full of fun and fancy.

The pretty producer lady asked me 67 times if I was
serious about doing the movie. You can't fault her for
that. This business is full of fickle frauds.

She just wasn't used to the chivalrous, strong, honest,
straight-forward, my-word-is-stronger-than-oak, Texas
gentlemanly promise that I handed her. And I understand,
it's quite intimidating.



Interestingly enough, Lincoln Booth, the character
I play, is founded on the same kind of Southern ideals,
but he is all dressed up and covered in New York fancy
schmancy, hiding behind the lens of his camera, not
focused on his own beating heart. And then...

Enter Mona Mills...

Stay tuned...

Next time more about Lincoln Booth and Mona Mills.

They may be the next Jack and Rose, or Romeo and
Juliet.

Your Faithful Servant,

Austin Nichols

Inevitable:LP

Thanks for starting Melissa!

Its great to see that things are going forward.

From what I read about the plotline of Pedestrian, I really like it. I cant wait to hear more about Mona and the casting of her.

It would be completely awesome if they did a podcast to go along with the blog.

a*shot*of*whiskey

Thanks for the thread Meli Maybe someone can make us a pretty banner

Heee. I'm so terribly excited for Hil. So much potential. I am so happy and proud of her.

jilliek

Hilarie needs to play Mona. Remember when you guys first all wanted Hil to play Mona! Well...now, she needs to play her.

bitterkidxsweety

I am so excited for this film.

I second this.

LiLyBaByBLuE

I could open PS after years and years of not using it

a*shot*of*whiskey

Awesome!

LiLyBaByBLuE

I'll make a nicer one later. I feel rusty

lonely sidewalk

Its perfection, Lily!

a*shot*of*whiskey

It's beautiful Lils

A_shiningstar

a nicer one...ummm that one right there is pretty awesome! Love that there is a thread here for this!

LiLyBaByBLuE

Awww, glad you like.

texas forever

austin is playing lincoln?!!! gtfo! honestly, i thought paul or chad would

LiLyBaByBLuE

Hey there Lexi!

I actually find Austin to be a really likeable guy.