I'm utterly THRILLED that LoliGirls made it into the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival!! Not only is it a big festival (I discovered it through an ad in Videomaker magazine), but it's also our first official opportunity to show our film to the world. The festival is over a week long, and tons of films will be shown. The idea is to promote the heck out of your film so you can pack the theater for your screening. In order to do this you need cool promotional materials (hand-outs) and a way to grab people's attention. So I will need a team of Lolitas to come and help get the word out. I will dress in lolita myself if that will help get the word out about the film!!!

So we made stickers to hand out at various anime cons, which seemed popular, anyone have any other ideas? I was thinking something frilly would be cute, like handing out bow-shaped pins or cute necklaces. It'd be great to keep costs low (as we have no budget) so anything crafty (but professional!) would be best.

If you have any ideas please don't hesitate to email me at loligirlsmovie@yahoo.com! Or send me a message on twitter (loligirlsmovie).

Also, get the word out! Let your friends know about the festival and a chance to see LoliGirls on the BIG SCREEN!
 
 
Thanks for all of your festival suggestions! Keep them coming, and perhaps LoliGirls will be screening in a theater near you!!

As many of you probably know, Anime Boston is rapidly approaching (it's on Easter weekend this year...which is a bit odd I think). I've already preregistered, as waiting in line last year was reallllly tiring >.<'

So I posted on the AB forum panel group about Lolita panels. Anyone running one? If you are, how would you like to screen LoliGirls? The festival version is only 14 minutes long. If there isn't any interest I reckon I might apply for a 'How to make a con documentary' panel and somehow sneak a LoliGirls screening in there >.>  I know AB is a huge con, and I think it'd be a great opportunity for some of your gals to see the film on a big screen!

So here's my post in the AB forums, please reply or offer advice! See you in April!
 
 
Hello everyone and I hope you all had a safe and happy New Year's celebration!!

With the arrival of 2010, and also with the chaos of the holidays past, the LoliGirls team are getting back to work! Our goals for this year:

1) Get LoliGirls: The Story Behind the Frills and Bows into as many festivals as possible!

With each festival, our documentary isn't not only viewed and enjoyed, it's recognized. We're not only interested in feedback, but we're looking for people interested enough to invest money in the development of a feature-length documentary. Which leads us to our second resolution-

2) Develop and shoot LoliGirls: The Movie!

First step: create a funding trailer that we can use to approach potential investors. I'll admit that this is my first time raising money for a film (I don't think the fundable site for LoliGirls counts) so it will be a learning process. Fortunately, my associate producer is well-versed in this area of film making, so I'll be relying on her expertise to get us pass this crucial part of the film making process.

Now, I'd like to take this space to clarify a point. With the LoliGirls short, some folks expressed concern over us filmmakers making money off the film. They felt we were, in theory, exploiting them in order to make a buck. I completely understand this sentiment, however I have to explain something: in order to make a movie, you need money. And, you need to make money to pay back those you took money from. On top of that, you want to make a profit so you can apply that towards making your next movie. During the filming of our short LoliGirls, we made a negative profit. I financed most of the film out of pocket. Here's something for a little perspective- during one afternoon of filming I spent xxx. Have of that went towards drinks and food for the crew (it was blisteringly hot that day and we didn't want our talent to faint!), the rest went towards gas and camera equipment. That might not seem like a lot of money for a big production, but for this small project that started out as a weekend activity, it's quite a bit. Of course it was totally worth it, but my bank account took a bit of a blow last summer.

If you have any questions or concerns about the money raising/spending part of the filming process, please don't hesitate to contact me via our contact form:)


So here's a call out to all you lolis! Please let me know of any big lolita events and/or any film festivals in your area! We're still on the lookout for festivals to send LoliGirls, and we're currently searching the globe for lolitas and lolita communities to possible include in LoliGirls: The Movie! If you're at all interested please get in touch with us. You'll probably make it into the credits of the movie for your assistance:D
 
 
So from now on "LoliGirls" will refer to the short documentary we completed last summer, and the Loli Movie will refer to our next project: a feature-length (60+ min) documentary on Lolita.

I've gotten asked on numerous occasions how exactly I can make my short documentary into some full-length. I know it's hard to imagine extending our cute short film! But the Movie will be a lot broader and, although it will have some personalities, it will cover more of the history of the fashion, the philosophy behind it, and how it fits into the American J-Pop culture scene. So for research purposes I've been following a number of lolita blogs (lifestyle and non-lifestyle) as well as keeping an eye on larger communities such as EGL. I've also enlisted the help of a loli expert;)

Everything is still very much in the preliminary stages, but I'll post frequent updates on our progress here.

In January I'll most likely be visiting Tokyo Rebel in New York (camera in tow) to conduct some interviews. I was told that after Christmas they would have most of their Lolita lines in stock. Also, I'm going to work on getting a test screening of LoliGirls at NYU to get some audience reactions that will hopefully help me with the Movie concept.

So that's all the news for now!
 
 
Hope you guys enjoyed another secret screening! Sorry I wasn't around to monitor things personally, I was taking a production workshop all weekend, learning how to raise money to shoot a feature-length documentary on lolitas:)

There will be other secret screenings, but for now, I'd suggest working on your Scary Loli Contest Entries!! :D
 
 
I had a fabulous time at the New York Anime Fest on Friday, and am looking forward to going back to the Big Apple on Sunday! I had to skip the con today, Saturday, to do some work for Kato Productions :-/  We're hoping to arrive early on Sunday so we might be able to visit Alice's Teacup...which I hear is a lovely place!

If you plan on attending NYAF on Sunday, be sure to check out the fabulous Neo-Victorian Fashion show...which I believe will start at 12:30PM. I shall be there with my *brand new* Kodak Zi8 to film the show:D

Now, for the REAL reason why you've come to this blog post...for info on the Super Secret Loli Screening!! I'm sure you all know by now why I haven't posted LoliGirls on YouTube, Vimeo, blip, etc. I have to refrain from releasing LoliGirls on the internet so it can get accepted into film festivals. However, the festivals I'm submitting to get going around March 2010...and I don't think it's fair to keep you guys waiting! So I've come up with a solution- a super secret, limited time only LoliGirls screening on a super secret website that I will post a link to at a super secret time:)

So stay tuned to this site for more details on the screening, which will be coming soon!
 
 
The fashion show, and Connecticon are now over. Thanks you everyone who attended or participated in the Lolita Fashion Show! Audience numbers were topping 1,000!!!!

The models and the film crew had an amazing time. The Show was the last shoot for our short documentary, so now I've got to wade through all these tapes and put together an epic movie. It might be a quiet month here on lolitfashionmovie.com, but don't fret! I'll keep on updating and there are some little videos to keep you occupied until the September premier:)

Here's the commercial that played during CTcon's opening ceremonies promoting the Fashion Show (edited by yours truly!) as well as the longer teaser trailer:)
 
 

Yesterday was another hot one! Even though there were thunderheads looming for a good portion of the day, the rain held off and we had a great shoot at a local vintage shop. The shop owner was super nice to open up the shop for us and was very helpful. We used 2 Panasonic (100b and DVC30) miniDV cameras to shoot the girls browsing in the shop and capture audio with a directional shotgun mic.

After we finished up at the Curiosity Shop the whole crew returned to my loft where the girls displayed some clothes from their wardrobes. We shot the girls with the 2 Panasonics and captured audio with a boom. The girls discussed the basic components of the lolita fashion and how one dress could be made into several different looks. After that the girls put on several outfits and put on a mini fashion show, which was very entertaining to say the least! Check out pictures from the Curiosity shoot here and on our flickr page!

The Curiosity Shop was our second shoot of the week, I'm sure you already had a look at the photos from Tuesday's shoot at the tea shop. Tuesday's shoot was one of the most important so far. After we filmed the girls having tea we returned to my loft and where the crew had arranged and interview set-up. All three girls perched on stools and were grilled with questions for several hours. The interview went a lot smoother after the switch to turn on the air conditioning was located! This interview will be used as the main source of information for the documentary.

 
 

Hello again! The teaser trailer for LoliGirls is ready! Watch and enjoy:) I took the footage we shot during the Midsummer Night's Dream shoot. Be sure to let your friends know about the project and, if you're feeling generous, help us to keep going with the project!

 
 

I'm very sorry to report that one of our lolitas opted to drop out of the documentary. It's too bad, but I understand that life can get complicated really fast, and I'm positive that we can still make a pretty kicka$$ documentary with the 3 lovely ladies of The Court.

That's my main announcement for today! In other news, I met with Linsey, who will co-produce this documentary with me, yesterday. Over some delicious vegetarian food (I love It's Only Natural) we discussed our ideas for the doco and attempted to come up with some sort of a storyline. Of course without filming anything yet it's hard to tell exactly where this documentary might go. For now it looks like it will be mainly informational, with a side story of these 3 lovely lolis who are preparing to put on one of the biggest lolita fashion shows ever seen on this side of the U.S. Of course we also discussed funding (or lack thereof). It would be amazing if we were able to garner some support for this film, especially since it'll be the first of its kind, but we're not going to depend on money and, thus, it's a low/no-budget doco. Funding will limit us in some ways, but forces us to think outside of the box and get creative. I will certainly use this space to describe how creative we get with our filming methods, in case you're at all curious!

Linsey and I are going to start putting together a treatment for this doco and will post it up here as soon as possible! So stay tuned!

 
Lolita Girls Movie