Cast Addition

Whitney Abell has joined the cast of I Love You Because.

Cast Additions

Kenyatta Edwards has joined the cast of I Love You Because.

Behind the Scenes Interviews from our first day of production!

Check out these special behind the scenes interviews with some of the actors from the trick or treating scene in I Love You Because!

I Love You Because Cast

We are thrilled to announce the cast for our film I love You Because:

Natalie Duvall: Sarah J Mckenney

Kevin Murphy: David Brown

Sean: Travis Johnson

Paddy: Leon Jones 

Ian: Kenny Forthun

Rainey: Whitney Abell

Kristen Fairfax: Megan J. Moore

Dr Howard: Thomas John Kline 

Vera Duvall: Sandra Kahana 

Amy: Frances Rodriguez

Trimble: Danger Bob Mullins

Clark: Brendon Rogers 

Thelma: Jan Sheldon 

Lois: Debra Sussman 

And rounding out the cast are: Sami Rankin, Brianna Leone, Rebecca Donovan, Alana Johnson, Samuel Johns, Bjorn Jiskoot Jr, Tonya Tufts Denmark, Cody L Dubson, Samantha K Dubson, Jomarie Elmoulakate - Actress/Model, Ashlyn Anderson, Daniel E. LaBrie, Andre Provencher, James Canavan, Scotty Schultz

I Love You Because Production Day 2

In the play 9 Months, which I Love You Because is based on, there is a lot of talk about birthing videos, and in researching the film, I watched a lot of birthing videos on YouTube, which led to the writing of a scene in the film in which Sean (Travis Johnson) shows Kevin (me) Paddy (Leon Jones) and Ian (Kenny Forthun) his wife Amy's (Frances Rodriguez) birthing video. But, before we could film that scene, we had to film footage for the birthing video, so today, we had Travis and Frances out to our offices to film.


Since the birthing video is only seen on a tv, and will only take up a few seconds of screen time, we knew we would not be filming it in an actual hospital. This is where writing our own films comes in handy, because even at the writing stage, we had it planned out how the scene would be shot, and didn't have to wait until pre-production to figure out how to shoot the scene. We simply designed the scene in the script so that all the dialogue would be filmed in close ups, with the camera held by Travis, with instructions to turn the camera back and forth between their lines so that the camera is on him for his dialogue, and on Frances for her dialogue. Because of this, we were able to get around filming in a hospital, because not enough of the room will be seen in the frame for anyone to be able to tell where the birthing video was filmed. In place of using an hospital room to film the scene, we just waited to paint the bedroom of our apartment set (the original color is white) until after filming the birthing video, and-except for anyone who reads this blog post-no one will know the difference. By doing this, we were not only able to save a lot of time, money and hassle, but were also able to get two sets out of one.

Travis Johnson as Sean and Frances Rodriguez as Amy

Cast Addition

Rebeca Donovan has joined the cast of I Love You Because.

Cast Addition

Sarah J McKenney has joined the cast of I Love You Because. Be sure to follow her on Facebook!

Cast Additions

Tonya Tufts Denmark, Frances Rodriguez, and Megan J. Moore have joined the cast of I Love You Because!

Cast Addition

Megan J. Moore has joined the cast of I Love You Because. Be sure to follow her on Facebook!

I Love You Because Production Day 1: Scene 58

Cody Dubson, Samantha Dubson, Tonya Denmark, and Jomarie Elmoulakate

One of the advantages in adapting a play into a film is that the new medium (film) allows the filmmakers to expand the world of the play as well as to open up the often confining nature of a play. By necessity-as are many plays-9 months (the play ILYB is based on) is confined to only a few locations (this was ingeniously managed by simply moving flats and adding or detracting furniture), however, with film, those few locations can be turned into a dozen or more. Scenes that take place in a house can be moved outside, split into different scenes, the possibilities are endless.

An example of this sort of expansion is Scene 58 in I Love You Because. In the play, the lead character inadvertently scares off a group of trick-or-treaters who come to the door on Halloween. Because of set constraints, audience members were only able to see one side of the scene; the lead scaring the trick-or-treaters, and could only hear them scream as they ran away. In adapting the scene to film, we were able to show both sides; and since our resident writer, David Brown, does his best to make sure that every character has his or her chance to stand out, the scene was expanded to show the trick-or-treaters arriving with their parent, going up to the door and getting scared away.

Knowing that due to scheduling, we would only be filming the shots with the trick-or-treaters in them, and since these setups are relatively simple, we chose this part of the scene to be our first day of production. This is often done because simple scenes with uncomplicated shots are a great way to get the cast and crew into a rhythm and get used to working with each other.

Our first day of production on I Love You Because was a great success. Shooting went smoothly, the actors knew their lines and we were able to get all of the setups completed in a short amount of time. Thanks to the cast for making it such a fantastic experience!

A Note On The Cast:

We discovered Jomarie Elmoulakate, and Samantha and Cody Dubson (the trick-or-treaters) through auditions. All three are competent actors and took direction well. Whenever we asked them to change the way they said a line they did exactly as asked without any problems. Samantha, Jomarie and Cody were a pleasure to work with and we would recommend all three of them to anyone seeking young and talented actors. a large part of auditioning child actors includes auditioning their parents. No matter how great the child is to work with, the parents could make it a nightmare experience, so one wants to make sure no problems will arise on set with parents. We are pleased to say that Marissa Veles, Rick and Loretta Dubson were also a joy to work with and have on set. They stood to the side while filming and did not interfere in the slightest with filming in anyway. We also recommend these delightful parents. Don't hesitate to have any of these charming people on your film set.

We met Tonya Denmark (Trick-or-Treaters Parent) when she stage managed Death Trap, which David co-directed at The Moonlight Players Theater. We had never seen Tonya act, but when we were thinking of people to cast in the role, she was the first person we thought of, and she did not disappoint. Tonya knew her lines, took direction well and gave us exactly what we wanted when we asked her to change the way she was delivering a line. She even offered to stay longer and miss out on her son's game so that we could shoot shots with just Cody, Jomarie and Samantha in them first so they could leave earlier as all of them had a long distance to travel home. If you're looking for a talented actress who is great to work with, definitely consider casting Tonya in your film or play!

Here is a sneak peak at Scene 58 from I Love You Because

And to get to know the actors in the scene, here is an interview we did with them:

Prepping for Production Day 1

Dressing the set for our first day of filming!

Cast Introduction Video #2

Please watch our latest cast introduction video featuring Kenny Forthun, and in which we also thank our most recent supporters Paulo Bethencourt,Jan Sheldon, James Schultz, Emily Powers, and Sara Reeves. Thanks everyone for your support!

New Contribution

Thanks to Paulo Bethencourt for your contribution to I Love You Because!

First Look: Cast members

Kenny Forthun as Ian, one of Kevin's friends and drummer in their band.

Leon Jones as Paddy, Kevin's friend and lead singer in their band.

Travis Johnson as Sean, Kevin's friend and guitarist in their band.

Cast Introduction Video #1 Travis Johnson

This week we'd like to introduce you to Travis Johnson. Travis is a loving husband and father working toward his dream to become an actor. 

First Look: First Look: Some man candy for the devoted fans of I Love You Because

First Look: Some man candy for the devoted fans of I Love You Because

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•  Cast members from I Love You Because (Leon Jones, David Brown, Travis Johnson and Kenny Forthun.)

First Rehearsal!

Had a great first rehearsal for I Love You Because, with an amazing cast, We'll be posting some videos from it soon.

Auditions!

Had an interesting audition today for I Love You Because! We met a lot of talented people and look forward to working with all of you, if not on this project, then something in the future!

Thanks to everyone who came out!

Feed Actors Today

For this week's update video we had some of the great folks from Feed Actors Today come in and explain why it's so important to support independent films.

Feed Actors Today

We are pleased to announce the following actors will be joining the cast of I Love You Because


Kevin - David Brown


Sean - Travis Johnson

Paddy - Leon Jones

Ian - Kenny Forthun

Dr. Howard - Thomas John Kline

Trick-or-Treater's Father - Dan LaBrie

Congratulations you guys!

Stunts, thank yous and auditions

We had an awesome time last weekend discussing film making with Hollywood legend, Kim Kahana and his wife. His family are like the Barrymores of stunt performing. It was great having the opportunity to hang out with someone who has contributed so much to the film industry.

We would like to thank our most recent contributors to I Love You Because:

EmilyPowers

Scotty and Doris Schultz

Roshinie Ojha

who join our previous sponsors:

Tom Kline

Jan Sheldon

Hope North

Necia Ratliff

Sonny Dyon

Owen Higdon

Jamesand Julie Koncyk

Mya and Hector Negroni

Bob Hay

Thanks to everyone who has supported us by contributing, sharing and liking the page, and for helping us get the word out!

We've posted a 9 minute version of a film we made, BMK, featuring Debra Sussman, Sarai Goley and David Brown. We made it for a budget of zero dollars, so just imagine what we can do on our next film with your contributions. Please check it out here BMK, and let us know what you think.

Also, start working on your monologues because very soon we will be announcing auditions for I Love You Because.