Prill Boyle's Defying Gravity
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Profiles - Your Stories
 Sondra Lowell - Make Movie And Get Them Seen
http://FilmSleepy.com
1) What do you believe makes you special or interesting?
Due to the Internet, computers and inexpensive cameras, anybody can make movies and get them seen. And yet few people invent their own genre. That's me, the one who goes that extra mile.
With my first feature, WebcamMurder.com, I invented film sleepy, the genre that puts the audience to sleep on purpose.
Through my second feature, Sublime Crime: A Subliminal Mystery, I am inventing my second genre--actually a subset of my first one--entirely subliminal narrative films. This genre gets the audience to sleep faster AND feeds them audio and video messages that instill self-confidence and encourage them to buy T-shirts and baseball caps featuring the Sublime Crime logo.
The plot of the mystery is offered in occasional stills flashed on the screen. The rest of the plot is filled in with the viewer's own dreams.
2) What kind of effect have you had, or would like to have on the world?
My production company, Film Sleepy Inc, was named one of the Top Ten Slacker Friendly Home Businesses of 2007.
I would like to put the world to sleep. Articles pile up about how people die quicker, or at minimum have trouble concentrating, because of sleep deprivation. Pills only cause dependency. Whereas you could download a simple movie from Amazon, turn it on every time you go to bed and never have a sleepless night again.
3) What events shaped or changed your life?
Failing the screenwriting classes I took at UCLA Extension helped a lot. Once I realized I was never going to sell a script to Spielberg and the only course of action left was to make my own movie, my fear that I was incapable of it was less important than just doing it. When shooting was over, I was surprised that I lived through the process.
4) Did you overcome obstacles - take risks - get lucky?
Of course when your vision does not jibe with everyone else you have to take some risks. When I could not find work as a Shakespearean tap dancer I put on a show in my living room, which held 14 people (and the occasional neighborhood dog). I told myself I was not really risking humiliation if the show did not work out because, after all, it was only in my living room. What could anyone expect? Fortunately, some nights were standing room only, in the garden outside the window, and At Home with Sondra was held over for six months.
5) What have you done that no one would guess you'd done upon first meeting you?
I invented tap dancing the news, which I did on KABC Radio for many years. I also invented the 8 hour one person show, which, as the performer, I slept through (except when I got up midway through and tap danced to the bathroom), and the audience slept through it too.
6) What is still left to be done in your life?
While I have already written a manual, How to Make Movies That Put the Audience to Sleep: A Home Study Course, I want to make a movie that shows the process and puts the audience to sleep at the same time. I expect that one to be my masterpiece.
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