FGHMovieBlog

Junk Yard Dogs Need Help!

2009-10-18T20:17:00.001-07:00

Before

Danielle also rescued a bunch of dogs and puppies from a junkyard.

Please help if you can...

>>These pups are 4 1/2 weeks old and looking for there forever home. There mother is Doberman/lab mix. There father is a Shepherd/corgi mix LOL, yes he has the body of a corgi and the look of a sable Shepherd. Hes cute as can be. So were not sure on the exact size these baby's will be but we don't think they'll be much bigger then mom.

They were rescued from the junk yard's of Wilmington ,ca. where they were living on wet cardboard and in the middle of everything dangerous with no shelter.

there's 2 females and 4 males. They all have application, adoption contract, house check and a 350.00 adoption fee

After

Heartworm dog needs help

2009-10-18T20:13:00.000-07:00

My friend Danielle needs help rescuing this dog that has heartworm.

>>Please help this poor girl she needs a home or foster A.S.A.P.

She had to be dropped of by her family because they moved in with family that wouldn't allow them to keep her any longer. She is calm and always happy.She loves children and other animals. She is house trained and ready to be your companion for life.

She does need to be crated or out side while left alone at first she seem to have some anxiety when being the only dog.

She had found her new home that would only return her if she didn't like the cat. Well she didn't have a problem with the cat but returned because she tested positive for heart warm so we are currently treating her for that.

POOR BABY THOUGHT SHE HAD A HOME. But us not knowing she had heart worm and this being found out through her vet check landed her thankfully right back with us.

She is Current with shots, micro chipped and spayed she has a contract and home check required>>

Finishing the film

2009-09-24T07:34:00.001-07:00

Simply put. I cannot finish this film without help.

Wanna help?

HOW?

2009-09-11T18:02:00.001-07:00

Do I finish this film?

I feel like that dog below...

Help me.

2009-08-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.fundable.com/groupactions/groupaction.2009-08-01.5420864374

Become a Fan of FGH on Facebook!

2009-08-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

FREEtoaGoodHomeMOVIE

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More Hard Drives issues

2009-07-26T08:24:00.000-07:00

ARGHHHHH!!!!

I finally plug in all our hard drives to try to digitize some footage, in a lame attempt to actually finish this film and our TWO Lacie 1tb hard drives do not load!!!! (nor did one of our Western Digitals but that looks like its the box- the plug.)

I am not asking for things to be easy, but come ON!

Did I kill someone in a past life?
What is with my karma?

I set out to make this film, in an attempt to help some animals.
Also because I LOVE making films.

So I write a script, find actors and the first attempt... there is a mutiny so I start over from scratch.

Then... Things seem to be going well... the Long Beach Shelter opens the doors to its new facility and I get to use the old shelter... FANTASTIC!

Then Katie and I drive to Wyoming, sleeping in the car (with two dogs) - no money in the budget to get but one motel room on the three day drive.

We are in Wyoming for three weeks - painstakingly filming Katie doing chores everyday (morning and night) on my friends place - so we could get the opening montage of Katie in each shot in different clothes, hair, etc - the editor only used two of her days swapping them back and forth so instead of the montage looking like a lifetime it looked like two days bouncing back and forth...

On the drive home - again can only afford one night in a motel - for a three day drive with two dogs. We arrive home late on Sept 10, 2001. The next morning I wake up to my mother calling me from New York City - telling me to turn on the news. All hell has broken loose.

Filming stops for over a month. The world stopped too.

I regroup all my actors and set a schedule for shooting - setting a schedule around everyone else's schedule for some 20 actors - not easy. We resume shooting.

Then it happens. The night before Katie and I go film the scene where she finds a dog at a gas station, an event that actually happened to me when I was driving from Wyoming to Ohio. Found a puppy at a gas station in November in Nebraska - at 5 AM. Someone dumped the poor dog out in the middle of the night. So we use my dog Sneakers. We drive out to - I really have no idea where we were, someone directed me to a gas station that looked liked the west - anywhere USA - with an old fashioned phone booth and Katie and I drove out - on the fly - as I typically did this whole film - on the fly - asked the barkeep if we could film - got a yes and put the guy in the film. The boom gave us problems - static - and the wind was bad. But we got the shot.

Katie and I got back to my place, slept on the futon on the floor - with four dogs and two cats in my place. Then we left the next morning to shoot at a location in Topanga Canyon. I got home that Saturday night and found my home burned out - all my animals gone - one hanging on at a vets that later killed her - they withheld medication twice and ... nevermind...

So it is really hard for me to watching that opening scene with Sneakers at that gas station because that was her last night alive. And the guilt will always be overwhelming.

An electrical fire.
And explosion.
All but Bambi died from smoke inhalation.
Bambi died three days later.

That week, sucked.

That Friday I spent with a friend who I took to chemo every three weeks. Life goes on, and she was fighting for hers - so I had to be there.

Had to resume shooting immediately. The first day of filming everything went wrong. The boom wasn't working.

In between filming I had to itemize all my stuff for insurance. I was covered for $10,000. I lost $60,000.

One of the things I lost was my computer - my hard drive. I had just finished a double major masters degree and all I had written was on that computer. I have hard copies. But to work on them, or send them out I would have to retype them into the computer again.

My rent went from 400 to 1300.

We continued shooting.

Principal shooting finished. But we had a lot of pick ups.

We needed the footage of Katie picking up strays from the streets of LA. A phase nearly every rescuer in LA goes through. Hitting the shelters, bailing, rehabbing and adopting out while picking up nearly everything you find on the streets. Only I filmed my phase.

It took us a couple of years to film those shots. We kept stopping the filming because we HAD to rescue some of those animals and when we did filming stopped and rescue began.

Even Katie - an actress - not a rescuer - showed up late on set - which she NEVER did - because she stopped to pick up a dog running in the street.

While we continued filming - we began editing. First trailers. Then putting together an assembly.

For an indie film, shot by me with hand-held consumer cameras we were getting some amazing feedback. I set out to show that indie filmmaking did not need to include one set. Henry Jaglom said to prove yourself you have to just go do it, make a film. And the last lines Coppola said in the documentary HEARTS OF DARKNESS about the making of APOCALYPSE NOW - he said - because of camcorders and video tape being so cheap and easy to use that some chubby redhead from Cleveland is going to borrow her dads camera and shoot a film. And that is what I set out to do - prove that. But I think I have failed miserably.

And while my first love in filmmaking was editing - I learned on flatbeds and I could edit forever - ask my former roommate from NYC Amy - she always knew where to find me - in the edit bay.

But I could not edit this film. For one, I was too close. Two, I just could not handle seeing the footage. I know I have made every editor I have worked with a little uncomfortable. I can only fake it, that I am not falling apart inside, so well. Holding back tears, while trying to work is bound to make everyone a little uncomfortable. I try to be collected but I know it's not easy for someone else to be around.

Take the worst moment of your life and film it, then watch it everyday for months on end.

So I found editors. Paid editors and unpaid.

I thought my deal with the editor who was paid the most and did the most work was that we go until picture lock. I thought I took care of him well. I prepaid him so he would have rent covered. But then he thought he decided when picture lock was. The last day of editing he called me a fucking bitch. Then he came to the screening where all the notes I had mentioned - and he thought were unnecessary during editing - came up in the feedback questionnaires. The note like the opening montage where it represents only a couple of days instead of a life time. He simply did not want to take the time to find it in the footage. And he said laughing, good luck with that. He left, and I never saw him again. He was a good editor.

See filming on a shoestring is not easy. Waiting to buy equipment until you have money takes patience and perseverance. We could only upload a little footage at a time. Just what we needed because external hard drives were so expensive. Thankfully our editor had a couple of hard drives and I could save up to buy one or two, four, now SEVEN. Those two Lacie 1tb hard drives were our last purchase in 2007 they were about $700, now they are over $100.

Finally we could upload ALL the footage - find all the shots we needed to swap out shots and create an ending. Re-edit a few scenes. And finish the film.

First hard drive crash was our Seagate lost ALL the footage we imported. Two months of paid editing and a ton of volunteer editors work - gone.

That hard drive crash the film has not recovered from. I have been trying to import the footage we lost since then.

Why so hard? And what is the difference between then and now?

The Seagate was only 200 gigs. We were still importing select shots. But we had finished and gotten all the select shots for re-editing the film. We worked with a script doctor to help me with structure. We had all the notes. But the time it takes to upload footage is long. Uploading footage has to be done in real time. First find the shot you want. Log it. then Capture it. If the scene is five minutes long - it takes five minutes to upload. You have to take more than you need because you need tails.

So when I could not recreate getting that footage in - I simply cannot handle doing it myself. I simply cannot. I am not strong enough to handle watching that footage over and over to import it. I cannot do it alone. It is simply overwhelming. I guess I am not as much of that fucking bitch to be heartless and cold enough to watch that footage while remaining numb to it. Just cannot do it. The guilt is overwhelming. The memories too much to handle. When I watch that footage it is not as if it happened so long ago as film does it captures the moment. I am back there emotionally being in that moment.

So I got the Lacie's. Thinking I could upload all the footage. They had trouble mounting when I first got them. We started importing and stopped. So there is footage on them. But I am generally working two or three jobs to keep a roof over my head. LA is pretty expensive. And I was still doing rescue until my actors asked me to stop because it ate up all my extra time and resources.

Our Lacie's were not bought alone because you have to have a DV Deck in order to import all the footage and finally we bought one. So, it has been a step by step process. I had tried on several occasions to rent and borrow equipment. But when I realized I would need to import footage around working it made no sense for rented equipment to sit while I was at work.

Our window for round the clock help closed with the Seagate crash. We had received money to finish the film..

When I quit, and say forget it I cannot finish the film, I see a ton of strays everywhere. Dead, alive, running the streets, everywhere. Just rescued a little dog from campus a few weeks ago. But I dumped him on another rescuer.

Homer's sick

2009-07-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

Homer has early stages of Renal Insufficiency.
Was searching the web for diets. A bit overwhelming.

For those few who have actually seen my movie. Homer is the last dog rescued in the movie.

Failure

2009-06-26T08:24:00.001-07:00

Failure sucks. I have failed this movie. I failed the animals. I failed the actors and everyone who has helped on this film. I cannot finish this film without help. And I have failed at mustering up the help. Sorry.

Digitizing The Movie

2009-05-26T07:51:00.000-07:00

Hoping to find some summer help to digitize the movie.

Facebook

2009-05-08T04:36:00.001-07:00

Judy Crozier's Profile

Create Your Badge

Need digitizing help

2009-04-29T08:51:00.001-07:00

Anyone in Long Beach, near Ocean Blvd who wants to help digitize a feature film? I need some help. Will train on Final Cut Pro.
Contact me at
freetoagoodhome@aol.com

ABC Nightline on Puppy Mills TONIGHT

2009-03-27T08:42:00.001-07:00

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6307869&page=1

ABC Nightline investigates puppy mills - tonight Friday at 11:35 pm (Eastern Standard Time) or earlier in other parts of the country. Set your DVR or VCR's. Please take the time to forward this to all the rescues, shelters, and legislators in your area.

Beth
DogSTARspace.com

Visit www.DogStarSpace.com at: http://www.dogstarspace.com

Birthday Wish

2009-03-11T02:54:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for your Birthday Wishes...

Here is my Birthday Wish...

Please help me finish this film.
Send this trailer link to a few friends...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0CXnDrXqEI

donate time or equipment or pay for an editor for a day.

Click here to find out more about donating.
http://fghmovie.com/donate.html
http://fghmovie.com/donate.html (this one is for copying and pasting)

need I say more?

2009-02-19T16:08:00.001-08:00

Wyoming.

is this your dog?

2009-01-31T22:03:00.000-08:00

I was leaving the campus (I teach at Compton College). And I saw this poor little thing. What struck me was the collar, that looked like it was thrown off. And I wondered why I have seen so many dead or stray dogs recently. They seem to come out in droves when I want to quit.

Fire Anniversary

2008-12-08T18:25:00.000-08:00

December 8, 2008 the anniversary of the fire.

In memory of:

Bambi (my favorite - she died Dec 11th - three days after the fire... when VCA animal hospital, the SHITTIEST vet on the planet KILLED her by withholding medication twice and not doing any xrays and when she arrested they did not even attempt to resuscitate her.)

Sneakers - the oldest I think she was about 8... I had her since the day she was born. Born to my friends dog... I cared for the whole litter... and gave them away FREE to a Good Home... which is why I named the film FREE to a Good Home... because at 20 something in Wyoming I had no idea what kind of pet overpopulation problem we had...

Monster - aka Puff Monster aka Puffy... named by my niece who could not say Puppy ... He is the main reason I made the film... because I found him my first year attending USC. He was on the corner of the school.... I scooped him up... and fell into the world of animal rescue in Los Angeles...

Lilly Munster - Puffy's Wife - she came up to my place a couple of weeks before the fire... she was looking to be rescued... only to die there... no rescue for Lilly... she had a couple of weeks of a warm bed and good food..... and a small part in the movie... playing Monsters double... Monster kept trying to kill all my actors... um he had an eye especially on Katie... and so Lilly found us... and we thought it was a miracle to film the capture of her... for Monster... she (unlike Monster) had a amazing underbite... she was very cute and the Monday after the fire she was scheduled to be fixed. I was still integrating her into the pack.

Thelma-Louise the only cat...the window was open and Shane jumped out... and Thelma was the one who was always opening that window... so not sure what happened. She probably was overcome with smoke. I found her the litter in the backyard of my friend David. Got the rest of the litter homes.

And Shane - died in January 2007
She died because I brought home a rescue dog that broke out of a crate and killed her.

She was the only one who survived the fire...

Sorry guys... I was supposed to rescue you...

...

quit or go on

2008-11-20T23:36:00.000-08:00

I want to keep going because of the actors hard work and the animals who lost their lives...

but really think maybe I'm beating a dead horse.

Finishing the FILM - HELP!

2008-10-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

I am currently fund-raising to complete the film.
We have an editor on board who just needs a small stipend for her weeks of work.

If you can donate please do so.
ALL those who have donated will be invited to a private screening.

There are PayPal donation buttons on our donation page,
you can see the days and items we are still trying to raise money for.

Other items we need $120 for graphics card
$250 for postcards
$250 for screening room

http://fghmovie.com/donate.html

Or PAY the editor directly.
Make a check out to the editor
and mail to us at:

FREE to a Good Home MOVIE
PO Box 101
Venice, CA 90294

http://ariflowerimages.com/

Very Sad News

2008-09-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

I am very sad to report that Alfred the parvo pup died during the night.

We tried our best but the virus took over.

Thank you all for helping to try to save this one.

Judy and Danielle

Tuesday AM Update

2008-09-16T09:10:00.001-07:00

He made it through the night.
The vet will be in and re-evaluate it by 10AM.
He is not hanging his head as low as he was yesterday.

That's all I have for now.

Here is how we stand on the math...

We have Todays treatment cost covered. Thank you ALL very much!
We are raising Wednesday's - we need $143.57
And we need Thursday's inpatient treatment of $200.

Just so you all know... the reason I am working so hard to
help Danielle with this Parvo pup is because she spent
$200 of her rent money to cover the Parvo treatments on the
girls... and she is tapped out.

And most of us have been there... pay my bills or save this animals
life... and I wish it wasn't like that... but until the world gets the
message that we are severely overpopulated with animals...
I do not see it stopping (or even slowing down) any time soon...

Okay I will step down from my soapbox.

Monday Night Update - guarded

2008-09-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

Just got off the phone with the vet...

Prognosis is guarded to poor... need prayers... (or whatever you choose to do). Extreme blood, and drooling, throwing up... it is pretty bad. Although the vet said he has seen others pull through that were this bad or worse... it is going to be rough going though.

He said the pup if he makes it through each night will have to be in the hospital until at least Thursday. He is continuous IV's and treatments throughout the day.

Thanks so very much everyone... for your financial assistance and your prayers.

Monday Night UPDATE not good

2008-09-15T19:25:00.000-07:00

Alfred the surviving puppy is not doing so well, said the doctor just moments ago. We MUST pay for todays treatments before 9:30PM TONIGHT.

I need $167.72 TONIGHT...

Thank you!

Monday Afternoon UPDATE

2008-09-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

Well, Alfred is still hanging in there. They say he has a 50/50 chance. They also said they will know more in the morning. But my favorite vet is checking on him tonight. So I will report back then.

We are still down $200 for today...
Please use the link below (in this mornings post)
to donate.

Thanks

Monday Noon Update - Bad News URGENT

2008-09-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

The vet said we have to leave the pup at the vets for treatment. That with the blood and the amount of blood and various other reasons the vet suggested that it would be best to leave the pup and have CONTINUOUS IV FLUIDS and MEDS flowing into him. (Because he is not improving and still DECLINING they want to keep him at the vets.)

So the pup is at the vets getting treatment. The vet said this would most likely have to be for the next two days - if the pup makes it.

HELP.... we need to raise the $200 a day for inpatient vet care.
PLEASE use this link to donate via ChipIn and PayPal
or to download our fax form to send your CC directly to the vet.

http://www.fghmovie.com/rescued.html

Thank you!

Here is the cost breakdown and what we still need to raise.

Saturdays treatment 125
Sundays treatment 125
Mondays treatment 200
Tuesdays treatment 200
TOTAL $650

so far we have raised

$207.26

Which means we need to raise TODAY

$442.74

I absolutely need to have TODAY $242.74

(Keep in mind that PayPal takes out about 4%)

I need to keep this relationship with this vet in good standing... I put my name on this pup for Danielle so we could get them treatments... but I cannot afford this bill...

This vet has already shut down working with rescue groups because of unpaid bills...

Thank you for anything you can do!