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Bucky Trailer

Win: Lily Indie Film Fest Best Short Comedy	Win: Lily Indie Film Fest Best Short Comedy	Win: Lily Indie Film Fest Best Cinematography
Official Selection: Golden Leaf International Film Festival	Official Selection: Golden Leaf International Film Festival	Win certificate: Special Jury Award Diglipur International Film Fetsival
Win: Special Jury Award Diglipur International Film Fetsival	Honourable Mention Award: Havelock Internationl Film Festival	Special Mention [certificate]: Ray International Film Festival
Win Announcement: Best Short Comedy International Short Film Awards click for full size	Win Laurels: Best Short Comedy International Short Film Awards click for full size	Win Certficate: Best Short Comedy International Short Film Awards click for full size
Win Laurels: Best Short Comedy International Short Film Awards click for full size	Win Certficate: Best Short Comedy International Short Film Awards click for full size	French International Film Festival win: Best Short Script/Screenplay Special Mention Award click for full size
Uruvatti International film Festival win: Critics Choice: Best International Short Film	Uruvatti International film Festival win: Critics Choice: Best International Short Film	Golden State Film Festival
Wallachia International Film Festival, Romania	Point of View Film Festival	X World Film Festival
Best Global Shorts Film Festival	Film Festival	Imaginariaum Convention
Silver Hollywood Gold Awards	Madras Film Festival	52 Weeks Film Festival
Liftoff Film Festival	Andromeda Film Festival	Win: Andromeda Film Festival Jury Award
Canada Yes! Film Festival	Hollywood Gold Film Festival	Rio Film Festival
Madras Film Festival	BingeHorror Online Film Awards nomination: First Time Filmmaker	Kosice Film Festival
Culver City Film Festival	SNOB Film Festival	Silver State Film Festival

Written by lifelong actor and creative writer Geoffrey Gould (that would be me...), Bucky is a dark-comedy short film (eight minutes, twenty-seven seconds in length), with horror overtones. The script was written originally in the early 2000s, originally as part of numerous shorts that were being pummeled out by a circle of film maker friends for what turned out to be a scam/fake film festival, which was actually seeking free content for a new online channel that never even materialized. While Bucky clearly was an easy to film bottle-script (meaning set in a single location), of the scripts selected to be made, the group passed on. Bucky. Ironically this was not a bad thing. The group did select two scripts, but they were done hastily, and without paperwork, so while the two shorts exists, they were not at a level at which I would ever have them submitted to film festivals. A few years later, my longtime friend Michael Beardsley introduced me to the Hollywood local film collective group We Make Movies, which twice monthly held open table-reading to workshop writers' scripts, up to fifteen pages. Eventually I began submitting short scripts for feedback, including but not limited to, Bucky. Pretty much almost every script of mine being table-read (by WMM members), was enjoyed tremendously. In 2018 WMM held its second script competition, to which I submitted my script Bucky, which was one of the competition's four winners, receiving a bare-bones $1500 budget, as did each of the other three winning projects, a fine enough budget if each project was to be made only with hand-held iPhones, and only using available light and sound. For the reading, with being in mind to play the roles if the script won, included Michael Beardsley as Peter, and the talented Victoria Ippolito was asked to play Amy. I took on the voice role of Bucky as, when it had originally been workshopped, it appeared evident having an actress do the voice might not work as well as written on the page. So with the competition, I read for Bucky, which the audience found far funnier. When the script won as a semi-Finalist, and so everyone knew in a month they'd be doing it again, Michael made the brilliant suggestion that instead of Just Sitting There and reading from the pages, that we three actually rehearse and do it off book, like one of the group's Up On Your Feet nights (in which actors, and even writers performing, would bring in scenes and perform them off book like a super short one act play). Victoria offered her home as a meeting place, a wonderful house near Melrose and Western. During the rehearsal there, it was discussed and agreed that Victoria's home would make a good Location for the shoot itself, if it were to win. Fortunately Victoria's roommates were all fellow actors so they had no issue with it, and the place had even been used for a number of various video projects. Once the script had won, and could receive a budget, and now that the film could be made, a crew was needed. No one wanted this to be slip-shod. I direct; Michael accepted the role of producer. For DP, cinematographer Bruce Birnnaum was recommended, and he accepted, even taking a discount on his normal daily rate, and he recruited two people with whom he'd worked before for Key Positions, also at highly discounted rates from their normal day rates. Being an experienced editor, Michael took on that mantle as well, and would handle post production. For Twitter I created a @Bucky_film account, as well as submitting to the imdb, the project, cast and what crew that was already acquired, the latter of which was being extremely slow in making the entry accessable. One of the Terms and Conditions of the Win was to perform the short as a previously mentioned Up On Your Feet night. The fact we had done such as our "read" for the Finals turned out "not to be the same," so we scheduled it for the January 17th slot. Bruce attended, and video taped the evening: the performance and the audience feedback/Q&A afterward.

Finalist Ballot	Reading at the semi-Finals	Reading at the semi-Finals
Semi-Finalist Winners	Winners Announced	Reading at the semi-Finals

Winning was the easy part DP Bruce also recommended a camera crew he knew and with whom he'd previously worked, and negotiated their reducing their daily rates. Eventually we had a full crew, and managed to stay within budget. With the other winners, I met with two of the main board members to go over our respective budgets. One of the other requirements to receive the budget was the project being a SAG-AFTRA project; fortunately We Make Movies would be the signatore. One of the bigger stumbling blocks was SAG-AFTRA itself. Actor, writer, director and longtime friend William Joseph Hill worked at HBO at the time, doing payroll for Game of Thrones of all things, hence his having more knowledge of the Industry than many. William concurred that SAG loathes the idea of people such as We Make Movies type people creating their own content, as SAG doesn't get a slice of that pie. Michael had brought aboard the Bucky project Michael Russnow, who goes into full bulldog mode when it comes to dealing with SAG's obstinance, and labrynthal paperwork. Eventually with all ducks in a row, the project was officially Green Lit, and Saturday March 24th was set as the shoot date. After the Up On Your Feet performance, during the feedback section, one of the comments received was one personal indicating being able "to watch a hundred" of shorts starring Bucky. I pointed out that a) there would be a post credits tag that deliberately was not included with the performance and, b) My brain was already running Bucky 2 scenarios in my head. An evening was arranged to meet up at Victoria's place for Bruce and our cameraman Jorge Olortegui to go through the scene to get an idea of how best to shoot it. They decided they'd be using two cameras, to cut in half the time it'd take to do second set-ups. With the last of their requested information, including but not limited to, proof the script was copyrighted, a few days before the shoot date, SAG-AFTRA finally gave the go-ahead, providing to the Bucky project the production ID # 00462390. The day before, Michael Beardsley and I spoke on the phone, making sure everything seemed to be in place. They even discovered my friend Shannon Glasgow had returned from the east coast, so she could provide a voice over for the ending credits that leads to the post-credits stinger clip. Shannon was contacted and she agreed to be able to come up to do her lines. There was a slight miscommunication breakdown; had Shannon simply come to the shoot, her lines could have been done before anything really got going with camera filming. Mike later would arrange for her to come by the following Wednesday to record her lines. The equipment was up and ready to go as it got dark, then Something Went Wrong. About 97% of the short was to be filmed on a steadicam-like gimble, which relied on the focus being done wirelessly, and for some reason, the wireless aspect refused to work. This meant all the creative moving shots could not be done, at least not as planned, and some were set up "backwards:" moving in to "soft focused" shots to reach the In Focus mark. The night became a massive challenge. There was no way to reschedule the shoot; Michael and I knew they were already over-budget (not by much, but by some). They had to go with What They Had. Thankfully Bruce and Jorge were awesome and were able to get some great footage. Michael and Victoria were on point that the majority of takes per set-up were one to three. Even then, the shoot went well into the night. Had the equipment functioned as expected, it might have been finished by 1am or so. As it was, the shoot made it Right To The Edge of the SAG eight hour mark. On my Instagram account was posted two sets of photos taken during the evening: here, then early the next morning. after everything had wrapped. It came so tight, the post-credits stinger gag I wanted to include almost "had to" get cut, but I simply eliminated the first aspect (a whip pan from a turning-off TV), to the couch, so it became Just The Couch aspect of the bit. This was also the only time I operated Bucky; throughout the shoot, Victoria operated Bucky, having learned my lines so knowing when to movie Bucky's mouth. Shannon Glasgow, Michael Beardsley, and I arranged for a meet up at Michael's place at which to record Shannon's TV Newsreporter lines, for over the end credits. I printed out the updated lines for the now-named word-play character Elizabeth Scott: Elizabeth not only for my mother and niece's middle names, but actress Shannon Elizabeth, and Scott for the Glascow "reference" (as well as Scott being a surname within my family). After a few takes a version was acquired with which all three of us were satisfied, taking the project officially into Post Production, as Mike prepared to begin piecing together the footage.

Clapboard	Between set-ups	Victoria on the porch
Bucky	Preparing for shot	Bucky clapboard
Kitchen Video Village	Primary cast

Shannon Glasgow at Michael's, to ADR her lines

2019 - 2020+ Festivals, reviews Bucky won its first film festivals out of the gate: the Golden State Film Festival. Bucky would go to be accepted at numerous festivals, winning at many. The short was a Finalist with the Hollywood Blood Horror Film Festival In late September 2020 I was notified by PixelsGarage that they had not only reviewed Bucky, but also my as yet unproduced short-film scripts Devil's Ridge and Private Number... Having won Best Short Film at the Mabig Film Festival, the organizers requested a short video mentioning the festival, and the project. Victoria, Michael, and I arranged to do a Zoom call to do just that. They didn't actually adhere to the 30 seconds time "limit," but they were under a full minute...

Thanking Mabig Film Festival

04 March 2020 Another win Hearing from the International Short Film Award I learned that Bucky had won for Best Comedy Short Film.

10 August 2023 Out of the Blue I received an email from the Florence Film Awards Festival, saying they loved Bucky, and that they were offering me a 50% discount on interviewing me (so, essentially suggesting I pay them about $80 for the "privilege" of being Spotlight Interviewed by them). I checked via Film Freeway and found that Bucky indeed was "an award winner" with this festival, back in early January 2022. News t' me. I searched my email inbox and could find no notification email about it, apart from a notice that it had been originally Selected. I went to the festival's slightly elusive website and went through each month around that time, finding no mention whatsoever regarding Bucky not even anyone's names connected to the production. My submission had been under Fantasy, so (as the Selection email provided me the password to access the laurels), I pulled its Fantasy Win laurels on that. I also submitted its win on Bucky's IMDb entry.

Bucky January 2022 win Florence Film Awards

01 November 2023 Finalist notification The Bright International Film Festival emailed me that Bucky had made it to Finalist; they procided the laurels and certificate. August-September 2022 Results; Bright International Film Festival August-September 2022 Finalist Laurels; Bright International Film Festival August-September 2022 Finalist certificate; Bright International Film Festival

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