Starring: Katie Groshong, Stephen Jackson, Allyce Wix, Cody Cheyenne, Starina Johnson, Dale Rainey, Novella Dean, Ryan Jackson, Jayden Morris, Kerrigan Butler, Jordan Nix, Bruce Rainey, David Willis
Plot: Every childhood is normal...to the child who lives it. For Meredith that means an enchanted seclusion that is shattered when she is deprived of her mother. Desperate and alone, Meredith must join a household with other women and their children, a sinister man who controls every facet of her existence, and a vicious bear that only she can see. As life in this world becomes increasingly strange and frightening, Meredith realizes that she must flee, even though she fears she has not learned enough to survive on her own.
My Review and Thoughts:
Hauntingly beautiful, nightmarishly perfect. You ever go into one of those movies that linger on your mind and seem to cause many mixed emotions within you? Have you seen a movie that builds on the likeness of reality as if the camera doesn't exist and the story doesn't exist because it feels so real, so hauntingly real.
A Measure of the Sin is a surreal, brutal and stunning piece of film. Directed flawless. I can not say enough on how this film comes together in a clarity of emotions and action that becomes a whole part of the person watching. The photography and filming was extraordinarily vivid, vibrant, dark and touching. This movie knows what it wanted to do and it owned and created a piece of cinema that becomes a real inner part of the soul.
Your main female lead is Meredith played by the beautiful and stunning Katie Groshong. She adds such a flare to the part. She gives Meredith life. She owns her life on screen and makes the viewer become apart of her journey.
This film has many genres. It's hard to pinpoint which one. It has the reality of a horror and most of all the aspects of dramatic drama mixing in the art-house beauty of independent film making. Jeff Wedding has created something so unique and original that its in a class of its own.
To truly understand this movie you have to see it. It's something that's hard to put your understanding on as it tends to control your mind. It makes you think. It sends you into a spiral twist and turns. Its like a dream state. It's as if flipping the pages of an art book and it suddenly comes to life and bleeds in your hands. It's like reading a fairy-tale, a dark fairy-tale. A fairy-tale that has hidden meanings. A fairy -tale that has secrets and lies. A fairy-tale that's unrelenting as the truth comes out.
Truly a mesmerizing film with an enthralling journey of a plot. The narration, voice over, narrative of the story, as Meredith tells you her journey, her darkness her dreams, her misunderstandings make this film standout. The written script is flawless. The words weave together with action in perfection.
This is based on a set of short stories by a master story teller, author Kristy Nielsen. Jeff adapted to film. He collaborated with the author and got her approval to bring his vision of her story to the screen. Jeff created something amazingly bizarre. The story is truly haunting yet interestingly beautiful at the same time.
What I like so much about this film is not only is it flawlessly directed and acted and truly a unique story, but it clearly is a perfect, beautiful example of independent film. If you know me I support independent film. I support directors, producers, actors, that go this route. There was a struggle in creating and finishing this film. Jeff and his partner in crime the star and producer of this film Katie Groshong did a spectacular job in forming a memorable piece of cinema.
I can see in Katie Groshong a shining brilliant and extraordinary actress. I feel she has the talent and acting nature of an old classic soul of cinema given to us in modern day. I see a bright future for her. Her beauty and talent at words and emotions play with the camera and the viewer. She creates a perfect persona as Meredith. Meredith is an exploring child yet imprisoned and seasoned in pain.
If this is what Jeff Wedding has to offer the world of cinema, then cinema is safe and protected. His talent is extreme and vivid. His beauty of the lens is breathtaking. He captures what needs to be said and shown so that the viewer can grasp this deep and dark and dream like Never Never Land yet saturated with the clouds of living confusion and psychosis. Kristy Nielsen created a tale of a gritty underbelly of society or culture. A hidden world of secrets. Kristy and Jeff pieced together something that needs attention.
I can see in Katie Groshong a shining brilliant and extraordinary actress. I feel she has the talent and acting nature of an old classic soul of cinema given to us in modern day. I see a bright future for her. Her beauty and talent at words and emotions play with the camera and the viewer. She creates a perfect persona as Meredith. Meredith is an exploring child yet imprisoned and seasoned in pain.
If this is what Jeff Wedding has to offer the world of cinema, then cinema is safe and protected. His talent is extreme and vivid. His beauty of the lens is breathtaking. He captures what needs to be said and shown so that the viewer can grasp this deep and dark and dream like Never Never Land yet saturated with the clouds of living confusion and psychosis. Kristy Nielsen created a tale of a gritty underbelly of society or culture. A hidden world of secrets. Kristy and Jeff pieced together something that needs attention.
All the cast members shine in their characters, each one, each persona gives a visually interesting, unique stunning art-house brilliance. They act through actions, emotions and superb technique as if veteran actors and actress'. Perfectly cast. Stephen Jackson as The Man, is deep, mysterious and crafted as a perfect thick shadowy type persona. He aced the part. His character was like living strychnine and woman was the swallower. I really loved Cody Cheyenne. She played young Meredith and gave a child like wonder and love for her mother. Allyce Wix as Mother was shinning in her pain, struggle and caged bird reality.
A Dominant, domineering darkness of religious control and mastery. A locked cage burning the desire of the concept of free. Imprisoned and dormant. This is like nothing I've ever seen before, probably will never see again. This is art-house horror poetry.
The music is emotional and the mind laces onto the rhythm and pace of the music which creates a memorable spark on the story.The featured musicians with styles of violin, clarinet, piano and everything else, gives it a more vibrant at times and also an unrelenting thick stylized darkness of art horror through music. J. Alan Morant and the musicians did what needed to be done.
Kristy Nielson crafted a tale that mind is numbing. A piece of twisted dark storybook poetry. The words bleed into the atmosphere. The tale of struggle, darkness, confusion and a persons will to live, to be free, to be vacant from the monsters that chain, lock and whip us into control. Kristy is a truly gifted and brilliant writer that takes the words and sends the reader or listener into a realm of nightmares and given dose's of medicine, that is darkness in hidden forms.
Kristy Nielson crafted a tale that mind is numbing. A piece of twisted dark storybook poetry. The words bleed into the atmosphere. The tale of struggle, darkness, confusion and a persons will to live, to be free, to be vacant from the monsters that chain, lock and whip us into control. Kristy is a truly gifted and brilliant writer that takes the words and sends the reader or listener into a realm of nightmares and given dose's of medicine, that is darkness in hidden forms.
It's amazing if you read Jeff's story about his struggles, about how he fought to get this picture made. How it took a total of six years to finish and to complete, from finance wise, to the struggle of personal demons. It adds all the more clarity of how perfect this film is. I'm so happy that all the finances came through. It's funny if you look at the credits, it's almost like a Groshong family community from Special effects to wardrobe, hair, makeup and beyond. Katie and the Groshong family did above and beyond. Katie went all out and she is an actress that knows the art of Indie filming. Jeff and Katie and Kristy Nielson made a gifted example of cinema that all the big wigs in Hollywood could never do.
I think all the effort and passion and heart is what also has to do with this film. Knowing the true indie appeal and passion to succeed is what shines. You can tell the passion of film making in this movie.
I do know this, I am an instant fan of Jeff Wedding. I am a follower and stalker of his future. I hope his future is grand and his love of cinema making, blossoms into other mesmerizing films. To be honest, he created a truly unique flawless film and a stamp of brilliance as far as I'm concerned. He has given the Cinema world what he is about and what cinema can truly shine to be.
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Information:
Writer Spotlight and interview with: Kristy Nielsen
Today I want to introduce people to an amazing writer that
stunningly shocks me with her power of words and the very recesses of her word
play and total imagination.
She is an amazing writer. I was stunned when I got
introduced to her, through Movie Director Jeff Wedding's work with her
masterpiece story A Measure of the Sin. It blew me away. I have been consumed
with the story-line. You see Kristy's story A Measure of the Sin has become an
Indie Film. A modern day masterpiece of an original film. Jeff Wedding directed
and created this stunning piece of perfect art form of cinema. A Measure of the
Sin is a movie that bleeds the likes of Ingmar Bergman's direction and
visionary talent. Jeff took the brilliant words of stunning poetry type reality
of a dark natured story and brought it to screen. He controlled the viewer by
placing Nielsen's ultimate descriptive beauty and haunting persona of characters
and situations on screen.
The movie was brought out in a special Edition DVD by
Brinkvision and with the movie you got a booklet of the A Measure of the Sin
story which was originally posted in the Spring 2004's issue of Third Coast. By
the way, this magazine I highly recommend. I’ve watched the movie three times.
I don't want to sound like I am a stalker but Kristy Nielsen is the Sylvia
Plath of writing. She is a gifted story teller and her reality is a vivid
wonderment of imagination and the beauty of the art of word play. The words
bleed in images in the story.
A Measure of the Sin is a story that creates all the
haunting reality and beauty of what true written form is about. I have not been
this excited with a story sense picking up my first grown up book when I was 7
to read, which might I add was Charles Dickens Great Expectations. I want the
world to experience Kristy Nielsen's amazing talent of writing. I want the
world to experience Jeff Wedding's visionary talent of a director by creating
the word play of Nielsen's words into images of clarity and a stunning example
of art come to life.
Go over and follow and experience Kristy through her blog:
http://kristynielsen.blogspot.com/ better yet support her, give her your
attention and love. Also check out Third Coast
http://www.thirdcoastmagazine.com/ and support this awesome publication and
plus you can order the very back issue of Spring of 2004 where the original
story of Kristy's A Measure of the Sin was in. Which might I add, that I have
done already.
Make sure you pick up Jeff Wedding's visionary piece of
Kristy's story. His talent is beyond my words in introducing the direction he
has inside of him. To be able to transform words into images that seem like
it's the very pages of the story on screen, is something that not everyone can
do. Very few can do this. I think also what needs to be said is the creation of
the character of Meredith on screen acted by Katie Groshong. Katie mastered the
part of Meredith and she became the very words from the story through her
wonderful flawless performance. The movie left me in amazement and shock, just
like the story did, all because Katie was so believable as an artist.
You can read my review of the movie that Jeff Wedding
masterfully crafted and created. Jeff sent the viewer into Kristy's world. Here
is the link to my review of the film:
A Measure of the Sin is a short story that the reader
follows along with the words and captures a sense of reality and most of all a
haunting nightmare come to life. As you read it, you can't help but feel like
you’re there inside the story. Kristy is able to capture everything that needs
to be said in a short period of time and leaves the reader with a completed
conclusion of a narrative that sadly and horrifyingly, we all can, in some way,
re-late to it.
I think Kristy was able to put emotions into words. I think
Kristy let the reader live the life and the imagination and the horror of
Meredith. Meredith became a part of your soul, you became a part of Meredith's
soul, yet the story seemed to destroy that very idea of a soul as Meredith’s
pain, agony and control created by the monster that she saw inside her.
A wonderful lyrical of words woven into a piece of written
flawless literature.
I want more, more and more from Kristy Nielsen. I want more,
more and more from Jeff Wedding's visionary talent. I hope the future shines
for both of them.
A Measure of the Sin is a story that I will never forget.
It's a story that lasts and creates so many vivid and twisted moments that last
with you. The story and the movie of the story is something that deeply remains
in your mind. It’s a reality that seems so out there, yet so true. A Measure of
the Sin is like nothing ever done before. It's totally original, new and fresh.
Both story and movie create a unique insanity that seeps into you and washes
over the senses.
I remember watching Ingmar Bergman for the first time or
reading Sylvia Plath for the first time and that is what you experience with A
Measure of the Sin in written form and in filmed form. When you first
experience Bergman's Persona or The Virgin Spring or The Hour of the Wolf, your
very life is changed because you saw something that was mind altering and
present changing in the cinematic world of cinema. These three movies sum up to
me the very foundation and strings that weave the cinema world together. These
three films are what any person that loves the art form of cinema has to see to
truly experience cinema as a whole. When I saw Jeff Wedding's A Measure of the
Sin, I experienced that all over again. I experienced my love affair for the
world of film. I experienced that new, original concept of fresh and unique
once again. I was, simply put in layman’s terms, "Happy".
When I read the story of A Measure of the Sin by Kristy it
was like staring upon that moment when I found Sylvia Plath’s poem
"Daddy" for the first time and consumed it and was forever changed in
the art of written word. It’s a poem that sums up every part of life and
creates the foundation of the human form. That is what I experienced once again
while reading A Measure of the Sin. Simply put in layman’s terms, I was
"Happy".
I was happy to be able to see something fresh again.
Something amazing again. The world of cinema and literature has been filled
with countless rehashed garbage over and over again. Kristy Nielsen and Jeff
Wedding revived my faith in the art of Word and Film.
And now my interview with Kristy Nielsen. She was kind
enough to answer some questions for me and the readers of this blog and lets
welcome her.
TEN QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY WRITER: KRISTY NIELSEN
First off I want to say thank you so much to Kristy Nielsen
for sharing with us and taking her time and allowing us the readers to get to
know her better and also the ability to enjoy her work through a Filmed form of
her artistry in words.
1) When did you start writing, and how do you sum up who you
are and the style you write in?
Kristy: I started writing as soon as I started reading and
couldn’t get enough of either. Writing felt like power. You’re creating a world and deciding what
happens in it! I started out trying to
emulate Carolyn Keene of Nancy Drew fame but thankfully moved beyond that
pretty quickly. The style I write in now
is definitely ‘literary’ fiction which I think is shorthand for ‘not mass
market’ but that’s fine with me. I go
for tone and mood and psychological subtext and put plot in service to that
instead of the other way around.
2) What kind of books do you like reading, and who are your
favorite authors?
Kristy: I read a ton of books and not just literary
fiction. Lately I’ve been on a police
procedural binge. For inspiration and
soul food, I go for: Salman Rushdie,
Milan Kundera, Michael Ondaatje, E.L. Doctorow, Carole Maso, Jayne Anne
Phillips. Hmmmm. There are many more. I don’t read much nonfiction although I enjoy
a good biography.
3) Was there an inspiration to writing A Measure of the Sin
and the other parts of the story? For instance are the characters based on any
real reality?
Kristy: The stories are psychically true. I have never been raped by a bear, never
killed a baby, but I certainly understand the feelings of violation guilt, and
loss. I take my own psychic scars and
flesh them in different costumes. The
bear came from recurring dreams. I take
full advantage of the weird juxtapositions and emotional weight of dreams. There was a farmhouse I used to drive by
every day that was my model for the house.
I identify with Meredith as the protagonist and I got her feeling of
being trapped as well as her drive for survival from myself. All the characters, however, are amalgamations
and there are bits of me in all of them.
4) If you had any advice to any, want to be writers is there
anything you would tell them or advice you can give them?
Kristy: Write! Make
the time. You will most likely not
remember all those great ideas, so carry a notebook. You have to be open to feedback but also know
when to be true to your vision so that’s kind of a trick. It’s worth achieving that balance which involves
finding readers whose feedback you can trust.
If you can’t write, do something else creative. Get inspired by movies, museums, whatever
speaks to you, and keep your mind working.
One thing that has worked for me is literally to sleep on it. When I have a writing problem, I tell myself
to dream about it and it’s amazing how often the solution will appear by
morning.
5) How does it feel knowing your stories inspired a movie
that has caught the eyes of many people?
Kristy: Wonderful!
The whole thing has been an unexpected blessing. When Jeff Wedding contacted me I was deep in
a writer’s block and had 6-month old twins so was not likely to be feeling arty
for quite a while. Working with Jeff on
the screenplay and then sharing many conversations about the artistic vision
was like having a rope ladder across a chasm and it brought me back to myself
as a creative person. The fact that
people are responding to the story has brought validation but I don’t take
credit for that. That’s on Jeff.
6) Do you think Jeff Wedding captured the nature of the
story? Would there be anything you would change or alter about the film?
Kristy: Jeff absolutely captured the tone and I think that
was the hardest part and the riskiest because it’s not a traditional horror
story. There are no blood and guts, no
monsters. But it’s creepy as hell! Given
the constraints of no-budget independent film making, I am completely blown
away with what he was able to film and what Katie Groshong produced (on top of
starring in the movie). There are things
that I visualized differently but I’m not a film director! I trusted him and was rewarded for it.
7) Can you explain what writing means to you?
Kristy: Well, that’s one hell of a question. Let me see.
Writing--any art form really--is about metaphor. And metaphor is what imbues our lives with
meaning---not that the metaphor IS the meaning but that the use of metaphor allows
us to feel and see and believe the meaning.
8) If you had one chance to meet any dead author throughout
history, who would it be and why? If you had one chance to meet any living
author who would it be and why?
Kristy: Margeurite Duras. When I first read The Lover I was
changed. The control she has over each seemingly simple sentence and the mood
she created showed me something I didn’t know writing could do. It reinvested me with that feeling of the
power of writing. That’s the first author who came to mind but I’d like to
imagine I wouldn’t have to limit it in this fantasy author league you’ve set
up! That’s a question, but I’ll do my
best to answer it.
9) Can you explain for the readers what the story is all
about, and what the person can take from the story and the film as a whole. I
have posted links to the stories so that the readers can read for themselves on
your blog.
Kristy: Nope! I did
my job. Jeff, Katie, and the rest of the
filmmakers did their jobs. The
viewer/reader has their job too. So get
to work!
10) When you are writing do you have to be in a quiet place,
do you have to have a specific vice of your liking such as pencil, a type of
pen, a computer or typewriter or a specific piece of paper type? Are you cranky
or happy or do you have to be in a certain mood to be able to write.
Kristy : I am a notebook at the side of the bed kind of a
gal because I tend to get a lot of my ideas at the cusp of sleep. I do better with a minimum of distraction but
too quiet is TOO quiet! I write on paper
and computer but find paper is better for first drafts because I don’t get
caught up in revising which can cause me to lose the thought. When the words start flowing I get happy even
though I might be writing about might be somber. I’ve had some real periods of drought and
discouragement and that’s when I get really cranky.
Thank you so much for taking your time to answer and spread
the beauty of your blog and also giving readers the ability to know you a
little bit better. Thank you so much for enlighten the readers on your
beautiful, haunting and lyrical type stories.
Kristy: Thank you for asking me!
Information about the film,