About "Project P"

Lexia Snowe's short L.A. action film: two wheels, one camera, nine lives*
*feline terms and conditions apply

"Project P" (working title) is a 4-minute action film set in Los Angeles. It was written, directed and edited by Lexia Snowe, who also stars in the film.

In November - December 2013, I decided to make a small, band-aid-enabled step toward redressing the imbalance of Hollywood output and make my own female-led action flick, albeit only a few minutes long.

In my film, the lead would not be a sexy-spectacled firearms expert hyphen single mom hyphen gymnastic bedroom goddess. At no point would she turn and scream at something shadowy off-screen, say the hero's name three times unnecessarily in an impassioned speech about his destiny, or ask her boyfriend for help with a can-opener. She was gonna be real. She was gonna be...

Well, an actress. But here's the thing. She'd also have to be a pretty good runner and cyclist, as the action sequences all happen in a full-tilt sprint or on a pushbike. That's a runner and a cyclist on, ahem, the streets of Los Angeles. Where the wisest cyclists know to carry climbing equipment for their inevitable descent into the potholes / E.R. wait line.

(Plaster)casting...

I had a long, tough time convincing a professional actress with health insurance that she'd be totally fine kicking aside L.A. traffic on a bicycle with an action camera strapped to her. So... I put my lens where my mouth is (almost literally, as it happens, thanks to GoPro), and I cast myself as the lead.

The thinking...
  I'm an experienced L.A. cyclist.
  I have stamina, bravura, and red boy-shorts.
  If I wear a hoodie and no makeup, I have a spooky ability to look like I'm still in college.
  If I got hit by a bus or a low-flying TMZ chopper, the world -- believe me -- would carry on (I'm not even on Twitter, for Chrissakes).

I seemed perfect. But how did I do?

Find out in the finished film, later this year...

I am currently editing the film, and hope to have it ready for flinging at the general public in spring 2014. In the meantime, check out a range of stills from the film above.

(Did those actresses make a good call? Well, the band-aid in the stills is genuine -- an early tumble -- and I now have a scar. But I found a way to weave the band-aid into the narrative, as part of the lead's character development. Now that, my friends, is show business.)