Circle B Productions LLC

07/02/2025

We did it! Yesterday we submitted a Grant Proposal to the Robert Craig Films Foundation. The deadline was today, but Olivia Bull was determined to be at least one day ahead of the deadline.

We worked our rear ends off putting together an inspiring proposal package for the $20,000 short film production grant. Olivia's magical mastery of the English language is on full display.The Background and Bio document is ten pages of sheer brilliance.

The script we submitted with the grant is a seasoned "The Lifelong Gift." If we are lucky enough to earn the grant we'll be in production in the fall.
Here is how Olivia introduced the film in the proposal:

"The Lifelong Gift" is the turmultuous tale of a Black Family torn apart by co- dependence. It's the story of a wheelchair bound alcoholic and her brilliant teenage son, destined for greatness - if only she can release her smothering grip on his future. Throughout the plot, they grapple for dominance as Ashlyn's clinging - combined with her dependence on booze and drugs - threatens Jalen's scholastic career.

As part of this process we redesigned our website to match the information in the proposal. The new website went live a few minutes ago. Please check it out and let us know what you think. Todd will manage the website so it lines up with all of our social media accounts. We'll continue to work out issues on the website that need tweaking. If you view it on your phone use and external browser.

Circle B Productions LLC was officially formed in 2019 to produce our award winning film scripts into captivating motion pictures predominantly utilizing 3D Photorealistic Animation. We currently have five feature film projects and one short in various stages of development.

06/26/2025

On Tuesday June 24th the Capital Film Arts Alliance (CFAA) Screenwriting Lab had its monthly meeting at Imported Studios 1767 Tribute Road Sacramento. The gathering was dedicated to table reading scripts planned to be submitted to the Robert Craig Films Foundation Grant Program due on July 1st. At stake is a $20,000 grant to make a 20 page script into a short film.

Three scripts were submitted for readings. Jacob Morales offered up "Do Something", David Perez presented "Riding Home" and the team of Todd Bull and Olivia Montgomery Bull provided "The Lifelong Gift." Following each reading members provided feedback for the authors to consider in a final rewriting before the deadline.

06/22/2025

We are extremely proud of the work we did on this wonderful short film "Songs and Secrets" written and directed by our dear friend Sherri Z. Heller. Circle B Productions was heavily involved in the production and more significantly in the post production. Olivia handled sound design, provided music, created a complete period kitchen in 3D, performed CGI for the kitchen scene shot in front of a green screen panel and she took on color grading. According to Olivia "When we are helping a friend with their filmmaking journey and we have our name attached to a film we give the very best we have."

Sherri is in the inner most of the Circle B Productions LLC inner circle. She has contributed artistically to both of our 3D Photorealistic Animated Feature Films deep in production "Fawn's Justice" and "Singlewide Pride." In fact, Sherri has been known to refer to herself as the Boss Bitch of "Singlewide Pride" as she voiced Shelia Gunner a small time female mob boss who serves as the main antagonist in our story. Sherri is currently working on the Film Freeway platform to select the right mix of film festivals for this tender story of a father in the 1970's coming out to his daughter and his mother. You're going to want to see this film when it's available for the public viewing. When we know more about screenings, you'll know too. Well done Sherri!

06/02/2025

With Capital Film Arts Alliance (CFAA) – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

06/02/2025

We're extremely busy working on our film projects. These images were created a few months ago to visually compliment dialogue and action lines found in our award winning "Singlewide Pride" script. Tony Freeman has just been released from prison and he's riding in his friend Art's Blue Mustang around the old neighborhood.

EXT. TWILIGHT MOBILE HOME PARK - LATER
This shabby section of Eureka has gone farther downhill. Art
drives Sapphire past the Twilight Mobile Home Park sign.

TONY

First day out of the can and you
drag me back to this cage?

ART

Didn’t exactly see anyone with you
at the funeral.

TONY

I got a voucher for the Come-In
Motel. Take me there, man.

ART

Come-In Motel rents by the hour.

TONY
How do you know?

ART
Everybody knows.

Tony punches Art’s upper arm.

ART (CONT’D)
I missed you too.

05/29/2025

On Tuesday May 27th the Capital Film Arts Alliance (CFAA) Screenwriting Lab meeting hosted a collection of outstanding events for members.

Education Director Dawn Spinella led a conversation about the upcoming July 1st 2025 deadline for the inaugural Robert Craig Films Foundation $20,000 film grant for financing a short (20 pages) film per the grant guidelines.

Active CFAA Member Mitch Bechtold enlightened participants about his time as a paid script reader for a working Producer in LA.

Sherri Z Heller, Jeffrey Ogata and Lorna Norrise updated members on the progress of their film projects which sprang to life from the CFAA Screenwriting Micro-Film Initiative, brainchild of Dawn Spinella. Sherri's film is deep into the editing process. Jeffrey's had principal filming on May 24th. Lorna's is scheduled for principal filming on June 7th.

We finished the meeting with two Table Readings from recent member submissions. Paul Young provided the first 12 pages of his feature film script "A Legacy of Blood". We also read a short script called "The Nest" submitted by a member who wished to remain anonymous.

Our next meeting will be on June 24 at 7:00 PM. We meet each month at Imported Studios located at 1767 Tribute Road Sacramento. Our leadership team decided to open up the June 24th meeting strictly for table reads of member scripts targeting the July 1st deadline for the Robert Craig Films Foundation Grant.

05/05/2025

We had a great time with my Capital Film Arts Alliance (CFAA) colleagues at the "Cast and Crew Call" day for Access Sacramento's "A Place Call Sacramento." Many new folks signing up for our monthly newsletter. Dozens of meaningful conversations with attendees concerning our Screenwriting Lab, Actors Workshop and Film Forum.

05/02/2025

Some photos from last weekend's third annual Sactown Movie Buffs Film Festival. Festival Curator Keirre Stowes announced they smashed their attendance numbers from previous years and it certainly felt that way. The gigantic IMAX screen and "kick ass" sound system made the forty screened films "pop" for the audience. I represented Circle B Productions LCC on Saturday and Sunday while Olivia spent her weekend working on several film projects. We're hopeful we'll have a film in the 4th annual SMBFF. We have several contenders for that honor.

It's amazing to remember hardly anyone knew of Circle B Productions when Olivia moved to Sacramento in 2017. Eight years later through a great deal of work and creative passion, we are an integral part of the indie film community in our Sacramento Region. In nearly every film screened in this year's festival we knew folks associated with those projects. It was an inspiring event to attend and we'll be back next year as well purchasing our VIP Passes.

04/19/2025

Last Saturday April 12th, Circle B Productions was thrilled to aid with the production of a short script written by our good friend Sherri Z. Heller who has contributed to both of our 3D Photorealistic Animated Feature films as voice over talent. Sherri created and directed her script called "Songs and Secrets" though the CFAA Screenwriting Lab's new program called Micro Filmmaking Initiative which helps writers get their short scripts made into micro short films. Two more CFAA microfilms will be enter production in the upcoming weeks and Circle B Productions will be there to lend a helping hand.

04/07/2025

When we wrote the award-winning script for our film Singlewide Pride, we thought it would be simple to produce as a 3D-animated feature film. The action takes place in a small town in Northern California, centered around the hijinks of a handful of characters who live in a trailer park.

What we overlooked, though, was the number of scenes that take place in cars as various characters snoop, argue, plot, or otherwise misbehave as they drive from Point A to Point B. This means we can either choose a lot of cheesy closeups with blurred out backgrounds, or we can build a more detailed world to serve as background scenery. We chose the latter.

Here are five more stills of the Commercial/Industrial Zone in Singlewide Pride that we promised to post a few months ago following the initial unveiling of this work. As previously reported, necessary Circle B Productions business issues robbed us of our precious social media time, but we're back on the sniff.

It's been a fun creative challenge to build this world for our quirky, lovable characters to live in. The Commercial/Industrial Zone is the last neighborhood we need to complete. There have been more than a dozen others, ranging from the Twilight Mobile Home Park, to a remote apple orchard, to a downtown marina.

02/27/2025

We realize it's been nearly a month since we posted any new social media images from our 3D Photorealistic Animated Feature Film "Singlewide Pride." Rest assured that doesn't mean the work has slowed down on this project. In fact, it's been just the opposite, with the work pace intensifying. We have a backlog of exciting images to share, which unfortunately were moved to the back burner as more pressing issues needed our immediate attention.

2024 was a real exhausting year for the legal side of our business. First, we had to solve our computer hardware issues that began in 2023 and ballooned into a major impediment to production in 2024. We had purchased a custom built animation computer for $8,000 in January 2023. The expensive PC never worked properly, sometimes crashing dozens of times a day. After months of some intense finger pointing and threatening legal communication the manufacture opted to provide us a substantial reimbursement, which we used to make other computer arrangements. We are now producing great results in a timely fashion.

We were feeling marvelous until April of 2024 when we started getting nasty grams from the Franchise Tax Board indicating we had thirty days to file revised Circle B Productions tax returns for 2020 or they would unilaterally determine our tax. Try to hire a CPA firm in April to make emergency corporate tax filings. We contacted 25 CPA firms who all said thanks, but no thanks. Finally, we were able to hire a firm in San Francisco. It wasn't cheap, but they refiled all our Circle B Tax Returns for 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 for both the Franchise Tax Board and the IRS.

Once again we felt incredible, until we started getting the demands for immediate payment of penalties from the IRS and the Franchise Tax Board for 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. This failure to properly file our tax returns cost us thousands of dollars and a great deal of embarrassment, but last week we turned in our information to our San Francisco CPA firm so we can get our 2024 taxes done correctly and on time. The experience wasn't all bad. Like they say "In every dark cloud there can be silver lining." Part of that process for our 2024 tax filings involved learning Quick Books so we could provide accurate Profit and Loss Statements. With some planned additional training we'll be prepared to accurately track our expenses and future income from our released films.

With these critical business and legal issues in the rearview mirror we can get back to creating. Here are 4 images of the cemetery in "Singlewide Pride." It's featured in 2 scenes: once when Leslie dies, and again when Art is trying to figure out what happened to the money she embezzled. You can expect exciting new social media posts with increasing frequency.