{"id":1312106,"date":"2019-07-04T22:28:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T04:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/bite-me-is-a-different-kind-of-romcom\/"},"modified":"2019-07-04T22:28:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T04:28:00","slug":"bite-me-is-a-different-kind-of-romcom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/bite-me-is-a-different-kind-of-romcom\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Bite Me\u2019 is a different kind of RomCom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In her new film \u201cBite Me,\u201d writer-actress-producer-activist Naomi McDougall Jones wanted to make a romantic comedy like the one\u2019s she loved growing up in the \u201990s, but with a twist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s those certain notes that every great RomCom hits that you wait for and you ache for and make your heart pull at the end,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe hit all of those notes, but I think we also managed to update it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones, who grew up in Woody Creek and initially developed her acting chops in local theater, is currently on a \u201cJoyful Vampire Tour of America,\u201d which is a \u201c49-screening, 40-city, 3-month, RV-fueled, old-school, carnival-coming-to-town extravaganza\u201d that arrives at Glenwood\u2019s Vaudeville Theater this Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBite Me,\u201d which has the subtitle \u201cA Subversive Romantic Comedy,\u201d is about \u201cthe real-life subculture of people who believe that they\u2019re vampires and the IRS agent who audits them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about outsiders seeking acceptance, being seen and loved for who they are, which feels like a pretty urgent theme right now in the world,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThe film addresses those themes, but in a hopeful and comedic way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initial idea for the film came to Jones through a conversation about the vampire subculture with another actress while Jones and she were on the set of HBO\u2019s \u201cBoardwalk Empire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones began researching vampires through their internet vlogs, and reached out to them before making the film. But she found them \u201cextremely cagey\u201d about it, because they\u2019d been burned by pop-culture representations spoofing them before. (The vampire community has since embraced the film as a representation of them that feels realistic, Jones said.)<\/p>\n

So as part of her research for the role, Jones began walking around New York City in character, with blue hair, a face tattoo and goth clothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so shocking to me the way people reacted to me when I looked like that,\u201d she said. \u201cI began to develop an attitude like \u2018how dare you judge me!\u2019 which was useful because that\u2019s what the character begins the film with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones initially got into filmmaking as a reaction to the lack of quality film roles for women. After graduating from New York City\u2019s American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she spent years taking the roles that were offered before deciding that if she wanted better roles, she\u2019d have to create them for herself.<\/p>\n

She wrote a feature film called \u201cImagine I\u2019m Beautiful,\u201d and then she and a friend went to \u201cfilm school by coffee dates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cold-called film producers we found on the internet and got them to have coffee with us and tell us how to make a movie,\u201d she said. \u201cAs soon as I started making that film, I knew that that\u2019s the thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cJoyful Vampire Tour of America\u201d is actually an innovative idea that runs contrary to the traditional method of distribution for independent films. Instead of putting the film in the hands of a distribution company, Jones decided to tour the film around the country, making its screenings more of an event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you\u2019re asking people to leave their houses for is not just the screening of a movie that they could watch on their couch, but truly an evening and an experience and a chance to meet the artists,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As such, Glenwood\u2019s Vaudeville Theater will open at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 11 for dinner, followed by a screening of \u201cBite Me\u201d and a Q&A session with Jones. Then at 8:30 p.m. the Joyful Vampire Ball begins. Everyone is invited to wear \u201cwhatever makes them joyful\u201d whether it\u2019s vampire-related or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been incredibly special to go to community after community and get to have this intimate and moving and human experience together,\u201d Jones said. \u201cSo that thing that you love but have thought, \u2018when the heck am I ever going to wear this?\u2019 Wear that. Now.\u201d<\/p>\n

jbear@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In her new film \u201cBite Me,\u201d writer-actress-producer-activist Naomi McDougall Jones wanted to make a romantic comedy like the one\u2019s she loved growing up in the \u201990s, but with a twist. \u201cThere\u2019s those certain notes that every great RomCom hits that you wait for and you ache for and make your heart pull at the end,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 03:11:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}