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Web series Farm Story pilot to start shooting in Staunton in September

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tv-clipartGoing to Tahiti Productions and The Writer, Ink will shoot the 45-minute Farm Story pilot in Staunton and surrounding areas September 8, 2014 through September 17, 2014. The co-production aims to undue old media models of television production by creating “locally-grown” TV for a national, web-based audience. Farm Story is written and produced by Terri Viani and directed and produced by Jessica Ammirati.

Farm Story tells the story of an emotionally moth-eaten forty-something NYC writer, her unemployed husband, and his disabled brother who leave the city for supposedly greener pastures in “fairy-tale” Station Stop, Virginia, only to find themselves accidentally living on an old farm in the sticks of Virginia, in a town called Chicken. Viani calls Farm Story a “forty-something coming-of-age story,” and loosely-based the script on the last ten years of her life. “I went from being a buffed and polished single NYC-based writer to an old married lady living in a small town in the Quiet Corner of Connecticut with daily dirt under my nails and a ramshackle chicken coop in the back yard,” she says. “But what’s really delicious about storytelling those years is the emotional walk-about I did during them that lead me to the place I am now, happy and comfortable with who I am. Based on the overwhelmingly positive reaction I’ve had to the pilot script, I’d say it’s a journey that resonates with a lot of people.”

Ammirati says Farm Story plans to source local business and talent as much as possible, estimating at least fifty percent of the production cast and crew will be drawn from Staunton and surrounding areas. Cast auditions are scheduled to take place in Staunton this summer. “Staunton is that rare location where what you will see on film is what you actually get when you visit. The town becomes, from a directing standpoint, a character in the show – a living, breathing environment that fans of the show will be able to visit, AND, from a producing standpoint, a supportive, creatively vibrant community that will, if all goes according to plan, become our production’s home for years to come.” Ammirati further says, “Staunton isn’t just a location that we’re looking to come to, exploit and then leave when the bigger money rolls in. We’re looking to build something here. We, like the characters in Farm Story, are looking for a place to call home, and, as Station Stop and Chicken are to our characters, we hope Staunton, VA will become to us.”

Terri Viani heads up the writing/production company The Writer, ink. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Writer-ink/297354973738954) Viani has a Master’s degree in communications from Boston University, and got her professional start as a writer with Jumbo Pictures/Disney in NY. She has written for stage, television, advertisements, websites, and newspapers.

Jessica Ammirati is an independent director and producer based in New York. In 2008 she founded Going to Tahiti Productions (http://goingtotahitiproductions.com/farmstory/) with the mission of creating more opportunities for women in the entertainment industry. She has directed and produced theatre, mostly original works, all over New York, as well as music videos and short films.

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