The blog for aspiring & established filmmakers of independent films. by ted hope.

Totoro Forest Project


The forest on the edge of Tokyo that inspired Miyazake to create MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO is being threatened.  Where does beauty go when we let it disappear? Hmmm.

The good folks at Pixar are sponsoring an auction (you know, like on eBay) of all these great drawings to help save the forest.  Tell your folks.  Tell your friends.
But you don’t have to buy anything.  The best things in life are always free, right?  They have set a website showing work by other artists inspired by this movie.  I could look at this site for hours.  In fact, I have!
Everyone loves this movie, but how great is it to see how it has inspired so many imaginations? Now there’s another project for a rainy day: where’s your Totoro?  Let’s see those drawings.

Every Aspiring Filmmakers new best friend.

Meet Ted

Hope offers his unique perspective on how to make movies while keeping your integrity intact and how to create a sustainable business enterprise out of that art while staying true to yourself.

Meet Ted

Ted Hope is a “holistic film producer”: he aims to be there from the beginning and then forever after, involved in every aspect of a film’s life cycle and ecosystem, as committed to engineering serendipity as preventing problems, as obsessed with lifting the good into the great, as he is…

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Orly Ravid “Stop Waiting for Godot & Distribute Your Movie Now Dang Darn It!”