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Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

430 followers 430 following 1.6K posts

Author. Artist. Playwright (twas). Cinema analyses. Dem Socialist. She/her. Husband is a musician/engineer/producer. Son makes films and I sometimes assist. No AI. Atlanta GA. Plutonium-enriched childhood in WA.
My website: https://idyllopuspress.com

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Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Cactus and City Lights
2006

#colorphotography #desertphotography #cactus

Blurred and gainy photo of cactus against a night sky

November 15, 2025 at 1:58 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Midtown Atlanta, June 2013

#atlantaphotography #midtownatlanta #architecturalphotography

Sunlight glints of skyscrapers against a dark blue sky

November 15, 2025 at 1:55 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Silence of Cassandra, 2012
Animated Shorts Series
Digital painting

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting

Abstract human figure (stick figure type) with round eyes and mouth, hands upraised as if questioningly or pleading

November 14, 2025 at 5:42 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Museum Seating, Bench with Cushion, High Museum of Art
2019, processed 2025
I love museum seating.
#blackandwhitephotography #atlantaphotography #highmuseumofart #highmuseum

November 14, 2025 at 5:36 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Museum Seating, Benches with Cushions, High Museum of Art
2019, processed 2025
I love museum seating.
#blackandwhitephotography #atlantaphotography #highmuseumofart #highmuseum

View of two benches with cushions in a T-shape

November 14, 2025 at 5:35 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Abstract 33.2, 2018
Abstracts 2 Gallery
11 by 14 inches

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting

Abstract of wash of grays upper canvas and more solid wash on lower canvas with two curved white lines.

November 13, 2025 at 8:48 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Restroom and Water Fountains #2, Atlanta, 2019, processed 2025

#atlantaphotography #interiorphotography #blackandwhitephotography

Slightly-blurred medium-shot showing entrance to restroom on left and waterfountains, backed by tile, on right. The upper wall is textured with hexagonal shapes.

November 13, 2025 at 8:44 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Restroom and Water Fountains #1, Atlanta, 2019, processed 2025

#atlantaphotography #interiorphotography #blackandwhitephotography

Medium-shot showing entrance to restroom on left and waterfountains, backed by tile, on right. The upper wall is textured with hexagonal shapes.

November 13, 2025 at 8:42 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Echolia, 2017
Digital painting
18 by 18 inches

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting

Two abstract figures, side by side, with a bright red line connecting their mouths.

November 12, 2025 at 3:25 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Hallway at The High Museum, 2019, processed 2025

#highmuseum #atlantaphotography #blackandwhitephotography
6m

Looking out a dark room into a well-lit highway at the museum. No art visible, just blank walls.

November 12, 2025 at 3:23 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Walls at The High Museum, 2019, processed 2025

#highmuseum #atlantaphotography #blackandwhitephotography

Looking through several walls toward a hall, varying shades of dark to light gray, at the museum but no art work visible

November 12, 2025 at 3:21 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Abstract 30.2, 2018
Abstracts 2 Gallery
14 by 17.8 inches

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting

Canvas with rust reds at top merging into gradations of black all around.

November 11, 2025 at 9:03 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Crane, Construction, Atlanta, 2016
Processed 2025

#atlantaphotography #midtownatlanta #blackandwhitephotography

Extremely grainy shot of crane against blurred background

November 11, 2025 at 8:58 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Construction, Atlanta, 2016
Processed 2025

#atlantaphotography #midtownatlanta #blackandwhitephotography

Crane before skyscraper against cloudy sky, grainy black and white

November 11, 2025 at 8:57 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Thank you to the Buried Alive Film Festival and Plaza Theater for a great experience.

"Intravenus" was nominated for best feature, score, sound, comedy, and budget to production. This is our wonderful trophy for best Budget to Production!

@eyeodyssey.bsky.social @martinkearnsatl.bsky.social

Trophy for "Intravenus", as described in the following ALT for text images.

1 - Isn't this a cool trophy? I love the fact it was made special for the Buried Alive Film Festival and that it represents a kind of demon television, with a hollow where the old-fashioned cathode ray tube should go, in which ia little battery-powered brain that changes color is housed. Inventive! A great design. They really put a lot of thought and effort into the festival, which was packed with people enjoying themselves.

"Intravenus" was Aaron's film--he conceived of it and wrote it, then came to me for help as a co-writer, which I felt privileged to do, and then privileged to help co-direct and be one of the two
cinematographers. But this was completely Aaron's film, I would never have conceived of anything like this myself. It was fun! And interesting too to see how solid the horror community is, and passionate about what they do.

"Intravenus" was nominated for best feature, budget to production, comedy, sound and score. It was nice to get the score nomination because that recognized the hard work put into creating a textured sound environment that supported the dialogue-heavy film, with minimal music as the idea was not to influence with music, to depend upon performances, how we captured them, and the sound environment. We didn't expect to win anything as the film wasn't typical for horror/gore genre, yet we did. We were quite surprised to be awarded budget to production. As for our budget, which was next to nothing, we were "no apologies" in our approach that would depend almost entirely on acting how we captured it, editing and sound, minimalistic on the sets, props, costuming etcetera. Considering the talent we were up against, for this festival has an international draw, we were more than surprised to get the award, and happy as well because we were determined to get a good feature out of almost no money.

2 -It is crazy hard making a movie on almost no budget (in this case about $3400) because that means you do everything yourself. You exhaust yourself setting up, then exhaust yourself spending all day filming, then exhaust yourself tearing down. And we did this spread out over about five months, from the end of January to the beginning of June. It was a struggle just to schedule the two to five actors (usually five) for each shooting day on days we were able to schedule a space, and then pray that no one would become ill. We didn't have that many shooting days, and so the ones we did have were rigorous and tough on the actors with what needed to be done. We did have some rehearsals beforehand, a number of discussions, but mainly we put a lot of trust in our actors who were crazily good. And though we didn't have that many shooting days (I'm not pulling out the schedule to check how many) those months (and beyond, we completed it in August) were consumed by the film, editing, Aaron working on the score, Marty doing sound.

One thing I'm not good at is taking photos to chronicle things, my mind is preoccupied with what's going on, so I don't have photos of the festival itself. Aaron didn't get any photos either, and neither did Marty (who was a huge part of the production, and did sound, so I'm happy also it was nominated for sound), so I'm not the only one at fault there.

So much thanks to our actors, Rachel Walker, Brice Heller, Joshua Haire, Lawson Reis, Chandler Balli, Megan Poole, and Michael Lamb, to Zia Jacobs who did a lot of everything, including make-up, to Hazel Cline and Steven Cline who worked on props and a mask, to Kevon Ward who further assisted with make-up. They were dedicated and we were lucky to have such talented individuals involved.

And many many thanks to the Buried Alive Film Festival for a great time! And to the Plaza Theater! It's lovely to view one's film at The Plaza! The Buried Alive Film Festival has been going on for eighteen years. Aaron got best local in 2023 for his short film "The Face of Oblivion", and I could swear the festival has grown even bigger in those two short years.

November 11, 2025 at 1:45 PM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Aaron’s feature “Intravenus” was paired with Sonny Newman’s short “Tempo Rubato” at the Buried Alive Film Festival. The films well complemented one another and the Q&A afterward was great as well. Really wonderful experience.

November 8, 2025 at 8:29 AM

Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

Today's the day. Aaron's "Intravenus" has its public premiere at The Plaza at 7:00 p.m., in theater 3, The Mike.

Below is the first trailer Aaron put together for it.

1 ... "Intravenus" is not straight genre horror,...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCex...