I just submitted "Podunk" to five more festivals, bringing our overall total now to six. In addition to The Slamdance Film Festival, we're now on our way to consideration in the following fests:
1) New Hope Film Fest in PA
2) San Francisco International Festival of Shorts
3) Fade In Awards
4) Seattle International
5) Hawaii International Film Festival
Woofta. Time to start saving my pennies... Many of these festivals are quite a ways out. Hawaii Int'l, for example, won't have a response for us until September of 2011. I wonder where we'll be by then. I think this sudden surge of festival submissions will have to be the end of the road for the little movie that could, if only because now I am officially broke. Time to return to researching and writing new scripts; at least that's free. Now we enter the phase of praying, keeping fingers/toes, other extremities crossed, hoping, practicing patience, etc...
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
The next step is already underway.
In case you missed it, the trailer for "Podunk" can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVsZI4nTdz4
Or go to Youtube > "Podunk trailer" > it should be the third video down (We finally broke 200 :)
Well, life has essentially returned to normal after almost three weeks since the completion of "Podunk". In the weeks ahead I'll be submitting to a few more festivals, including the San Francisco International. With objectivity slowly returning and with it my ability to see this first venture for what it is I'm realizing how much I've learned. It saddens me slightly. I was so passionate and excited about this story earlier this year and all I wanted to do with it, but it was ultimately a student film, a trial-by-fire vehicle through which I could experiment and play and, hopefully, see where I can improve.
Though a premiere of any kind remains to be seen (and indeed will probably be forgone at this point due to several challenges) I have nevertheless shown the finished product to numerous people, many of whom have in turn shown others. I've heard generally positive reviews, with forgiveness granted to the mutually acknowledged shortcomings of the movie (sound being the overwhelming Achilles heel). "Podunk" doesn't look like a movie that would come out of a film school, and that's certainly not to its detriment. It's flaw is that I, the writer and director, had to see my mistakes before I could understand how to correct them.
I've made note of the issues in this movie for the next project. Some were issues I knew existed even at the script level, but wasn't sure how to fix or I wasn't entirely sure how they were issues until they were manifest on the screen. Others became issues in the shooting or often times the editing process, discovering that something I had believed worked on the page indeed didn't when portrayed. I wrote the script for "Podunk" in about a month. I've already begun resurrecting these characters and this world I tried to create. I've begun working on an "episode two", not a sequel but a part two of two that will finish what this movie started. I've also begun work on a feature-length treatment of this story that would incorporate the events of both, as well as revise and expand upon them.
In doing so I've tried to re-imagine this entire concept. My goal is to make both scripts stronger than this one was, fleshing out narrative threads and characters, adding more realism and depth and allowing more room for style in every aspect. I've already made contact with actual investigators and will soon speak with police authorities, an effort I was unsuccessful with in the spring when I began work on the first script. I'll have far more time to fine tune both scripts, starting now and finishing around April. Both stories will be stronger than the last.
Our Cinderella story may pass us by this time, and if it does I'd feel great solace in knowing that I know exactly why. Though I'm an optimist and have high hopes for what may come of this little movie that could I'm also not sitting by and waiting for it to happen. Word of this movie spread much farther than I had expected it would, and what you'll see from us in the future will go even farther. Many people were impressed by our amateur outing and what we were able to do on less than a shoestring budget. Just wait till the spring...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVsZI4nTdz4
Or go to Youtube > "Podunk trailer" > it should be the third video down (We finally broke 200 :)
Well, life has essentially returned to normal after almost three weeks since the completion of "Podunk". In the weeks ahead I'll be submitting to a few more festivals, including the San Francisco International. With objectivity slowly returning and with it my ability to see this first venture for what it is I'm realizing how much I've learned. It saddens me slightly. I was so passionate and excited about this story earlier this year and all I wanted to do with it, but it was ultimately a student film, a trial-by-fire vehicle through which I could experiment and play and, hopefully, see where I can improve.
Though a premiere of any kind remains to be seen (and indeed will probably be forgone at this point due to several challenges) I have nevertheless shown the finished product to numerous people, many of whom have in turn shown others. I've heard generally positive reviews, with forgiveness granted to the mutually acknowledged shortcomings of the movie (sound being the overwhelming Achilles heel). "Podunk" doesn't look like a movie that would come out of a film school, and that's certainly not to its detriment. It's flaw is that I, the writer and director, had to see my mistakes before I could understand how to correct them.
I've made note of the issues in this movie for the next project. Some were issues I knew existed even at the script level, but wasn't sure how to fix or I wasn't entirely sure how they were issues until they were manifest on the screen. Others became issues in the shooting or often times the editing process, discovering that something I had believed worked on the page indeed didn't when portrayed. I wrote the script for "Podunk" in about a month. I've already begun resurrecting these characters and this world I tried to create. I've begun working on an "episode two", not a sequel but a part two of two that will finish what this movie started. I've also begun work on a feature-length treatment of this story that would incorporate the events of both, as well as revise and expand upon them.
In doing so I've tried to re-imagine this entire concept. My goal is to make both scripts stronger than this one was, fleshing out narrative threads and characters, adding more realism and depth and allowing more room for style in every aspect. I've already made contact with actual investigators and will soon speak with police authorities, an effort I was unsuccessful with in the spring when I began work on the first script. I'll have far more time to fine tune both scripts, starting now and finishing around April. Both stories will be stronger than the last.
Our Cinderella story may pass us by this time, and if it does I'd feel great solace in knowing that I know exactly why. Though I'm an optimist and have high hopes for what may come of this little movie that could I'm also not sitting by and waiting for it to happen. Word of this movie spread much farther than I had expected it would, and what you'll see from us in the future will go even farther. Many people were impressed by our amateur outing and what we were able to do on less than a shoestring budget. Just wait till the spring...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)