Last night we had a test screening of my new film, Melvin.
Test screenings, by their very nature, are really tricky beasts to tangle with emotionally and intellectually. But I really have to say, there is a MONUMENTAL difference between seeing the film all by your lonesome in a dark room — and sitting in a room watching the film, presented as a film, with other people watching it with you. I felt hyper-aware and I felt like I could literally feel when the energy of the room was up or down or in between. It’s an all together mind-bending sort of experience… and as I do them more and more in my filmmaking life, the feeling of hyper-awareness hasn’t gone away at all.
That all said, the feedback and comments were thought-provoking and helped solidify the what’s working and what needs a little more love kind of choices. I’m reminded of an article in Filmmaker Magazine awhile back that said, “Don’t make your festival premiere your first test screening.” I feel like we haven’t with Melvin — and as a result, we’re going to have a better film.
Many, many thanks to the folks who shared a couple of hours in a dark room watching Melvin and I on our journey.
The Austin Film Society was wonderful enough to grant me a Texas Filmmakers’ Travel Grant, which helps with travel costs associated with attending prestigious film events or festivals — so that I could attend the IFP Labs with my new film MELVIN.
I wrote a festival dispatch about my experience… Please check it out on the Austin Film Society’s online journal, Persistence of Vision. Read it here.
Thanks AFS!
About the Texas Filmmakers’ Travel Grant:
The program is intended to help offset travel costs for Texans whose work is invited to prestigious film festivals and events around the world. Eligibility is based on the festival or event that the film has been invited to, not on the film itself, and you need not be a member of the Austin Film Society to apply. More info about the program can be found here.
Recently, I wrote a guest blog post for Ted Hope’s wonderful site, Truly Free Film. My post is called The Mentoring Mindset as A Key to Film Sustainability and it went live on his site this morning — you can check it out here.
Many thanks to Ted for letting me share some thoughts on his page — and to my two close friends, Gary Temple and Gregory Collins, who gave me some much needed writing/editing assistance.
Like a lot of folks trying to get films made these days, it’s an incredibly difficult process. And if you’re reading this blog, you probably read Ted Hope’s blog over at Truly Free Film… for a lot of us, it’s a must read.
But on a slightly different note… I’ve been keeping this quote (from another of Ted’s blogs) on a post-it near my edit system as well as in a file right on my desktop. It’s a simple reminder, but more than that, it’s help me to believe we’re doing a few things right with our new film, MELVIN. The quote below — and the the link to the post, here.
When did American movies start trying to clarify absolutely everything? What is our national obsession with trying to provide a psychological explanation for all characters’ behavior? If you ask me, I think we have gone overboard. Way overboard. Time to leave that practice behind.
It’s refreshing to see a few films recently start to abandon this practice. Miyazaki’s PONYO did not try to explain the magic (at least in the version released Stateside). Neil Blomkamp’s DISTRICT 9 did not try to explain why the aliens landed here or how people learned their language.
It is fun for the viewer to come up with their own explanations, to discuss these possibilities with their friends. We certainly don’t know everything about our world and leaving some gaps in the narrative feels truer as a result.
TED HOPE
Thanks, Ted.
I’ll write more really, really soon… but long story short, the week in NYC at the IFP Independent Filmmaker Narrative Labs was an absolutely AMAZING one. I feel like a better, healthier, smarter filmmaker because of it. And MELVIN will be a better, more prepared, supported film when we get it OUT THERE into the world. Mr. Gregory Collins (the co-writer of MELVIN and the director of the forthcoming THOKOZANI) attended with me — and together, we spent an intensive week discussing all things relevant to finishing, marketing, promoting and distributing MELVIN in the current film landscape… An exhausting — absolute BLAST!
Many, many thanks to the wonderful folks who made it all happen at IFP and walked us through a career’s worth of material in one week: Scott Macaulay, Susan Stover, Jon Reiss, Amy Dotson and Rose Vincelli… and the couple of folks who tagged in to specifically talk to me about MELVIN; editor Tricia Cooke and filmmaker Sol Tryon.
Here’s a photo taken by Danielle DiGiacomo, an IFP staffer who was generous enough to share the photo with all of us in attendance. 10 films that’ll hit the world in the coming year or two — and 10 teams of filmmakers to be reckoned with. More soon…
..and a random collection of news, notes and press releases about the IFP Narrative Labs: IFP’s Official Press Release, 13 Takeaways from the IFP Narrative Lab – via Filmmaker Magazine, Screen Daily Mention, indieWIRE’s Press Release, Filmmaker Magazine Article, IMDB’s Mention, Independent Filmmaker Project Blog – Victoria Mahoney (Yelling to the Sky), Independent Filmmaker Project Blog – Lucy Malloy (Una Noche)
MELVIN has been selected for the 2010 Narrative Independent Filmmaker Labs, held in New York, June 7-11, 2010. MELVIN is 1 of 10 narrative rough/fine cuts chosen for its “creative vision and promise.” From the official press release, “The Labs will provide you with five days of mentorship, support and one-on-one advice from top technical, creative, and industry experts. The week-long workshop is only the beginning of your year-long fellowship with IFP.”
I can’t even tell you how excited I am for Gregory and I to be a part of the Labs this year. I’ve watched from afar as a number of filmmaker-friends have participated and reported back about how influential and inspiring the Labs have been for them. I think it’s a tremendous opportunity and I’m thankful to Amy, Rose, Scott, Jon and the other folks at the IFP for including MELVIN (and our team). More news to share very soon!
As we begin the process (and yes, we’re overdue) of getting the word out about MELVIN, we’re starting to populate our different online destinations. One of them will of course be the MELVIN facebook page — where we’ll definitely share the most up to date and soundbyte-y information… We hope you’ll become our friend — or “like” us — as it’s now officially presented. More to come of course — and some great news to share in about 4 weeks.
On April 1st, we launched a Kickstarter Campaign to raise $3,000 in 30 days – for finishing funds for our new film, MELVIN.
I can happily report that, WE MADE IT!
The much-needed financial help is wonderful, but the Kickstarter campaign has also given us a tremendous boost in terms of energy – and project recognition. I think Kickstarter is a wonderful tool and it’s been a great experience (although at times during the campaign I have been incredibly anxious waiting for the dollar amount to move up the slightest bit incrementally).
I saw Ted Hope’s tweet early yesterday morning, Kickstarter: $1.5 million in pledges the past month, more than 1,000 successfully funded projects overall. This makes me realize that there are a lot of success stories out there (and it seems that for every victory on Kickstarter, there is unfortunately, another project that did not find funding) but I’m happy to see that in difficult economic times, artists in a variety of different disciplines are finding ways for their work to be realized.
In the next week, we’ve got other great news to share about MELVIN – but we can’t report on it just yet…
That said, I do want to thank the folks behind Kickstarter. Their tool has been an invaluable one and has truly helped give this project a renewed life at a time that it needed it most.
Nice surprise yesterday — waking up to see MELVIN profiled as part of indieWIRE’s column In the Works. (I knew the film might get profiled at some point, but wasn’t sure how soon it would be).
In the past week, MELVIN was also mentioned in the Cinematical article, “Can Kickstarter Save the Indie Film Industry?” as well as in the Austin Film Society’s Journal, Persistence of Vision.
And if you’re still reading this… we’ll have a MELVIN dedicated website real, real soon… and we hope you’ll become a fan of the film on Facebook too!
Wow. It’s wonderful to say that with 11 days left (of our 30-day Kickstarter Campaign) – we’ve reached our fund-raising goal for MELVIN!
I’m so, so grateful for the outpouring of support — and it’s definitely injected the project with a new burst of energy as we push towards the finish.
*NOTE – Although we’ve reached our $3,000 goal, we’re trying to raise another 10% ($300) to offset Amazon.com’s service fees, and the cost of shipping our rewards. So, to clear and collect our full $3,000 — we need to reach $3,300.00. (Hint… Hint…)
And in an appropriately timed way, we were just mentioned in the Cinematical article, Can Kickstarter Save the Indie Film Industry?
We’ll have all the rewards (per the pledges) available by the end of the Summer — and we can’t wait to share the finished film with you.
In our efforts to start bringing MELVIN to life, we’ve started a KICKSTARTER Campaign… and in 5 days we’ve raised $660. That’s just about where we need to be… we gave ourselves 30 days to raise $3,000 (or $100/day). That said, we still need A LOT of help.
On our KICKSTARTER PAGE, you’ll see different PLEDGE AMOUNTS for various levels of giving. But rather than looking for a donation to the film, we are pre-selling goods from the movie in order to finish MELVIN. This way, we’re both giving and receiving.
We’re asking you to buy a digital download of MELVIN, or a limited edition dvd, a signed poster or a MELVIN-Customized SIGG Water Bottle. Or you can simply pledge $10 to add your name (and link) to our special thanks on the website and in our film’s closing credits. All you need to do is go to our page and click the green box:
And Amazon Payments handles the rest… If you’ve ever bought anything from Amazon.com, it’s just that easy to pledge to our film. So if you would, jump on over to our KICKSTARTER PAGE and take a look at what we’re offering. It’s much appreciated. (and to get a better understanding of Kickstarter, here’s a link to their FAQ)
As MELVIN begins to come to life (as we’re in finecut mode of the film) we’re releasing more and more pieces of the puzzle. Our talented friend Mr. Yen Tan has finished a new design for our first MELVIN poster. Simple. Bold. Melvin. That’s what we were looking for. Let us know what you think (in our comments box below). More MELVIN goods are coming your way constantly, from here on out. (click here to see a larger version)
In my “works-in-progress” kind of news, we have a finecut of my first feature film. Seeing the film, from end to end, is enthralling, scary, calming and humbling all at the same time. Of course it needs many, many more man hours of work and there are things that work and don’t quite work in the film, but getting to see it all in one fell swoop, “like a real movie” has definitely moved the film to its next stop on the train tracks of its life. I’m excited to show the film to a few carefully selected folks who can articulate what they think about it in its current form… I’m headed back into the editing room, but I can’t ever go back from where the film is now in its life… and that feels really good.
