Wednesday, September 8, 2010

OFFICIAL SELECTION!!!


“Fugue” has been accepted to the 2010 Shriekfest Film Festival!!! It’s a thriller and horror-oriented fest in Los Angeles, and takes place from September 30 – October 3. We had high hopes we’d get in, as Barbara screened “Hurt” there last year, but it still felt good to get the call.

Shriekfest is a smaller fest, but it’s great that it takes place in Los Angeles. For one, we can invite distributors to come see it with a crowd, which is always better than watching it on DVD in a noisy office, on a tiny screen while the exec is checking email. Secondly, we have a shot of getting more reviews and coverage. We had a nice spike in audience interest in June, due to Dances With Films, but it’s fallen off a bit since then.

And I get it: buzz is a very difficult thing to maintain. Some movies start it too early, then interest disappears before the movie comes out. Others get it going too late, so people have no idea the film is even in theaters or on DVD. Hitting that “just right” middle ground is difficult, and there’s a reason marketing firms get paid millions of dollars to massage the buzz.

For us, what makes it especially difficult is we don’t have distribution. Because of that, we don’t have a release date, or even a release platform (theatrical, VOD, DVD, etc.) It’s hard to build toward something if you don’t have an end in sight. So we’ve been attempting a slow burn (much like our film) in the hopes that when we get a release date, we can kick things into overdrive.

Right now, we’re trying to get into some more festivals, increase our profile, and get some more good reviews. Playing at Shriekfest should certainly help with that.