tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16510163321739679542024-03-14T09:06:54.233-07:00The Green MonsterThe Making of the Movie "Fugue"Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-77791759108567298102011-09-11T23:25:00.000-07:002011-09-11T23:32:59.717-07:00Act 3I know, I know, I know. It’s been forever since we’ve posted anything here. We’ve certainly been busy – having a baby, working day jobs, writing other scripts and making other projects – but I think the reason we haven’t come back to post here is that the ending of the “Fugue” story hadn’t been written yet. I think, after almost three years since we began this project, the third act is finally here. <br /><br />How to sum up the last year? We found one sales agent, lost him, found another, spent many months not having a lot of luck finding distribution, finally signed with a distributor, then spent more months trying to find distribution outlets. We were told by many people that almost no small indie films are getting a DVD release any more, because the cost simply isn’t justified. So we decided to master and put out the <a href="http://www.fuguethefilm.com/buydvd.html">DVD</a> ourselves, hoping that we could time it with a digital release. <br /><br />And after more months of waiting, in August we got the news from our sales agent that “Fugue” would be appearing on <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/fugue/id458260994">iTunes</a> and CinemaNow starting September 6. We’re also going to be available on TVN’s Video On Demand service from 10/17 – 12/16 of this year. And on top of that, we’ll be on Hulu in 2012 and we may have some other release opportunities this fall. <br /><br />So our little movie is finally going out into the world. True, we didn’t get into any major film festivals or premiere in 4000 theaters, but our film also cost less than a new car to produce. I personally feel like it was a great experience, and we literally got to see every aspect of film production, from conception to release. And best of all, we’re not cynical or depressed about the process. I feel like we’re all going to make another feature, only next time it will be bigger and better. <br /><br />That’s pretty much the end of the story. There may be more updates or posts as things come up, but this is our movie’s ride into the sunset. It’s in the hands of the audience now. <br /><br />Thank you again to everyone who’s supported us for the last three years, who came to a screening, bought a DVD, or took the time to write us a nice review or comment. Film is a communal, collaborative medium, and we couldn’t have gotten here without your help.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-42307072873550295452010-09-08T11:01:00.000-07:002010-09-08T11:08:21.669-07:00OFFICIAL SELECTION!!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdAHhySAoQRKrEniGe3OyHGNMdIdP1GN6H9AfP9UQJdBG54Q0t-JO0TowOmZgSvWYflCDHeQ9moCQ3pbR4kZF5zs1BhJifUCpLLF4xnrpMZsr5oRbCagNs7MKESoCNt3brgU-O17W54rg/s1600/LL+Shriekfest.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdAHhySAoQRKrEniGe3OyHGNMdIdP1GN6H9AfP9UQJdBG54Q0t-JO0TowOmZgSvWYflCDHeQ9moCQ3pbR4kZF5zs1BhJifUCpLLF4xnrpMZsr5oRbCagNs7MKESoCNt3brgU-O17W54rg/s320/LL+Shriekfest.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514605275796560594" /></a><br />“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 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1046936/">“Hurt”</a> there last year, but it still felt good to get the call. <br /><br />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. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi69nPrGPz8cH0fk6VUjUrw-O-kWeELFT7dmkBv9l0ytVUQXqXYEPragGi-IIbrsxtqJJDNfGeQw_YN3PugPq-97feM1L0cBa28eJobVnlIakCksTbiiiP8s7a5uyIn2LimUvw9vVFeT_g/s1600/shriekfest_logo.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 254px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi69nPrGPz8cH0fk6VUjUrw-O-kWeELFT7dmkBv9l0ytVUQXqXYEPragGi-IIbrsxtqJJDNfGeQw_YN3PugPq-97feM1L0cBa28eJobVnlIakCksTbiiiP8s7a5uyIn2LimUvw9vVFeT_g/s320/shriekfest_logo.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514605458400408066" /></a><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-25484976458487976742010-08-03T11:58:00.000-07:002010-08-03T15:12:07.791-07:00Hurry Up and Wait<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKSm3LEo8WvZ5oaKs-PXE1SSLJnFMLcTKs25WntGY9O7-H2dxac-i6_8mXben1pA3IrEvNGQZYlvLMw5WYdSb9NhuEDLdNlSPuaJwyvcdzFgOK5GAsmVNQflMl95DMuRp2uV9Me4S1qDk/s1600/IMG_0260.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKSm3LEo8WvZ5oaKs-PXE1SSLJnFMLcTKs25WntGY9O7-H2dxac-i6_8mXben1pA3IrEvNGQZYlvLMw5WYdSb9NhuEDLdNlSPuaJwyvcdzFgOK5GAsmVNQflMl95DMuRp2uV9Me4S1qDk/s320/IMG_0260.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5501309732514025826" /></a><br />Filmmaking moves in fits and starts. You’ll be going along at a work-like pace, then something will happen – a festival acceptance, an interested actor – and suddenly you’ll be putting in 14 hour days, eating nothing but take-out, and grinding, grinding, grinding. Then you wake up one morning, and it all stops. You’ve sent off your DVD, or your latest draft, or your agonized-over email, and there’s literally nothing to do except wait for a response.<br /><br />And wait. And wait. And WAIT. <br /><br />It can be a bit nerve-wracking, to have spent all this energy on something, only to send it out in to the cold, cruel world with no idea whatsoever is happening. That’s why I learned a long time ago to always have multiple projects going. You finish a stage with one, you go immediately into something else. It’s the only way to not drive yourself completely crazy.<br /><br />In the “trying not to go crazy” department, we signed with a sales agent a month ago. His name is <a href="www.cutentertainmentgroup.com">Jeff Cooper</a>, and he was very up-front about what the market is like right now. Short version: there’s not a lot of up-front money for sales, the DVD market is shrinking by the day, and there’s more and more movies jostling for distributors’ attention. <br /><br />What we do have going for us is some positive press. The reviews have all been pretty good so far, and we’re confident that once it starts to get out there, word of mouth will help out our sales. For those not following us on Facebook, we just had a great interview with Barbara published in “Rogue Cinema.” You can check it out <a href="http://www.roguecinema.com/article2294.html">here</a>.<br /><br />But for the most part, “Fugue” is in the waiting room. Waiting to hear back from festivals, to hear from distributors, and to see what will be required for the next hurry phase.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-57318722102053186222010-06-28T14:17:00.001-07:002010-06-28T14:21:19.178-07:00The End is No End<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOGHBwRsC5sNBdEgpmfzwEyqvJpRUzKNmSM_dRToJNDo0gCfBeds3ntzevDr53cLSgLxT3CCHac_qAmcpGBo5PxCdoD88b1_1-Gstzky19Ci9WIVdn9zafblt7WR5-a2vKAZ-iPr2nxZA/s1600/qna2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOGHBwRsC5sNBdEgpmfzwEyqvJpRUzKNmSM_dRToJNDo0gCfBeds3ntzevDr53cLSgLxT3CCHac_qAmcpGBo5PxCdoD88b1_1-Gstzky19Ci9WIVdn9zafblt7WR5-a2vKAZ-iPr2nxZA/s320/qna2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487937318013520258" /></a><br />So you finally finished your movie. Congratulations! Many, many people have set out to make a film, and they haven’t gotten as far as this. But I have some sobering news for you, my weary artistic cinephile: you’re not done yet. Not by a long shot. <br /><br />Because movies, like all artistic creations, are meant to be seen. To do that, you have to get them in front of a paying audience. These days, that can mean any number of things: theatrical, Video on Demand, Netflix, Redbox, YouTube, iTunes – the list is enormous. There are even filmmakers who do it themselves, selling DVDs of their films directly through their website. <br /><br />But if you want a bigger audience, you need to go to a bona-fide film distributor. A company who knows the business, the sales outlets, the contracts, the marketing, etc. We literally finished our movie four weeks ago, and we’ve already been approached by sales agents, producer’s reps, and distributors. They all want to see “Fugue,” and if they like it, they all want to be involved with the selling of it to an audience. <br /><br />This can mean any number of things. Right now, the film distribution market is like the Wild West: there are no rules, there’s not a lot of money, and there’s plenty of crooks trying to take advantage. <br /><br />We haven’t signed any deals yet, so we can’t mention specifics, but we have developed a methodology that seems to be worthwhile. Here it is:<br /><br />DO A BACKGROUND CHECK. If someone wants to get into business with you, the first thing you should do is check out their website. Does it look reputable? Do any of the films look familiar? Where are they based? No matter what, DO NOT send a copy of your movie until you’re satisfied they won’t plaster it all over the Internet. <br />If everything seems above board, then you can move to Step 2:<br /><br />TAKE A MEETING. In person is best, but phone is a good back-up if you’re not in the same state. It’s a lot like a first date – you’re trying to get a sense if the two of you work together. You don’t have to be best friends, but you want to make sure the people you’re working with are honest, they understand the market, and they have sufficient experience/contacts. Ask them about recent, similar films they’ve worked on. Definitely ask them for references. Remember, they are working for you. Without your product, they have nothing to sell. <br /> Once you get a good feeling from them, and a sense of what they will do with your movie, you can go to Step 3:<br /><br />GET A SECOND (AND THIRD, AND FOURTH) OPINION. Call other filmmakers the company or rep has worked with. Ask them if they were satisfied with the relationship. How long did they take to get a callback? How timely were their payment disbursements? Do this enough times, and you should get a good sense of who the people are you’ll be dealing with. <br /> If you decide to sign with them, you move on to:<br /><br />READ YOUR CONTRACT. There’s a reason it’s called the film business. There are contracts for everything. It’s all in extremely boring, dense legalese, but read every line. The difference between 24 months and in perpetuity is literally infinite. If there’s something you don’t understand, have the company or an entertainment lawyer explain it to you. Realize that everything in the contract is negotiable. If there’s a bit of language you don’t like, ask to take it out or change it. <br /> This process may take weeks, even months, but it’s okay to:<br /><br />TAKE YOUR TIME. You’ve been working on this movie how long – two years? Three? The last thing you want to do is rush things at the end. Because once you sign that deal, you are locked in for a long time. At the very least, you want to be satisfied that you exhausted all your possibilities. Even if you don’t end up with the best deal, you’ll know it was the best you could do. <br /> Finally, throughout all of these steps, remember:<br /><br />BE PROFESSIONAL. Return emails and phone calls, be polite, deliver stuff on time. If you act like a pro, then hopefully the people you’re working with will do the same. And if they don’t, you will be well within your rights to call them on it.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-8620227621582904422010-06-13T14:56:00.000-07:002010-06-13T15:02:28.757-07:00Lessons from the Red Carpet<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ZQ-Gtql0GsppjSAdnEB6f-fyJb_QYaV4p0dJ7t_KwgHkjhPI3UppKdAXkOSTaZQ2Cb0HmWQwwFoV7Zn_lLnYeCC1mFPycelYucNEbfJ4YGfNxECTVSlLZ79HUhHAoqdAB-AdChIfqKw/s1600/dwf5.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ZQ-Gtql0GsppjSAdnEB6f-fyJb_QYaV4p0dJ7t_KwgHkjhPI3UppKdAXkOSTaZQ2Cb0HmWQwwFoV7Zn_lLnYeCC1mFPycelYucNEbfJ4YGfNxECTVSlLZ79HUhHAoqdAB-AdChIfqKw/s320/dwf5.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482381452798872354" /></a><br />We had a great time premiering “Fugue” at Dances with Films. Our screening was nearly sold out, we got a lot of great comments about the movie, and we met a ton of nice filmmakers. <br /><br />It was also a major learning experience. While Barbara has been to plenty of festivals, this was my first time showing a movie in a festival setting. For those of you heading to your first fest, or anyone who wants to prepare, here are some lessons we learned from the red carpet:<br /><br />LOOK YOUR BEST. Everything at a film festival is up for documentation. There are photographers, journalists, EPK interviewers. At any moment, you could be in a picture. Think about how you want to be remembered, and how you want other people to see you on the Internet. The photos of myself on Facebook nearly doubled from the week I spent at Dances With Films, and not all of them are the next cover of Entertainment Weekly. <br /><br />If, like me, you’re uncomfortable in front of cameras, do some tests. Find a relaxed look or smile that works for you, and use it. In terms of dress, fancy-casual seems to be the key. Suits are unnecessary, but a nice shirt and pants work well for guys. Dresses a step below cocktail are nice for girls. <br /><br />BE FRIENDLY & ATTENTIVE. You’re going to meet a lot of new people at the festival, and it helps to be polite. Remember, this festival isn’t just about you and your masterpiece. Dances With Films is relatively small, and there were still 100 films there. Ask where other filmmakers are from, what their movie’s about, what else have they seen or made. Give them five minutes of your attention, and be interested. There’s nothing more frustrating than having a conversation with someone who’s constantly looking over your shoulder for someone “cooler.” You never know what you might get from those five minutes, so make them count. <br /><br />BRAND YOURSELF. There are several ways to go about this – develop a certain look, wear an over-the-top costume from your film, or make clothing items with your movie’s title on them. But you absolutely must have some way for people to identify you. Again, there are at least 100 movies at a festival – how will people remember who are? By connecting you with a certain film.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiieOsf90iPP8XefyY3X7-rm6inPq-2xXAmVgFYkOqqg0Xt8n-dVCdmz-qH7uTWeqRdn5YGR96LUVR2POp4U05v7dhQRRWj_LsTGQpBU0-WYjwo_IyHc38AJxY0KMOinATJHjda77zXceQ/s1600/IMG_0211.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiieOsf90iPP8XefyY3X7-rm6inPq-2xXAmVgFYkOqqg0Xt8n-dVCdmz-qH7uTWeqRdn5YGR96LUVR2POp4U05v7dhQRRWj_LsTGQpBU0-WYjwo_IyHc38AJxY0KMOinATJHjda77zXceQ/s320/IMG_0211.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482381675617519586" /></a><br />One of the filmmakers at DWF wore a cheerleading outfit for days (his movie was about a serial killer who attacks a cheerleader camp). You certainly don’t need to go this far, but it was memorable. We found that simply attaching our postcard to our festival badge was enough. Because we had a recognizable poster, people started remembering who we were. After the screening, we even had people come up to us and say they liked the movie, which they could do because we were wearing the poster. <br /><br />GO TO AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. You’re at a film festival, and you’ve worked on your movie for years. Take a few days to relax and enjoy yourself. See some movies, meet other filmmakers, go to the talks, have drinks with people. You never know where it will lead. We went to the DWF Happy Hour one night, had a half hour conversation with a couple of people, and they turned out to be distributors. They requested a screener of our movie a couple days later. Which leads to another big lesson --<br /><br />TAKE IT EASY. You’ve worked really hard to get here, but don’t let the stress and social pressure get to you. Chill. There’s nothing worse than a hard sell, as anyone who’s been in a used car lot will tell you. Be friendly, introduce yourself, but don’t launch immediately into asking how much someone wants to buy your film for, or how you need representation, or finishing funds, or investors for the next project. Talk to people, be nice, get numbers – but don’t launch into business unless they take it there. Then, once you get back from the festival, you can do the final lesson –<br /><br />FOLLOW UP. Whomever you met, be they filmmakers, crew people, or distributors, make sure to touch base once the festival is over. Like many things in this business, you have no idea where the relationship could go. Maybe nowhere. Or maybe they’ll fund your next project. You’ll never know unless you actually stay in touch with them. <br /><br />Think of it like dating. If you get someone’s number, you’re not gonna call them that night. You’ll wait a few days, then move it along slowly. If you don’t hear back from them immediately, give it a few days before you check in. Otherwise, you’re a creepy stalker. You don’t want to be like Jon Favreau:<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZChD_Gni8U<br /><br />Finally, DON’T DRINK TOO MUCH. This is your time to kick back, but it’s also work. You’re here to sell your film, not prove how good your table-top dancing is. Liquor abounds at festivals, so I recommend the Alternate Method: for every glass of booze, have a glass of water. It’s easier on the pocket book, prevents hangovers, and helps you pace yourself.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-322665361497738552010-05-31T15:25:00.000-07:002010-05-31T15:29:39.432-07:00Marketing<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYVa43xPXs4WBQLb06GD3K04_BLfx64-55ov2XjSIlxwbJ0PgBeAOn3HqfKxt118KMb8DDS5YDnVI_d-jjMbuYO8ovBFZbiY4Ex0BCjazPotQ5Hq-wphXylmH_KV37wHA_sxQIL_lhJ0E/s1600/IMG_2312.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYVa43xPXs4WBQLb06GD3K04_BLfx64-55ov2XjSIlxwbJ0PgBeAOn3HqfKxt118KMb8DDS5YDnVI_d-jjMbuYO8ovBFZbiY4Ex0BCjazPotQ5Hq-wphXylmH_KV37wHA_sxQIL_lhJ0E/s320/IMG_2312.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477564706881023138" /></a><br />We’re officially a week away from our World Premiere, and things are kicking into high gear. Our publicist started sending out press releases last week, and we’ve already gotten write-ups in <a href="http://www.pretty-scary.net/content/world-premiere-barbara-stepanskys-horror-fugue-dances-films">Pretty/Scary</a>, <a href="http://www.fatally-yours.com/news/barbara-stepanskys-fugue-to-premiere-at-dances-with-films-festival/">Fatally Yours</a>, <a href="http://www3.webng.com/horrormoviesandstuff/Fugue.html">Horror Movies & Stuff</a>, <a href="http://www.28dayslateranalysis.com/2010/05/fugue-tries-hard-not-to-remember-past.html">28 Days Later Analysis</a>, and a cool article in <a href="http://www.ecranfantastique.net/4images/details.php?image_id=24093">L’Ecran Fantistique</a> sandwiched between “The Hobbit” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Pretty amazing that a little movie we made in Barbara’s backyard could end up in the same news feed as those two.<br /><br />It’s a good start, but none of this happened by itself. It’s a DIY world in today’s film industry. Even our friends who have gotten their films distributed can’t count on having someone else doing a marketing campaign. In short, it’s up to us. If you’ve done creative work, YOU are going to be in charge of getting it out there.<br /><br />The good news is, it’s easier and cheaper than ever to spread the word about your movie. Here are several FREE options we’ve done to make people aware of “Fugue”:<br /><br />- Started this blog, which we (mostly) update regularly.<br />- Started a Twitter account <br />- Created a Facebook fan page<br />- Wrote a press release and sent it to the above websites<br /><br />Then there’s the marketing for which we’ve shelled out a little dough:<br /><br />- Hired a designer to create an awesome poster<br />- Used that design to fashion a website <br />- Printed posters<br />- Printed 1000 postcards<br /><br />All of the above cost less than $1000, which is pretty amazing in today’s marketplace. But we wouldn’t have gotten that price if we hadn’t been willing to do a lot of it ourselves. Juliane, our production designer/co-producer, offered to learn HTML so we wouldn’t have to pay someone to make a website. Barbara and I took turns sending the press release to various websites. And we all banded together to shoot photos of Abby that ended up creating the poster. <br /><br />You have to be willing to put 100% into it, for no pay. If you don’t love it that much, how can you convince anyone else to give you 90 minutes of their time? Look at everything we have to compete with: TV, studio movies, sleep. To make people notice your little movie, you have to be willing to go the extra mile. <br /><br />Or the extra six miles. That’s how much I walked on Friday, hand-delivering our postcards to various spots around Los Angeles. I hit the Third Street Promenade, trod the breadth and length of the entire UCLA campus, and papered the Sunset Laemmle with our postcards. We also recruited friends and family members to leave postcards in Sherman Oaks, USC, Cal State LA, and the Hollywood area. <br /><br />It’s really not clear how much this will translate into actual butts in the seats on Sunday, but the real goal is to expand awareness of “Fugue.” If we pass out 1000 postcards, get 100 people to visit the website/watch the trailer, and get 10 people to see the movie, then that’s pretty good. More importantly, getting people talking about it will drive up our web traffic, and will expand our profile. <br /><br />It seems to be working: our website traffic spiked 235% last week, and our IMDB pages nearly doubled in visits. Hopefully we’ll keep getting good reactions once people watch the movie. Because when it comes to independent film, you have to be awesome just to stand out from the pack.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-13713829833102300232010-05-24T18:55:00.000-07:002010-05-24T19:03:24.169-07:00Two Thumbs How?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5UE7FHQU78Z1aE2f7kkOm7BFHgdoMaQCe2X7_kUkjZPfkoz3NbUw2d_EgueMhvFpcKYZBnI7Hgi6pGPjWwwp5VU8mMlwyAd_xeGEHAqzzTFtwBMijhGuxYx7uGpCwF5oUyMsvdB1zqdA/s1600/siskel-and-ebert-with-thumbs.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 238px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5UE7FHQU78Z1aE2f7kkOm7BFHgdoMaQCe2X7_kUkjZPfkoz3NbUw2d_EgueMhvFpcKYZBnI7Hgi6pGPjWwwp5VU8mMlwyAd_xeGEHAqzzTFtwBMijhGuxYx7uGpCwF5oUyMsvdB1zqdA/s320/siskel-and-ebert-with-thumbs.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5475020656795790226" /></a> This morning, Juliane gave a copy of “Fugue” to <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/02/entertainment/et-northwest2">Susan King</a> at the Los Angeles Times. She’s writing a piece on Dances With Films, and our publicist made sure she was aware of our movie and was going to watch it. In fact, she took the DVD out of Juliane’s hand in person. Even though newspaper budgets are low, it says something about our publicist that she gave the delivery personal attention.<br /><br />Since we were in the middle of the mix and operating on less than five hours of sleep, we didn’t appreciate the enormity of what had just transpired. Our little backyard movie is going to be watched, and hopefully reviewed, by the largest newspaper in Los Angeles. Whether we get a good or bad review, the exposure will increase the visibility of our project exponentially. <br /><br />What’s ironic is, I used to be a film reviewer. I’ve dismissed and lauded plenty of movies without a second thought as to who actually made them. In fact, I noticed that it was actually easier to write bad reviews – there’s just more synonyms in the English language for “crappy.” <br /><br />This brings up an interesting thing about making movies. We’ve been working on “Fugue” since December of 2008. Up to this point, it’s been ours to do with as we wish. We’re still making decisions every day that slightly change the film (hopefully for the better). But once we put it out there, it’s no longer our movie. It will take on a life of its own. People will be free to think whatever they want about it. And in this, the Age of Interwebs, they will also be free to post those thoughts online for all to see.<br /><br />All of which puts us on pins and needles a little bit. Our baby is officially out of our hands. Ms. King could give us a great review, a lousy one, or she could choose to not to mention us at all. It’s a bit of a crap shoot, really – we’ve all been in bad moods when we’ve watched films, and no doubt it colors our perception of them. <br /><br />So I have a favor to ask the regular readers of this blog. If you like us, if you support us, send some happy vibes Susan King’s way. If she has a nice day, it may make a huge difference to the future of “Fugue.”Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-58478007816939553062010-05-20T18:04:00.000-07:002010-05-20T18:37:13.542-07:00We have a POSTER!!It’s been a long time coming, but it's finally here. Thanks to <a href="http://www.pthalo-moon.com/">Ryan</a>, our awesome designer, and <a href="http://www.stephaniediani.com/">Stephanie</a>, who took the source pictures. And of course, Abby, who could sell ice cream to an Eskimo. Check it out:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBN7xJYE6-qZYJUw17UGgHiO-Gspydrpg4xwsCQzQBgX9W5i7X-kfJASEEeQ-JZqE9gi8V9Usn2k6Y7vyfmlCdTgEPREu-S4odQDd_9ws_S0pS0EtooPpNLoJv7ldyrIO8YRyNTEu3aMc/s1600/Fugue_Poster_FINAL_small.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 270px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBN7xJYE6-qZYJUw17UGgHiO-Gspydrpg4xwsCQzQBgX9W5i7X-kfJASEEeQ-JZqE9gi8V9Usn2k6Y7vyfmlCdTgEPREu-S4odQDd_9ws_S0pS0EtooPpNLoJv7ldyrIO8YRyNTEu3aMc/s400/Fugue_Poster_FINAL_small.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473529349723865266" /></a><br /><br />Getting to this final design has been an interesting and illuminating process. We have been talking about the poster since last June, and the core team is very happy with our final design. <br /><br />Ryan was kind enough to include an alternate design, as well:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3y3KQDAmEKCYWsqb-2ykbVRpV0MQi4a3PwDfBdh23PMwu-0Pub-X9focX3H9tWUoAsN2X4CKD4gkCHbabTkvUdJGhpI5MuiFPdxbZiGpedpKD1jHotMI-6ueJqO4R7nPrvY38HAfaJ2g/s1600/F_9_0516.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 215px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3y3KQDAmEKCYWsqb-2ykbVRpV0MQi4a3PwDfBdh23PMwu-0Pub-X9focX3H9tWUoAsN2X4CKD4gkCHbabTkvUdJGhpI5MuiFPdxbZiGpedpKD1jHotMI-6ueJqO4R7nPrvY38HAfaJ2g/s320/F_9_0516.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473523626287393442" /></a><br /><br />We like this one, too, and plan on using it for postcards and sections of our website at the minimum. But in the end, we thought the “shoulder poster” had a bit more visceral punch. <br /><br />Since we’ve now picked a winner, I thought it might be fun to look at some of the also-rans. None of these are “bad,” per se, they just ended up not selling our movie in what we thought was the best way possible. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAPDM2THG54EdJtnnYteyIMYu5L0mYyRPVWsLXDuPdGZNTQ8gD5yKEccRITZjRp37K5V95uEpDbwg9-gsQHiFkebb1oBPIfEwE3Mv5sSn6U_os9bfnkCSdJsO8cwR2HzCQUgRaqxxYvaQ/s1600/FUGUE_postercomp2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 216px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAPDM2THG54EdJtnnYteyIMYu5L0mYyRPVWsLXDuPdGZNTQ8gD5yKEccRITZjRp37K5V95uEpDbwg9-gsQHiFkebb1oBPIfEwE3Mv5sSn6U_os9bfnkCSdJsO8cwR2HzCQUgRaqxxYvaQ/s320/FUGUE_postercomp2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473524051399227538" /></a> An early, alternate take of Ryan's. Cool colors, but we worried about comparisons to the color palette of <a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2009/08/04/avatar-poster-neytiri.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2009/08/another_sparkly_blue_alien_fac.php&h=673&w=450&sz=36&tbnid=AcEr976QgIAVJM:&tbnh=138&tbnw=92&prev=/images%3Fq%3Davatar%2Bposter&hl=en&usg=__SKAe2RqhMPx1u3j9lb8yxJK3FWM=&ei=ld31S8ShLZGEswOlir2IBQ&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=3&ct=image&ved=0CDEQ9QEwAg">"Avatar."</a> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwD4OTko96dTzRmn4J-UjurYwZHaQvuC0eQB38i3Ka4YlTGY8H7Up2K23OdqdKB1yRY7OhDbzCWBTjBt5h_rlKa9NcOu-qfrSCKMfyxHx_NCDxa8ZSDdyh077jiGaLaHofJnbXpzze-RE/s1600/FUGUE_postercomp3.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 216px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwD4OTko96dTzRmn4J-UjurYwZHaQvuC0eQB38i3Ka4YlTGY8H7Up2K23OdqdKB1yRY7OhDbzCWBTjBt5h_rlKa9NcOu-qfrSCKMfyxHx_NCDxa8ZSDdyh077jiGaLaHofJnbXpzze-RE/s320/FUGUE_postercomp3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473526689327932418" /></a> Totally different direction. Love the upside-down head, but it ultimately felt more like an arthouse drama than a scary, ghostly thriller. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAGb4y6sIb-2FoJVSpn4uFNP2i0-bz6_Au-wPAD8GHA_hvQX-3fERLM_z1z7Er3QmK_sIpK82fw2cZVz2AeWNWhrM9S2MjXoPfUFi2MHQ9Ud94lNRPNcua600s0fEEiqYffX8MMIiugfo/s1600/fugue.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 233px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAGb4y6sIb-2FoJVSpn4uFNP2i0-bz6_Au-wPAD8GHA_hvQX-3fERLM_z1z7Er3QmK_sIpK82fw2cZVz2AeWNWhrM9S2MjXoPfUFi2MHQ9Ud94lNRPNcua600s0fEEiqYffX8MMIiugfo/s320/fugue.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473528166288379874" /></a> Our very first attempt at a poster, done with a still from the shoot. We've come a long way. Thanks again to Ryan, Stephanie, Abby, and Juliane for their help with the whole process!!Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-45279334048862948972010-05-16T07:24:00.000-07:002010-05-16T07:30:50.235-07:00PR or Not PR<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9nIqpNhL5sq390ZPzE7t6jwXEtJ8dBPhHFPHj0VrQ6FRVMs5GsAphOm3W-TEj8LGgFKdjtJw_bcukw0m1C-0gJDqZmwakcf3uahdKQan3dv3Yc0LCG-Twa4ssL4qoUssBhyphenhyphenyMlNPcNRs/s1600/IMG_3292.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9nIqpNhL5sq390ZPzE7t6jwXEtJ8dBPhHFPHj0VrQ6FRVMs5GsAphOm3W-TEj8LGgFKdjtJw_bcukw0m1C-0gJDqZmwakcf3uahdKQan3dv3Yc0LCG-Twa4ssL4qoUssBhyphenhyphenyMlNPcNRs/s320/IMG_3292.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471874882544612882" /></a><br />Things are moving fast now for the “Fugue” team. We’re three weeks away from our World Premiere at <a href=" http://www.danceswithfilms.com/10_list_f_fl.html">Dances With Films</a>, and while it’s going to be a busy 21 days, we’re pretty on top of our to-do list. Color correction is nearly finished, we start the week-long audio mix tomorrow, and the poster is in its final tweaks. <br /><br />But first, a bit of news: “Fugue” has been given a screening time of 9:30 PM on Sunday, June 6. Tickets are now available for pre-order through the Dances With Films website:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.danceswithfilms.com/10_schedule.html">http://www.danceswithfilms.com/10_schedule.html</a><br /><br />Just click on the “Tix” button. Tickets are $10 if you pre-order, and $12 at the door. <br /><br />We’re excited about our screening time – it’s on a weekend, it’s a night slot, and it’s not the first or second night of the fest, so it gives us a bit more time to get ready.<br /><br />In terms of getting ready, one of the biggest decisions we have to make (and soon) is how to handle public relations. Dances With Films highly recommends hiring a PR firm, so we (really Barbara, as I was in Europe for two weeks) talked with a company about repping “Fugue” for the festival. <br /><br />PR is kind of a slippery thing. Your goal is to build buzz and visibility for your movie, but accomplishing that is another matter. Reviews help (the higher profile the better), as do write-ups on websites, advertising, Facebook posts, Twitter tweets, and on. You hope at some point that awareness will take on a life of its own, but there’s no guarantees. You could do all of the above and still, only your mom will care about your movie. <br /><br />But you can certainly weigh the odds in your favor. Hiring a PR firm will certainly give us a shot at publications and websites we don’t have on our own. But here are the terms from the company: for $1000, they will spend the next three weeks sending our DVD and emails to any website or publication we can come up with. They may also help set up interviews and behind the scenes articles. There is, however, no guarantee that any of the sites or publications they contact will look at “Fugue” sideways.<br /><br />So what do we do? We’re mulling that over right now. Being a low-budget movie, a thousand bucks is a lot of money to us right now. But if it helps get us a distribution deal, it’s a thousand bucks very well-spent. And at this moment, that’s the goal: to get a distribution deal. <br /><br />Later on, we’ll focus on getting audiences to see it. Right now our key audience is a very small group of people in the film industry: those who buy feature films from indie filmmakers and release them to the public. <br /><br />Nowadays, you can get their attention in a number of ways. You can get noticed at a film festival. You can have a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEA3BS_Ohdk">YouTube clip</a> that hits 200,000 views. You can get a great review in “Variety,” the industry’s top business publication. You can build excitement on websites. You can put a page on the Internet Movie Database (which has already gotten us a couple emails from distribution reps). You can have a friend or work associate recommend it to them. And on, and on. <br /><br />We’d like to do all of the above. But do we need the help of a PR firm to do it, is the question. Right now, the answer seems to be “yes.” This is an industry built on contacts, and the more contacts you have, the better your chances are to get distribution (or really anything, for that matter). Hiring a PR firm may not guarantee anything, but it will significantly increase our chances.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-1759727482328212612010-04-27T09:49:00.000-07:002010-04-27T09:55:37.139-07:00ACCEPTANCE<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpCx_Dvt51hBX7Kb5ZHOkaq3I3I9Tsz03sVKlzPMgomCFEbFAszYs0hCXV_zYVZNZV2e2VtfbtN1Cl90sZb-NoPtqDzHiirC9DcP0gtwelBVrQ6f7SPHPCF76j6kmkaukToYYFYlzSwOg/s1600/char_still.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpCx_Dvt51hBX7Kb5ZHOkaq3I3I9Tsz03sVKlzPMgomCFEbFAszYs0hCXV_zYVZNZV2e2VtfbtN1Cl90sZb-NoPtqDzHiirC9DcP0gtwelBVrQ6f7SPHPCF76j6kmkaukToYYFYlzSwOg/s320/char_still.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464861824643216050" /></a><br />Great news! "Fugue" has been officially selected to screen at the <a href="http://www.danceswithfilms.com/">13th Annual Dances With Films Festival</a>! We don’t have a confirmed screening date yet, but this year’s festival runs from June 3rd through 10th, 2010 at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in Los Angeles, CA.<br /><br />We’re extremely excited; DWF is <a href="http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118004396.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&query=dances+with+films">well-known in Los Angeles</a>, and they do a really professional job with their festival. DWF’s focus is specifically on independent cinema; their motto is “No politics, no stars, no sh*t.” They’re one of the few fests which likes and encourages films without a lot of money (like ours). <br /><br />Also, we get the chance to premiere "Fugue" in Los Angeles, where we shot the movie and where all our crew lives. But on top of that, LA is the home base for lots of film distribution companies. Some of them have already contacted us about seeing the movie, and being able to invite them to a screening in a real theater with a real audience will make a huge difference in their reception of our movie. <br /><br />The other good thing is that it gives us a hard out date to finish. Frankly, we lost a bit of our steam the last few months, and getting into this festival is the last bit of juice we needed to push the film over the finish line. <br /><br />We got the acceptance packet today, and there’s a lot to do that doesn’t involve finishing the movie – sending screeners for newspaper reviews, making press kits, mailing copies of the trailer, printing posters – it’s going to be a busy month. (And of course, it’s also the month Juliane and I are going to Europe on vacation. If there’s a truism in this business, it’s that your vacation always hits at the moment you’re the busiest with work. We’re still going to enjoy ourselves, even if it means taking my laptop to Paris.) <br /><br />For now, though, we’re excited to have been accepted to a well-known festival. Again, we can’t thank our friends and crew members enough, without whose great work and generous favors we wouldn’t have been able to complete "Fugue." We hope to see you at Dances With Films the first week of June!Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-13939571508008322422010-03-29T11:35:00.000-07:002010-03-29T11:46:56.161-07:00Holding PatternI know, I know, it’s been a while since we’ve posted. Truthfully, there hasn’t been a lot to write about recently. Post audio is still moving forward. Last week, we got together and listened to the last of the new score from our composer Dana. There were a few minor tweaks, but it sounds great. Her music really elevates the film. <br /><br />Sound and color correction work are also ongoing. Our colorist Matt had to take some time off to work on other projects, which is one of the unfortunate things about getting favors from people: when someone else comes along with a better-paid job, you can’t really argue. In fact, we like it when they get paying work, because the last thing we want is to keep someone from paying their bills for the sake of our little movie.<br /><br />The big news this week, though, is we found a very cool guy named Ryan to design our poster. We’ve spent months and months kicking around ideas, and we even did a photo shoot with our lead actress Abby about six weeks ago. Our production designer Juliane did some great mock-ups, but we finally decided that if we were ever going to settle on something, we needed to hire a pro. <br /><br />So first, we took out an ad on Mandy.com (a fantastic, free resource for anyone making a low-budget indie. We found production assistants, sound people, and make-up artists through ads we placed on the site. Definitely worth checking out, whether you’re looking for work or workers.) We met with Ryan a couple weeks back, we hit it off, and we decided to bring him on board. <br /><br />You can check out his work <a href="http://">HERE</a>. He’s done a ton of marketing campaigns (my favorite is the Jonah Hex stuff), and we’re super-excited he’s working with us! In a couple weeks, we’ll put our poster options and get everyone’s opinion on what the final one-sheet should be. <br /><br />In the meantime, we’re starting to gather information about distributors and think about DVD material. We’re hoping the movie will be mixed and colored by the end of April, but like everything when you’re making movies, that date is flexible.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-3590002707356640822010-02-18T10:37:00.001-08:002010-02-18T10:37:33.504-08:00Juggling Fire Irons<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYFAqieb9xyHep0vbObsmJF4AVTkiv3a3361c1UUHHa6dguFR71TVDDNZ3E433RY89ewrAtsoq4Wt7CxVy0uI-ssZvStgqLC3WehK-_Ae2rdsEjejiPunKqMsHWJo6B8aIdayuzvnFol8/s1600-h/IMG_3110.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYFAqieb9xyHep0vbObsmJF4AVTkiv3a3361c1UUHHa6dguFR71TVDDNZ3E433RY89ewrAtsoq4Wt7CxVy0uI-ssZvStgqLC3WehK-_Ae2rdsEjejiPunKqMsHWJo6B8aIdayuzvnFol8/s320/IMG_3110.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439654098602603138" /></a><br />Can you believe it’s almost March? Usually this time of year is slow and boring and seems to go on forever, but that changes when you’re in post-production on your movie. We’re marching along – music is nearly finished, we’re doing a spotting session for foley next week, and we only have two reels of the film left to color-correct. <br /><br />But enough about “Fugue;” this post is about other filmmaking news. The more I make movies, the more I realize it’s about having a lot of irons in the fire. If we only focused on one thing at a time, we’d finish one or two movies in our lifetime. So instead, the goal is to work on different aspects of several projects all at once. <br /><br />Right now, for example, I’m pitching a couple new ideas, working on outlines for more movies, finishing a comic book adaptation, and working a full-time job in addition to the “Fugue” post. And all our film friends are doing the same thing. <br /><br />Barbara, our talented director/producer, gave a great interview a few weeks back to the website “Fatally Yours.” It brings up a lot of intelligent points about low-budget filmmaking and women in horror. Check it out:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fatally-yours.com/interviews/interview-with-director-barbara-stepansky/">http://www.fatally-yours.com/interviews/interview-with-director-barbara-stepansky/</a><br /><br />Also, our good friend-of-the-film Christoph Baaden has been working on a feature-length documentary at the same time we were making “Fugue.” He just found out his movie “Hood to Coast” got into the South by Southwest Film Festival! Not that he needs our PR, but go check out his website and support his doc:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.hoodtocoastdocumentary.com">http://www.hoodtocoastdocumentary.com</a><br /><br />Last but not least, our lead actress Abby recently had her short film “Mercy” screen at the Santa Monica Film Festival. It’s Abby’s directorial debut and very mature, well-acted movie. There’s a great article about it here:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.smdp.com/Articles-c-2009-11-13-65005.113116_Festival_features_films_by_locals_for_local_patrons.html">http://www.smdp.com/Articles-c-2009-11-13-65005.113116_Festival_features_films_by_locals_for_local_patrons.html</a><br /><br />Congrats to all our friends, and hopefully we’ll have some good “Fugue” news coming our way soon!Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-73151804162452719072010-01-29T10:07:00.001-08:002010-01-29T10:10:42.607-08:00Adjust Your ColorHi Everyone! Sorry we haven’t updated recently, but things have been very busy here in the Fugue-iverse. A couple weeks ago, we started color correcting the movie. We found a very skilled friend who offered us his services for a bargain-basement price. We can’t thank him enough; when you’re making a movie at this budget level, you basically have to count on awesome people like Matt doing you favors.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFE34QgWrGAmthxA2wa9ohadsRhcpHBqmbdQ0drdhFAOsjuK3hBVJCkGs8MTQ6ve6IVk3I4eINmj9RPMBDloYbJY78R48lN79nWveBV6SHNROZbrCTTfuG6VDHLCJdziJ9OJdXKKNhKDo/s1600-h/IMG_1484.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFE34QgWrGAmthxA2wa9ohadsRhcpHBqmbdQ0drdhFAOsjuK3hBVJCkGs8MTQ6ve6IVk3I4eINmj9RPMBDloYbJY78R48lN79nWveBV6SHNROZbrCTTfuG6VDHLCJdziJ9OJdXKKNhKDo/s320/IMG_1484.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432225545659473314" /></a>But for those of you not in the film business, you may be asking what is color correction, and why do we have to pay for it at all? Good question! Color correction is a process where you go through every frame of the movie, tweaking the color, lighting contrast, exposure, and many other visual elements. Since all this is done on a high-end computer system, it’s impossible to do it for free. <br /><br />Your goal is to not only get the film to look uniform, so it flows naturally from shot to shot, but to also subtly support the story-telling through your visual palette. <br /><br />“Fugue,” for example, is about a woman who learns the truth about her past. To show that visually, we’re putting a bit of glow in the beginning of the film, to give it a hazy, foggy quality. As the movie progresses, we’ll slowly pull the glow out until by the very end, everything is crystal-clear. <br /><br />We also want to amp up the presence of the garden as the movie unfolds, so we’re slowly bringing in more and more greens as we go on. Hopefully, all of this will be so subtle that no one notices it. The goal is to have it be seamless, and affect the audience on a gut level. <br /><br />The amazing thing is how much you can correct nowadays with computers. There are so many filters and mattes and manipulations you can do to the image, it’s easy to agonize over every frame. In one shot, for example, we literally took an exterior of the house during the day, and made it into a night shot. We did this by amping up the contrast, darkening the edges of the frame, adding blue, and matte-ing out the sky. Now, it looks like we shot it at night. <br /><br />While this is awesome, it reminds me how important it still is to think about what you’re going for while you’re on set. Just because you can tweak everything in the post process doesn’t mean you should wait until then. That leads to lazy filmmaking. Despite having all these tools, you still need a strong idea about what you want to achieve, and some way of communicating that. All this technology is simply a method of getting to that point. <br /><br />We’re heading into the home stretch on “Fugue.” In the next couple weeks, I’ll do posts about the photography shoot we did for the poster, our sound mix, what DVD extras we’re starting to prepare, and there’s even some rumblings that we may have a sales agent. It’s very exciting, and we’ll try to keep you all updated.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-64817544320728926982010-01-05T17:28:00.000-08:002010-01-05T17:32:54.114-08:00ResolutionsHappy New Year from the Fugue team! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I know we all took a much-needed break from thinking about the movie 24-7, and have returned with our batteries re-charged, and ready to race toward the finish line (I tried to mix more metaphors into that sentence, but couldn’t do it). <br /><br />Hard to believe that at this time last year, we didn’t even have a first draft of the screenplay. Sure, Barbara and I had spent all of December breaking the story and outlining, but the first draft wasn’t complete until January 8. And we started shooting less than four weeks later. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUS3lE1MgfFdN6CTwoi_L4yj9zsHmZgiE2Ye0U8FQTN8Qb9wyHXM5o16_EeDlPjZgz_mHAGYu7qRf05Z7VwW57IRnKuK0vPknsGuHCFvdtJNOn7-h93S575e9xKrzmAkaN3utTmGR2BUc/s1600-h/IMG_2129.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUS3lE1MgfFdN6CTwoi_L4yj9zsHmZgiE2Ye0U8FQTN8Qb9wyHXM5o16_EeDlPjZgz_mHAGYu7qRf05Z7VwW57IRnKuK0vPknsGuHCFvdtJNOn7-h93S575e9xKrzmAkaN3utTmGR2BUc/s320/IMG_2129.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423433255862724738" /></a>Now, after much work from everyone involved, we have a picture-locked film, but we’re still dealing with other post-production matters. We have to mix the movie, which is expensive. We have to record foley (all the little footsteps, movements, and teeny sounds we didn’t get during production). We have to color-correct the movie (making sure all the shots look not only good, but the same). <br /><br />But this isn’t about getting bogged down in work details; this post is about looking forward. It’s the time of year for resolutions, so here’s what we’d like to accomplish on with “Fugue” in 2010:<br /><br />1) Finish the film. As mentioned above, finish the sound, color-correct the movie, and master it to DVD.<br /><br />2) Screen the movie in film festivals. We’ve applied to 20 fests so far, and have heard back from two (Sundance and Slamdance, both of which passed, to their extreme and everlasting loss). We hear back from a couple more in mid-January. We’ve tried to apply to a variety of festivals, so hopefully we’ll get in somewhere. <br /><br />3) Get distribution! With our without festival screenings, this is the true goal. Ideally, we’d like to get a deal that includes some kind of minimum agreement (or MG, which is the up-front money you receive). Worst case scenario, we can sell the movie ourselves through our website, which is becoming more and more popular among indie filmmakers, since you keep all the profits. <br /><br />4) Start work on the next project. “Fugue” was always intended to be a jumping-off point for our careers. We’ve got some great ideas for follow-up films, and we’re hoping once this movie gets out there, we can find some real film investors/production companies who want to help fund the next effort. <br /><br />Thanks again to everyone who supported or worked on the movie in 2009, and here’s to success in 2010!Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-76536892258606983642009-12-11T15:30:00.000-08:002009-12-11T15:42:22.697-08:00We Regret To Inform You ...We didn’t get into Sundance.*<br /><br />We weren’t expecting to, but it was still disappointing to get that email. Every independent filmmaker dreams their movie will premiere at Sundance. They imagine going to Park City, answering questions from the audience, getting interviewed by entertainment journalists, attending the parties, and selling their movie in an all-out bidding war. So when you get that rejection email, that dream is officially dead. <br /><br />The worst part is, you start questioning the quality of your movie. You start wondering if one more edit might have improved the film tenfold. If casting name actors would have made a difference. If, God forbid, your little movie is simply not as good as you thought it was. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDUx9KSYsuCwg2Ej8QxnkWcU5GNirbPzAgwjmInm795IPcKmaj0L71nL8oOZ1jie3Salncy7DK8GOwULl1UGjEQS16HcyeFSmOJLv2strltGor0jGQO5CKKnPGN9c7N2uv7uI-oM0AgVg/s1600-h/IMG_1669.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDUx9KSYsuCwg2Ej8QxnkWcU5GNirbPzAgwjmInm795IPcKmaj0L71nL8oOZ1jie3Salncy7DK8GOwULl1UGjEQS16HcyeFSmOJLv2strltGor0jGQO5CKKnPGN9c7N2uv7uI-oM0AgVg/s320/IMG_1669.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5414127837153334146" /></a><br />This, my friends, is an evil path to start down. For one, you will never know with 100% certainty why another film was accepted and yours wasn’t. You will never know if you’d done such-and-such, if it would have improved the movie. All you can do is listen to the feedback you’ve gotten, and trust your own gut. <br /><br />On top of that, the quality of your movie is only one of the factors. Personal relationships shape a large part of what gets programmed – name directors, name actors, filmmakers with a connection to the festival, friends of the programmers – these all stand a much greater chance of getting in than some yokel off the submission pile. <br /><br />Another factor is sheer numbers. According to the Sundance rejection letter, there were 9800 entries this year. Out of those, a mere 200 films were selected. Roughly half of those are shorts, another half of those are documentaries, which leaves 50 narrative features. Fifty, out of let’s say 5000 submissions. That means 1% of those who apply actually get in. <br /><br />The final factor is genre. Just cause we made a solid movie doesn’t mean every festival will program us. Every fest has its own vibe – Sundance focuses on unique artistic visions, Toronto likes polished, serious movies, South by Southwest favors scrappy, genre-focused fun films. Look over the list of the features that will be playing at Park City in 2010 – out of all the features, maybe 3 or 4 are thriller/suspense/horror. Two-thirds of the program are character-driven dramas. So looking at all that, we had even less than a 1% of getting accepted. <br /><br />Am I taking comfort in these non-scientific, totally generic numbers? You bet I am. I’ll take refuge behind any thin scrap of an excuse I can find. Because the alternatives – to believe our movie is doomed, to think it sucks, to worry that it will never sell – are simply unacceptable. More importantly, they are patently UNTRUE. <br /><br />As a creative professional, if you’re not getting rejected on a daily basis, then you’re probably not doing it right. The simple fact is that you will rejected 100 times for every one acceptance. That’s the life you signed up for when you decided you had something to share with the world. If you don’t like it, there are plenty of other jobs out there. <br /><br />So it’s counter-productive for us to let this news get us down. It’d be great to have a distribution company buy our film, but that could happen in any number of ways. We still have high hopes we’ll get into some other major film festivals, but we have to remember they’re not the be-all, end-all. They’re not even the final goal. The goal is to get the movie before a paying audience. <br /><br />And that is definitely going to happen, one way or another. <br /><br /><br /><br />* Or Slamdance.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-27235767779394859292009-11-13T17:03:00.001-08:002009-11-13T17:11:32.967-08:00Critical MassesLast week our trailer suddenly spiked 1200 views in a matter of hours. A little Interweb research revealed that somehow our teaser got posted on a Romanian entertainment link site. A little more research revealed it wasn’t “somehow”: another low-budget film called “THE Fugue” is being self-released on DVD, and it seems they mistakenly linked to our trailer instead of theirs. <br /><br />While it’s great to suddenly have the trailer take on a life of its own (especially since we haven’t sent it to any news sites yet), with an increased audience comes an increase of opinions. In particular, we had some very angry comments from a couple of Romanian guys. I won't reprint them here, but they are still on our YouTube page if you're looking for some Pulitzer-grade critiques.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmkgyls0iHg1iTaniSC_Xj3zaiFaYhAFcErMgrxTA3rFwPf0wwlK2xzvQyQHLhf9n19TkXqY1yD52WO0KVM3211b8pOh73twkDHael2gq4LMj1Pj3V3jV1H3f0YRMcWj4V-SdnSPRS5lw/s1600-h/IMG_1992.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmkgyls0iHg1iTaniSC_Xj3zaiFaYhAFcErMgrxTA3rFwPf0wwlK2xzvQyQHLhf9n19TkXqY1yD52WO0KVM3211b8pOh73twkDHael2gq4LMj1Pj3V3jV1H3f0YRMcWj4V-SdnSPRS5lw/s320/IMG_1992.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403759387487739106" /></a><br />Now, I’m not posting this to wallow in self-pity or subtly ask for encouragement. In fact, we already had a boatload of very nice response comments to these guys. I’m writing this to illustrate that once you put your movie into the world, the floodgates of opinion swing wide. Anyone with a computer, anywhere on the planet, will have a reaction to what you made. They also have the freedom to post their thoughts about it. And those thoughts may not be very nice or constructive. Often, they will be tactless, cruel, horrendously misspelled diatribes filled with anger and cynicism. <br /><br />(Side thought: Why is there so much anger and cynicism on the Internet? Probably the anonymity factor. Also, it’s easier to bash something than to praise it. I’m no linguist, but I’d bet there are more words for “dislike” in the English language than “like.” Finally, it seems the haters are more likely to leave comments than fans.)<br /><br />The point is, as filmmakers we have to find a way to not let the negative comments bother us. The movie is done. Any remarks about how to make it better, or how low-budget it is, or why it doesn’t stack up to "Armaggedon," are moot. All we can do is learn from our successes and failures on this project, and apply them to the next one. <br /><br />Secondly, we can’t please everyone. It is impossible. In fact, highly respected films will usually garner backlash specifically because everyone likes it. We can hope that more people will like it than not, and that people will want to watch it, but that’s all. We’ve already had people refuse to see the movie simply because of the genre.<br /><br />Finally, the film doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There are any number of factors – the timing of the release, the nature of the screening, the attitude of the viewers when watching it – that are going to affect how audiences receive it. Once the movie gets out there, we can’t control any of that. We can only hope people will like it and respond to it. <br /><br />Being an extremely low-budget movie with no stars or a big studio marketing budget, any way “Fugue” gets out there has to be looked on as a success. Already, the trailer has been watched by more than 5000 people – far more than we know personally. Simply the fact that our little backyard movie is pissing off some guys in Romania means it’s grown beyond our little circle. <br /><br />And hopefully, this is just the beginning.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-77589195272706740992009-11-01T15:06:00.000-08:002009-11-01T15:19:26.982-08:00FundraisingI hate asking people for money. <br /><br />As a filmmaker, you’re constantly in a state of selling – whether it’s pitching a movie idea, or talking to investors, or showing your movie to distributors – every step of the way, you’re trying to convince someone else to give you money. <br /><br />And why? Because filmmaking is, bar none, the most expensive artistic medium there is. It’s pretty cheap to paint a picture, or write a novel, or even sing a song these days. But making a film? Even as inexpensive as the technology has gotten, it still takes real dough. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ1EJ5ppznd-vLY8tPr1DhMCfeRCFNxFK3t-jE6bCtwKD2UzaNLdEBnbtIgyOtEE_qX8zSPm3Ux1qCfORTp26cC9SsSG3Z-iVo_mAVKNbyIORwaRDZg7JE9yzHvCOXiI8KvTaATkQpdqA/s1600-h/IMG_1992.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ1EJ5ppznd-vLY8tPr1DhMCfeRCFNxFK3t-jE6bCtwKD2UzaNLdEBnbtIgyOtEE_qX8zSPm3Ux1qCfORTp26cC9SsSG3Z-iVo_mAVKNbyIORwaRDZg7JE9yzHvCOXiI8KvTaATkQpdqA/s320/IMG_1992.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399278625272288642" /></a> Take the process of applying to film festivals. Not only do you have to buy and print DVDS (we got ours for around a buck apiece – killer deal), you have to get envelopes, mail them to faraway places, and cough up the festival entry fees. Which routinely run between $40 and $100. We just sent the movie to Berlin, and their entry fee is 125 Euros, or $185 American. Literally, we’re spending more on applying to festivals than it cost us to feed our crew for 17 days of shooting!<br /><br />Still, it’s an important thing to do. Screening at a high-profile festival is our single best chance of getting distributors to see the film. And that will hopefully lead to getting a distribution deal, which is our main chance of paying back our investors and the crew people who awesomely deferred their salaries (pretty much everyone). <br /><br />So we have to ask people for money. Since we don’t know any millionaires personally, that leads to us begging our friends and family. Which, during the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, makes me a tad guilty to say the least. <br /><br />To make the whole process more palatable, we decided to a hold a fundraiser screening. All our friends have been asking all year to see the movie, so why not charge $10, raffle off some items, and let them take a look all at once? <br /><br />We found a club called <a href="http://www.busbysonline.com/details.php?location_id=3">Busby’s East</a> that rents out its ballroom and video projector (for free!), sent out the Evite to 300 or so people, and gathered some film-related items to raffle off. And on Sunday, October 25, we unspooled (or un-video projected) the current cut for a crowd of 73 people. <br /><br />And it went pretty great. Being in a bar, the lights weren’t all the way down and the ice machine sounded like an Imperial Walker, but that kind of added to the whole “work in progress” feel. But people still managed to get into the movie, laughing at the jokes, jumping at the scary parts, and keeping up with the story. Even the bartender liked it – she told me she’s worked a lot of screenings in that room, and ours was one of the best she’s seen. <br /><br />All told, we raised about $1300. And some donations are still trickling in. It’s not enough to cover all our upcoming post costs, but it will certainly help us get the movie to festivals. Just goes to show that even if you don’t like asking people for money, there are ways to do that make it more comfortable for everyone. Thanks again to all our friends and family members who donated! <br /><br />(And if you’d still like to kick us some dough, there’s a Paypal button on our website: <a href="http://www.fuguethefilm.com">fuguethefilm.com</a>.)Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-60130049332257867722009-10-25T15:19:00.000-07:002009-10-25T15:32:24.639-07:00"Paranormal Activity"Have you guys been following what’s happening with <a href="http://www.paranormalactivity-movie.com/">“Paranormal Activity?”</a> It is INSANE – five weeks into its release, it lands in the <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/">number one</a> box office slot, ABOVE “Saw VI!” And on nearly half the screens, as well. Do you know insane that is? How freaking unpredictable and AWESOME?!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://gordonandthewhale.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/paranormal-activity-poster.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 560px; height: 834px;" src="http://gordonandthewhale.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/paranormal-activity-poster.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Quick sum-up for those who don’t know the story: The director, Oren Peli, wanted to make a cheap movie. He came up with a great hook, found a couple actors, and shot a creepy psychological in his house for $11,000. Sound familiar? It went to Slamdance two years ago, was purchased by Paramount/Dreamworks, and is now on its way to being one of the most financially successful films of all time. <br /><br />So what can we take from all this? It’s hard to say. Certainly, I think it’s great news for "Fugue." When we approach distributors, we have a very fresh example of a low-budget thriller with no stars that made tons o’ cash. But Hollywood is a fickle town, and some similarities on paper are not enough to seal the deal. You could release two nearly identical movies within six months of each other, and they could perform vastly differently. <br /><br />What’s happening with “Paranormal” is a cinematic fluke – it was brilliantly marketed, had a unique concept with a built-in advertising hook, and it hit at a time when audiences were tired of traditional, big-budget scary movies. The cool thing is, one of these flukes seems to show up every couple years – <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=blairwitchproject.htm">“The Blair Witch Project,”</a> <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=mybigfatgreekwedding.htm">“My Big Fat Greek Wedding,”</a> <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=openwater.htm">“Open Water”</a> – the list goes on and on. You can hope it will happen to your film, but there’s absolutely no way to arrange it. The only rule in Hollywood? There are no rules. <br /><br />For right now, it’s just cool there’s another example of huge success we can point to. I’ve seen the movie, and while it’s not fantastic, the scary scenes are legitimately scary. Which, for a jaded cinephile like me, is saying a lot. <br /><br />As an example of how inspired and unusual the marketing for this was, check out the trailer below:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_UxLEqd074">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_UxLEqd074</a><br /><br />There’s more footage of the audience than there is of the actual movie! Very gutsy. (And also, very jealous of the 4.5 MILLION views. I was happy that we just cracked 1000, especially considering we haven't done any publicity yet.) <br /><br />If you haven’t already, go see “Paranormal Activity” this week. Help make it into a cinematic success story, so we can hopefully follow in its footsteps! (And barring that, leech off its notoriety in any way possible.)Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-65242681805248050222009-10-07T11:10:00.000-07:002009-10-07T11:15:17.547-07:00PICTURE LOCKWe picture locked the movie last week! It’s taken me awhile to actually write about it, because we had to send the latest cut off to some festivals, and frankly, I needed a couple days off. The last few weeks there, we were editing for 10, 12 hours a day, looking at takes and line readings over and over, and generally thinking about the movie non-stop. My head was so occupied with the movie I was having insomnia. Any time someone would talk to me, random words would make me think of lines from the film. It was definitely nice to be done.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjjres3DlibaGHUowekACVhw1UxgCg1hTKDij6GW-Z93DSPd9JVpUgG-YrX5_RVLAN1w4Okzug5X1MhRpJTJpoIAWU3jhISd-Iw0D4yCaWvLbvmjAnQxRUM17WMjuv1GbWvRfHFLZLx0U/s1600-h/IMG_2129.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjjres3DlibaGHUowekACVhw1UxgCg1hTKDij6GW-Z93DSPd9JVpUgG-YrX5_RVLAN1w4Okzug5X1MhRpJTJpoIAWU3jhISd-Iw0D4yCaWvLbvmjAnQxRUM17WMjuv1GbWvRfHFLZLx0U/s320/IMG_2129.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389922679351866994" /></a>For those not in the movie business, let me explain why picture lock is such a big deal. It basically means the end of picture editing. Everyone agrees it’s done, and the film is handed off to the sound designers, composer, and color correction people. Once it’s “locked,” you can’t make any more changes in the timing or shot choices. This is so the sound matches up. If there’s a huge error or fix needed, you can alter the soundtrack, but it’s a HUGE hassle. <br /><br />Emotionally, picture lock is very similar to finishing principal photography. You’ve reached the end of a very intense working relationship, and are moving on to the next stage. It’s relieving and worrisome and bittersweet all at the same time. <br /><br />In terms of “Fugue” specifically, I feel good about it. I feel like we took the time to get it right, and we did the best we can with the footage we had. Yes, it could be better or different, but it could always be better or different. At a certain point, you have to trust the work. <br /><br />There were some very last-minute changes. A lot of them entailed going back to how things were originally, but there were some additions. We added a creepy sound design moment in the very first scene, which had never been intended when we shot it. We took out a beat in the second act that was kind of cheesy. But the greatest change was finding some different takes of Victoria in a crucial third act scene. We’d gotten so used to the takes in this scene, we forgot to check the other performances. And we ended up finding something that completely altered the whole tone of the moment, and definitely for the better. It was a huge relief to find something like that in the eleventh hour. <br /><br />All in all, we feel good. Stephanie our editor did a great job, and was extremely patient and dedicated over the last five months. We’re taking her out for a celebratory dinner tonight, but there’s still plenty of work. Our composer Dana is starting to work on the score, Adrian and his sound team are beginning their work, and we’re still finishing up the visual effects. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeIr8tBE3iKkoLoi5uIKWyF4maLmJs_9OUpznjgMEGH8Gyc71ShP-rUC-0qC8t9PLJYv6ZXQrp01hBDEPtZlb8M5vk-P_sBPrqZmVRTXDp9MHZVUS7jGZ5AZdpZ9gZIi-jSy6GuLTCKu8/s1600-h/IMG_1915.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeIr8tBE3iKkoLoi5uIKWyF4maLmJs_9OUpznjgMEGH8Gyc71ShP-rUC-0qC8t9PLJYv6ZXQrp01hBDEPtZlb8M5vk-P_sBPrqZmVRTXDp9MHZVUS7jGZ5AZdpZ9gZIi-jSy6GuLTCKu8/s320/IMG_1915.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389923179416519234" /></a>We’ve also started applying to festivals. The movie has gone to six so far, and we’ll probably send it to another ten or so before the year is out. We should start hearing whether or not we’re in toward the beginning of December. <br /><br />In the meantime, we’re working on sound and thinking about ideas for the next project. Gotta keep the machine moving.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-80306544163914506332009-09-23T15:30:00.000-07:002009-09-23T15:36:03.434-07:00When to StopWe’re up to 529 views of the teaser on YouTube! That’s pretty exciting, considering all we did is put out the word to our friends on Facebook. We haven’t sent the trailer to any press websites yet, as we don’t want the buzz to build too early. (Or, God forbid, to plummet before we screen anywhere.) <br /><br />The plan is to apply to a bunch of festivals over the next four months, finish the sound, score the film, and color correct it. By December, we’ll know if we’ve gotten into some of these places. That’s when we’ll start up the hype machine. For right now, we’re focused on just finishing.<br /><br />Updates: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0190093/">Juliane</a>, our awesome production designer, made a great cover for our DVD that we’re going to be sending to festivals. Check it out:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo5WFkG_SK_toQkyIz0nBVgw2J67VxqnvQ1EMQPc_pkncdSiK3i9ySy4vaYiR_0B144NifYnCjV97S4MoZ2JurNbo2cBMgOvXaeqXhFBciFeEm-9tX6eoHl7Wje1bCADq-L-wZhhJxYnA/s1600-h/DVD+image.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 310px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo5WFkG_SK_toQkyIz0nBVgw2J67VxqnvQ1EMQPc_pkncdSiK3i9ySy4vaYiR_0B144NifYnCjV97S4MoZ2JurNbo2cBMgOvXaeqXhFBciFeEm-9tX6eoHl7Wje1bCADq-L-wZhhJxYnA/s320/DVD+image.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384794473512042690" /></a><br /><br />Also, we held our fourth test screening on Sunday. The response was again solid, almost likes and really likes across the board. But again, there was the comment that the beginning is slow. We’re sitting in the edit bay right now, trying to address that very issue. We are killing babies, people. One of the things we just cut is the very first word: “remember.” As much as I love starting a thriller about memory with that word, it’s just too damn slow. We need to get into the meat of the story faster. So unfortunately, things have to go. I keep telling myself that’s what the deleted scenes on the DVD are for. And honestly, the movie plays better because of it. <br /><br />My feeling is that we are close. We are close to locking picture, and we are close to getting this story where it needs to be. It’s not going to work for everyone, maybe, but there’s no way it CAN work for everyone. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004555/">Walter Murch</a> (editor of “Apocalypse Now”) says “films are not finished – they escape.” That is absolutely true. We could edit this movie for another year and there would still be folks who won’t like it. We could go out and do a month of reshoots, adding scenes and changing storylines, and still the audience might want something different. I’m not saying that to be a whiny, lazy independent filmmaker. I’m saying that because I’m realizing you truly can’t please everyone. You can only please yourself, and hope others are on board. <br /><br />And we are very close to being pleased.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-89989038033647618412009-09-16T11:34:00.001-07:002009-09-16T14:22:21.066-07:00TEASER TRAILER!!!It’s finally here! We are proud to present, at long last, the first teaser trailer for “Fugue!"<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gEA3BS_Ohdk&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gEA3BS_Ohdk&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />You can also watch it on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEA3BS_Ohdk">YouTube</a> directly, where the number of views we get will directly translate into how much interest we receive from distribution companies. Also, it will just make us feel good. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6xIVGHUXrYaeCqZFpMcxcxE6pQA18I5Ek5s-qMWy6VRGQl6_q4o-a_3aoVEtlKH-Lej1U1tjpBE-sZHY1hgY94c0HjJXMAVwDRjDWZ_dp9wLMZu15vs0R8U7ZWSuxyM3ISzjuFy9MBvQ/s1600-h/IMG_2726.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6xIVGHUXrYaeCqZFpMcxcxE6pQA18I5Ek5s-qMWy6VRGQl6_q4o-a_3aoVEtlKH-Lej1U1tjpBE-sZHY1hgY94c0HjJXMAVwDRjDWZ_dp9wLMZu15vs0R8U7ZWSuxyM3ISzjuFy9MBvQ/s320/IMG_2726.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382136237348027282" /></a><br /><br />We’ve been working on the teaser since we finished principal photography in March. We did a first cut, made some changes, took some time away from it, make a couple more tweaks, then finished the latest cut in July. Then we sent it to our composer for new music (which is seriously amazing, she killed it). When that was done, we sent it to Adrian, our sound designer, to sweeten the audio, add effects, etc. When we did reshoots a few weeks ago, we re-recorded a couple of lines to add in. We mixed the audio on Sunday, had Daniel our VFX supervisor put filters on it, and I did the final color-correction last night. <br /><br />Yes, it was a lot of work. But this is by far the most important piece of advertising we will do. It’s the first thing most people will see about the movie, and it will form most of their opinion. The website, poster, and blog are also important, but the teaser really shows what the movie looks like. I can’t tell you how many trailers I’ve watched that, as soon as they start playing, you realize they’re low-budget, have bad acting, and don’t feel like a real movie. Hopefully that’s not what people will think when they watch ours. <br /><br />It’s both cool and terrifying, what the Internet can do for a low-budget movie like ours. It’s cool in that you can reach a huge amount of people, all over the world, for absolutely free. It’s terrifying because once it goes on the web, public opinion takes over. One influential review could tank your entire project, like the way J.J. Abrams’ Superman script was savaged on <a href="http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=13350">Ain’t It Cool News</a>, and the whole film was canceled. <br /><br />But it can also go the opposite way, a la <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=blairwitchproject.htm">The Blair Witch Project</a>. It all depends on how people respond. I hope people like our teaser trailer, I hope they think it’s professional, and I hope it makes them want to see the movie. <br /><br />I posted the video an hour ago, and put the word out on Facebook, and it already has 37 – no, 59 – no, 73 - views. So at least our friends seem to be interested.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-91800861379873549902009-09-13T17:40:00.000-07:002009-09-13T18:14:36.649-07:00Going ViralWe’re sitting in a sound studio today, doing the final mix for our first trailer. And can I just say, it is pretty cool to be in front of a huge mixing board, with two flatscreen TVs on the wall, and $1000 Aeron chairs to sit in. It’s even more awesome because our sound designer Adrian was able to get us in here for FREE. If we were doing this for real, we’d be paying literally hundreds of dollars an hour. <br /><br />Not only that, but the trailer sounds great. It's three-dimensional, layered, and makes the whole thing seem expensive and professional. And that is more than half the journey toward getting distribution and getting people paid for all their hard work. <br /><br />We still have to do color correction, but hopefully it will be online very, very soon. Once it goes up, we really need to get as high a view count as possible. I talked to my friend Ron the other day, whose commercial <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_T2nj-sczo">“Kid Fails Driving Test Five Times”</a> (which I also happened to edit), has nearly 1.4 MILLION views. When you get that many views, people take notice. Supposedly, there are teams of people at agencies just scouring the Internet all day, watching every video that has more than 250,000 hits. <br /><br />But when I asked Ron how he managed to get that many views, he didn’t have any real answers. He made sure it got on certain high-traffic sites, and gave a heads-up to all his friends, but beyond that, going viral is a very mysterious process. <br /><br />Our plan is to send it to some film and horror-related sites, but after a certain point, it’s out of our hands. We can only hope people like it as much as we do.<br /> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8GqGDeVFyPPJyS3ryMygRrEQc1UCb9RmEg-niLXYTD5w3wm0EkH4eoDCZHklMzPv2T34AmPQ8_31hB3cUIrEAZWawGSTQe1HnY_TiGMUGf_3TNyi5W9_FI8hvhU0OaKCl4tD5RNp9qk/s1600-h/IMG_2340.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8GqGDeVFyPPJyS3ryMygRrEQc1UCb9RmEg-niLXYTD5w3wm0EkH4eoDCZHklMzPv2T34AmPQ8_31hB3cUIrEAZWawGSTQe1HnY_TiGMUGf_3TNyi5W9_FI8hvhU0OaKCl4tD5RNp9qk/s320/IMG_2340.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381118464585844418" border="0"></a>Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-83157653163366587852009-09-09T10:15:00.001-07:002009-09-09T10:20:16.435-07:00Test Screening #3I dropped off our latest cut at the Sundance office yesterday. If I thought our odds were slim, that feeling was confirmed when I walked into the lobby and saw crates – literally stacks of crates – teetering behind desk, each one filled to the brim with DVDs. In the time I dropped our DVD off, two other indie filmmakers came to turn in their opuses. It was, all in all, quite an intimidating and humbling experience. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS59M5Sd6JEJJ9XNfrbP_iuPQTrfCgr5Hee3GJJA2TiW9uMwlxRvqaow9dHbZCDftG4vPFPMS5ocXTha9gJCMBX7T5dy_bGqbhpyCmQCpmQXnZ4IGoGov1dKOi_U79unnk_9dEn2OGfdg/s1600-h/IMG_3287.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS59M5Sd6JEJJ9XNfrbP_iuPQTrfCgr5Hee3GJJA2TiW9uMwlxRvqaow9dHbZCDftG4vPFPMS5ocXTha9gJCMBX7T5dy_bGqbhpyCmQCpmQXnZ4IGoGov1dKOi_U79unnk_9dEn2OGfdg/s320/IMG_3287.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379518035291397330" /></a><br /><br />But there wasn’t time to think about that too much, because last night was our third test screening. It was kind of an important one for us – we needed to see if the re-shoots we did last week worked, if the new structure for Act 3 made sense, and most importantly, if the second test screening reactions were a fluke.<br /><br />Thankfully, it went pretty well. People jumped several times, they laughed at appropriate places, and they really seemed to get into the third act. There were notes – there are always notes, always – but this was definitely the screening that confirmed the movie is working, and we’re close to the finish line. <br /><br />One example of the power of editing: in the last screening, people hated our spiritual advisor character. They didn’t believe him, didn’t think he was funny. This screening was completely the opposite. A couple people even selected his scenes as their favorite. Just goes to show how much you can change things by lifting lines, tweaking performances, and changing audio. <br /><br />The great thing to see over and over is how much people respond to our main character. They love her performance, and they really identify with what she’s going through. She did such a good job carrying the movie, especially considering probably half her scenes don’t even have dialogue. Without Abby (the actress), the story wouldn’t work nearly as well. <br /><br />Also great: the re-shoots were helpful and worth the effort. And there are several scares and story twists that have played well for everyone. So there are large chunks that continue to work. <br /><br />The big issue, however, is people still think the first act is too slow. We were talking last night about how to address this, and it’s difficult. I jokingly said the movie is a house of cards, but it’s kind of true. Each scene has key pieces of information, so it’s not as easy as lifting things out. What we probably need to do is go in and shave a lot of the individual scenes down. But we need to be careful not to make it so fast that people can’t settle into the beginning. It’s a delicate issue, and one we haven’t quite cracked yet.<br /><br />But honestly, that’s the biggest thing. We have notes for other sections, mostly about clarity and pacing, but they’re fairly small. It feels like people want to like the movie, and 85% of it is there. We just need to push ourselves over the next few weeks, and get to that final 15. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOtqYqfnmhfUV71E85j4DFL96rtEvZM-RWW4pFL5Nj5vw7buyl_jKdTHyV6XXlAfDPNCXUg5fyKjIJlwSpTnpmYO5WiRghQ2IQByicX68wpJZuHdhq008c2-gzNxvbCsNPZhh8uOIlaHU/s1600-h/IMG_1936.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOtqYqfnmhfUV71E85j4DFL96rtEvZM-RWW4pFL5Nj5vw7buyl_jKdTHyV6XXlAfDPNCXUg5fyKjIJlwSpTnpmYO5WiRghQ2IQByicX68wpJZuHdhq008c2-gzNxvbCsNPZhh8uOIlaHU/s320/IMG_1936.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379518431759873250" /></a><br /><br />THOUGHTS FROM SCREENING #3:<br /><br />“Solid horror film. Good editing. I jumped several times.”<br /><br />“Very entertaining, scary, and engaging. Love Abigail Mittel as Charlotte.”<br /><br />“I feel like I’ve seen this movie already a lot. I grew tired of the location. The twist was not bad. Good acting, well edited, but I might not recommend it.”<br /><br />“Good. Kept me in the seat, let me search for clues.”<br /><br />“Very solid! Enjoyed it a lot. Like that it played off our assumptions from other films (“What Lies Beneath,” etc.)”<br /><br />“Solid set-ups and pay-offs, well-constructed.” <br /><br />“Suspenseful, good concept, maybe one too many scenes with the mystery trilobites.”<br /><br />“I thought it started off slow but the twist was very surprising. Witty dialogue. Some things didn’t quite make sense but on the whole, entertaining and interesting.”Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-45501958873073639422009-09-07T10:59:00.000-07:002009-09-07T11:07:05.566-07:00SundanceWe’re sitting in the edit bay right now, working our butts off to finish this new cut by tomorrow. Ironically enough, it’s Labor Day and everyone else we know is sleeping in, going to the beach, and getting ready to barbecue. We’ll get to party a little later hopefully, but right now we’re working on the third act. <br /><br />That’s because tomorrow is the deadline for Sundance. Everyone’s heard of the film festival in Park City, but the importance of Sundance for independent movies is huge. A premiere at Sundance garners tons of press coverage, exposure to distributors, and introductions to Hollywood players. It is probably the most important and prestigious film festival in the world.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDz2yTw1K9agwh0hT9eGWHO5PeaGxVlCWGSAfkKgoEjZDOhKv7lO69CgU4VxZ3_YSns6KsDX9yd0vPQWgESfTYYA7ezHXA_BKPLKofo0ztdfMkqgjUa0ApVhfs7oZZHhlBREhw1JlRb4g/s1600-h/IMG_1667.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDz2yTw1K9agwh0hT9eGWHO5PeaGxVlCWGSAfkKgoEjZDOhKv7lO69CgU4VxZ3_YSns6KsDX9yd0vPQWgESfTYYA7ezHXA_BKPLKofo0ztdfMkqgjUa0ApVhfs7oZZHhlBREhw1JlRb4g/s320/IMG_1667.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378788496880954322" /></a><br /><br />Literally thousands of feature films are submitted to Sundance every year. Last year, the total was 3,661. The number of films selected to screen in Park City was 118, or 0.03%. Pretty bad odds, especially considering many of selected movies had name stars, or well-known directors, or money. <br /><br />We have none of those things. But still, there are stories every year out of Sundance about unknown, low-budget movies that go on to find success – "El Mariachi," "The Blair Witch Project," "Open Water," "Grace," etc, etc. <br /><br />There’s all kinds of gossip and rumors about how films get into the festival. Some say you have to “know someone” to get in. Others say it’s purely merit-based. Still others insist sexual favors are involved. Some movies are even rumored to get in without applying at all. We have a possible, tentative connection, but for the most part, we’re sending in "Fugue" purely on its own merits. <br /><br />Truthfully, we don’t expect to get in. We think our movie’s good, and we think it’s going to get into plenty of other festivals, but we’re not sure if it’s a Sundance type of movie. Our goal was to make something that could sell, not something that necessarily re-invents cinematic storytelling. And I think we succeeded at that. <br /><br />So we’re spending the $75 application fee and working on Labor Day not because we expect to be sitting in Park City next January. We’re doing it because it gives us a good deadline, and because I don’t want to live the rest of my life wondering if we would have gotten in. <br /><br />And because no matter what the rumors or gossip say, we still have a shot.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651016332173967954.post-69403623845366136892009-09-02T15:18:00.000-07:002009-09-02T15:27:24.105-07:00Our Grass is AssWe’re doing re-shoots tomorrow. It took us a few days to process the notes from last week’s screening. A big part of that was dealing with the disappointment of feeling like we were done, then realizing we were not. That was a big mental obstacle to overcome. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjToQSddcN8zLvqh-UZiZSaP7hLsH8T50Bcyrtct3ffktbfusCHpxCCRABEnSbubAeg1bC7JBbVo0m80nF2ZrGrGOtwaEZQZTHuXCuEym1AP5DMqQHD_HuTAIKtlKjUdDedFy08WpICx1g/s1600-h/IMG_2312.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjToQSddcN8zLvqh-UZiZSaP7hLsH8T50Bcyrtct3ffktbfusCHpxCCRABEnSbubAeg1bC7JBbVo0m80nF2ZrGrGOtwaEZQZTHuXCuEym1AP5DMqQHD_HuTAIKtlKjUdDedFy08WpICx1g/s320/IMG_2312.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5376999921093533650" /></a><br />But after talking it over, we realized our audience was right – we do need to tweak some things. So we’re re-cutting this week, in order to make the first act play better, and delay a major emotional reveal until later in the third act. <br /><br />To make this last part happen, we have to re-shoot a couple lines, and we're filming a whole new scene. It’s always a little bit hair-raising, trying to re-create something you did six months before. You worry if the actors’ hair will match, if you can find all the costume bits, if you can rustle up all the props you need. <br /><br />But that’s not the biggest problem. One of the recurring things I seem to notice about making movies is that the biggest problem is the one you never see coming. And in our case, our biggest problem is grass.<br /><br />We’re re-doing the first shot of the movie, in which Charlotte enters the yard and looks up at the house. When we shot it in February, there had been a month of rain and the grass was long and lush. It is now September, the hottest month of the year in Los Angeles, and the grass in our location’s front yard is long gone. As Barbara the owner/director says: “It’s basically a pile of brown dirt.”<br /><br />So tomorrow morning, our ever-resourceful production designer Juliane is driving all the way out to Northridge to purchase 40 square feet of sod grass. We’re literally putting a jacket over the yard. It’s a simple solution, but one that will be dirty and expensive and hopefully not too hot to lay down tomorrow. <br /><br />This whole situation once again brings home to me what a weird thing it is to make movies. So many times, you find yourself in situations that no normal person would ever contemplate. And it’s all so you can create an illusion with the very modest ambition of entertaining people. I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me, the amount of work is worth it.Matt Harryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07443539246107165354noreply@blogger.com0