Posts Tagged movies
A Busy Month
I apologize again for my lack of posts. I’m sure anyone who tried to regularly read here isn’t so happy with me, lol. It’s been a really busy month so far, and looks to be pretty crazy all the way till the end. I’ve completed a few of the things I needed to, one of which is a teaser site for an upcoming project from Advent Film Group called Red September. I had a matter of a few days to get the site completed. It’s a pretty simple site, but required a lot of emails and phone calls to get everything all setup and designed the way everyone wanted before putting it all together. I’m happy with how it looks and it has some functionality I’ve never built into a site before like the Twitter feed for the movie being loaded into the page. I look forward to doing that on future sites including my own.
Another deadline this month is in only 5 days with me receiving the drive this past evening. I’m doing the DVD Authoring for The Potential Inside, a film I previously had done the website for. It was shot on the RED, so I’ll be taking great care in compressing the film and it’s features. I’ll be putting together the menus, compressing the film and features including it’s 5.1 surround sound-mix, authoring all the buttons and such that need to be done for the disc, adding encryption to keep it from being copied, and various other things. It’ll be tough to get it all done and overnighted for approval on the 15th but what else is new LOL. Scotty Curlee the guy behind the project is a great dude and poured his heart and soul into this film to get it completed. I hope he’s happy with the DVD when it’s done. 
I’ve completed two recent DVD covers for some children’s programs from The Fantastic World. I posted the completed cover on my graphics portfolio page here. I think it has a very cool cartoony feel to it, almost like Spongebob Squarepants. I’ll be doing a third cover for them next month so that’ll be fun. Doing these kinds of covers has forced me to drift away from the serious dramatic tone most of my work tends to have, so it’s stretched me a bit as a designer to come up with something bright, fun, and goofy.
Another great job that’s come in recently was from my good friend Rich Christiano. He’s having me do a brand new website for The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry, his recent film. If you haven’t seen that film yet…do yourself a favor and pick up a copy. It’s by far his best work. I’ve been Blessed to be working with Rich on ChristianMovies.com since Dec. 2009 and also done the one-pager sites for his other two films Time Changer and Unidentified. I love working with him and getting to know him the last number of years has been a great gift. If you’re reading this Rich thanks for the help and encouragement.
If you haven’t signed up yet, I’ve started an email list for ChristianFilmTrailers.com so I can send out updates when new films are posted. This will be a good way for me to gather some more submissions I think. With some elbow grease I think the site will really grow in the next few years.
Speaking of which there’s some exciting news. The STANDING FIRM fan page has passed 100,000 fans! 
It has taken over 6 months of work to get it to where it is. When I really started pounding the pavement we were only 16,000 and now we’re almost 100,000 more than that. Other filmmakers and companies have taken notice since this little film of ours should never have that many in it’s fan base. This has brought along some exciting marketing opportunities and I’m thankful for that. It’s helping spread the word about the film (and I’ve heard some great stories of lives impacted!), but in return it’s also brought along more work for myself. Now that I’m supporting two people that’s especially important. I can’t wait to see where the film has gone after Aug 2011 passes and we’ve been released for a year. God gets the Glory for it all! Thanks to everyone as always for supporting the film.
So what’s next for this newly married man? Well, work has kept me very busy obviously and I’m sure more will come in (I hope, lol) to keep me hopping. I’ve been creatively depressed though and really itching to get working on another film. I’ve searched my brain and prayed and continue to, but nothing really solid has come along yet. I want to develop something truly strong next time around, and be confident that what I have on paper is worth the money, time, etc. put into it. I have a meeting with a local Pastor here mid-March and I’m very excited to sit down with him and pick his brain. I know there are great stories to be told out there they just need to be sought out. I’ll be honest a ton of my personal life experience had been poured into my previous film, and while I have passions and things to say in another, the actual life experience to draw and write from is really dry right now. I sucked myself dry with STANDING FIRM and while it seems to have paid off with most viewers enjoying the film, I need to refill my cup. Pray for God’s guidance in this area and that he would bring along a story so strong that not even the secular realm could ignore it. A tall order to be sure, but hey…nothing’s impossible with God right?
100 days on the shelf
Standing Firm has now been out 100 days in the market. I can’t believe it! That’s nearly 1/3 of a year. Where is the time going? It’s been a pretty hectic whirlwind since it came out on DVD. Despite the holiday sales and deals the film has continued to sell pretty well and not get buried under too many products. We’ve even appeared back on some of the top lists we were on for a while after release time in August. I’m so thankful that it looks like we’ll close out Q4 2010 strongly. The first quarter of release is a huge indicator of how a film will do so I’m happy to see things moving along as they have. I look forward to 2011 and seeing where we end up after our first completed year of sales. The film is nearly paid for which is a miracle in itself. I’m still working on trying to get it into some out of the country territories. These things take time!
On Friday I’ll be on a local channel to promote the film. From what they’ve told me the typical coverage is about 40,000 homes and that isn’t half bad all things considered. I’ve completely forgotten about this promotion until a day ago when I got a phone call reminding me and asking me to send in some forms. I’m not entirely sure I’m ready to do it but we’ll see how things go. Being on camera isn’t my thing at all, I would almost rather be in front of thousands on a stage with lights blasting in my face.
Something to pray for if you can remember, is a marketing job I’m doing right now. I’m doing some things for a few friends on their project and the results have been very poor. I won’t name it or anything, but just know that I have about 65% of the funds left, and I want to do a good job for them. Everything I’ve tried that’s worked in the past is bombing pretty badly. Prayers for inspiration or breakthroughs would be appreciated, because I’m not entirely sure what the issue is.
On a more geeky note, I’ve figured out how to get a perfect 1080p signal from the blu-ray player I have in my office. This is awesome because I can pull a direct feed off the disc to either uncompressed or some other form of lossless codec and take a look at the footage. Instead of it being on a TV it’s a file on my computer so I can do some research. Even films that are extremely new and have wonderful transfers to HD, I think many would be surprised just how soft and how much grain is actually present in typical 35mm footage. I really love the organic feel of film, and I’m not a huge fan of the super clean and sharp HD footage out there or the RED. I enjoy aspects of the RED that are typically attributed to film (dynamic range, detail and resolution, etc.) but the image it gives I would likely post process quite a bit to get it looking a little less video and a little more filmic. That’s just my taste.
Denise and I went looking at places for our wedding reception today. We’ve just over 50 days away from getting married (crazy I know). I think we’ve settled on a place to go with, and the price and building is good (food as well). I’m glad to likely have that off the list because it’s held back a lot of things. There isn’t a lot of time so the stress has hit the both of us on and off this week. Prayers are appreciated concerning all of that as well and the planning to come.
I’ve got quite a few deadlines to handle tomorrow so I’ll cut this post a little shorter than usual…but thanks for tuning in! Lots of exciting things going on!
Getting Serious
I had a lot of very great responses to my previous post. Thanks to all who read it and found it encouraging. When I started this blog I hoped it could one day become something that someone could come to every once in a while and be sharpened, and I’m happy to say that day seems to have come. Even if it’s only a few people, it makes the time I spend on this late at night before bed completely worth it. This blog is not just a means of encouraging others but it’s always a way for me to externalize what I far too often internalize. It forces me to out the things I keep in, and work out what it is I’m struggling with day to day.
A recent comment from a friend mentioned how this blog and STANDING FIRM are an example of a more honest portrayal of filmmaking in the Christian market. It seems many present all of the good but very few are willing to bring the reality of this industry to light. Making films is hard. Not only is it hard but it’s extremely taxing on your mind, heart, and emotions. I prefer to be completely open about that with people and if I know for a fact (which I do) that many filmmakers or up and coming filmmakers read this, then I must be honest about the realities of this profession. We need to be careful that our films and art doesn’t become our God, and that we take care of ourselves, but to a degree this kind of industry can take its toll regardless. Producing and completing a film can be fun at times but wow is it a nightmare in a lot of ways. The money is difficult to spend and making it back is always a huge risk. Distribution is a beast that 99% of filmmakers don’t understand and one of the greatest issues is that nobody talks about it. Everyone is so incredibly afraid to share any information that it keeps us all in the dark. I can understand confidentiality to a degree, and I have my own lines drawn for that, but there is much in this industry (the indie Christian market) that is still unknown to most out there.
One thing I hope SAICFF’s Academy can touch on next year is the distribution, because I know a ton about this area now and have gotten some very generous phone calls and emails from the ones who know what they’re talking about. We need someone to stand up there in front of everyone next year and tell all the young 20 somethings and even younger what the realities are. Otherwise (in my opinion) everyone is blindly spending money on their films. It’s easy to tell folks to research their market before they make a film and consider the budget given the likely ROI (return on investment) but studying the market for most doesn’t go any farther than seeing the ranking of some films on ChrsitianCinema.com’s Top 10 list. We need to go farther than that. Everyone always thinks their film is something it’s not or they believe it to be far better than it is. Honesty needs to be key here. Artistic honesty must be present with all of us. We need to be honest about what our film is, how well it turned out (or didn’t).
I understand my view of filmmaking and in particular filmmaking with a message for Christ isn’t looked at the same by everyone. That’s fine, but I present what I write here from my perspective. I’m looking at this calling as a call to action. It’s a ministry for me in many ways, so my idea of “getting serious” is a little different. I’m still cooking up that article on why I’m in the Christian market so you’ll have to wait a bit longer for that but until then there’s an article that came out a while ago from Chris Bueno that articulates some of what I wish to say. Chris used to be apart of Carmel Entertainment, who helped bring Flywheel, Facing the Giants, and Fireproof to fruition. The article is a more mechanic approach to the idea I’ll be presenting. Mine will be that mixed with a more theological approach.
I need to get on my face before God about this short film for this summer, and whatever feature he might want me to do next (if any). I don’t want something good next time with this short, I want something extraordinary. Something that from the ground up is built to be a winner on all fronts. That’s going to take some serious work, but I’m anxious to get moving again on something. I have the itch! Time to scratch it!
PS. Standing Firm passed 30,000 fans on Facebook earlier today! AMAZING! Eph 3:20-21
