A little late on this post, but L.A.-based radio show "Film Courage with David Branin and Karen Worden" recently published an article I wrote up for their blog about my experiences on the Campus Tour. If you don't want to read this whole website, it serves as a pretty nice summation of the entire experience. It's got us some nice press, though, and was a buzz for them for a little bit. Check it out!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
"A Genesis Found" now available for FREE streaming at Openfilm!
If you haven't seen "A Genesis Found" yet, now you have no excuse. "A Genesis Found" now available as a free streaming option on Openfilm.com! And it's an editor's pick to boot!
Openfilm's library is available on numerous platforms-- if you use Boxee or a Home Theater PC, look for "A Genesis Found" in HD in the Openfilm Boxee app. The film is also available on demand for Verizon FiOS users, Miniweb users, and users of Blinkx Remote. Or you can just watch it here!
Openfilm's library is available on numerous platforms-- if you use Boxee or a Home Theater PC, look for "A Genesis Found" in HD in the Openfilm Boxee app. The film is also available on demand for Verizon FiOS users, Miniweb users, and users of Blinkx Remote. Or you can just watch it here!
Monday, May 23, 2011
All Good Things....
Well, the Tour is over.
Actually, it's been over for some time-- technically the last performance was our screening at the University of Arkansas in mid-March. But as there were still a few lingering possibilities for some late-April, early-May presentations, I decided I'd hold off on writing my "Final Chapter" in this saga in case any of those screenings developed.
Our final screening was actually supposed to be in Tuscaloosa, at the University of Alabama (my alma mater) within that April-May time frame, right at the end of the semester. It was a gig I was really hoping for-- a "homecoming" of sorts, to the place it was written, based and partially shot. Hell, the University of Alabama is IN the movie, and recognized as such. So I thought it'd be a great way to wrap up 11 months (plus the four or five months of prep) and 15 screenings (was it only 15????) worth of work with a final 16th in Tuscaloosa.
My numerous attempts at screening at UA were no where near as fruitful as I initially had assumed they'd be, mainly because most of the professors I knew well-enough when I went to school there to ask to sponsor me had moved on since my undergrad tenure. Another reason I had such a hard time, I think, was my own lack of immediacy about setting up a screening there (I just figured "well of course we'll screen there.")
My taking-for-granted misstep aside, by late-February early-March I was working, quite actively, to get the final few gigs booked up on the tour. Honestly I was a little tired of the tour (as evidenced in just about EVERY post I've previously placed on here) and was anxious to move on not only to Genesis' next and final phase of distribution-- but also just ready to move on from Genesis all together.
Of course, I wanted to end it on a high note (or at least a screening I was actually able to attend), and by late-March I had decided to write off all the other lingering potential screenings to focus on the UA gig, and make that our sentimental last stop.
I finally got ahold of a professor in the TCF dept. (where I got my degree) who actually took the time to write me back (I thought alumni carried some weight, dammit!), and we started crunching the details. Despite slow exchanges, it seemed promising that we'd get to have our last show at UA after all, in early-May.
By the end of April we'd again lost touch, but as we still had a few weeks before the potential screening I was still holding out hope of a screening happening, and planned on getting back with my contact the last week of April.
Then April 27th happened.
April 27th was a devastating day for the Southeast-- Alabama in particular-- with the region being bombarded by roughly 288 tornadoes-- the nation's largest single-day tornado outbreak in history-- which included touchdowns of 3 Category EF-5s (the worst there are).
Among the numerous counties and cities of Alabama hit by the storms, a significant chunk at the heart of Tuscaloosa, along with a number of surrounding rural areas, was obliterated.
Needless to say, the storms also killed any hope I had of a final screening in Tuscaloosa, though I refuse to trivialize the event by claiming this was a lamentable casualty. The devastation the region received is traumatic and continues to affect the lives of thousands. It's been a nightmare to live through, for all of us, though there have been some positives to result from this tragedy, including the growth of a greater sense of regional identity and internal regional support-- both ideas that are quite important to me and Wonder Mill films.
So, to get back to topic, thus then the tour IS DONE, and I am glad.
I must admit-- if I allow myself, there are still times I fear that I wasted a lot of opportunities, that the fact that I only saw 15 schools is not an accomplishment at all, that I dropped the ball and wasted too much time checking Braves scores and fixing up the new house and working the day job, and not enough time making the most of the past year. In some ways I feel like I have very little to show for all this work, and ultimately it cost me yet another year of Genesis lingering in distribution purgatory.
I think there is some validity to these fears, but as I begin to close this chapter in Genesis' development (and in my life) the fears fade, and I've come to peace with what we were able to accomplish with few resources and varying degrees of administrative cooperation from the schools we visited and the schools we tried. I regret the two I missed attending, cherished the one overnight trip to the Carolinas and the above and beyond receptions at Murray State and the University of Tennessee, and feel a general sense of ease that it's over with and I am ready to move on.
I've never felt this peace about A Genesis Found before-- previously I always felt held back by it. Maybe it's a spiritual sense of comfort in knowing I did my best, regardless how mixed the results were-- or maybe it's an intuitive sense of knowing what I needed to personally accomplish on my own professional journey.
Or maybe I'm just tired of it.
Regardless, before I bid my consistent (if infrequent) chronicling on this blog farewell, I would like to again thank the great folks who made this film, this tour, and this experience possible:
Thanks To:
- My Wife Peyton
- My Family - Robin, Arkie and Jason Fanning
- Kathy Taylor and Mike & Sarah Blankenship
- My Producer and Friend, Benjamin Stark, his Wife Danielle, and his Parents, Monika & Werner
- The Casts and Crews of A Genesis Found & The Nocturnal Third
- My Bosses and Work Family & Friends at the Day Job
- Southern Truths Artist Kevin Maggard
- The Administrators, Professors and Student Bodies at every school we attended
- Dr. Jay Cofield and the University of Montevallo
- Ashley Dumas and the University of West Alabama
- Ronn Hague and Pearl River Community College
- Philip J. Carr, Katie Bates, the USA Anthropology Society, and the University of South Alabama
- Jason Flynn and the University of North Alabama
- Arianne Gaetano, Hamilton Bryant and Auburn University
- Jay Franklin, the ETSU Anthropology Club and East Tennessee State University
- Tony Boudreaux and East Carolina University
- Karen Drexelius and the University of South Carolina
- Helen Roulston and Murray State University
- David Moore, John Thygerson and the University of Alabama - Huntsville
- Josh Rosenstein, the UGA Anthropology Society and the University of Georgia
- Deborah Albritton and Jefferson Davis Community College
- Chuck Maland and the University of Tennessee
- Lora Lennertz Jetton and the University of Arkansas
- The countless folks I contacted who took time to forward me along, give me suggestions, and help me try to set up a screening at their facility
- All of the Libraries, Art Councils, Film Commissions, Social Media Outlets, and other Community Organizations that helped us promote and supported our screenigns
- All of the Media Outlets that Covered and Promoted our screenings
- Everyone who made it out to a screening, picked up a promo DVD and helped spread the word
- The Wonder Mill Films Mailing List
- All our Fans on Facebook and Twitter
I feel there's also an obligation here to wrap up a few philosophical discoveries I've had about this method of distribution, to better serve those of you following my chronicles as research for your own DIY ambitions. I think it'd also do me some good to review, in simple, direct terms, exactly what I've learned these past 11 or so months. So here goes:
- Distribution, especially DIY distribution, is hard. There's too many outlets for entertainment now, too much supply and not enough new demand (ie there's the same number of folks looking for movies there always was). So finding success doesn't always boil down to an original approach to distribution or having a good film. You've got to be a good salesmen. I'd say even a natural salesman. I'm a horrible salesmen. I found some success on this tour, and I think I'd call the whole affair a positive and successful promotion of the film, but I was never passionate about the experience. I'm passionate about telling stories, just not selling them. And it's hard to sell them if you don't love doing it.
- Regionalism is an idea that's marketable and attractive, but it ain't changing the world just yet. I had a lot of folks come out to see the film due to regional ties-- and to our regionally-focused ethos-- but we could have easily done better exuding much less work marketing a Z-horror picture or a Faith-based flick. Even bad ones. Hell, ESPECIALLY bad ones.
- It's easier to sell something than give it away. For some reason, it's hard to get folks to come out to free events. I've seen this not only firsthand with this tour, but also with numerous free community events we have up at the day job-- cost equals quality in the cultural conciousness. The predominant feeling is that if it's any good, we wouldn't be giving it away. It's hard to argue that logic.
- The South rocks. I've gotten to see some great places on the tour, and drove through/visited some nice towns. Wish I could have stayed longer, but I wouldn't trade the experience.
- A Genesis Found is a good movie. It has its flaws, but the reactions in the tour from numerous and diverse audiences (sometimes english/film students, sometimes anthropology students, sometimes ordinary public) has been typically positive enough to convince me the movie is generally appealing and worth a watch. I've learned a lot since making it, but I'm genuinely proud to call it my first feature.
- I consider the Tour a success, but I wouldn't do it again. The scheme worked as well as I figured, if not as well as I'd hoped, and I think the film has benefited from the exposure it brought, which was the point in the first place. I also made some nice contacts and got to talk to a lot of interesting people, and have an interesting story or two to tell strangers and grandchildren. So, as a personal experience, it was inspiring, revealing and memorable; and as a business model, it was a neat experiment that did what it was supposed to do-- but I don't think it was successful enough to justify doing again. At least not without some backing and a bit more focused campaign.
So now that it's over-- what's next?
Well, first things first-- we got another movie on the way, which should launch early this Summer (exact date still TBA). It's called The Nocturnal Third, and you can read all about here.
After that, I'm personally moving on from Genesis, focusing on my Producer duties with N-3rd, and also allowing myself to make writing my top priory again. I'm writing a few things-- a new film project; a Young Adult adventure novel; and we've been flirting with the concept of adapting and finishing the stagnant Southern Truths featuring John Patton Jr. comic strip as a "Dramatic Podcast"-- all of which are using the majority of my focus at the moment.
And what's next for A Genesis Found?
Though philosophically I'm "moving on" from actively working on and actively promoting Genesis as of this post, there's still a bright future for our little feature that could. In addition to the possible tie-in podcast, we're planning another Tour.
Now, I know I just said I wouldn't do this again, and we're not-- we're taking a different approach, this time around, and plan late-summer, early-fall to take both The Nocturnal Third and A Genesis Found around to predominantly city venues as a double feature Wonder Mill Roadshow. No real details on this yet, but it's exciting, and we'll be sure to keep you all informed, here, on the Genesis website, and over at our facebook page.
There's also the possibility of a new DVD release of Genesis coming in the next few months, and we're hoping this will help make the film more readily available via more online and broadcast outlets. Not sure if there's any BIG news on this front yet, but might be some coming in the near future, so keep posted here for more updates. Who knows-- we may even wind up getting involved with a --gulp-- revenue-share distributor.
And if that wasn't enough, one final announcement-- I've been invited by "Film Courage with David Branin & Karen Worden", an LA-based radio show, to write up a little retrospective of this Tour for their website! I'm going to try and treat it like the definitive abridged memoir of the tour, so if you've liked my work here, or are interested in just reading the Cliff's Notes, I'll be sure and post the link here when it's up.
So that's it!
Like I said, I'll still be posting here, from time to time, so if you're interested do do your best to make periodic checks here-- or even better, stay connected to us via Facebook and Twitter, where we'll update every time there's something new on this blog.
And Lastly....
Thank YOU for reading along and sharing this fun experiment and personal journey with me. Now you should Buy the Film, Buy the Book, watch the Trailer for The Nocturnal Third, and have a great day!
 |
| That score is about right. |
Our final screening was actually supposed to be in Tuscaloosa, at the University of Alabama (my alma mater) within that April-May time frame, right at the end of the semester. It was a gig I was really hoping for-- a "homecoming" of sorts, to the place it was written, based and partially shot. Hell, the University of Alabama is IN the movie, and recognized as such. So I thought it'd be a great way to wrap up 11 months (plus the four or five months of prep) and 15 screenings (was it only 15????) worth of work with a final 16th in Tuscaloosa.
My numerous attempts at screening at UA were no where near as fruitful as I initially had assumed they'd be, mainly because most of the professors I knew well-enough when I went to school there to ask to sponsor me had moved on since my undergrad tenure. Another reason I had such a hard time, I think, was my own lack of immediacy about setting up a screening there (I just figured "well of course we'll screen there.")
My taking-for-granted misstep aside, by late-February early-March I was working, quite actively, to get the final few gigs booked up on the tour. Honestly I was a little tired of the tour (as evidenced in just about EVERY post I've previously placed on here) and was anxious to move on not only to Genesis' next and final phase of distribution-- but also just ready to move on from Genesis all together.
Of course, I wanted to end it on a high note (or at least a screening I was actually able to attend), and by late-March I had decided to write off all the other lingering potential screenings to focus on the UA gig, and make that our sentimental last stop.
I finally got ahold of a professor in the TCF dept. (where I got my degree) who actually took the time to write me back (I thought alumni carried some weight, dammit!), and we started crunching the details. Despite slow exchanges, it seemed promising that we'd get to have our last show at UA after all, in early-May.
By the end of April we'd again lost touch, but as we still had a few weeks before the potential screening I was still holding out hope of a screening happening, and planned on getting back with my contact the last week of April.
Then April 27th happened.
April 27th was a devastating day for the Southeast-- Alabama in particular-- with the region being bombarded by roughly 288 tornadoes-- the nation's largest single-day tornado outbreak in history-- which included touchdowns of 3 Category EF-5s (the worst there are).
Among the numerous counties and cities of Alabama hit by the storms, a significant chunk at the heart of Tuscaloosa, along with a number of surrounding rural areas, was obliterated.
Needless to say, the storms also killed any hope I had of a final screening in Tuscaloosa, though I refuse to trivialize the event by claiming this was a lamentable casualty. The devastation the region received is traumatic and continues to affect the lives of thousands. It's been a nightmare to live through, for all of us, though there have been some positives to result from this tragedy, including the growth of a greater sense of regional identity and internal regional support-- both ideas that are quite important to me and Wonder Mill films.
So, to get back to topic, thus then the tour IS DONE, and I am glad.
I must admit-- if I allow myself, there are still times I fear that I wasted a lot of opportunities, that the fact that I only saw 15 schools is not an accomplishment at all, that I dropped the ball and wasted too much time checking Braves scores and fixing up the new house and working the day job, and not enough time making the most of the past year. In some ways I feel like I have very little to show for all this work, and ultimately it cost me yet another year of Genesis lingering in distribution purgatory.
 |
| Anyone wanna buy my film????? |
I've never felt this peace about A Genesis Found before-- previously I always felt held back by it. Maybe it's a spiritual sense of comfort in knowing I did my best, regardless how mixed the results were-- or maybe it's an intuitive sense of knowing what I needed to personally accomplish on my own professional journey.
Or maybe I'm just tired of it.
Regardless, before I bid my consistent (if infrequent) chronicling on this blog farewell, I would like to again thank the great folks who made this film, this tour, and this experience possible:
Thanks To:
- My Wife Peyton
- My Family - Robin, Arkie and Jason Fanning
- Kathy Taylor and Mike & Sarah Blankenship
- My Producer and Friend, Benjamin Stark, his Wife Danielle, and his Parents, Monika & Werner
- The Casts and Crews of A Genesis Found & The Nocturnal Third
- My Bosses and Work Family & Friends at the Day Job
- Southern Truths Artist Kevin Maggard
- The Administrators, Professors and Student Bodies at every school we attended
- Dr. Jay Cofield and the University of Montevallo
- Ashley Dumas and the University of West Alabama
- Ronn Hague and Pearl River Community College
- Philip J. Carr, Katie Bates, the USA Anthropology Society, and the University of South Alabama
- Jason Flynn and the University of North Alabama
- Arianne Gaetano, Hamilton Bryant and Auburn University
- Jay Franklin, the ETSU Anthropology Club and East Tennessee State University
- Tony Boudreaux and East Carolina University
- Karen Drexelius and the University of South Carolina
- Helen Roulston and Murray State University
- David Moore, John Thygerson and the University of Alabama - Huntsville
- Josh Rosenstein, the UGA Anthropology Society and the University of Georgia
- Deborah Albritton and Jefferson Davis Community College
- Chuck Maland and the University of Tennessee
- Lora Lennertz Jetton and the University of Arkansas
- The countless folks I contacted who took time to forward me along, give me suggestions, and help me try to set up a screening at their facility
- All of the Libraries, Art Councils, Film Commissions, Social Media Outlets, and other Community Organizations that helped us promote and supported our screenigns
- All of the Media Outlets that Covered and Promoted our screenings
- Everyone who made it out to a screening, picked up a promo DVD and helped spread the word
- The Wonder Mill Films Mailing List
- All our Fans on Facebook and Twitter
 |
| What we've learned... |
- Distribution, especially DIY distribution, is hard. There's too many outlets for entertainment now, too much supply and not enough new demand (ie there's the same number of folks looking for movies there always was). So finding success doesn't always boil down to an original approach to distribution or having a good film. You've got to be a good salesmen. I'd say even a natural salesman. I'm a horrible salesmen. I found some success on this tour, and I think I'd call the whole affair a positive and successful promotion of the film, but I was never passionate about the experience. I'm passionate about telling stories, just not selling them. And it's hard to sell them if you don't love doing it.
- Regionalism is an idea that's marketable and attractive, but it ain't changing the world just yet. I had a lot of folks come out to see the film due to regional ties-- and to our regionally-focused ethos-- but we could have easily done better exuding much less work marketing a Z-horror picture or a Faith-based flick. Even bad ones. Hell, ESPECIALLY bad ones.
- It's easier to sell something than give it away. For some reason, it's hard to get folks to come out to free events. I've seen this not only firsthand with this tour, but also with numerous free community events we have up at the day job-- cost equals quality in the cultural conciousness. The predominant feeling is that if it's any good, we wouldn't be giving it away. It's hard to argue that logic.
- The South rocks. I've gotten to see some great places on the tour, and drove through/visited some nice towns. Wish I could have stayed longer, but I wouldn't trade the experience.
- A Genesis Found is a good movie. It has its flaws, but the reactions in the tour from numerous and diverse audiences (sometimes english/film students, sometimes anthropology students, sometimes ordinary public) has been typically positive enough to convince me the movie is generally appealing and worth a watch. I've learned a lot since making it, but I'm genuinely proud to call it my first feature.
- I consider the Tour a success, but I wouldn't do it again. The scheme worked as well as I figured, if not as well as I'd hoped, and I think the film has benefited from the exposure it brought, which was the point in the first place. I also made some nice contacts and got to talk to a lot of interesting people, and have an interesting story or two to tell strangers and grandchildren. So, as a personal experience, it was inspiring, revealing and memorable; and as a business model, it was a neat experiment that did what it was supposed to do-- but I don't think it was successful enough to justify doing again. At least not without some backing and a bit more focused campaign.
So now that it's over-- what's next?
Well, first things first-- we got another movie on the way, which should launch early this Summer (exact date still TBA). It's called The Nocturnal Third, and you can read all about here.
After that, I'm personally moving on from Genesis, focusing on my Producer duties with N-3rd, and also allowing myself to make writing my top priory again. I'm writing a few things-- a new film project; a Young Adult adventure novel; and we've been flirting with the concept of adapting and finishing the stagnant Southern Truths featuring John Patton Jr. comic strip as a "Dramatic Podcast"-- all of which are using the majority of my focus at the moment.
And what's next for A Genesis Found?
Though philosophically I'm "moving on" from actively working on and actively promoting Genesis as of this post, there's still a bright future for our little feature that could. In addition to the possible tie-in podcast, we're planning another Tour.
Now, I know I just said I wouldn't do this again, and we're not-- we're taking a different approach, this time around, and plan late-summer, early-fall to take both The Nocturnal Third and A Genesis Found around to predominantly city venues as a double feature Wonder Mill Roadshow. No real details on this yet, but it's exciting, and we'll be sure to keep you all informed, here, on the Genesis website, and over at our facebook page.
There's also the possibility of a new DVD release of Genesis coming in the next few months, and we're hoping this will help make the film more readily available via more online and broadcast outlets. Not sure if there's any BIG news on this front yet, but might be some coming in the near future, so keep posted here for more updates. Who knows-- we may even wind up getting involved with a --gulp-- revenue-share distributor.
 |
| He's Original-Gansta-Wonder Mill. |
So that's it!
Like I said, I'll still be posting here, from time to time, so if you're interested do do your best to make periodic checks here-- or even better, stay connected to us via Facebook and Twitter, where we'll update every time there's something new on this blog.
And Lastly....
Thank YOU for reading along and sharing this fun experiment and personal journey with me. Now you should Buy the Film, Buy the Book, watch the Trailer for The Nocturnal Third, and have a great day!
New Review of "A Genesis Found"!
Check out this nice review from Jay Burleson, a friend of mine and fellow regional filmmaker, who took time to review A Genesis Found for his blog. There be some spoilers (thanks Jay, haha) but if you've seen it, READ IT.
And then buy Jay's film Feast of the Vampires, which screened with A Genesis Found back in Athens in 2009.
And then buy Jay's film Feast of the Vampires, which screened with A Genesis Found back in Athens in 2009.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
New Book from Wilson Toney!
The tour is virtually wrapped up-- all that remains is for me to put a little bow on it with a final entry on this blog. Been taking my sweet time on that (though you should expect it sometime next week)-- in the meantime, though, why not do some book reading?
Why, here's a book you could read right now! Wilson Toney, who I collaborated with on putting together A Genesis Found: The Film Companion (Toney was the novelist who wrote the novelization of the flick) has just released another book-- this time a non-fiction, humorous guide to tertiary education called The Only Thing Lower than a Slave: or How to Succeed in Graduate School Despite Really Trying.
A fun read for anyone who's in, has been in, or plans to attend Grad school, from a man who had to get his Masters in a very limited amount of time. I helped put the book together and it's turned out well. Just $9. Check it out on Amazon!
Why, here's a book you could read right now! Wilson Toney, who I collaborated with on putting together A Genesis Found: The Film Companion (Toney was the novelist who wrote the novelization of the flick) has just released another book-- this time a non-fiction, humorous guide to tertiary education called The Only Thing Lower than a Slave: or How to Succeed in Graduate School Despite Really Trying.
A fun read for anyone who's in, has been in, or plans to attend Grad school, from a man who had to get his Masters in a very limited amount of time. I helped put the book together and it's turned out well. Just $9. Check it out on Amazon!
Friday, April 8, 2011
Being Remote is still Being There
I've made it a point to do everything in my power, throughout this tour, to make it to every venue I have scheduled. No matter how far, how poorly prepared, or how ultimately impractical, if a school or a school's representative took some of their personal time to give me an opportunity and set up a screening for me, I feel highly obligated to keep my promise and make the trip. Not that I should be congratulated for this, or anything-- this is our arrangement. But it would certainly be easier just to have the film tour itself, and kinda take myself out of the equation, especially given the resources I have to work with.
Regardless, with a grassroots approach to distribution, I've learned it's pretty much an essential to have folks associate your ugly mug with your work by meeting you in person. Seems to be incentive, and seems to help make the experience stick once you're gone. Ultimately, if you're taking a non-traditional approach with your media distribution, of whatever it is, well, you're kinda asking folks to come out of their comfort zone-- to try and consume media in a way they don't generally consume it. So, really the only way to convince folks that such a step is worth their time is to show up yourself-- not just because it shows it's at least worth your time-- but because it gives them an opportunity they don't usually have-- to meet and greet with one of the minds behind the constructed conversation you're presenting.
I'm by no means breaking ground here-- but still, nice to remind yourself why you're doing it, from time to time.
Anyway, this whole setup is all just a means, I suppose, of getting around to the fact that, due to some circumstances beyond my control, I wasn't able to attend my fifteenth screening at the University of Arkansas.
This wasn't the only screening I've missed-- way back in September I missed what was our largest screening at Pearl River Community College in Mississippi.
Frankly, I don't really like touring. It's not very fun, I'm not much of a salesmen, it's usually not too rewarding, and I'm tired of watching the film. And yeah, a 10 hour drive to Fayetteville wasn't really something I was looking forward to. But I hate missed opportunities-- that's the worst-- getting a great opportunity like a screening at a major university and then feeling like, when the crunch time came, you weren't able to make the right decisions, the right calls, to get as much out of the opportunity as possible.
But there was a death in the family, and there was no way I could make the screening, and no way the screening date could be changed.
But that didn't necessarily mean I was going to have to chalk this screening off as a missed opportunity.
Unlike the circumstances that forced me to miss the PRCC screening, I knew for a few days a head of time that making the Arkansas screening wasn't in the cards. Again, not wanting to miss an opportunity (especially not when the Arkansas screening was looking like it was going to be the Tour's last) I decided to see if my contact and I could work something out where I could do a remote Q&A, either via phone or via web cam or something similarly slick and "High Tech".
Luckily, my contact was the head media librarian, and she was a very gracious person, and was all in (as Auburn fans say) to help me coordinate a Rube Goldberg-esque construct to facilitate a remote Q&A.
We couldn't really do a straight web cam to web cam broadcast via Skype, so we decided, instead, to have her and the audience communicate with me via speaker phone, while I answered the questions over a live broadcast feed via Ustream
The concept seemed pretty solid, actually, and it all worked in theory. Plus, it kinda opened up new opportunities for us-- since the Q&A would be streaming live to a public channel, anyone with an internet connection could tune in. So, now it wasn't just keeping me from missing an opportunity-- it was generating new ones.
The only real problem, going in, was that I'd never done a live web broadcast via Ustream before, and I didn't own a web cam. But it couldn't be that big of a deal, right?!
To complicate matters more, I've yet to get internet at my new humble abode, so in order to do the stream I had to set up shop at my folks' house-- coulda been worse, coulda had to use McDonald's WiFi or something-- but halfway-hacking a bunch of new technology using a Windows laptop not exactly optimized to my needs didn't make things easier.
I'll spare you all the little glitches we ran into in our "rehearsal" prior to the screening, but we eventually got it somewhat working, despite my webcam's penchant for freezing video and the Windows Laptop being anything but an efficient, reliable machine.
So, after probably the greatest two hours I've ever spent while waiting on this damn movie to finish (it was the first day of March Madness, after all) I started re-prepping everything for the broadcast. And, of course, as these things always go, the computer and/or web cam took turns freezing and resetting in the minutes leading into go time, extending even on into it.
There's this kinda panic you feel when things don't go as they should with time sensitive events-- you kinda amp everything in your mind and you fear that if things don't happen on cue, all existence will invert itself and spill off the edge of the film strip. It's why stage managers are so impractical and have such thin nerves; why Assistant Directors tend to be jerks; and why I'll never work for local news. As silly as it is-- it's entertainment for crying out loud-- that panic is there and it's as enveloping and blinding as the panic felt in any great personal catastrophe, like losing a lot money or a limb. It so deafens your objectivity that you forget what it really is-- a play, or a film, or a news broadcast. Or a Ustream Q&A with a bunch of kids in Arkansas.
So, about 9:10 I finally got a phone call, and having just restarted the Windows Laptop again-- did I mention it was Windows?-- we decided to go ahead and start the Q&A via phone while I continued to try and get the stream working.
A little while ago I blogged* about an interview I did over the air in South Carolina while I was at work, and how freaking scattered brained I can be when I'm partially distracted (which, if you ask my wife, is virtually all the time... j/k Peyt). (*Check out the Sunday, Nov. 28 entry for Lee's Projectin' Adv.-- Stan)
Luckily this night was a little different and I actually felt I did a decent job fielding questions while messing with peripheral annoyances. After the first three or so questions, the stream was up.
In true half-assed prepped fashion, about halfway in the video froze, so we did the rest of the Q&A via audio only (while I'm sure a zinger of a photo of my frozen face, jaw half-cocked and jutting teeth pix-elated and distorted in grotesque fashion lagged on the screen in Fayetteville the remainder of the evening).
I'll let what I have recorded of the Q&A speak for itself, but overall, really great questions. I hate I wasn't able to make it out there to meet some of these guys-- sounds like we got some real perceptive film students out there. I do apologize for committing the cardinal sin and not remembering to repeat back the student's questions for the stream, but I think you can get the gist.
We also got some nice press out of it, from Arkansas' school paper. Here's the link.
Despite the glitches, I think, overall, the screening and Q&A went as well as they could, and I was spared that awful feeling that's associated with missing an opportunity. So, at least to my own peace of mind, me not being there in person didn't affect the film's impact or the opportunity of the screening. Maybe I shoulda thought of this remote stuff back in July.
Thanks to my contact, everyone who made it out despite my absence, and be expecting your promo DVDs in the mail.
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| "Alderaan??? I'm not going to Alderaan!" |
I'm by no means breaking ground here-- but still, nice to remind yourself why you're doing it, from time to time.
Anyway, this whole setup is all just a means, I suppose, of getting around to the fact that, due to some circumstances beyond my control, I wasn't able to attend my fifteenth screening at the University of Arkansas.
This wasn't the only screening I've missed-- way back in September I missed what was our largest screening at Pearl River Community College in Mississippi.
Frankly, I don't really like touring. It's not very fun, I'm not much of a salesmen, it's usually not too rewarding, and I'm tired of watching the film. And yeah, a 10 hour drive to Fayetteville wasn't really something I was looking forward to. But I hate missed opportunities-- that's the worst-- getting a great opportunity like a screening at a major university and then feeling like, when the crunch time came, you weren't able to make the right decisions, the right calls, to get as much out of the opportunity as possible.
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| The Romanticized Grind |
But that didn't necessarily mean I was going to have to chalk this screening off as a missed opportunity.
Unlike the circumstances that forced me to miss the PRCC screening, I knew for a few days a head of time that making the Arkansas screening wasn't in the cards. Again, not wanting to miss an opportunity (especially not when the Arkansas screening was looking like it was going to be the Tour's last) I decided to see if my contact and I could work something out where I could do a remote Q&A, either via phone or via web cam or something similarly slick and "High Tech".
Luckily, my contact was the head media librarian, and she was a very gracious person, and was all in (as Auburn fans say) to help me coordinate a Rube Goldberg-esque construct to facilitate a remote Q&A.
We couldn't really do a straight web cam to web cam broadcast via Skype, so we decided, instead, to have her and the audience communicate with me via speaker phone, while I answered the questions over a live broadcast feed via Ustream
The concept seemed pretty solid, actually, and it all worked in theory. Plus, it kinda opened up new opportunities for us-- since the Q&A would be streaming live to a public channel, anyone with an internet connection could tune in. So, now it wasn't just keeping me from missing an opportunity-- it was generating new ones.
The only real problem, going in, was that I'd never done a live web broadcast via Ustream before, and I didn't own a web cam. But it couldn't be that big of a deal, right?!
To complicate matters more, I've yet to get internet at my new humble abode, so in order to do the stream I had to set up shop at my folks' house-- coulda been worse, coulda had to use McDonald's WiFi or something-- but halfway-hacking a bunch of new technology using a Windows laptop not exactly optimized to my needs didn't make things easier.
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| "I am speaking Tech-nol-a-gy." |
So, after probably the greatest two hours I've ever spent while waiting on this damn movie to finish (it was the first day of March Madness, after all) I started re-prepping everything for the broadcast. And, of course, as these things always go, the computer and/or web cam took turns freezing and resetting in the minutes leading into go time, extending even on into it.
There's this kinda panic you feel when things don't go as they should with time sensitive events-- you kinda amp everything in your mind and you fear that if things don't happen on cue, all existence will invert itself and spill off the edge of the film strip. It's why stage managers are so impractical and have such thin nerves; why Assistant Directors tend to be jerks; and why I'll never work for local news. As silly as it is-- it's entertainment for crying out loud-- that panic is there and it's as enveloping and blinding as the panic felt in any great personal catastrophe, like losing a lot money or a limb. It so deafens your objectivity that you forget what it really is-- a play, or a film, or a news broadcast. Or a Ustream Q&A with a bunch of kids in Arkansas.
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| This is for my wife. |
A little while ago I blogged* about an interview I did over the air in South Carolina while I was at work, and how freaking scattered brained I can be when I'm partially distracted (which, if you ask my wife, is virtually all the time... j/k Peyt). (*Check out the Sunday, Nov. 28 entry for Lee's Projectin' Adv.-- Stan)
Luckily this night was a little different and I actually felt I did a decent job fielding questions while messing with peripheral annoyances. After the first three or so questions, the stream was up.
In true half-assed prepped fashion, about halfway in the video froze, so we did the rest of the Q&A via audio only (while I'm sure a zinger of a photo of my frozen face, jaw half-cocked and jutting teeth pix-elated and distorted in grotesque fashion lagged on the screen in Fayetteville the remainder of the evening).
We also got some nice press out of it, from Arkansas' school paper. Here's the link.
Despite the glitches, I think, overall, the screening and Q&A went as well as they could, and I was spared that awful feeling that's associated with missing an opportunity. So, at least to my own peace of mind, me not being there in person didn't affect the film's impact or the opportunity of the screening. Maybe I shoulda thought of this remote stuff back in July.
Thanks to my contact, everyone who made it out despite my absence, and be expecting your promo DVDs in the mail.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
That Blinding Sunsphere
The second screening of the second half of the Tour didn't come until almost a month after the private gig at JDCC. As I mentioned last post, the sparsely staggered nature of the second half's screenings was more of an advantage than a hindrance. Plus, with February being my first month in a new home, I frankly needed the break.
Regardless, in the "meantime" between the two screenings I was plenty busy with promo work for both the second and third screenings, and trying to get one to two other schools to "sign on" before the Tour comes to its conclusion in April.
Since this blog is probably best consumed as a work log for a distribution experiment, I suppose there's an obligation for me to comment on whether or not the newly revised format of the Tour-- the very-few-screenings-in-very-many weeks approach-- was working any better than the previous method. Though I'll speak more on that later, I can say that, from a preparation/pre-show standpoint, the process was much more sedate, much less stressful, and I felt much more prepared going in. I didn't feel that horrible, sinking feeling that I had waited too late to start promos, or that I'd contacted the wrong people, or that I was wasting an opportunity, etc. Part of that might just be experience-- I KNOW who to contact, now, what to expect, how to get the most out of an opportunity that I'm going to get, given the circumstances of my film and my Tour. But I do think having more time to focus solely on a few screenings as opposed to less time to focus on many allowed me to address each screening a bit more individualistically, on its terms, which is very important in the grassroots model. It also kept me feeling in control, put me more at ease, and allowed me to enjoy the process a bit more, and experience the screening with a clean conscience. I don't think this is solely attributable to the new format, but the new format certainly helped.
The second screening of the second half was in Knoxville, Tennessee at THE University of Tennessee. The formal name is the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, but if you confuse UT - Chattanooga with the Orange and White you haven't been in the South long. Anyway, the UT screening was quite special, for a number of reasons-- but before I get into that, let's learn a little bit about Knoxville and its history.
One of the four largest cities in Tennessee (and, after Pittsburgh, the second largest city in the Appalachian region), Knoxville has been known as both "The Marble City" (for its early-20th century exports of marble) and "The Underwear Capitol of the World" (for a large number of 30's era underwear production mills)-- though more recently it's been known, each August through December, as "Where We Get the Whoopins." The site of many a Crimson Tide victory, Knoxville was also host site to the 1982 World's Fair-- a fact used quite humourously in the plot of a 1996 episode of the Simpsons.
Knoxville was home to numerous Native American settlements during the Woodland and Mississippian periods, before being settled by the white man-- after some shaky negotiations with the Cherokee-- following the Revolutionary War.
Prior to the Civil War, Knoxville, along with most of East Tennessee, was actually known for it's anti-slavery and anti-secessionist sentiments-- even hosting a stop on the Underground Railroad-- but financial interests eventually led to a strong pro-secessionist movement. After the war began, much Union sympathy remained in the city.
Though today primarily known as headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Authority and home of the UT Vols, Knoxville is (or was) also home to several notable writers, artists, and celebrities, including James Agee, Cormac McCarthy, Patricia Neal-- and Johnny Knoxville. Quentin Tarantino was also born there, but that's about as Southern as he gets.
And, of course, quarterback Peyton Manning played college ball in Knoxville, though apparently not well enough to win him a Heisman, or a National Title. No wonder he's only won 4 NFL MVPs.
Getting the UT screening was a long time coming. I initially spoke to my contact in early Fall 2010 (if not late Summer), and after a couple of months of e-mails we were set for the March screening by December. After that, we were pretty much in cruise control-- I had an excellent contact at UT, who was excited about the opportunity of having a young, essentially just-out-of-school filmmaker on campus for his hungry Cinema Studies students. He was very empowering and really went above and beyond to facilitate us, and I am still thankful.
So, after shipping out some fliers and tackling the typical promotional duties, I was on my way to Knoxville.
So far so normal right? Then what was SO special about this particular screening?
I'll interject here and do the PC thing-- all my screenings are special. Anytime anyone anywhere has the opportunity to share an experience you've manufactured for them, it's special. It's very easy to lose sight of that, especially in the post youtube era-- but let's not. Whether it's five people or five thousand, Los Angeles or Lower Alabama, a screening is a screening.
But I think it's fair to say that my trip to Knoxville was extra special, for numerous reasons, not the least of which being my contact/organizer's undying enthusiasm and appreciation.
One of the more unique aspects of his approach was how he developed the screening into a major event for the Cinema Studies program-- not a big program, but a hungry one, full of hungry students. It wasn't just about having a chance to see regional work-- he approached it as a chance for his students to learn how they too could go off immediately from UT and start making their own regional films. Kinda like a cram session of the DIY model, with me the guest lecturer. I got to play the "star of the show" for the evening and must admit it healed up some of the bruises my ego had been nursing from various experiences I'd had prior in the Tour. Regardless of this side-effect, the night was about the students-- completely about the students-- and completely about exposing them to a new type of artistic opportunity in our current era (no matter how non-lucrative).
This ties back to my experience in February at JDCC-- and ties, again, directly to my recent realizations about exactly what this Tour is about and what its exact purpose actually is. And, I guess, in the bigger picture, it kinda reminded me of what I'm doing with my career here-- with my life.
I think it's fair to confess that I frequently fear I'm wasting my time in the South. Frankly, most of the signs point to it. Filmmaking and storytelling doesn't really pay the bills, and I often feel relatively useless and selfish towards mankind since I have no passion, no drive, no talent for anything else. Like I'm a cursed man who can't fight it and can't cure it yet still can't succeed in it.
Sometimes I feel like my selfish ambition is keeping me from contributing to my true place in the world-- that stories and the cinema are now the domain of the hipsters, academia, and tech guys all itching to produce types of content I'm just not that crazy about. That I was born too late or something.
Hopefully this doesn't just sound like fodder for a pity party-- but as important as stories are, one of the last things the world needs is another storyteller, especially if that storyteller doesn't have anything unique or valid or a differing perspective to share.
I often fear that I'm either too afraid or too lazy to move to a different region and take a more traditional path towards a paying filmmaking career.
I guess the underlying fear is that if I have nothing to offer as a storyteller, and if I can't become a great storyteller, then I should just focus on the day job and be an a/v tech or something remotely useful to the world. And the Tour has, typically, done anything but validate my current predicament as a regionalist trying to reinvent the wheel as far as indie film production and distribution is concerned.
So, it's nice to get validation. But more on that later.
I arrived in Knoxville with an hour to spare but it took me most of that time to find a parking deck. Not that I shouldn't be used to the "parking on campus" predicament by now, but generally I do night screenings so I roll into town after 5 pm-- this screening was at 4, so I arrived during the thick of normal school day activity.
Regardless I got into the UT Library about 15-minutes before game time, met my contact, got my press table set up, and we got things started to a nice turnout. After a nice introduction (I typically get introduced but not with an extensive bio, haha) we got things rolling, and as per custom, about halfway through I took off to wander campus.
I like visiting big state schools, especially schools whose athletic programs are rivals to my alma mater. I guess there's a kinda "secret agent" fantasy that runs through your head that makes it fun-- even for a grown man. I've never been brave enough-- or rude enough-- to wear a Bama "13 National Champions" shirt to one of these things, but I kinda smirk about doing it when I wander around and remember what it was like to be in school.
There is one thing I found on campus-- in the UT Library, in fact-- that I have to point out, because it ties so well to the film. There's an "exhibit" in the library for the Centaur Excavations at Volos. In other words, its a rare display of the excavated remains of an ACTUAL Centaur.
Really stunning work, and a great hoax to kinda sit on display as a permanent warning to students that you can't always trust your eyes-- a nice philosophical exercise, and a perfect complement to thematics we looked at in Genesis. You can get more info on the "excavation" here.
I got back in the auditorium for the film to wrap up, and as per custom, did a brief Q&A.
So far, by the book. But, as I mentioned, my contact had built the screening into a major event, and we immediately went upstairs to a CATERED reception and discussion. Definitely breaking new ground here.
I was pretty nervous, going in. Frankly, I hate touring. I'm not a salesman, I'm not naturally great at reacting to new and uncomfortable situations, and I hate when I can't just kinda sink into the background. The only reason we did this damn Tour to begin with was because I had to do something with the film and the Tour was the only remotely ambitious approach I could come up with where I still had some level of control.
Anyway, after a few awkward minutes, some brave students finally asked some questions, and things seemed to move pretty smooth from there on out. It was more an extension of the Q&A, really, rather than a discussion, as I gave way-too-long, way-too-complicated answers to simple questions and, despite meaning to, asked very few of my own. But, folks seemed to be engaged enough, and most of the kids did seem legitimately interested in my experience. I think the fact that I was pretty much their age was a big factor, and I tried to give as many details as possible.
One thing I always hated when I used to ask for advice would be the people who explain how that got a film made but brushed over the big hurdles that keep the rest of us from really making films-- for instance, they'd give you all the details of how a shoot went, but not tell you how they raised the money or where they got the equipment, or hell, where they got the cast and crew. Granted, speaking from experience it is kinda a sensitive thing to mention where you got your financing, but I try not to glaze over that too much-- and I do my best to be as micro-detailed regarding the other major hurdles when talking with students as possible.
Now, a little bit about UT's Cinema Studies dept. UT's dept is similar to what we had at UA-- probably more inline with what UA had about six years before I got there. A lot of interest, no equipment, professors in different schools kinda mixing and matching programs. So, a lot of good work being done, but not really a definitive discipline or major yet. Kids interested in pursuing it have to make amalgamated majors, double majors, double minors, etc.
So, I think basically, it's a program with a lot of potential, and a lot of sincerity. At the risk of sounding pretentious, give me that over a formal film school any day. Because then it becomes all about empowering, all about exploration, all about self-reliance. They can't offer you job placement (trust me), but they do anything but spoil you-- maybe that's the best lesson you can teach aspiring artists-- that it's a hard road to hoe, it's expensive, it's not lucrative, and no one gives a damn until your work is good enough to deserve it. Might help out our over-saturation problem.
Anyway, after the discussion concluded, I went out to eat with my contact and five highly interested film students, kinda friends of my contact. This was probably the most rewarding event of the night-- hell, possibly the most rewarding event of the entire Tour-- in that I finally got all the "validation" and "purpose" I've been squabbling humorlessly about. It was talking with these young storytellers that, again, opened my mind to the true purpose of the Tour-- that I'm there to show students how work that is about your home, about your region, that uses regional aesthetics, history and mythology with a unique, fresh perspective is an inherent advantage to the stories you tell. That place can be as important to a filmmaker as it is to a writer. That you can tell stories as a young man without being a wunderkind like Welles or Spielberg-- cause, trust me, most of us aren't.
One student, from Chattanooga, kinda summed it all up for me. He said he's proud of where he's from and would like to "write about what he knows", but he never viewed it as a real possibility before that night. That he a) didn't realize it was an option to produce regionally specific work and b) that he now just recognized the importance of it. Though I tried not to be too disillusioned about things-- there's really not a strong "regional" market yet, especially not in the South, that doesn't cater to niche exploitation markets, like "faith-based" stuff or Tyler Perry films-- but I wanted to encourage the impulse. My desire to live a lifestyle debt-free and where I can buy DVD's at will aside, I do think that creating cinematic markets that focus on specific regions (though with universal appeal) is a relatively viable concept, and that it might become increasingly so the smaller technology makes the world. I also think there's a larger need for regional identity to be more accurately depicted, examined and preserved by filmmakers, the smaller the world gets-- similar to how writers do and have done for years. The cinema-- or at least the moving image-- is currently our greatest, most influential medium of mass expression, in my opinion. We need to continue expanding who uses the medium, how the medium is used, and turn it into a truly universally accesible art form where the country it's made in isn't the only thing that's important-- but also WHERE in that country it was made.
In other words, there are more dimensions to our lives in greater need of exploration than the third. And their glasses don't make you look stupid.
Man, where IS my sense of humor???
Regardless, in the "meantime" between the two screenings I was plenty busy with promo work for both the second and third screenings, and trying to get one to two other schools to "sign on" before the Tour comes to its conclusion in April.
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| The Experiment Rolls On |
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| Unlike the New Format Aquaman, the New Format Campus Tour is here to stay. |
One of the four largest cities in Tennessee (and, after Pittsburgh, the second largest city in the Appalachian region), Knoxville has been known as both "The Marble City" (for its early-20th century exports of marble) and "The Underwear Capitol of the World" (for a large number of 30's era underwear production mills)-- though more recently it's been known, each August through December, as "Where We Get the Whoopins." The site of many a Crimson Tide victory, Knoxville was also host site to the 1982 World's Fair-- a fact used quite humourously in the plot of a 1996 episode of the Simpsons.
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| It's really full of wigs. |
Prior to the Civil War, Knoxville, along with most of East Tennessee, was actually known for it's anti-slavery and anti-secessionist sentiments-- even hosting a stop on the Underground Railroad-- but financial interests eventually led to a strong pro-secessionist movement. After the war began, much Union sympathy remained in the city.
Though today primarily known as headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Authority and home of the UT Vols, Knoxville is (or was) also home to several notable writers, artists, and celebrities, including James Agee, Cormac McCarthy, Patricia Neal-- and Johnny Knoxville. Quentin Tarantino was also born there, but that's about as Southern as he gets.
And, of course, quarterback Peyton Manning played college ball in Knoxville, though apparently not well enough to win him a Heisman, or a National Title. No wonder he's only won 4 NFL MVPs.
 |
So, after shipping out some fliers and tackling the typical promotional duties, I was on my way to Knoxville.
So far so normal right? Then what was SO special about this particular screening?
I'll interject here and do the PC thing-- all my screenings are special. Anytime anyone anywhere has the opportunity to share an experience you've manufactured for them, it's special. It's very easy to lose sight of that, especially in the post youtube era-- but let's not. Whether it's five people or five thousand, Los Angeles or Lower Alabama, a screening is a screening.
 |
One of the more unique aspects of his approach was how he developed the screening into a major event for the Cinema Studies program-- not a big program, but a hungry one, full of hungry students. It wasn't just about having a chance to see regional work-- he approached it as a chance for his students to learn how they too could go off immediately from UT and start making their own regional films. Kinda like a cram session of the DIY model, with me the guest lecturer. I got to play the "star of the show" for the evening and must admit it healed up some of the bruises my ego had been nursing from various experiences I'd had prior in the Tour. Regardless of this side-effect, the night was about the students-- completely about the students-- and completely about exposing them to a new type of artistic opportunity in our current era (no matter how non-lucrative).
This ties back to my experience in February at JDCC-- and ties, again, directly to my recent realizations about exactly what this Tour is about and what its exact purpose actually is. And, I guess, in the bigger picture, it kinda reminded me of what I'm doing with my career here-- with my life.
 |
| Again, my purpose.... |
Sometimes I feel like my selfish ambition is keeping me from contributing to my true place in the world-- that stories and the cinema are now the domain of the hipsters, academia, and tech guys all itching to produce types of content I'm just not that crazy about. That I was born too late or something.
Hopefully this doesn't just sound like fodder for a pity party-- but as important as stories are, one of the last things the world needs is another storyteller, especially if that storyteller doesn't have anything unique or valid or a differing perspective to share.
I often fear that I'm either too afraid or too lazy to move to a different region and take a more traditional path towards a paying filmmaking career.
I guess the underlying fear is that if I have nothing to offer as a storyteller, and if I can't become a great storyteller, then I should just focus on the day job and be an a/v tech or something remotely useful to the world. And the Tour has, typically, done anything but validate my current predicament as a regionalist trying to reinvent the wheel as far as indie film production and distribution is concerned.
So, it's nice to get validation. But more on that later.
 |
| Knoxville |
Regardless I got into the UT Library about 15-minutes before game time, met my contact, got my press table set up, and we got things started to a nice turnout. After a nice introduction (I typically get introduced but not with an extensive bio, haha) we got things rolling, and as per custom, about halfway through I took off to wander campus.
I like visiting big state schools, especially schools whose athletic programs are rivals to my alma mater. I guess there's a kinda "secret agent" fantasy that runs through your head that makes it fun-- even for a grown man. I've never been brave enough-- or rude enough-- to wear a Bama "13 National Champions" shirt to one of these things, but I kinda smirk about doing it when I wander around and remember what it was like to be in school.
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| SEC Campuses BEWARE! |
Really stunning work, and a great hoax to kinda sit on display as a permanent warning to students that you can't always trust your eyes-- a nice philosophical exercise, and a perfect complement to thematics we looked at in Genesis. You can get more info on the "excavation" here.
 |
| Centaur-- More than meets the eye. |
So far, by the book. But, as I mentioned, my contact had built the screening into a major event, and we immediately went upstairs to a CATERED reception and discussion. Definitely breaking new ground here.
I was pretty nervous, going in. Frankly, I hate touring. I'm not a salesman, I'm not naturally great at reacting to new and uncomfortable situations, and I hate when I can't just kinda sink into the background. The only reason we did this damn Tour to begin with was because I had to do something with the film and the Tour was the only remotely ambitious approach I could come up with where I still had some level of control.
Anyway, after a few awkward minutes, some brave students finally asked some questions, and things seemed to move pretty smooth from there on out. It was more an extension of the Q&A, really, rather than a discussion, as I gave way-too-long, way-too-complicated answers to simple questions and, despite meaning to, asked very few of my own. But, folks seemed to be engaged enough, and most of the kids did seem legitimately interested in my experience. I think the fact that I was pretty much their age was a big factor, and I tried to give as many details as possible.
One thing I always hated when I used to ask for advice would be the people who explain how that got a film made but brushed over the big hurdles that keep the rest of us from really making films-- for instance, they'd give you all the details of how a shoot went, but not tell you how they raised the money or where they got the equipment, or hell, where they got the cast and crew. Granted, speaking from experience it is kinda a sensitive thing to mention where you got your financing, but I try not to glaze over that too much-- and I do my best to be as micro-detailed regarding the other major hurdles when talking with students as possible.
Now, a little bit about UT's Cinema Studies dept. UT's dept is similar to what we had at UA-- probably more inline with what UA had about six years before I got there. A lot of interest, no equipment, professors in different schools kinda mixing and matching programs. So, a lot of good work being done, but not really a definitive discipline or major yet. Kids interested in pursuing it have to make amalgamated majors, double majors, double minors, etc.
Anyway, after the discussion concluded, I went out to eat with my contact and five highly interested film students, kinda friends of my contact. This was probably the most rewarding event of the night-- hell, possibly the most rewarding event of the entire Tour-- in that I finally got all the "validation" and "purpose" I've been squabbling humorlessly about. It was talking with these young storytellers that, again, opened my mind to the true purpose of the Tour-- that I'm there to show students how work that is about your home, about your region, that uses regional aesthetics, history and mythology with a unique, fresh perspective is an inherent advantage to the stories you tell. That place can be as important to a filmmaker as it is to a writer. That you can tell stories as a young man without being a wunderkind like Welles or Spielberg-- cause, trust me, most of us aren't.
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| I'm not a Genius. I just play one on the Radio. |
In other words, there are more dimensions to our lives in greater need of exploration than the third. And their glasses don't make you look stupid.
Man, where IS my sense of humor???
 |
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Inverview at the "Fast, Cheap Movie Thoughts" Blog
Totally forgot to publish this earlier-- John Gaspard over at the renowned "Fast, Cheap Movie Thoughts" blog posted an interview with yours truly, about not only the DIY approach to producing the film, but also the DIY Campus Tour.
It's great coverage for us, and I think a pretty fluid read-- especially if you're interested in our production experience (which I haven't really covered on this blog).
Check it out!
Fast, Cheap Movie Thoughts Blog - "A Genesis Found"
It's great coverage for us, and I think a pretty fluid read-- especially if you're interested in our production experience (which I haven't really covered on this blog).
Check it out!
Fast, Cheap Movie Thoughts Blog - "A Genesis Found"
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| One revelation in the Int-- our teamsters were a bunch of flippin' Ewoks. |
Marty! We've got to go back! Back to the Freeway!
Well, I may not be zippin' around the open roads in a roadster as slick and door-hinge-impractical as Doc's DeLorean, but the Future certainly caught up with me after an extended holiday absence from the Tour, and I had to go back to work.
Honestly, the second half of the Tour, ambitious as it was initially designed, wound up becoming, well, pretty easy, and not really that demanding. At least nowhere near as demanding, in terms of preparation, organization and locations visited as the first half of the Tour. We'll call the second half of the Tour "Quality over Quantity."
Most of the reason for this transition from many-schools-in-very-few-weeks to few-schools-in-many-weeks was purposeful. Around the time of the ECU screening and my only overnight trip through North and South Carolina, over the phone with my wife I really confessed to and came to terms with the fact that, since I was kinda functioning as a one man band, I needed to make some changes to really get everything I wanted out of the Tour, and each stop along the way.
I think my expectations about what makes the Tour useful to me-- my expectations about its purpose-- have changed as well. Initially I was hoping to field bigger audiences, and thought that was what mattered most-- but heading into the back stretch, I kinda was able to take a step back and see it as something else-- and probably what I should have seen it as from the get go. Well... I'm getting ahead of myself-- more on that later.
What I can do, in terms of promoting each screening, is limited. They say you need money, time and talent in this business, or at least A LOT of one, to succeed-- well, the only resource I have access to is time, and early in the Tour I was squandering most of it by cramming so many venues into such a compact period. Maybe if I'd been able to line up all of them months before it could have worked, but because of demands from the DVD, my inability to get prompt responses from most locations, and just life in general (the Braves ain't gonna watch themselves!) I wasn't able to, and I eventually had to kinda ride with the current. So sometimes I wouldn't book a screening until two weeks prior, and I wouldn't get around to actually "promoting" it until a week before, which is risky when you have money and suicidal when you're depending on free grassroot outlets like fliers, PSAs, online calendars, and newspaper feature articles.
So, I came to terms with this handicap, and decided that the only way it was gonna get better was to embrace it and to be a bit more picky about where I go, and try to spend the effort I'd spend on, normally, two to three screenings, on just one.
And, of course, some of this "scaling down" was kinda inevitable due to just not being able to secure some venues. Throughout the length of the Tour I've contacted 75 schools, and generally at least three to four people at each (sometimes more). Of those 75 schools of three to four people each, I got word back from around 50 people, about 40 schools. From those 40 schools, I will wind up visiting 16.
So, there were a lot of, in my mind, missed opportunities, I think, but sometimes you just gotta take what you can get. Probably of those 40 I actually heard back from, I'd say 30 were, at least at some point, accompanied with a "yes" or at least an "I'm interested."
But as I was still having a hard time booking some of these 30 venues as the Tour began last September, I naturally relegated, to the front half, most of the schools I had booked, and scheduled schools that were still question marks for the second half, to obviously give those schools a bit more time to develop and finalize.
Surprisingly or not, most of these venues wound up fizzling out-- either due to scheduling issues or faded enthusiasm or little actual interest to begin with.
Honestly, though, for the most part, I'm glad, both personally and professionally, that this half is so much easier to handle. Frankly, the Tour did its job-- I feel like I paid the film the distribution service I owed it, and I'm ready to move on. Not that my experience with A Genesis Found ends with the Tour-- we're still hoping to get a bigger third party distrib. involved-- but I guess I feel like I tried the DIY experiment and learned a lot, and feel like my debt to it, and to the people who helped me create it, has been paid-- at least as far as day to day shepherding it is concerned.
Anyway, the Tour's not over yet.
When things got moving again in January, I couldn't have gotten back onto the bandwagon much easier than via my first screening of the second half, a February 8th late-afternoon screening at Jefferson Davis Community College in Brewton, AL.
What was so "easy" about the JDCC screening certainly wasn't the drive (didn't realize it was five hours til the morning of because I planned so well....) What was easy was that it was a private, class-only screening-- my first and only for the Tour.
Though it might sound a little compromising and detrimental to the Tour's purpose, doing a private, non-public screening was actually quite liberating. Basically, in January I sent my contact some promotional materials, and then a month later showed up-- that was it. No filling out venue breakdown sheets or hunting e-mails and fax numbers of local radio stations; no expensive flier mailings to local libraries; no worries about not promoting well-enough and therefore being solely responsible for bad attendance. It kinda gave me an idea of what it would have felt like if I had like a manager on this Tour, making the arrangements and doing all the dull work, while I rolled into town, saw the sights and made a couple of template comments at show's end.
Anyway, the JDCC screening was special for a couple of reasons. One, I'm apparently in the lineage of Jefferson Davis (one of my mom's grandmothers was a Davis, I think?); two, February 8th was my 25th birthday; and three, I felt like bringing my screening there was a very big deal for the school and the audience.
I've noticed this with most of the Community Colleges I've visited-- well, sort of. I guess it's kinda a mixed bag. Sometimes at the small schools people aren't that ambitious, and therefore aren't that interested, and so (relatively) no one shows. But, sometimes, it can be real special-- similar to the 100+ person screening at Pearl River Community College at the Tour's beginning.
It's special because, at school's like JDCC, there are rarely these types of outreach opportunities. This might be different for small schools elsewhere, but in the Southeast, it seems like getting actual, non-local artists to bring their work to little schools is a battle typically fought and lost by Humanities and Fine Arts professors across the region. I suppose, typically, these lack of opportunities stem from the perceived lack of interest, and the lack of useful function to these types of small schools mostly concerned with preparing kids for two years at a University or giving adults a more accessible means of receiving a secondary education.
But, that's been one of the (few) luxuries of designing this Tour myself, and allowing myself and my "focus" to be flexible.
It was actually one of the best audiences I'd gotten a chance to screen for-- I think because most were Humanities students, English students-- interested in story, in ideas only. It was a really honest, straight forward screening, with people who were interested (even if just in the novelty-- when the Dolby logo ran before the film, one audience member actually exclaimed "This has real trailers on it!"), and seemed to legitimately care about what was happening in front of them.
It was a talkative audience-- but not in a "I'm not paying attention" way, but more in a "interacting with the content" way. A very reactive audience, I should say.
And at the, by contrast, relatively tame and quiet Q&A, I got to field probably the best question of the entire Tour asked about making the movie: "Was it hard?"
What's so fantastic about that question was that it was meant so legitimately. It kinda put everything in perspective for me-- kinda made me better understand my place in this world, and the place of regional and independent film in this world. You could tell most of these kids, if not all, had NEVER been exposed to this type of work before-- the concept of making films locally for local audiences had never even been optioned in their minds. We were breaking ground that night. We were rounding out perspectives and broadening horizons.
I guess it was lesson one in helping me understand the true purpose of this Tour, and why God put me on this earth to be a filmmaker in this region at this time.
Man. I guess my approach to the Tour isn't the only thing that's changed since the last half. What happened to my sense of humor????
Oh, there it is.
 |
| Before Zemmeckis CGI'ed over the actors he shot. |
Most of the reason for this transition from many-schools-in-very-few-weeks to few-schools-in-many-weeks was purposeful. Around the time of the ECU screening and my only overnight trip through North and South Carolina, over the phone with my wife I really confessed to and came to terms with the fact that, since I was kinda functioning as a one man band, I needed to make some changes to really get everything I wanted out of the Tour, and each stop along the way.
I think my expectations about what makes the Tour useful to me-- my expectations about its purpose-- have changed as well. Initially I was hoping to field bigger audiences, and thought that was what mattered most-- but heading into the back stretch, I kinda was able to take a step back and see it as something else-- and probably what I should have seen it as from the get go. Well... I'm getting ahead of myself-- more on that later.
 |
| What is my purpose...? |
 |
| My PSAs should be this awesome. |
And, of course, some of this "scaling down" was kinda inevitable due to just not being able to secure some venues. Throughout the length of the Tour I've contacted 75 schools, and generally at least three to four people at each (sometimes more). Of those 75 schools of three to four people each, I got word back from around 50 people, about 40 schools. From those 40 schools, I will wind up visiting 16.
So, there were a lot of, in my mind, missed opportunities, I think, but sometimes you just gotta take what you can get. Probably of those 40 I actually heard back from, I'd say 30 were, at least at some point, accompanied with a "yes" or at least an "I'm interested."
But as I was still having a hard time booking some of these 30 venues as the Tour began last September, I naturally relegated, to the front half, most of the schools I had booked, and scheduled schools that were still question marks for the second half, to obviously give those schools a bit more time to develop and finalize.
Surprisingly or not, most of these venues wound up fizzling out-- either due to scheduling issues or faded enthusiasm or little actual interest to begin with.
Honestly, though, for the most part, I'm glad, both personally and professionally, that this half is so much easier to handle. Frankly, the Tour did its job-- I feel like I paid the film the distribution service I owed it, and I'm ready to move on. Not that my experience with A Genesis Found ends with the Tour-- we're still hoping to get a bigger third party distrib. involved-- but I guess I feel like I tried the DIY experiment and learned a lot, and feel like my debt to it, and to the people who helped me create it, has been paid-- at least as far as day to day shepherding it is concerned.
 |
| You said it, Spidey |
When things got moving again in January, I couldn't have gotten back onto the bandwagon much easier than via my first screening of the second half, a February 8th late-afternoon screening at Jefferson Davis Community College in Brewton, AL.
What was so "easy" about the JDCC screening certainly wasn't the drive (didn't realize it was five hours til the morning of because I planned so well....) What was easy was that it was a private, class-only screening-- my first and only for the Tour.
Though it might sound a little compromising and detrimental to the Tour's purpose, doing a private, non-public screening was actually quite liberating. Basically, in January I sent my contact some promotional materials, and then a month later showed up-- that was it. No filling out venue breakdown sheets or hunting e-mails and fax numbers of local radio stations; no expensive flier mailings to local libraries; no worries about not promoting well-enough and therefore being solely responsible for bad attendance. It kinda gave me an idea of what it would have felt like if I had like a manager on this Tour, making the arrangements and doing all the dull work, while I rolled into town, saw the sights and made a couple of template comments at show's end.
Anyway, the JDCC screening was special for a couple of reasons. One, I'm apparently in the lineage of Jefferson Davis (one of my mom's grandmothers was a Davis, I think?); two, February 8th was my 25th birthday; and three, I felt like bringing my screening there was a very big deal for the school and the audience.
 |
| Jeff Davis |
It's special because, at school's like JDCC, there are rarely these types of outreach opportunities. This might be different for small schools elsewhere, but in the Southeast, it seems like getting actual, non-local artists to bring their work to little schools is a battle typically fought and lost by Humanities and Fine Arts professors across the region. I suppose, typically, these lack of opportunities stem from the perceived lack of interest, and the lack of useful function to these types of small schools mostly concerned with preparing kids for two years at a University or giving adults a more accessible means of receiving a secondary education.
But, that's been one of the (few) luxuries of designing this Tour myself, and allowing myself and my "focus" to be flexible.
It was actually one of the best audiences I'd gotten a chance to screen for-- I think because most were Humanities students, English students-- interested in story, in ideas only. It was a really honest, straight forward screening, with people who were interested (even if just in the novelty-- when the Dolby logo ran before the film, one audience member actually exclaimed "This has real trailers on it!"), and seemed to legitimately care about what was happening in front of them.
It was a talkative audience-- but not in a "I'm not paying attention" way, but more in a "interacting with the content" way. A very reactive audience, I should say.
 |
| Well, not THAT reactive. |
What's so fantastic about that question was that it was meant so legitimately. It kinda put everything in perspective for me-- kinda made me better understand my place in this world, and the place of regional and independent film in this world. You could tell most of these kids, if not all, had NEVER been exposed to this type of work before-- the concept of making films locally for local audiences had never even been optioned in their minds. We were breaking ground that night. We were rounding out perspectives and broadening horizons.
I guess it was lesson one in helping me understand the true purpose of this Tour, and why God put me on this earth to be a filmmaker in this region at this time.
 |
| ... That is my purpose. |
Oh, there it is.
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