Older films on TvFILM

This time last year TvFILM was airing Ghost Tours. This season they picked up two of my older films. Last week they aired Passing, and last night they aired Take Out. It never gets old. Honestly, if I ever take a broadcast premiere for granted someone should tell me it's time to quit.

A great weekend in LA

The Los Angeles Women's International Film Festival was a fantastic experience.

To begin with the festival was hosted at a Regal Cinema, so it was stadium seating with a giant screen. That was pretty amazing to see it that big. We had a sweet time slot on Friday evening so the theater was pretty full. I bet 200 people saw the film this weekend, and I only had to bring along 2 of them. Paige came and I haven't seen her since we finished shooting that summer. What a great reason to get together again. And my first friend in college happens to live in the area and he came to the showing. I was just riding high all night.

On a side note...

Quite out of the blue - at least it seemed so to me - I got an invitation to screen one of my older films at the Bow Wow Film Festival in Colorado. It seems like a worthy cause, and certainly Doggie Drill Team is a good fit for their audience. I kind of wish I could go, I bet it would be fun. But for now I'm focused on the trip to LA at the end of the month. It makes more sense to focus on Ghost Tours these days than a film I haven't really thought about in 8 years.

Los Angeles Women's International Film Festival

I am so excited to announce that we will be screening in LA in March. We have been accepted into the Los Angeles Women's International Film Festival.

We will be part of Shorts Program #5, screening at 8pm on Friday March 25th.
The venue is LA Live Regal Cinema.

If anybody is in the LA area I'd love to see you.

Fright Night

The fine folks at TvFILM decided to host a live screening event in honor of Halloween. Ghost Tours, as well as some other films from season 7 and a few that didn't make it into the broadcast, screened at a lovely venue downtown. The space is owned by the local NPR affiliate and is most often used for live music events so they have a fantastic sound system. It was so nice to hear the score the way it's really meant to sound.

TvFILM on WMHT

TvFILM is a locally produced program in Albany, NY that is part of the PBS affiliate WMHT. The same station that as a child I donated my allowance to so that they would continue to broadcast Doctor Who. Now the programming brought to you by your generous financial support of WMHT is Ghost Tours as well as other local independent films and interviews with the filmmakers. As part of the show itself you get an interview and a film for each of the filmmakers. Then online you get bonus features.

This week only

For the next few days they will be promoting us: Next on TvFILM: Season 7 Episode 2

It only shows about a second and a half of our film, but it's exactly the second and a half I would have expected. And of course this means that if you are in the WMHT viewing area (Albany, lower Adirondacks, southern Vermont, probably as far west as Utica) you should tune in next week. Sunday at 11pm or Tuesday at 7:30. 

Good showing at Balticon

The weekend at the Baltimore Science Fiction Convention went very well. I spent a couple of days there meeting audiences, meeting other filmmakers, speaking on and attending panels. The screening itself was well received. There were probably more than 100 people. We screened second to last before the intermission so on the break I got to talk to people when it was very fresh in their minds. You can kind of tell, watching the audience watch your film, how they're reacting, but it's even better when people immediately want to talk to you about it.

More Upcoming Screenings

Just at the time that we premiered at SENE we got a bump in acceptances for other screenings. It's made for a really nice couple of weeks lately.

SENE was, as usual, a good festival to attend. The audiences in Providence are always engaged and supportive. We got a lot of great feedback all weekend long. It was nice to screen on Friday in the big theater because there was more time to talk to people who had seen it. Killer and Take Out had both screened at SENE in years past, but on Sunday in the last block of the festival. So as premieres go it was everything I could have wanted.

That same weekend I got notice that Ghost Tours got picked up for season 7 of TvFILM on WMHT in Albany, NY. I don't have the air date yet, but I'm going next week to do the interview part of the episode. In season 6 they played Killer if you want to get a sense of what the program is like.

Since then I got an acceptance notice from Balticon, which is the Baltimore Science Fiction convention held Memorial Day weekend. We'll be screening as part of the Sunday Night Film Festival if anyone is around Maryland and wants to come out for an evening of fun sci-fi films.

And this morning I got word that they will be screening Ghost Tours at the University Film and Video Association annual meeting. This one is not really open to the public as it is a conference for film and video professors. But if any of my professional colleagues happen to be going to the meeting I'd love for you to come out and see the film. They don't have the schedule done yet, but it will be in the program when that gets published.

World Premiere

We have been accepted into our first festival!! Here is hoping for the start of a long and happy run.

Official Poster

So far I've done about a dozen festival submission, but that is a long game. Both in terms of time spent submitting and time spent waiting to here which ones we'll get into. Patience and perseverance are both required. In the meantime I found someone to give us a hand with the marketing. Many thanks to Alexandra Lambdin of the University of Central Missouri.

Ghost Tours is ready for the world

Ghost Tours is officially finished. I am making "hard copies" to be kept on file at school as a record of my thesis. The thank you gifts for the donors are all in the mail if not already in your hot little hands.

I want to take a moment to thank all the folks who didn't have any spare cash to offer a financial contribution, but who still offered the invaluable assets of love, support, and encouragement. It was a huge endeavor, partly because it was a fairly ambitious film, and partly because it was my master's thesis film and so had a bit of extra Importance. Knowing there were people who believed in what I was trying to do and in my ability to do it really helped keep me going. I appreciate each and every one of you.

The goal now is to bring it to a festival near you so that everyone can see it. I've started a few festival submissions, but mostly I'm waiting to have a moment to think so that I can set myself a festival strategy. Submissions aren't free (usually) so it's important to maximize the budget by focusing on festivals that are a good fit, and playing a long game so that you're always getting the early bird rates. If a likely candidate is on their late deadline (and therefore likely twice as expensive) then mark it in the calendar and submit on the next cycle. Festivals usually accept anything finished within the last two years. Patience will get you more viewers in the long run.

Stay tuned here, and subscribe if you haven't already. As we get screenings I'll make announcements and post dates, times, and where to buy tickets.

Ghost Tours Official Trailer

You have all been so patient, I finally have a reward for you.

There are still finishing touches left to be done. I have drafts of the score from the composer, but we will be doing a live recording session so the music will get even better. Sound design is a work in progress. And I am still touching up the titles and transitions. It's so close to done I can taste it.

Fantastic news all around

Please join me in welcoming the newest member of the Ghost Tours team: composer Benn Cole, who will be doing a custom score for us.

Benn is currently part of the Film Scoring program at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, MA. If you want to learn more about Benn and listen some of his music cruise on over to his website Benn Cole Music.

Part of what makes this such an exciting announcement is that it means I'm at picture lock. The story is in place. There's still plenty of work to do, even on actual pictures, despite the name. There are two sets of images that are currently placeholder that I need to do some work on. But the story won't change and the timing won't change so it's safe for Benn to start work and it's safe for Dan the sound designer to start work.

They say sound is 70% of any film you see, so these two guys will be doing some very important stuff for me in the next few months.

Workshopping the current draft

I am very excited because I have a chance to play the current version for a group of people who know nothing about the story. I am working this summer at a place where everyone is involved in film or photography. It is obvious that the instructors and students in the workshops are creative, but in fact everyone is. The TAs and interns and staff all needed portfolios in order to get hired. So they have started doing artist lectures for the seasonal staff. Anyone who wants to share their work can get a block of time on Wednesday evenings. I expect it will be a very good group for providing critique.

Scene 2

In fact, my good news for this post is more than an image from scene 2. I reached a big milestone this past week. I have finished my first rough cut. It's Very Rough, but then that's the point. I heard someone say once that your first draft is always a success because its only requirement is to exist. Now I have about 6 weeks to get from rough cut to fine cut. That's achievable. I have my hunk of marble now and I just have to chip and polish until my David emerges. 

Scene 1

I have, in fact, been making progress on the editing. Not enough to give you a teaser. Honestly, that's not likely until the fall. But I am getting a good sense of what this film looks like and I love it so much I want to share.

I will periodically give you stills from the scenes I am working on. Sometimes with thoughts.

Killer airs on WMHT

In other news, my earlier film Killer had its broadcast premiere last night on the PBS station in the town I grew up in. It was quite a wonderful moment for me. This is the station I gave my allowance to so that they would keep showing Doctor Who, and now "Donations from viewers like you" are bringing you my work. It feels like such a huge milestone.

Here are the episode and the bonus features.

Post Production early update

I'll be honest, the early stages of post production are not exactly exciting. There is not much to tell you, and nothing at all to show you. It starts with making backups and then extra backups of everything. Then there is watching and listening to every individual piece of media to be able to tag it with scene and take numbers, and in the case of audio whose mic we're listening to. Then there is the process of merging all the disparate video and audio clips into single files. All of that is nothing but tedious. Happily it's all finished now. The next step is logging all the clips. Finding where every line gets said and which performances are my favorites. It's miles more interesting, but still won't give me much to show yet.

Stay tuned though. As I get to editing scenes I'll pull out stills to show you. The camera team gave us some fantastic images. And by the end of summer there should be a teaser/trailer to look at.

Shoot Day 8: That's a wrap

I feel like I want to take this team and go shoot a feature. Well, after a few days of sleeping. 8 days without a break was unsustainable over the long haul. But I'll tell you, we had it down. We had a pretty full day to begin with, then half a scene from the rain out day. Then a handful of little things that I woke up in the middle of the night remembering we ought to get. We were originally scheduled to wrap by 10:30 and and be heading home by 11, but everyone agreed, as it was the last night we would power through until we got what we needed. There was a distinct possibility that would mean wrapping at 1am. We were having group hugs and eating birthday cake by midnight. Day 8 was practically flawless.

Now all that's left is returning all the gear, tracking down receipts and making sure everyone has been paid back for out of pocket expenses during pre-production, and maybe making a third back up of all the footage.

And sleep. Lots of sleep.