A great opportunity for filmmakers – both narrative and doc makers! Here is the official press release for this year’s forums:

“IFP’s Independent Film Week is the oldest and largest forum in the U.S. for the discovery of new projects in development and new voices on the independent film scene. The Project Forum is a meetings-driven forum connecting filmmakers who have new narrative and documentary projects with key industry executives interested in identifying projects with which to become involved at the financing or distribution stage.

It is qualitatively and quantitatively the best opportunity for an independent filmmaker to connect with industry professionals – including producers, funders, distributors, broadcasters, sales agents and festival programmers. The Project Forum also furthers filmmaker and industry interaction with opportunities for networking at social events throughout the week.

Now accepting applications for all three sections: Emerging Narrative (for writers and writer/directors seeking producers and agents to develop, produce, represent and finance their scripts), No Borders (for U.S. and international producers with partial financing on new narrative projects seeking additional partners), Spotlight on Documentaries (for U.S. filmmakers with projects in production or post-production seeking financing partners, broadcast/distribution opportunities, and festival invitations.)

Deadlines vary by section – from April 23 (for Emerging Narrative) to May 21 (for No Borders and Spotlight on Documentaries). For deadline schedule, criteria for all sections, and online applications, go HERE.”

Ira Livingston, longtime coordinator of the Minneapolis 48 Hour Film Challenge, just launched his own film challenge to take place this June called The 50 Fifty Reel Challenge.

This challenge changes up some of the rules associated with other film contests like The 48. For example, it gives something back to the winning filmmakers at the city level. On its just-launched website, the Challenge states, “We, at The 50 Fifty Reel Challenge, recognize the need for winning filmmakers to walk away with more than just their boosted pride… That being said, we are giving 50% of the ticket sales of your city to the Best Film!”

Also, this contest allows teams to choose 50% of their team’s genre at registration, so your team can start plotting and writing before the competition starts. At kick-off, each team receives the other 50% of their genre, randomly chosen from all the possible genre types (so you might end up with comedy/horror as your genre, or musical/sci-fi), plus a character and a color.

Teams then get 50 hours of pre-production time (writing, casting and locking down locations) and another 50 hours to shoot, compose and edit their films. Bonus: this contest allows time to sleep.

I think you’re beginning to understand why this challenge is called “The 50 Fifty,” right?

Finally, if your film wins the honor of Best Film, your team takes 50% of the net box office ticket sales from the screening.

The 50 Fifty Reel Challenge takes place June 2-6. You can register online now!

As you may have heard, Governor Pawlenty’s 2010 supplemental budget recommendation proposes cutting all general operating funds for the Minnesota Film & TV Board and cutting the Snowbate program (our state’s production incentive program) by about half, to $525,000 from $1,225,000.

This week, City Pages and the Star Tribune both published articles that raise the important question: Why, in a time when Minnesota needs to hold on to as many jobs as it can, is the Governor interested in abolishing a program in which the main focus is the growth of a (green) industry and jobs? This sounds like a job for Jason DeRusha and his Good Question…

Also at the Star Tribune, Colin Covert has been busy ferreting out the latest in Minnesota-related movie news. First, the intriguing item about Bill Pohlad’s River Road Entertainment possibly producing Paul Thomas Anderson’s new Scientology-themed feature The Master, which is set in the 1950s and “concerns the intense relationship between an allegorical L. Ron Hubbard figure who establishes a rapidly growing new sect, and a young drifter who finds his identity under the religious leader’s wing.” Philip Seymour Hoffman may play the Hubbard part with Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) to play the drifter. Since the perfect actor to play Hubbard would be Marlon Brando and that’s not happening, I guess I’ll settle for Hoffman.

Then there was this item from Covert via Variety, in which it is revealed that the feature film Butter, a comedy about a woman in a competitive Midwestern butter sculpting contest (gee, sound familiar?) is going to film in Louisiana. As of now, the film is set to star Jennifer Garner. Yes, this is a heartbreaker for our state (in a long string of heartbreaks, as Covert points out in his piece). MFTVB did speak with Mandate, film’s production company, to pitch our state, including an offer to fly them out to experience the State Fair last August, to no avail. Is it too late? Can we still woo them to the Land of Butter & Honey? Would any past Princess Kays of the Milky Way like to donate their butter sculptures as a gift? Stay tuned.

But a Minnesota landmark is making noise in the realm of reality TV. The show Mall Cops: Mall of America, which debuted as a one-hour special (with over 1.2 million viewers!) on The Learning Channel (TLC) last October, is a hit and now the MOA is seeking more ways for the megamall to be on TV. According to an article in the Mpls St. Paul Business Journal, the show “follows a 100-person security force as it patrols the 4.2 million-square-foot shopping center… It was so successful that the cable network picked it up as a weekly series that is scheduled to start in late spring.” Other ideas for shows based at the mall being pitched include a game show and a cooking show.

While the mall doesn’t get paid for appearing in reality shows, the production companies cover all of the costs and the resulting publicity is great for keeping the mall in the news and as a destination for tourists.

Finally, the actor and Minnesota-native Peter Graves died on Sunday, March 14th at the age of 83. He was best known for his role on the TV show Mission: Impossible but he has many, many movie and TV credits to his name (including a memorable role in the movie Airplane!). Graves was born Peter Aurness in Minneapolis, served in the Army Air Forces in 1944 and ’45 and then studied drama at the University of Minnesota before following his older brother to Hollywood searching for his break into acting.

The real victory that should be celebrated from this year’s Super Bowl is that Snack Attack Samurai, a contest entry commercial for Doritos co-directed by Cole Koehler and Ben Krueger, is currently the most watched commercial…EVER! According to the Neilsen Wire blog 116,231,920 people had eyes on their television at 9:30PM this past Sunday. That is insane. Even crazier? It’s a really good commercial.

See? Told you…

Congratulations to the crew and cast of Snack Attack Samurai. You have placed 4th in the contest but you are unquestionably #1 in the eyes of the nation. We now have the numbers to back it up. Snack on that, shock collar dog!

So I’ve got about 10 minutes here before I have to catch the bus for a screening of the new Bill Murray & Robert Duvall film, “Get Low” and later tonight, I will be going to the World Premiere of the new Duplass Brothers film, “Cyrus” (pictured below) with John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, and Jonah Hill. I’ve been here since Thursday afternoon and I’ve seen six films so far.  I’m on about 8 hours of sleep (Combined the past two nights), I was able to get into the opening night party, which was fine, but there was a huge lack of bartender help at the event, but I did get free Stella’s so that was made it decent.  I sat next to film/video curator from the Walker Art Center, Sheryl Mousley and I”ve seen a few films with Star Tribune film critic, Colin Covert, we caught, “The Company Men” this morning at the largest theater in Park City, the Eccles.  ”The Company Men” stars, Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Rosemary DeWitt and was written/directed by John Wells, who is an established TV writer, (ER & The West Wing).  The film examines corporate downsizing and how it effects the lives of three different families.  It proved to be better than I thought, and really touched on American 2010 today.  The film will get picked up, by a big studio, I imagine and will do decent business at the box office.  Not really a film that should be at Sundance, but nonetheless, one of the hotter tickets to get.  I did manage to get tickets to the World Premiere of the Joan Jett bio-pic, “The Runaways” for tomorrow night.  I’m also trying to set-up an interview with Michael Winterbottom who has two films out here that are strikingly different, the doc, “The Shock Doctrine” and the narrative, “The Killer Inside Me“.  You can read more of my experience at Sundance at Twin Cities Daily Planet where I will be going more in-depth to the films and the scene.

If you haven’t already heard, two bearded gents from Minneapolis have helmed a local Doritos spot that is creating a whole lotta national buzz.  “Snack Attack Samurai” – Cole Koehler and Ben Krueger’s entry in Doritos’ annual Crash The Super Bowl competition – has been culled from over 4,000 submissions to remain as one of 6 finalists with a shot at a million bucks and airtime at the Super Bowl.  (The fact that they have facial hair is really neither here nor there, I just dig their style.)

They need YOUR help to get there though; go to www.crashthesuperbowl.com to cast one vote a day until January 31st, at which point the top 3 vote-grabbing commercials will be aired as Doritos® brand commercials during Super Bowl XLIV! Not that I needed to mention it, but every vote you cast will be a chance for YOU to win Super Bowl tix as well.  And that’s not all. If any of the top 3 commercials is selected as the best by USA Today Ad Meter, Doritos® will award the makers of that commercial $1,000,000! With enough hometown support, we can make these talented fellows #1… plus, just think of all the beers they’ll owe us!

What’s just as impressive as the genuinely hilarious and well-done spot, is the giant friggin’ promotional onslaught these guys have waged.  Social networking sites have played a major part in their groundswell of support:

• Become a fan on Facebook here

• Follow them on Twitter here

…as well as a very slick website made especially for the spot:

• Peep the official “Snack Attack Samurai” website here

…even some great coverage in the local press:

• City Pages, Metromix, KARE 11 and WCCO have covered Cole & Ben

… not to mention the tight-knit, rockstar film production community that has spread the “Snack Attack” word far and wide.  Congrats to everyone involved thus far; may we be toasting even better news come February 7th!  Now get out there and vote!!!

www.crashthesuperbowl.com

My obsession with the Star Wars Holiday Special began back in 1997 when I bought a VHS copy from a vendor at the monthly L.A. comic convention. When I got home and watched the madness play out before me I was at once horrified, mystified and had a new mission…to share this abomination with as many people as possible. Siblings, relatives you only see at holiday gatherings, friends that should know better…no one was safe. It wasn’t until 2007 when I saw the potential to use this thing to not only satisfy people’s morbid curiosity but do some good as well. The 1st screening was held on Saturday, December 1st, 2007 in  the IFP classroom. 12 people showed up during a snowstorm and had an absolute blast. There is power in numbers! I knew then we needed a bigger venue so more people could join the jamboree. On November 19th, 2008, 2 days after the 30th anniversary of the original airdate we sold out Bryant Lake Bowl and had to turn a few folks away. Here I found myself in some sort of David Lynchian world as all of a sudden as I was now telling people, “Sorry, you can’t come watch Chewbacca’s dad enjoy some soft core VR with me.”

This year I underestimated you. Never. Again.

On Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 more than 225 people descended upon Bryant Lake Bowl for the MFTVB’s 3rd annual Toys For Tots Screening of the Star Wars Holiday Special. What the hell were they thinking?

First, thanks to all you nutters out there for braving the cold and slogging through two sold out screenings of this wookiee laden drivel. There were a couple of sour grapes in the bunch, sure, but the patience and generosity of those who made it out was overwhelming. In a year showing record low donations for Toys For Tots we were able to make a big difference for a lot of kids. The Marines from Toys For Tots weren’t even prepared for the haul you brought in. Thank you. Also to the lady that chucked a Russian loaf at me, in a night showcasing people’s willingness to give to those less fortunate than themselves you threw cellophane wrapped black bread at me. That was a first, thank you very much and what the hell?

The show was scheduled for doors at 9P and a start time of 9:30P. Well, since the first show was sold out shortly after 8P that bird didn’t fly. BLB was an absolute madhouse with costumed characters, toy donators, bread throwers and generally curious members of the public all wanting to see, despite my very vocal warnings, the best/worst thing to ever air on television. We were able to start the show early and add a second, which was sold out right about 9:30P.

Man, what a great night! This year we had a special intro from Transylvania Television, hand silk screened “Treebacca” posters by Clint Lugert of THEY Design, a written apology from SWHS credited writer Pat Proft and members of the Rebel Legion meeting and greeting folks. The first show was fantastic but screening numero dos was loopy beyond compare. People quoting Chef Gormaanda’s dialog, a sing along with Bea Arthur and Carrie Fisher? Friends, your voices have been heard and next year already promises to be bigger and better.

In the meantime you can check out the intro to the SWHS from TVTV below and purchase your very own limited “Treebacca” from here.

Thanks to Paul Clark and Sophie Scheller for being the only 3-time veterans of this event, Bryant Lake Bowl, Transylvania TV, Pat Proft, The Rebel Legion, Clint Lugert of THEY Design, my coworkers at the MFTVB, friends who got sucked into being helper elves and everyone that made this such an epic event. Next year, the saga continues…

Happy Life Day, everyone!

A dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste, indeed.  The filmmakers behind Dirty Country have taken a cue from that adage and documented, befriended, and ushered one of the dirtiest – and most prolific – minds into the spotlight with their 2007 SXSW Audience Award-winning feature documentary.  While extremely profane (and proudly so), Dirty Country is as touching and well-crafted as it is gutter-minded, telling the story of retired factory worker Larry Pierce as he pursues his savant-like talent for penning filthy songs.  (WARNING: Trailer not for the easily offended.)

Dirty Country trailer

And now, Dirty Country is out on DVD, just in time for everyone on your naughty list this holiday season! The unrated Director’s Cut DVD includes never before seen footage, a full Larry Pierce concert with i-tis, filmmaker commentary, a how-to video on playing “warshers”, and much more!  Just listen to the glowing praise…

“Easily the funniest thing I’ve seen at SXSW” -Film.com

“I have rarely heard people laugh so much at a documentary –
and not just giggles but full-blown belly laughs.” -Cinematical

“At the heart of ‘Dirty Country’ is an upbeat underdog story.” -MLive.com

“Good (unclean) fun.” -Jim Ridley, Nashville Scene

“‘Dirty Country’ is as critically engaging as it is jaw-droppingly foul.”
-Calgary International Film Festival

“A raunchy, surprisingly affecting doc.” -Tracy McCormick, Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine

The film has quite a bit of Minnesota talent tied to it, from producers to editors to post-production support… even a live concert section filmed at Fridley, MN’s own Main Event!  Show your support – spread the word and help build buzz for this epic release by adding Dirty Country to your queues on Netflix and Blockbuster Online.  Become a fan on Facebook.  And check out the official site for all the latest info!

QUICK LINKS:
• Netflix (add DC to your queue!)
• Blockbuster Online (add DC to your queue!)
• Hastings (order the DVD!)
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Visit our official site for all the latest info (and to order the DVD)

Hello everyone!  I have been writing movie reviews for several years now, but I have never done an interview.  A couple of weeks ago I got the chance to conduct my first interview with Scott and David Hillenbrand, the directors of TRANSLYMANIA, which opens this Friday, December 4th.

I have not yet seen the film, but I had a nice chat with the filmmakers.  You have to forgive me since this was my first time.  I was extremely nervous, but I think it came off really well.  Both David and Scott were extremely nice, and I even think I got a couple of juicy inside scoops from them as well.

It was a phone interview though, and since they sounded almost exactly alike (I think Scott’s voice was slightly lower) I had to play back the interview several times tell them apart.  Hopefully I got most of it straight.  As I was transcribing it, I also wanted to keep it as raw as possible.  So besides me editing out alot of “ums”, this is a mostly exact transcribe of the interview, which lasted just over 19 minutes.  Enjoy!

(When I picked up the phone, David was the first to greet me.  After asking them to say their names so I knew who was who, I began the interview).

FILM GEEK: So who’s older?

SCOTT:  I am.   Older by two years

DAVID: But most people kind of think of us as a two-headed monster.

FILM GEEK: (laughs)

DAVID: It’s almost as if we’re twins.  Twins is kind of a theme in this movie.  You got the Garza girl twins who were actually just featured on IGN.com, and this week they’re featuring Musetta Vander who plays the vampire huntress.  Some of the roles in the movie, Oren Skoog plays one of the College kids Rusty, and he also plays one of the vampires, the vampire king.  So the two-headed monster vampire twins is kind of a running theme throughout TRANSYLMANIA.

FG:  What films would you say are your biggest influences, cause it looks like you did the DORM DAZE movies, so obviously you must be influenced by raunchy sex comedies from the 80’s?

DAVID: Yeah, well we like all different kinds of movies and one of the big influences for Transylmania is probably the movie YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, because we wanted to make a movie that wasn’t spoofing one movie after another.  We wanted to take the whole genre of the monster hunting, vampire , Van Helsing-type movies, even spoofing, and I shouldn’t even use the word spoofing, but making fun of the gore movies like HOSTEL and SAW.  And we take the whole genre, and tell our own story from beginning middle and end, that’s just it’s own thrill ride, and kinda makes you laugh at the whole genre.

FG: That’s cool!

DAVID: So if you’re familiar with YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN…

FG: Of Course!

DAVID: It’s like a modern day revisioning of that mixed with VAN HELSING.  Imagine if you will, College kids Vs. Vampires.

FG: (Laughs) So, is this the third installment of the Dorm Daze series?

DAVID: No, it’s not a Dorm Daze movie.  But that’s interesting that you picked up on..  That there are some characters…We had gotten alot of e-mails and calls and letters about some of the characters in the Dorm Daze movies that people really related to.  So we had the idea to just spin off a few of the characters into a large scale adventure and take all these… We took about 12 or 15 American actors and then cast about 30-40  more in Romania, and bring them into the heart of Translyvania to an 800 year old castle 8 hours north of Bucharest.  And it was an amazing experience.

FG:  Wow, it sounds like it’d be really fun to film there.

DAVID:  Oh yeah, the amount of stories we could tell you, and even the language…

SCOTT: Imagine taking 12 actors and about 12 key personnel and then working with 150 Romanians with basically 10% of them speaking English.  It was really a fish out of water story and we filmed in this castle that was 8 hours north of Bucharest that was really, an 800 year old castle.  When David and I got there to do our prep work, it was surreal.  It was like we were walking into Harry Potter’s castle, except it was real.  It wasn’t CGI.  We did things kind of differently.  We took all of the actors and put them in their own little hotel, almost making em like they were College dorms.  So no Chaperones.  So they all kind of bonded, and all the crazy hijinks, and the different things that could happen that felt like a local flavor working into the movie.  So we’re very proud of that.

FG: So you seemed to get along with all the Romanians then?

SCOTT: Yeah. Yeah we did.  It was a great, great, great group of people that made this film.

FG: It sounds like it was alot different than working on the Dorm Daze movies.

DAVID: Yeah, very different I mean the Dorm Daze movies are smaller in scale and what we really wanted to accomplish with this movie was… It’s closer to a YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. The UNDERWORLD, the VAN HELSING movies, the old Dracula movies and even influences of some of the old the Danny Kaye movies like THE COURT JESTER, having multiple characters being played by one actor and one actress.  It has Mulaire and Shakespearian farce elements to it.  You know, I think that the audiences out there have gotten tired of the traditional, in the last 10 or 15 years, spoof movies like EPIC MOVIE, DATE MOVIE.  We wanted to give the audiences something fresh.  Something that they felt was familiar to them and that’s why we took… imagine AMERICAN PIE meets TWILIGHT.

FG: (laughs)  That’s interesting you mentioned that, cause everyone seems to have caught vampire fever with all the recent TWILIGHT movies, and CIRQUE DU FREAK.  Did you feel all the more eager to kind of lampoon the teenage vampire movies?

DAVID: Yeah, you know… it’s like… when we were making the movie, all these things hadn’t happened yet.  It was just kind of in our head.  And then we got very lucky with timing, and the vampire craze with TWILIGHT and VAMPIRE DIARIES and TRUE BLOOD kind of just came into the Zeitgeist, and we really feel that it’s perfect timing for us because everyone’s enjoyed all those TV show and all those movies and now you get to laugh, and in some ways even though we weren’t necessarily pointing at any one of those references, you draw the references from them now.   Throughout the film there are things you can go, “Oh my gosh, that’s from VAN HELSING” or this one’s making fun of this.  But it’s not specifically pointing to it, it’s more on a general sense of a genre spoof.

FG: That way it doesn’t seem like it’s going over anyone’s head that haven’t seen those movies.

DAVID: Exactly.  It’s sort of like how ZOMBIELAND, which we thought was a real good film that the audiences really embraced and enjoyed, because it was making fun of the whole zombie movie genre.  And yes, certainly there were references to Bill Murray and GHOSTBUSTERS and all kinds of different things, which goes back to your earlier comments about 80’s movies… Sort of what they did with that is what we’ve done with this in a way that’s similar in terms of tone.

FG:  Alot of people who come on the Minnesota Film Board site are inspiring filmmakers.  How did you guys get started in the business?

SCOTT: Well, David and I have worked together since we were kids, always doing plays, making our own little movies.  I went to High School performing arts in New York City and then North Western University for film and television directing and movie directing .  David went to Indiana and then USC Graduate school for film composition.  We always knew we were going to build a company, then we came out to L.A..  We didn’t really have any family in the business.  Worked at a bunch of different companies learning what they did, what we thought right, what they did wrong. And then we went out and took 45 credit cards and charged out a quarter of a million dollars, made our first movie.  And it’s led to meeting investors along the way and basically we developed a mutual fund of capitol, and we’ve just been making money for our people.  It’s taken us seven movies to get to the one that everything came together in a way that…  You know.. The reason… We’ve made some horror movies, we’ve made a corporate thriller, we’ve made an action adventure/Sci-Fi kind of a movie, and what we like about Comedy is either it works or it doesn’t.  There’s no hiding behind a set or anything.  Either people are laughing or they’re not laughing.  One thing that we’re really proud of with this movie is that IT IS LAUGH-OUT-LOUD FUNNY.  College kids Vs. Vampires!  College kids, the other white meat.  These are the kind of tone elements that we feel that we’re bringing something to the audience that when they come out they’re gonna go: “You know what, I laughed my ass off and I feel like, Wow, that was worth my ten bucks!”.

FG:  So what’s next for you guys?  Are you gonna try to do another comedy, or a different genre you haven’t done before?

SCOTT: That’s a great question!  And yes, the answer is we know exactly what we’d like to make next.  And we ARE going to switch genres.  What we’ve done is that we’ve adapted Robert Louis Stevenson’s, the guy who wrote DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE and TREASURE ISLAND, we’ve adapted one of his books called THE BLACK ARROW.  What that book was, was Robert Louis Stevenson’s take on the Robin Hood legend.  What we’ve done is sort of… and it takes place during the War of the Roses in England in the 1400’s.  And what we’ve done is created BATMAN BEGINS meets ROBIN HOOD.  Basically a birthing of a medieval superhero that takes place during the War of the Roses. So, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, like the first one in essence, a big budget action adventure.

FG: Oh Wow!  Are you still in Pre-Production?  Is it still in the very early stages?

SCOTT:  Well the script is ready to go.  It was written by a colleague of ours, his name is John Coven, who just did all the storyboards are pre-visualization and worked very closely on THE GREEN HORNET.  Yeah, he did all the boards, you know, the storyboards on that with Michel Gondry.  It took us 18 months to develop the script.  The script is ready to go.  We started looking at some casting and looking at locations in Romania, Portugal and it’s very exciting.  That one’s ready to go, so hopefully we’ll be into principal photography on that shortly.

FG:  And that’s going to be played totally straight?

SCOTT: Yeah.

FG:  Cool!  That sounds like it’s going to be very exciting for you guys.

DAVID:  Yeah, it’ll be nice to change to that genre, Action/Adventure, you know GLADIATOR, that type of feel with a fun popcorn, we’re calling it “dark popcorn”.  Kind of like PG-13 on the edge and it’s a thrill ride.  Yeah.

FG:  David, I saw that you’ve done some film scoring.  Any plans to pursue that any further?

DAVID: Yeah, that is also another area that I do.  I did score TRANSYLMANIA.  We actually recorded the score with the players from the Utah Symphony Orchestra.  It’s got a big orchestral score and a really cool eclectic soundtrack. We got about 30 different song cuts in the film that Scott worked very closely with the Music Supervisor, Jen Ross.

FG: Cool.  So you got to choose the music?

SCOTT: Yeah.  We spent over a million dollars just on the licensing of the songs in the movie in addition to having the Utah Symphony Orchestra record the score for us.  It’s a real big sound and from a music side… One more thing, I just want to mention Austin… on the music side… The music Supervisor… Here’s an inside story that we haven’t told anyone, so you get the inside scoop on this…

FG:  All right!

SCOTT: Just cause you asked the question.  We have in the movie the first ever urban version of Monster Mash ever recorded.

FG: (laughs) That sounds funny!

DAVID: Yeah, it’s so cool because that song is so perfect for the movie, but to hear it done by an urban artist, and you can hear some of it in some of the TV commercials, there’s like four different 30 second TV commercials that are running right now and some of them feature that music as well.  So it’s a really cool eclectic soundtrack.  I’ve also… From the music side, way back before we launched our own company, I had supervised maybe shows that you grew up on, like all the music in the POWER RANGERS and VR TROOPERS and SWEET VALLEY HIGH.  I worked at a company that became the Fox Family Channel.  But I stopped doing music for other people.  Now I only score our films and our productions.  But we actually recorded two of our past scores with the National Radio Symphony Orchestra Bucharest, Romania.  So we’ve been all over with some of the best Orchestra’s around, and it’s a great part of the process.

FG: Are you going to score the next film as well?

DAVID:  Probably.  Usually we don’t start thinking about music at all until we get to the post-production process.  We kind of leave our minds as a blank slate.  Sometimes, we very much believe in music and work with music,  sometimes on the set even we’ll play music to put the characters into a certain mind set or a frame of reference.  But then when it comes to figuring out the exact sound of the score of a movie, we really won’t do that until we’ve even locked… We try not to even work with too much music when we’re cutting.  We like the music to work even before… cause some people could use that as a crutch in a way and cut scenes to music and you put a great piece of music in there and it seems like the scene is working better than it maybe really is.  So we try to hold off to the very end till we really start playing around with music.

FG: Sounds like it’s going to be a huge movie and that you’re going to have your hands full.

DAVID: Yeah.  Well you know, we have a great team around us and a great group of people involved from the Romanian side as well as some people we brought with us.  We think it really translates to the screen.  Cause there’s nothing like literally traveling thousands of miles away to a place that you’d never been.  The cursed land of Translyvania to make a movie.

FG: Is this also your biggest release so far?

DAVID: Yeah.  This is a nice big wide release.

SCOTT: You know it’s taken us seven movies to get a movie… You know when you’re spending 15 million dollars to release a movie, and you’re going head to head with Sony and other movies, you gotta know that you have a movie that works.  Here’s another little inside piece of information.  Every studio, when they are releasing a movie, they already know whether it works or it doesn’t work.  We’ve gone through the whole testing process just like we were Warner Brothers, and we know based on all the testing that people… Kids… It’s R-Rated so we have to say 17 to 24.

FG: (laughs)

SCOTT: But really, 15 year olds get into these kinds of movies, so this is a hardcore 15-24 demo movie where that audience both male and female… We’ve seen it across the entire country… We wouldn’t be spending that kind of money marketing the film if we didn’t know that the film already worked or not.  Audiences liked it.

FG: Right.

DAVID: And we’ve had all these serious brooding vampires, obviously the TWILIGHT, NEW MOON and TRUE BLOOD and VAMPIRE DIARIES and now it’s a good time to kick back and just to have a light, make fun of and laugh… especially with all the hardships out there right now, with the economy and stuff, so it’s good to be able to blow off some steam, you know, have a good time and relate to some stoners and all kinds of eccentric characters that are going over there and having a good time.

FG:  Sounds fun.  Definitely after seeing these brooding TWILIGHT films it’s gonna be nice to just kick back and laugh at these characters.

DAVID: Exactly.

SCOTT: Yahs.  College kids Vs. Vampires.

FG: (laughs)

DAVID: If you haven’t seen it yet there’s an exclusive… it was running on Rotten Tomatoes, now it’s exclusively running on Apple right now there’s a stoner trailer…

FG: Yeah, I just watched it this morning, it’s pretty funny with Pete and Wang from the Dorm Daze movies.

SCOTT:  Like we talked about before, those were some of the characters that we wanted to spin off because everyone… Oh my God… Totally… I mean even in the testing on Translymania, Pete and Wang are consistently the highest rated characters.  People just love em!

DAVID: It’s almost like Harold and Kumar go to Vampire Land.

FG:  Yeah, that’s what it kind of looks like.  Looks fun.  Well, that’s about all I got.  I can’t wait to see the movie.  I haven’t seen it yet, but I think I”m going to a press screening the week it opens.

SCOTT:  Cool.  Also, we’re very proud of the website that was created by the people that did the Dark Knight campaign and the people that created the poster and everything.  And we made the website as if it was like a real school you had to go apply to.  We’re very very proud of it.

DAVID:  It’s not just your straight movie website, we had a little fun with it too.  So check it out if you haven’t already.

FG:  I’ll definitely check it out and I’ll post the link on the site. transylmania site

DAVID: That’d be great.  We have a great Facebook page too that has lots of cool stuff.

FG:  Well thanks David.  Thanks Scott for your time.

DAVID:  Thanks Austin, we really appreciate it.

SCOTT:  And one more final thing.  The writers are from Minnesota.  Worm Miller and Patrick Casey.  They’re local.

FG:  Oh cool!  Well take care guys and good luck with the film!

DAVID:  Thanks Austin!  You too!  Take care.

So that’s my first interview.  Hope you liked it!  They were really energetic and enthusiastic about their movie as you can tell from the interview.  Lots of fun talking to them.

I’ll be back this weekend with a review of the film and all of the other latest releases!

Take Care!

Be Geeky!

And Watch movies!

William Mitchell College of Law hosted a conference on “The Future of Entertainment Distribution” last Friday afternoon. The first panel was concerned with film and TV (or video, as the case may be) and featured Dan Satorius, co-chair of Lommen Abdo Law Firm as the moderator. The panel consisted of Jon Garon, professor of law at Hamline University Law School, Marcelino Ford-Livene of Intel Corporation and Ted Cohen of TAG Consulting in Los Angeles.

Whenever I listen to or get involved in a conversation about the future of media distribution, it doesn’t take long before my head starts to hurt but I did manage to glean a few nuggets of information before the talk ended and the entire room stampeded to the front to ask more questions or to the back to grab a cookie. Here’s one marketing technique that’s not going away anytime soon – winning people over with free food.

Some of the discussion on the collapse of the indie film market. As studios rely more heavily on what is referred to as “tent pole” films like Transformers or entertainment experiences that have yet to be replicated in homes (like 3D, although Apple is just one of several working on a 3D screen), the indie film is left amidst the rubble of the more traditional distribution model we used to know. Increasingly, domestic distribution is something that needs to be hammered out before production even begins. Budgets need to include costs for theatrical release, as the likelihood of theatrical distribution deals after production decline. How can an indie film or documentary accomplish this?

There was much bandying about of the phrase “crowdsourcing.” Crowdsourcing, according to Wikipedia, is “leveraging the mass collaboration enabled by Web 2.0 technologies to achieve business goals.” So, basically, you get a bunch of people to perform a task an individual or business would have had to take on themselves in the past. How it’s applied here is in terms of fundraising for a film. You start a dialog with your intended audience or niche (hopefully  you already have an online presence) before you start production. You ask them to “crowdfund” your film with small donations. The example given on the panel was offering a thank- you in the credits for every person who donates $25. Then a thank- you plus an invite to the premiere for every $50. Then a thank-you, premiere invite and festival tickets for every $100. You get the idea.

Then you work on setting up advanced bookings to screen your film at independent theaters. You develop a website for “fans” even before the movie is finished. If you are particularly savvy and/or well-connected or there is an obvious link, you take on a sponsor to help fund you with the promise of rewards and visibility for them once the film comes out. This could be done through product placement (which many of us think of as an evil phrase but just about every network show seems to do it – even Dwight on The Office used a paper shredder from Staples in one episode and in another he goes to work there!) or it could be that an environmental organization wants to see your documentary about three-headed frogs get made so that it can further it’s own cause of clean water, air, soil, etc.

So some filmmakers are essentially pre-selling their projects in new ways, which requires them to be much more entrepreneurial than in the past. An online search for films following this model brought me to the Facebook page for Urban Scumbags vs. Countryside Zombies, a film from the early 90s that is being redone and some of it re-shot. Their donation levels are as follows:

For a contribution of $20 you can be a zombie in the May reshoots in L.A.

For a contribution of $150 you can be a featured bloody, rotten zombie in the reshoots

For a contribution of $550 you can be featured as the dead zombie rising from the grave

For a contribution of $1000 or more you can be a named zombie with a unique kill and credited as an associate producer in the film and on IMDB

Buying a Pre-Sell Special Edition DVD is a great way to help us out now and get a valuable, limited-release DVD or DVD set after the film is released later this year. “Rotten Hand Limited Edition” DVD Set – We “removed” the left hand of 20 zombies, and now offer them for sale to you, along with the original and reanimated DVDs and a bonus DVD.

“Rusted Special Edition” DVD Set (a limited release of “rusted” metal cases which includes the original and reanimated DVDs) or  a “Steel Edition” DVD (the reanimated version in a full-size, metal-encased DVD).

So you see how some filmmakers are taking matters into their own… uh, zombie hands, here. Is this the route for everyone? Let’s hope not. But it could be the route to take if you’re Eric Olson from Grand Rapids and you’ve got a movie about doctors in space – which is great. Now there is a route for Eric Olson from Grand Rapids and his doctors from space. The Internet and all the new technology associated with it opens the playing field. The hope is that talent still rises to the top and gets funded on its third or fourth time out. But if you never raise the money for that first project, no one will know about you at all. You can be 2010 and attempt to “crowdsource” or you can be all 1998 and put the entire movie on your credit card.  While we all may long for 1908, when rich patrons who took care of artists, rich patrons seem to be few and far between these days. Is there an online registry for rich patrons? Richpatrons.org?

I think what it all boils down to is that we are still in the “discovery” mode in terms of distribution in this Web 2.0 world. Develop your project and put it out there in a thoughtful way. It’s never too early to collect fans or “friends” or to think about the end result you’re hoping for. Assume your film will not be purchased in a bidding war at Sundance. Think about what body parts you might be able to sell.

That’s the spirit!