A Marathon After a Sprint

If shooting Surviving Family was a sprint (an adrenaline-fueled dash through 10 locations in 3 states over 20 shooting days in the course of one month), then marketing it is a marathon.  You go around a curve, up a hill, and back down, and then you do it again.  On the bad days, you stumble over a twig or into a pothole.  But on the good days, you feel the wind at your back and feel invigorated.

On the plus side, and it's definitely a big plus:  Surviving Family is now represented in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean by Circus Road Films.  A distribution deal - a GOOD distribution deal - is the holy grail of independent filmmakers, and it's great to have these guys working on our behalf to help us get distribution.

I managed to only stumble slightly in the pothole, and recovered quickly:  after learning that there is an important difference between HD Cam SR and HD Cam as screening tapes, I had NO idea that our required HD Cam came in two possible frame rates, and that having the wrong one would spell disaster.  Fortunately our friends at Off Hollywood made sure that I had the right info from the Woods Hole Film Festival before they made my tape.

And the twig?  Lately I feel like I'm personally keeping Fed Ex and the US Post Office in business, as I send dvd's, blu ray discs, posters, postcards, press kits and all sorts of fun stuff around the country for upcoming festivals.  On the other hand, I'd have much more to complain about if I DIDN'T have fests to send all this stuff to, right? 

So next stop:  Woods Hole.  Director Laura Thies arrives from Germany next Saturday morning, and then we're off to our world premiere.  I can't wait.

Indie or big budget: it's all about people in the seats

I found myself getting a bit jealous of the movie TED this past weekend.  Not because it features a talking stuffed animal - hey, I wrote a play about talking cats, so been there, done that!  No, because they get to inundate us on TV or on-line with ads about how cute the bear is, and how much you should want to see him with Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis. 

The more I thought about it, however, the more I realized that there really isn't a whole lot of difference between what Universal Studios is doing and what indie filmmakers do:  it's all about putting people in the seats.  Yeah, they have a few (hundred) million more dollars to play around with than I do.  But the goal is the same.

So you'll see Surviving Family on Facebook, and Twitter, and Blogger rather than on Dancing With The Stars.  And we'll use posters in stores in Woods Hole, MA during their film festival.  And we'll hand out our postcards person-to-person.   But in some ways that's nice, in an old-fashioned sort of way, because you never know who you'll meet, and talk to, and maybe make friends with, as you hand out the postcards and explain to people why THIS is the movie that they should see.

Don't miss us when we come to a film festival near you:

Friday August 3 at 9 PM, Woods Hole Film Festival in Woods Hole, MA
Saturday August 18 at 7 PM, Columbia Gorge Int'l Film Festival in Vancouver, WA

AOF Film Festival in Monrovia, CA, date and time to be announced
Central Florida Film Festival, Labor Day Weekend, date and time to be announced

More coming soon!

First up: Woods Hole Film Festival

After a year of pre-production, a 2 month shoot, and 6 months of post-production, we finally know when and where Surviving Family will premiere!  It's an official selection of the 21st annual Woods Hole Film Festival in Cape Cod, MA, and will screen on Friday night August 3 at 9 PM.  It's a terrific time slot (dinner and a movie, anyone?), both for festival goers and tourists!

We'll get everything off to a hopefully-smooth start a few days in advance:  in a well-choreographed scheduling dance, director Laura Thies will arrive on an over-night flight from her home in Germany, and writer/producer Mara Lesemann will swoop into Newark Airport to pick her up.  The two of us will then hit the road (traffic-free of course!) from New Jersey to Cape Cod.  Nothing can go wrong.  Right?

Please follow us and share our festival experiences through the summer, and fall, and into next year! 

And if you haven't yet seen our trailer, you can check it out here.