Just got word last night that the feature we shot in january (the signal) with my xl-h1 and the mini 35 has been accepted and will be screening at sundance. We're all really excited about this and I'll keep everyone posted as events occur.

Nice! Congratulations, Sundance is a big festival, isn't it?
I reviewed your trailer a while ago, and I found it to be interesting.

Yeah the movie has really changed since they cut the trailer, but it still gives you an idea about what's happening I suppose. Sundance is pretty big in the U.S. not quite Cannes but still pretty big. More importantaly it could mean a wider distribution (then just dvd's at blockbuster) if someone else picks it up.

Sundance and the Toronto, Canada film festivals are the big daddies for No America. Getting a film into Sundance is a huge accomplishment. Congrats on succeeding at an awesome undertaking.

Sundance is crawling with distributors looking for purchases - good luck with this next step up the ladder!

Congradulations! I think Sundance is Big! Maybe it leans towards the founder "Robert Redford" type folks but all the more better.

P.S. - Could you put up a link again to this video or your trailer. We might want to get your autograph before the big show.

Congrats!! That is awesome. I'd love to see a trailer or know more about your film.

Sundance is crazy. It gets bigger and bigger every year. The party scene is incredible but I really enjoy the discussion groups and technology seminars.


Getting into see some of the films is nearly impossible but the vast majority that I have seen have been worth the effort. The other that I really enjoy is a chance to see a film that may never be shown publicly again.



Cheers,
D

Congrats Nick! That's really great news. Good luck at Sundance.

Hey Nick,

Awesome news!

Have you guys re-cut that trailer?

Great news Nick! I'll be sure to go to the screening and hope to meet you if you're there.

Will you be screening from HDCAM?

Congratulations: I've had films in almost every festival from the Czech Republic to Hawaii, have won a wall of awards, including several Best Documentary Features, but have never been able to crack Sundance.. It's quite an accomplishment.. hope you're getting your press kit together...

The screening will be from HDCAM (I'm almost positive) everyone's trying to get together the press stuff now. (we honestly thought we had no shot at sundance, slamdance maybe, but not really the sundance thing) So everyone is pulling resources together I think we're going to get a real webpage, (we're currently just using a myspace page) and figuring out business cards or perhaps a more clever way of marketing the movie. For those interested it's kinda an arthouse/zombie horror/romance movie(with comedic elements...) if anyone has some really great ideas to get people to the screening (evidently it's at midnight) feel free to post them.

Oh and thanks everyone for the great wishes, I feel like thi site was instrumental in getting this movie made. (from the original test in december with shannon rawls, to the mini 35, and lit pixel-which may or may not have been a speck of dust, to the different workflows to get the darn footage into an editing system, to even screening the first trailer. I and the rest of the filmmakers give everyone a heartfelt thanks.

Hire some actors, get them into Zombie makeup, and have them handout miniature glossies of the movie poster (make sure screening info is on the cards).

Thanks robert that's a great Idea I'll suggest it to the producers.

500+ postcards from Modern Postcards are a must -

a theatrical size poster -

about 50-100 press kits which include 1) talent & crew lists w/bios, 2) short and long synopsis and logline (logline is usually not more than 2 sentences, like a description in TV Guide), 3) a minimum of four production photos printed and on an enclosed CD (not "behind the scenes" photos but pictures from the film - frame grabs will work, but papers and magazines generally prefer bigger files), 4) a page w/ reviews, if any, or quotes from knowledgeable people who have seen the film...

all presented in a nice glossy portfolio either custom printed or with a printed label on the cover - most can be done yourself and reproduced at a place like Staples or Kinkos... they can cost as much as $20-200@ (depending) but well worth it.

I forgot to mention, although I'm sure your producers already know this stuff, that you also need several "clip reels"... five or six representative clips from the film on BetaSP.. this is for local and regional TV, so it needs to be SP...

The hardest thing about festivals is getting a buz going for your film. A good publicist that can get you local TV and radio, plus reviews in local papers, as well as Variety and Hollywood reporter is nice, but they ain't cheap.

The goal at festivals like Sundance is to get a distribution deal. That means you have to get distributor reps at your screening(s) not just any old audience.

Thanks Steve! That helps a lot. It's funny I don't think anybody every really considered what would happen if we made it into a big festival, now everyone's running around going crazy trying to get it all in order.

A couple of things about distributing movie posters/cards:

There only a few places in town where they are allowed to be posted and
those places fill up FAST! If your promo is one of the first ones on the
boards you will soon be covered up and lost in the crowd of everyone
elses promos. Trust me; people have no shame in stapleing their promo
on top of yours.

I've been waiting in line at the boxoffice and people have handed me
promo cards before, or at seminars and I've gotten cards. You might
want to try something like that, at least you know people will read it,
plus the personnal touch is nice and people can get some info on your
film.

Another way is to try to get into some of the parties and hand them out.
You might be able to meet some of the "industry" people and peak their
interest. Or you could hand them out to people as they leave a screening.
Or to the thousands of people walking Main Street.

Best of Luck with your film and I hope to see you at Sundance

Cheers,
D

Where can I see this trailer? A link to your myspace or whatever would be cool. I wanna know stuff like budget, equipment used, crew size, everything. This where I hope to be in a year to year and half. So I wanna know everything about the production!

The current trailer can be reached through the myspace page which can easiestly be reached at popfilms.org click on the signal and it will take you there. Alternativley the films official site will be doyouhavethecrazy.com which currently only host the literal which may be fun to look at and freak out your co-workers with.

Te tentative screening dates at sundance are:

Mon. Jan 22, 11:59 pm, Egyptian
Tue. Jan 23, 2:00 pm, Holiday I
Thu. Jan 25, 10:30 pm, Broadway 6
Sat. Jan 27, 11:30 pm, Library
Sun. Jan 28, 1:30 pm, Holiday II

Logistics:
email me and I'll tell you budget, I think I may have already posted in a previous thread, but if we're going to sell it bragging about how low budget the shoot was probably isn't a smart thing.

We had a small crew of 20 or so.
The gear we used was (obviously) the xl-h1 and a mini 35 rig, with zeiss super speeds. The rig was supplied by dan mccain who is a member of this board and a real good guy, we both had a crash course in connecting everything and working with HDV and the mini 35.
We cut on an avid, I really REALLY wanted to say we cut on FCP but apple wouldn't release the darn codec, and was honestly no help in the whole scenario. Don't get me wrong I love the company, but I would have loved even more to put the film on the front of the apple news page and gotten some free publicity.

The production was really darn hard, there honestly was no reason everything should have worked as well as it did. It is a testiment to everyone involved that the movie came out as amazing as it did.

As a side note, this is obviously good news for everyone involved with the movie but I was thinking about it and this is really good, for everyone involved in this board. I mean an HDV movie made it to sundance. I knwo some DV films have, but this had no "name actors" and no big time directors. This was grass roots just like something most of the people on this board would make. It honestly makes me a little giddy because I really feel like something can be done outside of hollywood.

Anyhow if anyone has anymore questions e-mail me or post.

I haven't been on the H1 board in a while and totally missed this, so I guess better late than never: congratulations!

Whish I could be at Sundance to see it on the big screen. Best of luck at the festival!

Nick: That's terrific, they gave you 5 screenings.. that's alot, most festivals only run a feature once or twice... I checked out the site and the show looks pretty darn good.. congrats again...

Sh*t I haven't been to this board either in a while and just caught this now. Congrats NICK! AWESOME!

It is GREAT to see a full project completed using the H1 and mini35. I was considering upgrading to it for so long.. but was waiting for more footage to come out. Stuff looks really good, sound is also really good. How was sound recorded?

Lastly do you have any other websites apart from myspace featuring clips or trailers? I'd love to see a 720x480 version or heck, even Hi-Def!

Cheers mate.

I finally watched the trailer and....wow man I need to see a higher rez version of that but even low rez that looked really good! Any plans for a higher rez trailer going on the net?

Sorry to revive a dead thread but i'm excited. First reviews are out on the signal and they're great.

check it out on
aintitcool.com

also it looks like we may actually get that theatrical release...

Sorry to revive a dead thread but i'm excited. First reviews are out on the signal and they're great.

check it out on
aintitcool.com

also it looks like we may actually get that theatrical release...

Dead thread? Are you kidding, we've just been waiting for an update. Just checking out the review now. Dang Nick, "THE SIGNAL is the big discovery of the Sundance Film Festival".

Awesome.

Thread continued here!

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=84640