The City of Albuquerque & The Albuquerque Film Office Present A Lonely Place For Dying

I'm incredibly grateful to Ann Lerner of the Albuquerque Film Office. This is such a blessing! She's giving us the opportunity to show our film to our home town...and she's going all out!

We'll be screening in The KiMo Theatre, which is my favorite venue in Albuquerque. We'll be screening in HD and in 5.1 Surround Sound.

If you're interested in attending the screening of "A Lonely Place For Dying" please send an email to abqscreening@gmail.com. Request however many seats you need. The screening is free. The seating is not assigned, but one has to be on the list to get into the theatre. There will be a pre and post reception. We're also holding a Q&A with myself and five members of the cast and crew.

It's going to be a great event! We hope to see you there!

A Lonely Place For Dying Secures Foreign Distribution

See that logo at the bottom of the new two-sheet? It's pretty small because of how blogspot displays images. The words read "Forward Motion Entertainment". They're are foreign distributor!

After San Diego we had seven distributors vying for foreign rights to A Lonely Place For Dying. Seven. And, we weren't finished with the movie!

Luckily, Michael Edwards, one of our executive producers and our sales agent, vetted the various companies. Forward Motion won the bid because:

1.) They were extremely aggressive.
2.) Their previous relationships gave them glowing reviews.
3.) Their owner, Paco Alvarez, truly understands our movie.
4.) They've succeeded with low-budget genre fare in the past.
5.) They were willing to sign a fair contract.

So, here we are, we're finally going to market the proper way. We have a distributor who truly loves the film. We have a team who understands how to sell low-budget projects. And, according to Paco, he believes we have an unusually good movie on our hands...something worth putting into theaters.

We just jumped the hurdle that most indies cannot overcome. We have someone with capital who wants to push our movie into theaters and onto TV's around the world. That means one more full year of promoting the movie. That means my job is far from over. But, I can't complain. I finally get to go to Berlin, Cannes and a host of other film markets around the globe selling my movie. It's going to mean lots of late nights, juggling my duties as a father and husband, frustrations, negotiations and compromises...but, I can't complain. This is going to be fun!

San Diego Film Festival, Part Three

We were lucky enough to have one of the audience members record the panels. If you're interested in hearing the panels, here they are:

San Diego Film Festival Panels

San Diego Film Festival, Part Two

The festival started off with a bang! We were invited to CW Channel 6 for an interview.



The audience attendance was fantastic. The audience was about 100 on Friday and 120 on Saturday. The response cards were overwhelmingly positive. When asked if the audience would recommend the movie to a friend about 90% circled "highly likely" or "definitely". Audience members stopped me throughout the halls to rave about Ross Marquand's acting, the screenplay, the visual effects and the music.

It appears the only demographic that doesn't like our movie is senior citizen women. We had about 6 show up on Friday and 4 on Saturday. They really don't like the guns, blood and cussing. I don't know how to tell them that the title is "A Lonely Place For Dying" and has two men pointing guns at each other on the poster...we've been as honest and straight forward in our advertising as possible. All I can figure is they see that James Cromwell is in the film, they remember that he was that nice farmer in "Babe" and they decide that if "Babe" was such a sweet film then perhaps "A Lonely Place For Dying" will be a sweet film as well.

If you're looking for a family film, let me save you your money now. This is not a sweet, tender movie. The title and poster are accurate. This film may be a character drama, but the characters all carry guns and knives. They use them frequently. There will be blood.

The rest of the audience loves the movie. The praise is effusive. I'd be riding an escalator down to the lobby and someone would grab my shoulder and praise the writing. Someone else would talk about the camera work. Everyone would talk about Ross' amazing acting. At least six people asked me if Ross was Russian.

Thanks, San Diego! We're glad you loved the movie!

San Diego Film Festival

A Lonely Place For Dying has been invited to screen at the San Diego Film Festival! I'm extremely excited. The SDFF is one of the best festivals in America. It's won a bunch of awards, its in one of my favorite cities and the caliber of films cannot be beat.

We're screening on Friday, September 25th at 9:30 PM and Saturday, September 26th at 7:30 PM. In addition, I've been asked to be a speaker for their screenwriting panel Writing The Scene They All End Up Talking About. The panel is on Saturday, September 26th at 11:00 AM.

In many ways, this feels like our first film festival. That isn't to say we don't value the four festivals that have screened our work-in-progress version of the movie. And, it's been quite an honor to win awards as a work-in-progress. But, this is the first festival where the finished version of the film will be screened.

Most people have no idea how much post-production transforms a film. Francis Ford Coppola once said that "Sound is half of what we see". That amazing soundbite has been misquoted and misattributed to George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg and anyone else who values the impact of sound design and music. Despite the confusion over its origin, the sentiment is one of the most profound statements about filmmaking.

The audience and many filmmakers believe film is a visual medium. That statement is only half true. Motion pictures are as much about sound as they are about pictures. And, sound is what separates most independents from studio films.

And, we didn't want to do what most independent filmmakers do. We didn't want to have a "festival version" and then wait for a buyer to foot the bill to enhance the audio. We're not children. We don't need our hands held. We can do this on our own, thank you very much. For us, it was incredibly important that we do studio-quality audio on our own.

I've had audience members walk up to me and say "Don't add music. The script is so good without it". While I appreciate this and I'm grateful they enjoyed the movie as a work-in-progress I strongly disagree with the sentiment. Music heightens emotion. It clarifies moments that can be accidentally interpreted multiple ways. It adds momentum to silent moments and gives montages purpose and structure. Brent Daniels 50 minutes of music accomplishes all these things and definitely takes the movie to the next level.

We've spent nine months adding visual effects, music composed in 5.1, original foley, a massive amount of 5.1 sound effects, a 5.1 mix, animated titles and we slaved over the dialogue edit...because we want the screenplay to be unimpeded by technical flaws. We want an audience to forget their watching a low budget motion picture and become absorbed in the storytelling.

Because of that, everything before this has felt like a dress rehearsal. The audience got an idea of where we were going. They could tell the dialogue was solid and the performances (particularly Ross Marquand's amazing work as Nikolai Dzerzhinsky) were compelling. But, what they saw was not a finished film. Like the work-in-progress screening of Beauty & The Beast at the 1991 New York Film Festival, it was a solid example of where we were going with our work.

For the first time, sold-out audiences will get to see the film as we intended it to be from its inception. Will we make some tweaks after this screening? Most definitely! We'll want to change a few sound effects and polish a couple visual effects. But, that's common practice for studio movies to do as well. For all intents and purposes, this is now a finished film. At most, it needs a couple rough edges to be smoothed.

We're incredibly grateful for this opportunity. Thanks, San Diego!

Visual Effects Nearly Complete...

We're in the home stretch. Arthur Love has about three shots plus some tweaking on scene two. Daniel Broadway has about one shot plus some compositing cleanup and car work on scene two. Then, the visual effects are finished.

Well, almost finished. At that point we'll have finished the entire list...but, I reserve the right to watch the entire movie and make a final list of tweaks, changes and additions. My guess is the list will be extremely short. Perhaps I'll have nothing to say. It's entirely possible, because Arthur, Daniel, Marc and Brad have done exceptional work.

Another director would probably move on. A smarter director. A director who is not masochistic. But, my visual effects team has really opened my eyes. I've seen them tackle shots that I thought could not be done on our budget. I've seen shots that looked great for our budget level go through redrafting and turn into work that a major studio film would be proud of. I've been able to be picky about everything.

Some of the typical remarks I've made with my staff include:

"I don't like that sky." "Can we cut out his head and eyes so the reaction of each part happens later in the shot?" "Can we reanimate that pool of blood so it expands 30% faster?" "Can we bomb the living hell out of Laos and make it look real?" "I'd like god-rays to shoot out of the door after each bullet races at the camera."

In many ways, as my team met the bar they taught me I could keep raising it. And, they'd meet it again. So, I'd raise it again...until the work became invisible and it merely became part of the story.

Personally, I think these guys deserve oscars. Seriously. It doesn't matter that Transformers 2 did work that was more complicated. ILM had an unlimited budget and over 1,000 people working on that movie. They spent the GNP of a small nation. My guys performed miracles with nothing. 140 visual effects shots created entirely on consumer computers with a staff of one full time visual effects artist and three part-time artists. ILM would have charged a million dollars for the amount of work performed by my team...and I don't think ILM would have delivered any better.

My team allowed me to be crazy-picky. I got to nitpick every frame...strike that...every pixel of every frame. If I wanted the clouds to move faster, part differently, the sun to be in a different position they made it happen.

I don't think any of us want to do this kind of work at this budget level again. But, that's not the point. The point is ten years ago this was completely impossible. And, the majority of filmmakers have not yet updated their world view. If nothing else, I hope this movie shows other filmmakers what can be achieved at a micro-budget level. I hope people stop bragging about how big their budget is and instead brag about how little they spent.

If two movies are equally amazing and one cost 250K and the other 20 million, which is the greater artistic achievement? Which one demonstrates more passion, more ingenuity, more resourcefulness? I believe it is the lower budget movie. Lower budget does not have to mean lower quality. We're entering an era where budget is largely irrelevant. And, while I don't want to do another micro-budget movie, this experience has taught me I have no interest in big budget movies. I don't want 100 million...I do not need it.

I owe so very much to my visual effects staff. They were presented with an amazing challenge and they overcame it.

One week to go...if this week goes as smoothly as the last month then visual effects is about to be wrapped.

23 Visual Effects Remaining...

At some point I'll talk about all the crazy setbacks we've had regarding visual effects. But, the goods news is we're finally in the home stretch. We have 23 visual effects remaining. Three artists are working on these simultaneously. We anticipate having them completed in three weeks. Then, we take a three day break and we watch the entire film to get some distance from the VFX and make sure they are 100% finished.

Our hard deadline for VFX work is August 1st. That's when we close the book on VFX and move onto color grading.

Score Complete

Brent Daniels has finished the score! The score is about 47 minutes long, all mixed in 5.1 DTS.

We'll do a final polish on the music after we complete sound design. Brent Daniels wants the option to spend a couple days tweaking how the music interplays with the sound design after that has been finished.

This is possible because Brent is also doing the sound. I know, I know...."But, that's not how Hollywood does things." We're lucky that Brent has both skill sets. The downside is it prevents work from happening concurrently. The upside is Brent can treat the sound design and music holistically...and for us, that was more important. 

Usually, there is friction between composers and sound designers. Even if the two teams of people get along fine, there is a tug-of-war between which sonic element will drive a moment in the film. Should a gun shot be more about the sound effect or the score's percussion?

At the least, since sound design and music are usually discreet processes the mixer must simply ride the levels during the mix. They aren't integrated sonic elements.

But, they will be in our film. At least, to some degree...because we'll take that final step and spend a couple days tweaking how the music and sound design interplay.

Thats one more step completed. 47 minutes of music in the can. Only tweaking remains. And, at long last sound design begins!

Almost Finished...

Visual Effects are 80%. The score is about 90% finished. We're getting close to completing post production!

In the meantime, we're generating more press:

http://www.moviehole.net/200919079-clints-bits-may-15-2009

Score 70% Complete

Brent Daniels has finished about 70% of the score. I'm surprised that we've been able to stick to our ambitious plans with the score. When finished, it will be close to 40 minutes of original music. In addition, we've scored the movie in 5.1. As far as I know, this is only done by the biggest of big budget films. 

Lots of people claim their movie is in 5.1, but what they mean is they did a final mix in 5.1. That's not the same thing as a composer working in a 5.1 studio and conceiving the score for surround sound. Despite the availability of this technology, most scores are still done in stereo.

Brent didn't want to do that. He wanted to do something special. He took the time to study big budget 5.1 mixes in his studio. He isolated tracks. He researched like mad. He did some test tracks. Then, with all that R&D behind him he began conceiving our score in 5.1. Strings sweep from the rear of the theatre to the front. Drums shift from speaker to speaker. Everything has the kind of drama and scope one expects from an epic motion picture.

In terms of style, it's what a lot of the twenty-somethings call "post-rock". It's electronica, rock and symphonic orchestration all at the same time.  And, for anyone who has ever studied music, its obvious Brent has a classical education despite the use of modern instrumentation. Brent uses strings, piano and spanish guitar alongside distorted electrical guitars and industrial-inspired sounds with grace and ease.

I have a preview version of the first 20 minutes. I've listened to it at least thirty times. Each time, I love it more and more. It's so epic. Brent has woven the closing credit song throughout the film, but it is well hidden. Sometimes, parts of the theme are played by a piano. In other places the baseline is introduced. I find this exciting because it means all of the music is thoroughly integrated together. Often, a movie's "rock single" feels tacked onto the film. It's obvious that the composer had nothing to do with the rock band hired to create the single playing over the closing credits. This is not the case with Brent's work. Its unified. The score and the song belong together.

Brent "Free" Daniels is by far my greatest secret weapon. He brings so much to the table. And, he definitely takes our movie to the next level.