Zach here. I’ve got big news, a couple pieces of it.
FIRSTLY. I just got back from the Brooklyn Film Festival last night. Despite two excellent slots, our screenings wound up being weakly attended. Fortunately, we were too busy having a great time in New York with old friends to be upset.
Rob, Nandan and I got to take part in a great table reading of a script by Gabi on the Roof in July’s Lawrence Levine. I got to go to New Jersey to visit the set of Exit 117 director Kevin McMullin’s new film.
I even got to make a cameo that consisted solely of kissing. It was a good day.
The highlight of the week, however, came after I left. On my way to the airport I got a phone call from the festival’s programmer Nathan Kensinger. He wanted to know if I would be attending the awards ceremony, and seemed discouraged when I explained that I couldn’t. I assured him that Nandan and Rob would be there, and he was pacified. Later that I night I found out that we’d won the Spirit Award for narrative feature. This is more or less the equivalent of what other festivals would call a “special jury prize”. I was blown away. To make matters better, Gabi on the Roof in July wound up winning best narrative feature, and its star Sophia Takal was honored with the award for best actress. They all called me up when my flight landed in Seattle shouting “mazel tov” into the phone. It was special. The only thing that doesn’t surprise me about the whole business is the fact that Rob has already finished the bottle of Bushmill’s that was part of our prize.
SECONDLY. YOU CAN OWN BUMMER SUMMER on DVD.
We’ve launched a fundraising campaign for my new movie on a website called “kickstarter”. It’s awesome. We have sixty days to raise the money that will ultimately take us to Argentina to shoot. By pledging just fifteen dollars, you’ll get a copy of Bummer Summer. And that’s not all. There are a ton of cool rewards set up. Check out our page for all of the details. If you watch the video you can even see a very rarely seen clip of Rob kissing Mackinley. Sorry guys.
But seriously, WE NEED HELP. If you don’t feel that you can donate, that’s no problem. It’s immensely helpful to us just to have you spread the word. Post the page on facebook. Blog about it. Tweet about it. Do anything you can to help us out and you’ll have my eternal gratitude. Sincerely.
BONUS NEWS. I got a mini-interview in an Argentine mag, check it out! (Sorry if it’s hard to read, I don’t know what I’m doing.)
Zach here. We just got our first review by a major US publication, and what a publication it was. See the title of this post for a subtle hint. You can read it here.
As you can see, it’s somewhat mixed, although the general vibe is definitely positive. Review-wise, we’ve gotten much better, as well as much worse. Before ever having made a movie, I sometimes wondered how I’d react to reading this stuff. Now I know: kind of apathetically. I don’t believe that movies themselves are “good” or “bad”, only the impressions that they leave on each individual viewer. When someone hates my movie, fine, that’s just one out of however many billion potential impressions. I feel the same way when someone loves it: so what? Admittedly, I’m human and I can’t help hoping that people approve of what I did, but I don’t get angry or defensive in the face of criticism. Except when it’s personal. The film and the filmmaker are separate entities, I can’t stand when people don’t seem to understand that.
But if I really believe all of what I said before, then why am I writing now after having been reviewed by someone “important”? Well, not everyone shares my weird, noncommittal views regarding movie qualification. Variety is a sort of a giant, and so I guess that what makes me anxious about the review is the thought of people taking it as an “official verdict”. Plenty of people make up their minds whether to see a movie based on reviews. Myself, I’m more of a trailer man. But then again, even our trailer has proven polarizing. Whatever, Bummer Summer is no longer my baby. It’s my chubby toddler that won’t stop crying at Red Robin. And I’m pregnant with another, god help me.
In other news, the movie had its most recent festival screening just last night in Athens, OH. Nandan was there in attendance, and from what he tells me it seems to have been our most lackluster screening to date. But I’ll reserve judgment until I read his detailed blog-report, which I’m sure will come any day now. I’m exponentially more excited for our next festival, but I’m not sure that I’m supposed to say what it is yet. Whatever, check back regularly because I’m sure I’ll crack soon enough.
I know it’s not even May yet, but get excited for June as it will include a screening at this festival in question, an article in another major publication, the launch of our fundraising campaign for The International Sign for Choking, and Bummer Summer’s hometown premiere. Details in the coming weeks.
Zach here. At Dusty’s request, I’m blogging. He’s right here next to me. We’re working on the edit of Fresh Starts for Stale People. It’s slow going, but on this particular day it’s especially slow on account of the McDouble Challenge.
The McDouble Challenge is something I came up with at Cinequest, and it’s a really bad idea. You wait until you’re real hungry, that’s when the challenge begins. You eat one McDouble (nothing more and nothing less) every hour on the hour for as long as you can stand it. Right now we’re seven deep.
Also, you can expect a third round of exciting news within the next three or four days. You can expect Fresh Starts for Stale People to be done never.
Zach here. With a brief and only mildly interesting update.
We’ll be having three public screenings (with a fourth for the press and Angela Bassett only). The first will be on Wednesday, April 14 at 11:15pm. This may seem late, but in Argentina they’ll be like “oh 11:15? I guess I’ll go, it just means I’ll have to grab an early dinner.” The second screening will be on Thursday, April 15 at 6:00pm. And the third will be on Saturday, April 17 at 6:45pm. They’ll all be at the Hoyts Multiplex in the Abasto shopping center (the central venue).
If, by some strangeness, you are reading this and happen to be either a festival-accredited member of the press or Angela Bassett, you can get up early and see the movie on Wednesday, April 14th at 10:15am, also in Hoyts. Drowsiness may occur.
[Yes, I'll explain the Angela thing. She's one of the judges of the international competition this year. I hope the movie doesn't upset her.]
I’ll be spending the middle portion of next month in chilly Argentina, where Bummer Summer (or Verano plomazo, as it is now also known) is going to be playing as part of the international competition.
This festival is choice. I know because I was there two years ago and I loved it. I used to say during pre-production that the only reason I was making the movie was so that I could go back. I think I was joking, but even still I’m pretty excited for this one. Our fellow competitors include some serious heavy hitters, including the new Safdie brothers’ film Go Get Some Rosemary , the Oscar-nominated Ajami, and Police, Adjective, already rearing its Romanian head in theaters across the country.
You can check out the festival’s page for our movie here. If you feel like trying your hand at some Spanish, the synopsis they wrote is really awesome. The festival’s schedule isn’t up yet, but it should be next week. As soon as I know more I’ll be back with an update for all of our Argentinian readers (I know of at least one!) so they can plan on attending.
Rob left late on Monday night. I’m now the only one left at the end of what turned out to be a very long, silly trail west.
Before he split, we recorded a song for the opening credits of “Fresh Starts for Stale People.” Enjoy, and get excited.
Finally, I have some hugely exciting news that I won’t reveal yet, but promise to reveal by this weekend. Whatever, a lot of you already know what it is. A hint for those of you that don’t: it’s very similar to the last time I had exciting news and held off on revealing it.
Rob here. Sitting in the brand new west coast editing suite of Newhard Entertainment.
Well I’m just gonna say we’ve put a wrap on all principle photography on Fresh Starts for Stale People. (Although I would still like to grab an insert or two. BANG BANG) The last day of shooting went really well, mostly thanks to our buddy Rob Hammond. We placed our lives in his hands. Totally worth it.
And Zach and I are now hard at work trying to salvage something out of this whole mess.
I am pretty stoked.
And here’s a sneak peak of what the film is gearing up to look like in its final form.
Zach here. This last round of bloglessness has been unforgivable, especially considering what exciting and eventful times these have been. Rob started writing a post this morning, but he gave up and just e-mailed me what he had. I’m just going to post it here in its entirety and add media wherever necessary.
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CINEQUEST AND BEYOND THE INFINITE
Rob and Zach here. We’re back in Olympia. Where this shit begun. http://blog.lotlmovie.com/?p=5
It’s been more than a month since we left New York. Shoot.
It’s been a while since we posted anything on this, but that’s not for lack of events.
Earth-changing, Life-shattering Events.
On February 22 we wrapped Principle Photography on Fresh Starts for Stale People. We pushed ourselves through our last day and got the shots for the scene that I feel may be one of the films best or perhaps sloppiest moments.
Julia (Lila of Bummer Summer fame) arrived at Ferino’s somewhere in the afternoon and after the third or fourth best meal of the trip (In & Out) we headed north for San Jose. Not really knowing the way.
At some point Rob got a migraine and at around the same time Zach and Dusty chugged tall cans outside a gas station.
But all of this was just prologue to the cold hot dog feast that awaited us at Ernesto’s.
CINEQUEST DAY 1
In which Dusty leaves, we get our all access passes, We attend the first soiree and meet Larry and Sophia [Zach's note: Larry and Sophia are filmmakers they made a good movie, see below].
Zach and Julia get the red carpet treatment, We attend the good heart, We begin the marketing push by dancing hard at the opening night party.
Cinequest Day 2
In which we exchange our badges for artist badges. Eat at Bo-Town(?), Checked out the poster at camera 12 (show twitpic) Got interviewed by valerie and aidan in the vip lounge, soiree at morocco’s, get interviewed by mette, belly dancer happens, see tercer mundo, it is good. Nandan arrives at the maverick meet-up at the hotel de anza. Ernesto has bummer summer written in sharpie on his face.
Eerie foreshadowing Journal entry “12:17 My Ears hurt. Hope this doesn’t lead to something bad.”
Cinequest Day 3
Buy a sweet Native American themed blue coat at the goodwill. Zach leaves his coat and his pass at the store. Eat Lunch with Mike and (what’s her face?) and the filmmakers behind Gabi on the Roof in July, Anyone you Want, Tercer Mundo, the robbers, and Bummer Summer? Saw Cooking History, green Waters, Best Soiree yet at Il Fornario’s (Best soriee of the fest), Meet Kate from Gabi, See the Ferrari Dino Girl and Rob sleeps fitfully, Fahrenheit kind of sucks as a venue
CineQuest Day 4
Cut the first teaser for Fresh Starts, Checked into the Hilton, No Free Internet, New Distribution Panel nearly destroys the fragile friendships of the filmmakers at Newhard Entertainment, Met Mackinley at the Hotel, waiting outside our door, Begin work on another trailer, Rob is increasingly grouchy as he goes to town on the free food at south first billiards, mac couldn’t get into soiree, talked mardi gras with jordan kesslar, Really liked gabi on the roof in July, feel bad that they are looking forward to our film.
CineQuest Day 5 The Premiere
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That’s where he left off. Kind of a cliffhanger. I’ll take over. In much less detail.
The premiere was pretty good. A lot of people came. Even more people came to our screening the next day. And finally, not very many people came to our final screening, which was on Wednesday at noon.
I guess I’ll explain Rob’s weird mention of “eerie foreshadowing.” After three consecutive nights of stoopid late hotel parties, we were pretty tired and ready to turn in relatively early. I was sitting around and thinking about possibly blogging when Rob came out of the bathroom in a panic with his mouth wide open, trying to explain that he couldn’t close it. Long story short, his jaw was dislocated and he was too namby-pamby to let me push it back into place so we had to go to the ER and spend a few hours there.
Not sure what else to say about the festival. It was a good time overall. By the time it ended, we were absolutely ready to move on.
Getting home was kind of noteworthy. We met a nice guy on closing night who agreed to give us a ride halfway up. We stayed with a nice woman named Teresa in Medford, OR that night and the very next morning caught a ride via Craigslist with a guy called Mike to Portland where we had a nice reunion with Dusty and Luc. Then Jimmy picked us up and we were here in Olympia a little after midnight.
These first few days have been a bit busy with my moving into a dreamhouse. More on that as it develops.
Nandan here. Just wanted to mention that Mr. T. Newhard gave a great shout out for Bummer Summer in his first ever Podcast. You can listen to an mp3 of it right here!
Zach here. It’s a grueling 10:55 in the morning. Last night was weird.
I’m going to shatter this dry spell with an account of what in the hell we’ve been up to. On Tuesday morning, we woke up in Austin fifty minutes in advance of our bus out of town. It was a close call. This ride clocked in at a grueling thirty-six hours. Wednesday night we rolled in to Hollywood, CA. Our host, Dave Ferino, lives with a huge gaggle of bros in an outrageous antique mansion in the hills allegedly built by Charlie Chaplin for Mary Astor way back when. With no reasonable form of transportation, we’ve been spending a lot of time here. The house makes its acting debut this afternoon, so I’ll hold off on sharing photos until then.
Thursday night, we wound up out at dinner with old-fashioned Texan gent-turned-actor Ben McCain. We had been planning on giving Ben a role in the film, but our schedules didn’t align and it fell through. At dinner, we all brainstormed and came up with a scene we’d be able to shoot that night. We finished our meal and went right to work. Ben knocked it out of the park. It was great.
Yesterday (Saturday), we spent the entire day with rowdiest ten year-old I know, my cousin Ben Rosen. Our locations included In-N-Out Burger, the entrance to Disneyland (actually going inside was beyond our budget), and the Santa Monica Pier.
Today’s an important day and we’re all hoping not to blow it too hard. Still, we know that some level of blowing it is inevitable. It’s really our only opportunity to shoot here on account of we’re heading north tomorrow for the start of Cinequest in San Jose. I leave you with a new piece of promotional art by Dusty.
