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. I just wanted to get in one last domestic update before I leave the country tomorrow. That’s right…
I’M LEAVING THE COUNTRY TOMORROW.
So here’s all of our news in brief. The results of the McDouble Challenge are as follows: Dusty came in second place with seven McDoubles, and I came in first place with eleven. It was a really weird night. My dismally failed stint as an editor concluded this afternoon as I boxed up the Fresh Starts for Stale People hard drive and shipped it east for Rob to take on. If it gets damaged en route, we’ll be upset. Finally (and this will really excite all of our Ohioan readers), Bummer Summer will be screening at the 37th annual Athens International Film and Video Festival. The festival runs the 23rd through the 29th of April in Athens, Ohio. The festival will not be taking place in Greece. I had been holding off on that last bit of news until the festival’s programming came out, but they’ve been having a hell of a time getting their website updated and I didn’t want to wait any longer. It should be ready within the week, at which point I’ll be back with another post.
And that’s it. I’ll be in Buenos Aires early Friday morning. I’m so excited. The last time I was there I met some VERY important people…
Let’s hope that the trend continues this time around. And that no one laughs at my haircut because I just made my little sister shave my neck and I think she kinda botched it.
Zach here. If you visit this blog via the link on our website, then you were probably surprised to see that it looks totally different as of today. You also may have noticed two new trailers. In case you didn’t, here they are:
If you’ve got a second to spare, leave a comment and let us know which one you prefer.
Meanwhile, we’ve got a facebook page. It includes stills and set photographs with which even the most seasoned blog-reader will be unfamiliar. Please visit this page by clicking here.
Zach here. Things are moving along, slowly but a little bit surely.
Blogwise, I’m actually sitting on a decent pile of media-treats. A little video clip here, a little still photo there, etc. Having other people hard at work has left me time to putz around with this sort of thing. And yet, I’m not even getting that done.
But it’s not like I’m without excuses. I work a lot. And additionally, I’m very deep in story meetings on a cross country road movie. Its current working title is “Fresh Starts for Stale People” and it’s more or less a jaw-dropping portrait of a nation shattered by economic turmoil and the all-too-recent loss of its greatest pop icon.
I’m fresh back from an overnight trip to rural New Jersey where the idea was to record some missing sound effects for the movie’s sound design. Naturally, a blizzard rendered this task impossible. I’m getting a lot of anxiety about finishing everything on time, because although there’s plenty to be done, all of it is out of my hands. People are on it, and while they’re all people that I trust and have confidence in, it’s not easy to just sit by with my fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong.
So how do I deal with it? I sit around, I stress, I go to work, I make nervous phone calls, and most entertainingly, I browse my hard drive for amusing photos or video to post on the internet. Enjoy.
Due to recent developments we’re suddenly facing an imminent deadline and it’s been causing a lot of stress. The only remaining aspect of the movie to finish is the sound design/mix. This is a huge undertaking. Our eager and generous sound designer Cecile was made aware of this right in the midst of a busy finals week, and two days prior to departure on a three-week trip to her hometown, Paris. Not advantageous timing.
Enter one of the movie’s most epic saviors to date: Katie. She’s got a lot of experience with post-sound, and consistently does a great job with it. Yesterday afternoon I sat down with Cecile and Katie to work out some way in which they could double-team the job so that Cecile could still get her hands dirty with the soil of experience (what?). Slowly and painfully, two very upsetting things became clear: that there was no convenient way to keep Cecile involved (this after her having put in work already), and that Katie would be taking on the full weight of our sound burden. Since then she’s already logged an absurd amount of hours towards our cause. Here’s a photo of her, hating me for what I’ve done to her.
In this paragraph I was going to explain why I’ve been secretive. I know it’s obnoxious. I think I’ll just reveal the secret.
Two days ago I was invited to officially premiere the movie as part of the official competition at the twentieth annual Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, CA. And I accepted.
And as exciting as that is, I can’t write anymore about it now because I’ve got to be up in five hours to work in a cramped sub-cellar stockroom with a low ceiling. Many more updates to come.
Zach here. That semi-interesting something I’d thought I’d have by the end of the week was postponed. It wasn’t much anyway, just a little YouTube vid like in the olden days. Why the fuck is “olden” a word? According to my computer’s dictionary it’s archaic and/or jocular.
Today, five thousand filmmakers and I were regretfully informed via e-mail that our films were unable to be included in the 2010 Slamdance Film Festival.
The five thousand thing is what really blows me away. I couldn’t even begin to justify feeling bitter or like they’d made a mistake considering what a massive amount of people were given the very same “no”. With all of the time and money that goes into making these petty picture shows, it almost seems a little twisted to “select” a few of them.
“We’re sorry, but that whole year (or more) of your life you just spent, while commendable, wasn’t quite worthwhile.”
But we’re the ones who make it this way. It could be so rewarding just to finish a movie. It is, for a second, until we decide we want our work to be qualified and assessed against the work of others. So we get rejected.
Here’s to hoping I can take the news in such stride if/when less monumental festivals start turning us down.
On a positive note, tonight I gave myself that mullet I’ve always dreamed of having. It’s extremely subtle. Mullet-chic.
UPDATE: Immediately after publishing this post I realized that we’ve now blogged in every single month of the year. That’s chilling to me.
Zach here. Jesse and I met this evening and came to an official agreement on the cutting of the movie. The edit is now complete and the movie itself is on the verge of completion pending the application of Nandan and Cecile’s respective talents. To celebrate the occasion, here’s a photo of Jesse and I reaching our accord.
I’ll bet he’s bummed that his right breast pocket was all screwed up.
Keep checking back for similar updates and perhaps even the ever-elusive official trailer (no promises).
Zach here. I’d like to open this entry with an excerpt from a previous entry.
“Zach here. Nandan and I are at the ‘office’ right now slaving away on our personal bios to put in the prospectus so that people will give us money. And we’re doing a terrible job. I don’t like writing about myself in this way, it makes me feel slimy all over. So slimy. Worst of all is how far removed this is from the actual film itself on a creative level. So even though technically we’re working towards getting the film made, I can’t manage to feel like it’s worthwhile.”
That was ten and a half months ago, but it’s starting to sound wincingly familiar. Between the submission process, putting together a new website, and working with sound man/graphic wizard Dusty to design a poster, I’m beginning to feel all of that old self-promotion slime oozing back to me. But this time it’s worse.
Like I said back in January, we were working towards getting the film made. But how do I rationalize this shit now? I could claim that we’re working towards getting the film seen. But I don’t know. I don’t think that anyone needs to see this. That’s arrogant. It’s been made, it’s done, and it is what it is: a solid first attempt with some great moments and a lot of rough edges. I know that it’s important to meditate on and be proud of the accomplishment, but then I’d like to very promptly leave it behind and try another.
Actually I just realized that the success of this first effort could probably make the second one exponentially easier to get off the ground. I had a lot more griping to do, but I guess I’ve found my rationalization. Thanks, blog, for helping me arrive here.
My original complaint still stands, however. This work we’re doing isn’t any fun. Seeing Dusty’s poster designs is actually pretty cool. But the rest of it…no, thank you.
In other news, for family and friends, I’ve been very sick but I’m better now, and today was the first day of my brand new and soon-to-be-very-grueling retail job.
And to thank everyone for putting up with me in this post, I’ll end on something kind of interesting. Kind of.
That is a still from one of our rehearsals. It was, in my opinion, far and away our worst rehearsal. No one was taking it seriously, and the shit we were coming up with was seriously stupid. You can see that Julia and Mackinley are having a good time, while my face says otherwise. It was early on in the process and a definite low point.
That is a still from the very same scene as it appears in the movie. You may expect me to talk about how much I love the scene now and how rewarding it is to see in light of that bad rehearsal. Well, it’s actually one of my least favorite scenes. It’s not bad, I just don’t like it all that much. But the point is that I get a kick out of seeing the two stills next to one another and I hope you do to.
