The Festival SWAG is Here!

As we anxiously await the announcements of the 32 film festivals we have submitted to, the process of creating promotional give-away items (or SWAG) has begun. With the help of one of the movie's visual effects guys, Mike Banks, we created a great logo for the shirts, buttons and hats we'll give away.
It's customary at festivals for filmmakers to give out stuff - mostly to get people at the fests to come see your movie. This was news to me, since I figured that if the people were already at the event, they were there to see movies, right? Not the case at all. Seems the atmosphere at film festivals is very competitive regarding the eyeballs that each film can attract.
So, we started a SWAG fund at Kickstarter.com, to help defray the costs of all these promo items. You can click the link and contribute a small amount to get one of these tee shirts, a button and a movie poster! Most of all, it would be helpful if you could pass the link along to your friends via email, Twitter, Facebook or however it is you reach your peeps these days.
This cool stuff will only be given out at festivals, so it's your chance to grab the cool SWAG while it lasts. Here's a link you can cut and paste: http://kck.st/gEe2R9
By the way, I just read that SWAG stands for "Stuff We All Get". Not sure if I'm buyin' that.

Dan

Taking Nominated on the Road

So the movie has been completed, test screenings held, final re-edits made...now what? Great question. The answer is, we take the movie on the film festival circuit (no, there's not an official circuit that you just sign up for, but rather hundreds - nay, thousands - of festivals that occur around the country throughout the calendar year. So we opened our withoutabox account, and begin to peruse the massive list of festivals for 2011.

To date, we have entered 30 festivals, starting with the Big Kahuna, The Sundance Film Festival. We have aligned perfectly with the calendar, since Sundance requires that your movie premiere in Park City. So, since Sundance announces their film lineup in December, we'll find out long before we have to commit to any other festivals. We just got lucky with that one. We're also entered in South by Southwest, Santa Barbara, Cinequest, Dallas, Seattle, Las Vegas, and Manhattan Film festivals to name a few.

Whether we get in or not, we are making the trip to Park City to market the movie to the attendees. Hopefully an indie distributor will get a DVD and like what she sees. We plan on taking a projector and screen so we can show the movie in the town square (that's of course IF we don't get in). We're also pursuing a sponsorship from The Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Hopefully they will pay for the ski caps, posters and tee shirts that will be co-branded with the Nominated "Has-Been" logo & The Academy's logo. Seems like a perfect fit.

In other news, the movie's star, Brian Degan Scott, is busy preparing for a new play, Coroline, at The SF Playhouse. Co-star, Carl Lumbly, is in the middle of another production, Sunset Limited, also at The SF Playhouse. Go see those plays, they're fantastic!

Lastly, we have updated the Nominated media page with new collateral material so that media types, and anybody else interested, can now download it directly. There is a brand new press kit with many still frames from the movie, a cool new movie poster, and a brand new movie trailer. All great stuff.

As always, I'd like to thank everyone for supporting the movie. It would be great to see you all out at a festival as the film gets unleashed on the world. So far, we've had nothing but positive feedback (except for that one jerk from Oakland), and I hope to keep the momentum rolling forward!

Final stages

Well, the movie is done! Thanks to all the input we received from all our friends and family at the "focus group" style screenings of the film, we got the movie down to it's final stage! Once Dan felt that it was ready, we submitted it to a few film festivals, including Sundance! Everyone keep your fingers crossed.

Then, in August, we had the big screening at Chanticleers Theater in Castro Valley. There were about 100 people in attendance and it was a big success! There was champagne and a nice barbequed chicken dinner served by our Chef, Mike Nepodal. Everyone loved the film and enjoyed the evening.

Unfortunately, Dan couldn't be there and Dave stepped in as the host.

We're planning to have a screening of the film in the Arnold area. But for now, there's nothing on the calendar. Hopefully there will be soon! We'll try to keep everyone posted.

Almost ready...

We have a complete version of the movie! Brian, Dave, Ben and I have watched the whole thing through and made some editing decisions and we are working on getting it edited down to a good, watchable length. But now it's time to let others watch it and give us their input. So the Movie is in the "focus group" stage right now. Hopefully, we'll have a final version before July is over. Then we'll have a major public screening for everyone we know! Hold on tight... it's almost ready!

I want to thank Ben Figueiredo for his heroic efforts, working on the color and the audio sweetening of the Movie. Ben has been amazing. He's put in a ridiculous amount of time and effort and for very little compensation. And now, sadly, Ben is moving on in his career and will be leaving California for bigger and better things. Thanks Ben... we'll miss you and your dedication.

That's a wrap!

Well... that's it! The final footage is "in the can". The last shoot, the
"community theater" stuff was shot at Chanticleers Theater in Castro Valley. We got everything we needed and the movie is now in the post production stage. If all goes well, we should have a first screening by mid-July.





The last two days of shooting went well, thanks to many wonderful people! I'd like to thank Chanticleers Theater, and especially Floyd and Gary, for their hospitality and help. And of course permission to use their great little theater. Chanticleers fit our needs perfectly. And Floyd and Gary bent over backwards to accommodate any needs that we had. And our actors did a fantastic job! Lance and Donna were amazing, as always. And what can I say about Brian... this movie wouldn't exist without the talent of my friend Brian Scott. He did a fantastic job, as usual. Thanks Brian for sacrificing your skin for the make up! And all our extras did a great job too. Thanks to the crew for all their work and time. And especially Dave Cowan... not only for his film crew work, but for catering the shoot as well!




We're feverishly working on the post production now. There will be several
screenings, hopefully in a
neighborhood near you!
We'll keep you posted.


Thanks again to everyone who has helped out in the production. Dan

The Oscars Come To Town!

Not sure why I did this, but I managed to save the four most complicated scenes for the end of the production?? Maybe it was the complicated logistics of locations, numerous extras, wardrobe and the ever-present budget constraints - or maybe I was just scared to face the challenges. Who knows?

Either way, I'm happy to report that two of the aforementioned complicated scenes are done!

We knocked off the Red Carpet scene and the Oscar Kodak Theater scene. With the help of many wonderful volunteers - both in front of the camera and behind - we got some wonderful footage. The shoots took two solid days (all of which will cover about three pages of the script), but the results are fantastic!

I'd be remiss if I did not thank the wonderful people at Ohlone College in fabulous Fremont, CA for the use of the beautiful Jackson Theater, as well as Creative Video Services for the use of their Panasonic HPX3000 camera. Without either of those fantastic supporters, we would not have been able to get the scenes to look realistic.

So, that leaves us with two remaining scenes to shoot - believe it or not! We started shooting in November of 2009, and we should wrap in a few weeks. What a crazy and fantastic ride it has been.

By the way, the two remaining scenes are set in a small community theater, and we're still looking for a location. Anybody with a lead to a great location in the SF Bay Area, please send me a note at: dan@nominatedthemovie.com

I look forward to the next post when I can tell you all that we have wrapped! Then it's on to test screenings and then festivals!!

thanks,

Dan

We're in the Home Stretch!

Brian Degan Scott & Ken Newman work the scene

We wrapped an exciting day of shooting at the Fabulous Mojo Lounge in Fremont, CA. The owner, Dennis Briggs, was an unbelievably gracious host as he watched us take over his bar. This was a tough morning, starting with the 5:30 a.m. call time, through the bucking hooker shots (what a degenerate my star is).

This is a big scene in the movie - scene 3 to be exact - as it sets up the entire story. We shot we the Panasonic HPX 3000, courtesy of Creative Video Services, and the camera was incredible in the low light environment. We were able to shoot with almost 100% available light from the bar's lighting. We only supplemented the practical lights with a 150 watt key on the actor's faces, and a 300 watt to light up the far background.

Incredible acting by Brian Degan Scott & Ken Newman, with fantastic hooker-like performances from Susi Damilano & Zehra Berkman!

Couple more scenes to go, and we can wrap the shooting!! The editing has been on-going, so we're probably 40% done with that. We'll have a few tests screening when we're done, so stay tuned for those dates.

thanks,

Dan

Shooting Completed in Arnold!!

We just wrapped the shooting in Arnold -- and just under the wire with the weather. Boy did it get ugly fast, and just as we were packing up. Now the remaining 20 scenes are in the Bay Area, and most are very short.

The movie gods aligned for us, as we not only had help with the weather, but from a kind CHP Officer and a terrific theater director. While shooting at a vista point on Hwy 4, the officer pulled up to make sure everything was okay. I thought he was going to shut us down, but he was just interested in our production and was quickly on his way. He must have called a fellow officer to tell him about it, because a half hour later another one pulled up to watch for a minute before leaving.

The theater director at the Black Bart Playhouse in Murphys was great. We were shooting a quick exterior scene as the main character passes the marquee of the theater, and the director came out and offered to change the marquee to suit our needs. That was awesome of him!

Anyway, lots of good fortune for us in Arnold, great performances by Brian Degan Scott, Ken Newman, and Lance Smith. Now we need to wrap up the Bay Area shoots and finish editing.

Here are a few photos from the shoot. I'll also be posting a few new scenes from the movie in the upcoming weeks.

Thanks to everyone involved!
Dan

Mickey Monroe, disguised as old man, leaves The Nugget, in Murphys, CA.

The marquee reads "Hamlet", which was a change made for our scene at The Black Bart in Murphys.

Lance Smith & Brian Degan Scott in a scene at White Pines Lake (no rain!).

Dave Cowan, sound tech, listens as we get a wide shot.

Our 82-year-old "intern", Ray Sutliff, of Dorrington.

Dave Cowan sets up the jib for an interior shot.

Brian relaxes between shots & Ken Newman books another gig.

Tom Greer & I set up a driveway shot as Dave removes the license plate.

Finally, a sneak peek scene from Nominated!

Many people have asked about seeing some footage from the movie, and I've been reluctant to send anything out that is a spoiler, or doesn't make any sense on it's own.

So, I've edited together a fun scene that is pretty self-contained, with both the star, Brian Degan Scott & co-star Carl Lumbly.

You can check it out here: Nominated Sneak Peek.

Also, Nominated is now listed on IMDB.com!! You can check out our movie page.

Feel free to give me feedback, as we are always tweaking and fine-tuning to make things better.

Happy Holidays!

Dan