SXSW Journal Part 5: How we got here.

We didn't submit to SXSW.

On Feb 3, we released a trailer for out film on youtube.  There was a planned screening on Feb 15.  We , at this point, had not even finished the edit for the screening.  Actually, the edit wasn't quite finished on Feb 15.

A day or so before the screening, I got an email from a rep at sxsw.  He had seen the trailer and remembered that I had previously submitted The Awkward Comedy Show to the fest a few years ago.  apparently it had almost gotten in, nice to hear at this point.  Anywaaaaaaaaaaay.....  The rep asked for a screener of Tell Your Friends! The Concert Film! 

A bout a week later we heard that sxsw would like to premiere our movie at their festival.  We would have a late premiere because there were only a few slots left but on the upside we were invited to the fest.  Holy shit, for real!

The downside.  We had a week to finish our film.  That meant we had to do like a month of post production in a week.  Lots of love goes out to my editor Steve Rosenthal, and my Sound re-recordist Jason Kanter.  We all had very little sleep and many aggravating phone calls that whole week, but hey, A feature I directed is premiering at SXSW!  

Tonight. http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_FS12312

SXSW Journal Part 4: Too Many Tacos

Just a word of advice to attendees of SXSW.  Please, don't bang on the door constantly when I am in the middle of a complicated poo.  I will yell at you.

ATTACK THE BLOCK

Seeing this movie made me both happy and sad.  Happy, because it was loads of fun and managed to stay crazy all the way through.  I have been making it a habit to try and ask a question at every  panel or screening that I go to.  My question for the director is a contains spoilers so i won't share it here, but please check out that movie, it has my highest recommendation.

I spent my very first night "out" in Austin.  i went to a snazzy club and had free drinks chips and salsa.

Later, I have to go potty again.

SXSW Journal Part 3: Gathering the Troops

Finally, Liam McEneaney, my co-executive producer and star of "tell Your Friends" and Steven Rosenthal our editor have come to town.  The cult of Tell Your friends is gathering and the three of us are honing our schmoozing skills.  The truth is that we don't actually have to do that much work.  Once we get someone to look at our trailer or read about the film, it seems to do all the work itself.  

We were lucky in that a few weeks ago we released the trailer for our film and then SXSW contacted us and requested a screener.  One thing led to another and suddenly we were invited to have our world premiere at the prestigious fest.  We were happy and a little bit nervous.

Outside the Vimeo theater, they have a red carpet and screen set up so we decided to take a practice photo.

Last night we saw SUPER the new disturbing film by James Gunn.  It really is fantastic, but definitely not for everyone.  Any hard core comic nook fan will be 100 percent behind this movie.  Kevin Bacon plays himself.

SXSW Journal Part 2: Disney Sucks

One of the things that  I was most excited about was the Tron Legacy immersion lounge at SXSW.  It was advertised as a complete Tron experience.  I am a hige fan of the first movie and all of the trailers from the second movie.  Tron Legacy itself was a muddled bust with amazing special effects.  The Tron lounge consisted of a few 3D TV's set up that you could watch.  A couple of art books set out.  Ipads with a partner app to the Blu Ray setup up.  Some glowing srips on the wall and a cheap frisbe that they give you that didn't evn look like the discs in tron.  Thanks disney for continuing to mine my childhood excitement.  I blam George Lucas for starting the trend.

Thumbs up however for the Deviant Art lounge at SXSW!  They had everything set up so that you could create digital art, physical art, and walk through a gallery of the finest artists on Deviant.  Deviant had some of their top employees on hand telling great stories about artists on Deviant that managed to get work and how the community interacted. 

I took a picture of a woman that looked like she was doing a crayon drawing of herself.  turns out that she was actually drawing a woman that was standing near her with almost the same hair and glasses.

Last night I waited in my very first line for a world premiere.  More important than that, i made my first, "You're a filmmaker?  I'm a filmmaker!" connections while we waited to see Source Code.  Waiting in line for almost two hours seems ridiculous now that I have rejoined the Non-waiting in line society.  although I plan on doing it again tonight for the movie Super. 

Number one movie that I never heard about and then I met someone involved in making it so now I will check it out... 96 minutes.

Source code, which was a great movie, was also a fun premiere.  Duncan Jones, the director, was as nervous as I am going to be at the premiewer of my movie on the 17th.  If you are in austin, please come down and rub my shoulders.

In short, Disney can stick it.

SXSW Journal part 1: SXSW starts from the back of a cab.

Wow. Here I go on the first leg of my trip to south by southwest. I say "leg" because I am going to Austin by way of Denver. We, me and my crew, had to buy last minute tickets because our film was a late addition to the fest. In order to avoid astronomical prices I am traveling a day early on a broken trail.

We only finished our movie three weeks ago. AWXSW got whole of our trailer and then asked for a screened. Next thing we know our film is having a world premiere at the fest! The downside is the rush, like having to finish almost a months worth of post in about a week.

Check us out at tellyourfriendsmovie.com

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