Saturday, January 29, 2011

Another weekly update: This week's theme - the rollercoaster


1. The Times Colonist article came out on Tuesday, and I didn't even know we were on the front cover until I received a few tweets of congratulations. Crazy! And I looked crazy in the photo, but that's cool. It was a really fun photo shoot.

2. We received a tonne of emails from folks we don't know to say congrats on the movie. FUN! One stood out in particular. It was from a woman who always wanted to act in movies, but her parents wanted to keep her safe from the possible rejections. She's proud of us for taking the leap forward and sent us a cheque in the mail. Woohoo!

3. Our kickstarter campaign leaped from 7% to 10% in a day - mostly because of the Times article. Score!


4. Received an email from local garage band, Handsome Distraction - they want to help us fundraise, with a view to being in the movie somehow. Met with Devin over a drink and discussed the movie, his ideas & how we can collaborate. I love people that just get on with things, pitch their ideas & take charge. AWESOME.

So, we agreed that they will organize a local garage band gig here in Victoria & we'll spread the word about them, give them credit in the movie & do as many shout outs as we can. Good times.

The other idea that's brewing is a massive garage band contest where indie bands submit their music on facebook or our website and their fans vote. Our promise would be to watch each & every submission and choose the best ones for the movie. Any ideas on that one?

5. I pitched to Awesome Shit Club - a local group that has people give $50 into a collective pot and invite people like me to pitch their awesome ideas. There were 10 pitches, kind of like Dragon's Den, but very local. Great ideas! The winner was the "Doc-Bus" - a couple of women who want to buy a bus & travel the country showing documentaries. At least I lost to a fellow filmmaking enthusiast.

6. Speaking of Dragon's Den - it's a dream of mine to one day have dinner with the dragons. I just know we'll really get along over wine & good food. So, when I saw the tweet that CBC Vancouver was holding a contest on their facebook page for Brett Wilson, I had to enter. We had to submit a 60 second pitch video on their page in the hopes of being 1 of 3 selected to pitch to Brett in person at a mall in Vancouver today. We lost (theme of the week? ugh...) - but I loved doing the pitch. You can see it on the bottom of their facebook page.
We also posted a funny outtake video on our facebook page, where Jen's one year old daughter ends the video with a "Woooo!"

7. I went to two of Philip Bisset-Caveneiro's talks where he also plugged our movie. What a kick-ass business man/entrepreneur/philanthropist/friend.

8. Jamie Gale & I met in person, after tweeting for a couple of months. Local mortgage broker for high-end properties (Go Jamie!), and movie lover. Love that!


9. Experienced the total emotional roller coaster of crowd-funding for indie movies. From "FRACK YES! We can do this! AND IT'S SO FRIKKIN' FUN!" to "Oh gawd, am I really asking people for money AGAIN?"

My shoulders hurt, my neck is killing me, I haven't worked out in ages, I'm afraid I'm being a bad friend - it's like I have a new boyfriend and all I want to do is talk about him (blah blah blah - movie this, movie that - blah blah blah)...but then I hung out with a great friend this week, laughed about this very neurosis & since she does have a new boyfriend she completely understood. I love her enthusiasm for her guy and I'm happy to listen to her talk about him non-stop, so we're okay. I can talk movie and she can talk boy. Phew!

10. Hired Andy Dooley as my life coach. Yup - I know... I need one. Andy's a really fun, super-positive, silly guy and I know I need to get all the help I can get in these next few months. No idea how I'll pay him, but hey - that's what he's for right? To help me see clearly, find more $, laugh more, make it all easy...plus he's a good friend and I feel really comfortable being honest about my ups & downs these days so I think we're a good match. Stoked!

11. Had great chats with Adam Daniel Mezei, a PMD and reporter with Film Courage who is at Sundance this week. He does a live video every morning at 9am from Sundance and I've managed to catch at least half of them. Great guy!

12. Speaking of Film Courage - they asked me to write an article for their website/blog and man oh man, have I ever got to get on that! It's been weeks since they asked, and I really want to do it - but for some reason, I'm totally blocked. Help!


13. Bought my gold & industry pass for the Victoria Film Festival, where I plan to meet Dan McKellar & Bruce McDonald. Set up a meeting with Mongrel Media, Canadian indie distributors.


14. Jen whipped up some promo postcards for me to hand out at the Vic Film Festival and when I have meetings with folks. Had them printed at Staples - 1000 postcards cost $333 - and they're not even cut straight! ARGH. Fingers crossed that they bring in the funds to make it worthwhile.

15. Met with our designers via skype. I love these guys! I'm struggling with the purpose of our website in pre-production, as the site will launch March 4th (the date I set which depended on when I get paid so I can pay them), and we start shooting April 4th. We only have a few cast members and will be doing more auditions in a few weeks, so the garage band isn't really all there yet.

Their concepts are awesome - the problem is me. Their idea is to have the website tell more of the back story behind the band, which I love - but I wonder: why aren't other indie's doing this? Or are they? I need to see some quality indie film websites that launched in pre-production. Today's task: web searches. If you know of any sites I should see, please let me know. Although I doubt you've even read this far into the blog post as I am saying way, way, way too much today. Just so much to say!

16. AHHHHHHH!!! I'm overwhelmed. Can you tell?

2 comments:

  1. You're doing awesome. Everything will happen exactly the way it should. Saw your pitch at the Awesome Shit Club ya done good! Keep it UP! Chin up... but get some workouts in.. it'll really help with the PRESSURE!... just saying!

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  2. Aw, thanks! So happy you saw the pitch - it was really fun to do. I'm walking to a meeting today, along Dallas Road (lovin' my new Wellies!) so that I'm getting a bit of exercise in. Will listen to a podcast along the way - something motivational & positive for sure. Woohoo! People like you make it all worthwhile me dear!

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