Wednesday November 9th, 2005
Sandblasting Conquistadors
October ended out with a blast. There was Ken Wilson’s Halloween party where we premiered the AFM trailer (that we left the party, worked on it then went back to screen it).
Then came three 20 hour work days in a row preparing the AFM screener of the whole movie. John & I mixed the temp sound mix and the music, some final, some temp, and put together a movie & tape of Horrors of War and I then went on to make MPEG2’s of it, adding final “for screening purpose only” tags & the DVD menus. Then there was the panic to make 10 DVD’s to go with Phil on a plane Tuesday morning. I slept a lot on the couch.
NOVEMBER 2nd, 2005
Going to California was cool. The flights en route weren’t bad. Brandy dropped me off at the airport at 4:30AM and I slept a lot on the flights. I got in, Phil picked me up and we ate in Venice where our hotel was, but we pretty much went straight to the AFM. It was at the LOEWS hotel right on the beach next to Santa Monica pier.
Tony got us badges so we could get into screenings & go pretty much wherever. Tony’s HOLLYWOOD WIZARD room was on the 7th floor next door to Mel Gibson’s ICON PRODUCTIONS room. The way AFM works is this: there are a ton of Sales Agents & Producer’s Reps that have several movies that they represent. They get hotel rooms and set them up as offices/screening rooms with TV/DVD players and desks. The beds are removed and some of the bigger companies even put up cubicles or full size facades with their company logos (The Wienstein Companies was the most impressive).
We picked up John Whitney at the airport that night. The AFM was a little slow, but it was a Wednesday.
NOVEMBER 3rd, 2005
The market picked up some, and we stared the day off with a screening of DEATH TRANCE, a 35mm feature from an Asian market. There were about 6 other people at this 11:AM screening and the movie was just not my bag. I love martial arts movies, but this had some bizarre period thing, but also guns and motorcycles inexplicably thrown in apparently at random. We left. It was well shot, but not our type of film.
We stopped in and talked to people with the bigger companies, like the Weinstein Company (still owns DIMENSION FILMS), Lakeshore Entertainment, Newline Cinema, Focus Features, and more.
Thursday night, we met with Scott Spears at the Hollywood & Vine bar. We went down to the Egyptian Theatre where the “Attack of the 50 Foot Reels”, a super 8 film fest, happened to be playing. Ron Perlman who played HELLBOY happened to walk by, looking pretty unhappy. We saw the R2D2 footprints in front of Mann’s Chinese Theatre and wandered around Hollywood for the night.
NOVEMBER 4th, 2005
We started the day with a meeting with COBBLESTONE STUDIOS, who are doing our sound mix. They had a cool place and we met in person with Matt who’s doing our sound FX and foley work. We were all on the same page & have similar ideas on how to better the sound mix. They’re doing kick ass work & I’m very happy with the AFM mix, given the limited amount of time we all had.
Friday saw a major increase in attendance at the AFM. I spoke to a few UK buyers and pumped our movie. Fred Williamson was there & was very friendly. He told Phil & John he would love to come to Ohio because people are “real”.
We got to see the exclusive screening of Terry Gilliam’s new movie TIDELAND, and it was atrocious. I love Gilliam movies but this was a bit much. It was a perverse view through the eyes of a 10 year old girl who eventually makes out with a mentally handicapped 30 year old guy. I squirmed a lot. I find it unlikely this movie will ever get seen much in the U.S.
I ran into Bala, the director of GREEN CARD FEVER at a food court outside the AMC theatre of the screening. He was in good spirits & in pre production on his next project.
NOVEMEBER 5th, 2005
Saturday was a big, huge day for attendance at the American Film Market. I had very little sleep because of the snoring symphony of John & Phil. Our hotel was on the beach in Venice, only a few miles from the AFM. Everyday was very nice out and great to walk on the beach sans shoes & socks. I called Brandy from the beach on my cell at sunset. I made it point to watch the sunset into the ocean everyday I was there.
As I lounged next to the pool, I head an all to familiar voice. It was
Damian Chapa of the CALLING (now called MAN OF FAITH) fame here in Columbus was at the AFM. He did not have a room or a booth but tried to peddle his flicks poolside instead.
Meanwhile John & Phil met John Gulager, director of FEAST and winner of this year’s PROJECT GREENLIGHT 3. One of my most favorite things was seeing the trailer for Feast and Dimension films proudly promotes “the first Project Greenlight movie not to suck!”.
I met with several Indie Clubbers and their movies represented, which was encouraging. My overall impression of AFM was that the very high end products & the very low end movies were the most sold this year. I think the market for $5,000 niche budget DV features were very high. They can be bought for a few hundred dollars up to $5,000. You won’t get rich or even quit your day job with one of these, but it can be profitable. I think the whole “microcinema” movement has validity after witnessing so many DV features sell for pennies to foreign markets because it had kung fu, tits, or some other minor hook, but still turn a profit. By contrast, Rambo IV was there to pre-sell it’s foreign markets to raise budget.
The middle ground is falling away. The 16mm features and the Jeff Fahey/Andrew Stevens/Christopher Lambert types who exist in the straight to video world are soon to be out of work, but that’s my opinion.
Sunday was a 13 hour day of airports, flight delays & being crammed in like sardines. Eventually I made it home & got to see my honey-baby. Sleeping in my own bed made for one night of hard sleep.
Now to finish the very last stages of post production…
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In other news of the Boo…
Movies ONline has put up an Interview with your faithful narrator. My favorite quote?"Writer/director/producer Peter John Ross recently took time out of his busy schedule to chat about life, favorite movies, and the upcoming film Horrors of War... and I gotta say he's one cool and hardworking guy." Thanks Daniel.
Richard Mason, a well respected acting teacher in Columbus added to his ACTING IN COLUMBUS site a list of the top 10 independent filmmakers for his actors to work with. I topped the list. I feel honored by this.
The Russians must dig the boo as HORRORS OF WAR is listed along with all A-list movies on this site.
=======RANT========
Above is the movie poster we used at AFM. Now I’m not 100appy with this, but we ran headlong into a deadline and had to use it.
This is another poster done by the same guys that I liked less, but after attending AFM felt was a much better concept for a “sales” poster. As Darlene Crysper told me – if you can see this image n an 8.5”x11” and be able to tell what kind of story it is, the genre, and something about the quality, then that’s what will work best to sell your movie to a buyer at a film market.
I wish I had listened to Phil Garrett and voted for this poster.
CLICK HERE for the spoilerific AFM trailer!
all posters here designed by SPACE JUNK MEDIA (www.spacejunkmedia.com)
=====END RANT======
Well, we’re at the tail end of HORRORS OF WAR. The final score music & sound mix are going on now. We have some FX work still in the mix, but it’s minor stuff like making eyes black within black and some other smudging (like removing Alec from a shot – literally).
Soon we’ll announce a Columbus screening for cast & crew. Next up – the ONLINE EDIT!
-Ross
-2005 - THE YEAR OF ROSS 2: The Erotic Witch Project
