Happiness, Sadness, and other assorted emotions

I got my first Official Rejection yesterday for ACCIDENTAL ART. SXSW, my most coveted festival in this run turned the short down. Realistically, it was a long shot. I’m not surprised, nor depressed, but I am disappointed. I had 2-3 hours of a bummer, but then the Beverly Hills Shorts Film Festival accepted the movie, so that eased the blow entirely. There are a few dozen more festivals I’m awaiting the answer to. I’m not worried at all. I feel great, actually.



I’m going to go out to LA for this screening. I will try to work this to make this significant in more than one way. It’s the technical “World Premiere”. Cast & Crew and Work-In-Progress screenings don’t count. They say that the Word Premiere is very important, so I don’t mind my losing the cherry to Daniel’s fest, as it’s got a great reputation and the location couldn’t be better.

The goal is to parlay this into something beyond just screening. I have plans and goals to be met and I have barely a month to pull it off. We’ll see if I can, as I am an optimist, but there are no guarantees. The point is to keep your chin up, take the blows, and keep on trucking through.

I hold in my hands today, 3 copies of ZOMBIES OF WAR, the UK version of HORRORS OF WAR. I like the collection of DVD’s for this movie as it’s still something to be proud of. No, the movie is far from perfect, but if all you do is wallow in the negative, you will have done all that work for nothing. Be proud of your movies because they are as children; be proud of them no matter what. No one can really insult the movie or point out something wrong with it that I haven’t already seen, so there’s no insult in opinions.



Now the odd thing is the DVD box art clearly says there is the Commentary Track, Visual FX Demo, Behind the Scenes Documentary, and 5.1 Surround. None of these things are on the DVD. Sadly, I provided all these things for distribution, but they did not add them to the disc. What bums me is that buyers in England are blaming us, the filmmakers for the deception. We very obviously have nothing to do with that.

I did get an email from someone in London who said that at the HMV shop in Piccadilly Circus, ZOMBIES OF WAR was ranked 19th Best Seller for the week. That’s a great ranking considering we’re going toe to toe with big named DVD releases. Looking today, they are sold out of ZOMBIES OF WAR at HMV.COM and AMAZON.CO.UK, so that’s a good sign.

My past and future have merged in a single day.

Toodle,
PJR

Oligarchy in the UK

And the past comes back to haunt me again. HORRORS OF WAR, my first feature film to the uninitiated, has just been released in the UK on DVD as ZOMBIES OF WAR. I sure wish someone had told me. I’m only the co-director, producer, co-editor, and co-writer of the movie. It's always a surreal experience when your movie comes out in the UK and no one thought to tell the producers, directors, or anyone involved...

Also, yet again I cannot stress to them that the blue cover with armies of zombies looks cool, but is horribly wrong for our movie. The old way of getting their money for the rental and laughing to the bank doesn't work in the information age of the Internet. Every new UK review says they feel ripped off by the cover, thus letting people know, not endearing the public towards the movie, and creating bad buzz. That’s not good business by my definition. It’s a low budget B-Movie with the Grindhouse feel. If they marketed as such, we’d be targeting the right audience AND not alienating buyers.

Changing the name to "ZOMBIES OF WAR" makes sense. They are cashing in on ZOMBIELAND, etc. and the zombie film movement, even though it is more of what Quentin Tarantino referred to as the Italian filmmaking "Infected People" syndrome, not zombies as he so eloquently describes in the Japanese DVD extras for GRINDHOUSE (thanks McGraner!).

I am not thrilled, but at least it's out in another country! Getting the movie out there is always a good thing. Oh well, yet another DVD version of my movie for my collection. I have 3 copies coming from England already. I keep one sealed, one to open, and one to give away.