I am very pleased to announce that Wingmen Incorporated has been accepted into the 2013 Film-Com Financing & Distribution Market's New Project Expo! It takes place in Nashville, TN in mid April. This will be our 2nd time at the event. In 2011 we were selected to pitch The Truth About Average Guys & S.O.L.
So what is Film-Com you ask? (just fucking ask it so I don't feel like a jackass). I'm glad you asked! It's a film and distribution market that puts filmmakers in direct contact with studio execs we wouldn't normally have access to.
Partied on the top floor!
Past attendees include....Michael Uslan - Executive Producer of the Batman movies (yes, all the Batman movies, including the recent Dark Knight trilogy). Virgin (they did the movie Limitless, we actually met with them for about a half hour last time we were down there), FOX has some TV & Film people down there, as does CBS. Many more. Seems to be growing every year.
See? Party, top floor. You can trust me.
Our pitch (in 2011) went really well, and we had a blast partying with all the industry folk. One guy from FOX even said to us "You guys have 'it'. I have no idea why you aren't working on the 3rd floor at Paramount right now." (that was nice of him to say, but it's not like you can go up to the front gate at Paramount and say "Some guy from FOX said we had 'it', can you please let us in and show us to our offices on the 3rd floor?")
The hotel we stayed at.
All in all it's a great opportunity for Wingmen Incorporated to go down there and hopefully sell the movie or get some sort of distribution deal where we don't have to sell our souls (and get nothing in return). Or find someone that can get us on Netflix Instant Watch. The Truth About Average Guys was on Netflix Instant Watch for 1 year (3/9/10 through 3/9/11) and we were rated nearly 30,000 times. So I don't know how many people watched it, just that about 30k watched it and rated the film (2.4 out of 5 star scale, most people loved it or thought it was the worst movie ever made, they were both right!) I think if Wingmen Incorporated were on there it would have no trouble finding an audience.
2nd floor balcony of the hotel.
So things are about to get crazy. Submitting to our first two festivals very soon (they take place in April). Releasing everything on March 1st (website, trailer, film). And going to Nashville in mid-April to meet with some studio execs. Right out of the gate we have the opportunity for something big to happen. Would be nice if something in my life were finally easy. I don't want to sound like a whiner, b/c I know my life hasn't been as bad as some people's, but there seems to be a lot of things that happen to me where I'm left thinking "Well, that was unnecessary" Or "Does that happen to everyone or just me?"
Here's where we stand at the moment. Ken is putting the finishing touches on the final cut of the movie. Still trying to finalize the music before we submit to our first two film festivals (LA Comedy Festival, and Cedar Rapids). Both festivals are in April, so time is ticking on submitting. I have until February 8th to submit to Cedar Rapids. Not sure what the deadline is for LA Comedy, but Ken has that one covered since it's in his neck of the woods.
While he's been chugging away on the final cut, I have been working on the Wingmen Incorporated website. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon this site called Bandzoogle.com. It's a website design & hosting site that is mainly for bands, but some independent filmmakers use it as well. I really love how easy it is to use as well as how professional it looks. I also love all the little extra features they let you have. They let you have a mailing list signup & give you free newsletter templates. So there may be a Wingmen Incorporated newsletter (if we feel like it & there is a demand for it).
Another feature I really like is the ability to do a podcast. I've always wanted to do one (well not always, b/c in 1985 I didn't want to do one mainly b/c they didn't exist yet, but always as in ever since 2011 when I was a guest on a local podcast called AudioRod). So that is definitely something I would be interested in doing. Would need to buy some equipment to do that, but I'm fine with that. Bandzoogle also keeps track of your website stats so we can know how many visitors we have as well as what city, state, and country they are from. There will also be a forum on the site where people can discuss the films or ask us any questions they may have about low/no budget filmmaking.
We'll also be working on the trailer in the not too distant future, as well as getting some screeners out to a few critics so hopefully we'll have some glowing reviews and some pretty sweet quotes to put in the trailer & on the DVD cover.
Can't wait for March 1st! I think this little indie comedy is going to open a lot of doors for us.
Well, after talking it over with my partner, we've decided that we're going to release our upcoming film, Wingmen
Incorporated, a little earlier. We feel it's in our best interest to have our film out there well before the bigger budgeted film with a similar title. We were planning on sometime in May, however, now it's looking like March 1st (if all goes well). And it should go well. So yeah, March 1st, 2013 we will (most likely) be launching the following....
The Wingmen Incorporated Trailer
The Wingmen Incorporated Website
Selling Downloads of the movie for $2.99 (film only)
Selling DVD's of the film with extras for $10.99
The Website will also include DVD's and Downloads of our 2nd film, S.O.L.. I don't have the pricing info on the S.O.L. stuff yet.
Our debut film, the multi-award winning comedy, The Truth About Average Guys, will become available on DVD and Download on March 10th, 2013. The reason for that is that is when our distribution deal is up, and trust me when I say "WE HAVE NO FUCKING INTENTION OF RESIGNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" You may have noticed the CAPS. And the swear word. And the 17 exclamation points (don't count them, it ruins the joke). We weren't big fans of what our deal ended up being (no money for us, but a lot of money for people that weren't us). That was the exact opposite of how we were hoping it would go. Anyway, the full rights to the film come back to us on March 10th, 2013. Which is why there is a short delay in that being available on our website. But from March 1-9th people will be able to enjoy Wingmen Incorporated and S.O.L. And if they don't think we're awful after that, they can check out our debut film and see how much better we've gotten.
We're in the process of finalizing what songs are in the movie. Been having a lot of trouble finding music for this one. Found several songs on shockwave.com. So that got us started off really well. But as for finding songs from bands, that's been really difficult to find songs that we can use that fit our scenes. We need 2-3 more songs from bands that would be featured in the film (meaning, they aren't background noise, but actually heavily featured in the scenes).
Now that we are moving everything up several months, that also means we'll be starting the film festival submission process several months earlier as well. We were going plan our entire strategy around Sundance 2014, but now we are not. The first two festivals we'll be submitting to are the LA Comedy Festival and the Cedar Rapids Film Festival. Both festivals are in April. If we got into both that would be a very good start to the film festival circuit.
Been getting a lot of reads from all over the world. Very cool. Not sure how you are all finding me, but I'm glad I've kept your attention for 8 blogs. I can't wait for you all to see the new film.
As of 1/1/13 I have officially started a new screenplay. It's been a long time since I started a new one. I co-wrote Wingmen Incorporated but that story wasn't my idea. In 2009 I did start a comedy called Welcome To The Family, but that beginning ended up being used in Wingmen Incorporated. So that one never got finished (and probably won't be). I may take some of those scenes and put them in my newest screenplay, which is tentatively called I Don't Recall.
I'm not sure how much of the plot I should give away, but the script involves my character getting into an accident and faking amnesia. When my girlfriend (Kate) moves out here in the spring we'll get crankin' on the script. In the meantime I just wanted to start writing a few scenes here and there so we wouldn't have to start from scratch once she gets here. I'm really anxious to see where the story takes us. It has the potential to be very funny. I've let a few people read the scene I've written and the responses have been all very positive. I like where it's heading.
In other news, Ken and I recently found out that there is a film coming out (with a much larger budget) called Wingman INC. While it's not exactly the same title as Wingmen Incorporated, it's still a little too close for comfort. We have no intention of changing our title. So we are discussing our best plan of action. The last thing we want is to miss out on some film festivals because they don't want to accept two films with similar titles. Their film does have some "name" talent (I put "name" in quotes because while some of their actors have done well known film and TV projects, they weren't the stars and aren't really all that well known) but that will still help them get into film festivals b/c festivals get huge boners for "name" talent. So we may cut a few corners so we can get it out there sooner. Nothing major. The main thing is we may not wait until 2014 to start film festival run. May start submitting to festivals immediately and hopefully start getting into some later in the spring/summer of 2013. To do this we may have to skip some "minor post production stuff" (that most non-filmmakers won't really notice or care about) in order to get it out there several months sooner.
So our festival run may start this summer as opposed to next January. This is actually what I wanted to do in the first place even before the film with the much bigger budget and similar title got on our "radar". I just didn't want to push everything back for Sundance. Don't get me wrong! It would make my LIFE to get accepted. I just didn't like our odds and didn't feel the time spent waiting would be worth it (meaning, I didn't think we'd get in. Don't get me wrong again.... I think Wingmen Incorporated is worthy of getting into Sundance, I just don't trust their selection process enough to warrant pushing everything back several months to save our "premier status" for them.)
If we decide quickly on what we're doing it's possible our festival run could start in April at the Cedar Rapids Film Festival. My first film, The Truth About Average Guys, won best Pro-Am Feature there in 2011. Their early bird deadline is January 25th. Their late deadline is February 8th. So it's possible that could start our festival run. Since I was born in Iowa that makes us eligible to submit as filmmakers need an "Iowa Connection".
So at the moment, I'm not sure if Wingmen Incorporated (not to be confused with Wingman INC) will be released in May like previously discussed or much sooner. After Ken and I discuss this more we'll decide on the proper course of action. I think we both are leaning towards putting it out sooner, but we'll see!
As 2013 gets started, I can't help but think that the 730 days leading up to December 31st, 2014 will have a bigger impact on my life than any other 2 year stretch during my lifetime. In those 730 days anything can happen. Anything from "Nothing to Everything, and anything in between". Does that even make sense? I like to think it does. Let me explain....
I tend to view things in 2 year increments. The beginning of one year all the way up to the end of the following year (hence the 730 days, except if there is a leap year involved, then it's 731 days). I started doing this in 2009 after my engagement was called off. On 12/31/10 I just couldn't stop thinking about how 730 days ago I was incredibly happy and how quickly my life went to shit because of someone else's stupid decision (*the stupid decision was leaving me for a co-worker that had a girlfriend that he liked to cheat on, in case you were wondering, that little "fling" was over before I was even unpacked. It still amazes me that a thing that lasted 21 days tops could have such a huge impact on the rest of my life*). So there's your brief history lesson on why the whole 730 days thing strikes such a chord with me.
Anyway, 2013-14 has the chance to be life changing. In the first 5-6 months alone I will have my new film, Wingmen Incorporated, finished & my lovely girlfriend (Kate), will be moving from Chicago to Fulton (wtf? really?) to be with me. I've never had a girl move for me before. I've moved twice in my life to be with girls (11/02/03 to Orlando, FL, and 11/02/07 to Rockford, IL). Both ended up being huge mistakes that cost me dearly. Maybe 11/2 is my unlucky moving date? Or maybe it had nothing to do with the date, but more to do with the type of girl I moved for? Just to be safe I won't move on 11/2 ever again. I won't move for whores anymore either.
Once Kate gets here I'll be saving quite a bit of money on rent and utilities. Plus by May my car will be paid off + changing my insurance to liability will save some $$$ also. All in all, I'll be saving almost $800 a month by having her here. Plus she's awesome. Our personalities really mesh well together. We can have a blast just doing nothing. Never had that before. Would not be shocked at all if I were at the very least engaged by the time the 730 days are up. My parents recently met her and really like her. My dad even said he wouldn't mind having her for a daughter-in-law. He's never said that about any of the girls I've dated before (even my ex fiancé). Will also be good for my diet. I have this habbit of getting down to 205, getting frustrated about something that has nothing to do with my diet, then going back up to 230 (which is where I'm at now). Once she gets out here I won't be so bored + she's a bit of a health nut so I should be more active and be eating much better. I hope to get down to 175-180 well before the end of the 730 days.
The money saved by having a hot "roommate" will be going towards my own film equipment (a decent camera, editing equipment/software, and possibly some sound equipment). It sucks wanting to film things but having to plan a whole weekend around it by driving out to Chicago, having people available, ect... Would love to be able to start doing my own stuff out here. I have tons of little sketches written that I would be able to film out this way. Am looking forward to starting 10 Minute Abs back up again now that I have more free time. I might also shoot a short film I wrote back in the summer of 2011 called No Regrets. I've never done a short before. I've also never done a drama/thriller before either. It's definitely something I want to try just to see if I have the chops.
Also, in or around May, I'll be having a fundraising screening in Clinton, IA. for Wingmen Incorporated. I'll be going all out for this. Buying radio-spots to help advertise, articles in the local paper & buying ad space as well. My goal is to pack the 250 seat theater. In January of 2011 I had about 100 people come out to a fundraising screening of my film, S.O.L., on a Wednesday night in the middle of January. So I'm hoping with a little advertising and better weather, this thing will be a huge success. *crosses fingers*
The rest of 2013 will be spent researching and submitting to film festivals across the country for the 2014 Film Festival Season that starts in January with Sundance & one of our personal favorites, the Trail Dance Film Festival (Duncan, OK). We're saving our "World Premier" for Sundance. Of course, there is no lock that we'll get in b/c they get over 10,000 submissions a year. But, we'll see. You never know, the right people might think we're hilarious and want to "discover" us. So we'll see how it goes. Sundance's early bird deadline is in April/May of 2013. Perfect timing b/c that's when our film should be done. All money made from my Clinton screening will be going towards film festivals submission fees & travel expenses. Film submission fees really add up quickly. But once you get accepted, that's when things start to get pricey. Plane tickets, gas, hotel rooms, food, ect... It adds up in a hurry.
Will be releasing the film, website, trailer, downloads (film only), DVD's with special features, when the film is completed. Launching everything on the same day. I'm excited to see how many people download the film & tell their friends about the film. Downloads will be $2.99. Not because the movie is shitty, but because we want people to try it. Hopefully if they enjoy the film they will buy the DVD with all the special features. "Drunken Commentary" with myself and Ken Gayton. Loads of outtakes AND bloopers and whatever else we can cram on there! I'm just really curious/excited to see how the word of mouth on this film goes.
Will also be starting a new screenplay in 2013. So I'm very excited about that. Been a while since I started a new one from scratch, let's hope I remember how! I really like the premise. Can't disclose too much, but it involves amnesia. Not sure if it's going to be a full out comedy, or a more relaxed comedy, or a dramady. We'll see where the story takes us (Kate is writing it with me, it's awesome having an English Major for a girlfriend) =)
2014 is when it could get amazing....
For example, starting off the year having our world premier at Sundance. That all by itself could be life changing from a career standpoint. Wouldn't even be 25 days into the 2nd half of the 730 days and we could have already sold the film for major $$$. But like I said, if we don't get in, it's not the end of the world. We'll hopefully get into plenty of other festivals that could do some nice things for us. Should know by late October/early November 2013 if we are going to Park City, UT in January of 2014. I know the film is good and that people will really enjoy it. I just hope someone important feels the same way. *crosses fingers*
Anyway, as promised, here is a clip from my new film Wingmen Incorporated. Enjoy! If the clip made you smile, all we ask is that you "like" us on Facebook and "share" the video. We're not a big budget film. Word of mouth is one of the few ways we can compete against the big boys. So please like us and share us as much as possible.
Happy New Year! I hope everyone's next 730 days go as well as hopefully mine do!
