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!
I honestly wasn't planning on doing this blog thing regularly, but I've been getting a decent number of reads so I may just keep doing this for a while. Been getting quite a few reads from Germany. So, yeah, HI GERMANY! You guys behaving over there? =) That was probably offensive.
I am trying to get more "likes" to the Wingmen Incorporated Facebook page. As I type this we are up to 236. Would love to see us get up to 500 or 1000 by the time the film is ready next spring. So if you have yet to like the FB page I encourage you to take a moment and do so. It's the best way to keep in the loop with all things Wingmen Incorporated. Plus it will really help us get out of the gate running next spring when we launch. 1000 fans will help us grow much faster than 200. So please "like" and "share" the page. We'd really appreciate it.
We'll be posting a clip from the film on 1/1/13. I promise you it's a very funny clip. You don't want to miss it.
What else is going on?
As the year winds down I have to say this has been one of the best years in recent memory. Possibly ever.
1. Getting along really well with my father, I think it may be permanent this time.
2. Met a wonderful girl that I love very much
3. Made one of the best $5000 independent comedy films ever made (Fuck you. I did. I'm not ashamed to say so.)
4. Found out my ex fiancé got married this year and it didn't even phase me. That was a great sign. It's a good feeling when you get over things and stop hating people for what they did. I got really tired of being bitter all the time (although, I must admit, my comedy was razor sharp! Hopefully I don't lose that edge).
In closing, 2012 was the first year that hasn't sucked since 2008. So bring on 2013. I've got some ass to kick. Let's make it 2 great years in a row. Time to see what that feels like! (I usually have a good year and then 2-3 bad ones, definitely want that trend to stop).
On Saturday night I received a rough copy of Wingmen Incorporated from my partner Ken Gayton. He recently moved to LA and has been busy putting together a rough cut of the film. This is the first time I've seen the entire film (just a hair under 82 minutes, however, there's some credits still missing, and BUT we've trimmed a little fat here and there, so those two things might cancel each other out).
With each change that gets made I get more and more excited about how good this little $5000 (fan funded) film can be. I have never been this optimistic about any of my film projects. People are going to love this movie. I can just feel it.
We've started selecting some music to go in the film. There's going to be a lot of songs in this movie. Our characters spend a lot of time in local bars, so there's many scenes that will need music playing in the background. Plus, since it's a movie, there will be places that need scored.
Here's a couple pieces of music that we've already agreed on...
"The Best Product On The Market" - Chris Hodges - Very upbeat instrumental. I really liked this instrumental. Pitched it to Ken, but couldn't think of a place for it. Ken found the perfect place. But I can't tell you. =) (if you clicked the link play the "full length version".)
"Up and Go" - Tempero - This one is more rockin'. Pitched it to Ken, thought it would be good for the DVD main menu. He also found a spot for it in the film that I think fits perfectly. (I think we'll be using the "60 second version", so if you click the link, play that one)
Anyway, just wanted to give you all a taste of what we're doing. So far we've agreed on about 5 songs. We'll probably need another dozen or so. Lots of places for music in this film. Also been trimming some fat in some of the scenes to help the movie flow better. It's amazing how cutting one line can completely change a scene.
Still a lot of work to be done, but we are making some really nice progress.
We'll have a video for you soon, I was hoping to have it today for you, but it didn't happen. Should have it on New Year's. I promise it's worth the wait! It's an actual edited clip from the film (not bloopers or outtakes like we've been posting) I was practically in tears the first time I saw it from laughing so much. Can't wait to show it to you all!
We will be releasing the Wingmen Incorporated website, trailer, $1.99 downloads of the film (film only), and DVD's with loads of extras, all on the same day. We're going to hit everyone with everything we've got from Day 1. The reason our downloads will be so cheap is because we're hoping that people will take a chance on downloading the film, love it, and want to buy the DVD with all the extras. We will be doing our "drunken commentary" again. As well as loads of outtakes & bloopers. We had A LOT of fun on set. There was a lot of improv, bloopers, and outtakes. Not sure what else will be on the DVD's. Definitely will have the trailers to our first two films (The Truth About Average Guys & S.O.L.)
Another part of the reason we want to do this all at once is because we feel that if we come out with a trailer too soon people may forget about us. We want to be available to people the second they see our trailer. We don't want them to have to remember us 2 months later.
We're hoping to do this in April or May (at the latest).
Once the film is done, we'll be submitting to film festivals all over the country. Starting with Sundance. We've gotten some advice as to when the best time to submit to a festival is. Lots of little things you can do to increase your chances of getting in. The odds will still be stacked against us in regards to getting into Sundance. After all, they receive over 10,000 submissions a year and only screen about 200 films. Half of which are shorts. So we'll see how it goes.
But all is not lost if we don't get into Sundance 2014. Sure, that would make things a heck of a lot easier, but we are not failures if we don't get in. We will be submitting to a lot of local and regional festivals. I've got the Midwest covered. Ken has LA & the west coast covered. We're researching festivals on Withoutabox.com (a film festival search site) right now. Looking for anything with a comedy category or great networking opportunities.
One of the festivals I'm most excited about is the Phoenix Film Festival. It's a pretty big festival that S.O.L. almost got into. They sent us the nicest rejection letter we've ever received. They said they really liked the film but it didn't fit with the rest of the program. They invited us to resubmit the film FOR FREE at the early bird deadline to the following year's festival. I took that as they wanted us to be first in line so they could program films around us. Instead of trying to cram us in with films that are nothing like ours. Of course we forgot to resubmit S.O.L. Oops. But we will be sending them Wingmen Incorporated at the early bird deadline in 2013 for the 2014 festival. I like our chances.
Here's a few other festivals that we're looking forward to in 2014...
Trail Dance Film Festival (Duncan, OK): This was the very first film festival that we submitted to back in the fall of 2008. It was also the very first festival that we got accepted into. And the first festival that The Truth About Average Guys won an award at (actually, at the January 2009 festival we took home 3 awards: "Best Comedy", "Best Actress", and "Best of Festival") In January of 2011 our 2nd film, S.O.L., took home the "Viewer's Choice" award. So been there twice & have won 4 awards. If Wingmen Incorporated is fortunate enough to get accepted, we hope to add to that total in January of 2014.
East Lansing Film Festival (East Lansing, MI): This was the 2nd festival we ever got into. They paid for our hotel room while we were there, so we kinda figured that we had won something. We did. We won "Best Feature". We will be submitting to the November 2014 festival. (could have been ready for the November 2013 festival, however, we are saving our "World Premier" for Sundance, so that's pushing everything back some.
Cedar Rapids Film Festival (Cedar Rapids, IA): Since I was born in Iowa (Clinton), we are eligible to submit to this festival. In 2011 we won "Best Feature" for our film The Truth About Average Guys. We will be submitting to the April 2014 festival. As I recall, there were some very entertaining films at this festival. And since it's only 90 minutes from me, I won't go broke trying to get there.
There's tons more, but for the life of me I can't remember them right now.
I will also be putting on a fundraising screening on in Clinton, IA in April or May to help pay for film festival submissions & film festival travel expenses. Ken will be putting on a screening in Chicago for the cast/crew/family/friends/public some time before that.
Anyway, that's the plan going forward! Feel free to check out Wingmen Incorporated's IMDB page by clicking here. There's all sorts of trivia, movie connections, and cast info on the page.
Was going to start my Christmas shopping today, but we're in the middle of a blizzard right now. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.
I've had several people asking me how post production for my upcoming feature, Wingmen Incorporated, is going. So I thought I would make take a moment and bring everyone up to speed.
This is straight from the horse's mouth: Wingmen Incorporated co-writer, co-director, co-star and editor Ken Gayton (some of it is also from my mouth as well). This is basically a combination of Ken's thoughts as well as my own. But since I'm telling the story I'll change some of the "I's" to he's" when referring to Ken.
After all the sound files are renamed, we'll need to sync all the sound files. Which Ken has been doing already. After the clips are labeled and sync'd .
Then he'll send me a DVD of the movie. We can tweak it and fine tune it. Once
it's at a picture lock then we can send off the film to get sound
corrected.
While that's happening we can decide on music. Where it needs
to go and what parts need it. We'll need to decide which parts need songs (from bands) and which parts just need scored (just music). Can use Shockwave.com again as they have an entire library of great music to use that is very affordable. Also, since we've been contacted by several musicians that score films, it might be a good idea to check some of them out as well.
We also need to find
someone to do special effects in the movie. The bullet shots are the main
thing. Ken is going to try and learn how to do that on his own, but it's pretty
tricky. Although he thinks he may have found some good videos though so hopefully he'll be able to do it.
Once the sound correction is all done which entails evening the
levels, putting filters on scenes, sound effects, etc. We'll know what scenes
need to have ADR. Then we'll have to do ADR. Ken will fly back to Chicago for a week to
do that and schedule it with whoever needs to come in. We're going to do it
differently than we've done it in the past. We're going to do it on
site and not in a studio because in a studio it feels too forced and sounds
unrealistic. Which I totally agree with. I've done ADR before and it felt like a total waste. It was hard to replicate the performance 6 month later in a studio. (for those of you that don't know, ADR means "Automated Dialogue Replacement" and/or "Additional Dialogue Recording". Basically means the dialogue from the original recording on set wasn't quite good enough and we need to go into a studio and re-record the dialogue. There is a clip of the scene playing on the monitor. You can hear the audio from the scene in your headphones and you have to try to say the line EXACTLY how you did it on set. Same tone, same performance. It sucks. I hate doing ADR.)
Once the ADR is done, we put in the music that we decided
upon. and we'll set up a screening for the cast, crew, family, etc. Not sure
how that's going to work because Ken will have just been out in Chicago and it would be very expensive to have him come out here twice in a short period of time. But we'll figure something out.
So we don't know for sure if we'll be done by April 1st as some of this is out of our control, like sound correction for example. However, it should be no later than May. It will still be in time to submit to the Sundance Early Bird Deadline, which is the goal.
Here is a list of the Top 10 Movies I saw this year. This does not necessarily mean that the film came out in 2012. Just that I saw it for the first time in the year 2012.
10. Bridesmaids (2011) - I put off watching this for a long LONG time b/c I figured this would be just lame ass jokes about vaginas and about how men are stupid. But it was extremely funny and lived up to the hype. It was like a guy movie made by women. Kristen Wiig is the funniest woman in Hollywood right now. Melissa McCarthy is also great in the film. If you have Netflix, I suggest checking out SNL from when she hosted a couple years ago.
9. Inception (2010) - I was a little late for the party on this one too. Always thought it looked interesting, but just kinda forgot about it. Then one day I saw it for $5 at Walmart and picked up a copy. Very entertaining film. Lots of layers to it. Kept my attention from start to finish.
8. Source Code (2011) - Thought the premise sounded cool. Wasn't sure how I was going to like seeing the same scene being lived over and over, but the way they did it was really interesting. Every so often I'll get in the mood to see a non-comedy. This is definitely a good film to watch if you want a break from comedies.
7. That's My Boy (2012) - I had really low expectations for this film. Sandler has been hit or miss with me lately (mostly miss). Grown Ups, Jack & Jill, Just Go With It, and Don't Mess with the Zohan were all terrible films. So because of Sandler's recent track record I was a little hesitant about this film. But much to my surprise it was actually pretty damn funny. Sandler's accent is pretty annoying, but the laughs more than make up for that. Some pretty funny cameos in here as well.
6. Cabin in the Woods (2011) - I rented this b/c I was told that it was more of a comedy than a horror film. While I don't necessarily agree with that, I did enjoy the story very much. It had several funny parts, but for the most part it was a horror movie. Very interesting premise (a couple of plot holes, but what movie doesn't have at least one of those?).
5. Wingmen Incorporated: rough cut (2013) - Yeah, my own movie is on here. Sue me. (Wait!Don't! If you can sue McDonalds for making you fat then maybe you can sue me for having my own film on the list!). All kidding aside, I couldn't think of 10 movies that I saw this year that I loved. And I absolutely cannot wait to watch the final cut in a darkened theater packed with strangers. I think people are really going to enjoy this film. It's a really good sign when the rough cut of your new film is already as good or better than the final cuts of your previous work.
4 & 3 The Dark Knight (2008) & The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - I'm lumping these together since they are part of the same franchise. I actually saw TDKR first. Then had to go back and watch TDK for the first time. I completely understand why these movies are so popular. For the longest time I just had no interest in the Batman franchise, however, now I think they are amazing films. Heath Ledger was incredible as The Joker. For the longest time I thought he was just getting all that praise because of his tragic death, but in my opinion all that praise is well deserved.
2. Ted (2012) - From the trailer you know exactly what this film is going to be. And I was not disappointed at all. With the exception of Team America: World Police (2004), I have never been in a theater that had so much laughter throughout a film. I think I'm getting this for Christmas from either my sister or my mom and cannot wait to watch it again. I have a feeling I missed a lot of jokes b/c of all the laughter in the theater the last time I saw it.
1. Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil (2010) - As you can see, this movie has been out for a while. I had seen it on the shelves at my local Family Video store for several months. Picked it up a few times, but thought it sounded stupid. You never know what you are getting into with indie films. Some are amazing. Some are awful. When this film had gotten moved to the "$1 Nearly New" section I decided that it was worth the risk. I went home and popped it in and was completely blown away at how funny this movie was. In fact, I loved it so much that when I took the DVD back to Family Video I ended up buying the copy that I rented.
So yeah, this is probably the most unconventional "Best Movies I saw in 2012" list out there since only a couple of them actually came out in 2012. But these are movies I saw for the first time in 2012.
In closing, I would like to thank all the people that read my first blog. I honestly just wrote it on a whim, but saw nearly 100 people had read it. So because of that I decided to write a few more.
It's been an interesting year. When I think back to where I was 340+ days ago (or however many days ago 1/1/12 was), I can't help but feel a little bit blessed.
So what did I accomplish this year?
Am I famous yet? No. But I did some things this year that will get me much MUCH closer to that.
So let's see...
January 2012 - I released a sketch comedy show online called 10 Minute Abs. It got over 12,000 views in the first few weeks. I was surprised at how well it caught on. I was planning on doing a show every month, but it was just such a huge pain in the ass to write all the sketches, get everything organized. I didn't like driving out to Chicago in the middle of winter to do this, so I put the show on hiatus until the spring of 2012. But then I got sidetracked with my upcoming feature comedy Wingmen Incorporated.I will be starting 10 Minute Abs up again at some point in 2013, just not sure when yet. I think it can gain quite a following if I stick with it for a half dozen episodes or so.
February 2012 - Got an email from my filmmaking partner, Ken Gayton, that changed the rest of my year (and possibly my life). He had been talking about moving out to LA for some time, but hadn't been able to go yet. He sent me an email and said "since the powers that be" were going to be keeping his ass in Chicago for a while longer he wanted to shoot another feature. We decided on Wingmen Incorporated.
March 2012 - My father almost died. He was off from work because he had a fracture in his foot.
One night he had severe chest pains and my mother had to rush him to the ER. He had multiple blood clots in his heart and lungs. Fortunately this happened in the middle of the night when my mother was home. If it had happened during the day while she was at work, he may not have survived. I visited him every day while he was in the hospital. We talked more in those 5 days than we had in the past 10 years. He apologized for the way he treated me when I was a kid. I accepted. It's 8 months later and we're still getting along just fine.
April - May 2012 - We started a fundraiser for Wingmen Incorporated. Fans of our previous two films (The Truth About Average Guys & S.O.L.) donated more than $5000 to the film. That made us feel really good. We had people all over the globe donate. Donations came in from as far away as Germany, England and Australia. We had one person give us $650, and half dozen people give us $500. It was a very cool experience to see that all these people enjoyed our work enough to send us $$$ so that we can keep making movies.
End of June - early August 2012 - For the first time since my engagement was called off, in April of 2009, I was in an actual relationship. I had dated a lot of girls in that time, but was never "official" with any of them. It was nice to get that monkey off my back and have a girlfriend again. The relationship wasn't all that great. The girl was pretty, smart, and nice. But she felt more like a friend. So I was looking for a way to end it halfway through it. One night she was being a little shady on Facebook, so I saw my opportunity. She took it very well. Actually, too well, lol. Which was proof that I did the right thing by ending it. I'm not sure what was really going on behind my back, but it didn't matter. We weren't right for each other. But it was nice to have a girlfriend b/c I got so sick of my last girlfriend being my ex fiancé.
June - September 2012 - Filmed Wingmen Incorporated. It was a pretty fun experience. We had a very talented cast. The Wingmen (Matt, Josh, Heath, Andrew, Greg, Jeff) were all a pleasure to work with. We had a lot of laughs on set. We couldn't have asked for a better cast of Wingmen. The days were long, but they were never short on laughs. This movie is going to surprise the hell out of people. It's that funny!
November 2012 - In early November I met a girl named Kate. We clicked immediately and became exclusive almost right off the bat. She lives in Chicago, but comes to see me every weekend. I'm not used to the girl coming to see me. I usually have to do 99% of the driving. Luckily for me she really likes coming out here. She is a small town girl (despite living in Chicago). So she loves how stress free it is out here. In fact, she loves it so much (and me) that she is planning on moving out here in May.
December 2012 - It's only the 9th. I may have started this "year in review" blog a little bit too early. But so far so good in December. Wingmen Incorporated is currently being edited. Ken did end up moving to LA. But he's out there editing away. I like a lot of what I've seen so far. The film should be ready in the Spring of 2013. We're hoping around the 1st of April (no foolin'!)
7 things to look forward to in 2013.....
1. Kate moving out in here in May.
2. Wingmen Incorporated being done in April.
3. Starting a new screenplay and writing it with Kate (who just so happens to be an English Major)
4. Writing and shooting more episodes of 10 Minute Abs.
5. Buying my own film equipment (camera & sound, so I can shoot closer to home)
6. Submitting Wingmen Incorporated to film festivals (Sundance, Toronto, SXSW, Phoenix, Trail Dance, East Lansing, Austin, Las Vegas, and a few dozen more! I want this thing playing EVERYWHERE!!!)
7. Just relaxing and not being so pissed off anymore. Life is finally good again. About fucking time.
