Naturally Optimistic

So to add insult to injury...(sickness, no sleep, 0 in attendance at Friday's GR screening) we just found out today that neither film (WHITE MAN'S WORLD or JIMMY BLACK'S CADILLAC) were accepted into the Fargo Film Festival. *sigh* Our beloved Fargo - such a fun little festival. So many interesting films & people; great parties, relaxation, good wine. I was really really hoping to attend Fargo this year. A chance to take a few days for me (the last for quite a while I think). To immerse myself in film, to sleep in, to network, to be there as a "director" (that is if JBC had gotten in). But it wasn't meant to be. This comes on a particularly harsh day (see previous post, new pay cut starts this week, budget woes mount). I was looking forward to Fargo as well this year because my good buddy Rob Nilsson is showing his new film there. Suckity suck suck suck.

We watched the first 64 minutes of The Life of Riley yesterday. I must say I'm a little disappointed. There are so many things I wish I could've done differently if I had had my head screwed on right when we were shooting it. It's easy to say that now, a few months after the fact, but when it was happening I was under a lot of pressure for the usual (and unusual) sources and it was probably the most stressful, unpleasant things I've ever done. I think with some re-working, moving things around and cutting things that are dull & make it drag, it will be okay. There is really beautiful photography & some really great performances. Once we have the piece sound-designed & color corrected it will turn out a-okay. We're using a lot of really cool local music (& even some Martin Zellar music - finally!) which really adds to the piece. I'm excited for it to all be put together. Sometimes it's hard to see it as a whole when it's in pieces. As far ...

Check out the latest with White Man's World writer/director Jason Page here .

The festival is done, for us. We had a great turnout last night- we didn't sell out the house, but we were close. It was full of friends, family & complete strangers! It was very interesting to hear people's reactions through the film - where they laughed, where the gasped and where a few walked out. The Q&A was awesome. Jim Northrup really just nailed it and the audience, of course, loved him (he also introduced the film). The party afterward was also a great success. Lots of mingling and chatting. I got to see a lot of friends that I haven't seen in ages which was really great. I didn't have long enough to chat with EVERYONE which was frustrating and I felt a bit flighty as I jumped from convo to convo (sort of felt like I did at my wedding). THANK YOU to everyone who came out! The support was amazing and it really made it a great night. On to the next!

Just wanted to let you all know about our screening this weekend....a reminder, if you will.... WHITE MAN'S WORLD "World Premiere" Friday, April 24th 9:15pm St. Anthony Main Theater 115 Main Street - Minneapolis Party afterward at Pracna (right next door!) Here's what the press are saying: ‘Hilarious and irreverent, with a boon of quotable lines and scenes.’ -Christa Lawler, DNT ‘Page plays the perfect and effective, arrogant ignoramus.’ -Lana Leeper, The Reader ✭✭✭½ out of ✭✭✭✭ ‘A funny, vulgar and smart film about filmmaking.’ -Erik McClanahan, Vita.mn ‘Delightfully Offensive.’ -John Ervin, City Pages ‘Fearless.’ -Max Sparber, MNArtists.org It's not a film for everyone (ie: my mother) but we're getting great reviews and it would be awesome to pack the house! Hope to see you there!

Our little misfit movie White Man's World has been gaining traction in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Getting a lot of good reviews & press about the upcoming screening at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Int'l Film Festival. It's nice to get some validation outside of our little bubble that is Duluth. You can check out some of the articles here: CityPages Vita.Mn MNArtists.org Star Tribune Amazing to me is the fact that although we're getting such good press (and a slew of personal emails from reviewers, programmers, PR people, etc) I still feel so incredibly crappy when a friend of mine tells me that my mother is right and he 'hates' the film too (although he hasn't seen it - wtf?) and that I'd be worried about my name being attached to it. *sigh* It wasn't my favorite film to make. It was hard, I felt bad a lot of the time. It's not the project I'm proudest of...but isn't that okay? Isn't that what making art boils down to? Some hits,...

* My legs are so frickin' sore I can barely walk down the stairs or sit down on a chair. Ay yi yi. Apparently I NEVER ever use those muscles. Awesome. *We bought a SWEET new hi-def camcorder last night. It's been on our "list" since Dahlia was born and since we leave for vacation tomorrow & got a nice tax refund...it was time. It is TINY. I love it. I can't wait to take some video. *I'm on the last chapter of the last TWILIGHT book. I think I'm reading it really slowly because I don't want it to end. Argh! *We leave for Florida tomorrow! We're staying at my in-laws condo (where we honeymooned) with them. They are driving down and picking us up at the airport. It's a cheap vacay for us - we used frequent flyer miles for the flight, we aren't renting a car, we aren't paying for a place to stay...sweet! We plan on sitting at the beach, kayaking, sitting at the beach and more sitting at the beach. I hope Dahlia is a good flyer!!!!! I...

WHITE MAN'S WORLD (the film my mother calls "upsetting" - to say the least) has been chosen as an official selection of the 2009 Minneapolis-St. Paul Int'l Film Festival! Whohoo! I'll keep you posted on the screening details. The festival runs the last two weeks in April. Hope to see you there!

If you're in town, come and check us out and get your very own copy of WHITE MAN'S WORLD! Tonight! 5-8pm Red Star (in Fitgers) DVDs for sale - $20 (also pick up Newton's Disease & God Rocked!) Hope to see you there.

So we're trying to finish off this g.d. sound mix for WHITE MAN'S WORLD and it's becoming a real pain in my ass. The mix that we got for the premiere last week had some issues which Jason was able to 'Frankenstein" enough to work, but that's no good for the final product. Today we were at the designer's studio and we are STILL having issues. We're having weird things with the clips & audio not being in synch. And it's not a global problem so that makes it so much more frustrating and mind boggling, not to mention time consuming. We thought we were going to go up there today and just work on the actual sound issues - ie: levels, weird pans, etc. but no, we spent all day trying to get things lined up. ARGH. Then I took the "test" mix back to our office, loaded it on and about 2/3 of the film are in synch while the end IS NOT - WHAT THE HELL? So, I guess more work to be done tomorrow. IT's getting old. I really need to be finishing up...

We wrapped up our public screenings of WHITE MAN'S WORLD last night. It went really well. The audience numbers weren't GREAT but their reaction was. The first showing they took a while to warm up but then seemed to really enjoy it. I hope so as our investors were there. The 9 o'clock showing had a really great turnout (hi Mindy!) and they LOVED it from start to finish - at least by the sounds of the laughter. There were quite a few Native Americans in the audience at that show too and they seemed to really love it and get it. We didn't make money this weekend...so rarely do we make money...but it was good to get it out there, spread the word, sell a few dvds and wrap up a project. We're hoping to show it in Minneapolis sometime after the first of the year. It's just too hard in this "Holiday Season" to try to get anyone's attention. I'm looking forward to a mellower week...I get to start editing the film I directed! Whohooo!

Check out review #2 here . I still am having an art-hangover today though. I just can't shake this feeling. blech.

So the film is "out the door" so to speak. The reaction was pretty good - considering. I mean this film DOESN'T have the mass appeal that say...GOD ROCKED has (and that was even touchy for some people). This film is less accessible for many...it's more "art-f**ky" than anything we've done. It's an experiment of sorts...so with all of those caveats, I think the response was pretty good. Tonight & tomorrow night will be more of the true test. We'll see how the public handles it!

Technical issues aside...our first review came in today. You can read it here .

So after all that...and after Jason being back with the designer from early this morning til after noon today, it didn't work. The file is f'ed up. It synchs in places, but not in others. It's not a consistent amount of drift...it varies from clip to clip, scene to scene. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is because our original OMF that we handed off was f'd up and I can only think because it was somehow corrupt. Our press screening OMF had no problems but of course the one that really matters we've had nothing but problems with. So now there is more frantic running around like headless chickens as the countdown to the premiere ticks on...

Well, we didn't finish last night. We made a lot of progress and things are sounding good but there were some issues that took a long time to fix. I'm never doing this again. The next film is going to be DONE before we schedule an f'ing premiere. This is stupid and just too much stress. (the only reason we scheduled this premiere for now was because it was the only weekend open on the calendar, back in June!). So, we wrapped up around 1:30am or so. I was so tired...I was basically lying on the couch falling asleep. I'm totally useless in these design sessions because I don't have that strong of opinions about things I can't usually even hear. *sigh* which then just makes me feel more like a non-contributing loser. It's a vicious cycle really. Jason's over there finishing the sound design now. I'm here with Dahlia after about 3 hours of 'solid' sleep... I knew we'd never make it back over there by 9am this morning. I'm going to run som...

I'm off to work on the sound design for the film that we're premiering IN TWO DAYS. Yeah, nothing like doing things LAST F'ING MINUTE. That's the way we roll apparently at 4 Track Films. Ay yi yi. There were some issues so this just came up in the past couple hours and let me just stress my attitude of being TOTALLY THRILLED about staying up...all night? Hahahahaha. I usually don't make it past 9:30. I'm dreading this...it's also my very least favorite part of the process. Wheeeeee!

Last night the sleeping didn't go much better...a little but I gave into the bottle MUCH quicker now that I know it's the only thing that'll get her back to sleep. So, up for a half hour or so then, then she was crying again a couple hours later but she settled herself down pretty quickly. This morning Steve got up with her around...7 ? (I don't know...) and fed her then took her downstairs and I slept for another 45 minutes or so. That is HEAVEN. He doesn't realize this but those minutes are like precious GIFTS from heaven and score huge points. We went for a family hike this morning - although it was chilly Ms. Bundled Up did great and slept through most of the hike. It was cold and windy but on the trail in Chester we were nicely isolated from most of that and it wasn't too bad. This afternoon Dahlia played, I puttered around the house and Steve puttered around outside the house. We're still prepping the room for painting (so much patching, filling, sandi...

Forgive the colors of the postcard... 4 Track Films is sponsoring an art show - opening this Friday. ********************************** Step onto the set of 4 Track Films' new release WHITE MAN'S WORLD with candid black & white behind-the-scenes photography. Step back in time with traditional Anishinabeg beadwork. Join us for our opening reception this Friday, November 7 from 6-9pm at the Washington Galleries. Lyz Jaakola & Oshkii Giizhik Singers will be performing. If you can't make that, join us at our closing reception, Friday November 21st also from 6-9 for a reading by Jim Northrup. Washington Galleries: 315 N. Lake Ave, Duluth The gallery is also open Saturdays & Sundays, November 8-23rd from 1-5pm. And it's free!

Tonight we're screening the 1st rough cut of WHITE MAN'S WORLD. Eeek. Weren't we just doing this with GOD ROCKED? I'm anxious & trepidatious to see it....it's not an easy film to watch (although it is a comedy). It dances with racism and points out the absurdities in ignorance, art, relationships, etc. It is meant to push the envelope - and it does & will. We're also organizing an art show to coincide with our film premiere (Nov 14 & 15). It's called TWO WORLDS. Half of the gallery will exhibit "process" photos from Erin McConnell - b/w's documenting our filmmaking process on this endeavor. The other room will exhibit artwork by native artist Kurt Buffalo - he mostly does beadwork (incredible!) but does other things as well...We're going to *hopefully* have a native american musician perform on the opening night (still working on that) and a reading by author Jim Northrup on our closing night. All three artists also 'acted...