jumping off bridges - NEW YORK THIS WEEKEND

New York, 11/3 and 11/4
Friday and Saturday, November 3rd and 4th
7:00pm
Pioneer Theater - East 3rd St (Between Avenue A & B)
Tickets are $9.00
Filmmakers in Attendance
Advanced Tickets available: http://www.twoboots.com/pioneer/
For more information: http://www.jumpingoffbridges.com
Tickets are already selling!

Los Angeles, 11/12
Sunday, November 12th
12:30pm
Fine Arts Theater - 8556 Wilshire Blvd
Tickets are $7.00
Filmmakers in Attendance
Advanced Tickets available: https://www.readyticket.net/webticket/webticket2.asp?WCI=BuyTicket&WCE=JUMPING+OFF+BRIDGES,111220061230,1,36277,
Tickets are already selling!

Washington DC, 11/15
Wednesday, November 15th
7:00pm
AFI Silver - 8633 Colesville Road
Tickets are FREE
Filmmakers in Attendance



"Truly wonderful work"
--Filmmaker Magazine

"Touching, funny and sobering ... jumping off bridges should launch Candler into the big time"
--Filmthreat

"The performances Candler elicits from a mostly teen, mostly local cast are knockouts!"
--Albuquerque Tribune

"Sensitively handled and refreshingly naturalistic"
--The Florida Times Union

"Candler demonstrated a deep understanding of teen anxiety, angst and alienation. An emotional, smart movie."
--Moving Pictures Magazine

"Understated 'Bridges' perfectly captures teens' lives."
--The Tallahassee Democrat

"As realistic a narrative portrait of love, death, and human debris as anything you're ever likely to see onscreen."
--The Austin Chronicle

"Kat Candler's moving Austin-made teen drama has enjoyed sold-out crowds and raves."
--Austin American-Statesman

"Don't be swayed by famous (or even semi-famous) names during the (SXSW) film festival. I had better luck with Austin Director Kat Candler's moving jumping off bridge."
--American Way Magazine

"Candler's ability to take some of the darkest and most jagged truths about fear, regret, sadness, loss, suffering and pain and break them open for her audience to experience in ways that are both optimistic and honest makes her one of the most important and promising young filmmakers on the cinematic landscape."
--Filethirteen,com

"Candler is very much in touch with a particular sort of teenaged sensibility. She knows the difference between sadness and the petulance it is often mistaken for, and she treats her sullen girls and boys with the sort of patience and understanding their parents (and, perhaps, some audience members) can never quite muster."
--Ain't It Cool News.com

"jumping off bridges is a wonderfully delicate, authentic portrayal of teenagers and their families."
--Cinematical.com

“Deserving of art-house play. Unconventional and risky and aching for your patience, but will reward your perseverance.”
--Dallas Observer

Excellent document: Scott Kirsner's "Getting Paid: Sites that Help Video Producers Make Money"

Scott Kirsner of the CinemaTech blog has compiled a list of sites that allow filmmakers to sell their work on-line, mostly through streaming & downloads, & a few cases of DVD "on demand" burning services, plus links & descriptions of several relevant up & coming services. Here is the introduction to the document:

" New revenue opportunities are emerging with the recent boom in video viewing on the Web. On this chart, I've tried to list all of the Web sites that enable video producers to make money from their work. I've ranked the sites subjectively, based on how much traffic and buzz they've been attracting, and also how likely it seems that a video producer would actually manage to earn a significant return by posting a video to them. The majority of these sites are geared shorter-form content, but a few, like Brightcove, EZTakes, and GreenCine, make it possible for producers of hour-long or feature-length projects to generate revenue."

Check out the page here.

Thanks a lot Scott!

- Sujewa

HEAD TRAUMA - at digimart

I'm still buzzing from my experience at digimart this past week. I was invited to speak about the making and distribution of HT. It was an amazing gathering of people from all over the world discussing three things I love - filmmaking, tech and new business models. There was quite a bit of speculation regarding the future of digital content distribution during the three day conference. Variety was on hand to cover the event.

I brought the newest prototype of the IndEx media server with me. On Monday night digimart held a special screening of HT. IndEx is a low cost exhibition solution that will be released later this year. It is meant to be simple and it is. I've been using it for a lot of my digital runs. For the digimart screening we used IndEx with a 2k projector. The result was a true HD screening with full 6 channel surround. It looked and sounded amazing.

Sold Foreign Rights for "Killing Down"

Really good news for my film "Killing Down"... we made a deal early last week and sold our foreign rights. We sent out 75 screeners and got five offers within a week. Companies were rounding out their slate of titles to rep at AFM in Santa Monica the first week in November, so the deal happened very fast.

I held on to the domestic side of things and we have two offers pending right now, but I'm in no real hurry there. I want to play the field some and see what opportunities arise.

I'm not really at liberty to discuss the financial aspects of the deal, but we did very well. My investors are happy and in fact are already willing to put money into my next project!

The film will be released this coming spring virtually all over the world. It will very possibly do a theatrical run in several European territories and maybe Latin America. In the US and Canada (this is under negotiation) it will show up in most major DVD outlets, likely pay-per-view, and we're looking at a cable TV premiere.

BTW, I'm writing this from Hawaii right now. The earthquake yesterday was very wild and quite scary to be honest. I'm from Texas. We have tornados occasionally, but nothing like this. Luckily I'm in Maui, so we only felt a 4.5 magnitude quake. Yeah, only 4.5. I'm actually still shaking. :)

-Blake

DV Guru interview re: Date Number One & self distribution

It's a long interview, but should be interesting, specially to self-distribution inclined filmmakers. Here is the link:
http://www.dvguru.com/2006/10/16/diy-filmmaking-an-interview-with-director-sujewa-ekanayake/

Here is a segment from the interview:

" How did you get into filmmaking, and what is the draw to DIY-style filmmaking in particular?

... In 1999 I made a feature flick called Wild Diner on 16mm, submitted it to Miramax, was rejected. Around the same time Dogme 95 broke - with The Celebration in '98/'99, and I have always been a fan of DC punk rock - which is a very DIY thing - they've been DIY since the early 80's (see the new doc American Hardcore for more on that scene). So, the availability of digital video as an affordable production medium and with having DC punk as a model for DIY distribution, I slowly formulated my DIY approach to film production and distribution in the early 00's. If I had used DV for Wild Diner, it would have been a better film due to having the ability to do more takes, and self-financing it would have been possible if it was shot on DV, so all around, there were very good reasons for going DV and DIY on the next feature, which was Date Number One, a comedy about several first dates."

Thanks.

- Sujewa

MESSIAH update

Well, I haven't posted much lately either. Just been busy and haven't been making the time. But October has been a busy month for THE PROPER CARE & FEEDING OF AN AMERICAN MESSIAH. We screened this week in L.A., at Mann's Chinese Theater, in the FAIF Int'l Film Festival.

Next up is a Friday screening in Oak Ridge, TN at the Secret City Film Festival, and then Saturday at Indie Memphis.

Then, at the end of the month, it'll screen on the opening night of the Virginia Film Festival. Morgan Freeman, Liev Schrieber, and Robert Duvall are all confirmed guests at the festival, so I'm looking forward to this one...

Hey guys. Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. When I first signed on I thought we were only a few weeks away from our premiere but there were delays for a variety of reasons. I'm sure most of you all know how it is having to beg, borrow and sell your soul to keep going. (In my case I had even less to bargain with because I sold my soul years ago at a pawnshop for a buck fifty. The next week it went out of business. I still have the claim ticket.) We will be premiering Elizabeth Gunness next week in Charlotte, NC at the Cackalacky Film Festival. We'll also be showing it a few weeks later at the Asheville Film Festival in Asheville, NC.

jumping off bridges in Nashville, Houston and Memphis

NASHVILLE, 10/14
Saturday, October 14th
2:30pm
Belcourt Theater (2102 Belcourt Avenue)
Tickets are $8.00 general admission, $6.00 Students
Nashville NAMI Representative and actress, Savannah Welch in Attendance
For more information: http://www.jumpingoffbridges.com

HOUSTON, 10/14
Saturday, October 14th
7:00pm
Rice Media Center (Corner of University Blvd and Stockton, entrance #8 on the Rice University Campus)
Tickets are $6.00 general admission
Co-sponsored by the Houston SPC and Southwest Alternative Media Project
A panel discussion will follow with John Sargent (Baylor College of Medicine and Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry), Sharon Derrick (Harris County Medical Examiner's Office), Patricia Weger, (Houston Independent School District), and Molly Wilkins, (Harris County Hospital District).

MEMPHIS, 10/15
Sunday, October 15th
4:45pm
Muvico Peabody Place 22 Theater
Tickets are $6.00
Actress, Savannah Welch in Attendance
For more information: http://www.indiememphis.com/film.htm.

HEAD TRAUMA hits Netflix and Best Buy

HEAD TRAUMA is now available on netflix for rent. Over the next few weeks HT will be rolling out to more stores and rental outlets.

Starting Oct. 29th through Nov. 11th, Best Buy will be offering an exclusive promotion. Customers who purchase both HEAD TRAUMA and my first feature THE LAST BROADCAST will receive $5 off the final purchase price.

With brick and mortar retail stores forced to limit the amount of indie DVDs they can carry, this promotion shows a confidence in the films by a major chain. If sales of The Last Broadcast and Head Trauma live up to expectations, they could pave the way to more DVDs from independent filmmakers sharing shelf-space with leading studio releases.

Hi from Alyson (AS) with Eve of Understanding

So I just accidentally posted a post from the film's blog, www.openplanproductions.blogspot.com onto this blog. I deleted it quickly, after cursing at myself a few times and posted it on the right blog. Insert sigh of relief here. But it made me realize that I really need to post on this blog.

I think I was waiting to post, hoping I'd have some super stupendous news to share, i.e. we sold the movie!!! Not yet. But I realized - we have other news to share.

We have a screening this coming Tuesday, October 10th, at 5pm at the Mann's Chinese 6 in Hollywood, CA as a part of the FAIF Film Festival. I'll be there, and so will many of the cast and crew members, so it should be fun!

Also, we've been doing pretty well on the festival circuit, Rebecca Lowman, our lead actress won Best Actress awards at the Breckenridge Film Festival and the Boston Film Festival - congrats to her! And we've been screening around the country, you can see more details on our website, www.EveOfUnderstanding.com

We've also been getting some great reviews, check out a review and interview with me on www.IndependentCritics.com and in Variety! Hooray!

So good things have been happening, and I realize writing this blog entry that it's really easy to get distracted by the big brass ring - distribution and paying people - and forget about all the small victories along with way, which really are quite a large victory in themselves. Though I'm stating the obvious, it's true, it's easy to get distracted. I'm attempting to get less distracted and focus on what is good, cause there's a bunch of it!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Date Number One screens in Kensington, Maryland tomorrow (Thu 10/5, 7:30 PM)

Read all about it here. Thanks!

- Sujewa

DVD pre-book and street dates

Last Tuesday HEAD TRAUMA hit stores and rental outlets. What is interesting is how the normal pre-book and street dates of DVDs are changing for Indie films. Basically if buyers purchase prior or by the pre-book date then they're guaranteed to have the DVD by street date, if not the DVD will arrive after.

This means that smaller indie films will rollout over time making the list of available retail locations and rental outlets change from week to week. This can be a challenge when it comes to telling people where they can find the movie. The way I've been dealing with the supply and demand issue is by setting up my own store and then also giving links to various online and offline outlets as they come on board. Even though this new trend of not hitting street can be a bit confusing for fans, it does effectively let the title live past the street date, which makes it seem fresh to new retail and rental outlets.

Getting into retail and rental can be a challenge and requires a number of steps and careful planning. At some point when I have more time I'll outline them here. For now if you're interested in picking up HEAD TRAUMA or my first flick THE LAST BROADCAST you can find it in the following places. More outlets coming this week.

HEAD TRAUMA DVDs are available NOW.

The DVD is loaded with over two hours of bonus features.
* Audio commentary by director Lance Weiler
* Six featurettes:
- Cast interviews
- Blowing up a car on a tight budget
- Shooting in the house (working in a haunted condemned structure)
- Johnny Magdic and his Amazing Flying
- Comics veteran Stephen R. Bissette discusses the art of HEAD
- Behind the music of HEAD TRAUMA
* A special collector's edition eight-page booklet with original art
Bissette and liner notes by GRUDGE screenwriter Stephen Susco
* Trailers HEAD TRAUMA and Weiler/Stefan Avalos' THE LAST BROADCAST
* An Easter egg or two

The following sites are currently taking orders

weiler's online store - click here

diabolik dvd - click here 14.99

amazon.com - click here 17.99

barns & noble - click here 15.98

bestbuy.com - click here 14.99

buy.com - click here 16.75

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT "HEAD TRAUMA"

"Any number of big-deal filmmakers - M. Night Shyamalan, for one -would be well-served by a viewing of the low-budget Head Trauma....this simple and effective psycho-thriller creates a mood of dreadand dissociation, and sustains it, without resorting to elaborate special effects, or a colorful crowd of actors, or other worldly mystical hooey." 3 out of 4 stars
- PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

"I'm giving this film my first ever 10 and have to say the hopes and dreams of the great American horror are now on Weiler's shoulders."
- CINEPHELIA.COM

"With his second outing, Weiler proves himself a seriously skilled director. His tone has much in common with the recent spate of Japanese horror films. There's the emphasis on atmosphere, the sad, restless ghosts of the past, the jittery camerawork. It's a wonderHollywood hasn't snapped him up to helm one of the countless J-horror remakes taking place stateside (The Ring, The Grudge, Pulse). It's almost depressing to think what Weiler could have done with the recentrevision of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2001 chiller Pulse."
- THE ALIBI

"HEAD TRAUMA will leave you scratching yours in the midst of a fantastic, scary ride that leaves no unanswered questions and does its job with the utmost competence and sheer unalloyed glee." 4 stars
- FILM THREAT

"Works its way under the skin, raising neck hairs while teasing usto pry open its psychological puzzle box."
- LA WEEKLY

"The growling, hooded figure which dogs George through the story is an absolutely terrifying apparition, perhaps the simplest and most haunting monster to grace a movie screen since the debut of Freddy Krueger in the original "A Nightmare On Elm Street."
- BLOODY DISGUSTING

"One of this year's touchstones... Demonstrating once again that ingenuity and invention are more important than millions of dollars in budget, Weiler most effectively works within the confines of the dark house. As more and more unsettling things start to happen, it's almost as though the house were growing into a full-fledged, recently awakened character that is not sure what it wants to do when it sees that it's under attack... Head Trauma creeped me out."
- TWITCHFILM.NET

"A slick, original, attention-grabbing feature... pushes the medium to the edge of its artistic bounds."
- ALBUQUERQUE WEEKLY

"Horror outing that revives the under appreciated monster of the id to great effect."
- MOVIE CITY NEWS

"You know the ones: Jacob's Ladder, 12 Monkeys, even Lost Highway. Head Trauma is a solid induction into these halls of creepy mindfucks."
- THE PORTLAND MERCURY

"Elicits effective creeps. A well executed haunted house exercisethat treads the psychological vs. supernatural line."
- AIN'T IT COOL NEWS

"Incredibly creepy... good re-creation of 70's horror."
-TUCSON WEEKLY

"Fright classic... surprisingly effective chiller."
- THE OREGONIAN

"HEAD TRAUMA is completely pro. From packaging to film quality to the movie's website, it seems like there was big money behind this film."
- LOCAL IQ