Maryland Film Festival Recap, reviews

Stomp! Shout! Scream! screened at the Charles Theater as part of the Maryland Film Festival on Mother's Day to an appreciative crowd. A few DVDs were sold, I met some super-nice film makers and got to see some great films.
This was my 6th visit to Baltimore (The Monster Trilogy short films screened at Microcinefest and my documentary short was shown at the MFF, plus I’ve been a judge at Microcinefest). I say this every time I talk about these experiences-- I love Baltimore. No other festival that I’ve been to treats visiting film makers as well as these two festivals—nice accommodations, good crowds, great movies, great events (duck pin bowling, side trips to Orioles games and the Visionary Art Museum). For independent film makers who do this for the love of creating something and often little or no financial reward, going to Baltimore is truly motivational and a highlight of every year for me.




That's SSS Marketing Associate Ashley Zeltzer with LOL actress Tipper Newton.


Stomp! Shout! Scream! has gotten some swell on-line reviews:

“A sweet can of camp, a ridiculously delightful cinematic experience.”
Film Threat

“Stomp! Shout! Scream! was a total hoot. It's a note-perfect homage to '60s beach flicks and monster movies."
The Albuquerque Tribune

“Stomp! Shout! Scream! plays like a cross between Twin Peaks, Repo Man and Stranger Than Paradise with a little Beach Blanket Bingo thrown in to keep things interesting.”
Bradenton Herald

“The lighting was fabulous throughout - vibrant, evocative, sculptural. I loved it. The cast was great - just the right mix of real person and B-movie cliché, so that the whole movie came off like an episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, but with the 'bots' quips wrapped up into the movie itself.”
TheyreComing.com


Reminder: The DVD RELEASE PARTY will be Friday, May 26 at the Atlanta Brewing Company. Attendees will receive a Stomp! Shout! Scream! souvenir pint glass, see a screening of the film WITH the Dames Aflame Burlesque performing, dance to Catfight! live, AND drink all the delicious local brew they care to consume. Come celebrate the DVD release in Atlanta on Memorial Day weekend.

I hate to be such a salesman, but getting the movie seen is as important as getting it made. If you’ve seen the film and like it, tell your friends or write an on-line review on the IMDB or at Amazon. Those things go a LONG way toward generating interest. Thanks to everyone who has supported the film.

Film Festival Update & DVD Release Party

Stomp! Shout! Scream! is seeing about a 15% return on film festival submissions.  That’s a lot lower than one would hope, but for a film that was created for a VERY specific audience, I can’t be too disappointed.  The submissions will keep going out, with the hope that there will be that one person on those screening committees who GETS it.

Here are the numbers since the submissions started in June 2005:  45 submissions, $1,250 in entry fees, 24 rejections, 8 acceptances, 3 Awards (Best Feature at Toofy; Best Cinematography & Best Set Design Nominations at the B-movie film festival), and 13 festivals still outstanding.

Four festivals extended invitations recently:
Maryland Film Festival, May 11-14
FILMSTOCK (London, UK) June 3, EUROPEAN PREMIERE!!!!
Dead CENTER Film Festival (Oklahoma City, OK) June 7 OPENING NIGHT FILM!!!!
Portland Underground Film Festival (Portland, OR) June 9

The plan is to have the director, producers and/or actors at all these screenings.  The DVD, soundtrack and posters will be available after every screening.  It’s a long road to pay everyone back that invested money and time, especially at $20 a pop, but this is the plan and we’re sticking to it.  I have to keep reminding myself that no one can promote this thing as well as the folks who created it.

The DVD will have a fantabulous RELEASE PARTY on Friday, May 26 at the Atlanta Brewing Company, sponsored by Stomp and Stammer magazine.  Attendees will receive a Stomp! Shout! Scream! souvenir pint glass, see a screening of the film, dance to Catfight! live, and drink all the delicious local brew they care to consume.  Come celebrate the DVD release in Atlanta on Memorial Day weekend.

If you or someone you know might be interested in seeing a beach party rock and roll monster movie, please come out to one of these events and spread the word.  If you can’t make it, there’s always the magic of internet commerce.  Thanks!

Sarasota Film Festival Recap

Director of Photography Evan Lieberman and I had a great experience at the Sarasota Film Festival last weekend. We drove down a few days early to promote the festival and Stomp! Shout! Scream!’s screenings. Our first stop was to catch the Little Steven’s Underground Garage show in Orlando on Wednesday night. The Romantics headlined and surprised us with their all-out Detroit garage rock. The real draw for us was seeing The Fleshtones. They always put on an amazing show, but I also couldn’t miss connecting with lead singer Peter Zaremba after exchanging emails and getting an awesome Fleshtones surf song for the soundtrack CD (coming out in another month or so on Chicken Ranch Records). It was a fantastic, if way too short, Fleshtones performance. Those tourist who wandered into the Hard Rock will never be the same. I also passed along a DVD to Dan Electro, Woggles drummer who was filling in with The 45s on this tour. He played the movie on the tour bus the next day and reported that Little Steven was impressed.

Thursday, we dropped off clip reels to TV stations and made phone calls all day, vying for any promotion we could get. We landed a spot on the local news/talk show Friday at noon on Sarasota’s ABC-7. And an on-location interview on SNN News 6 Friday night at the opening night Gala. I don’t know if the TV appearances sold any more tickets, but it was nice to play local-boy-done-good on TV. There was also a story in the Bradenton Herald the weekend before the festival. The festival invited me to join in a panel discussion, “Coffee and Conversation: Establishing Shots”, on Saturday morning. Despite it’s corn-ball title, this was one of the most interesting panels I’ve seen at any film festival. Panelists included Susan Seidleman (director of Desperately Seeking Susan, She-Devil and Boyton Beach Club, which was premiering at the festival), Lisa McWilliams (producer of documentary Before The Music Dies), and Jenny Abel & Jeff Hockett (producers of documentary Abel Raises Cane). Discussions of everyone’s films, their film festival experiences and even budgets and distribution was really informative for me and full-house coffee shop.

The Saturday screening was 50%+ full with a good amount of audience reaction-- lots of laughs throughout. During the screening, I hauled boxes of DVDs, posters and a folding table to just outside the screening room. There’s was a quick Q & A, then I ran out to man the sales table. My (probably unrealistic) goal is to sell a DVD to everyone who walks out the door. Sales certainly fell short of that, but was a success nonetheless.

Both Friday and Saturday nights had big parties for film makers and Sarasota society folk, with plenty of free booze and good food. The festival really is one of the best I’ve been to with great local support, stellar venues for screenings, and a fantastic program of indie and classic films.

After a short nights sleep, Sunday started early with a podcast interview for Evan and I. Then a noon screening for Stomp! Shout! Scream! This screening was almost a full house, probably 200+ folks. And not all of them friends of the family eihter. It was the first viewing for the local Florida cast- my grandma Theodora Viola; my best friend from High School Rhett; Will who plays young John Patterson; and the beach partying dancing girls-- Brittney, Jackie and Megan. They all said nice things about the film, which is extra rewarding considering they all worked on the film for virtually nothing. This screening had great DVD sales afterward-- a fantastic start to the financial life of the film.




That's Penelope Ann Miller, who was in Sarasota promoting her new film.

Indie Film Marathon, Sarasota, self-distribution

Film making is such a marathon.  Writing, raising money, producing, editing, mixing, and now marketing and promoting Stomp! Shout! Scream! has taken well over three years and the first dollar of income has yet to come in.  Making tons of money was certainly NOT the impetus for taking on a project like this, but investors are involved and I feel a great responsibility to make this film as financially successful as possible. 
And it’s really just the beginning of the public life of Stomp! Shout! Scream!  Films can run on the festival circuit for a year or more.  The plan has always been to travel with the film and sell DVDs after each screening.  I knew it would be a 5 or 10 year project when I started, but being right in the middle is exhausting.
Actual income will start at the Sarasota Film Festival when Stomp! Shout! Scream! screens Saturday, April 1, 2006 at 5:00 pm (& again Sunday, April 2 at noon) and the just-finished DVD’s are sold for the first time.  Like most everything on this film, the DVD was self-produced and will be self-distributed at festival screenings and on-line.

This will be a really special screening for several reasons. Stomp! Shout! Scream! will be seen for the first time ever in High Definition.  I try to not evaluate or judge the film because I’m just too close to it, but I am certain that it will look BIG and BEAUTIFUL on that Regal Hollywood 20 screen.  This will also be the first time for the Florida contingent of friends, family, volunteers and crew to see it.  Investor, actress, band-namesake and my grandmother-- Theodora Viola-- will be there, too.  I’m thrilled that she will be able to see it on a big screen, with a big home-town crowd.

The DVD is chuck-full of goodness.  It has commentary from writer/director/me, DP Evan Lieberman, Producer Arma Benoit, actors Ned Hastings, Jonathan Green, Mary Kraft, and Cynthia Evans.  There’s over an hour of behind-the-scenes vignettes, interviews, raw footage and deleted scenes—- all with commentary from cast and crew.