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I know there aren't many of you in Vancouver or area but I may as well give a shout out here to our world premiere, which is happening at Empire Theatres Granville 7 in downtown Vancouver on February 18th.
Exciting times! The completion and premiere of the film will come just a little over a year from the first day of shooting. Post production has been an unexpectedly long haul, with the expected setbacks and compromises along the way, but I'm happy to say that even sound has been signed off on and we're basically just working on colour correction now.
Needless to say, observing what of my writing ended up being cut, and why, was an extremely valuable experience, especially through the process of test screenings in which people singled out specific moments, lines, and scenes.
Wow, that's awesome!! I can't imagine how stoked you must be
So how did the tech screening go? Did you cry? I bet you cried. I know I would've, but then again I'm an emotional little girl, so that's not saying much
Pia very nicely wrote me to comment that I hadn't said anything about the premiere!
So this, in brief, is the story.
We arrived at the theatre at noon -- we rented the top theatre, number seven, of a three-level multiplex on downtown Granville St (one of the main downtown streets in Vancouver) -- and screened the film. The theatre is one of the largest in Canada in terms of number of seats, seating 600. It's an old heritage theatre and a very cool place, and it's been a very cool experience over the test screenings and the premiere to see our work up on a real honest-to-goodness theatre screen, especially looking through the window of the projection booth at it!
Anyway. We screened the entire film right through, calibrated the projector settings a few (too many) times, and generally made everything perfect. The rest of the day until doors opened at 6:00 was spent setting up tables, posters, the ticket booth, etc, and pretending that we weren't nervous.
At 6:00 doors opened. We had the full lobby outside the theatre, and as filmgoers came up the escalator they were greeted by a smooth jazz quartet (a high school band who were absolutely awesome). Lots of people -- presumably friends of cast and crew -- were in suits and fancy dresses, and the pre-show atmosphere was very cool. We had free tea and fair trade organic coffee donated from a local business, and people chatted, networked, and so on.
I introduced the film at 7:00 -- the first to speak to the crowd of ~200! -- and then the director spoke. Spirits were high.
Needless to say, the film began with no sound, and we were forced to go to the Blu-Ray menu, f*** around, and generally appear unprofessional. I have yet to successfully pull off a screening...then again, this problem is by no means limited to us tiny guys (ever hear that awful story about Quentin's first screening of Reservoir Dogs?).
Panic-attack levels of nervousness struck when the film began. The director, editor, and I huddled in the back during the opening credits, shifting from foot to foot, pacing, and swigging from a flask. The start was awful. It's always been a slow movie, but watching a movie play too slowly in front of a major crowd is a horrific experience. The first act felt like such an ordeal that I almost left the theatre. We were to receive comments after the showing on the slow first act; hoo boy did we not need to be told. Excruciating.
The second act finally kicked off and things got going. After a few laughs and a few audience reactions, we started to loosen up, and eventually the editor went and joined the audience. I hung back throughout the screening, watching the backs of people's heads and just generally enjoying the vibe in the room. All in all, I think the audience enjoyed what they were seeing, and there were laughs, jumps, and giggles (most, though not all, of which were in the right places). I had to bring the house lights up after the screening, so I missed most of the applause, but there was, certainly, applause, and some of it more than polite.
After the screening, people actually stayed and talked! That was very cool. Coming down from the projection booth, I was greeted by a circle of friends who were actually arguing about the morality of a character's motivations in the movie. That moment was an incredibly gratifying experience; no matter who I talked to, it did seem that we had succeeded at least in engaging the audience and in raising questions. I did, needless to say, field a number of plot and plot hole questions, but people, including strangers, actually engaged me about thematic elements. Our audience, considering their presence at a random indie film premiere, was presumably somewhat predisposed towards a high level of engagement with film, but still, it was a nice feeling.
Then, afterparty. Got drunk. Danced. Some, to Hilary Duff.
I've probably written too much and too little; but I have an exam now and my attentions are somewhat scattered. Lemme know if there's anything you're curious about!
I think that all sounds so amazingly fun and exciting! I completely understand about you being nervous. If it was my film and I was there, I would probably have been puking in a wastebasket.
It sounds like you guys had really planned a really nice event. Even a jazz band! And 200 people showed up! That all sound too awesome to me! I wish that had been able to be there. Huge congratulations from me!
What are you guys next step? I am curious because as you know the film I wrote, blackout, they are planning a test screening for that one too. You telling us how it works helps me a lot to get a better understanding. Are you guys doing film festivals at all? Or is it all by connections only? I know the people making blackout have sent copies out to LA to their agents and it sounds like the words are good so far. I'm just curious is all. This business is very tricky, a really insane roller coaster ride with insane competition with other insane roller coaster rides. At least that's what it looks like to me.
I have one more question, you said the theater can seat up to 600 people, you had 200 people show up and buy tickets. Would you have preferred the smaller theater? Would that have made a difference in any, way? Would it have made it a more intimate experience if there were no empty seats?
Anyway, thank you so much for sharing what I think must've been an extremely exciting event. I hope you guys get this film sold so you can get paid for your hard work and time.
The theater size; to be honest, all other things being equal, I might have preferred a smaller theatre so that it would seem "packed." There were a few pretty large logistical factors that led to our choosing the big one -- most notably, it doesn't share its lobby with other screens, which helps when one has live jazz -- but there was also the dream...what if we got 600 people?? Haha. I do think a smaller theatre would have led to stronger audience reactions...there is just something about a full theatre, regardless of size, that exhilarates.
Our next step is to figure out what our next step is. The aim is to sell the film as quickly as possible -- the dream is a film a year, each made on the profits of the one preceding -- but we're currently assessing which route we think will get us there most quickly. We will be researching and pursuing festivals and distributors concurrently until we figure that out. The other two producers are heading to Cannes this year to shop projects, get the word out on Truth, and get a sense of the market climate. This is pretty new territory for Jason and I, although our third producer, Michel, has more experience on the business end, and thank goodness.
So...we're basically gonna be doing anything and everything until we figure out what looks like it's gonna work the best. And when we do figure that out, I will certainly share our experience.
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"Truth" - Released! Watch It Free!
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