The Long Good-Bye

I've been trying to think of how best to say good bye. It's been four months now, surely that would be sufficient time to understand how. But I still haven't. I still often think I should call him, I should email him. Maybe this Christmas...

But I cant. Because he's gone. 

I feel very lucky my daughter got to know my brother. This summer, through a series of circumstances in our lives, my daughter spent a magical month at Grandma's farm. My brother had recently moved home after some heart wrenching struggles with depression and life changes. She was a magical little blessing that restored his hope and taught him to see the good in the world again.

The best way to  describe Jared is that he was my younger brother. He was four years younger than me. He irritated me in the ways only a sibling can. But he made me smile as often as he didn't.  He loved his family very much, if he didn't always know how to express it. He was generous to a fault, which is no fault at all. He even let my daughter ride on his shoulders like her daddy does. He helped her ride horses even though he was horribly allergic.

He was 28 years old when he died. 

He was riding home from work on his motorcycle. There was nothing particularly significant about the day. It's a beautiful stretch of highway between Spokane and the family farm in Rosalia. The road was open, the stretch flat and the sun glistened on the freshly harvested fields. As far as we can tell, there is nothing to indicate anything other than accident. There is simply no evidence to ever answer the question why. Who, what, where and when can easily be pinpointed. But sadly, not why.

For his memorial, the family came together. The only other time that has happened was my wedding. My step-sisters helped me reserve the Lady Washington for the services. My step-brother came in with his boyfriend and helped me put together the reception at the beach.
Even my father was there with his new wife, which hasn't happened in a very long time.

That said, I think I'd like to honor him in some small way, help people remember him the way I do. I wrote his eulogy, which I share below so you can see what I do. He may have been 28, but it can be said of him what can not be said of many: he really lived. 

It goes without saying that this makes no sense. It doesn’t make a damn bit of sense that today we gather to say good bye to my brother, and yours. Your son,  your friend.  I’d like to try and paint a picture of who my brother was.

Jared came into this world surrounded by long legged women in painted faces and fake lashes.  My memory of this is imprinted though the stories I have heard and the pictures I’ve gathered. I have a photo of him in a plastic box, cords this way and that because his lungs collapsed when he was born. But that’s not what I gather from the photos.  I see my mom’s face, and my dads. I see the love on their faces. Then there is a photo that I’m in I’m wearing a little house on the prairie smock, and holding me little brother. 

And it’s love.

Of course, like all siblings, that blissful moment of welcome is quickly replaced with “stop copying me”, “That’s MY toy!” or “he hit me!”.  I have very vivid memories of being so angry with him for copying my food choices at a restaurant that I insisted he order first so he wouldn’t copy me… only to be thwarted because, as it turns out, grilled cheese is not exactly a unique palette choice.

I also have equal memories of him telling stories of my life, exactly as I lived them. But to him, they were his stories. It didn't dawn on me until my wedding day why.  You see, we’d had some pretty epic speeches from the Best Man and the Maid of honor. Then comes my little brother. He always seems a little quite, a little nervous, but there he was. Well spoken, well written and ready to paint his own picture of the day.

He observed the world around him, looked up to people that he loved. It didn’t matter if they were family or not. And that’s one of the most beautiful things I find with this family. That we don’t see blood we see love.

Jared saw the love, though sometimes I know he didn’t feel it.  His picture of himself was a little fractured. But as Great Uncle Ernie Hemmingway says, we’re all a little broken. That’s how the light gets in.

I am sad today. I’m angry. I am more than a little broken.  But Jared was a light, even if he didn’t know it. He was a light that touched everyone here. He made us frustrated, he made us cry, he made us smile. He loved so fully and unconditionally.  I’m really grateful that Ondine got to know her uncle, my brother, our brother, as I knew him. Someone to go on adventure with, to see the world with eyes that didn’t know boundaries but saw family and love everywhere.

I love my brother, and I know that while the last few weeks have been pretty hazy, he’s been there. Whatever adventure he is on now, it’s just as beautiful as the open sea or the open road where joy swells in your heart.

 While my brother was not a walking Christian, he was saved at an industrial goth-rock concert. That's a thing, in case you were wondering. He was old enough to understand what he was doing though he very rarely set foot in a church afterwards. He was a spiritual person though, who loved people and didn't like to see anyone hurting. I found a poem and I will read it for you now, knowing that it speaks closely to his heart and who he was.

When I am gone, release me. Let me go.

For I have so many things to see and do.

You must not tie yourself to me with tears.

Be happy that we had so many years.

I gave you love, you can only guess,

How much you gave me in happiness.

I thank you for the love each have shown,

But now it is time I travel alone.

So grieve awhile for me, if grieve you must.

Then let your grief be comforted by trust.

Listen with your heart and you will hear,

All of my love around you, soft and clear.

Then when you must come this way alone,

I will greet you with a smile and say…

Welcome home.

We'll miss you Jared. Have a safe and beautiful new adventure.

INDIE FILM DISTRIBUTION LESSONS WE LEARNED THE HARD WAY (AND LIVED TO TELL ABOUT IT) - PART THREE

A sample of content originally written as guest content for Smarthouse Creative.
(see the original three part series here)

IN A LAND FAR FAR AWAY...

Most filmmakers fantasize about seeing their film on the big silver screen in their hometown. If you're smart, that's something you can accomplish on your own. We rented out a theater at AMC Pacific Place for our backers, cast and crew, but we didn't make a dime off that screening. We spent a lot, but didn't get anything back. So how do you get it to a screen near you? The answer: you may not.

You may never see your film distributed in your home country. We accepted that after many tears and bottles of whiskey. Sometimes, you simply can't sell what you have made in that market.

The truth for all films is that foreign distribution is where they can ultimately make the bulk of their money back. We're talking studio films, so let's get back to indie film. Every territory is broken down by region and sometimes territory.

Run. Hide. Die.

The UK is its own territory. Germany is its own territory. Taiwan is its own, Japan is its own, Brazil is its own. But then there is the "whole of South America" which doesn't include Mexico. Confused yet? These are all potential places you can sell your film, and I bet that wasn't something that even crossed your mind yet if you're in the market. Each market has a different buyer and a different set of rules. Germany for example must have a dubbing, but France, Japan and South America can use subtitles.

Horror film, which again, is a very specific type of product, is super popular in European markets. And the more abstract your film is, the better. The first territories we secured were the UK and Germany. But as I mentioned just moments ago, we had to have it dubbed into German. Which means an additional cost that was taken out of our initial return. The distribution company paid for it, leaving our payment to be much less than initially estimated. Then, if Germany likes it, they can renew the contract and maybe next time around we will actually see something out of it.

Your foreign territory is every it as important as your domestic audience. Neglecting them means neglecting any potential your film can achieve. It may not be millions, it may be only thousands, or hundreds, at a time. But the next time you go to pitch yourself as a filmmaker, how much more seriously do you think people will take you when you can say you have a feature film in distribution? The answer is very.

Two critical tips for preparing your film for foreign distribution:

1. Have the music and effect tracks (also known as M&E tracks) separated from dialogue. It is incredibly difficult to dub a film in German if the music track is attached to the English dialogue.

2. Have a script that is verbatim what you cut into the film. If you reworked a scene so the word order is flipped, the script must reflect. This is all to ensure that the dubbing and subtitle team are translating exactly what happens on screen.

INDIE FILM DISTRIBUTION LESSONS WE LEARNED THE HARD WAY (AND LIVED TO TELL ABOUT IT) - PART TWO

A sample of content originally written as guest content for Smarthouse Creative.

(see the original three part series here)

AGENTS ARE YOUR FAIRY GODMOTHER

It's a well-known fact that actors of a certain caliber have agents. Writers have agents. Directors, and even producers often have agents. But a movie? That's just weird, right? Wrong. We knew so very little when we went to our first AFM in 2013. We were barely out of post-production and had just screened at our first festival. We decided that rather than spend thousands of dollars on the gamble that festivals can be, we'd skip that step and move directly past go to collect our $200. Boy, were we in for a hard lesson.

We went down to the largest North American Film Market around with no badges, no experience and no idea what we were doing. We were very lucky and still managed to snag several meetings with distributors, including After Dark Films. They all listened to our pitches and every last one of them took the one-sheet and DVD copy we had of the film. Some of the people we met with were actually sales agents, though they often heralded under a company name that sounded a lot like a distribution entity. The major difference here is the role each plays.

An agent is the liaison between the filmmaker and the distribution company. The distribution company is the team that actually puts your film in front of viewers either as a DVD, VOD or theatrical release. We did not meet our agent that we would soon sign with at AFM. We met some great ones, but they were all looking for something very specific. On the tail end of the success of Gravity, the thing we were asked most often was, "Do you have any sci-fi?" They didn't even know what sci-fi was, they just knew that it made a lot of money and was about to win a few Oscars. Suffice to say, we weren't quite what they needed.

Rather than get discouraged, we came back to Seattle and hit the drawing board. We started looking at other films that had been released, even in small form on VOD platforms. We compared them to our film to see if we would be a good match and then our director cold-called all of them. Some considered us, some never returned the call. In the end, Ultimately Ruthless Pictures (our agent) picked us up.

It took our agent two years to get the distribution agency to really consider our film, leading to the principal reason as to why your agent is your fairy godmother: they will do anything for you as long as your contract is valid. Your agent doesn't get paid until you do, so much like an actor's agent, they need to sell you. If your film doesn't suit the distributors' needs, they shelve it or dump it because they don't have the time or the money to stick with you. Our agent stuck by us through all of this and found new ways to pitch the same movie to thesame distributor. Every pitch was different until he found the one that finally worked.

TRAILERS ARE A FILM'S BEST FRIEND

Have you ever gone to see a movie based entirely on the trailer? Me too! Pretty much everyone I know has. It was our trailer and poster that got our agent's attention. He saw something in what we created originally. He saw that we had done our homework and that we had a project he could work with. Other indie filmmakers who saw it at festivals got pumped to see the film. You know who didn't? Distributors. They yawned and passed.

We had spent a lot of time on our trailer and spent $500 on a poster design from a specialist who crafts hand painted posters specific to vintage '80s horror. It broke our hearts when the agent said he was going to cut a new trailer and make a new poster. The first poster we had was awesome. The second one he gave us was meh. The new one, well... I know if I was searching on iTunes for a horror movie for Halloween, it would stand out and at least make me watch the trailer.

Think about that for a moment. How do you choose a film, especially one you've never heard of before? Your first impression is the poster. Then you base your judgement on the trailer.

Our original trailer with music from our composer was radically different from the one our agent cut (seen below), which featured music from one of the 17 bands we signed for our soundtrack. The major difference between the two is the energy. The trailer our agent put together simply moves. It moves like a horror trailer - it moves like a movie trailer. It hits every beat that you expect a trailer to hit and it makes you want to see the movie. Which is the entire purpose behind the trailer and poster magic combo: get people to watch your product, I mean, film.

Indie Film Distribution... Lessons We Learned- the Hard Way - PT 1

A sample of content originally written as guest content for Smarthouse Creative.
(see the original three part series here)

There is a unicorn in independent film: distribution. Actually, believe it or not, that little unicorn is precious to all filmmakers. Because even George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are also considered "indie" filmmakers (that's a whole 'nother post) that sometimes find themselves on a challenging road to distribution. Sometimes it seems like a fairy godmother descends in an opalescent magic bubble to bestow upon the lucky few a magic deal that leads to a fulfilling career in independent film. Sadly, as the industry makes a massive shift in how films are acquired and distributed, the yellow brick road is more than a little jagged - not mention playing hell on our ruby slippers.

While I consider myself and my partner among the lucky few who have managed to get our film into distribution, the road has been long, difficult and not without a few shed tears. More than once our whole team was ready to throw in the towel. Our sales agent was our best friend during that time. He coached us through it, holding our hands when necessary. He also ignored us wen we got a little to needy, making sure to bring us back in when the situation demanded it. We made a whole lot of mistakes, but fortunately for us we learn quickly. While I could write a whole novel, there are a few things we learned that I feel many of my fellow filmmakers are under-prepared to face when they get ready to market and distribute their film without the help of a studio.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

I'll tell you one thing: Titles = Marketing. Selecting the perfect title that encompasses everything about your film is as delicate and personal as selecting the name of our first-born child.

Just don't get attached to it.

From beginning concept to the distributed film, our feature has gone through three title changes. One, right before we ran our Kickstarter campaign, and another when the distribution company didn't think they could sell our current title, The Anniversary. They gave us a list of titles, all of which made us roll our eyes.

Then it dawned on me what these new titles were. Search Engine Optimized, or SEO in digital shorthand. In marketing terms that means our title is likely to come up in a Google search based off of the gambit of things a potential viewer (customer) might be looking for. We made a horror film. The chance that the words run, hide or die may be part of your search are incredibly high. Ergo, the new title: Run. Hide. Die. No seriously, that is the new title. That's what they decided best fit the film, and you know what? Go ahead and Google it. See what comes up.

Are You Not Entertained?!

Jurassic World is sexy. Weird, I know, but that might just be the most appropriate thing to say about it. It hits on all the marks it is supposed to as a film: be entertaining, give us something we haven't seen before, give us a good story with relatable (read:believable) characters, make us feel something.  It's pretty hard for every film out there to manage this, but Jurassic World did.

Jurassic World brought in $82 million on it's opening day domestically, double what Mad Max: Fury Road was able to achieve.  With the absolute catastrophes at the box office over the last year, those numbers signal that people are seeing this film in high numbers- and it's looks like it will be continuing that trend.

One of the reasons that previous box office smashes like Spiderman (the original please don't bother me about the new one) Slumdog Millionaire and My Big Fat Greek Wedding did so well is because people went to see them more than once. I was a teenager when the first Spiderman came out and our local theater had it on 6 screens at once playing every hour on the hour. You do that math.

And yet, with all these successful movies following a similar set of rules, people were both surprised at the success of Jurassic World and enraged. I hear the haters crying about it. The GCI isn't real enough.  Or Theres too much nostalgic throw back for me. My personal favorite: Colin Trevorrow ruined my childhood. To that I say, unless you're Tim Murphy, QUIT YOUR BITCHING.

As of this writing, Jurassic World has raked in over $208 Million. So either you haters are full of it, or you actually did enjoy the movie and paid to see it multiple times. In a theater.

I know I did. I know my husband did, and our friends did. This movie was a blast to watch, the poster is on our favorites wall and I plan on getting it for my husband for Christmas.  Just remember something the next time a blockbuster comes out and is hugely successful (or an epic failure), ask yourself the Gladiator question: Are you not entertained?

UPDATE: 9/28/15 We are approaching the four month mark. FOUR. MONTHS. $1.6 BILLION World Wide. You haters are something else.

A Brilliant #Hastag and a Facial

Like most of my friends, I love a good deal. I love test driving new products, especially for free. When a social media colleague of mine shared the hashtag #skoahfirstfacial  all I could think of was- YES PLEASE! I shared the links, booked my appointment and settled in to be pampered.

Skoah is not a new product, but it's fairly new to us, literally, as the US is a new territory for the Canadian skincare line. They have lovely little boutiques in Seattle, Boston and Canada that are quite easy to overlook because they appear to be just another skincare store if you're window shopping. I'm sure someone on their marketing team realized this when their return numbers were lower than expected. A hashtag and free facial (an $85 value) seemed like an excellent way to attract new customers and generate talk about the product.

It worked.

Dozens of my friends were posting photos of their gifts and the notes that their esthetician had left for them. Before and after photos were popping up in my newsfeed every day. It took me almost a week to book my appointment and when I finally did they said I was lucky, they had an opening but were currently booked through the end of June.

While I was being pampered, my "personal trainer for your skin" very gently described to me the products she was using and why. I wasn't just being sold, it was more simply a conversation. She asked me real questions about my lifestyle and offered practical advice on ways to improve my skin routine without really changing much of day to day life. As a mom of a 2 year old who often skips my own self care, less is more was a win for me.

It was lasted about 45 minutes, plenty of time to get a recharge on a stressful week but not enough to steal time away from my responsibilities. And now, I had been educated about some pretty cool products too.

When she finished, she reviewed the products she used and why, then recommended a few for my home use. There was no pressure to buy, it was incredibly gentle both for a facial and a sales pitch. Who doesn't want to be pampered while listening to a sales pitch? It's like taking your medicine with a spoonful of sugar.

Well played Skoah, I will be back.

#skoahfirstfacial

Celebrity vs Integrity: Why Genre Films Need Fresh Blood

It goes like this: When creating a new world and/or universe as it relates specifically to a film, it is better suited to utilize lesser-known actors than A-list talent.It might be helpful to break down the primary genres of films before we break down my theory. The four umbrella genres, as I like to call them, are Action-Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Documentary and Western. Every film ever made falls into one of these categories.  Then we add the sub-genres, which are so varied that filmmakers add sub-genres to the sub-genre until it so convoluted no one knows what defines a films genre. So for the sake of this article I'm going to eliminate a few and focus on the most common sub-genres: horror, racing and sci-fi.

Well, Hollywood is at it again. They canceled yet another long anticipated film because a completely unrelated film tanked at the box office.  While the poor performance of Tomorrowland has absolutely no correlation what so ever on the fan favorite Tron, the latest installment of the popular franchise has been canceled.  

Ok, looking at this simple box office comparison it’s easy to see why studios pulled the plug.  I get it. CHAPPiE- another robot sci-fi with a hastily built world- hasn’t made it’s budget back- yet.  Tomorrowland was Disney’s big bet to compliment their futuristic theme park exhibits and compete with, well itself, considering six films being released this year belong to the Mouse or its subsidiaries. Forbes breaks down a financial hypothesis that makes it easy to guess the probable future for Tomorrowland that does not look promising.

I have not yet seen Tomorrowland (or CHAPPiE), so I cannot comment on their quality. I can compare them to another recent sci-fi flop- Jupiter Ascending. Tomorrowland and Jupiter Ascending have A - list  Oscar winning talent, bulging budgets and horrific ROI for their studios. CHAPPiE managed to score a modest budget for a studio film, but unless it kills it overseas, the return future looks grim. 

Three sci-fi flicks, three new worlds heralded by celebrity talent- three major “flops” in less than year. If I were a studio suit, I’d look at the films on my roster and start slashing too. 

But I have this theory.

You see, genre films tend to have a very rabid fan base. Those fans have certain expectations, and their expectations are very different than the suits sitting behind a green light at a studio. There are elements unrelated to the caliber (read celebrity) of talent in the film that fans expect and demand. These expectations have everything to do with world building and story, and rarely rely on the talent in the roles. And by talent, I mean celebrity (they still want them to have some chops). This reality crosses genres. It is true for horror films, westerns, sci-fi, and racing.

Lets start with horror. Even if you’re not a fan, it is probable that you've seen at least one. The one you've seen is also probably one of the most popular. The Birds, for example, remains one of the most classic horror films in history. Tippi Hedren had exactly one film under her belt before she landed the iconic role. Jamie Lee-Curtis only a handful of side roles and forgotten characters before Halloween.  The 1984 Nightmare on Elm Street was Johnny Depp's first role. Maybe you want a new one? Ok, Cabin in the Woods. Sure, Thor is in it. But he wasn't Thor when he made it. In fact the scheduled release was AFTER Thor hit theaters and Chris Hemseworth became an “overnight” sensation. On the flip side, Bradley Cooper had ten years and The Hangover under his belt while Renée Zellweger had an Oscar in hand by the time they did Case 39. And nobody cared.

Racing movies. Oh, racing movies. These also fall under action-adventure, and almost always involve and actual race of some sort. They are enormously popular because racing is hugely popular. One of the most lucrative is the Fast & Furious franchise. No one could have guessed it would spawn a series, but it did. It also turned three of its cast members into stars, two into mega stars. Paul Walker had shown up previously in two films and even managed to grace the poster art. Pretty as he was, he was still second fiddle to Joshua Jackson in Skulls and James Van Der Beek in Varsity Blues. Vin Diesel had a minor role in Saving Private Ryan, and voice work on Iron Giant before he became known world wide as the brooding anti-hero Domenic Torreto in the Fast & Furious chain.

The Mad Max franchise sits on some critic lists as a horror film, but is resolutely aimed a gearheads and action fans. The current installment has two established and known actors who can command a small audience on their own, both with an average box office draw of only $40 million or less on average. That tells you something about the appeal of the universe it sits in when as of this writing, it has pulled in $239 million. The original Mad Max… well it was America’s introduction to Mel Gibson and what became one of the most lucrative action film careers of the 80’s and 90’s. What’s interesting is that the Mad Max’s universe of a world gone to hell apocalypse, also classifies it as a sci-fi.

Sci-fi, or science-fiction if you’ve been living under a rock, is probably the broadest spectrum of genre films out there. Studios only think in terms of the last successful sci-fi they’ve had or wished they had, so their definition depends on the year. Fans on the other hand know what sort of sci-fi they like and tend to be ruthlessly loyal to it.  

Traditionally, it means space travel and aliens (Star Wars, Star Trek TV series, Aliens). Sometimes it refers to experiments gone wrong (Weird Science, The Fly). On occasion it embraces technological evolution where machines become smarter than we are (The Matrix, War Games). Harrison Ford, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Sigourney Weaver, Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Goldblum, Gina Davis, Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Matthew Broderick are just a few of todays Hollywood elite and were virtually unknown before they were in the films mentioned above.

Then along comes Tomorrowland. It falls squarely in the sci-fi category- but fails the audience’s expectations to be transported to Oz, er- I mean Tomorrowland. The resounding response of critics and fans alike is that Brad Bird’s latest film is more a lack luster climate-change piece than a thrilling sci-fi adventure into a brave new world.

Sci-fi fans expect to see inside the Matrix, they expect to travel to the galactic core and visit Tataouine. The fans/audience expect these worlds to be specific, fully developed and integral to the story. Earth and Asgard are uniquely tied, but Chris Hemsworth was not Thor before Asgard was built.

In the 1982 Tron, the audience was zapped right onto the Grid. Computer graphics were new to film, and if it had failed to make the audience believe they could be transported into a computer system, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. It did work and it changed the game for movies.  

Nearly 30 years later, we zap right back to the new and improved “bio-digital-jazz” of the Grid.  Both Jeff Bridges and Garret Hedlund  had a handful of films under the belts previously, but were still relatively unknown when they took their roles in Tron (Bridges) and then Tron: Legacy (Hedlund). Their star power had little sway over the universe that was built. Subsequently, the success of the films was built on the fans love of Tron and the grid. If the studio understood that, they might not have been so quick to pull the plug on a film that made 25% gross profit.

This is why the absence of a star or celebrity is actually beneficial to a genre-film attempting to establish a new world. Clooney is a popular and talented actor. Its almost impossible to see him as anyone other than Clooney with the exception, possibly, of Daniel Ocean (they're basically the same person, right?).

It’s like high school, the same five kids in the leads, you stop seeing the characters or the play. You only see the actor so that is what you focus on. If they can’t carry the material, you notice. When the actor is unknown, you focus on the character, the story and the world surrounding them. If it’s done right, we experience one of those rare moments where you get to be completely immersed in the film from beginning to end. And if it's good on top of that, well... It could just be the star making vehicle audiences have come to know and love: read, successful ROI.