Rejection #18: Toronto - August 12, 2008

I will go ahead and lump in rejection #19 with this one as well, Fantasia, seeing that I never received any mention that they received it and that festival took place July 3rd. I think it's kinda over. Here's my awesome Toronto rejection letter that they couldn't even spend $.42 cents to send me the rejection letter through the mail. Seems only fair, since I spent over $50 to have someone crap on my movie and send it down the garbage chute.

All hope is not lost though. I sent the movie to Dallas Video Festival.

I'm gonna go ahead and put positive vibes out there and believe the movie will find a home there. Yay!


 

16 for 19!!! - May 21, 2008

Here's my rejection from Skip City:

SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema Festival 2008
Feature Competition

Backyard Films Presents
Dear Jeffry Chaffin

Thank you very much for submitting your film to our festival.

Your film, „Ungirlfriendable“ has been considered with great interest, and carefully discussed by the selection committees. 

Unfortunately it has not been chosen to be included in the program of SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema FESTIVAL 2008 feature competition.

Please kindly understand that this will not mean a judgment of quality: with around 700 submissions,

it was not an easy process to reach the final selection because the program has to be built under various aspects.

It was our pleasure to review your film, and we wish you all of success for this film. 

Thank you again for your interest in our festival. 

We would be glad to hear from you with further projects.

Sincerely Yours,

Yuji Takizawa

Festival Director

SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema Festival 2008

Guess I won't be going to Japan! I am waiting on two more rejections from Fantasia and Toronto, so check back to see when I get douched by them! I have entered 19 fests, but I don't count one, as it was the "reject" film fest and rejection is part of their motto, so 18 Film Fests, rejected from 16. I should enter two more contests to make it an even twenty and I'll win a set of tea cups! Here's the list:

Austin Film Festival

Kern Projections

Northhampton

Middle East - (Film didn't even make it there in the mail!)

Rockport

Indie Film Fest

Tromadance

Slamdance

Sundance

Cinequest

Boston Underground Film Fest

New York Underground Film Fest

First Glance

Houston Worldfest

Cannes

Skip City International

Hooray!

 


 

Two More Fests - May 5, 2008

Cinco de Mayo! On Friday and Saturday, I sent the movie off to 2 more festivals. My good film buddy Scott Feinblatt steered me in the direction for sending my movie to the Toronto International Film Festival.

The ratio for getting in is something like 1 in 12, but that was last year. They might get more submissions this year and the ratio could be higher. But, pretty decent odds. It's supposed to be the largest film festival in the world. Might be nice to go.

The other was also mentioned to me by Scott, Fantasia:

There was no submission fee for Fantasia, but the film was supposed to be in their hands today. I wasn't about to spend $40 to send it overnight, so I just wrote a letter pleading with them to just give it a shot. If that doesn't work, so be it. Seems like a cool little fest. Not too little though.

Next week, Dave and I should work out the kinks on some audio issues and export a final soundtrack. I will then send it a few places to see if I can sell it. The next step will be to start making DVDs and sending them out to all the people who worked on it. Yay!

 


 

Cannes' Rejected Film - April 7, 2008

Pretty quick turnaround on their part. They don't mess around.

Paris, 02/04/2008

Réf. : Présentation du film « UNGIRLFRIENDABLE » au Comité de Sélection du 61ème Festival de Cannes (14 – 25 mai, 2008).

Monsieur / Madame Jeffry CHAFFIN

Nous avons le regret de vous informer que votre film n’a pas été retenu par le Comité de Sélection du Festival de Cannes pour sa Sélection Officielle (Compétition, Hors Compétition, Un Certain Regard).

Nous espérons que vous nous ferez l’honneur de nous présenter votre prochain film.

Avec nos meilleures salutations,

  Ref.: Presentation of the film «UNGIRLFRIENDABLE» to the Selection Committee of the 61th Festival de Cannes (May 14 - 25, 2008).

 Dear Jeffry CHAFFIN

 We regret to inform you that your film has not been selected by the Selection Committee of the Festival de Cannes for its Official Selection (Competition, Out of Competition, Un Certain Regard).

 We hope that you will do us the honour of presenting us your next film.

 Yours sincerely,

 Christian Jeune            

Adjoint au Délégué Général / Directeur Département Films

Deputy General Delegate / Director Film Department                                                            

Tel.: (33) 1 53 59 61 74

Fax : (33) 1 53 59 61 70

 

Straight and to the point. Very nice. Don't try to sugar coat it with BS which makes me feel worse anyhow. I paid for my rejection letter. Done deal. One more fest to go.

In other news, I got through 25 minutes of the movie re-calibrating music levels with Dave. We are to meet some more this week and hopefully by next week, we will have a finished film! Then it's off to the presses to make some copies and try to sell it. Weeeeeeeeeee.

 


 

Cannes' Received Film - March 25, 2008

Thought this was kinda cool. It's not every day you get an email in French, at least not me, but it's really not every day you get an email from Cannes Film Festival:

Monsieur / Madame Jeffry CHAFFIN

Nous avons bien reçu votre film UNGIRLFRIENDABLE

La conférence de presse annonçant les films sélectionnés pour le Festival de Cannes se déroule durant la seconde quinzaine d’avril.

Si votre film est sélectionné pour le Festival de Cannes, vous serez prévenu avant cette date.

Nous essayerons dans la mesure du possible de donner des réponses à tous les candidats avant la conférence de presse.

Cordialement,

Festival de Cannes

Département Films

______________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Jeffry CHAFFIN

We have received your film UNGIRLFRIENDABLE

The press conference will be held in the last two weeks of April.

If your film is selected for the Festival de Cannes, you will be notified before the press conference

We will do our best to notify all candidates before the press conference.

Yours sincerely,

Festival de Cannes

Film Department

 


 

HOUSTON Worldfest SAYS F$%# YOU - March 20, 2008

The hits just keep on coming:

I find this one to be the most hurtful yet, because of this paragraph:

"Our festival jury very carefully reviewed your outstanding entry, and though it received a very good score in the review sessions, I regret to say that your entry was eliminated in the final competition judging round. I do so hate to have to send these letters out, and I'm very sorry that I am not able to bring you better news."

It's heartbreaking. It truly is. I won't lie. Each rejection chips a little more of my resolve away. When I got the small envelope, I knew it couldn't be good. I imagine an acceptance letter would come in a paper size manilla envelope with a form you need to sign to accept your award or an inclusion of passes and such to the fest. I had higher than usual hopes for the film because Dickie said he would talk to a few people.

The last two left are Cannes and Skip City International. I really shouldn't even consider that Cannes would give it one thought. So, really, there is one fest left that might give it consideration. There are a few festivals coming up I might enter if my thick candy shell of a head gets the notion of flushing more money down the crapper.

Other than that, I have no news to bring you on the new sound mix which technically should be done by the end of next week. Seeing that I haven't heard from Dave, I'm going to go ahead and assume, the sound mix is still a ways away. Good eve.


 

NYUFF R.I.P. and SAYS F$%# YOU - March 18, 2008

Got another great form letter this weekend:

Dear Filmmaker,

Thank you for submitting to the New York Underground Film Festival. Unfortunately, we are unable to screen your film in this year's 15th and final festival.

This year we received an astounding amount of quality work from all over the world. That we have not programmed your film should not be taken as an assessment of it. As is the case every year, we are unable to program all of the work we want to, and this year space was especially tight.

We appreciate so much that you look to our festival as an appropriate venue to screen your work. The NYUFF ends this year, but the community of independent filmmakers and voices continues. Next year we will produce the first edition of a new film and video festival called Migrating Forms and we encourage you to submit your work when the call for entries opens this summer.

We wish you the best of luck, and look forward to seeing your work in the future.

Kind Regards,

Mo Johnston, Nellie Killian, Kevin McGarry
Festival Programmers
New York Underground Film Festival
195 Chrystie Street, 503
New York, NY 10002

It all sounds very familiar, as if pulled from the book "Rejection Letters for Film Festival Submissions." They also add insult by saying it's their last year, so I will never be in their festival, ever.

Last week was an exceptionally shi$%y week. I had an ear infection in both ears, getting over some throat sinus thing, found out I defaulted on a loan by having my last payment in six days late and my bank account dipped below, so they thought because I have no money, they should take money from me, so I continue to have no money when I do put money back in. You'd think things would start to look up, but they only moderately cheer me up until I get the next load of crap, like an infestation of weevils in my apartment that must have burst forth from a bag of rice we bought from the store, so thank you Kroger for selling us weevil eggs! Have a great day!

 


 

Cannes Film FESTIVAL 2008 - March 12, 2008

I went to the post office today to ship off my movie to Cannes.  Damn.  What a hassle and what a chunk of money to spend and I don't even think it's going to get there by deadline.  I am not thinking all that coherently with an ear infection in both ears and communicating with others is a little difficult.  The Cannes instructions say to have it REGISTERED.  I took it up there and said I need it registered.  He says I need to fill out a Customs form.  I fill out a customs form and add it to the package.  I ask if it's registered and he says, no, here's another form to register it.  I fill that out and another sticker goes on the front.  He then uses some brown stick on paper that is activated with water, like a stamp or envelope and covers up the back of the envelope along all creases.  He then stamps the thing like 15 times indicating that it is registered I suppose.  Another $10 is added for registering.  I think I paid only $4.60 for postage and it might be a 6-10 business days kinda thing, so for it to get there on Monday will be highly unlikely.  Screw this international shit!  Spent over $100 this past week sending my film off to two festivals and the likelihood of it getting into either one is pretty steep, but I'll say it's extremely steep for Cannes, so I think I blew a total of $58 for what will amount to a piece of paper stating, "We got an overwhelming number of film submissions this year, fifteen percent more than last year, and the quality of these films were spectacular.  Unfortunately, we were not able to choose your film.  Don't be discouraged to submit to other festivals as they may be more suited for your type of film, etc. etc. blah blah blah."


 

SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema FESTIVAL 2008 - March 7, 2008

Not sure if it was money well spent or more flushed down the toilet, but I dropped a whopping $66 just for FedEx postage on Wednesday to deliver my movie to Japan hopefully by the 10th, their "in hand" deadline. I am speaking of the above fest, Skip City International. It might have a good chance of getting in seeing that the entry fee was zero and you can not have directed more than three features. I believe it also only accepts movies made on a digital format.

More info here SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL.

So, here's hoping it does something. I have finished remastering the video side of things and I am pretty happy with the final look of the film. Now I just need to light a fire under Dave's ass and get the sound mix done and we'll have a finished film on our hands people!


 

BUFF SAYS F$%# YOU - February 06, 2008

I spoke too soon. I guess bad news does come in threes. I would say in "fours" but that Cinequest rejection came to me a few weeks ago. BUFF, Boston Underground Film Festival has rejected Ungirlfriendable:

Dear Jeffry,

We regret to inform you that your film was not selected for the 2008 
Boston Underground Film Festival.

This year B.U.F.F. received an overwhelming number of short and 
feature film submissions; our screening committee carefully reviewed 
each submission and was exceedingly impressed with the quality of 
filmmaking that was exhibited.

Film festival programming is a subjective process and decisions were 
not made lightly.  We regret that we are unable to screen more films 
and, unfortunately, your film did not make it into this year?s program.

We greatly respect the amount of time and effort that went into the 
creation of your film and hope that our decision will not be 
discouraging.  This is not a judgment on the quality of your film and 
should not be considered an indicator as to whether your film will be 
successful.

Thank you for sharing your film with us; we wish you the best of luck 
with all your endeavors and look forward to the opportunity to view 
your work in the future.

Best regards,

Boston Underground Film Festival

It appears they got a hold of the official rejection letter as well. Almost the same exact wording as the others. You could probably compare them all and find they just changed a few words. All they had to do on this one is change the name in the introduction. Lame.

Also, today, I received an email for the winners or the Grand Prix Film Race. "Global Thermal, Inc." was not listed in any of the 4 winning spots. I've lost count of the rejections, but it's gotta be somewhere close to 16 or so. Yay!


 

FIRST GLANCE SAYS F$%# YOU - February 05, 2008

I got an e-mail today saying to check out the selections for First Glance Hollyood, which I submitted the film to:

http://www.firstglancefilms.com/8officialselections.php

What's up? I don't see my film listed. Just three Narrative Films? Don't stretch yourself there people. Oh, and Cinequest told me to f#$% myself as well:

Dear Jeffry,

Thank you very much for your submission of Ungirlfriendable to the 2008 Cinequest Film Festival.  We are extremely honored to have the chance to see the film and to have shared in the artistic experience.  It truly is great to continue to see the wonderful films being made every year.

As with any festival, we cannot select every film that we love, and unfortunately, we were not able to select Ungirlfriendable for this year.  Cinequest selections are determined by considering the quality, the overall mix of the program, the relation of the program to our audience and the whether or not we feel that our efforts will be able to assist a film or not.  When considering all of these factors, we often turn away films that we love, and this year was no different.  There were many films that we would have loved to program this year that we could not.  But we do hope that we may continue to see future films from you, as perhaps we will find a way to help you in the future.

The programming staff really enjoys the process of watching the films, and it is always with great sadness that we cannot place all of the films we like in the festival.  We hope your understand that this is our least favorite part of the process, as we really enjoy seeing all of the new, groundbreaking films that enter our door each year.  We do wish you much luck with the film and hope to hear from you again in the future.

Best Wishes,

Michael Rabehl                                               Halfdan Hussey

Programming Director                                    Executive Director

 

So, I am still an official reject. The film is still slowly progressing. I am meeting Dave this week to go over sound questions. I finally got him all the pieces of sound to put together. And on my end, I have added a grain filter to the entire movie to give it that "film look." On my little editing screen you can really see the grain, but once you play it on your TV, it won't be as noticeable. It sorta blends the foreground in better with the background, so everything doesn't looke so separated and as fake. I'm now wondering if I added enough grain.

In other news, I'm nearly 4 weeks into Writer's Boot Camp and I can't say I'm doing so awesome. I'm not getting enough hours of writing in each week. I have been following along with the lesson plans and have all the major plot points written out and have written some scenes. The idea is progressing and I am molding it into different shapes. It alters all the time. It went from suspenseful action, to supernatural/psychological mystery to action/comedy. I want to make a JC film. Those are my initials, yes, but they also belong to John Carpenter, who I was trying to evoke in the writing process.


 

WORLDFEST SAYS HELLO - January 04, 2008

I received a nice email from Worldfest just confirming that they have received the movie and I will find out something by January 15th. Still no news from Tromadance. They have announced a few, and I saw that "Stiff" was selected, which won the Asheville Rejects Film Fest.

Happy New Year by the way. On that note, the Our Stage contest ended and Global Thermal, Inc. came in 11th place. I totally forgot to hunker down at my computer and repeatedly vote for it. It would be nice if they had some way to see how many times one ISP voted on a particular film and see that the contest is rigged. The film that won 1st place was horrendous, so they are popular people who got lots to vote on it or they voted a bunch of times on it.

The soundtrack re-mastering is still underway. I made the project a bit difficult and have had to go through the whole film once again and find the in and out points of each chunk of dialog and send it along to David. It has been a lengthy process. I'm also finding glitches along the way in the picture. The new version of the film will hopefully be complete by the end of the month, then the process of getting it sold will get underway. Yay!

Oh, and check out some nifty toys that now adorn my mantle. Brooke finally gave up on keeping our place looking like adults live in it...


 

 


FILM IS OFF TO WORLDFEST - December 17, 2007

For anyone keeping track, Ungirlfriendable has just been sent off to its 14th or 15th film fest, this time, the 41st Annual Worldfest - Houston International Film Fest.

Dickie says he knows lots of people in the Houston area and might be able to get the film into the contest. Certainly would be a boost. No official rejections from recent fests except for Slamdance, of course.

I am meeting with Huff to go over sound tomorrow night, at least that is the plan today. I went back through the entire movie, all of my edits and got the raw sound from the 41 different edited sections. I think by the end of January we will have the final soundtrack. I'm also thinking of running some filters over the video to clean it up some. Don't know yet.


 

VOTE FOR GLOBAL THERMAL! - December 6, 2007

Global Thermal Inc., by Backyard Films Presents on OurStage

Oh, and I can still call myself a reject, once again. Here is the official rejection letter from SLAMDANCE(Check out the grammar in the first sentence):

Dear Filmmaker,
We am so sorry to tell you we were unable to include your feature into the 2008 Slamdance program. Thank you so much for submitting. Slamdance is limited by space constraints in Park City to program 15 narrative features, though the quality of submissions would allow us to program many more than that.

Please keep in mind that Slamdance is just one festival out of hundreds of others. Our film program is based on the subjective decisions of our programming committees. Please don’t take this rejection as any indication of the quality of your film, or its potential for a successful, well-regarded future.

We wish the best for you and your film.

Warm regards,
Slamdance Programming Department

Guess it goes along with the rest of the weekend; although, the 219mph.com video was uploaded to YouTube and it has generated over 25,000 hits and even I heard it was the number one video on YouTube this past Saturday! Well, slap me silly and call me Betsy.


 

SAD DAY - November 29, 2007

Here is the official "rejection" letter from Sundance:

RE: Film ID#729 - Ungirlfriendable

Dear Jeffry,

On behalf of our programming staff, I would like to thank you for submitting your film to the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Unfortunately, we are not able to include it in our program this year. We received nearly one thousand more submissions this year (over 8,500 in total) than we did for the 2007 Festival, so many tough decisions had to be made in order to narrow the field down to under 200 films. Please rest assured that your work was carefully considered by our programming team, and the decision was incredibly difficult to say the least.

My sincere hope is that this decision does not discourage you in any way. I would like to wish you the best of luck with your film, and we look forward to having the opportunity to view your work in the future.

Sincerely,

Geoffrey Gilmore

Director, Sundance Film Festival

Woe is me. I must end it all. Goodbye cruel world. Another $50 wasted.

KIDDING! I'm just glad they didn't hit me up for another $25 because it was late. I'm guessing they gave it about 5 minutes of their time(opening the envelope, trashing the DVD and cover art and saving the DVD case), pocketed the generous $50 "donation," and moved on to the next "independent" film with Shia Labouf or Ethan Hawke or the 50th movie this year with Philip Seymour Hoffman and try to figure out the best blow job technique to get them to come to Sundance in January.

How can I call myself a "Reject" if my film is accepted into a big film festival? Well, I am subjecting myself to more ridicule and rejection by submitting to 2 more festivals today:

and


 

UPDATE - October 10, 2007

I was doing some checking up on my film submissions and see that the movie was not accepted at Indie Fest USA or Kern Projections Film Festival. Three down, four more to go. I thought Kern might have accepted. WRONG. Two other fests claim their notifications were going up on Monday, but not a for sure decision is there yet. I missed the Slamdance deadline yesterday, but I can't say I'm too distraught after seeing these two rejections. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't dissappointed about not being accepted, so I won't lie. Come January, and I will have spent two years making this movie and nothing to show for it.


 

UPDATE - September 25, 2007

It has been sent to the big one, Sundance. Technically, it's the 7th festival I've entered, but really just number 6, as Middle East never got my film(see below). I was driving to work this morning and thinking, "If I got into Sundance, my career would pretty much be made. I would be in!" My career wouldn't be "made" but it would greatly improve just to be on the roster at Sundance, to put those leafy things on the poster and print on there "Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival." I am realistic and the chances are 1 in 20,000, or how many submissions there are, but it would be something, considering there was practically no budget, no name stars and an unknown director. I'll be submitting to Slamdance next month with even greater odds. Those will probably be the last "big" festivals I enter.

I'm setting my sites a lot lower now. Every submission is around $35 to $50 and my bank account is empty, so I have to be really selective and subjective. For free, I entered the Asheville "Rejects" Film Festival. Their special guest this year is Lloyd Kaufman, known for his film company Troma, and has directed such classics as "The Toxic Avenger 1 - 4", "Class of Nuke 'Em High" and "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D." The acceptance rate is really high and is made for the films that have been rejected by all the fests they have entered.

Speaking of rejection, I won't be going to Abu Dhabi in the Middle East thanks to the wonderful service men of the US Postal Service. The movie never arrived maybe due to customs or the fact that the Middle East doesn't have postal codes! Step into the 20th century, even though we're in the 21st.

This coming weekend, I'm doing the 12 hour filmmaking race, so wish me luck and if your in Austin and have worked with me and want to join in on the fun, send me an email or call.


 

UPDATE - September 10, 2007

The movie has been sent to another festival, Indie Film Fest USA. That is number 6. The first rejection has come as well from the Austin Film Festival. In the rejection letter it says, "The quality of the entries this year was extraordinarily high across all of our categories," meaning that the quality of my film was not. I'll just say that that statement does not make the blow of the rejection any easier, in fact it pretty much says, "Your film sucks!" Thank you Austin Film Festival! I do agree with them saying it's not a film that fits into every festival though. I was going to enter Trail Dance in Oklahoma, but it said not to send "pornography or vulgar material," so I thought it best to not waste money on that one. If it said "Please send perverted and morally corruptable films" then it might be a shoe-in. It also seems I have thrown money away on the Middle East Fest as they haven't even received the film. Boo hoo.

I also just sent out a mass email to crew and cast of Ungirlfriendable to see if any of them would like to participate in Film Racing, which will be in Austin on the 29th of September. In case you weren't included in the email and want to help out, then drop me a line.


 

UPDATE - August 29, 2007

Sent to another festival, Rockport Film Festival. This is one I would really like to go to. Sort of bittersweet. My grandmother on my Mom's side, Florence Sharp, lived in Rockport, TX pretty much all of my life. She worked as editor or something in that capacity for The Rockport Pilot. If you look on the poster below, you'll see the name of the newspaper reads "The Observer Times Herald CHRONICLE." The full title is actually "The Observer Times Herald CHRONICLE Pilot," but the coffee cup covers it up. It was Brian's idea to not have an affiliation with any city so the movie could pretty much take place anywhere, so the newspaper name is an amalgam of Texas newspaper names, Dallas Observer, Dallas Times Herald(which some of you may know was bought by Dallas Morning News some time ago, but I remember getting the Herald and liking it better), Austin Chronicle and Rockport Pilot. Out of respect for my Grandma, I guess Pilot should be visible as the poster is the only place you'll see the name of the paper, but how many people actually recognize Pilot as the name of a newspaper? So, I'd like to get into the fest to visit Rockport. My Grandma passed away a few years ago, 2001 I believe, and it wasn't until a few years later that her headstone was put up, which I haven't seen or visited yet. It'd be a nice trip for my Mom, sister and I to take.

Here is what I hope is the final version of the poster. It could probably use some more photoshopping, but I'm pretty happy with it. I'm in talks with a friend of mine who can hook me up with a printing place and I'm wondering how many to get made. I'd be interested to know how many of the actors would like a poster. If any of you read this, hit me up.


 

UPDATE - August 23, 2007

Just a quick festival addition update. I entered the Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi. It's really pretty cool. If the film is accepted, they will fly me over there and put me up in the Emirates Palace, a three billion dollar luxury hotel, which is also where it all takes place. All sounds well and good. It'd just be nice to be accepted to a film festival anywhere.


 

UPDATE - August 14, 2007

Here is the latest DVD cover. Still has a little work to be done on it, but it's basically the gist of what I'd like the cover to be. The front cover is pretty much what the poster will look like. In due time I will get some posters printed up, as some fests ask for them and a few of you might want to frame a copy to hang above your toilet.

For the few that might read this today, one of the musicians I used in the movie is up for three Dallas Observer Music Awards tonight, Johnny Lloyd Rollins. Wish him luck. I may very well be there to see they hand the award to the right person.

Here is an extra that's on the DVD and has been up on YouTube and it was shown on Austin Community Television. It was for a show called "Between the Scenes," which is shot and edited by Austinite Erik Mauck. Thank you Erik for doing the interview and putting together a nice little piece for my film.

IN FESTIVAL NEWS:

The movie has been delivered to the Kern Projections Film Festival in Bakersfield, CA and Northampton Independent Film Festival in Florence, MA. I should have news in October. I will probably send it in to another film fest this week or next. Stay tuned.


 

UPDATE - August 7, 2007

My 2007 Austin Film Festival Trailer Competition submission. The idea can be all attributed to Brandon Dolgner who was squeezing out a gruesome log at 3 am and thought "What would happen if I tried squeezing a turd out really hard and shit myself through the space time continuum?" Obviously, you'd have to wear aluminum foil and hold onto an aluminum foil roll in order to not be taken by the Aluminatis (that's pronounced Al-loom-ah-naw-tees). Brian called me up and told me that was the idea for the trailer. I felt there was no way we could turn that in as a trailer because it has nothing to do with movies or the festival or Austin. I think it has ZERO chance of getting accepted, because only 3 people find it funny and they were all involved in making it.

IN OTHER NEWS:

The UNGIRLFRIENDABLE DVD is 90% complete. All that is lacking is the re-mastered soundtrack from Zooky. Hear that Zwckxally? It started out as one dual-layered DVD with loads of extras. Two weekends ago, I travelled down to Austin to record an audio commentary with Brandon and Brian. We got good an liquored up and sat in Zooky's storage space studio and rattled off the commentary for the movie. I had written 20 pages of notes and maybe got about half a page's worth of that knowledge into the commentary, so the following week I recorded a solo Director's commentary in my office. While in Austin, we also recorded commentary for all the deleted scenes. I added all this on to what I already put together and it didn't fit, so now I will issue it as a Two-Disc Special Edition. Here's a sample menu and the contents.

Disc One:

The Feature-Length Motion Picture Masterpiece "Ungirlfriendable"

"The Loudest, Most Obnoxious and Least Informative Audio Commentary Ever" with Actors Brian Wayne and Brandon Dolgner and Writer/Director Jeffry Chaffin

"The Other Very Informative Behind-the-Scenes Audio Commentary" with Writer/Director/Producer Jeffry Chaffin

Interview with Director Jeffry Chaffin for the Austin Community Television program "Between the Scenes" by Erik Mauck

10 Songs from the Soundtrack in their entirety

Disc Two:

13 Deleted/Extended Scenes all with commentary

Outtakes (including "69 Gashes" a compilation of how many times the word gash was used throughout the production) all with commentary

Several Photo Montages (including over 250 Production Stills, Drawings, Storyboards and Before and After Backgrounds)

Trailers (including a demo for the 2004 production of Ungirlfriendable that was intended to be used to raise funds)

21 More songs from the soundtrack in their entirety


 

UPDATE - July 5, 2007

The film is on its way to 1604 Nueces. That would be the headquarters for the Austin Film Festival. Actually, it wouldn't. I just checked the AFF website and apparently, they have a new address, but the deadline has been extended to the 15th, so I still have a chance to get it in. Or maybe the 1604 address will be forwarded to the new address. I swear that 1604 Nueces was written on the application I had. Anyhow, the DVD cover art is above. Click on it for a bigger image. The front cover is pretty much what the final poster will look like except for a few added credits, Executive Producer, etc. The back will also be different on the final DVD version, various pictures and a list of all the extras that will be included on the disc.

I will tell you what is really surreal is that I began filling out the application for Sundance. That is a trip. To go to Sundance would certainly be a wish fulfillment. I don't think I could afford to go, but what better way to go further into debt. I'll be looking into Cannes as well. I've also got applications for FLIFF, Omaha, Whistler, New York Cinema Market and the Accolade. We'll see.


 

UPDATE - June 11, 2007

No poop this time guys. I am getting very close to finishing up video glitches here and there and adding in all the special effects, like Andrea's lightning bolt fingers. I also wrote some grafitti on the bathroom stalls. You can check out those two particular snippets on my YouTube page. www.youtube.com/bfpjeff

That page also has my preiliminary Backyard Films Presents logo that will play before the movie along with Focus Features or Lionsgate or whomever might like to pick the movie up,

The sound of the movie is also being re-mastered, so it should sound really good! I'm very excited to have a friend of mine down in Austin fix up the muddy soundtrack. In regards to the post below, all the music has been changed to protect the innocent, namely me not getting sued and stopped from showing the movie anywhere. A very close version of the finished film will be ready to send to the Austin Film Festival on July 1st.

I'll also be down in Austin in a few weeks to shoot a trailer for the Austin Film Festival Trailer Competition. During writing that very sentence, I believe I came up with the idea for the trailer. Sweet. I may be calling on a few of you ladies to act in it.

It has been a journey on this flick. I can't wait to start on my next one.


 

 

Special Edition DVD Cover - April 23, 2007

For those awesome few who made it to the screening at The Hideout, here is a DVD cover to print out. For all others, you can just wish you had a copy and stare in awe at the cover. The difference between this and the final version is the music. This fine version has some glitches but it has all my dream songs on the soundtrack. Sweet.


 

 

Screening @ The Hideout: April 14, 2007

Here are some pictures I took at the first screening of Ungirlfriendable. An entire 15 people were in attendance(including myself). The screening started late due to the late arrival of the proprietor of The Hideout. Other than that, the screening went smoothly and I hope everyone enjoyed it, but it was a biased crowd, mainly consisting of cast and crew and a few friends they brought along. I feel the movie still needs quite a bit of work and I hope the next and real official screening is a full house.

 

February 26th, 2007

Last week, I finally got through the entire movie and it's now 95-minutes which includes two minutes for rolling credits. From here on in, the movie is only gonna get longer. Once I watch this cut, stuff might need to be added back in, as I was very "cut-happy." This past weekend I moved my Grandma out of her house and took pictures of her place to fill in for Murphy's pad and a week or so ago, I took pictures of a restaurant, for the restaurant scene of course, as nobody was there. I need some things here and there in montage sequences and have to do the moving car sequences as well as Murphy's ride on his scooter. I'm thinking I might shoot some people against green screen, act like they're driving a car and shouting at Murphy or just animate it completely. About 90% of the sound effects have been added in, so that enhances the movie quite a bit. Once I have finished Photoshopping the backgrounds and inserted them, I have to run every scene through After Effects to get rid of every last bit of green and cleare up some rough patches. It's looking very good and I have a deadline. . . .July 5th. That is the late deadline to submit to the Austin Film Festival. They haven't been to forgiving or kind to me in the past, so it might not be the best place to start, but it sure would be nice to get in.


 

February 16th, 2007

Scene 11 - Introducing Skyler

Two posts in one week, whoa! Thought I'd give everyone a Valentine's Day treat. A few days old, but still yummy. I have re-edited the movie up to what I call the "3rd Part" in my computer files. As far as it's going right now, the movie could very well be 90 minutes, maybe 95. Out of the first 27 minutes, I've knocked out nearly 4 minutes, putting that down to 23. The next part I knocked out 4 to 5 minutes more, and so far in the 3rd part, I've chopped another 2 minutes. I read somewhere that comedy editing is fast. That couldn't be more truthful. I'm cutting to reactions quicker and getting to the next shot faster and it's funnier, because your brain doesn't have time to assemble what it just saw but it was humorous and while you're laughing, it's still moving along. A few frames here and a few frames there and seconds are dropping out and before I know it, minutes. I watched the 2-hour version a few weeks ago and took copious amounts of notes. The start moves right along, introduce characters, have some laughs, but then we get to the present day part of the story and it starts sagging. I noticed myself saying "Cut......cut......cut......cut," so I did just that. The first time out, I was including so many pauses, waiting for a facial expression or some little actory thing that was funny to me, but I realized I have watched each shot and each take over and over and critique every movement and every moment and know where to look and what I'm waiting to see. The average moviegoer isn't going to see those tiny things, so those little moments get chopped. There is an art to editing, but there is also a science. I have to step out of the director's shoes and into an audience members shoes and keep it moving and fun and funny. Enjoy the gassy clip. Sound effects may be scaled back a bit, but at least for now, it will feel like you're on the set with me. :)


 

February 12th, 2007

Just got around to looking at my website to see that the below post was never uploaded. I could have sworn I wrote something newer than October. Well, it's up now. I'm making progress on the flick every day now. Forcing myself to put in a few hours every night. Right now, I'm going through the movie, scene by scene and tweaking the cut. I'm trimming the fat. So far, I've cut out nearly 10 minutes, which is quickening up the pace and making it flow better. I'm also adding in sound effects which are vastly improving the atmosphere and adding more humor. It ain't gonna be done this month. I keep saying I'm gonna stop putting estimated completion times up, so I won't.


 

December 27th, 2006

So, I've already been asked for a copy of the film. Sorry folks, movie is far from ready. I have projected February, but that seems iffy. I'm getting through the backgrounds creation more swiftly now with the addition of a new filter I found. Yay! Above you will find a few new added scenes that have the backgrounds added in. I put an ad on Craigslist twice, both times it has been "flagged" by either the system or someone, meaning, it keeps getting taken down. First time, thought it might have been my inclusion of the website. I removed it. Second time, I'm thinking maybe it was taken down because I'm only offering deferred pay. If I don't get anyone to help with special effects and what not, it's going to take me a lot longer to finish this guys. Sorry. Here's to hoping the next time around, there'll be a budget and I can afford some crew during production and post-production. It's frustrating that it's going at such a slow pace, but keep in mind it's just one guy doing what it would take a room full of computer dorks to do for a big movie like Star Wars or something. The special effects aren't on that scale, but I think you get my drift. If anyone reads this, and they know an illustrator or artist or computer graphics person, see if they won't mind doing a little pro bono work.


 

October 24th, 2006

More work on backgrounds ala Photoshop. It's not a quick method, but I have found a way to minimize work on backgrounds. I am taking a real image from my video camera or digital camera and painstakingly redo each part of the background in Photoshop rendering it to look like it's in a comic strip. As for scenes that have no green screen and have actual backgrounds, that's another story entirely.


 

October 16th, 2006

Reality Look vs Comic Strip Look

Not necessarily a break-through, but almost. I took a background image and drew over it with my trusty computer drawing interface and filled in some colors, comic strip style. I'm quite happy with the outcome. I encourage anyone to send me their thoughts. I believe this is the route I am going to take, as it will cut down on doing extensive background shooting and issues with matching background with camera movement. It also looks really cool! The vision in my head is getting closer on video. Yay!


 

September 22nd, 2006

Murphy's desk explodes - SFX Test

I happened upon some royalty free explosions and had some fun adding them into the movie. You'll also notice some additional ceiling shots with something mysteriously chipping away at the ceiling tile. Just thought I'd share my glee at how it looks! Yay!