Ungirlfriendable Available for Acquisition and Distribution
If you are interested in buying the film for distribution, please contact jeff@backyardfilmspresents.com. Thank you.
Also, if you happen to have read the article about the movie in the latest issue of Indie Slate(#54), you might wanna know if you can get a copy for yourself. Contact Jeff at the above mentioned e-mail address and you can purchase one through PayPal for the low, low price of $20! Just click on "Add to Cart" below to get your copy!
Cover art is here:
Poster is also available through Ritz Camera, very nice photo paper. I also have 2 t-shirt designs you can find at the bottom of this page. If enough people are interested, I'll get a bulk order done and sell them cheap. I'd like one myself. The shirts I have are iron-on, not a sweet silkscreen, so show some interest people. Support Indie films!
Ungirlfriendable is PUBLISHED!!! - July 4, 2008
An article was just published in issue #54 of Indie Slate magazine written by yours truly. Go pick up a copy at Borders or Barnes and Noble. I have a subscription, so I might have it before it hits newsstands. Or you can just check it out here! I bet you'd like the actual magazine in your hands though. It features pictures of Brian Wayne, Brandon Dolgner, Leya Czopek, Michael Colin, JT Campos(his backside) and me. I can now officially say I am a published writer in a national magazine. Yay!
It's even on the cover(in smallish print on the lower right-hand side).
Click on the image for a larger view, or go buy the magazine! Here is the inside:
Stack of DVDs - May 28, 2008
That is a huge pile of 36 DVD cases and the envelopes they were shipped out in. 28 packages were sent out yesterday, so be on the lookout in a mailbox near you! That's a lot of ink, paper and discs! You wouldn't know it was a made at home DVD if it weren't being sent by me and the fact that the back of the discs are blue, de-noting that it's a DVD+R disc. Finally did it! I might do a little advertising and see if I can't sell some copies myself, a little self-distribution. Hope your copy arrives soon!
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!
DVD COMPLETE! - May 19, 2008
As far as I am concerned, the DVD is done. Dave and I finished up the final sound mix on Wednesday of last week and I encoded the sound onto the movie and squeezed it all onto Disc 1 of the 2-DVD set. I will start printing DVDs out and getting them in the mail. If anyone involved in the movie ever reads this page, send me your address so I'm not sending it to an old address. I will send out emails as well so everyone is informed.
I will find out on June 1st if the movie is accepted to the Skip City International and if so, I have to find a way to get to Japan in July! Thanks to everyone involved in this movie and I hope the DVD finds its way to your doorstep and you get a few laughs and are entertained by this movie that took several years out of my life.
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.
First off, I've created a short video on how I put all the layers together in one shot out of the movie. It's set to be part of a new Editor reel I'm putting together. Enjoy.
NYUFF R.I.P. and SAYS F$%# YOU - March 18, 2008
Got another great form letter this weekend:
Dear Filmmaker,
Thank you for submitting to the New York Underground Film Festival. Unfortunately, we are unable to screen your film in this year's 15th and final festival.
This year we received an astounding amount of quality work from all over the world. That we have not programmed your film should not be taken as an assessment of it. As is the case every year, we are unable to program all of the work we want to, and this year space was especially tight.
We appreciate so much that you look to our festival as an appropriate venue to screen your work. The NYUFF ends this year, but the community of independent filmmakers and voices continues. Next year we will produce the first edition of a new film and video festival called Migrating Forms and we encourage you to submit your work when the call for entries opens this summer.
We wish you the best of luck, and look forward to seeing your work in the future.
Kind Regards,
Mo Johnston, Nellie Killian, Kevin McGarry
Festival Programmers
New York Underground Film Festival
195 Chrystie Street, 503
New York, NY 10002
www.nyuff.com
It all sounds very familiar, as if pulled from the book "Rejection Letters for Film Festival Submissions." They also add insult by saying it's their last year, so I will never be in their festival, ever.
Last week was an exceptionally shi$%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 $66 just for FedEx postage on Wednesday to deliver my movie to Japan hopefully by the 10th, their "in hand" deadline. I am speaking of the above fest, Skip City International. It might have a good chance of getting in seeing that the entry fee was zero and you can not have directed more than three features. I believe it also only accepts movies made on a digital format.
More info here SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL.
So, here's hoping it does something. I have finished remastering the video side of things and I am pretty happy with the final look of the film. Now I just need to light a fire under Dave's ass and get the sound mix done and we'll have a finished film on our hands people!
Indie Slate Magazine - February 28, 2008
I wrote an artice about the making of Ungirlfriendable and how it came about that I cam up with the idea for the sole purpose of sending it into Indie Slate Magazine to be a part of a section in the magazine called "Reel Life," which allows filmmakers to write in about their project and maybe get a little recognition. I sent the article in and here is the response I got from the editor:
So keep an eye on newsstands folks. They sell the magazine at Borders and Barnes and Noble.
Just today I exported yet another version of the film and it's ready to be put on a DVD so I can check it out on my big TV. I added filters and such and hopefully it will be for the better. Dave is still working on the sound and we have come up with the deadline of March 31st to finish it all up. Hopefully I can now honestly say I'll be sending out DVDs in April.
BUFF SAYS F$%# 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
- December 4, 2007
Oh man! What a weekend. All the emotions were had. The theme we received on Thursday night was "The Future," and the surprise element was "Action: Painting." Calls were made and the thinking began. I finally got to my destination in Houston on Friday night at about 7pm. We went through many ideas and decided upon the style being a 1950s PSA. The original location fell through Thursday as one of our members had to all but drop out of the proceedings because they had to work on Saturday. We only had the location on the contention that the person be there at all times to make the location owner feel better about all these strange people in her house.
Dickie Malone, a generous song contributor to Ungirlfriendable and cousin to my best friend Klint, came through in the pinch. He had emailed me a few weeks prior offering up his services to write a song or music for one of my movies in the future. I said I would be in his town of Houston this weekend and he might contribute a song to the cause if he so pleased. Not only did he provide the one piece of music used, but he provided a virtual goldmine of a location for us to use at our discretion. Dickie's brother owns a shopping center that has a few closed down shops and we were given free reign to use whatever properties we wanted and were offered to use any of the people working there as well. I will say that we didn't use it all to our advantage. We had huge spaces in which to work and so many opportunities to get quite an eclectic cast in the movie.
My mind wasn't on the project 100%. I won't even get started as to where it was, but the people involved in the project know where it was. Lots of ideas were thrown into the pot. We shot quite a bit of stuff. Actually, we only shot about an hour's worth of footage, but it was all pretty good stuff. It's a good thing we didn't have a ton of footage that I'd have to widdle down to five minutes. I did get it down to just that, exactly 5 minutes. In fact, I put a marker on the timeline in the editing program to show 5 minutes and had to make sure the credits ended there. We had to lose one of the products, "Crud away." It will be up as a deleted scene sometime this week. Maybe. Sorry Liz. She even shaved her forearm for the bit.
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 
Also, check out my new short spoof. My boss wanted to put together a spoof of this guy in Arizona who did 219 mph in a Lamborghini on the highway. My version uses the same audio with newly shot footage and some creative additions.
The original video clip can be found HERE.
My version is here:
POSTERS - November 20, 2007
I put up my movie posters on my office wall...
Thought I would display them. Got some nifty copper-like frames at Michaels, they really compliment the artwork. Click on the image below to order a print of the poster. I have a 24x36 inch poster. You don't have to go that big, but it's a nice poster.
You might have to sign up Ritz to order, not a big deal. Go to the Order Print page and scroll to Other Print Sizes. My other size suggestions would be 8x12 or 12x18 or 20x30. These are sizes they won't crop. And I made an addition to the poster, to add that special flair. I added a "laurel wreath." That would be the proper term for those wheat-looking things on independent movie posters with "Official Selection Film Festival" in between them. Took me a long time to find that term. Now you know.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
FILM FEST PICS! - November 14, 2007
And it's my b-day. 32 years old. Woooo. I thought I'd start off with my favorite pics. Kinda sad, but true. The start of the screening and end of the screening shot:
The one guy in front talked to me for a second and I gave him a copy of the movie for sticking around. The guy behind him is my step-uncle Rich. He drove up from Virginia Beach to Raleigh, NC to pick me up and we drove 5 hours to Asheville. We had a good time. We have similar tastes and afflictions so it was pretty cool to spend some time together. Thanks Rich! The Rejects guys asked me if I had any flyers. I didn't, so we made our way to Kinkos and I spent 10 or 15 minutes on a computer to make up flyers and that cost me $15 or $20. Here are the flyers I plastered all over downtown Asheville:
I made some copies of the movie and sold 3 copies! Wooo. Still way in the red! I wore my shirts and got some stares. First thing Shawn told me was that I needed to get it silkscreened. Duh! The best of show, best Asheville film and audience award went to Asheville people. Don't blame 'em. I was the outsider. I should have gotten the "farthest travelled" award. The California guy didn't show up. One guy, Bubba, had a film about Bigfoot, hence the Bigfoot statue, which, oddly enough, was in the Skymall magazine on the airplane.
Can't wait 'til the next fest. I'm hoping the next one is closer and I'll get to drag along one of the cast members. In two weeks, it's 100-hour film race time! Yay!
FIRST FILM FEST! - November 13, 2007
I am back from my trip to Asheville, NC. It was a weekend of meeting lots of folks and drinking lots of beers. I have to give a shout out to John Bennett and Shawn Lukitsch, the guys who started the Asheville "Rejects" Film Festival and run Agency Films. They were both very supportive and they really get out their and push their projects and stand behind the artists they put in their fest. I felt very welcome and enjoyed shooting the shit with those guys. It was also a pleasure to meet Lloyd Kaufman, if just for a few brief minutes. I didn't want to monopolize his time with mundance questions, of which I had none. He did put me on camera to talk about my film and being part of a "rejects" film festival, as he is putting together a supplemental DVD for his "Make Your Own DAMN Movie" DVD tutorial called "Make Your Own DAMN Film Festival." That was nifty. That guy is a trooper, sticking it out for 40 years making films, 35 years with Troma. He's a true independent. I'll have pics from the fest up tomorrow with more stories.
It's official! We are the WINNERS of the Austin 12-Hour Film Race! In addition to being 1st place, we also won the Audience Award(both at the screening and online), Best Direction and Best Writing. We are now in the running for the National prize. Vote here:
We won a few things, the best being a year Online Professional Membership to Writer's Boot Camp:
Very excited! I will unveil my new script idea and flesh it out into a full-fledged professional script. Right now, I will only give you the title, "Soul Jumpers."
UPDATE - November 8, 2007
Updated the poster last night to fit Ritz Camera's specs for a 24 x 36 poster. The image had to be elongated so I just stretched it but it looked bad, so I added more border and moved the writing around. I uploaded the image and Ritz printed it out and I picked it up today. It is sweet! It's on high quality photo stock paper and I am very pleased with the color reproduction and resolution. Yay!
UPDATE - November 5, 2007
Last minute, I decided to make a t-shirt to wear at the film screening this weekend. I will pick it up tomorrow. Just did a little work in Photoshop and came up with this(Click on shirt for detailed image):
Opinions??? If anyone is interested, I can do an order with a minimum of 12 shirts. I would have to hit you all up for money beforehand, probably $10 a shirt or so. What'cha think?
UPDATE - October 31, 2007
The 12-Hour Film Race films from Austin are up on their site. Watch them all and see if our film is actually the best and then VOTE for it to WIN!!!:
For some reason, I got positive reinforcement in my head about Ungirlfriendable and sent it off to two fests today, Cinequest and BUFF (Boston Underground Film Festival):
I recently watched a low-budget film entitled "Blood Car," and it was a winner at Cinequest, which is why I sought out that fest. If it's available at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video or Netflix (Release date on Amazon is November 6, 2007), then I say, "Check that mother out!" It is f-in funny. The humor in it is right up my alley. It's set in the near future where gas prices are $32 a gallon, so anyone with a car is deemed rich. A kindergarten teacher is trying to make an engine that will run on wheatgrass, but finds it will only run on blood! Funny concept that they don't drag out beyond it's brisk 85-minutes. What probably sealed the deal with getting it accepted and distributed was the co-starring role of Anna Chlumsky, the lead from the "My Girl" movies. The movie has plenty of boobies and blatant sex that's more overtly sexual and degrading than anything in my film, so I figured my film might have a slight chance of getting in. The fest supports Maverick filmmakers and new people on the scene.
BUFF seems like a very cool fest to go to. I really like what they represent and the award categories:
"The Boston Underground Film Festival (BUFF) announces its ninth annual competition, celebrating bizarre, insane film/video artists. The festival will be held the last week in March, and will include the best in provocative and experimental features, shorts, animation, and documentaries. The festival seeks the alternative, the confrontational, the political and the controversial. The festival is particularly interested in films that explore musical components, topics and themes. The Boston Underground Film Festival seeks films that celebrate the alternative vision and sound, offering a platform that encourages new ideas work and ideas, and pushes the envelope in style and content.
Awards will be given in the category of:
Best Documentary, Best Animation, Most Effectively Offensive, Most Promising New England Filmmaker, and Best of the Fest (feature and short)."
UPDATE - October 29, 2007
The movie is now listed as one of the official entries into the Asheville "Rejects" Film Festival:
We are getting somewhere! Yay!
UPDATE - October 25, 2007
OK, for you three folks that read this page, I will be scurrying on out to Asheville on November 9th to hang with Lloyd Kaufman and screen my movie before a live audience. I'll be sure to take my trusty digital SLR camera and take some snapshots, maybe even one of those great shots of me standing next to Lloyd in his bowtie and that "Oh my God I just crapped my pants" look you so often see him posing in. Props to the man for having a signature pose. I just brood.
This week, I sent the film off to Tromadance AND Slamdance, yes, SLAMDANCE. I filled out the paperwork a few months back and never got to the part where payment and sending the flick were involved. They sent me an email asking if it was an oversight on my part that the film was not in their possession. I missed the postmark deadline of October 9th by a day, so I just figured that was over and done with. Slamdance said I still had the opportunity to send it in if they received it by October 25th. They received it from me yesterday. Yay! It would certainly be an honor to get in because I just read an article in Indie Slate magazine(which is published out of Houston) that stated "One of the founders of Slamdance said that of 1200+ entries in one year, 1000 were a waste of tape, and presumably, everyone's time!" So we'd be ahead of the curve if it's accepted because according to their website "Last year, Slamdance got over 3200 total submissions (slightly more shorts than features). We programmed about 105 films altogether, with under 30 features and 73 shorts screening in the main competition. Statistically this does make Slamdance harder to get into than Sundance."
Viva las Ungirlfriendables!
UPDATE - October 16, 2007
Here's the exact email response I just got today from the Asheville "Rejects" Film Festival:
YO BUDDY... YOU ARE IN.... LOOKS GOOD...
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUBMISSION...
BEST....
How's that for straightforward? It may be the only fest it gets in so I'm gonna do my best to get out there on November 9th and see my film with an audience. Not really sure how legit the film festival is, but at least I can say the film was accepted somewhere! Yay! They've got THE Lloyd Kaufman to show up! So it's gotta be worth something. More info on the fest here: Asheville "Rejects" Film Festival. Rockport and Northhampton haven't gotten back to me, so I'm guessing I'm on the reject list that isn't that important for them to get to very quickly. I checked both fests sites and they both said they would notify of acceptance by October 8th. It's over a week later, so it's a safe bet Asheville is going to be THE festival. Next stop is TromaDANCE. Like Asheville, there is no charge to submit and it'll be running alongside Sundance, so maybe someone of importance will see it, IF it's accepted(and that person is drunk and stumbles into the wrong theater)!
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.
As for re-mastering the sound; it looks like I'm going to be doing that myself as well. Let's just say people find it hard to do work for free and I'd have to agree with them, but if I went by that rule I'd never get any films made.
To keep on my filmmaking toes, Team Duke is going to do the 100 Hour Film Fest. A very generous amount of time to make a 5-minute film. Several members of the group said they don't want it to deal with poop or shaving a cat, so I'm thinking horror movie this time around. Horror films seem to be the way to go to get into the business. Bleh.
UPDATE - October 1, 2007
We have done The Austin 12 Hour Film Fest 2007. The team was comprised of Brian Wayne, Brandon Dolgner, Juanita Rivas, Leya Czopek, Mikki Lanclos, Christine Paddo and me(that's Jeff Chaffin for those not paying attention). We got the theme "Secret" and action "Washing hands" at Noon. We had lunch at Freebird's and discussed what the story would be. We settled on Film Noir and somehow landed on wiping a butt with a cat. I thought I read somewhere that it should be somewhat family friendly and therefore didn't want any cussing in it. I can't find the page that says this, but Mikki did read something stating illegal activities could not take place nor illegal substances used or paraphenalia displayed(we were going to have a massive bong in a shot, but it had to go). We shot a majority of it at Juanita's place and a shot in an alley downtown. When it got down to it, we had less than 3 hours to edit. We turned it in at 11:45 and stuck around to see only 4 others turn theirs in. We have a good chance of winning. The screening of the film will be this Thursday at the Dobie. Can't believe they are charging so much. To see the film, click here:
Bien Minou.
