Brainstorming then what...

One of the things I'm noticing about building a campaign is that you have to kind of think of everything, every angle, group, friend or helper you can enlist to assist. It is a highly collaborative effort, and though it might be easier to do things on your own, success is highly dependent on triangulating with people you trust, people that have a similar passion for the subject matter.

We have been brainstorming all sorts of ideas and they're mostly good ideas, but I keep getting this feeling like - are we going to follow through on all of this. You can have a website, a twitter feed, facebook page and a whole host of channels - but would it be better to just have 1 channel, one central repository for everything that is "your film". It is becoming clear to me that the website is the "hub" - twitter, facebook, vimeo etc are teh spokes and the spokes need to go two ways, but always back to the website. The website MUST be dynamic in some way, by brute force or by utilizing sophisticated tools.

CHUNKALIZE
It make sense to break the work that needs to be done into logical chunks of work: costs, edit, audience, gifts, etc. Next week there is a big CHUNK - MUSIC. One of the biggest things we need to determine this coming week is what, exactly, will it cost to get the DVD (and other forms) out to the world. Next week I am going through the current edit to gather all the songs that are included and see if there is a way I can shrink that down without impacting the overall story. Quotes right now for songs are 10 cents per song, per dvd. So if I have 30 songs in the documentary that means each DVD requires us to pay $3.00. If that costs goes up to 15 sents then we're at 4.50. That work will take about 30 hours, believe it or not.

This week is the juke joint festival in Clarksdale, wish I was there, but I'll be there in two weeks. Check back as we progress!!

Kickstarter Campaign

We've been working on this film since 2003. When people would tell me that they had been working on their documentary films for 3, 4, 5 years, I'd think - are you nuts? And yet, here we are, 9 years later working to get our first documentary film "Delta Rising" out to the world. The campaign is based on partnering with blues fans around the world to get this film into their hands. Making a film is one thing, covering the music rights, insurance, covering distribution, archival footage etc is another. In order to get this movie out there we need to have our i's dotted and our t's crossed.

Today I worked with one of the other producers, Matthew Goff, to come up with a campaign game plan and are running that by, Laura Bernieri, our other producer. It is important to be clear about your goals, what you're asking people for and why. So we're kicking the kicking of kicking it off off. Stay tuned.

DVD and Campaign coming soon

We've been working behind the scenes on completing the DVD for distribution as well as social and educational media supporting both the blues and the little gem of Mississippi - Clarksdale. More will be coming soon and I how you'll join us for the launch of this new phase for the film.

New Hampshire Film Festival - Day 2 - Brrrrrrr!!

I woke up Friday morning, showered, gathered my stuff and walked outside and was greeted with a bit of winter. It snowed in Boston but it was just cold in Portsmouth. I drove in to town to see the film Food Inc and it absolutely changed my mind about what I ended up having for dinner. This is a really powerful move done in a very cool way with a very strong message without making you feel like you're getting pounded over the head. I would highly recommend it - and I am once again saying hello to my old fishiterian ways.

I was fortunate enough to do a radio interview on WCSA radio 106.1FM in the afternoon and it was quite fun. Thanks to Rick Dirck for putting that together. I'll post the audio out on the Delta Rising website before I leave Portsmouth but I need to edit it down a little because it is basically a full hour. The DJ, Shawn Henderson, was really gracious and a true blues fan. I love doing radio.

Laura Bernieri (co-producer, co-director) and Andrea Wozny (director ToTimbuktu) attended a legal panel that was in their words - amazing. All the legal copyright investment law etc can be a complicated arena and this panel really spoke out on how to avoid the common pitfalls indie filmmakers fall into. We all had a chance to speak with Paul Durham (Entertainment, Media and Publishing Group) and we are better filmmakers for it. We invited Paul for a quick beer and a bowl of chowder and it was great sharing war stories.

THE SCREENING
So our screening was at 6:30 at the Muddy River Smokehouse. This is good venue for the type of film we made and we were in the basement screening room. The house was about 80% full and the screening went well. We did QA after and got to talk at length about the film, what inspired the story (thanks matt for introducing me to chris) and how it all came to be. It is always terrific to see the film in front of an audience and gauge their reactions, and I particularly like it when people laugh.

We went to get a bite to eat and then headed off to the after party which was really rocking - but my 50 year old body was knockin so I didn't stay long but when I left it was still going strong. Today is a day for seeing a couple films, I'm especially interested in seeing MINE a documentary about pets during Katrina which is rep'd by my lawyer - George Rush. I met the filmmaker Erin at the party and it was fun to chat and talk about the film and how small the indie film world is.

Okay more tomorrow - m

pictured above are L-R, Laura Bernieri, Andrea Wozny, Michael Afendakis, Deb Barry, Nicole Gregg

New Hampshire Film Festival - Day 1 on the way

I flew from San Francisco to Boston last night and got into Logan at about 11PM. Super smooth flight, I got upgraded to first class, the guy next to me was quiet and still, the flight attendants were really terrific and I watched THE HANGOVER on the little digital devices they give you sometimes. That is a funny movie. I checked in to the Courtyard Marriott Logan Airport which has a "re-imagined' lobby area which I found to be a maze sort of concept where things are hidden by these half height walls everywhere. I had a beer and went to my room and watched Conan. Not a bad day.

I woke up to this glorious view pictured above and am taking a break from repacking my bags. I picked up my red Ford Escape from Hertz and got their Neverlost Navigation system (which I sadly find to be one of the worst around) so I'm antsy to get to Portsmouth and get my credentials, meet some filmmakers and especially meet Deb Barry and Nicole Gregg who basically run the festival. When we go to the Telluride Film Festival my wife Buffy loves to go through the schedule and mark which films we will see and how we will get from venue to venue in time. I am on my own this time and I just hoping to see 5-8 films and get to know more of the filmmakers and Festival staff.

As always I have 3 backups to the master for Delta Rising just in case something goes wrong. This cut of the film adds a couple dimensions that weren't in the previous versions - better graphics, better still imagery, added James Super Chikan Johnson to a scene near the end and I am now dedicating the film to some of the subjects in the movie that have passed away. This has been a 7 year adventure almost and time takes its toll on some of these great blues legends. Okay going to finish packing and brave the crazy highways of Mass. - Michael

New Hampshire Film Festival - Portsmouth

Well I'm off to the New Hampshire Film Festival this week. Delta Rising plays twice in Portsmouth - Friday at 6:30PM and Sunday at 2:55PM. I have never really been to the Northeast at exactly this time of year and I am truly looking forward to it. There are some folks I have been chatting with on Facebook that I have never met that I'll get to meet and I will get to re-visit with some of my filmmaker partners and friends.

I'll be blogging away and let you all know what I see and experience. This will be the 10th festival for the film and each one has had its truly unique flavor and ambience, some are super glitzy and others are really down home and comfortable. I have loved each of them and I have seen an awful lot of the country due to the film.

So keep an eye out. Chat with you soon!!

Michael

Telluride Film Festival 09

Telluride Film Festival really doesn't have anything to do with Delta Rising but more to do with our love of film and this most spectacular jewel - Telluride.

We flew from San Jose to LAX. Then LAX to Montrose, CO where we take the shuttle to Telluride (~9000ft). We sat next to Fred Ward on the plane and had a terrific conversation about his life in acting and other fields (he worked on BART in the 60's as a union strong guy) and the plane had many noteworthy directors, writers and actors on board.

FRIDAY:
Today is the first film day. We started the day off with this amazing brunch way up on the side of a grassy mountain slope with spectacular views of the rugged peaks and the valleys around Telluride. We sat at a table with Michael Lerner and the directors of the films Farewell and Sleep Furiously and had a spirited conversation about their films while we ate amazing cheeses, baked goods, locally grown foods in this unbelievable place.

After the brunch we went to a special screening of "An Education" directed by Lone Scherfig and also introduced the audience to an amazing young actress, Carey Mulligan. What a terrific sweet film this was. It's about a young English girl battling whether or not going to Oxford is the life she wants or whether spending her young years visiting Paris, seeing Jazz and being in the company of a bit of an older man is more appealing. Really terrific. We spent some time with Michael Lerner (Life During Wartime, Entourage many others) and he made a point about there being a crack here and there in the story and I just thought - I don't care..this film had me at the opening credits.

TUESDAY
Okay so I am back home now. What a spectacular time we had. We saw 15 films and not one of them was bad. I am going to do a crude ranking system here using a 5 star system to say how I felt about the films. Please check out the descriptions on IMDB or google.

An Education - Terrific - ****
The Last Station - Awesome Love Story between Tolstoy and his wife - *****
The White Ribbon - Layered, Tense but Long - ***
The Road - Powerful, dark with never ending hope - ****
Up in the Air - Funny, Sad - a very vunerable George Clooney - ****
The Prophet - Prison, where the meek end up kicking ass - ****
It came from Kuchar - Very funny, San Francisco Kuchar Bros - ****
Farewell - Tense KGB vs CIA - ****
Life during wartime - Funny, weird, quirky - *****
Bad Lieutenant - Corruption turns into Keystone Cops - ****
Samson and Deliliah - 30 lines of dialogue, aboriginal life - ****
The Jazz Baroness - Personal story about Nica and Monk - ****
Fish Tank - Tough, gripping - ****

Though I enjoyed all the films I probably walk away from the festival remembering The Last Station the most. This was a powerful and compelling story about Tolstoy and his wife during his last days, filled with love, hope anger and ultimately redemption. This has an amazing performance by Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren and especially James McEvoy.

Buffy and I had the great fortune to sit and have a quiet glass of wine and appetizers with Darryl Hannah while we were there where we talked about many of the environmental challenges we are facing today. She is a brave, earnest sweet person and it was a special moment for Buffy and I.

I am always sad to leave Telluride, but I was dying to get back home to my son Cooper and as I went in to work a bit late I got to see him and hold him for 5 minutes. And I wanted to make sure that we raise him to find a path that is his own and to dream big and free, Telluride can bring that out in a person.

We are off to the New Hampshire Film Festival in October where Delta Rising will be featured. Hope to see you all there! - Michael