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2011, 05-05 =
Report: The DIFFICULTIES in Making & Marketing an Independent Film = “GO FOR IT!”
Report: The DIFFICULTIES in Making & Marketing an Independent Film = “GO FOR IT!”
Most people making Independent films tend to have an ARDUOUS challenge in getting their projects made and advertised to the public. This is the story of one of those, a movie called “GO FOR IT”, about the subject of young “Hip Hop” type dancers entering a contest...
... Per a discussion I had on May 4th with the director (& also writer & Producer), CARMEN MARRON, it took like 5½ years to get the movie financed, + maybe 1.5 years of work writing and planning it, and then like 19 days to film it in Chicago and Los Angeles...
... Information on the film can be found at www.GoForItMovie.com and via Facebook.com/GoForItMovie , plus on Twitter at #GoForIt! ...
... The basic film was completed in 2010, & it was shown at the 14th Los Angeles Int’l. Latino Film Festival (where it won an Honorable Mention in the Audience award category)...
... And ( as mentioned in my “Overview” report at http://voice-of-film.blogspot.com/2010/10/report-1-on-46th-chicago-intl-film.html ), it was also an official entry in the 46th Chicago Int’l. Film Festival in October of 2010...
... At various times, it won the Audience awards at “DANCES WITH FILMS” and (for Best Narrative Feature) at the June, 2010 SAN ANTONIO FILM FESTIVAL...
... In preparation for the selected national release on May 13th, a CONTEST was held in 2011 via Eventful.com: Under the phrase “Represent”, (as they’d done previously with films such as “CA$H” and “MOOZ-LUM”), people were asked to “Demand” (vote) that the film be shown in THEIR city...
... The location having the MOST votes would get to hold the Red Carpet PREMIERE of the movie at their high school, and the winner of that contest turned out to be ROBERTO CLEMENTE in Chicago...
... Before that formal premiere, to help drum-up word-of-mouth interest in the film Director Carmen had been traveling around the country showing the film at some private screenings in advance of the formal Premiere release...
... In Chicago, I and various others got tickets from LatinoScoop.com, for an advance screening at the Regal City North 14. As we waited in line, we were surprised to have a lady named Carmen come up & introduce herself as the DIRECTOR of the film, & she wanted to thank us for coming to this event...
... There was a lady ahead of me in the front of the line, JANE VALENCIA, who said, she was especially eager to see the film, since she ran a DANCE studio, DANCE BARRE (at dance.barre@yahoo.com ) !...
... Carmen was truly excited to hear that news, & told us how they were making special efforts to ATTRACT students and people interested in dance, & urged her to tell her friends about a unique program they’re instituting:
... As detailed in a flyer later passed out to attendees (with the emphasis being mine): “ In support of the May 13th release of the inspiration[al] Hip-Hop dance film GO FOR IT!. Pantelion Films has implemented a fundraising promotional initiative to give back to the local communities, by inviting students to raise money in an interactive way...
... “ Groups of high school and dance school students can collect GO FOR IT! ticket stubs from friends, family and classmates and send them to Pantelion Films, to receive $ 1.00 cash back per ticket stub for their school. In addition, the school that sends in the most tickets wins an additional $ 1,000!...
“ ... Make sure to tell your friends, classmates and teachers to join by spreading the word through Facebook and Twitter...
... I introduced myself to Carmen, & she kindly answered some of my questions about the making of the movie, & shortly thereafter was kind enough to pose for the PHOTO I took (above)...
... At one point, she told people in line how she is from Chicago, & shot a number of scenes in LOGAN PARK and other such areas. She now lives in the Los Angeles area, but wanted to shoot a good deal of the film in THIS area, utilizing some actors & dancers from here, & she’s very pleased to come back here to SHOW it to people here including ones involved in its making...
... She then introduced one of the stars of the movie, Chicago native DAVID HERNANDEZ. He was very outgoing, and happily talked to the people in line and signed autographs for people on the film posters he gave out to the crowd...
... In time, we were let into the auditorium for the screening... Carmen introduced herself to all the audience, and also presented David to us...
... She told about the contest wherein people voted to try to get the May 13th Premiere at their school, how some Los Angeles area schools were ahead at the beginning, but how it was eventually won by ROBERTO CLEMENTE HIGH SCHOOL here in Chicago (which brought cheers from the audience)...
... Carmen gave the basic details about the $ 1-back Fundraising offer they’re presenting, as explained on the fliers handed out to us as we entered, & encouraged people to spread the word to schools & others to take advantage of it...
... She told how she herself attended LANE HIGH SCHOOL & DEPAUL UNIVERSITY here, & commented on what a pleasure it was to come back and show her film that’d been planned for so long...
... As she said, her wish was “to hopefully inspire people to believe you can FOLLOW your DREAM” in life... She thanked the people for being there, as “It means so MUCH to me!...”
... Carmen at one point said she & David would be back after the movie for a Q&A session (& she left the auditorium)...
... The movie started, & things seemed very “strange”, as nothing seemed to “FIT”, & there were no words being heard when David was “speaking” on the screen... They tried to “fix” things, but the problems weren’t cleared up...
... Shortly, David came out in person & APOLOGIZED to the audience, as there had been a big problem: while the VIDEO for the film was correct, it seemed the processing company may have put the wrong soundtrack on the film!... They were trying to double-check “codes” & the like in the projection booth area, & urged us to bear with them...
... To keep us occupied, David talked to us for a considerable period... He gave more details about the competition for the Red Carpet type “Premiere” set for May 13th-- how Roberto Clemente had pulled ahead of Los Angeles schools a couple or so weeks ago (thanks to efforts by the principal & kids & all), & eventually WON by a “landslide”...
... He told how the whole [principal] cast is scheduled to be flown into town FOR the Premiere event, & they’re all very excited about it...
... David showed himself to be a very humorous, outgoing fellow, & commented on how, “I don’t need a microphone -- I’m PUERTO RICAN!”, which brought laughs from the audience... He said yes, he’s the person we’d seen near the beginning of the film who was talking & no words could be heard on the soundtrack...
... David gave us some information about the making of the film: He’d purprosely grown a large “AFRO” for his role. Everybody else in the film is pretty young, & he’s one of the older people in it...
... He’s a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild, & went to a SAG audition to try to get the role in “GO FOR IT!”... But, due to a mistake on his part, he’d gone to a wrong location for it, &, when he realized the error, he had to literally RUN maybe 8 blocks or so to get to the right place on time...
... When he arrived breathless & gasping for air, they were just calling his NAME to come in for the audition!... He was shocked that it was being held by Carmen, who he’d gone to SCHOOL with (at Lane Tech I think he said), & they hadn’t seen each other for maybe “30 years”!...
... At the 1st audition, he didn’t GET the role: he was so out-of-breath & worn out & all by the time he arrived, he did a very BAD audition. To be honest, he remarked that he’d probably came “across” as someone who seemed to be on “DRUGS” or the like. He felt so badly about how he’d messed-up, he initially didn’t even tell his WIFE what had happened!...
... As David commented, “I’m shocked that Carmen even wanted to SEE me again!”... But, he made “a nuisance” of himself, &, after having much trouble in filling the role of Cuko, she eventually DID agree to see him again. He “nailed” the 2nd audition since “I was ready”, & he GOT the role he wanted!...
... David went on to say, “It’s not just ‘another’ DANCE film or another teenage movie—”, but instead something crafted to show how LIFE is for a number of people today... He realizes that, he’s getting “older” & it’s becoming harder to even just get UP for work nowadays, but, he was eager & happy to do it for this film...
... To amuse the audience, David commented on how, as he gets older, he finds himself going to get something in another room, goes there, but then FORGETS what he went there for! But, when he goes back to the 1st room, as soon as he sits down, he then remembers what it was he was to get. In other words, it seems like, “Your ‘memory’ is in your BUTT!”...
... David commented on how much he’d ENJOYED being around all the young people in the movie...
... Altho they weren’t listed during the talk, I want to just give the basic facts about the REST of the cast: the lead female Mexican-American student / dancer is Carmen Salgado (played by AIMEE GARCIA)... Other Salgado relatives are Cecy (SAFIA HANNAN), Irene (LILIANA MONTENEGRO), Jesse (ANDRES PEREZ-MOLINA), & Luis (GUSTAVO MELLADO)...
... Frank Martin is played by AL BANDIERO. Other characters are Jared (DERRICK DENICOLA) & his mother (PEGGY GOSS) & father (BRAD ARMACOST); Loli (JOSSARA JINARO); Gina (GINA RODRIGUEZ); Pablo (LOUIE ALEGRIA); Nino (RENE ROSADO); and Danny (DANIEL YABUT)...
... After his talk, David announced that the projectionist people were going to try AGAIN to play the movie we’d come to see... Unfortunately, there was no improvement in the sound problem...
... Carmen had returned by this time, & APOLOGIZED to the audience for the situation. She’d shown a different print in another city just a day or so ago, & there had been NO problem at all with that one!...
... Somehow, the print that’d been directly sent to our theater apparently had a trailer for some OTHER movie (just what, she didn’t know); & then, since that took 3-5 minutes “away” from the proper start of HER movie, there was no way to properly “SYNC-UP” the SOUND with what was going on visually (as the sound would be some minutes “behind” the video, due to the trailer)!...
... She said, the people who’d arranged the movie screening had agreed to invite them to whatever NEXT film they would be showing at “our” theater in the near future, & asked us to please put down our E-MAIL address (or phone #) on the sheets of paper they were handing out...
... Carmen expressed how extremely sorry she was for the mixup, & thanked DAVID for his efforts on keeping the audience engaged. She herself would be returning to Chicago for the Official Premiere on the 13th-- but, it was still unclear just WHERE that would be held in town (whether at ROBERTO CLEMENTE school or some movie complex)...
... She indicated, there was the POSSIBILITY that she might be able to invite us to HER movie we’d come to see tonite-- but that depended on things like where it would be held (& the space available), etc.... In any case, we’d be invited to some OTHER screening of a selected film, & she APOLOGIZED again for all the inconvenience...
... After filling out the info sheet, I commented to Carmen how badly I felt for HER, after going thru so many years or trials & tribulations to get the film made & distributed and all...
... She thanked me & commented, what concerned her is, prints of her film have started going out to all over the country & even for the Cannes Film Festival, & now, it’s unclear if any of THOSE prints have the SAME mistakes re the sound!... (She at one point excused herself to talk to someone on her phone about checking into that matter)...
... As we left the auditorium, I spoke to DAVID some more. I said, normally, you’d never “check” the sound embedded with the film, as opposed to just checking if the “right” film was in the “assigned” movie case, & he agreed... I then shot a PHOTO of him in his T-shirt advertising the film (below)...
... David ( who can be seen on chicagoshowbiz.com ) told me he’d done a lot of work in films and TV, such as in LADY BLUE”, “CODE OF SILENCE”, “JUDY & MIKE”, “NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS”, “HELIX” (which utilized an un-edited 90-minute-long single shot), and others. He’s also talking to some people in New York about some offers for future work...
... At one point, David was happy to greet an old FRIEND of his who’d come to tonite’s screening, DJ “BOOGIE DOWN BENNY” (who David said had been involved with the “HOT MIX 5” & been a friend of his for many YEARS).. I then shot a photo of the 2 of them together (as seen below)...
... Before leaving, I again expressed my regret to CARMEN over the problems that had arisen today, & my hope that it’d all be resolved for her in a good way soon. She thanked me, & we wished each other well...
... After that, I spoke to a friend of mine, E.F., & we commiserated on how sadly “WRONG” things can go unexpectedly when making & marketing things like movies...
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