Welcome to the January edition of the independence insider!
It was originally our plan to produce a newsletter every month or so. Since we don't have a lot of news, but we do have a lot of post production work, we have changed our plan, and we will send the newsletter out quarterly.
Editing is going extremely well. The rough cut of the video will be complete in the next several weeks and then we move into fine tuning, transitions, effects, color correction, sound mixing and music composition (to name a few of the things that happen).
Post production is a strange animal. During production, you can see the work happening in front of your eyes, so it can be frustrating when a project moves into post production. It happens in the dark behind closed doors. And although the process isn't terribly entertaining for the public at large, we are sure it will be worth the wait! We're hoping to have a trailer out within the next few months to tide everyone over and entice those who don't yet know of the project.
It is our goal to enter and be shown at a major film festival. However, the major festivals like Sundance and Cannes require that the movies they select be world premieres, so we will have to wait for the festivals to accept our film before it is shown at all. After the premiere and screening at festivals, we hope to find a distributor and negotiate a contract with them. So it's hard to say with any degree of accuracy when you'll get to watch it on big screens and/or get to hold a DVD in your hot little hands!
We are extremely proud of the work that everyone put into the movie. It is exciting to put it together frame by frame. Although, in some ways, it's been heartbreaking to make choices. We want to put ALL of the wonderful work that the cast and crew did into the movie. But we're convinced that none of you would want to see 35 hours of actors doing the same scene over and over again! Perhaps we will put some favorite alternative takes on the DVD. But first things first.
We are still compiling notes and photos and writing journal entries for the website. It's been slow, but we're creeping along. New additions include:
Surprise, surprise!! We need money. Bet you've never heard that before!
There are many extra costs during post production including studio time for the sound mix, hiring musicians to record the score, and the huge cost of transferring the movie to a format for exhibition. The cost to transfer our DV format to 35mm film can be upwards of $30,000 for a feature length film. There is also a significant amount of our production costs that are still outstanding.
If you're inclined to help out, Nebraska Independent Film Projects (NIFP) is still accepting donations on our behalf as our fiscal sponsor. Because NIFP is a non-profit organization, all donations are tax deductible.
Please send checks to: NIFP P.O. BOX 80205 Lincoln, NE 68501 (www.nifp.org) Please be sure to write "Baby Lion Productions/independence" in the subject line so that your donation comes to us!
Blessings to all of you!