Some Quick Updates

Hey folks –

Hope everyone had a nice holiday. Time is certainly flying by, we’re getting close to the end of January already!

Sorry I can’t update this thing more regularly. I know having a rarely updated blog is almost worse than not having a blog at all, but you must understand that this film was made entirely by dudes working on it during their spare hours – and this is still the case now!

There are a lot of things going on with the film. Here’s a quick run down:

-Mike Amquist is working hard updating theromanticmovie.com. Expect some more content on the site, including our digital press kit and a revamped ABOUT section.

-I’m cutting a new trailer for the film.

-Finalizing some promotional materials – postcards/movie posters.

-Debating whether we’re going to release DVDs ourselves. The release would perhaps tie in with a world “freemiere” of the film, where we will make the film available for free download, with either a creative commons license, or perhaps even a balls out copyright free deal ala Sita Sings the Blues.

-Still submitting to film festivals. Will have a more detailed post on that process soon!

Thanks for your patience and support everyone, we can’t wait for everyone to see what we’ve made!

-Heneghan

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The Waiting Game

So. Here’s the scoop for everyone following this film’s progress.

-We’ve had two pre-screenings to test the film out with audiences. Both were great learning experiences. There are some sound issues that need to be taken care of.

-We’re ready to premiere this film! But we’re waiting. We’ve submitted to over 15 film festivals at this point, but we won’t hear back from the first one until Christmas time.

-When we know when and where we will be screening, you will know.

-DVDs. Many people have been asking me for a DVD copy. Right now we have some DVD-r screener copies, and yes, we can give you one, but no, we probably won’t, for now, at least. There are some issues with the DVD-r compression, and honestly, after waiting this long, I’d like to wait until we have something more professional out there before I start passing these things around en mass.

-Distribution – we have no idea what our distribution is going to look like. There’s a chance someone bigger than us will dig the film and pick it up for DVD distribution. Or we’ll do it ourselves. Maybe we’ll raise money from kickstarter.com to make some really really nice DVDs that we’ll sell on amazon.com etc. If we go this route, we’ll probably offer a FREE digital download as well. Yes, we’d give the film away but also offer a nice package for those that want a hard copy and for those that think it’s important to financially support the things you enjoy. I’ve been studying recent self distribution models ala Sita Sings the Blues which seem pretty effective. I’m not out to make money with The Romantic, though money wouldn’t hurt. What’s more valuable is the ability to raise money for my next film, Burp’s Christmas.

So that’s what we’re working with right now. We’re kinda in limbo right now, it’s a feel I’ve had for too long at this point and I’m really looking forward to getting this film screened and getting it out on DVD. I’ve been spending my extra art time making visual art pieces as part of the Language & Arts team at Circle of Hope, making wooden ornaments called “Friendly Beasts”, and working through things with Burp’s Christmas.

If you want to help us out, become our friends on Facebook, and show all your friends our trailer! Post it on your social networking site, tweet about it, help us get the word out. We’re kinda bad at it!

Thanks for your support so far, will let you know more info as it comes in…

-Michael

Philly Sneak Preview

Hey folks –

I’m proud to announce that our Friday the 13th Philly Sneak Preview screening at Circle of Hope F&N was a huge success!

Before we opened our doors, the line outside went down the block, wrapping around The Rocket Cat Cafe.

After opening the doors, we reached our maximum capacity in about 10 minutes.

The screening itself went well, though the audio was a bit fuzzy at times and the venue got pretty stuffy in some places.

Afterwards, I got “on stage” briefly to introduce myself and the other folks that worked on the film. It was awesome to see some of the old crew again (some of the cast I hadn’t seen since recording their dialogue, almost three years ago!). It was also neat to see members of the cast together. Each dialogue part was recorded solo during pre-production, meaning none of the voice actors were ever in the same room with each other. Instead, they only had me clumsily acting out the different parts to bounce off of.

The reception following the screening had tons of delicious food provided by Nikki Kleiberg. People hung out for a while and I got to talk to many folks about the film. Lots of great feedback, and some valuable critiques! Overall it seemed liked many people really enjoyed our little film.

Thanks again to Circle of Hope, Sarah Mueller, Daniel Pilger, Joey Mahoney, Jenna Jablonski, Josh Wentzell, Lina Moysis, Amanda Claussen and Siobhan Harper for helping out with the event!

Can’t wait for the next screening!

-MPH

Philadelphia Sneak Preview!

Hey folks, if you’re in the Philadelphia area, come on out for a special sneak preview screening of The Romantic at Circle of Hope Frankford & Norris.

Here’s the flyer:

Many of the film’s cast and crew will be in attendance! Not a night to miss.

-MPH

Dan chimes in on the MIT pre-screening

Nearly a year after posting the trailer of the film to Reddit.com and through a series of connections, we had a pre-screening at MIT, thanks to their lecture series committee. Though the screening was not without one or two technical hurdles, hilarity still ensued… And though I expect Mike will also chime in on our time up there, I just want to outline a few personal favorite highlights:

•MIT’s campus (and the nearby areas of Cambridge and Boston) was breathtaking. In addition to the architecture and courtyards, there were rooms stocked full of gadgetry at MIT – I imagine it’s what’s space camp would have been like. I was careful not to touch any big red buttons for fear of creating a black hole and ending the world as we know it.

•During the screening, we could not have chosen a better spot in the auditorium to sit. The students in front of us laughed hard and gasped hard at all the right times and it felt great to experience such palpable reactions from complete strangers… especially considering they could have just as easily made harsh criticisms, not knowing the creators of the movie were seated directly behind them.

•The post-screening Q&A went very well… MIT students are some of the most brilliant minds in the world, and it showed in their questions.

•Back at our hotel, after a night of celebratory whiskey and beer, Mike clocked me in the face with an orange. The jury is still out on whether or not this was on purpose, but I still plan on getting revenge in some way.

Special shout-outs to Eric for showing us a couple good pubs in Cambridge after the screening, and to Cody for sharing his bottle of whiskey up on the roof of the MIT dorms in the wee hours of the morning.

This makes me really excited for our Philly screening in a few weeks!

Facebook!

The Romantic is on Facebook. Are you on Facebook? Want to become friends?

Click here!

-Heneghan

Ottawa! And screenings.

Just a quick update letting you folks know that tomorrow morning (Wednesday) I’ll be driving up to Cananda for the Ottawa International Animation Festival!

If you’re wandering around there and see a guy that looks like this:

please feel free to say hello! I’ll have a couple copies of the film with me. Maybe you’ll get one!

Also, quick notes on two upcoming screenings:

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27th
SNEAK PREVIEW at MIT featuring Q&A with Director Michael P. Heneghan
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 7:00pm. FREE. More info here.
In the 6-120 building of MITs Campus, Boston, MA

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14th
Philadelphia Pre-Screening! Come out and meet the cast & crew!
Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 7:30pm. FREE.
at the F&N Gallery, Circle of Hope Frankford & Norris, Philadelphia, PA 19125

That’s it for now…

take care,
MPH

Three New Clips!

Hey folks!

So summer is finally over and we’re getting geared up to start our year at the festivals. Dan and I have been busying ourselves getting DVDs polished and ready for submissions (a lot of our submission due-dates begin in October/November). Lina Moysis and Mike Almquist have helped out by designing artwork for both jewel and amaray cases (some festivals are picky about what case you send your screener DVD in).

The film is 100% finished. So far we’ve got two pre-screenings in the works towards the end of October/beginning of November. More info as it becomes available. We’re waiting to hear back from what we hope will be our “premiere” festival. Again, more info on that as it becomes available.

In the meantime, check out these three clips of the film Dan has posted on Vimeo, animated by Sean Dooley and myself with special effect work by Dan.

The Appleman recounts the creation of the pumpkin moon from Daniel Gauthier (Get-Kinetic) on Vimeo.

Fat Daddy addresses the people of Vauxhull from Daniel Gauthier (Get-Kinetic) on Vimeo.

Romance and Patience at the Lurching Turtle from Daniel Gauthier (Get-Kinetic) on Vimeo.

This October I’ll be hard at work designing promotional stuff for the film. Before we hit the festivals, we need postcards, business cards, posters, and stickers to give away.

I’ll also be working on Burp’s Christmas – my next film! Check it out at http://burpschristmas.blogspot.com

Until next time,
MPH

Watching and Waiting

No update in a while. Here’s what we’ve been up to:

-We’ve submitted the film to our first film festival, hoping to premiere it there. We’re still anxiously waiting to hear back!
-We’re still polishing the VFX and sound design. Unfortunately, we had to submit a somewhat unfinished version of the film to the above mentioned film festival so we could hit the deadline in time. It was still a good cut, but the sound design was still pretty rough in certain places.
-Nate lives in NYC now. I’ll be heading up to visit him in the next week or so to have our last day of mixing. Then the whole thing is 100% finished!

Then, after that date with Nate, we’ll be sending the film off to many, many more festivals, and arranging our first Philadelphia screening!

It’s pretty exciting.

Meanwhile, I’ve been beginning work for my next feature, Burp’s Christmas. We’re still working on a blog and website, which will be burpschristmas.blogspot.com and www.burpschristmas.com, respectively.

I also blog about my personal life and about other artwork I do at a blog called All the Friendly Beasts. You can check out a lengthy post I did on The Romantic here.

We have a rough mailing list for The Romantic with a few folks signed up. It started a while ago, but I still haven’t mailed anything out. We will be sending out the first letter within a week or so. I also need to get in contact with all the voice actors and let them know how things are going. I haven’t heard from so many of them in so long!

Also gotta design our promo materials – posters, post cards, etc.

A lot of stuff to do, will try to blog more often (hah!)

much love,
Michael P. Heneghan