You Are Invited to a Special Screening of Jamin Winans' Latest Feature Film:

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

7:30PM Showtime

Director, Crew and Cast Q&A to Follow

Egyptian Theatre

6712 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028

BUY YOUR TICKETS EARLY AT FANDANGO:
http://www.fandango.com/egyptiantheatre_aaofx/theaterpage?date=6/10/2009

Jamin Winans’ INK is an intricately woven distorted time drama set among a "Snow White meets Nine Inch Nails" original score and highly unique visuals. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to see INK at American Cinematheque!

Winans’ urban fantasy film debuted at the 2009 Santa Barbara International Film Festival to rave reviews.

His short film, SPIN, has shown in over 80 film festivals and has won over 40 awards.

INK Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C5I1SavGyA

http://www.doubleedgefilms.com/

What others are saying:

"If you want to see something you've never seen before, INK is a must-see film." - Copernicus, Ain't it Cool News
http://www.aintitcool.com/?q=node/39874

"Epic in nature...it's a film that can stop your heart both with its story and with its look." - Cole Abaius, Film School Rejects

“Winans manages to morph the mundane and familiar into something utterly otherworldly, evoking the teeming atmosphere and dark imagination of everything from Terry Gilliam’s Brazil to Darren Aronofsky’s Pi.” – The Onion, Denver Decider

“Visually stunning…” – Santa Barbara Independent

Announcing the World Premiere of Night Before the Wedding

Night Before the Wedding is making it's way to the big screen on Tuesday, August 11th 2009 at the Laemmle Sunset 5 located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. There will be two screenings, 7pm and 9:30pm. We must thank HollyShorts Festival Organizers Theo Dumont and Daniel Sol for sponsoring this special night.


Lock in the day now and we will let you know as soon as tickets become available. If you would like to be on the inside and get emailed ticket information before we release it publicly, please send us an email to nightbeforethewedding@gmail.com with the Subject: August 11th Ticket Info.

Night Before the Wedding is produced by Richard A. Jacob, Gregor Collins, Rose Coleman, Isandra Gonzalez, David Branin and Daniel Sol.

NBTW is written and directed by David Branin. It stars John Keating, Gregor Collins, Johnny Giordano, Sarah Ronaghi, La'Rin Lane, Kevin Deen, Chad Davis, Frantz Durand, James Anthony McQuillan, Zane Patterson, Kristen Sullivan, Christopher Guckenberger, Rhomeyn Johnson, Michael Shaun Sandy, Daniel Sol, Mopreme Shakur and Susan Boughton.


We just finished the Official Trailer this week. We hope to have that online very soon so you can see exactly what is coming your way.

For more on NBTW, please visit http://www.nightbeforethewedding.com/
You can also 'Become a Fan' on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Night-Before-the-Wedding/41419346181?ref=mf

How Do I Deal With Failure?

Before I get into the meat of this post, please allow me to thank my latest two 'Followers' Double Edge Films (Jamin and Kiowa Winans) and Coastal.

Failure fuels me. Rejection sharpens my focus. It would probably be wiser of me to not reveal what I am about to write...and yet I must. For this blog to work, I cannot only share the best of times, I must share all of my setbacks.

After I submitted to the Los Angeles Film Festival a few months ago, I continued my research and realized we were dead in the water. For a festival as big as the LA Film Festival, they hardly take any feature films like Night Before the Wedding. One with a modest budget and no big 'names' attached. But more importantly than all that is that we had no connetions, no direct ties to the gatekeepers at LAFF.

Bottom line was that unless we made connections quick, there was no way we were getting into that festival. We made the attempt, though not enough to make a dent, and of course we received our rejection notice.

But I had a backup plan. Submit to another festival that prides itself on discovering true indie gems. I am not in the mood to name this festival by name in this post. You can scroll down below to previous posts for those details.

Well certainly this indie festival would be one that we would get into. We even had two filmmakers contact the festival and put in a good word on our behalf. Another filmmaker who got his films into a handful of the Top Festivals bluntly said Night Before the Wedding was 'too good' for this indie festival.

As you have already suspected, we did not get into this indie festival either. That makes my film 0 for 3 on the festival path. What do you do when you strike out on Plans A, B, and C? Does it sting? Sure. Does it hurt? Yeah. Does it stop me? Absolutely not.

On one side, I wonder if my film is a 'festival film.' I wonder if it has too much profanity? There is a small part that wonders if my film is good enough.

Then there is the other side of me that probes deeper. Once again I ask myself, did they even watch the film? That doesn't last for too long, then my mind moves onto the politics.

And as I speak to more and more filmmakers, I cannot tell you how many times they tell me, the reason why I got into this festival or that festival is because I knew somebody. The part that pisses me off the most is the $30 to $100 entry fee to submit my film to these festivals. I can handle the rejections. I cannot handle blowing money in addition to essentially someone telling me that my film isn't good enough for their audience. That's money I would rather put into advertising.

For the time being, I am done with Festivals. I know I have a film that people want to see. The question is how many people? Well it is time to find out. In my next post, it is time to unveil the World Premiere of Night Before the Wedding.

We will do it on our own. We will show these Festivals who passed over our film exactly what we can do or maybe what we cannot do. I am tired of being passed over by these festivals. This is the film business and it is time for us to do some business. I do not want to wait around, playing the waiting game for these festivals.

My way to deal with failure? To not dwell on it. To keep my mind focused on what I can do. And to keep taking action.

It is my hope that you want to still see Night Before the Wedding despite these rejections. It is my hope to still have your faith and support.

LA Film Festival Rejection (Night Before the Wedding)

I awoke this morning to find this message in my mailbox...

Dear Filmmaker:

Thank you for the opportunity to preview your film. We appreciated seeing your work, but I am sorry to tell you that it has not been selected for the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival.

Our selection process is very competitive, and many wonderful and deserving productions will not be included in this year's program. We wish you success with the film and hope you will keep us informed about your future projects.

Thanks again for your interest in the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Best regards,

Rachel Rosen
Director of Programming

I cannot say that I do not care. Yet I started to anticipate this news shortly after submitting. That feeling I had was the reason why in addition to the LA Film Festival, I submitted NBTW to Dances With Films, which doesn't have the prestige of the LA Film Festival but it prides itself on being an independent film festival for true independent films.

The way I take this current rejection is that me and my team simply could not connect ourselves with key decision makers at the LA Film Festival. And if you are not connected with these 'big name festivals', the likelihood of your film getting accepted drops considerably.

I have certainly learned from this rejection coupled with the rejection from the SXSW Film Festival. I am sure the day will come when one of my films gets into one of these 'big name festivals.' The bottom line is that these festivals do not break me. My end goal is to get the masses to see my film(s). Whether my films play at the festivals or not, isn't going to stop me from doing what I have to do to get people to see my work.

My view is that the current state of independent film has become too dependent on these film festivals. We have become too dependent on whether this small pool of festival judges approve our work. I am working on changing that. I am working on building my audience with or without the help of any festival I submit to.

With that, I should hear word from Dances With Films in the next couple of days. Other than that, I am done with the local Festivals. Any festivals after DWF will be outside of the Los Angeles area.

(Underneath this news, there is a silver lining. NBTW will be screening in Los Angeles in August. Going to wait on this festival news to clear, then update you with more details)

Film Courage Radio now on YouTube!!!

I have now started a 'Film Courage' Radio Show You Tube page. The aim is to provide a 'snippet' of each week's show mixed in with some still photography. This will help you put more of a visual on what each guest is saying.

Our first version of this with HollyShorts C0-Founders Daniel Sol and Theo Dumont is now online. Would love your feedback.



For full interview, visit
http://www.latalkradio.com/Film.php
http://filmcourage.podbean.com/
LA Talk Radio's 'Film Courage' hosted by David Branin and Karen Worden
Film Interview that Inspire, now also available for full download on iTunes.

HOLLYSHORTS ON THE RADIO! Fest Organizers Theo Dumont and Daniel Sol break news about their Webisode submission launch. To submit your Webisode or Short Film to HollyShorts, visit http://www.hollyshorts.com/ today!