Hey Everyone,
Thank you to everyone that has been voting for the "The Book of Caleb"
film in the "From Here to Awesome" film festival.
Maybe a day after I sent that "Last Chance to vote" newsletter I was
informed the voting deadline was extended.
The final deadline for voting for the film is now this FRIDAY, JUNE 6.
I was hesitant to write another one of these, but I figured there were a
few of you that maybe wanted to vote and got distracted or something and
then thought the contest was over.
Again, sorry to hassel you with this, but I hate to lose and honestly, my
only other alternative was spending my next two days off creating fake
e-mail address and voting for the film myself.
I'm a grown man and the idea of me sitting in a bathrobe doing that while
the rest of the world was at work was just too ridiculous. So please,
vote and spare me a little less humiliation.
Every vote counts so please take and time to at least do one of the
following, and if you have already done one, now would probably be the
time to do the other.
VOTE
You'll want to got to two sites:
Site 1:
http://www.fromheretoawesome.com/bookofcaleb
You will need to register before you can vote. Have a pen handy. The site
doesn't
let you pick your own password.
Vote by clicking “this film seems awesome” and following instructions
Site #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0upLEBV3as
You have to create a youtube account.
then:
1. rate it five stars: click the red ones
2. add a text comment
3. favorite: click the heart--most important.
4. subscribe to the channel, by clicking subscribe button in top right
corner.
Thanks
---
"DVD IS DONE"
Thanks to Justin at www.strikeanywherefilms.com
Yes, the long anticipated DVD is finally locked.
Keep in mind this is just the Master, or original. All the copies for
everyone to hold, well that's another story, but soon.
If you are interested in getting one of the DVD's at a lower price you can
pre-order here:
http://www.bookofcaleb.com/index.php?left=store&right=store&nav=on&title=on
---
"THE BOOK OF CALEB ON YOUTUBE"
If you want to see more videos about the making of the film you can always
check out our youtube channel at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/montag98pg
if you subscribe to the channel all the updates will come to you.
Grant made a fun one recently about the unique collaboration between the
cast and myself.
----
"THE BOOK OF CALEB NOW ON FACEBOOK"
Yes, it's true.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Book-of-Caleb/13447867099
become a fan if you want...
---
"STORIES FROM THE WINTER FRONT"
Cast and Crew remember to keep sending your production stories in.
Today I wanted to take a great story from Producer Grant Fenster. Grant
who has always kind of the unspoken hero of the project, and obviously the
film never would have gotten made without his personality being involved.
What does a producer do exactly?
well to sum it up he eats all the shit and never gets thanked.
Not that everybody else didn't accomplish great things, which I continue
to want to share, but all the other jobs on the production are kind of
temporal. You come in and do your job, eat some shit for awhile, and then
move on to something else.
Grant's been eating shit since he dropped out of North Carolina School of
the Arts in 2004 to produce this thing.
Obviously, it would be impossible to thank him for all he's done in one
mass e-mail ( especially since neither one of us are pussies, and we both
tend to take emotion as a sign of weakness more then whatever it's intent)
but I figured it'd be a good chance to hear a story from his point of
view.
So here is one of my favorite Fenster stories from Pre-production of THE
BOOK OF CALEB
----
The great thing about 35mm is not only its look but all the additional
costs associated with it. Being extremely low-budget, we had counted on
shooting with a more cost effective 16mm stock run on a camera we were
going to borrow from our alma matter, Florida State University.
Our start date kept shifting around, and when we finally had our dates
set, the FSU students' shooting schedule conflicted with ours. FSU could
not secure us with a 16mm camera package but could let us use their 35mm
camera instead. This just messed with the already strapped budget, and we
didn't know how we would afford the 35mm film to put into the camera and
pay to get it processed. We were bankrupt.
After an immediate food binge, with an attendance of director of
photography, line producer, producer, and director, followed by a slight
nap, we all brainstormed what we could cut and what each department was
willing to sacrifice to make the movie. How dare we get forced to shoot on
35mm? The industry standard of the medium.
With a lot of sacrifice and Line Producer Taylor Feltner's knack of
stretching a dollar, we had a game plan and a working budget. All we had
to do now was get the camera from the panhandle of Florida up to
Philadelphia.
I knew there was one man perfect for the task, our 2nd AD Joe Chang.
Not only is he a close personal friend I can ask a favor of, he also owns
a truck. On his way from North Carolina to Florida, traffic was smooth,
the vast majority of it heading northbound and leaving Joe a straight shot
to Florida. We soon learned that a tropical storm named ‘Katrina’ was
headed for the Gulf.
Joe was going to have to haul ass the rest of the way there and back to
North Carolina if he was going to make it in time to meet up with the
second part of our relay team, our three lead actors. Luno, Hampton, and
Nic were sent from Philly to North Carolina to pick up the camera gear
from Joe. They had to go because the rest of us were busy doing
pre-production work, and in any case, they needed some time to bond if
they were going to play childhood friends.
The idea was great in theory, but the experience actually turned out to be
a 20-hour awkward silence between three complete strangers shoved into the
DP's small pick-up truck.
-----
Thinking about the stress from those few days still makes me want to
vomit. It still physically puts a vice on my stomach, but that was the
nature of this production.
We would continually get ourselves into these hopeless situations and then
more often then any other, Grant at the last possible second would figure
a way to get our heads back above the water.
Best,
MM
