Post Production Crunch-Time

There are three stages of production when it comes to film. You have the pre-production, which involves writing the script, casting, securing locations, and basically getting ready to film. The second stage of production is the production stage. This stage involves filming the movie. In the case of ZOMBIES AND PIZZA (TM) we did 5 half-day shoots to film the movie. The final stage of production is called post production. This is the stage that I'm currently in. Post production is the final stage of film-making. This is the stage where all the raw footage is sorted through and edited visually. Sound effects and music are added, and in the case of ZOMBIES AND PIZZA (TM), subtitles and cartoons are added. The reason that I titled this blog post "Post Production Crunch-time" is that I'm trying to finish the film in time to get it into the West Chester Film Festival: www.westchesterfilmfestival.com/ their submission deadline is at the end of December, which is quickly approaching. It has been my intention all along to submit the film to the West Chester Film Festival, but yesterday it came to my attention that there are a lot of other film festivals which (unlike the West Chester Film Festival) are free to enter. This new development is something I'm going to think about, because the entrance fee to the West Chester Film Festival is $60 in December, and there is no guarantee that they will even show my film. It's something to think about.

Regarding deadlines though... Last Friday another brand new development happened. One of the ZOMBIES AND PIZZA (TM) actresses, Kat Johnston, recommended that I contact a local independent movie theater in Lansdowne to see whether they might want to show our film, and it turns out that they do. This theater is called, Cinema 16:9, and their website is http://Www.cinema169.com/ They are having a zombie walk from 6pm-8pm, then (assuming my movie passes their general managers screening) my film will be shown at 8pm, then Shaun of the Dead will be shown. Tickets are about $10 per person, and the date of the event is October 29th. That translates into "crunch-time", because as of last week the film was only about 1/3rd finished being edited. Bethany passed the torch along to my new editor, Elliot Herman, and now he is in charge of the editing and sound effects. And, I need to get the film to the theater in time for them to evaluate it to see if it's a good fit for their event. Right now I'm doing everything I can to keep things moving forward, and I'm pretty happy with how things are going, but I feel anxious too. I'm not used to having deadlines like this, but from what I hear, these kinds of deadlines are pretty common in the film biz. Wish me luck!