Hi there.
New news! Hurray! The DVD's came in today! All 50 of 'em, and they look great. The packaging looks really professional. I unpackaged and tested one and it worked fine.I wholeheartedly recommend www.mixonic.com for disc duplication and replication. These DVD's will sell for $10 at the premiere. JUST A REMINDER: all of the money raised at the premiere will be going to finance the third film in The Blackest Dawn Chronicles.
Cameron and I have been cooking up a few goodies for the premiere on Monday. A few of the extras are tightly-kept secrets, but I am glad to say we will have a blooper reel following Dust to Dust. It has been loads of fun going back and revisiting the challenges of being on set as well as the funny moments.
The Winston County Journal ran a piece on the movie premiere in today's paper. You can read the article here.
I've saved the best news for last. Cameron and I met for 2 and a half hours in the MSU library last night and... inspired by our Blackest Dawn iTunes playlist... we finished the plot outline for Episode 3! It was a very exciting moment. The creative juices were really flowing for both of us and we bantered back and forth and pantomimed and imagined until we beat out an incredible ending to the story. This third film will be sooooo different from anything we've offered so far. Hopefully, the ending will set the stage for an epic blockbuster feature in the distant future, but I think the ending we've imagined will be satisfying in and of itself. This story will take the world we've created and the precedents we have established and really give them depth and humanity and feeling. The trick is to continue to not take this world too seriously, because we really do love it.
I will continue to delve into our thoughts on Episode 3 and bring to light some of the actual events and themes of the story in future posts. Meanwhile, Kevin Holdiness, the composer of The Blackest Dawn's original music, will be sharing some of his thoughts on The Blackest Dawn music and the art of film scoring itself. That's all for now.
Carry on my wayward son,
Johnson T.
P.S. In case you were curious, The Blackest Dawn playlist consists of Evanescence, Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, Enya, and of course a little U2.
Monday, September 8th at 8PM is the official date of the Dust to Dust premiere. It will be showing at Northgate Cinema 4 at 432 N. Church Ave in Louisville, MS.
Tickets will go on sale next week for $5 each. They can be purchased at the Cinema 4 box office or directly from me.
The night will consist of a filmed introduction by Cameron and me, then Zombies featuring a brand new original score, a product endorsement featuring Joel Pishano, the world premiere of Dust to Dust, and maybe a little bonus at the end...
We will have 2 new t-shirt designs available as well as DVD's and possibly a few other goodies. Supplies will be limited, so buy them up early!
To follow up on the last blog, the DVD's have been ordered. The t-shirts have been ordered. The showing has been organized. Things are moving along. I'm looking forward to the day when I can focus all my attention on creating the third episode.
I will be posting again soon as well as adding a number of updates to the site. I'd like to move into more thoughtful posts on filmmaking as an art and an occupation and explore the "issues" that surround film and how I might deal with them. I'd also like to share more about the progress on the third episode, but I've been so busy trying to get Dust to Dust shown I haven't had time for it.
Another to-do list (scribbled on the back of linear algebra homework)
* Design tickets
* Print tickets
* Get tickets to the box office in L'ville
* Write introduction
* Film introduction
* Film "product endorsement"
* Edit "product endorsement"
* Post new blog
* Post info to About Us page
* Create bumper stickers on CafePress
* Create "Its zombie killin' time" clock on CafePress
* Record welcome to website audio
* Post audio to website
* Compress video for web
* Send DVD to createspace.com for duplication
* Start blog accounts, bookmarking accounts
* Do Circuits homework, Calculus homework, Acting journal, TV production homework
Hasta lasagna don't get any on ya,
Johnson T.
Dust to Dust To Do List
1) Finish Sound
2) Burn DVD
3) Talk to theater owner
4) Get Kevin to rescore Episode 1
5) Write new blog
6) Make DVD art
7) Order DVD's
8) Organize showing
9) Post blogs, etc. around web
10) Put music on site
Episode 3 To Do List
1) Finish story outline
2) Write character studies on Joel, Zoey, Mom, Zealot
3) Write Script
Hi everyone,
Just because we haven't made many changes to the site doesn't mean we haven't been working. Think of this project as a life-size lego robot. We can't just start stacking bricks, we have to break the project down into modules: the head, the torso, the legs, etc. And when the modules are ready, we will put them all together and rip back the curtain and say "voila!"
So what modules are we attacking now? The to-do lists above were taken from the "minutes" of our first Fall movie meeting one whole week ago on August 18th. You can put a check next to 1-6 on the first list. Tomorrow we will order 50 DVD's from www.mixonic.com. We expect these in some time next week. We have contacted the owner of the movie theater in Louisville, MS and he seems excited to help us show our film. We will post the date and time of the showing as soon as we know.
On Episode 3, Cameron and I have been meeting almost nightly to plot out the story outline. We have really expanded the world of The Blackest Dawn Chronicles in this new episode. I think this episode will feel much more grounded in its own time and place. It will be a painting with more color and texture on a much larger canvas.
I really have too much to say! I need to spread it out over a few entries so that I don't ramble. A few notes of interest: we are designing bumper stickers for The Blackest Dawn that will be available for sale on the CafePress store; also, we are working on a short product endorsement starring Joel Pishano; lastly, we're working with a beard maker in Sweden to make Pishano's beard for episode 3!
Peace and Good Will,
Johnson T.
The Indie Film Showcase was awesome! There really was a lot of variety on display. From documentary to comedy to costume drama, 18 short films/trailers showed and all exhibited a lot of creativity in one area or another. In true Ghost Town Productions fashion, we finished burning the Dust to Dust DVD on the drive to the Fest, only to find out at a critical moment that our DVD didn't really work. Michael Williams, the organizer and MC of the showcase, took quick steps to postpone our film a few minutes and I was able to bring my laptop in and show it off of the laptop. Ugh! It would have been nice to sit back and relax and enjoy the show but technical difficulties kept me stressing until the last minute. BUT, it came off very well. The screen was a little dark and occasionally characters' faces looked like black blobs, but I think the fun factor showed through. I didn't realize how intense this film was! We were trying to make a comedy! What happened?!
From here, the plan is I finish work and sleep for a week straight at my home in Texas and then return to start the school semester at MSU. We're hoping to have an official Dust to Dust screening at the theater in Louisville, MS in 3 weeks but I have yet to make any calls on that. When we do, we will also release the online version of the movie. Yes, you will be able to view the whole movie for free online. However, we recommend that if you like it and would like to see it in its full glory and would like to support us at the same time, you purchase a DVD or a hi-res download of the film. I have yet to finalize prices for those but they will be reasonable. We're also mulling over plans for the third installment. We have a lot of ideas we're very excited about. We'll be sharing those and asking for feedback in the near future. Lots of big things are happening in The Blackest Dawn world, I hope you come along for the ride.
Hasta la vista,
Johnson T.
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