An Incredible Start

The last scene in a favorite Robert Redford film of mine, The Candidate, comes to mind this morning. After taking the blows of running the gauntlet and going through a seemingly impossible journey of running for a California Senate seat he had absolutely no chance of winning, Redford's character - who has just beaten the odds and won the election by just being himself, bucking the usual tactics and laying everything on the line with a 'take it or leave it' attitude - looks to his campaign manager amid the wild celebration of their victory and asks him quietly: "What do I do now?". After all...he wasn't supposed to win...and now that he has...it's a scenario he can't quite get his mind around because he never thought, deep down, he really had even a remote chance of breaking through and winning. But win he did.

I can relate to that.

Don't get me wrong...there's a Game Plan in place that I've carefully crafted with my exec producer Wendy Williams that's geared to the singular objective of acquiring the best possible distribution deal for Beautiful Noise...but after the whirlwind of the last 18 months in general to get the movie made and the last 60 days in particular to prep it for our World Premiere here in Sarasota...I write this blog post with a sense of "How in the hell did all this happen?" and "What do I do now?".

The incredible start that every indie filmmaker dreams of has happened. The movie is a hit...at least to the 2000 + people who have seen it so far. I mean, the audience response has been overwhelmingly positive, as evidenced by the 6 six sold out screenings at the recently concluded Sarasota Film Festival and again last night at the exclusive one-night-only screening at Riverview's PAC that generated a lot of cash for the schools' drama department. Audiences are moved emotionally by both the film and the Soundtrack...they're all asking when the DVD will be available and meanwhile buying the Soundtrack CD after each screening in record numbers  - and the report back from people is that they can't stop listening to the 18-track album as it has an addictive quality to it somehow. Like I've said before...it's 18 great songs with 5-6 breakout smash hits on it...so there's no doubt in my mind that there is huge financial potential for Beautiful Noise once we find the correct marketing path that leads to worldwide distribution.

And therein lies the rub. It's one thing to worry about your film being commercial enough to be successful financially...but it's quite another to absolutely KNOW that people will want to see it once the all-important positive word-of-mouth takes root...but now, after all the excitement and congrats and hoopla and frenzied experience of this unforgettable month of April - Reality is setting in. There's more work to do, and this is no time to sit back and bask in the warm embrace of our hometown audiences and investors. It's time to finish the job and either sell off the North American and Foreign distribution rights or decide to self distribute and clean up financially without the cost of a "middle-man" in the process. Thankfully, we have that option because we created a feature length musical-drama that looks and sounds like a multi-million dollar production...for far less than the 'going rate' of such an endeavor. But first, we have to find a way to break through the Wall that is standing between our popular movie and the worldwide film audiences who we know will enjoy Beautiful Noise. That Wall is represented by the studio execs and distributors' acquisition agents who comb the international film festival circuit looking for 'sleeper hits' to fill their distribution pipelines. The trick now is to get their attention and make certain that our film is as technically perfect as we can possibly make it.

When I sit and watch the audience response to BN I am both amazed and grateful; amazed that my Story and the performances of my Cast touches peoples' hearts...and grateful that they seem to be overlooking all the little things my co-producers and I still see in the film that need to be tweaked. 'Civilians' don't seem to notice the minor technical flaws that drive me crazy because, as an audience, they are hooked into the movie and following the plot at the edge of their seat. So like I stated before...it's just mind-blowing to know that the film can be released as is and do incredible business - but if we're holding out for a while to test the studio distribution scenario, which is potentially the most lucrative financially in the short run, then we need to take the time before the next round of film festival submissions and go in and correct the minor tech issues that only we and the festival programming committees still can see. Thank God it's nothing major...but we clearly see where we can tighten up an edit here and there and also rework the color correction in places, etc.

So that's what we do next. And while that's going on in the next 2 weeks, I'm meeting more investors who love the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the Beautiful Noise Franchise; flying west this week to meet with Danielle, Jay & King Errisson about the new screenplays for the next 2 BN installments - Serenade & Heartlight; continue the search for new original songs for those films that we start shooting this Fall in Sarasota; begin the casting process for a coupla new key Characters I'm introducing into the Storylines; prep for the next film festival screening back in my old stomping grounds in Dayton, Ohio and continue to map out the international film festival strategy.

First - I think I'll take a couple of deep breaths and work in a little meditation time. I gotta feeling that finding those 'quiet moments' is going to be a challenge this year...not that I'm complaining mind you. I'm just sayin'...

ST