I am back in Silicon Valley. Working for a great company called Ariba. This is me speaking at the Ariba Live User Group Meeting 2011 in Nashville.
Christopher Smith is maintaining a great blog at http://sfdigifilm.wordpress.com/ with many updates about new classes taught at San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking, what other alumni are doing and general movie news.
Check it out.
So, with your Netflix Queue, your Apple TV or Google TV giving you access to movies shortly after they ran in theaters, why go to the movie theater itself and see the film there. Well, 3D is a reason, but what about indie films. Well, a movie that Fog City Pictures co-produced, tries something clever to lure people into the theaters: All About Evil creates a unique event with live performance, movie screening, etc. wherever they screen the film. Fog City Pictures co-produced the film and I was a bit involved behind the scenes, so I got to meet the very dynamic and energetic team that produced the movie. Hats off to them for trying this new approach to movie marketing. Check out the tour dates here.
Exciting news around Fog City Pictures. We moved from 3rd and 22nd Street in the Dogpatch neighborhood to 5th and Mission in the Chronicle building (the new address is 925 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94132). The studio spaced at our new place are getting the finishing touches right now and the first productions are starting in the next couple of weeks. The website is still at http://www.fogcitypictures.com and the phone number via our sister company, the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking stays the same: 415 824 7000.
We are putting the finishing touches on our newest feature film “Two Mothers”, starring Dendrie Taylor, John Heard, Mahnoor Baloch, and Faran Tahir. The first festival screenings are arranged as we speak. Check back for more exciting news soon. In the meantime go and visit our Facebook fan page.
Over the last 6 months “Around June” screened in front of a many festival audiences, among them in Hamburg, Germany at the RADAR Independent Movie Festival and in Bari, Italy at the . Hopefully more festivals will follow soon for the movie.
I directed and produced a series of 10+ customer videos for Marketo. They were recorded at the Marketo User Group Meeting in San Mateo and are published on the Marketo website.
Here are some examples
First, there was the Honolulu International Film Festival in March 2009, then in April the California Independent Film Festival in Livermore, California. In May 2009 the Big Island Film Festival in Waikoloa, Hawaii followed. And then the movie went to the East Coast, where it was shown at the Staten Island Film Festival in Staten Island, New York. The first international screening will be in August 2009 in Varna, Bulgaria. All these smaller festivals help us test the movie in front of an interested audience and resulted in more positive reviews on IMDB then we could have wished for.
I was cast as an extra in a music video by George Manatos for the band “Trevor Childs And The Beholders”. It’s on YouTube now and you can see it below. Over 100.000 people have seen it already.
“Around June” screened in front of a sold out festival audience at the Santa Cruz Film Festival. The screening was attended by producer Jeremiah Birnbaum who held a Q&A session with the audience after the screening. Hopefully more festivals will follow soon for the movie.
Fog City Pictures showcased “Moonlight Sonata” at the Cannes Film Market which coincides with the Cannes Film Festival. Our three screenings were well attended and resulted in several inquiries, which we followed up at the market and upon return to San Francisco.
I directed and produced a series of web videos for Marketo, an innovative SaaS marketing automation vendor based in San Mateo, CA. A very fast growing company with over 200 customers they needed a fresh series of customer testimonials for their website and internal use with their sales force. It was a lot of fun working with the Marketo marketing team and the customers Strongmail, Zuora, CollabNet, Qumu and Pivotlink.
With the helpful friends at DubExpress and at VideoArts we got “Moonlight Sonata” ready to play at the 11th California Independent Film Festival in Livermore, CA. The movie theater was almost sold out and resulted in some nice reviews and great ratings of the movie on IMDB.
We finished the trailer for “Presque Isle” and put it on YouTube. Presque Isle is a film by the independent (and I mean INDEPENDENT) Bay Area film director Rob Nilsson. Released in 2007, the film premiered at the Mill Valley Film festival to critical acclaim. It has since then played in the US (Harvard Film Archive) and abroad (Golden Apricot International Film Festival, Yerevan, Armenia)
This is the creative work of Staci DeGagne and Heather MacLean. I worked with both of them a lot during our joint days at Podango Productions and always had a lot of fun working with them in a creative team. This video just features me in a small role as a submarine communication operator in trouble. Check it out below.
Text Messaging: A History in Parts from Staci DeGagne on Vimeo.
I am selling now a poster with photos I did a while ago while traveling to the Falklands, South Georgia, and Antarctica. Click on the image below to check it out and buy it.
The trailer for Moonlight Sonata , on which I worked as a post production consultant , is now online. Check it out on vimeo.
Trailer for Moonlight Sonata from Fog City Pictures on Vimeo .
In November 2008 I went to Santa Monica to represent "Around June ", "Moonlight Sonata " and Fog City Pictures at the American Film Market . Lots of new contacts in the business, no direct sales at the event, but many follow ups.
I am teaching now a little bit at my old “alma mater”, the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking”. There are some really funny and creative people on the staff as you can see from the little viral video they produced recently….
The Where-Is-Your-God-Now? Burger from MAKE MOVIES on Vimeo.
