FEATURE: "HEART OF NOW" – a film by SABI

Zak Forsman said:
here's a quick lesson on the importance of not just "name" actors, but actors who are heavily engaged with their fan base via social media.
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Great point. Especially considering how important grass roots are going to be for indie filmmakers.

-Martin
 
if you're in or near Oklahoma City, good news. You will have a chance to see Heart of Now before anyone else. Sign up on our map and we'll send you details.

 
we had a blast at the Oklahoma City deadCENTER Film Festival. let me tell you, few things feel better than immediate, enthusiastic applause when your credits begin.

we’re putting together a little video from our time there featuring the Q&A and the panel I was on afterward. should be up in a week.
 
I know what you mean Zak...it's great when the audience responds the way you had hoped.

Can't wait to see the videos...you do a good job with those. Did I miss that last Sundance one? Or what, I seem to recall one more was on the way but never recall seeing it.

-Martin
 
Zak Forsman said:
We are ramping up to an August 2010 direct-to-audience release creating several windows. During that ramp up, we have gone out to several festivals. If one accepts us, great; we can incorporate them into our release strategy. but we are not relying on them.

Instead, we are talking to several companies who specialize in cable vod, itunes, netflix, etc for aggregation. Theatrical and home video (dvd, blu-ray) will be handled by our own company CINEFIST. And the windows of release are as follows, and each window will be launched with a live theatrical event.

WINDOW ONE (premiere, events, home video, cable)
Event-based Theatrical Tour (using Open Indie and Crowd Controls)
DVD, Blu-ray
Cable VOD

WINDOW TWO (download)
iTunes EST (electronic sell thru $9.99)
XBOX
PS3 Store

WINDOW THREE (rental and streaming)
iTunes VOD
Netflix DVD Rental
Amazon VOD
YouTube Rental

WINDOW FOUR (subscription, ad supported, and free)
Netflix SVOD (aka Watch instantly)
IndieFlix (subscription service)
Hulu (ad supported)
Vodo (free torrent)
The Auteurs
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Any update on the film's release, read somewhere your starting your Event-based Theatrical Tour this month?
 
I've submitted HEART OF NOW to the ROGUE/AMC BIG BREAK contest. The winner will screen in AMC theaters across the states.

http://www.iamrogue.com/community/videos.html?catid=3&sort=mostviews

As you can see, we've climbed past most of the 180+ entries in popularity and currently sit in fourth. :) That's just based on views (people clicking our trailer link) but its rewarding to see how many we've gotten in a few days compared to other films that have been up there for well over a month.

One of the "prizes" *ahem* is for the production team at Relativity Media to refine the edit of your movie. Most people don't like that notion, at all, but I'm all for getting some professional input on the film. As much as we've screen tested it, you never know what little piece someone is going to illuminate for you. Anyway, if I can be frank, the bar seems pretty low over there. If you've got a feature, you have until October 15th to submit it. Would love to see someone from DVXuser win this thing.
 
congrats on the climb... not sure how much votes and such will impact who will win, but it's nice to have them nonetheless. I agree with you about some of the other entries, which seem to be nothing more than home videos or strange infomercials... There are a few promising trailers, though. It's gonna be interesting to see who makes it into the top five

good luck

Chris
 
HEART OF NOW has been playing in a few festivals. A reviewer who just saw it in Buffalo, NY just posted a very thoughtful piece on his site. I've quoted it below.

http://www.jaredmobarak.com/2011/04/12/heart-of-now/

If you're in LA, the movie will be playing APRIL 30th. Details here... http://www.theunitedfest.com/losangeles/schedule.htm

“The bottom line—I don’t feel good about what happened”

Very near the beginning of Heart of Now, a young girl, Monica (Mary Elise Hayden), makes the quasi-pithy, half-serious/half-joking statement that all women need a man who will give them ‘loads of intensity and massive support’. Couldn’t this observation expand further to blanket all of humanity, though? Don’t we all need that mix of feeling and security to go about our daily lives with meaning? Well, if we are to use Zak Forsman’s lead Amber (Marion Kerr) as an exemplification for us all—yes, we do. Hers is a girl who appears to have everything figured out when we’re introduced. Pretty, healthy, and active, Amber knows how to have a good time with her friends and beau Tobey (Jason L. Brandt), seeming to balance all facets of life in a way that gives the revelation of pregnancy in the first scene an incalculable sense of excitement and joy. This is the start of the next chapter in her life, one with all the people she loves and a family on the horizon. What we cannot expect, however, is that a short five or so minutes later, this turning of the page becomes much bleaker than originally guessed.

Two scenes into the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival screening of Heart of Now and we’ve already been whipped through the emotional rollercoaster, basking in a young woman’s glow, pulsating to her celebratory, red-hued dancing within the sounds of Airom Bleicher and Deklun, and eventually devastated by the abrupt exit of Tobey, leaving as Amber sits in stunned silence on the couch, immobile to the blur of impossibility moving before her. There is nothing she can do, a last ditch effort to beg and plead leaving her with a shove to the ground, her happiness driving away down the road. So, here she is, pregnant, alone, and without a place to stay. Her friends are there for support as Monica attempts to suggest an abortion so she can move on to forget the jerk while Edwin (Dusty Song) looks to console by taking her out for some much needed fun. Amber needs anything at her disposal to take her mind off of the hard choices she faces, a steady stream of phone calls to Tobey shedding light on her inability to cope and yearning for companionship.

There is really only one person she can truly turn to, though, someone who disappeared without so much as a goodbye years earlier, yet who once gave her the love and respect of a father. It’s a hard call to make, but one that her soul needs to cleanse it of all the guilt, pain, and memories of always being left behind that plague her, risking a total descent into oblivion. Gabe (Kelly McCracken) can be her savior, he can be her knight in shining armor, but the question soon expands to what she can be for him. A closed-off introvert who wanders through Los Angeles’s surrounding nature filming, his welcoming of Amber after over ten years of absence feels like more of a business arrangement than an expression of kindness. With machine-line precision, he tells her where the rooms of his apartment are, that she can set up in the living room, and how fickle his lock is. Any questions by her are met with silent dismissal—he is the one speaking, these are the rules. Gabe tries to keep his distance, telling himself he doesn’t owe this girl anything, but the simple fact he invites her in proves he doesn’t believe it.
Their relationship is soon exposed and we begin to understand how they have—although separated by many years of age—come to know each other. Concepts of love, family, loss, and regret crop up to add an even heavier sense of emotional turmoil to the mix. Amber doesn’t know what it is like to be alone and Gabe has no desire to give up his love of isolation. But the two have been connected somehow, the fates have brought them back together to reconcile and move on even though they both thought they already had. The unspoken tension between them is palpable and the closely framed compositions refuse escape from the performers’ highly emotive faces—strained in pain, contorted in suffering, and forever in need of even a glimpse of hope. Details of their lives are uncovered that infer on their current situations like her sense of not letting go and his of never holding tight enough. She can’t see that her ex only starts calling her again to satisfy his sexual needs, not any desire to be with her, and he is blind to his ‘sort of’ girlfriend’s inability to suffer through his cold detachment.

They are who they are because of where they’ve been and much of that stems from a previous life lived together. Talking to Amber would only open up old wounds that Gabe isn’t ready to face. She must take extensive measures to chip away at his defenses, leaving recorded messages for him to know that she cares, despite all that happened. Heart of Now is a gradual build to its eventual payoff; its cathartic climax will leave you devastated by Kerr and McCracken’s subtly brilliant performances, their explosion of pain long left buried making way for a chance at redemption in a world often appearing to lack such possibility. Forsman writes a couple exchanges that leap off the page and out these actors’ mouths with the type of intensity and longing for safety Monica described. He makes sure we become claustrophobic with their expressions until juxtaposing them against the wide-open expanse of desert at the end—making them seem more alone and vulnerable than ever before. So much is also said in the silence, their story existing on more than words and their future lying in wait to once and for all be taken without regret.

Heart of Now 9/10 | ★ ★ ★ ½
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I'll be at indie fest that weekend and at the release of Sympathy For Delicious...best of luck though ZaK...Hope you pick up some good ones...!!!

Stan The man
 
It's been over 4 years since you've created this thread, don't know if you've realized that, that's a lot of time and dedication to a single film. How's it paying off for you? Any head way, I've been following your progress because I'm looking at possibly self distributing my next feature film and have been heavily researching what others have done so far. I've seen you on film specific, I lurked on there as a member in the past. I got a few questions for you...

1. Have you sent this film to distributors, any offers yet that recoup costs?
2. You say you spent $50k on this film, yet there aren't any name actors and my understanding is you shot it on the HVX with an adapter. Where'd the bulk of the money go on this? I understand if you don't want to answer, I'm guessing you're counting expenses paid in kind/donated or possible deferred fees.
3. How far are you from a VOD push, I'd like to check it out online some time, be it amazon streaming or whatever.
 
filmmakerguy said:
1. Have you sent this film to distributors, any offers yet that recoup costs?
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As it was shown around privately, it developed a few champions. Through them it was requested by Magnolia and Sony Pictures Classics. Magnolia wanted to wait and see how it did at festivals. SPC didn't make an offer on it for obvious reasons (cast) but I had great conversations with them and now have an open door with both. Which is nice. We received personal emails from top programmers and heads of programming at sundance, slamdance, tribeca and sxsw -- all saying that while they fought for our film, they couldn't quite find enough support on the board to program it and that in a week or so we'd be getting the official rejection notice. It has been very bittersweet to always be a bridesmaid at these top tier fests, but at least I know we were close. Cinetic made an offer but i turned it down. All in all, since completing it in early 2010, the film hasn't done much publicly but behind the scenes it has opened a lot of doors, gotten me meetings, seeded relationships with some very influential people, etc. It wasn't exactly the smash hit we all dream of, but it did wonders for my career. I'm writing a crime thriller and a sci-fi action film and will make the most of Heart of Now's rewards on the next one.

filmmakerguy said:
2. You say you spent $50k on this film, yet there aren't any name actors and my understanding is you shot it on the HVX with an adapter. Where'd the bulk of the money go on this? I understand if you don't want to answer, I'm guessing you're counting expenses paid in kind/donated or possible deferred fees.
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If I counted deferred items, the budget would have been $200k. $50k goes fast. roughly $6000 went to cast at a rate of $100 per day, and about $9000 went to the crew. and that's much less than they were worth. the remainder went to location fees, camera rental, lighting rentals, payroll service, suv rentals, motel rooms, travel, parking, wardrobe, props, set design, catering & crafty, permits, the sag bond, insurance, post costs, etc. we had a 24 day shooting schedule. 10 to 11 hour days, 8 hours for cast.

filmmakerguy said:
3. How far are you from a VOD push, I'd like to check it out online some time, be it amazon streaming or whatever.
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not far. maybe a month. found a company who made an offer i'm happy with and will be announcing soon. it will be priced very competitively and nearly free in some cases, because the most important thing i can do with it right now is continue to get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible. that's the sort of "currency" I'm interested in for this one. DVD, HD and SD downloads from our own site, itunes, hulu, netflix, etc. I think if I were to do this again, I might not hold the movie back while it plays regional fests (which I'm doing now) -- give the top tier fests a go and then launch at their fest if accepted or immediately after being rejected.
 
filmmakerguy said:
It's been over 4 years since you've created this thread, don't know if you've realized that, that's a lot of time and dedication to a single film. How's it paying off for you? Any head way, I've been following your progress because I'm looking at possibly self distributing my next feature film and have been heavily researching what others have done so far. I've seen you on film specific, I lurked on there as a member in the past. I got a few questions for you...
Click to expand...

my next approach is to do strictly genre work. to take the authenticity we've become known for with Heart of Now and marry that to action movies and thrillers. maybe even a horror movie (have one in mind). I have stories at varying budget levels and we're prepping them all simultaneously. one is a crime thriller that I'll shoot this year for next to nothing. the purpose being to take what I've learned in the last three years and see if i can't make something that sells while expanding my creative education in making motion pictures. and we are casting great unknown actors and possibly surrounding them with name actors with large social media followings. the rest of the slate is of the scope that we'd be attaching bankable name actors, then seeking presales on the strength of the package, then leveraging that to finance the picture(s) in a $1 to $3 million range.
 
Zak Forsman said:
my next approach is to do strictly genre work. to take the authenticity we've become known for with Heart of Now and marry that to action movies and thrillers. maybe even a horror movie (have one in mind). I have stories at varying budget levels and we're prepping them all simultaneously. one is a crime thriller that I'll shoot this year for next to nothing. the purpose being to take what I've learned in the last three years and see if i can't make something that sells while expanding my creative education in making motion pictures. and we are casting great unknown actors and possibly surrounding them with name actors with large social media followings. the rest of the slate is of the scope that we'd be attaching bankable name actors, then seeking presales on the strength of the package, then leveraging that to finance the picture(s) in a $1 to $3 million range.
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Sounds like you're planning to run a play from Adam Coltraro's 'book', which I believe I recall your also mentioning in his "Corrado II" thread. Sounds like a great idea, and quite a departure for you. I'll be very interested in hearing how it progresses. I'll also be very much looking forward to watching "Heart Of Now" when it becomes available in some form. Please keep us posted on that.
 
yes, some inspiration taken from adam's "book". :) but also from jeff steele, ted hope and a handful of others. and it's not so much a departure for me in terms of where my interested lie, but a return. I've made my dramas and learned from them. The primary intent being to gain experience working with actors and learning a process that would bring out authentic performances. now i'm ready to get reacquainted with my love for more precise composition, lighting, color, sound design, art direction, and above all, a strong narrative drive.
 
Great info, thanks for sharing. I had no idea it was SAG, that makes sense now with the budget.

I'm looking at following a similar model this year, shooting a genre feature for next to nothing with talented non-union actors in my area. I'm guessing me and you have came to the same conclusions based on our research. Basically I'm doing it to avoid SAG since they are a killer in getting it sold without names attached because of their step up rates and assumption fees/etc. And also by keeping the budget very low, I can have some room to sell it and make a profit to roll into the next project, worst case scenario. Best case scenario is of course to do well in major festivals and get picked up for major distribution/deal. However being realistic, I think the game now is pretty much to make the best damn movie you can and try to at least make some money that you can roll into the next one and so forth until you are rolling a higher amount eventually forward. Or can hook some names on something and take a step up.

My only suggestion to you, and this is something I've picked up...is that most indie film promo campaigns are too vague. I think that's the problem with them. Some call it being too artsy, but I think it comes down to people watching the trailer and having no idea what your movie is about. I watch your trailer for Heart Of Now and it looks good but I really have no clue what it's truly about until I read more on it elsewhere. So my assumption is it's about nothing, maybe a group of slackers or that the story is weak or even slow and boring. Because if there was a really meaty story there, you'd share some of it with me to hook me. I know that's a horrible assumption, but I assume the worse unless you tell me otherwise.

I think you have to hook with the story and to be honest I don't want to see your film because of the story but rather because of you and how it looks. I think it looks interesting and I'm interested in seeing it because you did it. However I don't think that's enough for someone who doesn't know you or hasn't heard of you. Just being honest to maybe be helpful with another perspective.

And I think that will always cause a problem when you're trying to sell it to an audience. I think you have to give away what it's about without giving away the story. That's a problem indie filmmakers have I think, we're afraid of saying too much but we don't say enough. Versus Hollywood films, tell you more of what you're getting as far as story and synopsis so you can make a clear decision on what you're getting and if you want to go along for the ride or not. I think that's very important with a solid sales/promo strategy and something to consider with your next film. Best of luck to you.
 
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