We had an early work in progress/test screening last August at Indie Fest USA at Disney where I was brought out to speak on creating production values within a no budget film. This was long before I finished filming, and before the extensive sound work and mix. Nearly 8 minutes of scenes were added, and a total of over 5 minutes trimmed out. This was also before any music or score was mixed. It went from one song on the front titles to a total of 17 songs from 8 bands/artists and a fully composed score. I was lucky enough to be able to do part of my sound work and mix at Twickenham Film Studios in London - by far the smallest budgeted movie they have ever worked on - maybe even seen!
That first test brought our first review from Peter Demmon from Mediasaurs. Like most reviewers, Peter is a film fanatic! His reviews are really informed and a blast to read, and it seems like he watches everything. I was happy to meet him and give him access to what I was doing and trying to do. He was so overwhelmingly positive in his reactions to it that it encouraged me to push on these past few months to take the film as far as I can, and even helped me define some of its direction.
I think that first review brought about the others - there really haven't been that many - and the film they were watching wasn't near the final version. KERBEROS has only been signed off on in the past few days. We all know that could still change! It's not a perfect movie and won't be for everybody, but the several reviews I have had have been really strong and positive, and I am proud of the work everyone involved has done.
I also have had a couple, actually I think four, radio interviews so far. They have ranged from a world music station, to a film site, to a GLBT radio show. The range of questions has been pretty interesting to say the least! I also had the really extensive interview on the Poptimal website - really cool for me as it's definitely an A list site, and I think they will do interviews on some of the other actors - searching for dirt on me probably lol - in hopes of helping promote the movie.
We will make our official world premiere at the AOF - Action On Film in Pasadena in July. I'm excited for a couple main reasons. One, my first film won their Film of the Year in 2007, and they are inviting me back with a coveted Sat night screening. And second, my friend Stan Harrington will debut his newest movie CREED there just a few hours before. Stan plays one of the leads in KERBEROS and kills it! People will get a chance to see a bit of what he can do as an actor in this one. I also was lucky enough that Stan brought me out to LA help direct some of his biggest - and bloodiest - scenes for his movie.
I also just found out that Peter Demmon, our first reviewer, is going to come down from Santa Cruz with some of his film fanatic friends and followers to see the new version and write up a new review and do more interviews.
The danger or at least the fear of getting early reviews is that they won't like it! So far we've been lucky to have people like it. I know it won't be for everybody. It's loud, a bit violent, and some really complex characterization wrapped in an intense story. It keeps you on edge and while some people will just be there for the action, it's one where you have to really pay attention or much of the story will be lost. I think people like complex stories, but maybe aren't expecting it in what is ostensibly a low budget action movie.
I'll keep sharing whatever happens on it - good and bad. So far it's mostly good! I also try to post and share lessons learned on the production and in post - especially on post processing and color grading. Being a one man post production effort, except for the 8 days in London, I've had to learn a lot!
I appreciate all the support we've been getting. At this stage, that's sometimes all we have to keep ourselves going. It would be awesome if anyone here is from LA and could make it to the screenings. They are also giving KERBEROS an after party that Saturday night, and I'd really love to meet some of you...
the reviews we've had
Making movies! kely
