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"Surviving Family" at Manhattan Film Festival

mlesemann

mlesemann

Staff Member
Moderator
My feature Surviving Family ( www.survivingfamily.us ) is an official selection of the upcoming Manhattan Film Festival, which runs June 20-30 at the Quad Cinemas on West 13th St in Manhattan. You can read more about the festival itself here: www.manhattanfilmfestival.org

If you're in the NYC area, I hope you can come out and see the movie! I will be there (I wrote and produced); director Laura Thies will be visiting from Germany, where she lives and is in pre-production for a new feature; and a number of our actors will be there as well.

The screening is on Saturday June 22 at 7:15 PM. Tickets are $11, and you can buy them here:

http://www.screenbooker.com/view-events/361/wwhe5s68hd
 
Thanks, rayw!

Any good, educational tidbits you can part with about writing, producing, marketing 'Surviving Family'?

How was producing a feature different than from the shorts you did before?
Click to expand...

I could write a book! (but won't 'cause I'm writing a new screenplay instead)

The shorts were quick and fun, and fantastic experience. But on the feature, I set out to make the best movie that I possibly could (emphasis on what I could do, not someone with 10x the buget).

The first and most valuable thing that I did was to hire a casting director, who was worth her weight in gold. In addition to bringing in some actors with name/face recognition (Vinnie Pastore played Big Pussy in The Sopranos, JD Williams played Bodie on The Wire, and Phyllis Somerville has been in a long list of stuff including the movie Little Children & Showtime's The Big C), she set out to find actors on their way up, who she thought would help the movie in the long run. The most notable example of her ability to do that is our leading man Billy Magnussen, who is up for a Tony Award this year.

The casting director introduced me to a good entertainment lawyer, who only takes a couple of super low budget movies a year. He got the contracts done - the agents were skeptical of a first time feature producer like me, but new & respected him.

The lawyer connected me with the post-production house, which did our color correction & digital integration...and on and on.

Re that many people: it was insane. Seriously. 98% of my team was fantastic; there was one person who I wouldn't hire again, but that's a great percentage. You have to be willing to delegate, and if you're wearing multiple hats, only wear them one at a time. As the screenwriter, I had to be willing to relinquish on-set control to the director, because I was also the producer. So I did. She (director) had to trust the dp (who was AMAZING) and the AD's (she did). And on down the line.

But one thing always holds true: feed your cast and crew - if they're not hungry, they're far happier, even when things get tough.
 
Thanks, Modern Day Myth!

Re weekends - I actually (amazingly) had the opportunity to indicate a preferred screening day/time. I requested Saturday evening, and got it. Probably 2 reasons contributed to getting it: (1) I answered very quickly and more imporantly (2) because I'm local, they probably figured - correctly - that I will be able to draw a good crowd.
 
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