to sundance or not to sundance?

So here's my dilemma: the early deadline for the sundance film festival is august 15th. the regular deadline is september 15th, and the late deadline is october 15th. there's no way that i could submit PRAXIS by the august 15th deadline, and submitting any film by the late deadline is a sure bet that it won't get in. the question is: should i submit my work-in-progess to the september 15th deadline?

this is a tough decision. the rough-cut is still not finished. it needs a lot of work done to it before if can be presentable. if i decide to postpone the festival submission, then i would have to wait another year before submitting it. i would also have to work all of my contacts to increase the chances of getting into sundance. this would mean that i would have to submit the film to each and every person that i know who might know someone at sundance, and hopefully get their recommendation. as simple as this seems, this is a very difficult and long process.

the deadline for this year's toronto film festival has passed, and the festival is in the middle of september. getting into toronto would increase the chances of getting into sundance. but realistically, is PRAXIS at a stage that this could be done?

i'm waiting to hear the status of PRAXIS for this year's IFP Rough Cut Lab. i should prolly use this feedback as a gauge of whether the film has enough potential, and/or if it's ready to be submitted to festivals.

or maybe i'm just being impatient...any thoughts?

scene 100

last friday, i had the chance to work on the rough cut of the film for a good portion of the day. it was a good day, i got through about 15 scenes and i'm onto scene 100. there are roughly 143 scenes in the film, which may seem like a lot for a 90 minute movie, but in actuality, it's fairly normal for a somewhat experimental film. scenes 94 through 99 were particular difficult scenes to edit because of the heavily dramatic content. but i'm really happy with the results, and i hope to finish this lo-res rough cut in the next couple of weeks. the film will still need a lot of work with the music, audio, CG, and it could also use some feedback for the overall asthetic. it's good to remain focused on the project, and i feel very close to finishing this rough-cut.

a couple of days ago, i caught a documentary on Turner Classics about the major 'independent' filmmakers of hollywood, which included interviews with current directors talking about their influences and also the directors of the past. it was good see this. they covered all the major directors of a typical film 101 class: orson welles, john ford, john cassavettes, stanely kubrick etc., along with interviews with spike lee, darren aronofsky, john sayles and martin scorcesse. basically, there was a recurring theme with the major 'independent' directors who ended up making big pictures for the major studios: most ended up making incredible first features, but got caught up in the whole hollywood system to the point that they couldn't make the kinds of movies that they wanted to make as they got later on in their careers. some directors were able to cope with this dilemma, while others were not. it basically came down to whether or not that particular director had to compromise their vision for the finacinal backing to produce the films that they wanted to do.

ultimately, i think that anyone who is able to make movies is lucky. staying 'independent' is always difficult. but at the same time, no one forces a director into making a movie, even with millions of dollars of backing. if you want to retain total creative control, then raise the money yourself, and/or make a movie with the resources that you have. people make independent films because the films have to be made, and that they want to express a different vision that they don't see represent in current cinema. the film is the most important driving force, and i think that you should be wary that ego doesn't get in the way.

so here it is. the official blog for the film PRAXIS. This is the very first posting. yesseriee. and this will be a good way to check in on the project, and new developments along the way.

currently, the film is post-production. this means that we've shot everything that we've planned to shoot, and we are in the editing process. a rough cut of the film is currently being put together, lo-res, and we will soon be sending this out to have the music composed to relevant scenes in the film. even though this is the last phase of the film, a lot of things can change between now and what the final cut of the film will look like on the big screen. so far, the footage has come out beautifully, and i couldn't be happier.

another major step in the project is that this past weekend, it was submitted to the IFP Rough Cut's Lab in New York in September. this is a lab devoted to Work-In-Progress features, first features, and projects that are in the early stages of post-production. even though the project is not complete, we submitted a couple of Hi-Res scenes and 1hr of the rough-cut. we hope that the lab can see the potential in the film, even though it is, by no means, complete in its intended final cut. this is also the first time that the project has been submitted publicly.

we are also updating the website: www.damagefilms.com for now, you can check out a couple of production stills from the shoot.

more later.