Screenings, Silver Summit, New Orleans WizardCon, Fundraising, Slamdance, Prison Song

Precious Metalhead #22

Screenings are Popping Up!

Early releases of Silver Circle are starting to get out onto the big screen!  Our own crew was the first to see it last month when we rented out a local theatre (protip – very cheap to rent in the morning) to see Jay and Zoe bigger than life.  And two weeks ago, the lucky folks at Silver Summit in Spokane were the first “real people” to see our film.  At least 90 buffs from this gathering of the Silver industry saw this early cut with great reviews.

Personally I’m relieved and pleased to see that the story and visuals “work” with new people – we’ve been inside the zone for so long it’s hard to tell.  It is also gratifying to see that our visual style worked well for people who don’t normally watch animation, even for those who associate animation with Saturday morning cartoons.  Do they still show cartoons on Saturday mornings, anyway?  Most folks reported that the style was interesting to and “just blended in” after things took off.  This is very affirming as an animator; if they only knew how hard it is to re-create and embellish reality…

New Orleans Screening November 30

Our next big pre-theatrical screening is less than a month away in New Orleans at Wizard World – a big Comics Convention.  We’re told to expect over 40,000 attendees and a full room for the screening, including press.  We are not going to take this for granted, so we will be working hard with local activists, liberty supporters, precious metal people, comics stores, and anyone else who will come to fill the room.  Stay tuned.

This will likely be our final cut in 720p format, and by then the beefier theatre-sized 2K format will be working through our farms.

Industry Screeners Going Out

As early as next week we will be sending screeners out to theatre chains to find our home for the January release.  Also we’ll be sending a copy out to the MPAA to get our official stamp.  Yes, I now many of our fans have “feelings” about the MPAA, but a good chunk of venues won’t carry the film unless it’s rated by them, so we’ll play the game this time.  It’s an easy PG-13, and once we have the stamp we are clear to go wild in the market.

Fundraising Screenings

We are going to make the theatre and media splash as big as we can with our remaining funds.  But I’m not going to lie, our funds are stretched at this point, and this phase is a loss leader to promote the film.   As it stands we’ll have a decent theatrical release, but we are not going to be able to afford the kind of release that we wish, especially at this point in history.

So, we are creating several ways that we can bring value to those who are able to help fund us reach out to more people in that first run.  One big thing we can do is to offer early access to the film to donors’ clients and communities with special screenings, even including a live introduction by yours truly if you wish.

For those who can help and who do wish to see our message of liberty and sound money to make it in the culture, we encourage you to contact us at to see how you can help.   It really will make a difference.

Gunning for Slamdance Film Festival

Our big hope of the moment is to get into Slamdance Film Festival – it’s like the punk-rock version of Sundance – in fact they hold it in the same town and time, January 18-24, 2013.  We’re not in it yet, but we’re feeling hopeful – they have a nice viewable cut of the movie and we have a fighting chance!  They have Mexican wrestlers on their website, so we can’t go wrong.

Following Slamdance, with a real cut, we’ll be able submit and conquer many festvals, including South by Southwest again.  I won’t know what to do with myself.

Comics Books are Flying Off the Shelf

Truthfully there is no shelf – the comics are printed on demand thanks to modern technology – but surely some are on shelves before getting onto air-borne packages.  We launched the book and sold a lot of them at New York Comic Con, a great show with 116,000 attendees.

As we said last month, Jon Schaffer joined our booth on Saturday and met with many fans of his bands, Iced Earth and Sons of Liberty.  Jon plays an important part in the movie as a ranting author in a bookstore – and he looks great in CG.  He also showed us what partying with rock stars is really like, which is not for the faint of heart.  He’s now back working on his next DVD and soon will be in songwriting mode again.  Thanks Jon!

You can buy our comic books, in color or black and white, online here.

Theaters in January

We are on track to start in US Theatres at the end of January 2013.  There is a lot of work to do to get there, and a little uncertainty with the big 2K render, but it’s all coming together.  We, and our LA Distributor Kirt, are scheming to get this everywhere in the smartest/widest/most efficient way possible.

As I’ve said before, the goal is to make the first week on the streets as full and massive as possible.  You’ll hear more about that very soon.  Our evil marketing geniuses are hatching plans now for this big week.

Song of the Month – System of a Down – Prison Song

This month’s song of the month comes from Megan – here’s her statement:

“In spirit of election day, let’s all remember what kind of world we actually live in. Tax money paying to rush guns to dictators in other countries and imprison non-violent criminals. Ahhh ‘Merica.”

 

A Long Road

Thanks for sticking with us through this journey – see you in the theatres!

Pasha.