World Premiere - Austin Film Festival 2009

Austin's a great city to premiere Calvin Marshall because, at least from an outsider's perspective, it seems to unabashedly embrace both sports and independent film. You don't find this everywhere.

http://www.brokenskyfilms.com/

It's Official!

CALVIN MARSHALL will have it's world premiere in October.

It's been over 19 months since we wrapped shooting. It would've been nice to premiere earlier this year, but something about this fall feels right.

We could've moved faster if we had the resources and hired a few more people. An accountant and a post production supervisor would have been great. But sometimes you only move as fast as the creative process and the budget allows. It was probably good for us to go through each step carefully, even if it took longer in the end.

Down the home stretch we were lucky to have a few pros in our corner -- Cece Hall and Mark Goldblatt. They were generous with their time and weighed in on editorial and helped us make some difficult decisions before locking picture.

After locking, we started from scratch on the sound mix. John Askew's rich score continued to evolve and our needle drop choices got better. Our post sound team (led by David Raines) created a complex layered mix that added unexpected depths and subtleties. We are all thrilled with the results.

More information around our October screening coming soon. We might screen at a few additional festivals before the movie is distributed in March of 2010. There will also be some special word of mouth screenings leading up to the release.

The distribution details are coming together but it will all depend on how much P&A we have. I'm expecting a strategic theatrical release and then VOD, DVD and DIGITAL following quickly after. This release plan could change a little, but for right now this is what we expect.

Everything Takes Longer Than You Expect Part 2

Hurry up and wait. It's been a reality every step of the way.

Lately we've had some good momentum and see light at the end of the tunnel. We will have an announcement soon.

In the mean time here's an interview I did with the Austin Film Festival last week.

http://tinyurl.com/garyAFF

Everything Takes Longer Than You Expect

We discovered this when our original 2005 start date pushed indefinitely. (Filming didn't begin until late 2007)

We learned this in post-production when locking picture took more than a year. (Not 6 months)

And now we're learning these lessons again in the ever-changing landscape of distribution.

We were anticipating premiering and releasing "Calvin Marshall" in 2009 during spring-training. (now)

The reason we're not is because we've been focussed on two critical goals since the very beginning.

1. Maximum exposure for the finished film.

2. Profit to our investors.

Every decision we make is executed with these two things in mind.

We want our world premiere to occur no more than two months before our theatrical release. This way, publicity dollars spent on the premiere will have an impact on our theatrical campaign.

Using the same logic, when the film is pulled from theaters, the DVD, VOD, CABLE and DIGITAL releases will follow quickly and with some momentum.

Keep in mind, all of this must be orchestrated months and months ahead of time.

With all that said, we will have some firm things to announce in the near future. We're looking forward to releasing the trailer and announcing the details around our world premiere.

New Blog

This one will retire soon. The new one will be incorporated into the Calvin Marshall website which is under construction.

From a distance, blogging felt like a presumptuous exercise to me. But like it or not, this kind of self-promotion is becoming a critical part of filmmaking -- especially when a film is nearly finished.

Many people have asked about the title of this blog and I wanted to take a moment to clarify before it's gone.

Falling on your face is something you get used to in this business, and you're often kicked to the ground. There is so much rejection across the board. That goes for most everyone above the line carving out a career.

When people say persistence is a crucial aspect of filmmaking, what they're saying is that you must learn how to get back up and dust yourself off all the time.

The next blog will hopefully be as transparent as this one but will be more connected to the release of Calvin.

More Pics from Calvin Marshall

Michelle Lombardo and Steve Zahn



Andrew Wilson



Abe Benrubi and Jeremy Sumpter



Diedrich Bader

Print Complete

Coach Little (Steve Zahn) and Calvin (Alex Frost)


A 35mm print of CALVIN MARSHALL unspooled in 5.1 at Deluxe on Friday.

With the exception of 7 opticals, image color and density were corrected photochemically over five days. The blacks are black and the whites are white. Specific shots were corrected warmer or cooler. Colors are bold. All without a Digital Intermediate.

While this way of making films is dying, our experience demonstrates that a DI isn't always necessary. The evidence is in how gorgeous our print looks. Shooting 35mm and cutting the negative is still an effective/viable work flow for filmmakers.

We are now in the final stages. The next month we'll be completing our HD master. This is the copy that will live on -- TV, dvd, blu-ray, VOD, etc.

Lots of news to report soon on marketing, publicity, our premiere, and distribution.