Sunday - May 04, 2008
You can't make a film without breaking some eggs
First, the good news. We've signed with some excellent sales reps who will be working for the next several months to secure distribution for YESTERDAY WAS A LIE. This is an important milestone for any indie film and, needless to say, we're pretty happy about it!
Unfortunately, at around the same time, we hit a bit of a bump. We've been screening at numerous film festivals around the country, and to date we've won four of them. Not bad. Recently, though, we screened at a festival where our experience wasn't quite as -- shall we say -- pleasant.
Many smaller festivals let you know in advance if you've won an award, so you can be certain to attend the closing ceremony. At this particular fest, we were told beforehand that we had won. We skipped another festival so we could be sure to make it to the award ceremony where we were being honored.
I think you can guess where I'm going with this. At the closing ceremony, the prize was given to another film. No award for us. Turns out there had been a mistake.
Needless to say, we weren't thrilled. Sadly, when we spoke with the judges, at least one admitted to not having watched our film.
Now don't get me wrong -- God bless the people who run film festivals. It's a tireless, thankless, difficult job. Chase ran one a few years ago, and it's quite a handful. I'm not trying to place blame; mistakes can happen.
At the same time, though, you gotta call a spade a spade. When something unfair happens, and there are irregularities in the judging, that needs to be called attention to.
Well, let's just say that our protests didn't go over very well. Within two days, YESTERDAY WAS A LIE's IMDb page was hit with a surge of 1-star votes, dropping our weighted user rating average from 9 stars to just over 3. And positive ratings for YESTERDAY WAS A LIE on the festival's website mysteriously disappeared overnight. It's a shame.
So everybody out there: If you've seen YESTERDAY WAS A LIE, and you liked our film, please take a moment to help us out. Visit the IMDb and rate the movie. Fairly. If you don't have an IMDb account, it's easy, quick, and free to set one up.
Thanks for your support, everyone. Keeping positive thoughts as we move ahead...