19 October, 2010

IMdB - Rating.... have YOU weighed in?

Just a quick posting this time 'round...

Have you been to our IMdB page yet and rated the film?

Well you should!

It only takes a second with that link above so conveniently provided above.

If you've seen the The Beast of Bottomless Lake then go and rate the film - be honest, we aren't asking for you to rate it higher than it deserves.  And if you have time to add a few sentences of review, by all means do that too!

11 October, 2010

Media Frenzy

Perhaps you know that the Vancouver International Film Festival is on.  We've fielded a number of questions asking about whether we are in the festival or when exactly during the festival that we are screening.

The answer is; we aren't.  But if you were judging by the media, you would easily assume otherwise.

I can honestly say that I don't believe ANY film in VIFF has had as much media as The Beast of Bottomless Lake has had in the period of time leading immediately up to, and during the festival.  Naturally I wear that as a sly badge of honour.

Just for fun (and gloating rights) I'm going to repost them all here in one place (including a few new ones).

I'm going to somewhat arbitrarily draw the line at two weeks from the start of VIFF - it seems to me to be a pretty reasonable period in advance of the event for the earliest preview media.

The first one is from the SciFi & TvTalk blog: Stargate Atlantis' David Nykl Checks In

One week later - one week before VIFF started, and a week and a half before VCON we got two hits in one day...

That same day Cheryl Rossi from the Vancouver Courier Movie Guide did one of the freshest articles on the film yet.  She totally did her homework and found a number of details that weren't spoon-fed in our press-release.

As VCON began we started geting TV hits.  First up Deborah Goble interviewed Craig and David on CBC News.  This one is perhaps the most amusing, as they strongly imply that "The Beast..." is screening at VIFF.  But they don't OUTRIGHT say so - which is probably fortunate, but I'm not going to complain if someone mistakenly assumes we were screening there... it's not like WE said we were!



Also just before VCON the WestEnder ran a small piece and a photo about the film being screened at the convention.













While we were at VCON Johanna Ward from The Express on Shaw TV was doing a piece on VCON and she grabbed David Nykl for a few words.



Immediately following VCON David spent some time chatting with the guys at SciFi Diner about the film (and of course a bunch of Stargate Atlantis and other David Nykl appearances).

But WAIT! There is more!

On Tuesday of this past week we were featured on Film Stew - a blog from LA that focusses specifically on what is hot in the independent film world. Richard Horgan, who runs the blog made this a pretty darned good article covering a lot of ground from the film's inception to the content itself.

On the same day... okay this one is a bit of a cheat as it's Letters from Pegasus, David's Fan Blog.
Lastly - two blog reviews...

After our screening at VCON we were asked if we'd like to do a second screening in the video room on the Sunday afternoon.  The video room as it turns out has a rather small and transient attendance - like about eight people at a time.  I wasn't in attendance, but Craig was there to do an introduction.  The film started at a little past two.  At 3:44 my standing search for tweets about the film produced this derisive gem.  You can't please everybody.  Later my Google Alerts sent me this link.  Same guy - quite obviously.  And it becomes a little more apparent (from the context of the blog and the time stamp on the tweet) that this guy showed up in the middle of the film watched a little bit and walked out.  Bravo.  I amke no apologies for not making a film that is appealing to someone walking in after missing an hour or more of set-up.  Some people just have to be haters for hating's sake.

The second one is quite insightful.  It is from Victor Schwartzman who ran the video room - and over many years of running video rooms has seen an awful lot of stuff.  He picked up on a number of things in the film that most people miss on the first viewing.  This guy is a veteran film-viewer with some real chops for dissecting the aspects of a movie.  This is a really great review.

And believe it or not.... we aren't really done with this cycle!

While at VCON we were asked to do an interview for a notable sci-fi news collective (yeah I am witholding the specifics at the moment).  The interview itself was supposed to happen today, but had to be put off for a variety of reasons - not the least of which is today is Canadian Thanksgiving.  Anyhow... enjoy your turkey, look for more news from the whole VCON experience next week... and if you have a chance, go out and see some of those neglected VIFF films too before the festival ends.

05 October, 2010

Where the Wild Fans Are

This weekend was VCON - if you haven't been reading the past few posts.  And it was a lot of fun.
We got started a little later than expected but it was all well and good as everyone hung in there until we got going.

The screening was well received.  David Nykl arrived just as the film was beginning and he and I sat at the back of the house quietly amusing ourselves with an analysis of how the various jokes played.  There were a few responses that fell outside of what we are accustomed to.  One of the oddest I can't say without giving a spolier - so I won't - but I will say that there is a sequence of Star Trek jokes including one that really has to be paid attention to... typically only one voice in a theatre will laugh out loud at it, but this time it was the whole room.

The Q&A after the film was probably the most rollicking we've had - the fact that there were about ten of us from the film involved in it certainly helped.  We got it on video, so when we can perhaps we'll post a few choice bits.

As I was taking names for the DVD list (people who want to know when and where to get the DVD when it's available (if you happen to be one of those, say so in a comment and we'll work something out) one of the attendees mentioned that she'd come all the way from (not intending to directly quote Counting Crows) somewhere in middle America just to see the film.

I looked down at her name tag, suspecting (correctly) that I knew the answer.  One of the most regular commenters on this blog - Rosie AKA Rosehawk - possibly the world's biggest David Nykl fan had come all the way to VCON to see the film.  I thought that was pretty cool.

She had also brought one of our CafePress shirts for everyone to sign... which we did later up in the hospitality suite.

It was a lot of fun.

More press has come from it already and there will be even more soon - look for a post in the next couple of days.

And the folks at VCON suggested they could hook us up with some other conventions... so keep your eyes out if you are in other Sci-Fi convention worthy cities!

01 October, 2010

The Beast on the Canadian Broadcast Corporation...

No, sorry not a broadcast deal with CBC (though wouldn't that be cool!)

Just the promised news item from earlier today.



They do strongly suggest that we are a film at VIFF... not VCON (poor assumption on Makarenko's part?) but it's still a good bit.

VCON Rising

Just a late reminder that The Beast of Bottomless Lake is screening at VCON this weekend.



As a matter of fact that is tomorrow!

We are on at 1pm and the screening will be followed by a panel discussion with about eight people involved in all aspects of the movie.

Naturally I will be there, as will Craig, the director and of course David Nykl.  Additionally Bronwen Smith and Roger Haskett from the main ensemble as well as a few other cast members and a couple of interesting crew members like our Editor Mike Jackson and one of the composers, Phil Mahoney are expected to be there.

Hopefully we'll get to post some video clips from the panel.

And speaking of video.... Craig and David are going to be on CBC tonight from VCON.  If we can we'll also post that video.

I've never been to a Sci-FI convention before and I'm pretty excited.  I'm going extra early in the morning tomorrow just to check stuff out.... including an artist I happen to know and love:  Robert Ives



Check out his stuff.  He'll be selling his designer steam punk goggles as well as some of his other steam punk art - which fits in nicely with the theme of the convention this year.