People's Choice

I've mentioned it already on Facebook, but it hasn't actually made it onto the blog yet...

Late Sunday night at the Gala Closing Party of the Okanagan International Film Festival - hours after the awards dinner (because there was still one film yet to screen at that point) - The Beast of Bottomless Lake won the People's Choice Award.

At the awards dinner we were nominated for Best Canadian Independent Feature which went to Taylor's Way.

We went from the dinner to our second screening to the gala and waited with baited breath, though once again we had a stong hint from organizers that we really should be present.

So yes, long story short, we won.  Yay!!!

Outside of the second screening, Craig & Kennedy with Paul Armstrong, producer of Everything's Comin' Up Rosie which won Best Canadian Short Film. 
(All Photos Courtesy of Heath Tait.)

Get Your Tickets Now - there aren't many left!

This is no longer advertizing.  This is a warning/public-service announcement to those people who were involved or are close firends of people involved who happen to live in the Okanagan and who want to be in attendance at the Premiere of Beast of Bottomless Lake in Kelowna at the Okanagan International Film Festival next week - July 21st.

We've done the math.  There are already less than 100 seats left that we are aware of - indeed if the people who have said to us that they were going to get advance tickets have done so then there are less than 70 seats left.... but we aren't actually positive those people have got their tickets yet.

If I were to open up my file of people in the Okanagan who worked on this film the list would be longer than 70 names - and that doesn't include any friends or guests that they'd bring.

Do you see what I'm saying?

Get your tickets now.  Do not wait to get them the night of the show.

According to the festival website, tickets are only available through the Paramount Theatre Box Office.

The festival organizers have said that the Okanagan Film Festival has never had a sold out show.  Clearly the number of people who worked on the film who would want to see it weren't factored into their plans.  Who knows - maybe we will come out the other side of this looking a little naive, but we think that this is not only going to be their first sell-out, but that there is going to be a BIG demand for tickets above and beyond their expectations as based on the venue size.

So, don't get screwed out of your chance to be there for the premiere.  We are working hard to make this a special night for everyone in attendance.

What Can YOU Do for the Beast?

A good question.

For now the answer is simple.

Do you Twitter?  If not are you willing to do so for an evening?

Excellent.

So here's what we are planning...  A Twitter-Blast!

On the night of our World Premiere at the Okanagan Film Festival we want to have as many people as possible Tweeting about The Beast of Bottomless Lake and using our hashtag - #thebeast - in their tweets.

If you don't know your Twitter basics here's where to go to figure it out.

If you are attending the screening there ought to be plenty you can tweet about over the course of the evening (but we'll provide options below).  If you aren't there, then it can be as simple as any of these (feel free to cut and paste):

• I wish I was at the World Premiere of The Beast of Bottomless Lake #thebeast
• I wish the cast and crew of The Beast of Bottomless Lake the best of luck at tonight's premiere #thebeast
• The Beast of Bottomless Lake premieres tonight - I can hardly wait for my chance to see it #thebeast
• "Life's a Beast... until you find one." The Beast of Bottomless Lake premieres tonight #thebeast

Or you could tailor your tweets to the timing of what will likely be happening...

(This is all on the night of Wednesday July 21st, BTW.)

5:00 PDT - We will be having a pre-show get-together at Sturgeon Hall in Kelowna (announcement on that to follow)
6:30 PDT - People will start heading to the theatre - we don't know that they're doing anything red-carpet like, but you can imagine they will and tweet about that
7:15 PDT - The introductory statements.
7:25 PDT - The short film that preceeds us (at least I assume it's preceeding us based on the OIFF schedule) Skylight screens.
7:30 PDT - The Beast of Bottomless Lake begins...
9:05 PDT - The film ends - Q & A begins.
9:15 PDT - Off we go to the opening night gala...

If you are in the audience, you WILL be reminded.

And while you are at it, some relevant folks to follow on Twitter:

Me: @kennedyg

Our Publicist: @rebeccacoleman

And Provost Pictures itself: @provostpix

Bringing the Beast Home

Okay so they mis-quote me with a typo... I'm hardly concerned about that.

All press is good press and this is really heartwarming, this one.

I am SO looking forward to bringing "Beast..." to the Okanagan.  It may not be my home, but this festival is truly going to be "bringing this movie home."

New Premiere News

Last night it became official.

The Okanagan International Film Festival had strongly hinted to us that we were being scheduled as the opening night film of the festival - a position of honour that I humbly admit makes sense for our film in the Okanagan... after all, that is where the bulk of the film takes place!

Last night was the gala fundraiser for the film festival.  David - our co-producer, not the star, or the special effect advisor, or the production accounting consultant, or the background extra, or anyone else named David who helped on the film... but I digress - David Jevons was in attendance representing the film.

At around 8:30 last night he phoned me, totally excited. 

It is true... we are the opening gala film.

Apparently we are prominently featured in the program and there was a lot of media there who had questions for David about getting in touch with the key creatives for interviews and stuff - so look for links to that coming soon.

The World Premiere

It has been a long time coming.

And I really only just kind of realized the significance of this announcement this morning.

We know roughly when and where The Beast of Bottomless Lake will have it's World Premiere, and it could not possibly be at a more appropriate place.

While we don't know the exact date and time yet, it is official: the film will first be shown to the public at the Okanagan International Film Festival this July.

We had some discussion about whether premiering at a smaller festival like the OIFF was what we wanted to do, but when it came down to it, the Okanagan deserves it.  We could not possibly find a better way to thank the region than by revealing the film to the world there first.  Of course, we have to thank OIFF for giving us the opportunity.

More specific details will be posted in mid June when the schedule is posted.

New Website!

Seeing as one of the easiest ways to find this blog is to link through our website, this seems a little strange...

But we have a new website.

It's pretty - and way more functional than before.

Like I said in the last post - things are starting to happen!

Check out the new trailer on the website - it's not a final trailer... no sir - it's actually a trailer we threw together last year between our advance shoot and the main portion of production. It recently screened at the Okanagan Film Festival.

www.provostpictures.com