Expecting a Deluge...

Not a deluge of rain - certainly doesn't look that way in Vancouver right now.  Ontario doesn't seem likely either and the Okanagan... yeah, right.

I am speaking of a deluge of posts about the film over the next two weeks.

It has already kind of begin if you haven't noticed.

Here is today's link of note  - The Beast of Bottomless Lake pimped on the Pan-Canadian Skeptical Blog, Skeptic North.

If you are following any single one of our outlets (this blog, our Facebook Page, our Twitter Feed or many of the equivalents for the various people involved in the film) you will likely get most of the links.  If you happen to be subscribed to more than one - there is going to be a lot of redundancy.  For example, this post will automatically appear on the Beast Facebook page, and the Facebook page automatically feed to our Twitter account.  I'll link to it on my Facebook page and Twitter feed too...

Anyhow, there's going to be a lot of traffic between now and the end of the Okanagan Film Festival.

I know it's going to seem like there's a lot of it out there already, but in the grand scheme of things it's going ot be a drop in the internet-pond... so if you can link, re-post, re-tweet and - if you are a real superhero - do posts of your own based upon the information that comes out.  I know there are a few people out there who are already doing that last thing - thanks to you.  There is nothing more important that taking this opportunity to make as much noise as possible in the world.

Stay posted...

And be prepared to take part in the Beast Tweet Blast on Twitter on the night of the Okanagan screening - July 21st.

Shirts & Swag Available

While we were doing the mix this past week Mike mentioned that the crest for the Royal Commission on the Loch Ness Monster would make a good shirt.

I can't say he's wrong about that, so I got the graphic and prepared some shirts (and other swag) at Cafe Press.

If anyone wants a copy of our first design, they are now available.

If you order quick you may even have one before I do!

How does it factor in the movie?  You are just going to have to wait and see...

A Quick Cry for Help!

I'm going to be a guest on Skeptically Speaking this week, but due to a bunch of factors (they're having technical issues in the studio & the host is going to DragonCon) they aren't doing the interview as one of their normal call-in shows.

We are pre-recording the interview without any random listener questions. We're doing that on Monday evening (Aug 31st).

It would be cool if we had some email questions though...

Here's the preview of the show:"Kennedy Goodkey, one of the actors in the new independent movie The Beast of Bottomless Lake will discuss Ogopogo, being a skeptic in the not-so-skeptical acting community,and what it’s like to shoot a movie in a town where the tourism industry is built on the perpetuation of a myth."

If anyone can come up with a question, go to their home page and email it in to the show.

http://skepticallyspeaking.com/episodes/23-the-skeptical-actor

Thanks in advance!

"Next!!" — A tale of two hats (part deux)

Well, here it is, the big day. The day I have been looking forward to all these months. Today I get to shoot my scene.

We were shooting today at the Manteo Resort (www.manteo.com), which is — to quote the script — "gorgeous". Right on the lake, beautiful buildings, and our holding is in a large upstairs room with a massive deck overlooking the resort and the water. A far cry from yesterday's holding — this felt like the lap of luxury.

The first shot of the day was of “Paul” and the gang (henceforth known as the Scoobys), entering the resort in their van and getting out at the front entrance. The second scene takes place inside the resort, at the check-in counter, and I am the check-in clerk. Unbeknownst to Paul, however, there has been some sabotage, and the check-in does not go smoothly.

Because we were shooting at the actual check-in counter of the actual resort, we had to actually stop, fairly often actually, to let the the actual check-in clerks do their actual job.

I went to set around noon, I think, complete with my funky, green Manteo uniform. The scene was further complicated by the presence of background performers; necessary for sure, but adding an extra layer of work for our Director, Craig March [photo, right].

We wrapped up the whole scene around 4:30. There was no way we could stop for lunch, because the Manteo people were being so great letting us use their space, we needed to get the shot and get out of there as fast as possible. So we just pushed through. I was pretty pooped by the end of it. I think I had only had a bagel for breakfast, and then some kind of power bar thingy, so by the time we got to the end of the scene, I was tired and hungry, and we were all getting a little punchy.

Still, it felt great. The work was good, I think, and we had so much fun. It was amazing for me to be there, on set, with the other actors, to take my place there, to rightfully belong.

My favourite part of the day, however, had nothing to do with acting or being on set. It was after, at the ranch, eating dinner, having a glass of wine around the big table outside with the gang. Talking, telling stories about our days and our lives, just kicking back and hanging out.

We also stayed up to watch the 11 o'clock news together. CHBC aired a story on The Beast of Bottomless Lake.

Pretty perfect day.

— Rebecca

A tale of two hats

If there’s one thing you learn in a hurry about making an independent feature film, it’s that everyone pitches in. The name of the game is getting the job done, and if that means that the star of the film has to schlepp equipment, well, then so be it.

I am no exception to this rule. I wear two hats in this production — I serve as publicist, and also as an actor.

Tuesday, it was publicity. We sent out a media call to the press, inviting them to come by and get some footage of us shooting the film, and interview some of the key players. It was very successful. CHBC showed up to shoot footage for the evening news, Shaw showed up to get footage for their magazine, the Kelowna Daily Courier sent a photographer, and then CKOV showed up to do an interview for the radio.

Despite being run off my feet, it was great. A great success by any standard.

It’s a big deal for us to be getting this kind of coverage. We are a small production, low budget, and in order for us to be successful, we need to build a buzz. And the press is a big part of that.

Woo-Hoo!

Add to that the fact that we had a great day of shooting, despite the fact that one of our crew got heatstroke. It was freakin’ gorgeous here today, 28°, hot and sunny. Did I mention the spectacular scenery? And the incredible work?

I love this.

Tomorrow’s hat: actor. Bitchy hotel clerk lives.

Check back.

— Rebecca

More and more…!!! BRICKWALL!!!

Well, we got featured in a front page article in the Vancouver Sun business section on Monday, and our price on the Executive Producer credit went up by 400%. That's the good way of saying it. The other way is to say that it went up by almost $400. But the publicity remains positive and we haven't lost any money, which is even better. Still two days to go.

We got notification that Playback magazine will be featuring us on the 29th. Not soon enough to benefit the auction, but still good press to use.

Big couple of days.

The screenings for ReelFast were yesterday and the day before. I used Monday to do a bunch of networking. That went well.

Last night there wasn't much networking left to do, I'd pretty much worked the room. But it was the screening of my ReelFast directing début — as flawed as it was. The audience gave it a big round of applause when it was done, and reacted positively throughout. The three shots that I expected to get good responses, did, which makes me think I do have a sense of what people like and don't like. And the applause afterwards shows me that our effort was seen — even though the realization fell shy. Lots of good comments afterwards.

Phil Mahoney came to me last night with a CD and DVD demo-reel combo. He asked if we had a composer for The Beast yet — cool acknowledgement. I feel a bit like last night that, despite the short-comings of the my entry, I have been legitimized as a film-maker. It wasn't all last night, but last night was where my peers got to say 'hey, we respect you.'

Yesterday I met with Neil Every during the day. We had a good chat. He's offered to do coverage on The Beast — which is great. It'd be awesome if we could get more from him beyond that, but we'll wait and see. His feed-back yesterday alone was awesome. Raised some big questions for Craig and I to consider.

We also discussed Features First, which we are planning to apply for (despite the fact that it'll change our shooting schedule). He is planning to go for it too. Speaking of Features First, I also ran into Justin McGregor last night who is in the middle of the program right now. He agreed to let me pick his mind for a beer to four.

— Kennedy

A Quiet Saturday

Craig and Wendy and I had an early start today. Woke at 6am for a 7am meeting.

We are a bit in "what now?" mode.

We're a bit confused by the response on eBay. Lots of hits as far as we're concerned, but the price is growing pretty slowly. On one level we know that the heavy hitters aren't even going to get involved when the price is this low — certainly not until the end. Why would they come and inflate the price now? But it's unsettling. The price still grows, but it has yet to pay for the launch… not that the launch was about much more than getting some attention — which it succeeded in doing. But with all this attention, why is there such cautious bidding? You'd think that average joe would be thinking "Wow! I could buy a chance to advertise in a movie for a pittance!" I dunno. We've got attention — that's the bottom line.

We really met to discuss additional funding possibilities. We have to work towards getting other money. Pure and simple. And we can't drop the ball when we've got this momentum going.

In the interviews so far we keep getting asked the same question. I hate having to dodge it. "What is your budget?" The real answer is, the budget is whatever we get, but we can't fucking SAY that — well, I just did, but I mean we can't say that in a newspaper article! And when we meet with investors we need to have a detailed budget. We've had a number of doors open along those lines and we can't go in and screw our credibility by not knowing what we're asking for. We were under such pressure to get the launch up and the auction well done that we dropped all other tasks.

We've got to get this done and fast. Craig is going to do a budget this weekend, but that's a weak solution. We need to get someone who knows their stuff to do it up and fast.

Not liking this very much. I dreamed that there was a bit of a break here. What a knob I was. At least the phone isn't ringing... a quiet Saturday... is that really a good thing?

- Kennedy

More Media

The Toronto Sun featured us today.

Hitting a paper in a major city other than Vancouver is a major vindication.

The bids are still low, but the hits on the auctions are growing fast. I can't begin to assess what this means. At least all three auctions have bids now.

Hopefully this blog and our trailer will be linked to our site soon.

Apparently Playback Magazine is going to call for an interview today, too. No doubt we have succeeded on some level when it comes to getting people's attention.

I was at a play opening yesterday and practically everyone I knew there had heard of it and declared it as a ‘genius idea’. Well, it's only a genius idea if it works.

- Kennedy

The Day After…

Last night, after a harried six weeks of planning, we launched Provost Pictures and went public with our original Publicity and Funding strategy.

The attendance at the event was both less than we'd hoped, but better than we'd feared. I'm guessing there were 75 people there over the course of the evening… although I doubt anyone actually did a head count.

I was exhausted before we opened the doors, but I managed to push through the evening. But when I got home I think I fell asleep in mid-sentence when talking to Eden.

I am still pretty scattered — it was a long haul up to yesterday and the event was preceded by the 48 hour film-competition, which I had committed to before we set a date for the launch. Hopefully I'll ‘reel it in’ (pardon the pun) in the next few days. So apologies for the dis-jointed nature of this post.

The short version is:

• Provost Pictures is a company formed in order to film a feature length film entitled The Beast of Bottomless Lake which I began writing with my friend Keith in about 1998. It was originally titled The Nightmare Beast of Blood Lake: A Scientific Overview and has had almost as many titles as drafts.
• Keith and I brought another collaborator on board in 2000. Craig March. Craig and I had been in an independent film together called Sons of Cohen (don't bother trying to find it) and he and Keith had long been looking for a chance to work together.
• In the late spring of 2001, just as we were getting a bunch of attention on the screenplay — during “National Bike Month” of all things — Keith was killed in a bicycle accident.
• Needless to say this wasn't good for the project or us, and despite our best intentions the film got un-officially shelved.
• Eventually Craig and I got back to the script and with the help of a story editor - Mark Leiren-Young - we finished a nice tight version of the script which eventually was read at the Final Draught Reading Series.
• The Final Draught reading was a BIG success. It was one of Final Draught's best attended evenings. And the seemingly endless laughter was truly vindicating. God how I wish Keith could have been there to see it. Janet, Keith's wife had it videoed for posterity.

Fast Forward to about six weeks ago…

• I read something — I can't even recall what now — in a newspaper about the latest stupid thing that someone had put up for auction on eBay… I think it was 'Run-away Bride Toast'… and it had sold for some embarrassingly high price. Just criminal. I thought to myself, I'd like to get a piece of that action, but it also occurred to me that there had to be a law of diminishing returns applied to it and that the fad of selling stupid stuff on eBay was bound to come to a crashing halt soon. I asked myself 'how could someone find a new and refreshing twist on the idea?' It struck me that the answer lay in finding something equally 'out-of-the-box' yet significantly more pragmatic than toast.
• I was riding my bike home from Eden’s when it struck me: The film… how many times had Craig and I tried to get money for the damned thing? We'd been so close several times, but it always fell through. I knew I had my answer.
• I called Craig the moment I walked in the door. I knew that it was only a matter of time before someone else tried it.
• Craig brought Wendy on board, and we formed Provost Pictures in honour of Keith.

It was a LOT of work to get to last night. I already mentioned my ReelFast project, and I was also committed to doing a show in the Fringe Festival based on one of my favourite books, Cosmic Banditos (an authorized adaptation, no less) — which is not to mention that I also somehow had to do all this work and keep my lovely girlfriend as my girlfriend (somehow I managed to pull that off).

ReelFast was ludicrously exhausting. I've done the contest four times before. Never has it been such hard work — but we only have ourselves to blame, we decided to shoot the entire thing one frame at a time with still cameras as stop-motion. But I digress…

Awake doing the contest for 48 hours, then a short night's rest, followed by two days of prep for the Launch.

The launch was a lot of fun.

We showed a trailer that Craig shot two weeks ago (and I edited in the week before ReelFast). And then announced our crazy scheme. When we announced the feature auction the room went crazy — a huge cheer. You could BUY Executive Producer Credit on our film. We'd clearly captured something.

Once we were done I was handed a number of beers (No wonder I fell asleep in mid-sentence — sorry Eden, I love you.) and finally got to relax.

I lost track of the number of people I chatted with over the next 90 minutes, but there was a lot of excitement in the room. A lot of sentiment along the lines of “Wow. What a great idea! How come on one has ever done that before?”

Today, we've had a number of media interview requests; the interest in our product placement has begun — we've had to answer questions of bidders already — and in the time I've been writing this post, the bids on our Executive Producer Credit has gone up by 10 bids. The money is still pretty low, but we're already getting to the point of breaking even on the launch — which at least means we're not losing anything.

I'm curious if this is just the beginning… when word starts to spread…

Of course that was always part of the plan.

— Kennedy