Some Silly Extra Fun

The next video in our series of supplementary "Extras" that wouldn't fit on the DVD is now available on YouTube.

This a compilation of the cast on set exercising their vocal chords.

The Beast of the Silver Screen

Alllll....righty then!

Have you got it figured out?

Yes, there is going to be a theatrical run of The Beast of Bottomless Lake next month.

It is going to be small and more than likely short - like a week, but who knows if things go well.

Landmark Cinemas has chosen three theatres in the Okanagan Valley to run Beast in starting September 9th.  Specifically, the Paramount Theatre in Kelowna, the Capitol Theatre in West Kelowna, and the PenMar Theatre in Penticton.

We are currently working on a gala preview on the 8th with special appearances and stuff - more news on that as it happens... to be clear, the gala part is not 100% certain yet, but keep your eyes here for details - they will be coming soon.

A Cagey Announcement

So really this is more of a tease than an announcement.

Back when I was writing about the impending DVD release party I hinted that we would be making a cool announcement at the screening.  Well, that didn't happen.  We didn't have the details confirmed, so we didn't mention it.

Well.... we still don't have the precise details, but at least we do now have a confirmation that is is happening. (Whew!) 

WHAT IS IT!? You scream.

Well I'm afraid I can't say much yet - and some of the details are still a bit vague - I can say that it has required us to re-edit our trailer to end with a title card that reads "Surfacing September 2011."

More details to follow soon.  I promise.

The Real Deal

This is kind of entertaining. 

From the National Post, an article about a real-life Ogopogo hunter.

Good ground for a game of "Name that Logical Fallacy."

To his credit he seems to be making an honest effort to properly dissecting the evidence. Good for him on that.

But it's in his persistence that he fails.

"We’re finding new species of stuff all the time, all over the place: butterflies, frogs. I mean, it goes on and on. Why couldn’t there be something in the lake?"  The short answer is that it just isn't logically plausible.  But there is more...

For the record, proving that there is no Ogopogo is technically impossible. You cannot prove a negative.  (Which is something briefly touched upon by my character in the film.)  But every day that passes by without real evidence of a 40 ft. serpent in Lake Okanagan is effectively more evidence that it doesn't exist. Everyone has a camera these days - video cameras in most cases. How does something that has been vaguely seen so many times in the past 100 years not get caught on video now? Every existing video is either clearly something else or is far more easily explained (via Occam's Razor) by something far more mundane - something that Steciuk is clearly capable of doing as he identifies the long rolling waves that form in Lake Okanagan as the reality behind many sightings.  (Various other animals and logs make up most of the other sightings.)

Yes, Bill, we are finding new stuff all the time. LITTLE THINGS. The big stuff has no where left to hide. Especially if they exist in the size of a breeding population. He himself acknowledges that they have to exist as a species... which severely complicates his theory that they exist. It is diminishingly likely that a single creature could evade decisive discovery over the period of time under consideration (to say nothing of the fact that it would now be prohibitively old).  To suggest that a minimum viable population could remain a mystery is nothing less than absurd.

Looked at with any degree of rationality, the only Ogopogo that exists is the cartoon representations that he detests so much.

Additional Bonus Videos

Have you been over to the Provost Pictures YouTube page?  There are all kinds of additional video about The Beast of Bottomless Lake over there.

On the DVD we made a promise to add more bonus video to the YouTube page, and starting today that is coming to fruition.

It's going ot happen gradually, but over the next month or two I will be posting (as they are ready) a number of additional interviews and behind the scenes featurettes.  They will all be things that didn't suit well to going on the DVD for various reasons - too long, too weird, or required too much work to get them up to an appropriate level of production.  None of that need be an issue on YouTube though!

For starters, here is a (long) video of the panel discussion we did at VCon in October of 2010.




More to come!

Congratulations are in Order...

I have been remiss.
The Beast... DVD release party at Denman Place Cinema has come and gone and I have been too distracted to comment upon what is now behind us.

By all accounts it was a great night.  Over two hundred people showed up - the biggest single location audience for the movie ever.  While it made for an only half full theatre, it made for a very full lobby - and considering the heat of the evening, that was as much as anyone would have fairly desired.

We ended up adding one late-addition short film to our roster for the evening on short notice.  20 Minutes of Oxygen a music video by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets - a Vancouver band that has a song in Beast....

20 Minutes of Oxygen was directed by the editor of Beast..., Mike Jackson. Mike also edited and did the effects on the video and it was shot by our Director of Photography Naim Sutherland.

Following the screening of the shorts, we took an intermission where everyone was treated to a great set by The Pucks, who have two songs in the film.  (they played both in their set.)  Lots of excitement in the room through intermission.  The short films were extremely well recieved and it almost seemed as though the response from the audience got better with every film... which I am somewhat hesitant to admit, as a short film I wrote and am featured in was the second one shown of six.  The buzz in the lobby about the films was great as everyone clamoured to get their vote for the audience choice award into the
box. 
The Pucks rocked out - and how can you not rock out with a tuba?  People enjoyed the wine (and audience choice award) sponsor's product - Township 7 wines as well as the beer alternative (who didn't sponsor us so it wouldn't be fair or right to name them).  A French documentary crew doing a film about independent film in Canada showed up (they were following Beast... cast member Fabrice Grover) and shot the event and interviewed me.

Once all the halftime hoopla was over, everyone returned to the cinema for the main attraction.  Craig, I am told, said all kinds of nice things before the film started - I wasn't in the theatre at the time (there was SO much to be done).

The film, as always, spoke for itself.  Everyone enjoyed themselves.  Many people walked away surprised by the quality of both the production and the depth of the plot.  We sold a lot of DVDs.

Once the main feature was over we drew for the 50/50 draw (I must admit I'm not sold on 50/50 draws... I don't win even close to half the time.) and other door prizes and then announced the winner of the Township 7 Audience Choice Award.  And here is where congratulations are in order.  The winning short was Death Wish, directed by Chad Costen.  I didn't think it was appropriate for me to vote, but if I did it would have been for Death Wish.  (The film I was involved in wasn't eligible... because I was involved.)  I had picked it as a favourite as it had been chosen as part of the shorts program at the Missisauga Independent Film Festival for this year.  MIFF was where Beast... won it's first festival award on it's festival circuit pilgrimage last year.

The tiniest (and cutest) audience member.

We have a similar photo of them at the
Provost Pictures launch.

MIFF is finished now for this year.  I am sad to say that Death Wish didn't win it's category.  However, the feature that caught my eye when I looked at what was being screened this year, Feature Presentation (yes, that is the film's name) ended up taking the mantle from us as the Best Feature.  Congratulations to them.  Wear it well.  I hope I get a chance to see it somewhere someday.