Quick Shop

Wow, February already, eh?  Time flies when you’ve got a deadline to meet 🙂  Here’s an update as to where we are with Quick Shop:

New Composers
I’ve enlisted the help of another composer to help score Quick Shop. His name is Steve Davit and he is a student at Drexel University with a lot of experience scoring these types of movies. Steve and I have been working together to get the rest of Quick Shop scored as quickly as possible, and he’s doing a great job. Welcome to the team Steve!

Also, Dave Hoffman is creating some piano music for the opening and closing credits. Dave is an accomplished pianist and has recently released a couple of CD’s. Check out his web site: http://www.channelingthemuse.com/ Welcome to the team Dave!

That Dang Marlboro Sign
So I took a first pass at attempting to pixelate the Marlboro sign that appears in the background of a couple of scenes. Although it did the job, it really doesn’t look that great, so I sent out about 20 emails on Friday to video production houses in the surrounding area asking how much it would cost for them to do it 🙂 I’ve gotten many replies back, but so far no prices that I’d be willing to pay. I’ll keep everyone posted on this….

Splash Studios Screening
So as I mentioned in a previous post, we’ll be screening a rough cut of Quick Shop at Splash Studios in Manhattan on February 28, 2011. I set up a page with the details, you can check it out here:

http://quickshopmovie.com/show-and-grow/

Poster and DVD Cover
Angela has been doing a great job (as always) in finishing up the poster and DVD cover.  Here’s the latest version of each (click on the images to see larger versions):

That Deadline…
So I’m still shooting to be able to send out film festival submissions by March 1st.  I will most likely be submitting to two festivals on that date, the Palm Springs International Shortfest and the Southside Film Festival.   So until then, I have a lot of work to do…better get back to it 🙂

Hello all! Things are going well with the editing of Quick Shop and I believe I’m still on schedule to finish by the beginning of March. I had a bit of a lull while waiting for some things and decided to whip up a teaser trailer, so everyone can get at least a little peek at the movie.

I have to first thank James Graham…the music I used for the teaser is one of his first attempts at the score for the opening scene, and I think it works really well for the trailer. He’s doing a fantastic job with the score, and that’s good because without a good score, this movie is going to be about as scary as Count Chocula 🙂

So feast your eyes on the teaser trailer below:

You can also access it directly on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80crow2yiUE

Enjoy, and feel free to leave your comments here or on the YouTube page.

Hello all…just wanted to give everyone a quick update on where I’m currently at with Quick Shop.

Target Completion Date
So the other night I was browsing through potential film festivals that I want to submit Quick Shop to, and I came across the SouthSide Film Festival in Bethlehem, PA.  I had submitted One-Day Seminar to them back in 2008 and unfortunately they did not accept it.  I’d really like to submit Quick Shop to them as this is the most local film festival around…and their (extended) submission deadline is March 10th.  So there’s my new target date…I am working hard to have a submittable movie by the beginning of March in order to make the deadline.

Editing Update
I’ve been hard at work editing, usually staying up until 1 AM or 2 AM these last couple of weeks.  I’m happy to say that as of last night, I have a completed rough cut of Quick Shop!  With no titles or credits, it’s clocking in at 14:43.  I was hoping it would be under 15 minutes, and I think after trimming, tweaking and with the addition of the titles and credits, I should be able to keep it under 15 minutes.  Film festivals tend to like shorter “shorts”, so I think keeping it under that 15 minute mark will help us get into more festivals.

I screened the rough cut for my wife Denise tonight and she liked it.  There are certainly lots of things to tweak, and that’s exactly what I’ll be doing for the next two months.

Scoring
James and I have been going back and forth with the score for the opening scene, and he should have something solid soon.  He also wrote some country music for the radio station which is pretty cool.

John Leary’s New Web Site
John Leary, the co-writer of the script, just setup a new web site which features all of his current projects including Quick Shop.  Stop on over and give it a view!

http://www.johnjosephleary.com/

Quick Shop Screening in Manhattan
I’ve been offered a chance to screen a rough cut of Quick Shop to an audience in Manhattan in early March, thanks to Alison McMahan.  She runs Homunculus Productions and has co-wrote several screenplays with John Leary.  Alison is going to be screening her new documentary Gluteus Maxximus to an audience, and then she moderates a discussion to get feedback on the film.  She’s letting me come and show a rough cut of Quick Shop, and I think it’ll be a really cool way to get some honest feedback.  Thanks so much Alison!

Poster Update
Angela is back working on the poster, and we’re making some small tweaks to it.  Below is the latest and greatest version:

We’ve also started working on the DVD cover art, which I’ll post pictures of as soon as we have something.  After that I’d like to start incorporating some of the graphics from the poster/DVD cover into this web site.  Very exciting stuff….

Movies by Martin vs. Big Tobacco
I think I’ve finally given up on this David vs. Goliath fight…I’ve come to grips with the fact that I need to blur out the dang Marlboro sign 🙁  Fortunately I found a Pixelator plugin for my video editing software which should make it a lot easier to do it so that it’s not too noticeable.

I guess that’s about it.  If you’re on Twitter, you should follow me to get updates more often.  And for you FaceBook peeps, feel free to post something on my wall.  Until next time…

Things have been crazy busy around here, and will continue to be until next week so I’ll try to keep this one short…

Latest Movie Poster
Angela has been hard at work on the poster, as you can see below:

There are still a couple of tweaks I’d like to make to it, but it’s pretty darn close to being done.  Nice job Angela!  I liked it so much I ran to Target and bought an 11×17 frame for it the other day…it’s hanging on the wall in my cubicle now!

Voice-overs Update
Jeannie recorded her voice-overs for the opening scene and sent them to me last week.  They sounded great, and after I tweaked them a bit they actually sound like they’re coming in from over a phone 🙂  Jeannie had asked a couple of her friends (Rich and Meredith Orlow) to help us out with some of the radio scenes later on in the movie.  They did the recordings and also sent them to me, and I must say I’m impressed.  So thank you Rich and Meredith and welcome to the team!

Editing Update
I finished a rough cut of the opening scene for scoring purposes (more on that below), and am about to start editing the next scene.  Once the holidays are over I’ll have a lot more time to dedicate to editing, so I’m hoping to at least knock out 2-3 more scenes before New Years.

Scoring Update
Mark Gradwell is getting set up to start creating some music for the opening scene.  I’ve also asked James Graham from the Drexel Composers Group to take a crack at scoring the opening scene.  I’m really excited to hear what these guys come up with…welcome to the team James!

Copyrighted Images Update
I’ve made calls to Philip Morris, PepsiCo and ShurFine and hope to hear back from them soon…most likely after the holiday.

I guess that’s about it.  I’m trying to dedicate as much time as I can to editing each scene.  I’ll keep everyone up to date as much as I can with my progress.  In the meantime, I (again) hope everyone has a safe and happy holidays.