Lots of things have been going on lately, but I haven’t blogged about them, because I wasn’t sure how official any of them were. But, they’ve all become official at around the same time. So, begin massive news dump now:

FLORIDA FILM FESTIVAL
Our FFF screening is being held on Saturday, April 5th @ 4:00 pm at the Regal Cinemas in Winter Park Village. Directions to the theatre are on my official site, above.

Also, I noticed that we are one of the Spotlight Films at this year’s festival. Only 13 of the ~170 are spotlighted, and only 3 of those are shorts! One of the features spotlighted is directed by Helen Hunt. In fact, there are a couple of celebrity-directed short films at this year’s fest (Josh Brolin and Kate Hudson both have shorts there), but neither one is a spotlighted film. But mine is

ORLANDO MUSEUM OF ART
On Thursday, April 3rd, the OMA is having a First Thursday exhibit about puppets. There will be lots of cool things to see, including the puppets from Dudley and the Toy Keeper’s Chest and Pupsock & Wendell in The Gallery of Doom. In addition, there will be a theatre there screening puppet films, including Dudley and a trailer for Pupsock. We’re only showing a trailer, because the show is two days before FFF, and we’d rather have people go to that.

HANDMADE PUPPET DREAMS
Heather Henson has been kind enough to include Pupsock in Handmade Puppet Dreams for Family, like she did with Dudley. It’s debut screening will be at the Newport Beach Film Festival in Los Angeles on April 26th. I will be in attendance.

BERGENFIELD FILM FESTIVAL
Finally, Pupsock will be screening with the Bergenfield Film Festival outside of New York City on May 1st. I will not be in attendance.

I hope to see you at one of these events!

Poem Pictures’ official site for Pupsock & Wendell in The Gallery of Doom is now live at

http://www.poemfilms.com/doom/

Let me know what you think of it in the comments section of this post, or by email.

We can make movies all day, that’s the easy part. So now we start the hard part, promoting the film and getting it seen. Patrick has done an incredible job putting together this fun, creative, and innovative film, so now we’re hoping to get PUPSOCK & WENDELL IN THE GALLERY OF DOOM in the right hands. We have had some success so far, thanks to Heather Henson and her Handmade Puppet Dreams Festival and Matthew Curtis, programmer for the Brouhaha and the upcoming Florida Film Festival. But that’s not all.

Our plan of attack to start is two-fold. First, and the most obvious, is the festival route. We’ve submitted to several major festivals including South By Southwest (SXSW) in Austin Texas, and this year we will, of course, submit to Sundance, Telluride, Toronto, Cannes, Cinequest, etc. We’ll see how that goes.

Second, and simultaneously, we’ll spread the word by mass email. I know, I know, we all hate SPAM. But if you’re gonna get it, wouldn’t you rather it be about an interesting new movie that good people like us have spent the last year of our lives making for your entertainment, or about VIAGRA and how to enlarge your… well you get the picture.

So I am here to apologize in advance to anyone who is really mad because our press release hit their mailbox, it just seems that this day and age, in order to be heard, you just need to spray in all directions. For those of you who are not mad at the bulk email (like Roger Moore, the wonderful film critic for the Orlando Sentinel, who has already requested a screener of the film thanks to the mass mailing), thank you for taking the time, and let us know how we can get you to see the film. Also, please check out our new Pupsock Webpage at www.bluejuicefilms.com/films.htm and click on the PUPSOCK poster.

As scheduled, the final version of Pupsock & Wendell in The Gallery of Doom was hammered out on January 20th, 2008. One year and one day after wrapping principal photography. A year ago today was a Monday. Assistant Director Chris Santora and I went back to our day jobs at Northrop Grumman, trying to remember what real life was like, and not happy about it. We wished we were still on the shoot.

Now it’s time for all that after movie stuff. Tom and I are working on press releases (mostly Tom). I’m trying to get a trailer cut and a website made. A website other than this one, of course. With pictures, video, stuff like that. Trying to keep up with festival submission deadlines, making DVDs, researching having them made in bulk, trying to make a press kit. Scrambling to make one, actually, since Florida Film Festival contacted everyone today and asked for one next week. Don’t get me wrong — it’s an excellent problem to have. However, it is still a problem. All this stuff is cool to make, just not as cool as what I spent the last year doing. Hopefully, though, this year will be the year to reap the rewards for all the work I and my crew did last year.

Oh, and as for the sound mixing on Sunday, it was amazing. David Wallace exceeded my expectations by doing a mind blowing Dolby 5.1 surround mix. I’m sure it will never sound as good as it did on his speakers in the mixing room, but I can’t wait to experience it in a theatre that way!