Cherry
Greetings everyone!
Here’s a lightning fast update on two recent film festival screenings, the plan for Cannes, and info about backer DVDs, film festivals and free merch!
Festival Recap #1: NYC Downtown Short Film Festival
On Tuesday, April 26th, Cerise screened at the 7th Annual NYC Downtown Short Film Festival, and let me tell you, our little film about former spelling bee champ Josh Kermes got the greatest audience response yet! (I know I said that a few updates ago, when Cerise screened at NYC Downtown’s Audience Choice screening, but there’s just something about a New York City audience!) And though we didn’t win any awards (I mean, how can you when you’ve got God of Love on the playbill?!) it was just such a thrill screening Cerise to such a lively, vibrant audience at Duo Multicultural Arts Center!
Festival Recap #2: Bergenfield Film Festival
On Cinco de Mayo, Cerise screened at the Bergenfield Film Festival, and sadly, it marks our first unsuccessful tryst with the film festival circuit. The audience and the Clearview Cinemas 5 seemed to enjoy the film despite the volume being too low and a few moments of freezing frames and skipping beats because of the shoddy portable DVD players the festival organizers were using to screen the films. But as with anything, we learn to take the positive with the not-so-positive, and I took away a few valuable lessons from this whole nightmarish ordeal. We’ve got bigger words to spell!
Oui Cannes Do It!
As many of you already know from our prior post “Burgundy,” Marinell and I are going to Cannes Film Festival to promote Cerise at the Cannes Short Film Corner. Also joining us on the French Riviera is one of Cerise’s talented producers, Camiren J. Romero. Our plan for Cannes is to stay there for the first half of the festival, check out some films (and lots of shorts), promote, promote, and promote Cerise at the Festival proper, at parties, in hotel lobbies, then train north to Paris, take in the City of Light for five days and fly back to Jersey between $5 and $10K in debt (hey, if dying in debt is good enough for Mr. Twain, it’s good enough for me!)
“Hey, wasn’t I supposed to get a DVD of Cerise?”
So, as many of you may have realized, I’ve been a bit quiet about the DVDs for our $50+ backers who supported us during our IndieGoGo campaign. I haven’t forgotten or anything of the sort; things have just been very busy with Cerise and submitting to film festivals. On top of that, my muse has just moved back into my mind and has been pushing me into overdrive lately, so time has not been of the essence for me. But fear not. I will be pushing the DVDs to the foremost burner of the metaphorical stovetop. However, instead of being packed with “Bonus Features!” and “Special Features!!” and even more “Additional Features!!!” it’ll most likely have to be the film itself packaged in a sweet looking box brandishing our awesome cover artwork and maybe some festival laurels. No doubt that it will make a lovely addition to your personal DVD collections.
Sixty Festivals (and Counting)
And as I mentioned above, I’ve been very rigorous in submitting Cerise to film festivals, and at present, we are up to over sixty film festivals! Our Second Crusade for Cerise was a wonderful success, just like the First, and we will be taking a slight hiatus before launching our Third Crusade, with even more and even bigger festivals for you to help sponsor.
That’s about it for now. Please remember to visit the Freebees tab to get some free merch to show your support for the word that took Josh Kermes down!
See you when we get back from France!
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Cherry [cher-ee] noun 1. the fruit of any of various trees belonging to the genus Prunus, of the rose family, consisting of a pulpy, globular drupe enclosing a one-seeded smooth stone… adjective 10. bright-red; cerise. (from Dictionary.com)