Hello Kitty ii ka na?

Spent the day at the Mia Bays Sales, Marketing & Distribution Workshop put on by my mate Saskia at the London Film School (the old alma mater). Highlights were:

Meeting and swapping cards with the Head of Programming for the London Film Festival, Michael Hayden. Did the 30 second pitch: "Tokyo Cowboys is permanent lost in translation...for real: an intimate look into the lives of 5 western men living long term in the wild, wild East."

Learning that you can ask smaller festivals for something called a "screening fee," which is essentially a box office percentage. According to Mia, not all festivals have a screening fee policy, but a lot of the smaller ones do.

And...learning that "The Lives of Others" was rejected by all major festivals, yet it was in the top ten grossing films of 9 of the top 10 territories. (This is to make me feel better in the event of a worst case scenario.)

Another session tomorrow with a Sales Agent, top Booker in the U.K., and a distributor. Must print out some more TC meishi.

Photo thanks to Tokyo Mango.

Breathing New Life

Spent several hours yesterday with Jaime Estrada-Torres, who gave us amazingly thorough advice on how to professionally polish Tokyo Cowboys. He went through the film scene by scene and pointed out specific action items. Patrick reckons that he can finish the whole edit by next week.

We also laid all of Simon's music over the film, and it is just brilliant. Spoke to him on the phone, and we'll take the new edit round to his studio after the edit is done for polishing.

Spent several hours this evening researching distribution models. Of particular interest was Peter Broderick's Distribution Bulletins, specifically his one on using Radiohead's online model. Got a bit freaked out by Film Specific's Podcast about how to position your film for distribution in 2008. Deliverables? "You're gonna have to spend a bit of money?" Help!

The photo above is by Altus. He's using some cool technology to manga-fy his stills.

Tokyo Cowboys New Year Update (in case you didn't get the email)

Dear All,

Patrick and I would like to wish all of you a happy and prosperous New Year. It's been a while since we sent out an update, and there's a good reason. Patrick and I have been busy FINISHING the film. Well...almost.

What's the Score

Our composer, Simon Rogers, has been working hard to give us an incredibly beautiful score. It's been a pleasure and a great journey working with Simon who brings years of experience and loads of talent to the project. Patrick and I have both learned so much from him. Simon studied at the prestigious Royal College of Music and has been a success as both a Musician and Producer. You can see his CV and visit his profile on Wikipedia.

Clearances

What a palaver. This is where filmmaking gets really boring. We've got to clear every song sung in karaoke, every musical performance and every one of the TV shows we filmed. It adds up to about 30 individual clearances. We've been lucky, though. Three of the big songs will only be about £300 each to clear for festivals. The folks at Universal and Carlin Music have been very helpful, and we are making progress.

Other Bits

The remaining work on Tokyo Cowboys includes finishing the credits, grading and the sound mix. A mate is letting us use his online suite for the grade, so we have been very fortunate. The credits are going to be as long as the film, and the sound mix will be hairy. We've been listening on the mini speakers on our editing suite, but, when Patrick screened the film on Graham's home cinema system, he could hear every little finger tap on the camera. Loads to do here, but we've got some good leads on affordable sound mixers.

Festivals

So far, we've been sending off the Work-in-Progress to festivals. It is crucial to the success of the film to get a good run as festivals are where we can flog the film in various territories. This month is when we start to hear back, so please send us good vibrations. Also, a successful festival run often times depends on who you know. So, if any of you good folks out there have any connections to festivals for which Tokyo Cowboys qualifies, please do get in touch (Tokyo Cowboys is classified as a feature-length independent Documentary).

New Technologies

I have been following various blogs about emerging technologies in online film distribution. Online, we can find and exploit (in the best possible sense) audiences that may not be able to access Tokyo Cowboys elsewhere. I know there are some techies and marketing geniuses out there, and I would like to open a dialog about how we can get Tokyo Cowboys to the online market. Please email me if you'd like to participate.

That's it from TC headquarters. Patrick and I would like to thank all of you for your continuing support. We are almost there!

Hugs,

Daneeta

Festivals Again...

Spent all day yesterday on festivals. The process is searching out the festivals that TC qualifies for, filling out all the paper work, packaging up everything and posting. Doing one festival can take upwards of 2 hours. Insanity. It's also quite expensive, but it's our career and at least it's tax deductible. This is the most boring bit about filmmaking, and, if we weren't independent, we would have some little worker bee doing this for us. Another reason to align yourself with a production company. Oh, how much we have learned on this project.

Thanks to http://www.nataliedee.com for the image.

Clearances

Spent all day working on clearances. A bit of good news in that some of the major tracks will only cost about £300 to clear. We lucked out with "Just a Girl," "Wherever you will go," and "Linus and Lucy" in that we only need the publishing rights. Because characters are singing, and we are not using the recording (mechanical rights), the fee is much cheaper. Things get complicated with the karaoke tracks. Not only do we have to get the publishing rights, but we have to get those cleared through the karaoke company as well. Katsura is working hard on those. There are a couple of tracks owned by Victor Entertainment in Japan, so my Japanese skills will be tested to the limit when I do the calls on Tuesday. Then, there's all the Japanese TV stuff. All of this is tedious, but it will be so worth it in the end.

You can blow your independent spirit up my ass...

I have spent the last few days and nights trawling WAB, BritFilms and the like for appropriate festivals for Tokyo Cowboys. I figure the festivals specializing in "independent" films are the ones for us. I mean, we are the epitome of independent. We raised the money ourselves, we shot it, we edited it and we are selling it...all without the aid of a production company. Here's how most festivals define independent: "made with less than 50% participation by a major studio or television broadcaster." What the hell does that mean? Budget? Publicity? Marketing?

But, OK, whatever. That's not the thing. The thing...the real thing...the thing that gets up my butt is that the films specializing in independent films...the festivals that are filled with the independent spirit (whatever the fuck that means) charge outrageous fees. I just came accross one that is charging $110. And, that's the early bird deadline...AND, it's a European film festival. For shame! You greedy bastards. European film festivals are subsidized by tax euro...your's and mine. Outrageous!

P.S. The picture above is not my ass. Would that it were.

Tokyo Cowboys Press

Check out the interview about Tokyo Cowboys over at Broken Projector.

Minding my P's and Q's

Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod...Simon is going to fahlippin' kill us. Well, it's Patrick's fault anyway. He keeps tweaking when I'm not looking. But this is it, this is truly it. Tonight is truly the end. All of the tweaking has been done, and Patrick is burning for festivals. Now I just have to call Simon to let him know that all of the music Q's I sent him last week are now completely changed!

Music to My Ears

Last week I met with Simon, our composer and certified Japanophile. We had a listen to some ideas he's been working on for the score. The stuff he did for the Salaryman/Samurai bit and for the Ask/Answer bit are so kickass that I nearly cried with joy that it's all coming together. We've given him notes, and he's in the studio as I write creating magic.



Today, we watched the cut, yet again. It's clocking in at 83 minutes without credits. Patrick has got a last minute inspiration and wants to cut in a 30 second sequence that brings Daneeta the character back into the film. I'm not sold on the idea, but I'm going with it. Patrick's ideas are usually pretty much on the money. I think my luke-warm reaction to the idea might have more to do with the fact that I'm really tired of the cut, and I just want it to be over. Is that bad to say?

Other than that, I've been dealing with clearances all day, which is the worst possible thing you can do with a hang over.

Jesus save me from myself!

Linus and Lucy

Spoke to Lish over at Warner Chapell about getting rights for Lunus and Lucy. It's the song in the film that introduces Mark. He plays the piece on the piano at one of the EWC events. Lish says it's going to cost us £500 just for festival rights. I've written her a teary email explaining that we're broke and how we've been working on the film for ages and how we haven't been paid and that we would share the wealth if we had any. She hasn't responded yet.

Also put in a request to Universal for "Wherever you will Go." They also own the rights to "I'm just a Girl," which we requested earlier and are still waiting to hear back on. "Wherever you will Go basically ends the film as Aki sings it in Karaoke (hope I'm not giving away the ending here).

Doing all of these clearances sucks. Next time, it will be different.

Festivals...again

Spent the whole day checking festivals. It is mind-numbing work and requires someone about a thousand times more meticulous than me, but there is no one like that around my place, so it's all down to me (poor me!).

I really f*@ked up on Rotterdam and missed the festival deadline, so now I'm all paranoid and have to check all my lists on, like, a daily basis. this can take hours.

Anyway, packaged and posted three festival entries and realized I missed the one in Montana. This sucks.

More Feedback and Paperwork

Received more feedback yesterday and today from two more viewers, and it was good all round with some minor suggestions. Simon says that we can fiddle a bit with the picture until the 30th when he will need everything done and dusted for real. This is how I feel about the project today.

Been working at the day job yesterday, today and tomorrow, so haven't had much time to do much, but I have gotten info back on three sets of clearances we are after. So, on Friday, I will make the calls.

Also sending to Festivals on Friday as well. Two well-known "women's" festivals and a few others. As an aside, "Liza" was accepted to the 21st Stuttgart Film Festival in competition. This is an experimental documentary that Patrick directed in February. I Exec. Produced it, and it is an Elektrik Zoo production, so we're quite chuffed.

Tagged and Bagged

This is a pre-announcement ahead of the official TC Update to be sent out next week. We have locked the picture...tagged and bagged. Now on to sound. Simon is taking a 1st pass at the music as I write. It's all happening.

Is Cinema Dead?

And, if so, what is replacing it?

Thursday night...9 p.m. Central London...Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror"...10 people in the cinema.

Big trouble in the cinemas, and the online world is taking over. In an article in this week's "Screen International" ("Film's New World Order") producer Ira Deutchman suggests that studios are struggling to adapt to the online explosion and that this is a good opportunity for independents.

I know he's right I just have no idea what to do...how to exploit the markets and audience streams on the Internet. The thing is that I'm not really interested in that part of filmmaking. I just want to make the films and have someone else exploit those markets. But, it's still the frontier.

What People Said

The other day I received feedback from one of our viewers. He said some pretty cool things about his experience watching the film. Soooo, I thought I'd post a few comments from him and others.

"Satisfying...Gripping...There is something about Mark that is darkly sexy. I think he's on his way to becoming a gay icon."

"Engaging...the Cowboys are fascinating characters. I actually missed them when the film was over."

"A tremendous work that precisely captures the reality of the post-modern world of cowboys in Japan."

I'll post more as they come in.

I'm Just a Girl

Trying to clear the rights for "I'm just a Girl" by No Doubt. Called Universal Music who hold the rights, and they told me that No Doubt songs are notoriously difficult to clear, but I'm hoping that the fact that Gwen Stafani has a strong connection with Japan will bode well. I've sent off an email with all of the relevent information. Now we wait.

In the meantime, Katsura has been working hard on her end to get clearances for all of the Karaoke songs. She's cleared "Ue o Muite," which is the song we plan to use at the end of the film. You can see it performed below by the wonderful Ningyoko. She's also got tentative agreements with some of the other rights holders.

Katsura kicks ass. She was a few years below me at The London Film School and is a director/writer as well as doing fab camera work. Her film Zekuu has been quite successful on the festival circuit. So melancholic and so beautiful...it's very skillfully directed. Check it out if you get a chance.

Oh yeah...the Marketing

Spent most of the day researching on WAB and BritFilms for all of the free festivals. I'm looking for November deadlines. I also have a "Top 40" list from Shooting People. Some of those are free...mostly the European ones. Patrick says this is because in Europe Film Making is subsidized by the Government. In America, it's not, so the festivals have to charge. It's a Capitalist State, remember? For the ones with fees, I have to weigh the cost over the festivals advantages.

Even with sites like WAB and ReelPort, it's bloody hard work. Waaaaaah!

Cloudy's Website

Cloudy has a new website: http://web.mac.com/cloudyb/iWeb/s/Mates..html. Check it out to see photos of his life in Japan and beyond.

Thinking Ahead

Met up with Silvia Cambie today. She runs Chanda Communications, and was introduced to us by one of our investors. She is getting us to think about marketing the film, which is good. For literally years, I have not been able to see beyond finishing the film. But, now that we are so close to finishing, we have to start thinking ahead, and I'm thankful that Silvia came along at the right moment.

We've inter-cut all of the characters, and Patrick had a huge epiphany last night about how to slice and dice them more. He's like one of those Japanese jujitsu knives that they used to sell on late night TV in America. He slices, he dices, he can even cut through corn on the cob. He's finishing off cut 7.3 to hand over to two viewers tomorrow. We're supposed to have the film as close to picture lock as possible by Wednesday. That's when it goes to Simon, our composer. Then it's off to Sweden for 11 days.

Silvia was asking me to think about which bits people will remember when they leave the film. For her, it was Ken...the Jewish boy from New York performing Christmas Mass in his role as rent-a-priest. But, it's funny. Each person that watches the film picks their own stand-out scene. One person said it was Christmas morning with Ken, Aki and the newborn Taiga. The family celebrated a hybrid of Christmas and Hanukkah. Another said it was Hiromi changing Dave's diaper after his butt operation...her devotion to him almost fanatical. And yet another said it was Cloudy, after performing in one of his shows, dropping a tiny girl off his lap. She squealed with laughter even after hitting the ground with a thud.

Of course I like all of the scenes in the film. But, I have to say that I am partial to the pauses...those sort of in between scenes that show Tokyo...complex, ineffable, dense...hiding secrets right on the surface of everything. Shhhh...

Tokyo Guts

Oh, yes. The guts of Tokyo Cowboys. But, if you look closer, there is some order to this.

We are well in the middle of inter-cutting the characters. It is a head f@ck. Patrick will have cut 7.0 done sometime tonight. He says he only has 3 notes. I'm holding my breath. We are so close.

Now, if we can just get around this damn postal strike, we might even make the Slamdance deadline.