NOTES FROM HOLLYWOOD: PART 15

Reflections on the Journey to Make a Feature Film

Joshua Close stars as Slinger, a veteran struggling to make sense of civilian life
​when he's confronted with gun violence in his home town. 

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I'm pleased to tell you, we finished the film.

Final color notes were addressed last week when Hana (DP) and I worked with Luke, our colorist, on the few remaining tweaks. A little background color adjustment in this scene. A little skin tone adjustment in that scene. A little light issue coming through a window. Small details. But important. (photo right: many of the scenes in sequence for color timing). We received the final output from DXD, then my editor, Dag, put it together with the final sound mix and sent the link to me. I reviewed it. And we’re done. Done. Like actually finished.
 
What am I supposed to do with myself now?
 
Oh. I just have to try to find distribution, submit the film to forty or so film festivals, create an impact campaign, develop our marketing materials and fend off adoring fans who want to know, WHEN CAN WE SEE IT?!!!
 
Settle down everyone. I feel you. And I appreciate that you’ve attended this journey; that you’ve joined me as I’ve kept this personal record of the ups and downs, the ins and outs, of making my first feature as writer/director. Believe me, I’m excited to share the film with you--even if I’m terrified that it won’t live up to all the build-up. No matter. That’s art. There comes a time when what’s done is done and you have to pull back the curtain and reveal to the world what you’ve been making. I’m ready to do it.

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Aaron on set in Los Angeles in February 2024.

However, I would prefer you not watch the film from the comfort of your living room. If you don’t mind, I want you seated in a dark and crowded theatre, sharing air with other human beings (remember when we used to do that?), in front of a huge screen with the best sound system in the world. I would prefer that you enjoy the cinematic experience IN COMMUNITY. That’s my preference. Yes, the film will eventually be parked on a streaming service where you can watch it in your bathrobe or on the subway, God forbid, on your phone, and I’ll never know. But don’t you want to experience the film in the best possible conditions?

World Premiere of WRESTLING JERUSALEM at the Castro Theatre, San Francisco, 2016. 

I liken it to the difference between going to an art opening and seeing a painting for the first time in a gallery, properly framed, properly lit, with the buzz of the crowd all around, versus unrolling the canvas of the same painting from a cardboard tube and pinning it to the wall in your kitchen in shitty light and standing back to view it. Or the difference, if you will, between seeing Steph Curry courtside with a crowd of 18,000 or watching the Warriors on your laptop at your desk at work. You just can’t quite compare.
 
Context is EVERYTHING. Once I saw the film on the big screen in the sound stage, I knew I wanted you to see it on the big screen too. So let's hold out for that.
 
Since prestige film festivals, if they accept your film, require the world premiere, we can’t screen it publicly before the festival screening anyway, so it’s a waiting game to determine where/when that world premiere will be. But we’ll tell you as soon as we know! ​

In the meantime, we’re organizing our distribution strategy. We've brought on associate producer, Ari Basile, (photo left) to help us develop and implement this strategy which includes having Key Art created (poster and so on), pursuing conversations with distributors, networking with film festival programmers, creating our social media presence and developing our impact campaign. Welcome Ari!
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Can you help? Yes, you can. Are you on Instagram? Please follow us, like and share our posts: @americansolitaire. It takes time to build a social media presence from scratch, we only have a few posts up so far, but your likes and shares really make a difference. Follow on Facebook too.

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The filmmaking part of “indie filmmaking” is over. Now the promotion part begins, and that means building network and community around the film. The distributors that we’ve been speaking with all want to partner with filmmakers that they take on. In this day and age of distribution, they see filmmakers as vital collaborators. We know our audiences better than they do.
 
So we begin to build that audience now, with you, our closest supporters. We’ll share more with you as that process comes into focus, but we did it with WRESTLING JERUSALEM and community screenings and public conversations around the issues of the film, and we’ll be doing the same with AMERICAN SOLITAIRE. We'll be creating community partnerships around the themes of gun violence, PTSD, veterans mental health, youth culture, hyper-masculinity, political/cultural polarization and so on. We ascended one mountain successfully by finishing the film. We’re gearing up to climb the next hill!
 
See you up there.