Loyal Friends Are Essential!

(Day T-10 Count Down to Worldwide Theatrical Premiere on April 23!)

Recently, I've enjoyed getting to know an actress, writer, and singer, Judi Stiner Gray, and she has offered to help me with the Vengeance Trail theatrical premiere -- twice. The second time, she made herself clear; "I'm volunteering. How can I help?" Wow, it's great to not be alone in marketing this screening. Thank you, Judi, for reaching out. The screening theater is near her house, so today she started displaying Vengeance Trail posters in her area:

• 2 Starbucks.
• 2 Paneras.
• Wings 901.
• Cordova Farmer's Market International.

Meanwhile, I got permission to post at the Agricenter Farmer's Market, then I went to the Bill Pickett Rodeo. Well, I stood outside the walkway with my posters, greeted everyone with a warm "Howdy," and asked who likes Western movies. I was surprised: only about a third of the carloads expressed interest, about 1 in 10. individuals Some people even expressed dislike for Westerns, so I wished them a happy rodeo. Two people said they used to watch them with their grandpa. But quite a few would stop and chat and take a picture of the poster. One guy, in fact, has always wanted to be an actor but was taking care of his father, and he was so excited and encouraged to meet someone in the movie business. I've connected him to the local acting school and all the Memphis networking groups on Facebook.

I've been in Memphis almost two years and made huge efforts to network in the film industry here and be a good citizen by giving back and creating opportunities. In fact, last night and tonight, a local student film shot in my house. I love this town and the creative hustlers all around. It's great to be making loyal friends here.

Ian Max

Why Vengeance Trail is So Progressive: The Pain of Converting Analogue Filmmaking to Digital!

(Day 14 Counting Down to Memphis Premiere on April 23!)

Yesterday, I output Vengeance Trail at 24 fps (frames per second) to do a test screening. I played it from Vimeo on my 55" TV and it worked seamlessly. All I had to do was change the Sequence Settings from 25 fps to 24 fps.

YOU DIGITAL NATIVES HAVE IT SO EASY! This is not our origin story! Vengeance Trail was shot on Standard Def interlaced. Do you younguns even know what that means?

Instead of posting a quick update yesterday, I wanted to geek out with a teaching moment about how hard it was back in my day, LOL! Here's yesterday's belated blog...

Ian Max

TLDR: A primer on fields vs. frames. NERD OUT ALERT!

Films are edited at 24 fps and a frame is a frame. Film projectors actually double project each frame twice, to get the strobe into the persistence of vision range of humans. Think about the mechanics of advancing the film without tearing the sprocket holes, holding it locked while a shutter flashes twice, then advancing the frame again accurately. Now think about aligning two of these cameras and projectors for stereo 3D film projection. It's no wonder 3D needed digital capture and projection to work without giving people headaches. The vibrations!

CRT televisions required a raster to draw the frame twice, skipping lines, so a top (Odd) field and a bottom (Even) field. Who knows why they chose 30 fps back in the BW days? Oh, I remember, because NTSC is based on American AC electricity which comes into your house at 60Hz. So, cameras actually record at 60 fields per second and playback at 60 fields per second, but combining two fields into an interlaced frame becomes 30 fps. And don't get me started on changing the frame rate to 29.97 fps in order to squeeze in the color information. It took me years to realize that Drop Frame and Non Drop Frame were just different ways of counting the frames, the frame rate wasn't actually changing.

Nowadays, your digital monitor or television doesn't care if the video playback frame rate is 12, 15, 29.97, 30, 60, 120, 240, etc. It's so easy!

When we shot Vengeance Trail, DP Stephen McCurry chose a PAL prosumer camera, the Canon XL-1S because PAL is based on 50Hz AC electricity and its frame rate is 25 fps, which is pretty close to film's 24 fps and therefore once transferred to DVD would have a more filmic look.

How does 24 fps or 25 fps become 29.97 fps? I'm glad you asked. It's called The 3:2 Pulldown. 

So you see, in NTSC, frames 3 and 4 would have motion blur. 

Studio movies just repeat every 4th frame. 

Frame advance through a DVD and you'll see the pattern, every 4th frame is played twice, so 24 fps becomes 30 (ish - from now on I'm lumping 29.97 fps into 30 fps)). This method of repeating every 4th frame is a bit jittery. Since SD footage is actually captured at 60i

This time-saving factoid didn't apply to use, because we intended to burn NTSC DVDs! 

"PAL and SECAM television systems run at 25 frames per second. They are close enough to the film frame rate that 3:2 pulldown isn't required. One film frame is transferred to one video frame. The slight speed discrepancy makes a movie slightly shorter when it is transferred to video, but the speed variation is so slight it will not be noticed in viewing.

There is a method to convert 25 frames to 30 using a slightly different 3:2 pulldown to convert every 5 frames into 6 frames. In PAL, frames 4 and 5 (out of 6) would have motion blur. Unfortunately, Stephen converted all the footage before editing, and so locked in all sorts of motion blur. See a previous post about recapturing all the footage.

Don't forget about compression artifacts. If there's movement between two fields, it shows up as blur in a frame. And if you use JPEG compression on a frame with movement between each 60i field, the interlaced stripes become magnified.

Now you see why I sighed in relief when Topaz Labs added the de-interlace function to their Video Enhance A.I. blowup software? I don't know how they create good looking progressive frames, but I'm glad I don't have to ignore a field or blow up motion blur artifacts, and then reinterlace them to create a progressive frame.

You can definitely get into the nerd-weeds on JPEG compression.

And compression leads to generation loss, like when the first photocopiers would add dust to each copy and after a while a copy looked like it had black dandruff specs everywhere. Remember that? LOL. Remember when you recorded TV onto VHS tapes so you could watch a movie later? And if you copied a VHS, the edges would get blurry and colorful. Some weird people in Los Angeles have nostalgia for this. 

Again, you digital natives have no idea how good you have it. Even coding has become visual and intuitive; no more peeking and poking computer memory with machine code. Lucky! Ah, I've forgotten my roots. I think it's true, that I've forgotten more than my high schoolers have learned.

Out of curiosity, I exported the movie at 24 fps and 25 fps. Same timeline length of 01:23:17. Same exact file size. All I changed was the Sequence frame rate. But when I open both windows in QuickTime and hit play at the same time, there's no noticeable delay or difference over time. Then I frame advanced and 24 frames in the first equals 25 frames in the second. I don't need to find that dropped frame, but the sound track scaled perfectly. Now, to see if it matters to the theater when I deliver the DCP.

See you tomorrow with the post I started writing yesterday.

Ian Max

20 Days of Vengeance Trail - Countdown to Memphis Premiere on April 23!

Today, I created a 300dpi 11"x17" poster for the event, and sent it to 901 Print Shop, which was recommended by Rex Oatis of OTS Films who's been advising me generously. Rates were 50 for $100 and 100 for $160. I decided to print 100 and if I don't use them all, I can cut out the middle image and have a smaller poster to giveaway, or maybe sell, at the screening. 

I had hoped to accomplish more today, but I had several meetings that ran long. It is enough for one day.

Ian Max

P.S. Part of the reason I'm posting names and places is, to give others a starting point but also to create an FAQ so that on my next movie I can pay someone to go through this blog and do it better. If it's helpful to you, I'd love to hear.

27 Days of Vengeance Trail - Countdown to Memphis Premiere on April 23!

Sometimes an ROI (return on investment) takes many years! How to have integrity with movie investors' money!!

Most independent movies don't make a profit (60-82% don't break even, in our budget range), which is a simple reality with a complicated response. Filmmakers like to create art, but don't want to learn the business of selling the movie. Vengeance Trail wasn't profitable on its first round, but that doesn't mean it can't find future audiences as a library movie. We made mistakes -- Vengeance Trail started out as a student film with low financial risk, but we didn’t have movie stars and we had some technical issues that made it difficult to attract distributors back in 2006. We also didn't shoot on film or on a digital camera resolution that would have 'future proofed' the movie. Then, we didn’t sell enough DVDs to make the investors their money back, despite touring America's cowboy and Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) Competitions for a year and getting shelf space in Blockbuster and Walmart. Ultimately, the financiers wrote off their losses years ago. This fact has bugged me for 15 years, until new technology came out to solve almost all the technical issues. Now, it's time to raise awareness and find a new audience, for Vengeance Trail and more Westerns to come! 

What I accomplished today:

• Submitted an ad to HappeningNow.com/Memphis. They wanted a link to a Facebook event, so I created that and already have some comments and interested parties. Sign up now!
• Spent the morning working on a t-shirt design that can double as one of the logos on the 8'x8' red-carpet banner I will have printed. The first version was short on dpi and the printshop had to stretch it, so I went overkill on the resolution and my computer had a hard time keeping up.
• Did a Facebook search for "Western movie" and HOLY SMOKES, there's at least 100 fan groups. I started interacting with a few.

Got to finish the EPK, because that's the starting point for publicity. I asked Chat GPT:

Hi Chat GPT, how are you? I am a movie producer finishing up a low budget Western action feature film. I would like to know what marketing materials I should create and a timeline for releasing them.

Hello! I'm an AI language model here to help you. Congratulations on finishing up your low budget Western action feature film! Marketing materials are crucial for promoting your film effectively. Let's discuss some essential marketing materials and develop a timeline for their release. Of course, keep in mind that this is a general guide, and you can adjust it according to your specific needs and circumstances.

1. Official Trailer: Prepare an engaging and captivating trailer to generate buzz and excitement among your target audience. Ideally, release it around 2-3 months before the film's release.
2. Teaser: Consider releasing a short teaser trailer or clip a few months before the official trailer to build anticipation and create intrigue.
3. Poster: Create an eye-catching and visually appealing poster for your film. Aim to have it ready around the same time as your official trailer, so it can be used in promotional materials.
4. Behind-the-Scenes Content: Capture behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, and production photos to share on your film's social media channels and website. Begin sharing this content sporadically several months before the release to keep your audience engaged.
5. Social Media Presence: Establish active social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) dedicated to your movie. Regularly share updates, news, trailers, and engage with your audience. Initiate this at least 4-6 months prior to the film's premiere.
6. Website: Create a dedicated website for your film, containing essential information, updates, trailers, and links to social media accounts. Make sure the website is live early in the marketing campaign.
7. Press Kit: Assemble a comprehensive digital press kit including film synopsis, cast and crew information, production details, high-resolution images, and any other relevant materials. Distribute this to online publications, bloggers, and journalists at least 1-2 months before the premiere.
8. Film Festivals: Submit your film to relevant film festivals to gain exposure and potential awards. Research submission deadlines and create a strategy to maximize your chances of acceptance.
9. Premiere Announcement: Once you secure a release date or screening location, announce it to the public via social media, press releases, and other promotional platforms. Timing for this announcement may vary, but it is typically a few months before the premiere.
10. Online Ads and PR: Consider running targeted online advertisements and partnering with PR agencies to spread the word about your film, ensuring maximum exposure.

Remember to always adapt your timeline to fit your specific release plan and budget. It's also crucial to continually assess and adjust your marketing strategy along the way based on audience feedback, engagement, and other relevant factors. Good luck with your film marketing efforts!

Good advice. On it!

Ian Max

29 Days of Vengeance Trail - Countdown to Memphis Premiere on April 23!

Each day, I'm going to post a little behind the scenes on: The Making of Vengeance Trail, or The Remaking of the Movie using Artificial Intelligence. As well as an update on progress planning the theatrical premiere on April 23 and sharing connections local to Memphis, TN.

You probably didn't get a chance to see Vengeance Trail the first time around. Who remembers Blockbuster? Blockbuster and Walmart is as far as Vengeance Trail got distributed, so I'd love to meet someone who saw it on the shelf and rented or purchased it.

If you like period-accurate Westerns, you're going to love this classic tale of good vs. evil! Nominated for the 2006 Golden Boot Awards "Best of the West." Al Frisch of Hollywood Guns and Props has all the props, costumes, screenplays, and even some horses and standing sets, to make many new Westerns. 

Tomorrow, I'll tell of how a film professor persuaded a historian and collector that Western movies can't lose and that he and his students could make a $10K feature with the resources of two Western buffs and their friends. Lot's of dreams were on the line!

Today's challenges:

• Start the process of building relationships with Memphis influencers by polishing and updating the EPK (electronic press kit).
• Then, I can approach media and bloggers for guest articles.
• Create the art for the t-shirt from the poster art, and send for a test print.

Which t-shirt design do you prefer? 

Today's Successes:

• A Memphis podcaster wants to interview me, stay tuned.
• I submitted the premiere screening event to HappeningNext for $5. 
• I negotiated with The Auteur Club for them to show my promo April 14, in return for showing their promo before Vengeance Trail on April 23.
• I booked a talk show with Anfra Boyd: April 21, 7pm Central on YAMS TALK RADIO.
• I also booked Anfra to live-stream the Premiere. She will bring so much energy!!!

Time to enjoy my family and get to bed on time!

Thanks for your support!

Ian Max

SNEAK PREVIEW of Vengeance Trail - First 12 Minutes

First 12 minutes of Vengeance Trail with live chat this Saturday, August 26 at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern. Click on Notify Me for a reminder.

Hope you're not tired of me talking about my Western. My old partner thinks I'm putting too much time into it, but I keep finding new ai tools that can make little details better. I'm not being a perfectionist, but if a line of dialogue is covered by wind noise and there's a new Audio Enhance Tool, how can I say the movie it done if I haven't made the sound a little better. Right, Benny DeRose of Go Big Audio? After all, the sound quality is as, or more, important than the picture quality. And, I mustn't forget this Call to Excellence that crossed my eyeballs exactly a week ago.

I'm making my way through the movie with a fine-toothed comb, and I finished the opening sequence through the Inciting Incident, the event that will engage the reluctant hero and bring him out of hiding to face his giant. It certainly upsets his world, and it will upset you as well.

These first 12 minutes look and sound great! Like a real movie with a real budget! Which it is! NO DISCLAIMERS NEEDED! I'm very excited. A friend of mine just wrote this:

Bro how in the world did you get your footage to look like that? I've been using Topaz Ai and I can't get my footage to look brand new like you did. If you got a trick, please let me know, because we're trying everything, LOL!

I hosted a YouTube premiere of the Sneak Preview on Tuesday without much warning. A handful of people showed up and interacted in the chat. It was fun interacting with a few fans. And two days later, this video has over 1000 views, which is a better result than any of my videos for over 3 years!

Here are some comments from the Sneak Preview:

"This was really good!!! Great quality!!! Love it!!! Eager for more!!!!"

"Digging it!"

"Good stuff!! Made we want to be a cowboy lol."

"​Ohh, this is epic. I love everything about this."

How cool is that? 

So, join me in two days and let's Live Chat while watching the opening sequence.

Ian Max

P.S. If you worked on the movie or know someone who did, please contact me!

P.S.S. Subscribe here for the Eyre Films Newsletter. More info at Eyre Films. 

 

 

 

 

Zack King's Greatest Stunts

Just yesterday I was planning on looking up all the Zach King Amazon Alexa spots that I stunt coordinated, as it's time to update my reel, and look what I found, Zach King's Top 10 Craziest Stunts!

Tony Snegoff and I tag teamed on coordinating most of these. Let me know if you can spot me or if you have any questions. Since Zach is giving away secrets of his magic, I guess I could too.

Ian Max

Credits:

Underwater: Tony stunt coordinator/key rigger, Ian stunt rigger.

Upside Down (Basketball): Ian stunt coordinator/key rigger, Luke Berger, Josh Fapp.

35 Foot Fall: Ian stunt coordinator, Dallas training team - John Cann, Mark DeAlessandro +2, Los Angeles airbag safety - Mike Washlake, Christian Howard, Narayan Cabral.

Flying Backwards: Tony stunt coordinator/key rigger, Jeff Constine stunt rigger.

Being Upsidedown (hanging by feet on "Stranded 2"): Tony stunt coordinator/key rigger, Ian stunt rigger. (Umbrella) Not me, I don't think. (Light bulb) Ian stunt rigger. (Rubik's Cube) not me, I don't think. (Zack in yellow hoodie) Tony stunt coordinator/key rigger, Elena Churinova stunt rigger.

Falling on a Car: Tony stunt coordinator/key rigger, Vladimir Tevlovski stunt rigger.

Dropping a Car: Tony stunt coordinator/key rigger, Ian stunt rigger.