This blog post first appeared in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.
We had the World Premiere of SCARECROW COUNTY at Film Scream, a dusk-to-dawn horror movie marathon, in Iowa City and it went great. Henrique Couto's movie HAUNTING INSIDE played after mine, and we both took questions and ran a merch table in between shows. We were treated like kings by the staff there and very graciously by the patrons.
The new Film Scene theater is one of the top-flight venues I've ever seen, and if I lived five or six hours closer I would probably go see movies there a couple of times a month. I felt way too low-class when we rolled up to the place but felt at home by the time we left the next day.
Before the screenings we were taken to an excellent vegan restaurant and got to wander around a cool area nearby called the Pedestrian Mall.
My Q&A, as well as questions after, were highly interesting to me, being able to see my "Hoosiersploitation" feature through other people's eyes. One question: was that a real one-room library in that town? Answer: yes, that was the real Parker City Library. Another question: were the streets really that empty or did you keep people off them? Answer: sadly they were that empty. Question: Is high school basketball really that popular in Indiana? Answer: DID NOT DESERVE AN ANSWER.
The question that floored me the most was when someone came up after and asked if I intentionally had the town librarian (played by Chelsi Kern) reading Ursula K. Le Guin's THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS in the library, and I told that person I 100% did, and in fact Chelsi's character read it in THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE as well. The book was highly influential in writing both movies and I was glad to have a chance to talk about it with someone. It's a little detail I didn't think anyone would notice.
I think I have mentioned before that I have given my leads a book at the end of principal photography on both movies, and THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS is the one I gave Chelsi. In fact she is reading the copy I gave her (my own copy is in my former movie). After THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE I gave Joni Durian another Le Guin, THE LATHE OF HEAVEN, if that gives you any clues about that movie.
Drove all day, slept a couple of hours, drove straight back, but really worth it to be introduced to a new film experience and a new group of film lovers.
Next screening is Farmland Indiana this Friday, at the Community Center where a lot of SCARECROW COUNTY and a bit of THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE was shot. I expect this to be almost a "friends and family" show with a lot of the cast and crew in attendance.
In the midst of all this, THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE dropped on Amazon a week ago today. Typical of my glamorous Hollywood lifestyle, I was washing dishes after dinner when my phone started buzzing with texts. I quickly found out that CRAWLSPACE had dropped on Amazon, Vudu, FandangoNow, and XBox, with more to come. So I immediately went and fired up the TV and found it on streaming, and had this very strange feeling of sitting on my couch in my living room in the midwest looking at the movie I shot in my living room in the midwest.
Loyal readers, I have one small favor to ask. If you have seen the movie, please go to Amazon and give it a rating and/or review. It means a lot to independent filmmakers like me as it will encourage others to give it a try.
Thanks so much for reading, and see you out there.
We had the World Premiere of SCARECROW COUNTY at Film Scream, a dusk-to-dawn horror movie marathon, in Iowa City and it went great. Henrique Couto's movie HAUNTING INSIDE played after mine, and we both took questions and ran a merch table in between shows. We were treated like kings by the staff there and very graciously by the patrons.
The new Film Scene theater is one of the top-flight venues I've ever seen, and if I lived five or six hours closer I would probably go see movies there a couple of times a month. I felt way too low-class when we rolled up to the place but felt at home by the time we left the next day.
Before the screenings we were taken to an excellent vegan restaurant and got to wander around a cool area nearby called the Pedestrian Mall.
My Q&A, as well as questions after, were highly interesting to me, being able to see my "Hoosiersploitation" feature through other people's eyes. One question: was that a real one-room library in that town? Answer: yes, that was the real Parker City Library. Another question: were the streets really that empty or did you keep people off them? Answer: sadly they were that empty. Question: Is high school basketball really that popular in Indiana? Answer: DID NOT DESERVE AN ANSWER.
The question that floored me the most was when someone came up after and asked if I intentionally had the town librarian (played by Chelsi Kern) reading Ursula K. Le Guin's THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS in the library, and I told that person I 100% did, and in fact Chelsi's character read it in THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE as well. The book was highly influential in writing both movies and I was glad to have a chance to talk about it with someone. It's a little detail I didn't think anyone would notice.
I think I have mentioned before that I have given my leads a book at the end of principal photography on both movies, and THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS is the one I gave Chelsi. In fact she is reading the copy I gave her (my own copy is in my former movie). After THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE I gave Joni Durian another Le Guin, THE LATHE OF HEAVEN, if that gives you any clues about that movie.
Drove all day, slept a couple of hours, drove straight back, but really worth it to be introduced to a new film experience and a new group of film lovers.
Next screening is Farmland Indiana this Friday, at the Community Center where a lot of SCARECROW COUNTY and a bit of THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE was shot. I expect this to be almost a "friends and family" show with a lot of the cast and crew in attendance.
In the midst of all this, THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE dropped on Amazon a week ago today. Typical of my glamorous Hollywood lifestyle, I was washing dishes after dinner when my phone started buzzing with texts. I quickly found out that CRAWLSPACE had dropped on Amazon, Vudu, FandangoNow, and XBox, with more to come. So I immediately went and fired up the TV and found it on streaming, and had this very strange feeling of sitting on my couch in my living room in the midwest looking at the movie I shot in my living room in the midwest.
Loyal readers, I have one small favor to ask. If you have seen the movie, please go to Amazon and give it a rating and/or review. It means a lot to independent filmmakers like me as it will encourage others to give it a try.
Thanks so much for reading, and see you out there.
