Well, I am now sitting in the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport (again), this time on the way back to Phoenix. IFP is over and it feels like it went by in a flash.

Yesterday was a positive day all around. We encountered a producer who took and interest in The Falls when he heard about our use of digital technology. Nonetheless he was still skeptical and gave us a look of doubt when we said the film no longer looked like DV. So we went to his office, which was around the corner from the Puck Building, and he took us into one of his 3 Avid suites to watch some of the film. Within the first few moments of the film I asked him, “So, does that look like DV?” He was silent for a moment and then admitted that we had done exactly what we said we had. I love it when the film proves my point for me. Especially when it’s to an industry pro who has already made up his mind about DV.

The last night was the awards ceremony and closing night party at a club called Deep on West 22nd Street. Awesome place. Rosie Perez was the host for the awards and she was every bit as funny and wild in person. Awards were given in several categories, but in ours the award was a host of completion services valued at 100 grand. We clearly would not have been eligible, as The Falls is much too far along to need any of that. So I didn’t feel bad not being nominated. I would have had a hard time accepting such an award when there are filmmakers who need that kind of help much more than I do.

One award of note - Seith Mann, who directed my pal Anslem Richardson (”John” in The Falls) in a short called “five deep breaths” won the Gordon Parks Award for Best Director. That film could go up for an Oscar this year. Wouldn’t hurt Anslem’s career at all if it did.

Anyway, this is pretty much it for the IFP Market Weblog. In a few minutes I’ll be boarding the flight to Phoenix. All in all this has been a perfect New York week!

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Okay, so today was it! Our second screening went amazingly well. We walked down into the lower level of the Angelika Film Center and found a sea of people outside our theatre, waiting to get in. The IFP screening team let me in first to check the projection this time out, and they got everything looking good before we let anyone in. It looked to us like the theatre ended up about half full, somewhere around 100 to 120 people. Which is a HUGE audience based on what we’ve been seeing all week. Several of the IFP volunteers told us afterward that it was by far the largest screening audience they’d seen all week. So the shirts worked! We were the “brand name” of the Market and everyone who promised to come and see our show did.

My pitch before the screening went well, as I had written it out on the New Jersey commuter train on Tuesday and had been rolling it over in my mind since. I ran through it with the team to iron out some kinks, and then blasted through it without a hitch at the screening. We decided to open with a joke, so I did. “First I need to clarify something about the t-shirts. Several people have been concerned that we were wearing the same shirt day after day and not changing. But we in fact have been changing. For instance, I changed with Steve today, Steve changed with Mike, Mike with David, and David with me.” That loosened everyone up. Then I described the story, went into some detail about how our post work and the look of the film sets it apart from other DV films, and then explained where we were and what we were looking for out of the Market (distribution and festival invites).

After we rolled the highlight reel, I made quick introductions of my core team and of the actors who had come down to show support - Diedre Kilgore (Jennifer Barnes), Jill Moray (Evelyn), and Ken Dapper (Detective Crane). We left the theatre and we were mobbed with people outside, mostly other filmmakers raving about the look of the film and asking me specific questions about technology and technique. While I was fielding those, David ended up getting some industry feedback, and several people handed him business cards and requested screeners sent to them. All good news.

David Tully for his part has really been busting his butt this week and has gone above and beyond the call as an actor. I can’t think of any other actor who would be working an event like this as energetically as he has, and his effort showed today when that theatre was so filled with people. But everyone on the team has been plugging the film really hard this week, so kudos to both Steve Briscoe and Uncle Mike, too.

We had a great lunch at DaNico restaurant in Little Italy (Rudy Giuliani’s favorite place), where Ken Dapper is apparently a regular. What a great way to reward ourselves after all our hard work! After that, it was back to the Market for some conferences and then (for me) to the Fine Line Features reception at a bar called Mannahatta (at Bowery & Bleecker, across from CBGB). Then I was off to dinner with my high school pal Tom (who I mentioned earlier) while my crew went to a party hosted by our pal Antone Pagan (an actor on Law & Order and The Sopranos who is now producing), where he screened a documentary he’s working on.

Whew. No wonder it’s 1:45 am. Gotta get some sleep. Too excited though!

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Sorry, no report last night. Late night at a party held by the Gen Art film festival, at a great club called Pressure. Yesterday was a great networking day and it was awesome having Steve with us to complete the team. Buzz seems to be high (again, because of the shirts!!!) and we have great expectations going into today’s screening, in an hour and a half. More tonight!

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Our first IFP screening was at 10:30 am this morning. It was less than stellar, in that the projection equipment had some picture and sound issues and I had to replace the Digital Betacam tape I had sent the IFP screenings coordinator with the backup DigiBeta I was carrying with me. I wasn’t a boy scout, but I am always prepared. Once the switch was made, everything ran smoothly from there.

Cast member J. Todd Howell (”Scott Pierson”) and composer Nelson Starr were in attendance, which was great. They were excited to see our work on a good-sized screen. To tell the truth, so was I - this was the best I’ve ever seen the film look when projected. It was perfect in that regard.

Because we were the first screening of the day, not many people were even at the Angelika yet, let alone in our theatre. General consensus seems to be that everyone is coming to our Wednesday showing, which is 11:45. But the people who did see it today were all talking it up and raving about how good it looked. Positive buzz never hurts.

We also managed to catch a few other screenings and saw some very good work. “Popaganda” about the subversive art of Ron English - produced by an actor pal of my uncle’s, Antone Pagan - was a funny and thought-provoking standout. But there were several that we enjoyed.

I did finally catch up with my old buddy Tom, who I mentioned a few days ago. He’s an entertainment attorney now. We’ve made plans to catch up further on Wednesday and talk some business - now that we are working in the same field.

Our producer Steve Briscoe arrived this evening from Buffalo and he’s ready to get rocking tomorrow. The only person we’re missing is my wife Laura. Then all would be perfect.

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Well, I am finally at my Uncle Mike’s house after our first long day at the IFP Market. What a day.

First, let me just say that my buddy Richard Gale, who suggested I have t-shirts made up, is THE MAN. Me, Uncle Mike, and David Tully immediately stood out from the crowd of filmmakers in attendance because we were all wearing “THE FALLS” emblazoned on our chests with the full-color poster on our backs. People immediately knew who we were and honestly, more conversations were started with us about the shirts than anything. All day long we saw people checking out our shirts and then looking us up in the Market Guide.

After registering and getting our materials (and handing our posters and tapes to the IFP screening coordinator), we headed down to a restaurant called TIME and strategized a bit. It was great to be back in NY with these two guys, back where we started during casting and then rehearsals. Then it was back to Puck Building where we parked ourselves on the steps and talked to everyone who came by while I addressed post cards to the execs we wanted at our screening. See, that first screening on Monday morning is so critical, and it’s so important to make sure that people get that piece of mail in their box on Monday at 9am when the Market begins. At some point during that time, David (still a smoker) was doing the smoker bonding thing with one of the IFP honchos and got from him that 1,500 features had been submitted to the Market.

1,500 features submitted.

Only 20 were selected.

THE FALLS was one of them.

Pretty damn proud of that, my friends. Can hardly contain it.

After that was Filmmaker Orientation, where we got the scoop on how everything works at the Market. One of the IFP folks said about the screening, “Someone has to have the first screening, and someone has to have the last screening” - in other words, those times may not be optimal, but someone’s got to get the short end. We sort of did, in that our first screening is THE FIRST SCREENING for the Emerging Narrative section.

We then got to ask some questions. I got the first question in - on the subject of screening passes, of which we were supposed to have gotten 5 per screening but as yet had gotten none. I introduced myself, mentioned the title of my film, thanked the IFP staff for all their hard work on the event - all in 10 seconds - then asked where to get the screening passes, because see, we have the first screening on Monday and we want to make sure that we have everything in order.

Well, after orientation we went to the welcome reception at Bar 13, and all anyone could talk about was, “So you guys have the first screening tomorrow?” and “Where can I buy a shirt?” We worked the room, and hard. Everyone walked out of there with a Falls postcard. And we gathered info from lots of other filmmakers as well. We’ll be going to a fair amount of screenings to show solidarity. We also met a few industry people - a couple of distributors, a couple of lawyers - so all in all we made a good start.

We passed on going to the opening night screening - Val Kilmer’s new film Wonderland - and opted instead to go to the San Gennaro Festival which was going on around the block from the IFP Market’s Puck Building. My, Uncle Mike, and David Tully walking through the San Gennaro Festival wearing our Falls shirts - another great story to add to our amazing experiences we have had together with this film. Sausage and peppers… New York pizza… and zeppoles.. oh, my!

Still more, though. At 9:30 was the opening night party, at Metronome. Free drinks and buffet (should have waited to eat, but the feast was worth it). Within 10 minutes of opening the doors, the place was packed. Too packed. It seemed to be mostly industry people, but name tags were not always worn and these were people we hadn’t seen during the day. It was a hard room to work, music was loud and the crowd was too thick. We made a few contacts, but really felt that the novelty of the t-shirts wasn’t carrying us there and we were not doing ourselves a whole lot of good. So we didn’t stay long. But maybe that’s best. A fleeting glimpse of the shirts as we left, then the same image appearing in their mailboxes the next morning might help build some mystique in the minds of some of the industry players. Who knows.

Well, tomorrow comes early. Out by 7 am to be in NYC by 9 for breakfast with the Director’s Guild. Then we kick off the show at 10:30.

If I wasn’t so tired, I doubt I would sleep tonight.

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