OTIS-SXSW-Kickstarter
In the winter of 2007 I started coming down to Austin TX to work on a film with my friend Anlo Sepulvada, called Otis Under Sky. We worked on it for the next three years.
Over that time I would make trips down to Texas for a week to months at a time. The film is unscripted so between Anlo, the lead actress Roberta, and myself we would take Anlo’s ideas for the story and flesh them out, adding to the plot and putting together the flow and dialogue of the scenes. It was interesting, fun, at times frustrating and a pain in the butt, and a wonderful experience of working on something different than just performing poems and having the opportunity to anchor new friendships.
The movie, like most creative endeavors, is one that began in one place and over the time of shooting developed in something different. We shot so many scenes and shots over the years, enough for a number of films. Over the past six months Anlo worked hard on editing this joker down and a couple months ago I was finally able to see a rough cut. It was really awesome to see something that until that point was a bag of skin and bones, that I knew what it would feasibly look like if it stood up but had not had the chance to see that in actuality. Here was the film we had worked on so hard for so long finally staning on it’s own two feet, walking around. And it was good. Not yet finished, but to see something that until now was mainly in the halls of Anlo’s head-to see it standing up and stretching in the light, to see its shape and to see that its shape was pretty good, was really exciting.
That excitement grew when last week we learned that it was one of the feature length films accepted to this year’s SXSW film festival, one of the leading festivals in the U.S. This is fantastic news! Anlo and his wife Mandi have put so much into making this movie. Anlo took on the dream of exploring a different kind of feature length narrative and Mandi wholeheartedly supported him in this endeavor, through the struggles that come being newly married, buying a house, having a baby, and constructing an eco-apartment under their house themselves. The hurdles they have surpassed to simply make a movie themselves and the sacrifices they have made to come out on the other side with this kind of validation is so inspiring and joyous to me. So much of themselves they have put to the side for the completion of this project and it has paid off.
There is still a little bit of work to be done to get the film ready for the festival--color correction, sound mixing, final touches to the music and editing, as well as starting the promotional machine to produce buzz for the movie. They've started a Kickstarter to try and raise the last minute additional funds needed for this. Stop by if you would, and if you're able to give anything much appreciated. If you're able to contribute in other ways, let us know. And if you're in Austin at the time of SXSW, we hope you stop by to see the flick. Thanks all, hope to see you in March.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1056977521/otis-under-sky-premiering-at-sxsw-getting-festival
Over that time I would make trips down to Texas for a week to months at a time. The film is unscripted so between Anlo, the lead actress Roberta, and myself we would take Anlo’s ideas for the story and flesh them out, adding to the plot and putting together the flow and dialogue of the scenes. It was interesting, fun, at times frustrating and a pain in the butt, and a wonderful experience of working on something different than just performing poems and having the opportunity to anchor new friendships.
The movie, like most creative endeavors, is one that began in one place and over the time of shooting developed in something different. We shot so many scenes and shots over the years, enough for a number of films. Over the past six months Anlo worked hard on editing this joker down and a couple months ago I was finally able to see a rough cut. It was really awesome to see something that until that point was a bag of skin and bones, that I knew what it would feasibly look like if it stood up but had not had the chance to see that in actuality. Here was the film we had worked on so hard for so long finally staning on it’s own two feet, walking around. And it was good. Not yet finished, but to see something that until now was mainly in the halls of Anlo’s head-to see it standing up and stretching in the light, to see its shape and to see that its shape was pretty good, was really exciting.
That excitement grew when last week we learned that it was one of the feature length films accepted to this year’s SXSW film festival, one of the leading festivals in the U.S. This is fantastic news! Anlo and his wife Mandi have put so much into making this movie. Anlo took on the dream of exploring a different kind of feature length narrative and Mandi wholeheartedly supported him in this endeavor, through the struggles that come being newly married, buying a house, having a baby, and constructing an eco-apartment under their house themselves. The hurdles they have surpassed to simply make a movie themselves and the sacrifices they have made to come out on the other side with this kind of validation is so inspiring and joyous to me. So much of themselves they have put to the side for the completion of this project and it has paid off.
There is still a little bit of work to be done to get the film ready for the festival--color correction, sound mixing, final touches to the music and editing, as well as starting the promotional machine to produce buzz for the movie. They've started a Kickstarter to try and raise the last minute additional funds needed for this. Stop by if you would, and if you're able to give anything much appreciated. If you're able to contribute in other ways, let us know. And if you're in Austin at the time of SXSW, we hope you stop by to see the flick. Thanks all, hope to see you in March.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1056977521/otis-under-sky-premiering-at-sxsw-getting-festival