This is the title of a new book coming out end of this month that is being praised (pun intended) as the "New Indie Bible".

From Amazon's description:

The explosion of independent cinema over the past fifteen years has created thousands of would-be filmmakers, all dreaming of becoming the next Quentin Tarantino or Steven Soderbergh—and all working away like beavers, making thousands of independent films. But what do they do once the movie is made? In I Wake Up Screening, powerhouse authors John Anderson and Laura Kim tell emerging filmmakers how to (and how not to) get their movies talked about, written about, sold, and seen. The authors’ advice is supported by insightful interviews with more than sixty top industry insiders, all offering priceless behind-the-scenes tips and tricks. Making a film isn’t the end anymore—it’s only the beginning. I Wake Up Screening can make the difference between a movie that gets into theaters and one that ends up on the floor of the director’s bedroom closet.

About the authors:

John Anderson, chief film critic at Newsday, is a past member of the selection committee of the New York Film Festival as well as a member and two-time past chair of the New York Film Critics Circle, a member of the National Society of Film Critics, and a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

Laura Kim is the executive vice president of marketing and publicity for Warner Independent Films. Previously the senior vice president for the publicity firm mPRm, she has worked on such films as American Splendor, Dirty Pretty Things, The Pianist, Being John Malkovich, March of the Penguins, and Good Night and Good Luck.

You can pre-order it on Amazon.com or I actually found it cheaper on OverStock.com.

Sounds pretty promising. I actually just pre-ordered a copy for myself!

-Blake

Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to SXSW this year (fest is currently happening), although I might make a one-day trip to Austin on Tuesday for an unrelated gig (possibly shooting an interview down there).

Anyway, for some really good reporting from the panels and a few film reviews you need to check out Mike Curtis' blog at www.hdforindies.com. He's posting some great stuff!

A couple of the highlights for me are notes he took on a distribution panel with Todd Wagner (and all his cronies at Landmark, 2929 Entertainment, Magnolia Pictures, etc.) and another panel discussion with Peter Bart the editor of Variety.

SXSW has steadily grown over the past few years to be one of the definite top tier film festivals in the USA. I'd say it's getting very close to Sundance prowess now - although not quite as prestigious (or pretentious) and not as many "deals" made with distributors - but it is a really good festival.

I'm going next year for sure with or without a project to promote.

-Blake

The "Shoot JR in Dallas" Campaign kicked off today at Dallas City Hall - March 8, 2006

Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau President and CEO, Phillip Jones, Dallas Mayor Laura Miller and Dallas Film Commission Director, Janis Burklund announced the new "Shoot JR in Dallas" campaign to help raise funds for the DFW Production Fund today at City Hall.

The grassroots movement will help create private support in hopes to attract more television and film projects to the area, starting off with the upcoming "Dallas" feature film. In attendance and showing their support were numerous city councilmembers, City Manager, Mary Suhm and other city officials.

Check out the merchandise and see how you can help! Go the website at www.filmdfw.com and click on "Shoot JR in Dallas" on the home page.

The film commission is constantly being asked by supporters "How can we help?"

Here's how!

- Help us spread the word.
- Purchase "Shoot JR in Dallas!" bumper stickers, hats and t-shirts for a nominal charge on our website www.filmdfw.com. The money raised will be applied toward the DFW Production Incentive Fund.
- In addition, a donation form is provided on the site.
- It won't take the place of state funding - that's critical to our short-term and long-term success. But it will help. And grassroots support is very important for visibility of the cause.

My thoughts...

I'm glad to see the City of Dallas working in conjunction with the Dallas Film Commission. Our state leaders have really dropped the ball in recent years on creating incentives for movies (especially big Hollywood ones) to shoot in Texas.

If you didn't know, there is talk about shooting the new "Dallas" movie IN CANADA. Yeah, that's right. Can you imagine JR and Bobby drinking Molson??? I hope this campaign helps!

-Blake

Here are some of my thoughts about this year's Oscar broadcast...

1. The Host - I thought Jon Stewart did a descent job for a first time host. I liked how the show started with the bits of the previous hosts, but then the first part of his monologue was pretty flat and I felt he was losing the audience. He did get better though and I laughed several times, especially when he started to engage and address actual folks in the crowd. I bet he comes back again.

2. Best Song - So lemme get this straight... you're telling me that out of ALL the movies made last year that these were the three BEST songs - and there were only three? Not sure I get that... and to top it off Three 6 Mafia wins for "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp"??? Are you kidding me? And btw, I actually like the song. "Hustle & Flow" was one of the actual movies I saw, but is it really the BEST SONG OF THE YEAR?? No, absolutely not. To be honest I liked "Whoop That Trick" better from that movie, but it wasn't best song caliber either. What we have is a bunch of older (mostly white) people trying to be "dope" or "cool" or "hip" to the "kids" and get them interested in the Oscars. I think it backfired and made the Best Song category kind of a joke. Nothing against Three 6 Mafia - they did definitely liven up the show and their song was good- but it and their acceptance speech would have been much better at the MTV Video Awards.

3. The Host (again) - And I loved Jon Stewart's note of Martin Scorsese ZERO OSCARS and Three 6 Mafia ONE. I think that says it all.

4. Music - This year was the first time I noticed them start the "get off the stage music" right as the award winner got on stage. I did notice they did not do it on all the categories though. Best Actor, Actress, etc. didn't get that treatment. Not sure I liked that. Felt kinda rude. Now, I'm not in favor of long winded acceptance speeches either, but hey, this is the Oscars and they shouldn't cue the music off the top. The show went it's usual 3 1/2 hours anyway...

5. Lauren Bacall - Man, she was unbelievably beautiful when she was young. She kind of reminded me of Scarlett Johansson now. Sometimes I think it's better for us (the audience) to remember these great actors as they were - young. Well, maybe that's not right, but at least we shouldn't see them stumble their way through an intro that they can't see on the teleprompter. I felt very sorry for her. I've worked with teleprompters many times and know they can make those fonts bigger and they should do that in the future. That was embarrassing.

6. Best Picture - I was rather surprised with this. And obviously Jack Nicholson was along with just about everyone else in the Kodak Theater (except maybe the cast and crew of "Crash"). I didn't see either "Crash" of "Brokeback" so I can't comment on them, but I can say I find it very odd in many Oscar years where the Best Director does not win for his movie. Ang Lee of course won Best Director, but then "Crash" won Best Picture. Seems odd to me. I understand how this can happen I guess, but it just seems weird. I know this has happened many times recently like to Ridley Scott (the opposite though, he didn't win but "Gladiator" did) and to others. It's kind of like the Academy wants to award both films and decides to divide up the pie.

Overall I thought the show was okay. There were some interesting moments. I guess the two "big surprises" were for Best Song and Best Picture. Pretty much everything else went as predicted.

Now I guess I just have to wait until the all the Oscar nominated films come out on DVD or cable (or on the Internet) because as I've mentioned - I haven't really seen any of them and I'm NOT taking their "advice" and seeing them on the big screen in some dark theater with total strangers and all their cell phones ringing and kids throwing popcorn and the sound is too loud and the image is out of focus and then the movie ends up sucking anyway after I've spent $50 bucks on the evening out. I'd rather sit at home and watch bad movies there.

-Blake

Nope. Not movie theater news, but Theater news. You know? Like a Broadway play? Only this is "Off Broadway" - but evidently better than most shows on Broadway.

Matthew Tompkins, who stars in and plays the title character in my new film "Killing Down" (and he also co-produced the movie with me) is getting RAVE REVIEWS for a theater production he is currently also starring in...

The show is called "Transatlantic Liaison" and below is the link to the review:

NY Theater Review:
http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/tran2495.shtml

The NY Times has also given it a positive review, but I don't have a link to it (if I find it I'll post it too).

I don't pretend to know much about Theater or Broadway. I've only been once and saw "Le Mis" back in the mid-90s. It was entertaining, but not really my cup of tea (I'm more of a Diet Coke and movie guy). But, I definitely respect what these folks do.

It's incredible to "memorize" an entire play - and then act it out like it's not memorized. Completely different than the movie business. Heck, I've been on shoots (including my own) where a "film actor" can barely get through one line at a time - let alone an entire scene (say, in a master shot). That is definitely one really nice thing to hiring theater actors (and TV actors to a lesser degree) to work on your film projects. They will know their lines - and more than one at a time. Of course you do sometimes need to "tone down" their performance because there is a big difference between acting for a theater crowd versus acting for a camera - but that's a topic for another post.

So anyway, if you're in New York City during the month of March go and check out "Transatlantic Liaison". From what I hear so far, it will be worth your time.

-Blake

(I do not have ticket info or even a theater location, but I assume it can be easily found on the web.)