New Article about THE VIRGINS
I did an interview a while back with Eric Pesola from the William and Mary Alumni Magazine. As is the case when it comes to film, I spoke probably too effusively but he was able to cull from our conversation an article. The article can be seen here. My mug also appears in the Summer 2010 print issue of the Magazine.
Future Screenings and Possible Projects
My short film “The Bull” will be screening along with other short films by North Carolina filmmakers at the Hodge Podge Theater at Area 15 in Charlotte, NC this Sunday (June 27) at 7:30 PM. Here’s the Facebook Event page. The Virgins will be screening later this summer at the Hodge Podge as well. More news to come regarding that screening.
Another screening of The Virgins will happen at my alma mater the College of William and Mary at the beginning of the Fall semester. Specific details are still being ironed out.
In terms of future projects I have been talking to a Durham screenwriter about a children’s film she has written. I am looking to direct and edit this short film, which will be used as a building block for a feature based on the same story and characters. I also have a possible music video lined up for later this summer – I have written the concept and once the artist comes back from touring we will talk production.
Continue checking @joshclaytonfilm on Twitter to see the little tiny things that go on between these posts, like laying the groundwork for these freelance projects. Do you have a narrative or music video project you want produced?
THE VIRGINS available as VOD and Download-to-Own
The Virgins is now available to Download-to-Own and to Stream-on-Demand through Amazon! The Stream-on-Demand is a 7-day rental of the film and costs $1.99. The Download-to-Own is $9.99. These options screen just the feature film only – the director’s commentary, 40-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, and the festival short “The Bull” are only available on the Special Edition DVD.
After seeing the film be sure to comment on either The Virgins IMDB page or its Amazon page.
The Premiere!
The Virgins World Premiere happened last Thursday at the Galaxy Cinema in Cary, NC. The film looked fantastic on the big screen though the best part was probably the Q&A session after the film where actress Kristi Ray, production assistant Marianne Meador, and myself field questions from the audience. The questions showed real engagement with the material, which is what every filmmaker
Actress Kristi Ray and Production Assistant Marianne Meador. (photo by Greg O'Rear)
wants and loves, and I managed to answer some tough theme-related questions in a predominantly coherent manner. Afterward I got to meet some people and sell a couple of DVDs – overall the night was a success. Thank you to everyone who came out!
Also on that night, an interesting phenomenon happened. Supporters who bought the DVD during the fundraising pre-sale received their DVDs a couple weeks ahead of the premiere, giving them the chance to see the film before anyone else (the least I could do for those people who had faith enough in my efforts to pre-purchase the DVD). A lot of them did not watch the film however, waiting for the premiere because either A.) they were able to come to the premiere and thus wanted to see the film on the big screen first or B.) they could not attend the premiere but wanted to share in that excitement by planning little tiny premieres of their own, inviting people to screenings in their homes. These sort of grassroots screenings, these satellite premieres, seem similar to the intent of the creators of OpenIndie, who are establishing a system for organizing these types of screenings all over the country for the films they represent, effectively skipping some of the headaches of a typical theatrical distribution and getting the film to the audience in an ever-more direct way. Thanks to those who put on satellite premieres in Atlanta, D.C., and Massachusetts!
Future screenings are in the works! Check back for more news.
A mini red carpet rolled out for the Cape Cod satellite premiere (photo by Jan Urquhart)
Big Announcements: World Premiere, DVD on Amazon!
Two big pieces of news! First, the World Premiere for The Virgins will happen 7PM Thursday, April 1st at the Galaxy Cinema in Cary, NC. After the screening there will be a Q&A session with me and some members of the cast and crew. Your typical movie concessions will be on sale as well as beer and wine. DVDs will be on sale and can be autographed if you want. Tickets are $7 and can be purchased either online or at the box office (cash only). Don’t delay! The Galaxy seats 230. Here are directions to get there. And here is the Facebook event page.
Second, The Virgins special edition DVD is now available on Amazon and CreateSpace. There is a special deal in place – buy now and save 20%! (the original price was $25.00)
(For those of you who pre-ordered your copy of The Virgins, those packages were shipped today.)
A store page (see tabs in the upper right) has been created that gathers “The Bull” DVD and The Virgins special edition DVD together in one place as well as the posters for the two films, both available now for the first time.
The DVDs are in!
THE FILM TRIBE interview
Zach Keifer at THE FILM TRIBE, a blog devoted to alumni of the College of William and Mary working in film, interviewed me about The Virgins for their latest post. An excerpt:
(TFT): What was the most difficult location to shoot at?
(JC): The hardest location was probably shooting in the old warehouse district in Raleigh at night. Nothing to plug into so we rented a generator, which was obviously very noisy and required extra steps in regards to audio. The character is walking rather briskly down sidewalk and we are shooting along side of her with the steadi-cam. But you can only plug so many lights into that generator so there was really only a certain length of sidewalk we could work with before having to move the lights and genny to the next section of sidewalk. And it was just nerve-racking for me because it’s a Sunday night and we’re making a ton of noise what with the genny and my actress yelling into the night (as it says in the script) and while we did have permission from the police I still was nervous someone was going to come along and raise an issue with the production (though the only visitors we had were a couple of inquisitive pedestrians and a fire truck that drove by twice out of curiosity).
You can read the whole interview here. The interview covers a lot of facets of the creation process, from writing to shooting to distribution/exhibition plans.
“The Bull” available on IndieFlix!
My short film “The Bull” is available for DVD purchase as well as online streaming on IndieFlix. The DVD sells for $5.95, while a 30-day streaming rental costs $1.95. Don’t forget that “The Bull” is also part of The Virgins special edition DVD.
THE VIRGINS Behind-the-Scenes mini-feature
The Virgins special edition DVD includes a 40-minute behind-the-scenes featurette that was shot by Jim McQuaid of Turnip Video and edited by myself. I decided to do something different than the typical Behind-the-Scenes, which would have lots of addressing the camera and would take you around to all of the “exotic” locations where we shot. Instead, the forty minutes focuses on just one morning of shooting, covering the prep, banter, and boredom that took place between the shooting of four scenes, all through Jim’s mostly non-intrusive camera. I think it is an interesting and honest look at the process of shooting a film.
Because of the decision to intensify and limit the focus of the Behind-the-Scenes, certain things from other shooting days obviously aren’t included, like this clip of actresses Carrie Anne Hunt and Kristi Ray singing Hotel California as we drove back from doing some scenes with the car rig. I know Kristi really wanted to see it.
THE VIRGINS update: Special Edition DVD
It’s finally done! The Virgins special edition DVD, with its director’s commentary, 40-minute behind-the-scenes mini-feature, and “The Bull” short film is all finished, the menus built, the case and disc artwork done.
Once I ship The Virgins special edition DVD to the manufacturer in the next day or two (as well as to another festival) I will change hats, from filmmaker to distributor. The voyage is really now just half-done. Along with potential fests I have ideas/opportunities to do some screenings in North Carolina and Virginia but if you know of a venue of any size that is receptive to independent films please let me know and maybe we can make something work and bring The Virgins to your neck of the woods. DVDs will be shipping within three weeks and Video-on-Demand will be up and running in a month or so. Thank you everyone for your continued interest and patience. More news to come!
Color Grading THE VIRGINS
Those reading my updates via Twitter (which has been moved up to the top of the right-hand column for more visibility) have noticed I’ve been color grading The Virgins now for a couple of weeks. Here’s an example from today:
Original Footage:
Graded:
This shot did not require a complete overhaul, obviously; basically adding some red to the highlights and adjusting the contrast using Apple Color. But it is a noticeable improvement and thus I’ve been going through each shot of the film hoping to make them visually “pop” more, as well as correcting any color issues. I’m approximately 3/4 of the way done with the grading, then just have to do the credit sequences and the film proper will be done (my target date is January 15th).
