Jul 31, 2013

Dead Votes Society at the Prescott Film Festival

deadvotessociety Blog Arizona, comedy, entertainment, independent film, independent movie, post-production, Prescott Film Festival, zombie, zombies 0 Comments

(Angie, our good friend the Reverend Dave Chontos, and Andrew at the step and repeat wall of the 4th Annual Prescott Film Festival)

The past three weeks have been a blur. We not only prepped our exhibition copy of the Dead Votes Society but acted as department head volunteers at the Prescott Film Festival. By the time the festival was underway, we had to remind each other to do the fun stuff filmmakers get to do: sign the poster, hang out with other filmmakers, get our picture taken with people who enjoyed the film. We had a great time at the first film festival Dead Votes Society was accepted to. More on that later.

In the process, we learned a lot. Stuff like…never get so focused on the big picture that you neglect to make posters and post cards of your film in time to distribute them around the festival. Always take the time to review the projection of your film with the tech crew, even when it is part of a package of other shorts, and check in with the screening host to make sure everyone’s on the same sheet of music.

The purest pleasure of the whole thing was sitting in large audiences to hear the laughter. It not only makes you feel good, but you start to understand the movie better.

We learned that a larger audience gives you a better idea of how well the comedy is working and where the comic beats are for the audience. Watch a comedy with three friends and you get laughter from only what those three people find funny.

At our world premiere in the Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, on July 24,2013, we had over 400 people in the audience. They laughed long and hard. Maybe hearing lots of people laughing near you puts you in a laughing state of mind? Maybe a larger audience gives you different people who laugh at different things? Doesn’t matter! The laughs were big and genuine and we were happy to hear them all.

At the second screening, on July 28th – in the smaller Yavapai College SNW Community Theatre – the room sat 200 and they were sending out for extra chairs as the lights went down and people kept trying to get in.

Both times, there was a nice Q and A afterwards and a chance to share the stage with Prescott filmmakers Holly Rillovick, Ryan Moser, Greg Smolarz, Sam Coodley, Ken Gregg, as well as festival MVP Forrest Sandefer (three movies in competition, either as director or DP!)

All in all, a great first festival experience. Now, we do a little more prep, upload the screener to Withoutabox and start offering our little zom-com to festivals for the coming year. Viva los zombies!

Jul 23, 2013

Make Your Voice ( or Low Wordless Moan) Heard!

deadvotessociety Blog actor, apocalypse, Arizona, comedy, horror, independent film, Prescott Film Festival 0 Comments

This Wednesday, July 24, 2013 will mark the World Premiere of Dead Votes Society at Yavapai College Performing Arts Center during “Prescott on the Big Screen,” the 4th Annual Prescott Film Festival showcase of locally made cinema.

Since we started pre-production in September 2012, we’ve worked towards this date. Spent thousands of dollars. Worked very, very late. Got up early the next day to squeeze in some more before day job began. Sunday night, we showed it to our cast and crew in the lounge at Taj Mahal Restaurant. They broke up laughing and that wasn’t too surprising. What was surprising were the waitstaff from the dining room crowding in the door way to watch the film and laughing, laughing. Also surprising, when we showed the film a second time for cast who had to show up late, it actually got bigger laughs from the people who’d already seen it once.

As a comedy writer, that’s wonderful. You can see Dead Votes Society Wednesday night at 6pm in the YCPAC or Sunday, July 28th at 4pm in Yavapai College’s Building #19.

But, if you could do me favor, go to the World Premiere. Not only will you get to see it before most anyone else in the world has seen it and enjoy some great laughs, but they’ll be handing out ballots as you come in the door for the Audience Choice Awards.

Please do consider us for your vote. Some laughter might come in handy these days. And we’ve got just the zombies for the job. Viva los Zombies!

Jul 10, 2013

Dead Votes Movie Tickets – Why Stand in Line?

deadvotessociety Blog Arizona, comedy, horror, independent film, independent movie, Prescott Film Festival, Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, zombies 0 Comments

Tickets are now on sale for Prescott Film Festival’s “Prescott on the Big Screen” – over 2 hours of short independent films shot here in Everybody’s Hometown – which includes, “Dead Votes Society.”

This is the world premiere of “Dead Votes Society” and, while we’re glad to see it up on the Big Screen , there’s an awful lot of seats in the Yavapai College Performing Arts Center. We aim to fill ’em up with fans of Prescott, comedy and zombie flicks. And we need your help to do that.

Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. Tell that hip check-out lady at Albertson’s. We all could use a good laugh in Prescott these days and “Dead Votes Society” is probably the funniest zombie movie ever made in Yavapai County. We’re not 100% on that, but we’re pretty sure.

Call 928-458-7209 (Monday through Friday 9am-5pm) to get your tickets and support Prescott’s growing independent film community. That’s a mere $10 for 6 Prescott-made movies and you’ll avoid the long lines on the day of the show.