Elvis Bags a Film Award
Welcome to the new platform. Again. Jeez. I've moved off Substack because one Nazi is too many. You shut that down right away. Them's the rules.
I'm now on Buttondown. Migration was painless and it's cheap but customizing is geeky (like me) so it's not for everyone.
We got shortlisted for the Liverpool Indie Awards. This matters because it's the first time we've earned recognition for the finished project.
(Quietly mumbles, "Yeah, but it's actually the fourth award for this project coz I won three screenplay awards soooo...")
The film is now with Floodgates Audio. Their job is to make it sound great, now that everyone's done the work to make it look amazing. We've got an IMDB page with some fantastic stills of the cast and crew. I'll give you this one of the screenwriter as a teaser.
The good folks of Kitsap County, where we made the movie, have expressed interest in helping set up a private screening and I've been looking at an indy theater here in Seattle. Regardless, watch this space, as always. I'm dyin' for you to see the finished project.
In the meantime, I spent January compiling an essay collection. You may or may not know that I walked away from a book deal because my press would not allow me to retain film rights.
I didn't fight for film rights with my memoir because I had no idea any of this would happen. But when it came time to negotiate terms for my short essay collection, the press would not bend, and neither would I.
Thing is, I pictured myself in the conference room in a New York City highrise flaked by Amy and Rocco and Mike, the team that made my Elvis story become film. That Elvis story is in my new book.
So I walked. I think the press is foolish. We made a film, it would have helped sell books. I believe it's not personal, it's just unimaginative box-checking (no film rights, no deal) but it still sucked.
I worked on the book anyway, and now I'm shopping it around. This part of the process is all silence and rejection until it's not, but I believe. And it's fun to look through all that work and consider if -- no when -- I write another screenplay, which story wants to be film next?
Thanks for your patience and support as we get things wrapped up. I learned so much from this process, including how much money and time it takes to make a film. How many people, too. That includes you, and for your enthusiasm, I remain so very grateful.