HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We hope everyone is having a great bunch of holidays!  

To ring in 2009, we have some exciting news.  Just a few days ago, we were accepted by The Magnolia Independent Film Festival!  This is a great, regional festival that takes place in Starkville, Mississippi in February.  Another film Eric produced, "Mary/Mary," screened there in 2002.  Though he didn't attend, the director of that film did go and said it was one of the best festivals he attended.

At this time, we do not have a screening date, but we'll update the blog when that information is available from the festival.  "The Mag" will be held February 19th through the 21st this year and their website is www.magfilmfest.com if you want to check it out.

Next week, Eric will be available to pass out DVDs to those cast & crew members who weren't able to attend the screening in December. Due to limited monetary resources at this time, he won't be able to send the DVDs by mail (unless you moved away, like to Kansas or someplace like that).

We're hoping that 2009 brings lots of happiness and joy to you all, and we hope to continue reporting good news regarding the film.  Best wishes to everyone!!!

Eric & Anthony

Screening & Holiday Note

Our cast & crew screening last Saturday was great!!!  I hope all who attended enjoyed the movie and I especially want to thank Amelia (Anthony's wife) for taking care of all the yummy vittles!  I'm so glad that so many of you were able to attend and I'm very disappointed in the rest of you.  JUST KIDDING!!!

I want all of you to know that if you'd like a copy of the DVD, I'll be back in Los Angeles after January 4th, and we can make arrangements to get you a copy.  Since I blew all the rest of my money on DVDs and festival entry fees, I can't mail copies to everybody, but I'm sure we can all figure out a way for you to drop by my house and pick up a copy.

I hope you all have a great bunch of holidays!  I look forward to good things in the New Year and I hope everyone stays safe whether they travel or remain at home.  I hope to see you all sometime in the near future, and look forward to working with you all again!

Best Wishes,

Eric

DVDs on the way

I know that I said we'd be finished with this little movie weeks... okay, months ago.  I am happy to announce that the film is finished!!!  The biggest holdup was technical difficulties in creating the master DVD.  This affected screeners to send to film festivals, as well as making the final copies to give everyone.  After successfully making a test master that was good quality, I had to spend a little time tweaking some stuff to get everything right.

I will be making DVD copies this week and arranging for a screening party.  As soon as I have a venue, a day and a time, I will send out Evites to everyone and announce it here on the blog.

Eric

THE TRAILER has arrived!

I hope you enjoy the trailer everyone.  You can also watch it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es4i3G24vR4

I can't wait to show the finished film.  We're starting the sound editing this week and should be finished soon.

Let me know what you think of the trailer.  I'm also putting it in the sidebar so it stays up after this blog gets archived.

~Eric

2nd half of 2008...

Photo:  Wolfgang preparing a dish.

(Victor McCay)

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July!  I just wanted to post a quick update.  After some back and forth, and trying out a few different things, and having some people watch the film, and getting comments...  we changed some things and re-edited some things and now we're on the verge of finishing the whole thing.  Whew!

This week we're submitting to four more film festivals and putting the finishing touches on music before going into the final sound editing for the film.

It's still exciting to watch the (nearly) finished production.  I had such a great time making this film with everyone involved.  I was very lucky to be able to assemble such a fun and talented cast and crew for the film.  I'm looking forward to sharing the film with everyone and hoping we all get to attend some film festivals and see the film with an audience!

Come back soon to see a trailer for the film!

~Eric

Picture Lock

Photo: David shows Michael the theater.
(Kurt Ela, Stephen Simyak)


What does "Picture Lock" mean? It means that we've completed a vast majority of the post-production for "Cross-Eyed Dinner Theater Presents!" Of course, little things like final credits and the title sequence will change slightly for music and timing purposes, but editing the film has been completed.

Other news for the week of June 16th, 2008: Original music is being composed as we speak (type, whatever), it might actually be finished (I have to make a phone call).

News for the week of June 23rd, 2008: Next week we'll get the film into the hands of the sound editor. He'll be working with the film to smooth out all the rough edges, and enrich the film with layers and layers of sound. I did some work like audience walla (a cute term for non-descript background conversation) and other stuff like that, just to have a temporary sound mix to send out to some preliminary film festivals. Now we'll really get the ball rolling and make it sound professional.

~Eric

The first blog...

This is the very first blog for our short film. Since we're not quite finished with the film, let's start with a little background...

The film is a short comedy, written and directed by Eric Naughton and produced by Anthony Sword and Eric Naughton. Eric and Anthony have been working together since 1990 when they were studying film production at Penn State.

Production of "Cross-Eyed Dinner Theater Presents!" started in November of 2006 with the shooting of a few scenes at Anthony's house. In January and February 2007, scenes were shot outside of the NoHo Arts Center which served as the theater exterior. After securing the final locations, the rest of the film was scheduled to be shot in September.

The production met with a little snag when Eric was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease. With so much work being done on the film so far, and so many people generously donating their time and efforts, it was unthinkable to postpone the shoot. So the production went forward even though the majority of the scenes would be shot only two days after Eric's first chemotherapy treatment. In November 2007 the last couple of scenes were shot and Eric took some time off to finish his cancer treatment.

Post production really began in April of 2008. Eric began editing on Avid Express Pro at home and slowly but surely, the film took shape.

As picture lock is nearly here, we are looking forward to beginning post-sound with original music being composed and all other sound design and editing taking place over the next couple of weeks. The film is projected to be completed by the end of June 2008.

Look for more blogs in the coming days and weeks from Anthony and Eric and from the cast and crew.

~ the folks at "Cross-Eyed Dinner Theater Presents!"