I’m super excited about the new cut of ROM, so much more polished than the original festival cut. A little late than anticipated, but we’re here nonetheless. And since we just got our prize money from the awesome people over at the Light Factory, hiring a consultant is imminent! Festival circuit, here we come!

Features. They are a tough cookie to crack. And when dealing with a story like ROM it is made all the tougher by the very things that make it unique. Characters, situations, stories. There must be order. But where to start and better yet where to start over? There are i’m sure endless ways to tell a story. If you were to stand 50 feet away from this story and look at with fresh eyes you might only see one. But the question would remain. Is it the right one?

Yep. Tough cookie to crack. Seems like it should be made easier by the fact that a short is in the can that uses a portion of the same idea. I’m here to tell you no, it doesn’t. It complicates things in new and maddening ways. As the storyteller your job is IMHO to find the core of the story and start a fire with it. Burn down the forest and with what’s left make notebooks. Let no words stand in your way. Strangely I thought I knew the core of ROM. But I was wrong.

This discovery was paramount to cracking the cookie that is ROM. It was stale and tasteless. Now it is moist and flavorful. Simply put I learned that I knew my story but not my character. I thought I did. THAT’s the key. I THOUGHT I did. When you think you do is exactly the point they are taken for granted. Without your characters you’re not telling a story, you’re just telling actions. And no matter how clever your actions are they still aren’t a story.

So I’m happy to say I know Daniel now. And ROM is better for it.

Ben here. While we wait for the last few items to get wrapped up on the 2nd cut of ROM the short, and racking our brains to come up with an in-depth and thought-provoking feature, the CFC (Charlotte Film Community) invited me to tape an episode of their public TV show ‘Screentime’. I’d like to thank them for the opportunity, got to promote ROM for about 10 minutes and pimp the website as well! Should air sometime in August, so if you are in the Charlotte Area and love public TV, do we have some awesome stuff for you.

Woooo Hooooo!

Official date released!

The film is playing in a block of films on Thursday, May 20th at the Duke Energy Theater (in the same building as the Light Factory – 345 N. College St. – downtown Charlotte) at 7:30 PM. Anyone is welcome!

For more info:
About the showcase: http://www.lightfactory.org/film

Ben here. Alright! The good news just keeps rolling in for ROM! While formulating our official festival plan for the short, we are proud to announce that ROM will be featured as a part of the Light Factory’s Filmmakers’ Showcase, May 19th-21st in Downtown Charlotte, NC. Official screening times should be posted soon!

LINK

Ben here. Finishing a short film is always a love-hate situation for me. I love the sense of completion, that all your hard-work has culminated in a finished product, and at the same time, it absolutely grinds on me. Cause as I see it, I’m back at the bottom of the mountain again, looking up at my next completed film, and in this case the mountain is much bigger and much more daunting than the last one I towered over.

I’m excited to bring lead actor Tim Holt into the fray as Matt and I start the writing process for ROM. Not only because he’s another idea-well to pick from, but because of his enthusiasm for acting, creating characters, and the film process in general.

The first-step, as always, is trying to create an engaging and enjoyable script. Something that I as a director can be proud of. We’ve got this great bucket of ideas, that, until recently, really had no structure to them. But the outline that we have created is getting me very excited about the prospects for the future of the script.

Ben here. Well, there it is. We’ve decided. We are going to write a feature based on the ROM short. Along with aggressively marketing the short to additional festivals, this website will chronicle the writing, fundraising, and pre-production of the feature film. We hope that you have fun following the ups and downs of putting this whole thing together.

The most appreciated feedback that we got from the short were comments about the quality of the story. Matt and I put a real focus on creating something that would be enjoyable for many viewings, that had some layers to it, and something that felt bigger than the 6-minute DVXuser time-limit. With just the content that we had, we felt that a movie of about 30-45 minutes was possible, just based on expanding the themes that we explored in the short.

The problem coming in that we’re not really interested in making a 30-45 minute movie! We’ve got about another hour of time to fill to make an engaging and challenging feature film.

Ben here. So, even after our success in our first festival, Matt and I were not completely satisfied with the film that we submitted for competition. Normally, the 6 minute time limit imposed in the DVXuser festivals works to improve pacing and forces the filmmaker to cut out the fat from their short. And in the past, I believe it has benefited my films to the point where I made only slight revisions before I felt that I had a finished product.

ROM, however, was quite different. There were a few compressed lines of dialogue and some shortcuts that we had to employ to fit under 6 minutes this time around. With an open canvas and some pickup shots, the film now looks a lot more like Matt and I had originally intended. That, and the ability to properly credit the people who worked so hard on the film, and we’re looking at a film with about 1:15 of additional content for future festivals.

Now … back to the timeline to start changing my mind about all the new edits.

P.S. Thanks to Jason and Tim for coming out for additional re-shoots. You all rock.

Ben here. I’m very happy to announce that ROM has won DVXuser.com’s Betrayalfest! We competed against 50 other quality films and the member-vote put us on top! I have an incredible number of people to thank for the success that this film has had already, and most of them can be seen in the credits at the bottom of this page. We had a great mix of people working on the film this time around and I so happy to have a successful project, even though a majority of us were new to each other! I’d especially like to thank Matt Bumby for making my brain hurt and co-writing/producing ROM with me and Jason Fararooei for taking a leap of faith and taking on this project.

To Tim and Michael for bringing these characters to the screen, Tom and your awesome voice as OZ and booming skillz, Kevin for willing to help with anything, Joe and Lana for your crazy and original sound design, Chris for an incredible score, and of course, my family for supporting me and helping out making everyone feel comfortable on set …. THANK YOU!