Hello everyone! To say it yet again, we absolutely can't thank you all enough for your support and help in spreading the word and getting COMMON out there.
This is it! The final countdown for voting in the From Here to Awesome Online Discovery and Distribution Festival has arrived. The Final Voting Deadline is June 6th. We are counting on your continued support for this last push of spreading the word. If you haven't yet helped out and you want to see COMMON, now's the time. If you haven't yet voted, now's the time.
Log on and vote! Spread the word! Post blogs. Leave comments. Post bulletins. Message your friends and tell them about the "Little Movie That Could"! Help bring COMMON to you! Your help makes all the difference!!!
Hey everybody, looks like the good people at spout (a From Here to Awesome sponsor) have taken to spotlighting a few(4) of the films they find interesting, and right now common is featured. You can check out the FHTA video here:
and you can join the discussion of the film on Spout here:
Every couple of weeks or so, I check the "Common" IMDb page just to check things out, look the page over, check the user rating, and see if there's anything new (discussions, comments, etc.)
Not more than a few days ago, the rating for the film was around 9-Stars. Today, it's at an incredible 2.5-Stars. It was more than a little disheartening to see that one voter had given the fruit of our labor a whopping 1-Star rating.
I wouldn't be upset simply by the fact, that someone didn't like the film. However, I would be somewhat irritated if someone dropped by to cast a 1-Star vote simply to drop the average rating. That wouldn't be playing nice...
Regardless, I don't believe that the rating currently showed on our IMDb page is an accurate representation of what our audiences have thought of our film. So I am challenging everyone who HAS SEEN the film, be it in Hays, Halifax, KC, or anywhere log on with their IMDb account and give a true and fair rating of what YOU believe accurately represents the overall quality of "Common". If you do not have an IMDb account, it's easy to register for one!
If you thought the movie deserved 1-Star, by all means, fire away. If you think it deserves a higher rating, go for it. Leave comments. Ask questions. Open a discussion if you feel so disposed. All of us here at Camp Common would very much appreciate your honest feedback and ratings for anybody visiting our IMDb page to see.
First, thanks SO MUCH to all the people who've gone and voted on our submission for our little movie in the groundbreaking From Here to Awesome virtual film festival.
Now, the super amazing people at FHTA have made it even easier for you to vote for us!
Simply go here: http://fromheretoawesome.com/common/
and click the button right below the video after watching it, throw them your name and email address (just so they can notify you of our screenings) and THAT'S IT!
Easy as pie. In fact, if you've already rated our video on myspace and youtube, go vote for us here anyway to make it even more official.
It's been an exciting week. I can't express enough how wonderful this festival has been for getting us out into the public consciousness. With your help the train doesn't have to stop there.
THANKS! -Jordan (writer/actor/editor)
Currently
listening
:
Push/Pull
By
OK Jones
Release date: 17 January, 2006
It's an online virtual film festival developed by online distrobution champions Lance Weiler (Head Trauma), Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters), and M dot Strange (We Are the Strange) that opens up the flood gates for new models of distribution and discovery/exposure for the films that take part, and we're taking part.
Basically instead of a programming committee and juries to decide what makes the cut, YOU get to. It's democracy in the film world. For two months, the submissions are open, and after that time, 10 are selected to go on a "tour" of sorts. That means with your help Common will be coming to a theatre near you! It'll also open up all sorts of new avenues for DVD distrobution, Downloading the film in your own home, etc. Exciting, right!?!
So here's what you do:
1) Watch this video on Youtube, Myspace, or Blip.tv. All three are on our myspace page (or below).
2) RATE THE VIDEO. This is important. It's not enough to just watch the video. If you enjoyed it and want to see the whole movie, you HAVE to show you're a fan by RATEING IT.
3) ADD TO FAVORITES.
4) SUBSCRIBE TO OUR VIDEOS.
5) ADD US AS A FRIEND.
6) PASS IT ALONG. Once you've seen the video, don't just move on, but TELL A FRIEND! Post it in a blog or bulletin on myspace (it's a one click icon below the video), share it on facebook, whatever you have to do to keep the hype going. Think of it as a viral video.
It's really important you do these different steps, and they only take a matter of seconds.
This is how we're being judged. The top 10 feature films that comprise the final festival are basically whichever movies have the most global demand (which is determined by how many people express their desire to see it).
So with your help, we'll be bringing Common right to you.
Hey everybody, The good people over at the Myspace Film Community caught Common and posted a review of it. Apparently they liked it since they gave it 5 out of 5 stars. Thanks go to Anthony Thurber for the review. Good to see the positive feedback train keep rolling.
Done your good deed for the day? Well here's your chance. And you even get something in return, no cost to you...
So there are these two filmmakers from NY who self-financed a digital film called Four Eyed Monsters. You might have seen it on the main page a while back.
here's a still from the film...
Here's a brief rundown of their situation. The film cost some money. And because of said money, it put them into a bit of debt. After tons of positive reviews and reactions from film festival audiences, they still hadn't managed to sell the film. And now they're $100,000 in credit card debt. So they hit up the people at Spout.com. Spout offered them one dollar for every person who signed up through their film.
That's where you come in. You want to help out someone today, you can go here and take 30 seconds to sign up, and in so doing, you will pitch in the effort to get the makers of FEM out of debt.
But that's not all! As a token of their appreciation to the public, you can actually watch the entire film on their myspace profile here..
We've posted the first part (of 3) below, and before the movie gets rolling, you get a little intro from the filmmakers, explaining the whole twisted scenario.
So we're back from the Atlantic Film Festival, and the screening went great. We're overwhelmed by all the positive feedback, and we want to thank everyone for coming out. It was a lot of fun spending the week in Halifax and meeting all sorts of great filmmakers. we even got to have coffee with the director of Gimme Shelter Albert Maysles! It was really amazing getting to hear his thoughts on the current state of film.
anyway, here's some more criticism thrown our way that we wanted to share:
Common: The state of here and now by Ron Foley Macdonald (infomonkey.net)
One of the most powerful - but neatly restrained - indie flicks I've seen for the 2007 AFF is Kansas director Jeremy Fiest's Common. A road movie that deconstructs the friendships of three twentysomething men on the cusp of adult careers, Common is a playfully formal, mesmerizingly shot and beautifully written film that firmly examines the state of here and now.
Using the dusty landscapes of middle America and shooting through a fluid video lens that plays up the yellows, browns and greens of the US heartland, Common combines a curious compassion for its characters with a love for the healing balm of wide open spaces.
And while the film's visuals and structure reference great American road stories like The Grapes Of Wrath, On The Road and even Easy Rider, the actual narrative is strangely calm and understated. As two of the characters drive to the west coast to meet up with a third friend who is newly married, the travelling duo attempt to repair a friendship that has gone rather badly off the rails as adulthood slowly eats away at their boyish inclinations.
There's far too much wit, plot development and concentrated action for Common to be considered part of the latest trend in American indie filmmaking, Mumblecore. And yet the film could be considered the movement's heartland cousin, reflecting the muted ambitions and over-analyzed self-awareness that marks Mumblecore's most salient points. It's a trend that sees relationships, short term goals and transience as the be-all and end-all of twentysomething life.
Still, there's a sweet openness to Common that distinguishes it as an American Original. Announcing onscreen in frame-filling fonts the act endings, turning points and other sundry structural points gives the film a humorous, self-conscious point of view that matches the character's own mirror-phase machinations.
With a punchy alt-country soundtrack by mid-American indie artists OK Jones, Common is a rigorous but affectionate snapshot of the muddled youthful aspirations of a generation that hasn't figured out yet just what comes next.
Bittersweet but ultimately deeply satisfying, this is a film that aptly displays the deep bench strength of American Indie Filmmaking.
Common, directed by Jeremy Fiest, written by Jordan Gray. USA, 2007, 85 minutes, At the 2007 Atlantic Film Festival, Monday September 17th, 9:30 pm, Park Lane 4. _____ Booyah -J
Currently
listening
:
Push/Pull
By
OK Jones
Release date: 17 January, 2006
The Atlantic Film Festival blog posted a review of common. you can read and leave comments here.
Here's a fe bits:
"Common portrays a world of easy normality where characters reflect the endlessly dizzying choices facing North American guys today. Sometimes that leads to the most curious choice of all, that is, to simply not to choose."
"an intriguing and powerful film that announces a unique new talent on the American Indie filmmaking scene."
be sure to read the whole shebang.
Currently
listening
:
We All Belong
By
Dr. Dog
Release date: 27 February, 2007
excited
determined
cheerful
