Not movie specific, but I will be doing a few book signings on the east coast to promote the release of the Revised and Expanded edition of I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. It does kinda have something to do with the movie because I will be screening the movie for my friends in NYC, DC, Boston and Chicago, so there will be more (admittedly biased) reviews coming.
Here are the details for anyone interested in going to one of them:
NEW YORK, NY
Wednesday, January 21st
Borders
6pm
2 Penn Plaza
New York, NY 10121
PHILADELPHIA, PA
Thursday, January 22nd
Borders
6pm
80 E Wynnewood Avenue
Wynnewood, PA 19096
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Friday, January 23rd
Books A Million
7pm
11 Dupont Circle N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
MARYLAND
Saturday, January 24th
Books A Million - Arundel Hills
2pm
7000 Arundel Mills Circle, Space B3
Hanover, MD 21076
BOSTON, MA
Monday, January 26th
Borders
7pm
511 Boylston St.
Boston, MA 10121
CHICAGO, IL
Tuesday, January 27th
Borders
7pm
830 N. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
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A few days ago Tucker popped in the DVD of the final cut of I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell for me to see. While much of what was in place in the last cut of the film I saw remained, there were several noticeable changes in a few scenes. The editing team has clearly worked hard to further refine scenes to keep the story moving--whatever drags in earlier scenes is gone. As I told Nils earlier this week; we have a very funny movie on our hands.
Film nerd wise, there are a few cuts that I don't like--but no one shoots the perfect amount of coverage. As I had Tucker next to me while viewing I could hit pause and get some explanation behind some of their editorial choices. But, in the grand scheme of things, the film is fine. You've heard this from me before, you've heard it from everyone before: The film is funny. The film is entertaining. It may be great.
Imagine that. An internet celebrity writes a screenplay with his best friend based on his only book. This screenplay generates all kinds of interest, but they select a small, but exciting studio with one cult classic under their belt to finance it. This same creative team hires a director with no comedic background, who is mostly well known for small dramatic indies. They cast experienced, but relatively little known actors. During an 8 week shoot filled with drama behind the scenes, we finish on time and on budget.
And that's what I find interesting: Somehow, despite all the struggles in Shreveport in what only seems to me were a few weeks ago, we have a film. It all worked. The 15 hour days, the arguments, the tension, the personality clashes, none of it matters. The blood, sweat and tears have given us something tangible.
And I'm only on the periphery of all this. God knows Nils and Tucker have been fighting this fight harder and longer than I have. But since I've boarded this freight train, I can tell you there is a feeling of relief that's hard to describe. For better or worse, we've committed our story to film. It exists. Whether or not the audiences flock to the theaters now is somewhat out of our hands. That's not to say that we don't have a comprehensive marketing strategy; we do. But to a certain extent everyone is rolling the dice. Tucker has talked about putting all his chips on the table. What an accurate description of the struggle of getting an independent film made. For me, I rolled the dice many months ago sitting a coffee shop with a guy whose stories I read in high school:
"Do you want to move to Louisiana for three months?"
In the end I've come to believe there are two sorts of people in the world: those who take the plunge and those who don't. Those who want the 9-5, those who don't. Those who are afraid to fail and those who are willing to risk being knocked down again, again and again. I haven't accomplished too much with my life thus far, but this much I know:
Regardless of whether or not IHTSBIH is a massive hit or a complete bomb, I'm glad I took Tucker up on his offer. I took a risk, and I am better off for it.
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Alright, picture is locked, so what's the hold up, right? Release the fucking movie already!
Believe me, NO ONE wants this movie to be out more than me. But sadly, we still have more work to do. Just to keep you guys up to date, here is a basic list of the rest of the things we have to do to have a completed movie that we can put into movie theaters:
-Screen the movie for the MPAA and get a rating
-Do all the sound editing
-Do all the foley sound
-Do the actual ADR recordings that we spotted already
-Transfer the film to DI
-Do the DI color timing
-Finish all the VFX
-Record and mix the score
-Do all the sound dubbing
-Cut a 30 second and a 2 minute trailer
All of this should give us a finished and complete movie by sometime around March 1st, give or take. And this all leads into the big thing every independent movie has to do: Find a distributor.
To do this, most indie movies go to festivals like Sundance or Toronto or Cannes, because that is generally where the distributors are (and they are the ones who buy the movie). They also do this because festivals are very good for generating buzz for indie movies that don't have much commercial appeal. The benefits of this for a movie like, say, Hustle & Flow are obvious: If they impress everyone at Sundance, not only can they sell the film but they can get a lot of people to talk about their movie prior to release.
The only festival that would have made sense for us to go to is Sundance because it is at the end of January, but we decided a few months ago to not even apply. Why? Well, we have two things that very few indies have:
1. Huge commercial appeal and a very popular underlying property it is based on, and,
2. No ticking clock to pay back investors.
Generally speaking, if you don't need to go to a festival to sell the movie and get attention, you don't go. Based on the buzz surrounding the script and my book, we already have commitments from pretty much every major distributor to come to the distributor screening we are doing in LA as soon as we wrap picture (beginning of March prob), and god knows this movie will be able to get all sorts of press and marketing traction once we have a release date, so why risk any of the numerous things that can go wrong at a film festival? Plus, Darko has another movie at Sundance this year (World's Greatest Dad with Robin Williams) and McKittrick is on the phone about 12 hours a day dealing with all the bullshit that comes with being in a festival. I think he would die from stress if he had two movies there. We decided to pass.
This wasn't really part of our decision process because we decided to skip Sundance in September, but another major benefit has emerged over the past few months: The buzz around town is that at least one independent distributor, and maybe one major, are going out of business in the early part of 2009. The credit crunch has hit the film industry in a way that many people are underestimating, and the years of free-flowing equity from Wall Street have built up many houses of cards that will soon come tumbling down. It is going to be a blood bath in Hollywood for at least the first quarter of 2009, and sitting that out will reveal many distribution options that don't exist now, and create many opportunities for us that didn't exist before. After all--something has to go on the screens, and we have an awesome movie that is finished. It will be a sellers market very soon, and the most valuable property will be a broad commercial comedy with a massive best-selling book and fanbase to pin the marketing on.
What does this all mean for our distribution plans? The plan now is to screen the movie for distributors after it has an MPAA rating and is completely locked, which would mean the first week in March at the earliest. We'll get everyone in a theater at one time, show the movie, and then the negotiations start. By waiting until everything is done, we reduce the uncertainty for the distributor, and command the best deal. Plus, by presenting the movie as a complete package, it prevents them from making any changes and ruining it.
Once we do the distributor screening, it won't take more than a few days probably to pick the distributor and work out the deal, and then all the fun starts: We pick a release date, we start the heavy marketing plans, and we go 16 hours a day until it comes out.
Of course, this is just the tentative plan. A LOT can change over the next two months, and in fact, I expect a lot to change.
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The biggest issue the audiences identified in the first three screenings was pacing. Everyone thought it was funny as shit, they loved the dialogue and the characters and the story, but they felt that it kinda dragged at the beginning a little and that two scenes in particular were way too slow. And they were right.
It took us WEEKS in the editing room to find ways to fix the pacing problems (we even brought Jesse Bradford in for the final two days of editing and he gave us some great notes), but that was the thing I was most anxious about with the final cut: Did we solve the pacing problems?
Well, we haven't done a full screening of the final cut, but according to the relatively small group of people we've shown the movie to fresh since then, not only did we solve them, the pacing of the movie is now an asset. Nils and I both showed the movie to some fresh eyes, and not only did these people not say it was slow, they actually commented on how tight and fast-paced it was. Wow. If they only knew how hard it was for us to get it there.
I have watched the final cut three times now. Once by myself right after I got it to see if it was as good as I hoped, once with my girlfriend to show her the improvements over cut #2 and cut #3, and once again today with a couple other people to see their reaction, and I want to emphasize two points that I have been harping on in the blog:
1. I am even more confident in my belief that this thing is not only really fucking good, but has the potential to be a classic.
2. It is NOT perfect, and please do not mistake my enthusiasm for the movie as me thinking it is.
As proud as I am of this movie, it is far from perfect. There are many things, especially small things, I think could have been done better. Many of them are things that most people won't notice (continuity errors, line phrasing, blocking decisions, etc), but one is kinda big and is an issue with one of the two plot lines that was a script problem that Nils and I never really fixed. I think this thing will become a classic because so many people will love the characters and the dialogue and the story, but the fact that it has small things that could probably have been done better will give people who don't like it plenty of things to nitpick about.
Don't get me wrong--I think this movie is fucking awesome, and I think it has the potential to be regarded as one of the best comedies released over the past generation. And even though it's not perfect, lots of classic movies are far from perfect. When I think of a perfect movie, I think of something like The Godfather, or The Big Lebowski, or Unforgiven. A perfect movie is a movie where I cannot imagine it being done any better than it was, and very few movies are like that. This movie is definitely not in that league, at least not for me. Even as proud as I am of the finished product, I know that if Nils and I made this movie again today, we would do a lot of things differently and do a better job (at least with the details).
That's actually one of the most exciting things for me: Without any experience, through just hard work and (mostly) smart decisions, Nils and I made a truly awesome movie. Now that we have done this once and have this experience, we know where our weaknesses and strengths are and have an idea how to fix them. I can't wait to do this again, and see how good of a movie we can make when we actually know what the fuck we're doing.
But before we worry about that, there are two months of sound work to do, then picking a distributor, then marketing, then the release. The hardest part is done, we've broken out from the pack and there is a clear path to the goal line. But having 40 yards of clear green in front of you doesn't automatically mean you score; you have to actually run the distance.
Now that the editing is done and the holidays are about over, we will have more time to dedicate to this blog, so you can expect more posts from me and Greg and Nils. Plus Jesse Bradford is going to give his take on the movie, and in January I am screening the movie for my law school friends, so you'll get their takes on it too. And I'll be writing a lot of posts about the distribution process, the release process, and the marketing process. Lots more work to do means lots more for me to write about.
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I know you guys would rather see the movie than get some "blog gift," but this time you're just going to have to take what you get.
Three days ago, I got this letter in the mail, and I laughed out loud. If you haven't been reading this blog long enough to get it, go read this post for background, then enjoy the letter:
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A lot of people have asked me for my prediction of the box office gross of this movie, and now that we have a locked picture and I know what is going into theaters, I thought I would address this question.
I've thought about this a lot, and depending on what facts I want to assume, I could make a very good argument for it making anything from 20 million all the way up to 200 million. But here is the one fact I cannot assume away:
Right now, it is beyond anyone's ability to accurately predict the gross because of the numerous variables that have yet to be decided. Who we pick to distribute, what weekend we open, what's going on with the economy--there are too many factors to even list and any number I would guess would be just that: A complete guess.
I cannot predict what this movie will make--at least not right now--but I can tell you what I think about the movie:
Though this movie is extremely funny, it's more than that. Though the acting is amazingly good, it's more than that. Though the lighting and cinematography is beautiful, it's more than that.
I think we made something special.
Now, clearly I am the least objective person on earth to evaluate this project. Not only because it is about me and my life, but also because I know exactly where it went right and where it went wrong. I not only saw the sausage getting made, I was one of the ones making it. Artists don't write their own reviews for a reason, because they are simultaneously too easy and too hard on themselves.
When we finished the script, I knew that Nils and I had done a really good job. It was funny, original, and smart. Obviously a lot of people agreed with me, because we got it financed and into production in no time at all, with exactly the deal we wanted. Casting took a long time, but we ended up with great actors who were perfect for their roles. Early on in readings and rehearsals, I felt it in my bones that we had something; that impossible to quantify chemistry was there. During filming, I saw glimpses of magic and greatness.
Granted, after seeing the rough cut, a lot of my optimism was replaced with doubt. For a minute there, I thought we had missed the mark. But Nils and I got back at it, worked our asses off in the editing room and found the magic (it was there the whole time, we had shot it mostly right, but you just couldn't see it in the rough cut because it wasn't edited correctly). Now that we are done with all the hardest creative parts, I am feeling more confident about this than I ever did.
Granted, a big part of my optimism is just gut feeling. But, in addition to my intuition, there is evidence to support my conclusion. We've tested through the roof on the audience screenings so far (92% average in three screenings), and people whose opinions I trust have flipped shit over the movie. It's clear that at the very least, this is a good movie that will appeal to a lot of people.
Yet to me, it's not the overt evidence that confirms my gut feeling that this is special, it more the little things I am seeing. Some examples:
-Suki (the DP) took the movie to the colorist last week; he is the guy who makes sure all the colors are balanced correctly and look right in the final product. This guy has seen probably 10,000 movies in his life. He watches movies all day. It's literally his job. Well, he couldn't do his job on our movie. Why? He was laughing too hard. He was literally in such fits of laughter, he couldn't concentrate or focus, so he gave up trying to pay attention to his job and just watched it all the way through, as a fan.
-There was the 60 year old woman at the second LA screening, the crippled one with the cane who got in because she was the ride of someone else we invited. She could not be farther from our projected demographic...and she LOVED the movie. Raved about it.
-There is the constant, unending feedback like this--and this is written by a guy I only met last weekend:
"Before long it was 2200 and it was time for the screening. We can't tell you much about the movie other than this, it's hilarious. I was crying. It was legitimately funny and not like you'd expect it to be if you've followed or read what's on his website. I mean, yes, he has sex with a bunch of women, and yes, he's horrifically inappropriate in almost every frame, but it was, and I am going to go flog myself after saying this, a rather charming film, even in its absolute absurdity. Bottom line - 50 soldiers watched it and all 50 said it kicked ass. When the shit does that ever happen?"
-There is the fact that, after each of the three screenings we've had, dozens of people--most of whom don't know each other--have stood around afterward talking about the movie, quoting it back to each other and rehashing all their favorite parts. This has happened three times, with three very different groups, and each time it happened spontaneously. The first time I thought it was a fluke, but by the third time, I start to think it means something.
I know that the plural of anecdote is not data, but incidents like this speak to me. These things don't happen to normal movies, but they have happened to us so many times, I've stopped writing about them because it just sounds like boasting. Yet every day something like that happens. We are getting amazing reactions, not only from the expected sources, but often from places we never expected, and in ways that rarely if ever happen.
It's the combination of these numerous factors that is spawning my feeling that this movie has the potential to become something special. I can see it becoming the type of movie that is on everyone's DVD shelf, that is referenced thousands of times in hundreds of contexts, that becomes iconic. The way that Office Space and Swingers and Braveheart stand as reference points for all sorts of cultural discussions, I think this movie can do that.
Will this actually happen? And if it does, will this mean the movie does well at the box office?
Who knows. I don't. I hope I am right, but I could definitely end up being wrong. It would not be the first time. It's almost impossible to predict something like this beforehand. Only time will tell if my gut feeling turns out to be right, but as of now I truly believe we made not just a really good movie, but something special.
EDIT: As we figure many of these variables out, and we get closer to the release date, making a prediction about the gross will be much easier, and many blogs will start posting their predictions.
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Last night sometime around 6pm, we locked picture. This means we are done with editing the film part. Next is digital and sound editing, but what's going on screen is set. The movie is what the movie is.
I came home and read through this blog again after we finished. The whole thing, start to finish. It was a strange experience. God I wish I could go back and talk to the guy who wrote this and tell him everything I learned since then. Even though that was me eight months ago, I am such a different person now than I was then. This process taught me so much, not only about making movies, but about myself.
I haven't talked a lot about that in this blog; I've tried to keep it as much about the movie and the process as possible, and not about me. I will probably write about it more when I can get more distance from the events and perspective, but I will say this: No experience has ever been harder, more humbling, and forced more honest and authentic self-evaluation than making this movie. It was the ultimate test of who I am as a person.
It brought out every strength I have, as well as every weakness. I did things with this movie that no one else in the world could pull off. I literally laid the foundation for a new vision and organization of the entertainment business. Shit, the fact that this thing even got made is a testament to the force of my will. But on on the other hand, negative behavior patterns I thought I had beat, I found I hadn't. Demons I thought I had slain, I found were still there. There were moments in this process I have been so proud of myself I didn't know what to do with the emotion. There have been other times when I flat out failed everyone around me, and that sucked.
There is no question, I put too much of myself into this. I don't mean the finished product, like the movie you'll see on screen, but more on a personal level into this project. It meant so much to me, it ended up emotionally paralyzing me. For the last two years, nothing has mattered more to me than this movie, in fact, nothing else mattered AT ALL except the movie. I let my obsession with the success of this movie overshadow and impair my relationships with almost everyone in my life. That was a mistake. Of course it's important to me that this is done well, but if that's the only thing I care about, it creates an imbalance. What good is it to win the race if the kingdom is lost to do it? The goods news is that the first step in fixing a problem is identifying it, and I know what I did wrong.
That being said, I am really proud of this movie. Because of me in many cases, and in spite of me in others, we made something special. Today I am going to appreciate what has been done. I may never get another shot at this, or this movie may make me one of the biggest stars in the world. Who knows what's going to happen in the future, so instead of worrying about what this movie will make or how it will be seen, today I am going to take my own advice, and instead of thinking about the future, I'll relish the ten days in the league I already have.
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Yesterday we did music spotting, and today, we did ADR spotting. What is ADR Spotting? From this page:
ADR [Audio Dialogue Replacement] - In cases where the production audio is too noisy, or otherwise unusable (bad line reading, airplane fly-by, etc.) the Dialogue Editor will "cue" the line for ADR. This means replacing that line or lines of dialogue using the Automated process of Dialogue Replacement. This process takes place on the ADR Stage, a specialized recording studio where the actor can record lines in sync with the picture.Once a replacement line of dialogue has been recorded, the Dialogue or ADR Editor will check the sync carefully, editing the take if necessary to precisely match it to the picture, and prepare it for the Mixing Stage. This process is also known as "looping".
We didn't do any actual ADR recordings today, all we did was watch the movie, AGAIN, and decided which lines were muffled or garbled or in some way just not good enough, and will need to be recorded again. That part was pretty straight forward, but there were a few interesting things to ADR beyond just fixing an inaudible line:
-Correcting bad performances: We had at least two different actors who did awful, awful jobs. They were only bit players--no more than two lines each--but they did such an awful acting job it is jarring, and takes you out of the film (especially in contrast to the leads, who were all awesome). There is nothing we can do about this now in terms of reshoots, but what we can do is a twofold fix: 1. Edit the scenes such that we are off their faces as much as possible for the dialogue, and 2. Get a good voice actor to ADR their parts.
Seriously, this blew my mind too. We are going to have two different actors, one male, one female, whose voices in the movie will not be their real voices. You won't notice at all as an audience; the ADR integration is seamless and invisible. But because so much of acting is voice tone and inflection, we can actually make bad bit players seem like good actors by replacing their voices. This is my first movie, but I am told this happens A LOT more than most people realize.
-Adding jokes: Going through the cut, there are a few "dead spots" where something is happening on screen, and there is no real accompanying audio. It's usually just a second or two, a pause that would pass unnoticed in real life, but when you are watching other people on a screen, if something isn't happening, even for a second, the dead spot is very noticeable. There are at least three different places where, because of editing or blocking or something, the shot ended up with a dead spot Nils and I did not anticipate. So we wrote a new line or two, the actors will record it later, and it'll seamlessly fill in gaps in the movie.
-Correcting scenes: I won't tell you who or where it is, but one of the leads made a huge mistake in a scene, and we were able to fix it completely with ADR. Had we been forced to leave the mistake in, it could have ruined the scene. We might have had to cut the whole scene, making the movie appreciably worse. But because of ADR, not only can we fix it, the fix Nils and I thought up was better than the original line. Scene stays, the joke is even funnier, and the movie is better as a result. And from watching it, you would NEVER guess it was a fix in post. Movie magic baby!
Now, don't misunderstand: ADR is not a fix all. We cannot put something in an actor's lips that he doesn't mouth correctly. Nothing is more jarring than seeing incorrect dubbing--just think of the old joke about Kung Fu movies and the awful dubbing, and you can understand why. ADR only works when you can do one of two things: Exactly match what's on the actors lips, or put the actors voice over their back or when their face is otherwise obscured. ADR is a great tool, but it can't fix everything.
I have a lot more to write about editing, but I have been saving it for the end of this process. Tomorrow, we "officially" lock picture, and once that is done, I'll start to organize my thoughts.
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Yesterday we pretty much locked picture. Two LONG days of nitpicking every scene, and sometimes every frame in a scene, and aside from a few burn-ins and maybe one more quick run through, we have a movie.
But we still have work this whole week doing various other things. Today we did what is called "music spotting." With the music supervisor and the composer, me, Nils, Bob and Sean watched the movie for the 10,000th time, and discussed every scene, decided where music is appropriate, and what needs to be score and what needs to be regular music.
This post gives a very good explanation of what a music spotting session is (quoted in full here):
"The spotting session is when a director and composer get together to watch the film and decide where the music is going to be and what it's going to do. This occurs before the composer starts writing the music.People present should be the director, the composer, the music editor and perhaps the producer.
Many composers like to see the movie before a spotting session, I know I do. That way the composer is better prepared to bring well thought out ideas and insights which leads to a more productive and meaningful exchange between the director and composer.
A composer who knows his stuff, understands film music and has a strong grasp of storytelling is worth his weight in gold here. I mean, let's face it, a director needs someone he can count on and the spotting session is where the foundation for the score gets laid.
Exact SMPTE time codes for the entry and exit points of each cue need to be written down. This provides the total number of cues and duration of the score to be written, an important element of time management for any project.
So, where should a music cue start?
* At the start of a new act
* At the start of a scene
* On an emotional beat
* Anywhere you can imagine...The possibilities for the entrance of a music cue are as endless as there are stories to be told! And furthermore, it is an aesthetic decision (meaning it is open to personal interpretation) so it is impossible to set it down in a list. Spotting will be the subject of many future blog entries.
Spotting a movie is an art that requires the following:
* Knowledge of story telling in film
* A solid understanding of the story being told
* Awareness (on the composer's part) of directorial an editorial decisions
* Understanding off what music can bring to a scene(And by the way, good spotting is not just where the music is present, of course, but where it is absent.)
Finding the entrance and exit of a cue is the easy part, the hard part is deciding what the music will do during that time period!
I can't give you a list of all that music can bring to a scene here, but I can say this.
* Consider the arc of the film, not just the scene as an isolated event.
* Avoid discussing musical specifics
* Discuss what the music should do as if the composer was an actorThe length of a spotting session varies, but I personally like to take as much time needed to really pick the brain of the director so I can fully understand the story, the film and the director's intent.
At the end of the session I always want to be 100% clear on what the director's goals are for the film. I also want to have a vision of what I can bring musically to the film and to have expressed that as clearly as possible so that the director and I are on the same page.
Having a clear vision for the score, a mutual understanding and trust, and knowing how much work there needs to be done, those are the goals of the spotting session."
I can't say it any better than he did; that's pretty much exactly what we did today. I guess the main exception is that this post assumes the director is the main creative force, which is not the case on this movie (it's the two writer/producers, Nils and I).
Movie music is such a strange beast to me. If you are anything like me, you don't pay attention to movie music hardly at all, until you watch your own movie without it and think, "What the fuck is wrong with this?" and realize that music is immensely important to a movie and that you'd never really noticed before. I knew in theory how music worked in combination with picture to create story, but I didn't really get it until I started actually matching scenes and music, and thinking about how music affects story.
That has been one of my main critiques of the movie so far--the temporary songs and music we put in for the screenings SUCKS. It drove me up a wall, and I know it reduced the impact and effectiveness of the movie, even to the people who liked it. This wasn't anyone's fault really, it was temp music so not much thought was given to it, but it's so important, it's hard to keep telling yourself "this won't be in the final cut" as you watch the scene--it still impacts what you think of the movie.
And to answer the big question we get a lot: Yes, there will be both score and regular songs in the movie, and the songs will vary in genre from hardcore rap, to hair metal, to indie rock, and all kinds of other genres in between, depending on the scene and emotion we are trying to evoke. We should have at least two original songs, at least one of which Nils and I wrote, and probably two that we write.
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This has almost nothing to do with this movie, but I am going to post about it anyway because I am stuck in editing room hell this week in the run-up to locking the picture, and it's interesting for a few reasons:
National Lampoon Chief Faces Charges
1. It's a shame to see a comedy titan reduced to such levels. There was a day when National Lampoon was THE name for comedy. Now, aside from making complete embarrassments, they are criminals.
2. I knew for years this was coming. Maybe not securities fraud, but I knew they were going to get busted for something because they are fucking crooks. I used to use their ad serving company, and they were the worst kind of business--they'd sneak in pop-ups, ads with sound and all sorts of malware bullshit I specifically told them not to ever put on my site. And I am 100% certain they shorted me on revenue, which is par for the course for most internet ad companies, but they were the worst of any I've ever used, and that includes Gorilla Nation (who are getting the shit sued out of them by a bunch of people).
3. Here's the funniest part, and why I put this on the movie blog: For YEARS their "development" executives have been hounding me to do a movie with them. My inbox has like 50+ emails from various people at National Lampoon about how they want to option the rights to the book, take a look at my script, etc, etc. I took one meeting with them like four years ago, and maybe two years ago Nils and I met with a producer who does work with them, and in both cases I had the same thought: Never have I met a group of slimier, douchier, more incompetent thieves in my life. I left both meetings and took a shower. The best part is that they have no concept of what the market for good material is like. There is a reason no one reputable does business with them. Their offer was an order of magnitude lower than anyone else's in Hollywood--and they acted like they were doing me a favor. It was comical. Their entire business model is predicated on exploitation of the artist and theft of IP.
Of course, most of Hollywood is smoke and mirrors, so why should they be any different? They're just not as good at it as the bigger studios.
Slowly but surely, the entertainment world is changing, and corrupt thieves like this are being pushed out by people like us. It won't happen all at once, but it's happening. Every day, the lot of the artist is improving.
EDIT: I didn't mean to imply that the guys who started National Lampoon are the ones responsible for the demise of NL. They are entirely different groups, and I knew this I just wasn't clear about it. Explained here and here.
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OK, so the military screening went spectacularly well, but we had another screening that night, one in LA and much bigger. Over a hundred people. I was not there, but it went really well also--an 88% recommend rate.
Yes, that is our lowest recommend rate in a screening so far, but in some ways, it is the most encouraging number. The first screening was predominantly college kids, and mostly male. We knew we'd slay that group. The military screening were military guys (and their wives). We knew they were in the bag (though not at 100%). In this screening, we intentionally invited as many people we knew who 1. did not know anything about me, and 2. were not obviously in our target demographic. We ended up with almost 40% women, and the overall age demographic was much older than the first LA screening. Considering that, we were extremely proud of the 88%. And we added another question to the survey this time about if the person had heard of me and my book. What percent of that audience knew about me? Only 26.5%.
So, after three screenings, with as broad and diverse a demographic across all four quadrants as we could muster, we have a total recommend rate of 92% [(57+37+99=193)/(60+37+113=210)]. My goal since day one has been to have an 80% recommend rate in screenings, a number that is considered very high for any movie and something many people said was impossible for a movie like this. And we are not only getting it, we are getting it with a demographic that's not fans and very diverse. This is great news.
Since I posted some feedback from the military screening, I'll do the same here. These are taken pretty much at random (except the first one is from a good friend of mine). Everything [redacted] I had to take out because it was a spoiler:
"Strong opening. [redacted]. Great scene.Introducing the other main characters was hilarious, as well as the foreshadowing from [redacted]. Matt pulls off your casual intelligence well. I have issues with Jesse's first scene in his apartment, but they're small and mostly due to sound levels, thus don't matter.
There are so many quotable lines, beyond what readers of the book know, that everybody will hate you and Nils in three years. The classics are in, the rants are in, and the one-liners are in. Great, nice to hear them. College campuses and local bars are going to fucking suck after this movie is out thanks to you two assholes.
I think my favorite aspect of the flick is that it doesn't make Movie Tucker into something you're not. He's not Van Wilder, the life of the party, or even the center of attention. Well, he's the center of his attention, but that's kind of the point. The cameos are truly inspired. Bill Dawes was hilarious as always, and yours cracked me up."
"I liked the constant humor, the emotional transition for Drew and the believability of the movie. Drew at times was a little too over the top with the dry humor. Character development was great as [redacted]. Didn't see enough boobies! There was one scene I didn't care for but I can't remember, sorry that doesn't help. [redacted] I'd tell my friends it was the funniest movie I've seen since Anchorman, a believable story of bachelors living the good life. A real comedy that is not far fetched or comically exaggerated like all the Will Farrell movies. Tasteful."
"...It's a movie loaded with jokes and laughs... I found the character of Tucker extremely amusing and having read his book I loved seeing his antics on screen....although I thought it was odd that [redacted]. I could easily see this movie again and have no problem imagining myself saying "you've got to check out this movie" to friends who are unfamiliar with Tucker Max but very familiar with his way of life. I'm not sure how to predict how its initial release will be received but look forward to buying the DVD and telling friends I was there from the beginning."
"All and all I laughed out loud multiple times. Would I have paid theater prices to go see it? Probably not. Would I have rented it? Probably, and I'd probably tell my friends the same thing. There were a few scenes I would have cut down/out. You're given the difficult situation and having a character people don't feel sympathy for. I never felt anything for Tucker and the Drew character definitely stole the movie in my opinion."
"I went into the screening with some knowledge of the story. I had read some of the stories online and have read about half of the novel, so I basically knew the demeanor of Tucker. But a major difference is how one perceives Tucker in book form and how he is portrayed on the screen. Overall, the movie is extremely hilarious. The script is very well written, especially the parts for Drew. With numerous one-liners that are sure to become classics, everyone in my section could not contain their laughter at the ensuing hilarity."
"As an unbiased viewer, there were many things with I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell that I enjoyed, and several things that I was not expecting.I thought the movie was really entertaining and stayed true to a lot of the dialogue within the book I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. I liked how the movie portrayed several of Tucker's stories within the context of one large story in the movie. It was a very creative way for the writers and producers to put together a story that did not portray Tucker to his full extent, yet it was still able to convey many of the messages that Mr. Max would like his audience to know/feel about him. Similarly, Tucker's two friends were developed well with little background information on either of them.
On the flip side, I would have liked to receive more background information on all three main male characters, especially Tucker Max... I would have liked more information so I could know why they were acting the way they were. I was also hoping to "meet" more of Tucker's friends. I understand why only two were introduced, but I thought if more were introduced it would have made Tucker's character stronger."
"Let's just get something straight here. I am a 21 year old college girl. I am in a sorority. I have a great appreciation for the feminine things of life such as fashion and the color pink. I own a DVD of The Notebook. I read the Twilight books-and liked them. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell is not supposed to appeal to me. Considering my demographic, I should be shocked by the coarse language and repeated use of derogatory slurs of my sex. I should be disgusted by the character of Tucker Max with his brazen arrogance, perverted sexual appetite, and blatant disregard for common decency. But fuck me sideways, I loved it.Get real feminists, it's 2008. In the age where the Judd Apatow's parade of stoned slackers are positioned as comedic leads, I hope They Serve Beer in Hell serves as another sharper and more quick-witted dosage of lewdness with heart. Think Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd but with 800 Verbal SAT scores."
"I thought the movie was hilarious. I would definitely recommend it to all of my friends. It was full of all the crude humor I expected and I love it. The character Drew was amazing, every time he spoke I laughed. I found the film completely realistic and could actually see my guy friends pulling stunts and getting into to trouble like they did."
"The movie was flat out awesome. It is great to see a movie that didn't hold back at all. The movie pushed the envelope in terms of collegiate humor. Joke after joke after joke had me rolling in my seat the entire movie. Tucker Max is essentially a Van Wilder character that is not held back by studio regulations. Hilarious movie. Go see it with your friends. Plus, I think I need to grab my buddies and go to Vegas this weekend. What can I say, I was inspired."
All that feedback is generally good, but we did have some people not like it, of course. That is to be expected, no movie is universally adored or liked. But here is what we are seeing happen a lot so far:
Half of the people who don't like the movie were big fans of mine BEFORE they saw it.
In this past LA screening especially, FOUR of the people who checked "no" were people who identified themselves as big fans of me and my writing, yet reacted very negatively to the movie. I can't really quote their responses, mainly because their critiques were so specific that I would have to redact so much as to make it pointless, but all people who fall into this category, the "I love Tucker Max and hate this movie" category, fit the same pattern:
They hate the movie not because of what it is, but because it's not what they wanted it to be.
Nils and I suspected this was going to happen, and the exact same thing happened with the book. Some people are so invested in their vision of what I am and who I should be, that they cannot reconcile that with what I actually do or who I actually am. These people's critiques all say the same general things, "Tucker would never do that," " I would not want to sleep with that Tucker," "Why isn't Tucker drunk the whole movie, cursing bitches and shit?" They have their own vision of what and who I am, one that is usually a ridiculously and unreasonably positive one, and anything that conflicts with that--even if it comes from TUCKER MAX--they reject.
My book and my website spring from my narcissism and my view of life, and some people really respond to that aspect of my writing. But for the movie to be the best it can be, it needs to represent all aspects of that universe I write about, not just Tucker's view of his own universe. Nils and I made the decision early on to make the best movie we could, and thus decided NOT to make a homage to the greatness of "Tucker Max," and sadly, some fans can't accept that. They want the Tucker character to be an invincible hero, and we could have made the movie out to be just that, but it would have sucked. We wanted a fully realized story, not a collection of hilarious but pointless vignettes about how awesome I think I am.
Now, don't get me wrong: The vast majority of my fans who have seen it so far really like it. And most people are smart enough to get what we are doing (even my friends get it and like it). Of the total number of people who will see this movie, I'd bet 10-20% will be people who are already fans, and of those, less than 5% will have these issues. So overall we're looking at less than 1% who will have this problem. Of course lots of people will hate this movie, simply because it offends them or they suck at life or whatever. But not everyone who hates this movie will be people who hate me.
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So last night, there were two screenings; one in LA for about 150 people, and another at Huske's Hardware in Fayetteville, NC for about 40 military guys. Greg will write something up about the LA screening later on, so I'll cover the other one.
I set this Fayetteville screening up sort of last minute--I got invited to the UFC Fight Night at Fort Bragg, so I decided to throw this together and get some feedback from military guys since I was already going to be in town. Well, it went really well. So well, it makes me nervous:
We scored a 100% in the "Would you recommend it to a friend" question.
That's not a reasonable number. 100% doesn't happen, even among established fans. Granted, I knew that military guys would like this movie, but still...100%?
I could write what I thought about the screening and what not, but better to just quote two guys who were there and are friends of mine. The first is from Doug, the same Doug from The Midland Story in the book. He is in the military and has known me for like four or five years, has been in several stories, and has witnessed, at least from the outside, this whole Hollywood thing develop. Here are his thoughts:
"So, I was able to see the movie last night and I have a few thoughts:Admittedly, I approached this movie with a HUGE degree of caution and skepticism. I was totally prepared for it to suck and not be funny. I braced myself for it, and sat down with the lowest of expectations.
That being said: I loved it. I thought the actors did a great job, the story developed well... and frankly I was impressed by the amount Max allowed his character to be acted out of scenes. I really, for once, didn't think this was the "Tucker Max Show".
It was a genuinely funny, feel good movie and I don't think I'm the only one who thought so. I know that I brought a few of my buddies who have no idea who Max is, and they LOVED the movie. I think that speaks to its appeal for most of America.
Do I think this is the next big thing? Maybe. I can hope so, for Max's sake.
Either way, I'll watch it again in theaters and watch as the whole place goes up in a roar of laughter like the audience last night."
The next testimonial is from Tom, who used to be in the Rangers but now works for Ranger Up (a tshirt company that makes some cool stuff). Here is what he had to say:
"I was the other guy at the screening and went into it with similar expectations as Doug. I figured a couple of good one liners, a decent strip club scene because of Tucker's obsession with fake tits, a cameo or two, and it'd be ok.It was awesome, flat out kicks ass. Before we started the owners of the place that we held the screening at had told me they were a little concerned because they'd read the site wondered about material and what was going to happen. They (husband and wife) loved it. The guys I work with loved it. The whole crowd loved it.
For those of you idiots out there who are like "he's full of shit, he couldn't have really gotten a 100% from the audience," he's not lying about the number. It did that well with the people last night.
Jessie's performance is amazing, Tucker isn't bullshitting you when he says this movie will be quoted for years.
I'm going to see it again when it hits theaters."
This is a pic from last night (the short, retarded looking guy in the Ranger Up shirt is Tom):
You can see the rest of the pics from last night on the IHTSBIH flickr account.
NOTE: In the interest of full disclosure, I should talk about this. There were 37 people who filled out the survey last night after the screening, and all of them checked "yes" to the "recommend" question, but there was a 38th survey I did not count that checked "no" to that question. Why did I not count that survey? I will quote you exactly what is written on it (I would scan this and input it but I am in a hotel in Fayetteville, NC):
"I didn't see the whole thing, only the last 20 minutes. The ending felt awkward to me because I wasn't familiar enough w/ the character to know his personality or why he was doing the things he was doing."
She didn't fill out any other part of the survey. If you think we should count this--a survey with only 10% filled out because she only saw the ending--then we didn't get 100%. But everyone who ACTUALLY SAW THE MOVIE said they would recommend it.
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At the very earliest the movie will be out in May (and maybe as late as September), but over the next week, I will have some more feedback for all of us. We are doing two different screenings this week with two VERY different audiences, and, aside from the normal quantitative data (which I will post), both audiences will have people in attendance who know me and my friends and whose opinions and aesthetics I trust. And at least some of them will be writing up their thoughts and I will post them here, for all of you to see. Then in January, when I go on a short East Coast book tour, I am going to be screening the movie for a bunch of my real life friends, most importantly, my law school friends upon whom the movie is based (PWJ, GoldenBoy, Jojo, Credit, etc). It will be interesting to see what they think.
Right now we are pretty close to a final cut, and for the record I am starting to become pretty proud of what the movie has turned into. We still have a long way to go to get it theater ready, but I am feeling more and more positive about it after every editing pass.
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I've always found it very humorous how much the show "Entourage" informs the ideas my friends have about how Hollywood works. That film projects just "happen." An actor shows up for a few weeks, the director screams and yells and BAM there's a movie. It's nice that we have this venue to sort of lift up the curtain a little bit on the nuts and bolts process of a movie.
On that note Tucker and Nils have me working on three things at the moment: the first being a sequence in the film that I'm trying to assist them with (inasmuch as I can with 25 seconds of film to offer opinions on); I'm also putting together another screening which actually is more time-intensive than you might imagine; lastly I'm still going through the hundred hours of footage for the eventual DVD release.
I met up with Tucker and Nils at the edit bay to go over all of this and immediately noticed the film has changed in very concrete ways since the last time I saw it. Of particular interest to me was watching Nils bring up his list of "notes" on Google docs. This lengthy list of changes to be made to the film includes notes from Tucker, Nils and even notes from David Zuckerman. The ever changing document at some point down the road would be a superb roadmap to how we found our way to the finished film. It looks something like this (and by "something" I mean that my example pales in comparison):
Tucker: We need to get Drew a better line here- do we have any other takes? Will this affect his exchange later in the film with Tucker?
Nils: We'll ADR in lines later. We don't have any additional takes to work with. Bob doesn't like the lighting.
Tucker: Okay. Do we even need this scene? Is it repetitive?
Nils: Found a better solution. Dropped the line about the strip club and rewrote ADR lines for Jesse to record. Check them out and let me know what you think.
And it goes like this for EVERY scene. The strip club scene alone has pages and pages of exchanges between Nils and Tucker. This sort of high tech collaboration is streamlining the editing process. Online documents, video conferencing, high speed FTPs are changing how films are completed in post production. Big budget, small budget, it doesn't matter. A unit could be shooting in Africa, another in New York and an editor could be uploading a cut for the director to approve in New York. The interconnectivity of the film world is going to really fundamentally change the Hollywood paradigm. Of course, Hollywood adapts about as slowly as is humanly possible, so we'll see.
The conversations in the editing room continue to be interesting to listen to. As the film starts to take shape, many hours are spent considering mere seconds in the film. I watched a scene written as 2 pages be whittled down to 6 seconds of film today. And the film is better for it.
Jeff, Sean and Nils are still pulling 10 hour days in the editing room pouring over every detail. Tucker, in addition to his editorial duties, is setting up a second screening for a completely different demographic than the college-aged kids I'm targeting (I think he's going to write about this after it's over). Not to mention he is setting up all the nontraditional marketing plans (which include this website and the premiere tour the movie will go on), which require months of work to plan, organize and roll out.
To the outsider it may seem like things are slowing down on the film.
We're just getting started.
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We are in the process of (slowly) rolling out the rest of the features for this site, and the first is an email list you can sign up for to get special information about the movie.
If you are reading this blog, you are probably asking yourself why you need to sign up for an email list. Anything we send out to the list, we'll post here too, right?
Yeah, that's true. But there's more to it than that. The email list is not just about putting information out. We plan to build what Seth Godin calls a "Permission Asset." This blog is only the very beginning of what Nils and I intend to be the creation of a large community built around not just this movie, but all the art we produce including the sequels as well, and to an even larger extent, filmmaking.
To that end, we want to identify and reward the fans who spend the most time here, who interact with us the most, and who like our art the most. The email list will be used to offer fans things before they are introduced to the general public, to release things early (like trailers), and to just be cool to the people who like our art.
For example, once we know the release date, we will plan several premieres around the country that fans will be able to attend. They will be really cool; we'll have swag bags, sponsors, and a post-screening Q&A with me, Nils, and some of the cast, shit like that. If you sign up here, then once we finalize plans, we'll send out invites to the people on the list first, before announcing it on the blog.
For those that care, I also have several other project announcements, but I don't want to clutter the movie blog with them, you can read about them at my site.
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