Help! and: Best Feature Award and Spacing Tie-In

Posted by Jim Munroe – May 27, 2012

Hey Ghosties! Pasted the content of a No Media Kings post below — lots of awesome news. But first, a call for help!:

  • Photographer/videographer? We need someone to document the premiere/afterparty on Wednesday!
  • Ticket taker? We need folks to help facilitate the hundreds (!) of people coming to see our movie. And no worries, you’ll get to see it too!
  • Blu-ray burner? If you know of one we’d love to burn our master on it instead of buying a new unit.

Please email me if you have any leads on the above.

Also, keep in mind that 2/3s of the seats are full at the moment, and I don’t know how quickly tickets at the door are going to go, so to avoid disappointment encourage your pals to pre-order.

Oh, and if you can’t make the movie (for some tragic reason) but want to celebrate after, come to the afterparty at The Monarch (12 Clinton St, upstairs) after 9:30pm on Wednesday.


[Original public post here.] It’s been a wild week! Our Kickstarter ended up raising $20,000 (quadruple what we asked for!) and we got the Best Feature award from the awesome Sci-Fi-London fest. The Grid also just posted a great article on the movie with a bunch of tips from me on low budget filmmaking — the writer really got the spirit of the thing, with phrases like “happiness is the only real currency exchanged on an all-volunteer set.”

Next week of course we have our North American premiere in Toronto. (We’re 2/3s full at this point, so you might want to pre-order tickets.) But the day before that is the party for the new issue of Spacing — the Disaster issue. Spacing is one of my favourite magazines both to read and to write for, and I’m delighted to reveal that I wrote a Ghosts With Shit Jobs-inspired spread in this issue — it’s a tour given by Anton Karrento of Toronto in 2040. Plus, the Karrento Brothers are going to be at the magazine launch party, combing the area for spider silk caches in the nooks and crannies of the Evergreen Brick Works. Spacing parties are always fun and the location’s amazing — come on out!

3 Days Left To Kickstart, Toronto Tickets & Reviews

Posted by Jim Munroe – May 14, 2012

Hey guys! Apologies if you’re getting this multiple times: I’m broadcasting on all frequencies!

There’s three days left on our Kickstarter campaign and it looks like we’ll more than double our original $5000 goal. To give it one last push I just released the new (totally wicked) movie delivery system pictured above today.

After the end of the Kickstarter campaign we won’t be selling the $10 digital download any more. For a good reason, though: we’ve partnered with FilmBuff (owned by Cinetic who distroed Supersize Me and Exit Through the Gift Shop) who’s going to be handling the digital downloads from here on out via places like iTunes and Netflix starting in August or so. So if you want to get the word out to your thrifty pals that they’ve got til Friday at 2pm EST to get a DRM-free version of it straight from us. (Needless to say cast and crew will get a comp copy!)

Of course, you’ll want to encourage all your Toronto pals to pick up tickets online  for the North American premiere in two weeks. If you haven’t already, please add your name to the guestlist. Sorry we can’t do +1s for everybody, but every pre-ordered ticket gets a free No Media Kings book, DVD or t-shirt the night of the show.

Reviews! The Guardian called it “sheer delight“, and Creative Applications said “immensely successful… undoubtedly a cause for celebration“. We also had reviews in Eye For Film, Twitch Film, and ArtThreat.

World Premiere Photos!

Posted by Jim Munroe – May 8, 2012

If you don’t see the pics below or want to share these pics, there’s a slightly edited version for the public over on No Media Kings.

Ghosts With Shit Jobs played yesterday to a sold out crowd in London’s Piccadilly Circus last night. It went really well!

Me, nervously fiddling with my notebook as I wait for the show to begin. (The empty chairs beside me symbolized the cast and crew who couldn’t attend.) As it turned out, I had nothing to be nervous about: lots of big laughs throughout, and two people told me they got teary-eyed at the rewind scene. Great work everyone!


Sci-Fi-London was just an amazing fest for it to have its debut. Here we have programmer Louis Savy introducing the movie with his trademark profane charm. Louis is a real advocate for DIY filmmaking and he and his team have been building a diverse and open-minded science fiction movie audience over the past decade.

Here’s me doing my best to answer the smart questions from the host and the audience.

Even the lobby of the theatre was terrific, a great place to have a drink and chat about the movies.

Off to Berlin today for the next screening, and looking forward to our Toronto debut at the end of the month. If you’re talking to folks not in these towns, there’s still ten days to grab an advance copy for $10 and support our continued theatrical tour.

Thanks to Derek for the pics.

Packing for London

Posted by Jim Munroe – April 30, 2012

Leaving in a few hours! Our London premiere is a week away but apparently it’s already sold out. It got a little mention in The Guardian, too.

Got this interesting looking Toronto event promo from Colin, who does TIFF’s Midnight Madness series, and it looks of interest to folks interested in science fiction and DIY movie making. Know anyone like that?

May 13th – DIY ART AND LIFE: A DAY WITH JOE SWANBERG

Ultra 8 Pictures and CINSSU co-presents DIY Art & Life: A Weekend with Joe Swanberg. Hosted at Innis Town Hall on Sunday May 13th, the event will feature Toronto premiere screenings of the Full Moon trilogy (The Zone, Art History, Silver Bullets) by acclaimed independent director Joe Swanberg, with the director in attendance. A masterclass in DIY filmmaking will follow the third screening.

WHO’S JOE?
Joe Swanberg is an incredibly prolific independent filmmaker who has directed written and directed a dozen feature films since 2005 (Kissing on the Mouth, LOL, Hannah Takes the Stairs, Alexander the Last, Uncle Kent, among others).

Smart, challenging, and fiercely independent, Joe’s films have premiered at the Sundance, Berlin and the SXSW film festivals, and established him as a significant figure in the American cinematic landscape. His DIY approach and intimate filmmaking style have won him both critical acclaim and a loyal fan base. For more information on Joe. visit http://www.joeswanberg.com

Joe Swanberg’s films haven’t played theatrically in Toronto since 2008, when Nights and Weekends was part of the touring Generation DIY festival. He has attended TIFF as an actor in 2010 for the film A Horrible Way To Die and he was also seen in the 2011 TIFF Midnight Madness selection You’re Next, both of which were directed by Adam Wingard, who photographed Swanberg’s Full Moon Trilogy and stars in Art History and The Zone.
SCHEDULE
Sunday May 13th – Innis Town Hall – 2 Sussex Ave, Toronto

4:00pm
ART HISTORY
(74 mins; World Premiere, Berlin International Film Festival)
Tension mounts between a director and his lead actress on the set of a sexually explicit
low-budget film. As the actress and her co-star develop real feelings for each other,
the director’s jealousy erupts and he begins sabotaging his own production.

“Swanberg has been prolific enough to create a precise set of expectations from his work. Art History … satisfies all of them.” – IndieWire

Q&A with Joe Swanberg after the film
6:00pm
THE ZONE
(71 mins; World Premiere – AFI Film Festival)
Larry and Sophia, a young Brooklyn couple, share an apartment with their roommate, Kate. An attractive male visitor arrives and seduces all three of them over the course of a night and the following day. When the visitor disappears as suddenly as he arrived, the delicate balance of the apartment and its inhabitants is disrupted.Q&A with Joe Swanberg after the film

8:00pm
SILVER BULLETS
(70 mins; World Premiere – SXSW Film Festival)
An actress and her filmmaker boyfriend experience turbulence in their relationship when
she accepts a role in a werewolf film. The actress connects with her new director while
her boyfriend spirals into a dangerous depression.

“Silver Bullets is the most affecting “horror” movie I’ve seen in a while, as Swanberg ignores
tired supernatural scare-flick trappings and locates terror in the shadowy,
passive-aggressive process of making, and watching, movies.” – The Village Voice

Extended discussion / masterclass in DIY filmmaking with Joe Swanberg
moderated by Jason Anderson (The Grid, The Toronto Star) following the film.
• Individual tickets for ART HISTORY & THE ZONE are $8
• Individual tickets for SILVER BULLETS are $12
• ALL DAY PASSES are $25
Tickets available here: http://joeswanbergtoronto.eventbrite.com/

 

 

Toast Our Kickstarter Success at Tonight’s Meetup

Posted by Jim Munroe – April 25, 2012

Our Kickstarter hit its goal in three days! If you helped spread the word, nice work! If you had a lot going on last week, no sweat — still lots of promo to do.

Come on by the Rhino in Parkdale between 8-10pm tonight (Wednesday), grab a stack of our newly printed promo, and raise a glass to a campaign well begun. If you can’t make it, just let me know and we’ll arrange to get you some. Business card sized, they’re perfect for handing off to people you meet who want to know what you’ve been up to lately, or leaving in spots as little intrigue bombs. (“GhostsWithWhatnow?”)

Some people have asked about advance tickets for our Toronto premiere: please let folks know they can now buy tickets here. If you’re getting this email you’ve got a free ticket of course: a small thank you for coming with us on this crazy ride. We just ask that you register for the guest list in the next two weeks so we know how many tickets we can sell.

Of course, we’re still taking pledges on the Kickstarter page until May 18th — it’s a great way for people who can’t come to the screening to support us, and to get a copy of the movie in June to boot!

Can you Help Kickstart GHOSTS to the Toronto Screening?

Posted by Jim Munroe – April 18, 2012

It’s GO time, Ghosties! We’re starting our promotional push with a one-month Kickstarter campaign. For as little as $10, people can score a digital download of the entire feature directly from us, but only for the next month. Once a week for the next four weeks I’m going to be suggesting ways that you could help get this crazy movie you helped make happen out into the world.

This week, could you point people directly to http://kck.st/I6uOXa in an email and let them know about it? In addition, on that page beneath the video there are ways to Facebook Like it and Tweet it — that would be terrific. The early days of a campaign are really important. We have worked hard to get across the most interesting stuff about the movie without being total hucksters.

Next week, Wednesday April the 25th, most of the producers are meeting in person at the Rhino in Parkdale at 8pm. I will have the GHOSTS promo piece fresh from the printer with the London/Berlin/Toronto screening dates etc on them. If you can take a few to hand out to people you meet, that’s great, and if you can spend an hour dropping small stacks in cafes and such places in your neighbourhood then even better. If you want to help out but can’t make the date let me know and we’ll arrange something.

And yes, we do finally have a date for the Toronto screening: Wed. May 30th, 7pm at the Royal on College St. W. If you don’t know it, it’s a lovely cinema with amazing audiovisual. I announced it mere minutes ago along with the London and Berlin screenings.

If you need assurance that the final product is in fact worthy of your continued support, you need to watch the first 20 minutes: we have just added the terrific Human Spam introduction.

And as always, if you have suggestions or comments feel free to email me directly.

Kickstarter Preview and Berlin Screening Added

Posted by Jim Munroe – April 6, 2012

Above is our new poster art, more suitable for screen dimensions.

Tomorrow we’re a mere month away from our London world premiere. I’ve also booked a Berlin screening on May 10th at Moviemento, Germany’s oldest cinema. Hopefully I’ll be able to let you guys know about Toronto soon, talking to a couple of theatres but don’t have a date nailed down yet.

You can preview our Kickstarter campaign here! Please do not send this link around, as it’s not live yet. Soon, though. Soooooooon. If you had any feedback over the next few days, I’d love to hear it.

No Resting on Our Laurels

Posted by Jim Munroe – March 27, 2012

London, England is just the beginning! We’re planning a Kickstarter campaign to raise $5000 to tour the movie to a bunch of different cities. If you’d be into giving feedback on our video pitch, let me know and I’ll send you the link for the latest iteration.

Sci-Fi-London has updated their site and GHOSTS has a page now. Some of the best science fiction is coming out of the UK these days: I just watched Moon, directed by David Bowie’s son, and thought it was terrific. The TV show Misfits completely redeemed the dramedy genre for me. The third ep of Black Mirror had me writhing in ecstasy and jealousy simultaneously — pretty much perfect SF, by my estimation.

Celtx, the open source screenwriting program I wrote GHOSTS on, is funding short videos — we got $2000 the last time they did it, so you know they have good taste! No fee to apply, check out the deets here!

Need some music for your movies? Sean (Oscar the digital janitor) let me know his brother Mike Lerner is looking for composing work — check out his music here and get in touch.

World Premiere at Sci-Fi-London

Posted by Jim Munroe – March 13, 2012

Great news, guys! Ghosts With Shit Jobs was accepted to Sci-Fi-London, a great-looking fest in the UK, and will be screening there the first week of May.

Festival director Louis Savy said he “Loved it… very funny, sweet, sad and political all wrapped up together…”

I’m planning to go over for most of it to check out some of the other movies they’re screening (check out the trailers here) and to introduce GHOSTS.

We’re prepping a promo campaign to tie in with it and we’ll be launching the Human Spam introduction then.

Karrrrento Brothers!

Posted by Jim Munroe – January 10, 2012

The intro to the Silk Gatherers segment is up!