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Dear DriverXers,
I am unbelievably thrilled to finally announce that our little movie is going to be released theatrically by none-other than IFC Films!! They will be releasing it through their prestige label Sundance Selects, and it opens in theaters and On Demand beginning November 30th. This is what's known as a Day-And-Date release--it will be released in theaters at the same time it will be available on transactional VOD platforms like Cable VOD (Comcast, DirectTV, AT&T, etc), iTunes, Vudu and others. We don't know all the cities where it will play theatrically yet, but it will definitely open at the IFC Center in New York on November 30th, we know that for sure. It will also open in Los Angeles either that same weekend or the following weekend. I will be back in touch to let you know the other cities when I get that information. Here is the article that appeared in Variety announcing the deal.
Whew, now, let me sit back for a second and reflect on what this all means, out loud. First of all, for IFC Films to take us on is nearly unprecedented for a small, self-financed film like ours. IFC Films is one of the most prominent independent distributors in the business. While they release a lot of films in a year, the quality of their output is extremely high. We are incredibly humbled to be in the same company as their other films. Here's just a few of their recent releases: - Blaze (the new movie directed by Ethan Hawke, currently playing in theaters)
- Tea With Dames (the new documentary starring Maggie Smith & Judi Dench)
- Boyhood (Richard Linklater's Oscar winner)
- The Death Of Stalin (the recent comedy hit by the creator of Veep)
- 45 Years (Oscar nominated film starring cinema legend Charlotte Rampling)
- Let The Sunshine In (The Claire Denis film starring Juliette Binoche)
- The Babadook (the award-winning Australian cult classic horror film)
- Venus In Fur (directed by Roman Polanski)
- Blue Is The Warmest Color (winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes)
- On The Road (based on the Kerouac novel starring Amy Adams & Kristen Stewart)
- And so many more
These films were all made for millions of dollars, produced by multiple production companies. Our film was financed by 5 investors (all friends and family), myself, and 400 Kickstarter Backers. No production company. You reading this--YOU are the reason we're here. If you're on this mailing list, you either worked on the film, donated to the film, came out to support us when we were at film festivals, or heard about us and wanted to join the adventure. We can't thank all of you enough!
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WHAT'S NEXT? JUST SIT BACK AND RELAX??
Uhhh, no. Not even. Now the real work begins. Now our little film has a brief opportunity to shine, but if you know anything about the independent film business, you know that it is incredibly competitive. Not only are there more movies available than ever before, there is more of everything available competing for attention and eyeballs. Peak TV, Netflix, YouTube, etc. For us to break through the noise, it's going to take a group effort. We're going to need all the help we can get. I've personally decided not to sleep for the rest of the year! I might even take up drinking coffee, finally.
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In the coming weeks, we will be working on publicity, planning our opening night premieres in various cities, attacking social media with a vengeance, and doing anything and everything (that a shoestring budget allows) to bring awareness to the film. IFC will soon be finished with their poster and trailer, and I will share those with you as soon as they are done. We'll also be trying to come up with fun promotions, contests, giveaways, etc. (If you have any creative ideas, please send them along!). Patrick and I plan on traveling with the film when and where we can, so we hope to see many of you in the theaters we visit.
Our composer Lili Haydn is putting the finishing touches on a Soundtrack album for the film and Henry is directing a music video (starring Patrick!) that we'll share with you as soon as it's finished.
More than anything, we'll be asking you to help spread the word. This won't be the first time I say this, but for us to reach a broader audience, we'll need to hit the opening weekends hard. We'll need to try to fill the house opening weekend in New York and LA. We'll need to get as many people to pre-buy the film on iTunes as possible, so that the film gets preferential placement on the platform, making it stand out to more people who visit the iTunes store. We'll need to continue to rate and review it on the various platforms. We're up against the studios on this--it's David vs Goliath--and all these things make a huge difference. |
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I'll be back in touch again soon with more information. And if you're a Kickstarter Backer, I will be sending out a bulletin soon with an update on rewards.
Only two months before we're pulling this vehicle up to the theater!
Best,
Mark
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If you've seen DriverX at a recent film festival, please help us out and rate it on IMDB. Means so much to us and could mean the difference between success and failure in the coming months.
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And if you want to get ahead of the curve and show everyone how you discovered DriverX before the crowd, you can review it on IMDB, too! So helpful to us!
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