Home of Egofest

No, Egofest isn’t near a big city (Minneapolis is almost 2 hours away), and the lakes won’t be thawed out by the time the first film starts rolling, but there’s still plenty to draw folks to EgoFest this year. 

#1 – GREAT SHORT FILMS. At other film fests, short films are usually wedged in before or after feature films. Egofest focuses solely on movies that are 40 min or less. Out of the 34 films being screened this year, almost half are 10 min or less. This year’s shortest film is LIGHT by Lee Bishop (2min, 33sec); the longest of the shorts is Jim Vendiola‘s DRIFT (about 33min). See the full schedule here.

#2 – GREAT AUDIENCE. At Egofest you’ll find college kids, grandparents, and everyone in between.  Some show up only for the block of films that strikes their fancy; others stick it out for the long haul, hanging out for Saturday’s  11-hr shorts-o-rama.

2010 EgoFest attendees carbing up for the final block

#3 – FAB FILM FOLKS! This year we have it on good authority that the following film folks may be attending:

• Dave Feiferis (The Wardrobe)
• Lucas McNelly (The “Year Without Rent” Project)
• Isaac Overland (Black December) – BTW, Isaac was the youngest person with a film at Egofest last year; will he keep the title in 2011?)
• Jennifer Peepas (The Wardrobe)
• Ethan Seneker (Alone)
• Phil Seneker (A Musing & Missing Elizabeth)
• David Spies (A Musing)
• Jake Stetler (NO SANCTUARY)
• Rick Vaicius (Flyway Film Festival)
• Jim Vendiola (DRIFT)
• James Vogel (RECREATION)
• Jeremy Wilker (My Name is McNamara)
• Jorge Sosa (Empty Trash) Which has TILT leading man Wade Dienert in it!
• Mario Contreras (Bisnieta & Glassmaker)
• Jennifer Prettyman (Roadside Assistance & Masquerade)
• Roy C. Booth (The Day Lufberry Won it All)
• Stephen Gurewitz (Friday Night)
• And more! If you’re headed to EgoFest and not on this list, let us know in the comments!

TIME FOR TILT

#4 – TILT STUFF! On Friday night those in attendance will get a sneak peek of some scenes from TILT.  Phil, along with TILT writers/producers Julie & Jessica and cinematographer/editor Jeremy Doyle will be there, as well as many of the cast members (Dani West, Laura Busch, Janet Fogg, Dave Vieths, and more) and crew members (everyone from Brainerd, yo!)

And RAISE YOUR GLASS: Brainerd Lakes Beer Company is unveiling their TILTed T-Ale! It’ll be available at Egofest on Friday, March 18the and then to the general public (in the Brainerd Lakes area) on Monday, March 21st.

So…who’s in?

Travis, Jess & Phil

Last summer Phil, Julie & Jessica helped out on the set of Travis Legge‘s  indie horror flick ‘Raymond Did It.’  Now Travis is gearing up for the world premiere in his hometown of Rockford, IL, on Friday, February 11th.

In ‘Raymond Did It’, developmentally delayed Raymond is blamed for the accidental death of his brother in a playground scuffle. Those involved figure it’s better for Raymond to be sent to a mental institution for a few years than for any of them go to prison. What they never could have anticipated: Raymond’s thirst for revenge.

Horror Movies & Stuff gave RAYMOND 3 out of 4 stars, and Twisted Central said: “This is not your typical indie horror cast. Lindsay Felton from VH1’s Scream Queens plays Tammy, who was Raymond’s only friend and the only one who had any remorse whatsoever about Bryce’s death. Also from Scream Queens, Jessica Palette appears as Jayme, and horror veteran Elissa Dowling stars as the manipulative Paige.”

Tickets for RAYMOND’s Rockford premiere and other upcoming screenings can be found here.
For blogs, pics, and video from our trip to the RAYMOND set, go here.

Knock ‘em dead, Travis!

I found coasters…

…a One Eyed Pike t-shirt…

…some beer…

…and then this….

That’s right!  Our very own beer!!  Brainerd Lakes Beer is brewing up a Special Edition batch named TILTED T-ALE.  Jesse and his co-horts are getting everything ready to go right now so that it will be ready for the preview screening of TILT on March 18th.

Jesse said the batch will make a few kegs and about 1500 20oz bottles.  This is, of course, a limited edition thing, so we’re really excited about it!  We’re working on a way for people to pre-order from a local Brainerd-area liquor store so that a TILTed T-Ale (or 6) are waiting for them when they arrive in Brainerd in March for the TILT screening and Egofest. You know – just in case they want to get some as a “collectible.” (Who am I kidding, right, Nathan?)

So, thanks again to Brainerd Lakes Beer.  And please go check out their website and if you think this is as cool as we do, give them a “like” on facebook, too.

Janet Fogg w/ DP Jeremy Doyle on the set of TILT

So who is Betty? In TILT, Betty is a store clerk with a bit of an attitude.  We only spend a little time with her in TILT, but we wanted to give you a sneak peek into what makes her tick.  In real life, Betty is Janet Fogg, a Minneapolis-based actress who is as sweet as Betty is sour.

TILT Short #1: Betty

Starring Janet Fogg

Directed by Phil Holbrook

Written by Jessica King & Julie Keck

Cinematography by Jeremy Doyle

Edited by Jessica King

Other assistance provided by TILT backer Nate Phillipps

WHO’S READY FOR MORE TILT SHORTS?

It's time to celebrate, TILTtheTown!

All of the TILTtheTown bios = FINISHED! Hooray!

TILTtheBeginning: When Jessica came up with this idea last year (WAY before we started our Kickstarter campaign), we thought it would be fun (it was) and we thought it would be a great way to draw friends and fans to the project (it was.) One thing the two of us didn’t realize: how much time it would take to complete. TILTtheTown bios have been on our to-do list for a full 5 months, and it’s bittersweet to cross this task off the list. The TILTtheTown characters (like the backers they were crafted for) have become a big part of our lives.

We love our backers, like the real Maria Rossi (Backer #63) and her TtheT alter ego, a recycling buff and an 8-yr old mayoral candidate

TILTtheWork: We knew TILTtheTown would be a lot of work, and that was okay with us. Part of the reason we did it was that we knew we had the creativity (free) and the time (double free), and free sounds really good when you’re trying to make a movie. For each bio Jess and I drew inspiration from what we knew about the backer (if they were a friend or family member), what we could find about them online (if they’d provided a website), or, as a last resort, from their name.

TILTtheNumbers:

• # of TILT backers who live in TILTtheTown: 199 (not counting spouses, kids, pets, etc.)
• # of non-backer crew/characters who live in TILTtheTown: 20+
• # of businesses (fake and real) in TILTtheTown: 30+
• # of pages in TILTtheTown’s Pages document: 110
• # of hours spent working on TILTtheTown: uncountable (or, rather, uncounted)
  

TILTtheTimeCommitment: TILTtheTown probably wouldn’t have taken so long to complete if we’d kept the bios shorter, hadn’t spent so much time connecting the stories, and hadn’t fussed over making them as fanciful as possible. However, we really wanted to give our backers something special for believing in our project, and we would absolutely do it again. Eventually.

TILTtheStories: Each backer has his/her own story. Many have their own businesses. As we crafted the stories, themes emerged. TILTtheTown holds a lot of people who have traveled a lot and then settled in TILTtheTown, as well as many people who were born in TILTtheTown and never stepped out of it a day in their lives.  Many started their adult lives planning to be one thing, but then followed their dreams and became another. Some have their heads in the clouds; some only look down at their feet. And they’re all connected to one another.

After a few typos, Julie wrote backer Michele Simmons' twitter handle on her arm to make connecting Michele to others easier.

TILTtheConnections: Almost every bio in TILTtheTown is connected to 3 – 6 other bios. If you view the storybook version of TILTtheTown, you can jump from bio to bio to see how people are linked. The storybook is a PDF version of the stories from the town with hyperlinks that link backers to other backers. Those who contributed early in the campaign tend to be connected to more people because they were around longer. There are romances. There are business owners and employees. There are rivals and allies. But mostly…there’s a lot of fun.

TILTtheBackers: Within each bio, we provide links to each backer’s website / Twitterfeed, if that information was provided when they signed up on Kickstarter. We also added links to the Twitterfeeds of those mentioned within each bio, as available. We wanted to promote our backers as a way of thanking them for their support. We also wanted them to be able to find each other to play, if desired.

One set of TILTtheTown rivals (TILTtheTown mayor Paul Barrett and TILTtheTown HOA president Justin Hedges) waged a fake and playful war on Twitter over gnome use in our imaginary village that resulted in a real life talk about working together, and now Paul has optioned a script by Justin. Talk about connecting…

What we’re REALLY love to see is a TILTtheTown-inspired love affair. Maybe in its next incarnation…

Even while working on TILTtheTown, we were playing.

So what’s next?

• TILT Livestream Holiday Extravaganza on Sunday, December 19th, at 3pm CST (right after Film Courage). Join us for TILT updates, a live chat, a few surprises, and some virtual eggnog. Details here: http://www.facebook.com/tiltthemovie
• TILT Storybook Update. Right now you can check out the first 170 backers; by the end of next week, we’ll have added the final 50.

Thank you to all of our amazing backers. We hope you like your bios. If you have a moment, tell us what YOU think about TILTtheTown!

I wonder where she’ll show up next.  More importantly, I wonder what she’ll be wearing.

If you weren’t there, see what you missed.

We heart good poster art!

Hmm. I wonder if TILT will screen here?

Director Jim Vendiola in foregroud, actor Dan Bolden background

Julie and Andy scope the crowd

That's either a "D" for Drift or a "B" for Bozo.

Huge thanks to Nate and Sarah for sharing their talents. And just for the record…

Julie remembers only a nice, civilized photo shoot, none of that crazy "piggy back ride" mumbo-jumbo.

Oh...she was tired. But still strong.

Do you have a story about YOUR brush with TILT? Then spill it!

Big thanks to our test subjects Bill Elverman, Sheri Candler, Jake Stetler, Gary King, Susie King, everyone else at the Flyway Film Fest Backer Party, and Rick Vaicius & Flyway Film Fest for putting their trust in us and debuting the trailer. What a fun night!

• Sunday, September 26th, 3am: TILT production = wrapped
• Monday, September 27th, 7am: Phil and Jeremy start transcoding, pro-res-ing, and sound syncing footage
• Early Oct, stolen moments: Phil and Jeremy work their trailer magic; rough cut makes Jessica cry…
• Friday, Oct 22nd, Sneaky O’Clock: Director Gary King finagles a peek at the TILT teaser trailer. (We’re still trying to figure out if we can bring official charges against him.)
• Friday, Oct 22nd, PM: TILT teaser trailer officially unveiled at a special Flyway Film Festival event.
• Sunday, Oct 24th, First Thing in the AM: A private link to the trailer is sent to our 223 amazing TILT Kickstarter backers.
• Sunday, Oct 24th, 2 seconds after First Thing in the AM: The trailer is leaked to the whole world. Sweet.

What did YOU think?