Given the nature of the movie, I expected we'd get a midnight Saturday screening, which was fine with me. So I was a little surprised when Erik Jambor, director of the Sidewalk festival, called me up and asked if he could kick off the festival with HIDE AND CREEP at a special Thursday night prime time screening.

My first question was, "don't you want to see the rest of it?" See, Erik had been curious about HIDE AND CREEP from the time we went into production. He kept asking when he could see it, and I kept telling him there wasn't anything to see. Finally, I finished a rough cut of the first half of the movie and showed it to him. Apparently, he liked it enough to trust that the movie wouldn't completely fall apart during the second half. At the time, I think he had more confidence in HIDE AND CREEP than I did.

Remember last time, when I said that this column is one of the best things to happen to HIDE AND CREEP? The Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival is the other.

Getting a movie screened at any festival will give the flick a publicity boost. But the folks running Sidewalk were excited to be screening two locally-produced features (HIDE AND CREEP and ALICE'S MISADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND) and kind of turned that into the "big story" of the festival. Not many people in Birmingham knew about HIDE AND CREEP, but lots of them knew about Sidewalk. And the Sidewalk folks were quick to remind them, "The festival starts a day early this year, with HIDE AND CREEP on Thursday."

Sidewalk is the best film festival in the world (sorry, Sundance). If you live in or near Birmingham and are at all interested in independent film, I'd encourage you to check it out. And if you're a filmmaker, no matter where you live, I'd encourage you to check out your local film festivals and make an effort to meet the folks who manage them. If they're anything like the Sidewalk folks, they'll be exited to meet a local filmmaker, and they'll help you out any way they can.

If the staff of your local festival proves neither excited nor helpful... you can always move to Birmingham.

IMDb, Please

I'm an Internet Movie Database junkie. The IMDb, as it's usually abbreviated, is packed with an amazing amount of film and television-related information, from the obvious (who played "Indiana Jones" in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK?) to the obscure (who directed the 1978 STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL?).

Aside from being a great reference tool, the IMDb is a nice promotional tool. If people see a movie listed on the IMDb, they assume it's legitimate, a "real movie."

The first time I tried to get HIDE AND CREEP listed on the IMDb, my application was rejected because HIDE AND CREEP hadn't screened publicly anywhere. Until a movie screens in public, the IMDb considers it a "home movie" and not worthy of a listing. The IMDb gatekeepers look for a corroborating web site when it comes to listing most smaller movies, something like a movie theatre site, a retail site (for home video releases) or, in our case, a film festival site. HIDE AND CREEP got in when I applied for the second time, after it was listed on the screening schedule at the Sidewalk fest site.

Black and White

Another side effect of our Sidewalk slot was press coverage. During the build-up to the HIDE AND CREEP premiere, I did just enough interviews to realize I was woefully unprepared to do interviews. As usual, it was a "learn as you go" process.

For print interviews, rambling is not only allowed, it is often encouraged. I found newspaper journalists often like to ask really open-ended questions and then just watch while you talk and talk and talk. The more I talk the more likely I am to say something stupid, so print interviews are a dangerous situation for me. Luckily, not much of my stupidity has made it to the printed page yet.

Some sub-par behind-the-scenes photos from HIDE AND CREEP have made it to the page, unfortunately. Newspapers and magazines love pictures, but they want them in high resolution. HIDE AND CREEP was shot on Super 16mm, a high resolution format, but all the footage we had access to from the movie had been converted to video, which has less than a quarter (72 dots per inch vs. 300 dots per inch) of the resolution preferred by print people.

While we were shooting HIDE AND CREEP, co-producer Stacey Sessions took quite a few 35mm stills of the crew working between takes. I now know that we should have had her shooting the actors during takes from near the movie camera. Or we could have at least got some stills of rehearsal takes.

Those sub-par pictures weren't Stacey's fault. We had plenty of good 35mm stills, we just never could seem to find any when a newspaper asked for them. There was also the strange case of a not-so-great still printed in THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS. I have no idea how they got that one. I guess even on small productions, you have to watch out for press leaks.

Another option for getting high resolution stills from movies shot on film is to have the lab scan selected frames, but this can be pretty pricey (hundreds of dollars for 10 scans). I've been meaning to try scanning some 16mm frames using the 35mm negative scanner on co-director Chuck Hartsell's computer but haven't found the time. It probably goes without saying that you should be careful when handling film negatives to protect them from dust and dirt.

On Air

For radio and television interviews, rambling is not allowed. In my limited experience with over-the-air media, an interview is over before you really register that it's started. The interviewer already has questions in mind, and, if you're slow getting an answer out, he might go ahead and jump to his next query.

I think the best way to handle radio and television interviews is to have a bunch of short "sound bites" prepared. You know, like the politicians do. Believe it or not, you'll get asked the same questions over and over:

• "Why did you want to make a movie about [theme of your movie]?"
• "How do you think the premiere will go?"
• "What did you learn from making this movie?"
• "What's the best thing about making a movie in [place you shot the movie]?"

For more examples, watch those short interviews with movie stars they do on CNN Headline News. Even if you're not as famous as Brad Pitt, you'll get similar, if not the same, questions he does. Of course, there's always a curve ball or two in any interview. At that point, you'll just have demonstrate your quick wit. Or be embarrassed.

As the print guys love photos, the TV guys love video. So why not cut together a short trailer for your movie? Working on a trailer can be fun because of the instant gratification factor -- you can get a trailer cut together before you even finish shooting the movie. You can also put trailers on your web site to give people a sneak peek at your flick. You might even find someone to review your trailer. Christopher Stipp, for example, writes a great MOVIE POOP SHOOT column about film trailers.

If you want a trailer to be useful for television interviews, keep it as visual as possible. Often, they'll show bits of the trailer without sound while you and the interviewer talk off-screen.

Public Relations

We are fortunate to have HIDE AND CREEP associated with our local film festival. Our local film festival is fortunate to have Kelly Marshall handling public relations.

A good PR person like Kelly usually has a relationship of some sort with various media outlets and can get their attention a little more easily than the average joe. I mention this because, even if you have a movie that's not yet affiliated with a festival, that doesn't mean you can't hire a PR person anyway. Better yet, if you can find a PR person who believes in your film, you might even get them to help promote your project pro bono.

I think our efforts to get HIDE AND CREEP noticed are starting to pay off. Two reviews have recently shown up online: one at HORRORCHANNEL.COM and one at CHUD.COM (you'll have to scroll down a bit to read the CHUD review). Both reviews are, thankfully, positive.

I'll be back on December 23 with something a little different -- some last-minute Christmas gift ideas for that special filmmaker in your life. Then, in the first "This Movie..." column of 2005, we'll see what we can do to get our movie reviewed, into film festivals and onto store shelves. And maybe even into a theatre near you.

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