THE NARROW ROAD finally has a page on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com)! Click here to check it out. For some reason Doug Jones and a few other team members were left out, but that should be corrected soon. Visit the IMDb page regularly to check for official updates–and of course you can always find the latest information here on this blog.
Article: New Adaptation of Pilgrim’s Progress
Hey everyone,
Please check out this article about THE NARROW ROAD by Evan Derrick at Beliefnet. Thanks for helping to spread the word about our Kickstarter campaign, Evan!
-The NRFP Team
KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN!!
Hey NARROW ROAD fans and supporters!
We’re announcing a great new way to support our project! We’ve just launched a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter.com, a great fundraising platform for creative projects like ours. Our goal is to raise at least $7,500 to shoot a test scene from the feature film script. Our stars, Anthony Tyler Quinn and Doug Jones, are behind us 100% and shot a quick video for the Kickstarter page to ask for your help. Please consider contributing any amount that you can, and check out the great incentives we’re offering to thank you for your generosity.
Here’s how you can help:
1.) Check out our Kickstarter page.
2.) Watch Anthony and Doug’s video.
3.) Take a look at the incentives being offered.
4.) Consider making a donation if you’re able to!
5.) Please spread the word by any means possible (word-of-mouth, Facebook, email, Twitter, blog–whatever!).
We can’t do this without you. Thanks in advance for your support!!
-The NRFP Team
LEAD ROLE CAST!!!
The Narrow Road team is thrilled to announce that Anthony Tyler Quinn has agreed to terms to star in The Narrow Road’s leading role, CHRISTIAN.
Mr. Quinn brings a wealth of experience to The Narrow Road, having a prominent film and television career spanning more than three decades and being featured in roles on hit shows such as Boy Meets World, Melrose Place, Party of Five, and recent hit series such as House M.D., The Mentalist, and Cold Case, to name a few.
Mr. Quinn also recently starred as the lead in the nationally distributed Christian independent feature film, No Greater Love, and will appear in the upcoming feature films, A Christmas Snow and Greyscale.
Mr. Quinn will be joining our cast alongside fantasy film legend, Doug Jones, who enthusiastically signed on to the project in late 2009 after reading The Narrow Road script feeling a connection to the prominent supporting character, JOHN. Mr. Jones has appeared in more than 60 films and television shows including Pan’s Labyrinth, the Hellboy movies, and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
John Concept
Jayaraj Paul (our graphic novel artist) sent us this concept of the character JOHN today. This is the role that Doug Jones will be playing. Enjoy!
Day Three in Los Angeles
From Erik:
No meetings today, although it was the official start of the conference for those of us with “half-market” badges. I attended a first-timers orientation in the morning (with my new friend and forum buddy, Allen) and picked up tons of material to help me zone in on which people we should set meetings with.
I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning updating our print material to include our new star, DOUG JONES, and headed over to the fine folks at FedEx Business to print lobby cards (basically large marketing post cards, as recommended by Bill Whitacre), updated Production Financial Offerings, and even a handful of scripts. I don’t know what I’ll need over the next few days, but now I’m prepared.
Tomorrow should be another busy day as I move through my list of target executives and attempt to schedule meetings for the rest of the week. I already know that Sunny and I have two BIG meetings awaiting confirmation, which could even lead to the attachment of ANOTHER STAR! We need more meetings though, so I better get to it.
Sunny has a Genre Writing seminar tomorrow put on by the Writers Guild of America, so I’ll try to get his thoughts and post them for you guys on tomorrow’s blog. Thanks for reading!
Day Two in Los Angeles
From Erik:
Well, Day Two was definitely slower than Day One but still very productive. Sunny and I attended the Pitch Me! seminar and got to hear about a dozen groups of filmmakers practice their project pitches on stage and get a FREE critique…in front of everyone. It was great fun and a great way to see what works and what doesn’t when speaking with potential investors, production partners, distributors, etc.
Basically, what I walked away with was that pitching is common sense (which is easy to overlook when you’re nervous…think job interview where you almost feel like you’re interviewing yourself). Here are my thoughts and observations about pitching:
-Know your material (after all, it’s your project) but be able to explain it quickly and concisely.
-DON’T sound too rehearsed!!! This is a double negative because: 1.) it sounds like a canned speech that you’ve given a hundred times…almost door-to-door salesman-like, and, 2.) you’re more likely to rush through the pitch, delivering your “lines” too quickly to be understood.
-Remember that movie executives are just people too. Explain your project like you would to anyone else who is not involved, like your mom, friends, or the neighbor kid that you want to impress. If you try to cover too many bases at once, you’ll confuse people and they’ll lose interest in the project.
And my personal advice…
People like to say that you’ll only ever get ONE chance to meet with an important executive. I think that this is crap if you treat people (all people) fairly and respectfully. Sure, you may be able to pitch them each project only once, but what about your next project? If they like you, they’ll be willing to meet with you again and again and again until, maybe one day, you pitch them a project that they’re looking for. Keep your foot in the door, take a genuine interest in the people on the other side of the table, and help when you can without expecting an immediate return.
More Meetings
A high point of the day was getting to meet some forum buddies from my favorite Christian Filmmakers forum. Sunny and I got to meet Allen and Calix, and had lunch with Calix. It’s great getting to meet people face to face that I know only through the Web. They are both working on selling exciting finished (or nearly finished) projects here at AFM, including my friend Ryan Dunlap’s neo-noir thriller film, Greyscale, now in the final stages of post production. (Ryan Dunlap is also the guy who helped our meeting with Doug Jones happen, and he is also being STRONGLY considered for a supporting role in The Narrow Road.)
Now I’m off to update all of our print material (that I spent days and days perfecting) to include our NEW STAR, Doug Jones. Worth it. Luckily I’ve procrastinated on getting the printing done so I don’t have a stack of unusable lobby cards and handouts…
Check back tomorrow for the next update. Thanks everyone!!!
Day One in Los Angeles
From Erik:
Well, I’ve been in the City of Angels less than 24 hours but it’s been a productive day! The morning started with the AFM Finance Conference, which was actually a series of two panel discussions: Current State of the Independent Film Industry and Foreign Investment: A Growing Source of Film Financing.
Current State of the Independent Film Industry
Honestly, this first seminar was a bit of a letdown, though reaffirming. Don’t get me wrong, the information was great, just nothing new. Focusing on the film industry while getting my MBA introduced me to all of the material that was discussed today. I was just hoping to get deeper insight from some of the top minds in independent film finance. However, like I said, it was certainly reaffirming for me to see that my understanding of the industry is accurate rather than purely academic.
Here are some noteworthy points from this panel discussion:
-Digital distribution shouldn’t be seen as a threat to the industry but as an opportunity for expansion. Figure out how to monetize the next generation delivery platform.
-This economic climate is a much needed film industry house cleaning that has “[cleared] out the suckers” (Modi Wiczyk, Co – Chief Executive Officer, Media Rights Capital).
-The traditional studio habit of getting rich at the expense of investors is a tired and dying model. “Construct products at a price that makes sense” (Wiczyk) and focus on returning a profit to investors (duh). Profit margins within the studio system have been shrinking…this trend is reversing.
-Banks still have money to lend to viable projects; there are just fewer banks in the game now.
Foreign Investment: A Growing Source of Film Financing
Honestly, this panel discussion was essentially a repeat of the first discussion with a new panel of experts. The information was equally insightful, but nothing new. They didn’t discuss foreign investing in much depth except to say pretty generally: emerging markets (such as India and China) are bringing new money to the table, when seeking foreign investment money relationships are key, etc.
Admittedly, I did leave the panel discussion about 15 minutes early to make another appointment, so maybe it got more interesting in the last 1/4 hour…?
All-in-all, the Finance Conference was worth the money spent to attend…if only they were giving away money…
And now, for the MAIN event…our first MOVIE STAR!!!
A Meeting with Doug Jones
Hands down, the highlight of my day was getting to meet THE Doug Jones! Don’t get me wrong, it was great getting to meet with Sunny face-to-face for the first time since High School (let’s just say it’s been over a decade for those counting), but come on, it’s DOUG JONES. Doug’s credits include: Pan’s Labyrinth, the Hellboy movies, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Adaptation, Men in Black II…the list goes on and on and on.
Doug read the script and loved it (a HUGE complement!) and, schedule permitting, would LOVE to play the role of JOHN!!! We’re thrilled that he has decided to become a part of this ever-growing project and can’t wait so spend more time with Doug, who is probably the warmest, most cordial person I have ever met!
Since I was too dumb to take a photo of Doug today and I’m not sure which pictures I’m allowed to pull from the web, just click on this link to Doug’s official site and have a look around.
Not that any news could really top this new addition to our team, but we’re going to try before the week is out! We’re planning another meeting to hopefully rope in another star for our lead role. We’ll keep you posted.
Check back tomorrow when I’ll be blogging about the Pitch Me! and Produce and Sell Your Film seminars. Thanks!
(By the way, thanks Ryan Dunlap for helping with the introduction!)
The Narrow Road Film Partners Blog 