Saturday, April 18, 2015

Comments on the excellent SF WebFest entries

Hi all,

I was one of the judges for the inaugural San Francisco Web Film Festival happening June 5-7 at the New People Cinema in San Francisco, CA. We have completed our judging and the Official Selections have been announced!


A few comments about some of the excellent submissions, and my thoughts on the quality of web series in general.

I judged across 7 different categories for SF WebFest and categories particularly impressive to me were "Emotions" (Drama), "Facts" (Documentaries), and "Kids" (Children's Shows). The quality and production value of the entries were astounding. I found most Dramatic entries had interesting shooting techniques, intriguing storylines, and stellar cinematography. "Whatever, Linda", "The Banks" and "Status" all blew me away.

The Documentaries had a lot of heart and soul, particularly "Street Cuts" and "Dress Up! with George B. Style". George's enthusiasm and dedication made his show a pleasure to watch. "Street Cuts" is a brilliantly executed concept, skillfully edited, and a perfectly structured webisode. This series, in particular, is a shining example of what the democratization of filmmaking and distribution has done -- increasing the ability for artist genius like this to be unleashed in a powerful, moving, and high-quality, bite-size package.

The Children's Programming was also of specific note. The international entries from Canada were easily TV-quality already -- from hilariously intriguing and silly scripts to a comedy series for kids aiming to encourage cooking and baking at home with their parents, entries like "Ruby Skye P.I." and "Ty the Pie Guy" demonstrated how the platform of internet distribution is going to completely alter the landscape of children's programming going forwards.

Thank you to all the organizers of SF Web Fest, and I hope attendees of the festival in June enjoy the entries as much as I did.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

"BATKID BEGINS Is An Awesome Display of Human Decency"

Thank you Screen Invasion for another epic Batkid Begins review!
http://screeninvasion.com/2015/04/batkid-begins-awesome-display-human-decency-diff-2015-movie-review/

Really exciting when people "get it", you can hear the theme "click" at a certain point in some of the reviews like this great one:
"As the film begins to mine this tremendous outpouring of support it takes on an air of poignancy I wasn’t expecting.  Why did this strike a chord with so many people? What about this wish brought so many people together? More importantly, what meaning does this day have for those that participated in it?"
It's so satisfying that people are feeling the meaning of the day, and thinking more deeply about what it represents. This is so cool.

Tuesday, April 07, 2015

'Batkid Begins' June 26, 2015 Theatrical Release Date!!!!!

Just heard from our EP that this is for reals!!!!!!!!! Holy moly.

As The Hollywood Reporter writes: "'Batkid Begins' Doc Gets Prime Summer Release Date" -- couldn't agree more! This is incredible. What a great time for the release and I hope this means lots of families are able to see this brilliantly-crafted Documentary.

I am soooo excited for more folks to get to enjoy Dana and Kurt's truly beautiful film, and to see a whole bunch of behind-the-scenes of many, many, many hardworking people in San Francisco and well beyond putting their heads and hearts together to make a difference in a young boy's life.

The film so perfectly captures the spirit of the "Batkid Day" in San Francisco. It's so epic that more people will experience firsthand how we all felt that day: how much damn fun it is to donate your time and energy to making your local community shine... and how those kinds of selfless community service projects can be a truly powerful inspirational and world-changing force for good.

Kapow!

Press: