Director's Blog

One year ago today!

2012-02-16T14:52:00.000-08:00

Hello Dancers,

Can you believe it? One year ago today was our first day of shooting Dancing....! Steakburger; the snow! Wow! Time sure flies! and we've accomplished so much. Thank you all for this amazing experience. In my long career, I've never enjoyed working with , or have been prouder of every one of you! I hope to see you all at the Kiggins for our one week run March 2-4,7-8. I'll be doing Q&A each show and If you could come out and support the show by signing autographs etc. I would be most grateful. Most importantly though is I need you to spread the word and get the house as full as we can each night so we can some of the big bills we still have. I know I can count on you! You've been amazing in support since day One! Also, posters, DVDs, T-shirts, DVDs and photos of the Red Carpet event at the Kiggins Premiere will be available for order. Also, If anyone can help selling this stuff at the theater that will be super as the theater staff will have their hands full with the regular concessions. Dancing... will be at the Cannes Film Fest/Market with our wonderful distributor Breakthrough Entertainment! Marina Cordoni and the crew at BE have been just wonderful to us! We are looking to get a distribution commitment from them for MR which will help funding and top-of-show casting. Since MR will be benefiting children's Leukemia research our picture will be making a positive impact on our society. We are now in Development stage for "Michael's Ride". Pre-production will start May 1st and 1st day of production should be June 5th for six weeks (5 day weeks, Sun-Mon off). End Principal Photography on July 14th. With Tara on board as Line Producer/UPM/Post Prod Supervisor we might even be able to make it back to NYCIFF with a film. Marleah and I have to go back to NYCIFF as speakers but I'd rather have MR in the competition as well!

We should be casting Top of Show starting now with supporting cast readings beginning in April. Nicole McCullough will be returning in the starring lead as Katie. More fun to come,

Sandy

Dancing into 2012

2012-01-11T15:57:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that three months have passed since my last update! So much has happened for us and it's all good.
First, to catch up, the Gig Harbor and Tacoma fests were fun and brought us critical acclaim but no awards. D.O.T.E. was also invited to the Lucerne, Switzerland festival and had a favorable screening there. We couldn't afford to attend but fortunately, Victoria and I have some dear friends there that rep'ed it for us. Many thanks to Victoria and Terri Derringer (Alisa's step-grandmother) for translating our marketing materials into German for Lucerne.
But the big event was the American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica,CA in November. This is arguably the premiere film market in the world where most of the world's exhibitioners come to buy programming. Even though we were offered a distribution deal by Breakthrough Entertainment of Toronto at the New York festival, we wanted to get into the deep water and see what interest we could generate and to find a distributor that could also give us a pre-distribution deal on the next project "Michael's Ride" and facilitate a co production deal for it as well. Our strategy proved to be a good one as we created quite a buzz among the attendees which brought many rewards as I'll get to in a minute. The one disappointment was that no one was giving up front advances on sales which will mean we will have to hang on and tighten our belts for awhile until net profit's start to materialize. The interest came down to two distrib's, a near mini-major and the smaller Breakthrough Entertainment that had approached us in NYC. The 'big guy' wanted to package us with his other films with Oscar winner's and stars galore, which, on it's face, seemed like a dream chance. But they wanted a $100K expense cap-unverified and would have all our art work redone above the marketing expenses which we would also be billed for. Tom and I just felt that we weren't comfortable with that extreme un-verified expense cap, and our film just didn't fit the package we would be in.
BE, on the other hand, really liked and believed in Dancing.. and the script for MR and offered to distribute it as well. There was our pre-distribution deal we were seeking. Their verified expense cap was $10K (normal). The have had an on-going sales relationship with ABC-TV where D.O.T.E. was originally designed to go. And finally, BE offered a 25/75% revenue split favoring us which is very generous. And the vision we saw for the film's distribution expectations agreed as well. The result of all this is we signed a world-wide distribution deal with Breakthrough Entertainment.
Now we have the task of getting to them all the 'deliverables', the paper work, publicity and marketing materials (which they loved and will use as-is saving us a ton of expense!), and all the individual technical data tracks that contain the sound and picture, and effects, off to them. This is not cheap. About $20,000 which we will have to come up with but they are happy to work with us in finding a way to make this happen and I'm sure we will. Each day that goes by, Tom and I grow more happy that we made our deal with BE, as they really do believe in our film. We have ordered 1000 copies of the film for our cast, crew, and investors and to sell to defray this cost so if you are one of the aforementioned and haven't received your copy call me. The rest are for sale at $20 each. There are also various posters and t-shirts available. It is expected that DOTE will be seen on TV in North America and world-wide. The lack of recognizable stars make a major theatrical release un-likely.
November also brought two more awards from the Best Actor's (in a) Film Festival in San Francisco; Best Director for me and Best Actor for Nicole McCullough; the two top prizes of the fest! That brings our grand total to 13 awards. I can't tell you just how much of an amazing accomplishment that is! I'm so proud of every one of you who made this film possible!
As I mentioned earlier, the news that we had signed a deal lifted us to celebrity status among the attendees and we now have a much more potent slate of projects to produce as producers offered their projects to us.
While in New York I was asked by a major financial entity to produce and direct a $20M> film in conjunction with the Russian government who will supply 62% of the budget, about the historic trans-polar flight of Valery Chkalov from Moscow to Vancouver, Washington in 1937. I've had two conference calls with Moscow / NYC now and it seems that the project is real and moving forward with a much larger project to follow. A producer from Scotland has asked us to co-produce a historical drama about the legendary early North West explorer Alexander MacKenzie (well of course he's a relation if you go back far enough) who explored this territory.
I will also be co-producing in company with an extraordinary Canadian producer from Toronto that I am not at liberty to name as she is not quite free of her existing contractual commitment. This is a family TV comedy movie that I anticipate shooting in Toronto.
All this in addition to our original scripts give us enough to keep us busy for several years.
But now we are starting to raise money for "Michael's Ride". A family film much like 'Dancing...', about a teenage dressage rider who is rebelling as a result of the divorce of her parents and the negative influence of her friend Ashley. When after being admonished by her Dad to straighten up or lose her prized Arab she gets in trouble and her horse is donated to an equestrian center that has a therapy program for terminally ill kids. Angry, she decides to steal her horse and run away but is caught in the process. Forced to volunteer at the center, she is assigned to ten year old Michael Abbot who, unknown to her has terminal lymphocytic leukemia.
And it's Michael that teaches her about love, friendship, and giving of yourself. The script has won an Honorable Mention out of 14,000 entrants in the Los Angeles Movie Awards, as well as the Platinum Award; the top prize for screenplays from the Oregon Film Awards .
So we have an award winning Producer, Director, and Writer and an award winning script with a distribution deal in principal to work with. None of which we had for Dancing. So keep us in your prayers as we embark on the next level of the journey to success for Highland Light Productions.

Here we go again!

2011-09-11T21:52:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow 'Dancers' and friends,

"Dancing on the Edge" has just been invited to the Gig Harbor Film Festival which is the day after the Tacoma Film Festival (which we're in) ends. Just cross the famous "Galloping Gertie" bridge from Tacoma and you're in Gig Harbor. Tacoma runs Oct 9-13 (DOTE screens Monday 10/10 @6:30pm) and GHFF runs 10/14-16 (DOTE screens 9:00pm Friday 10/14). Screening nights are critical to the successful sales of our film and we would like both screening dates to be red carpet events. Therefore, we need as many as possible of our cast and crew to attend both nights. Please RSVP if you can attend which one or both nights as soon as you can so we can arrange any transportation or accommodation problems. Highland Light will do all we can to make this another GREAT event for all of you. God knows you deserve it. Also, tell all your friends that may live in the area or church and community groups up there you may have an in with to come see our movie. We need to pack the house every chance we get! Our film has a great buzz about it because of what we've done so far and it sure was fantastic wasn't it? We've got to keep that going right up to the American Film Market in Santa Monica, California November 1-10. That's the biggest film market in the world. The folks at IndieFest were so impressed with our film, our production company, the way we have created 'buzz' and the quality of our marketing materials, that they called us on the phone and Tom and I conducted a conference call where they announced that they would meet us at AFM and personally introduce us to the distributors there!!! Wow! That's just amazing! So we've got to keep this going until AFM. We currently have two distributors interested and we're waiting to hear their offer. But I feel that AFM is where we'll score the winning touchdown! AFM will also present us with an opportunity to possibly sell or fund a multi- picture deal for our next and future films. Needless to say, Tom and I are swamped with homework doing due diligence on the 30-50 distributors out of 400 we will try to meet with. So any support you can give us by attending the festival screening dates gives Tom and I a great foundation to build on at AFM.
We have also been invited to enter our film in the 38th annual Northwest Filmmaker's Festival here in Portland Nov 11-19, and I will be doing that in the morning. It starts the day after we get back from AFM.
I know you've all been waiting for a chance to get a copy of DOTE for your own. I am this week going to be arranging for a limited press of discs so you can all have one. As soon as they arrive you'll all get one. Bear with us a little while longer.
We are also in negotiations with the Kelso Theater Pub in Kelso,WA for a screening and will be seeking screenings in Scappose and The Hollywood Theater in Portland in order to pay some of the costs of marketing that we have accrued and expect to accrue before AFM.
This is all your fault! Thank God! I am the most blessed Director in the world to have a cast & crew so talented and so dedicated as each one of you are! So go get that tux shirt ready because here we go again!I love you guys!

More fun to come, Sandy.

Holy cow! What a ride!

2011-09-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

Monday, September 5, 2011

Dear 'Dancers' and friends, So much has happened so fast that our heads are swimming. I'm starting to recover from the tremendous crash after a month long adrenaline high from the success and good fortune lavished on us by the last 3 film fests.

Dancing on the Edge had it's world premiere at the historic Kiggins Theater in downtown Vancouver on Thursday August 11th 2011 and it was all that we had hoped it would be and more. When the first limo arrived at the front of the theater, the crowd waiting to get in was backed up all the way down the block and around the corner, BOTH WAYS! As the door opened and Co-Producer and award winning actor Tom Zalutko stepped out onto the red carpet , the crowd just roared! There was even the Ft. Vancouver Pipe band there to pipe us in! As each cast and crew member exited their limo dressed in tux and gown, they proceeded to the step-and-walk where the media and friends had ample photo ops of these hometown celebrities aborning!
When we got inside we found the theater full to capacity and many of the cast and crew and my fellow Vancouverites gallantly gave up their seats so others could attend (I tried to but they wouldn't let me). Even Mayor Tim Levitt, who took time out of his busy schedule to don a tux and introduce our film, refused to take a seat as long as there was a Vancouverite who needed one. It's one of the things that make me so proud of being a Vancouver resident! Yet I feel very bad for those loyal folks who supported us for so long that didn't get to see the show. The theater had to turn away about 200 people. When the film ended and the thunderous applause had subsided, we did a short Q & A for the audience then adjourned to Charlie's Bistro where we had our cast and crew and friends party which was a stunning success thanks to the awesome planning by my producing partner Tiffani Fjosne and the great staff at Charlie's. The Director of the Columbia Gorge International Film Festival,
Breven Angaelica Warren awarded us a second screening on Sunday and the Kiggins was nearing capacity even without advertising!

Five days later on August 17 th, Tom Zalutko, Alisa Rakoz, Nicole McCullough and her family, Ricky and Robin Torres, Emily Abramson, Victor Morris, Tara Krick, Russ and Jan Gorsline and Victoria, my daughter Beth and I arrived at the Millennium Hotel in Times Square, New York City for the 2nd Annual New York City International Film Festival and Market.
The Gala opening was nice as we walked the red carpet with stars John Savage, Steven Bauer and Sally Kirkland who was presented a lifetime achievement award by the festival. To be able to meet and talk with these stars was inspiring for our young people. You're not in Vancouver, Wa. any more Toto!

Our Grand Night the following night turned into a bit of a disaster that evolved into a huge blessing!
We all met in the hotel lobby dressed to the nines and the limos we hired swept us off to the legendary Tribeca Theater for our red carpet arrival and screening of our film. When we got there, there was no red carpet, no festival staff and no one there had any idea what was going on. It seems that we were the only ones to plan for Friday afternoon NYC traffic and then the thunderstorms came contributing to accidents that created massive, honking, traffic jams. An hour and a half later the festival folks show up and try to get things organized but to late to give us the step-and-walk that we paid for. We screened the film to a full house and a tremendous ovation. John Savage came as well and loved the film and sang it's praises the rest of the time at the festival. Our DP, Daniel Steely who turned 18 the last day of the shoot won Best Cinematography honors.
Because of the dog and pony show the night before the festival organizers went to the trouble of shaking up their whole schedule and presented us with an opportunity to screen Dancing on the Edge on Sunday night in Times Square al fresco!
As I was called to the mic to introduce the picture to the crowd of about 200 people in the square I was surprised when Roberto Rizzo , the festival founder, awarded me the Best Director Award. The picture promptly started and I was whisked off to the step-and-walk to do a TV interview and photo session for the paparazzi. Then I took a seat next to Tom, Nicole and Emily and was amused to watch the bystanders look to me with the big golden statuette in my hand, then look at the girls, then to the screen where Nicole and Emily were doing a scene, then back to the girls again several times. Finally, recognition struck and cameras began to emerge until there was a wall of photographers shooting us as we sat watching ourselves on the screen. Then Roberto came by and said "Do you see this? Can you believe this? I've never seen anything like it!" I stood and looked around and Times Square was packed with I'm told, by around 7000 totally enthralled people, staring at the screen. It was absolutely surreal! I have goose bumps now just thinking about it! Nobody spoke! Nobody moved! They just watched! When the film ended, the ovation was huge! We were two hours on the red carpet after the film for pictures and autographs, mostly for Nicole, Emily and Tom who were indeed stars!

Not to go into a lot of detail, but the Friday night snafu also led to greater exposure to the distributors that attended of which two are actively interested in a deal.

When I got back to my hotel room after the Times Square screening, I got a call from my wife that the prestigious IndiFest
competition announced the winners and that Dancing on the Edge had won the Award of Excellence for Best Feature Film, and Best Leading Actress (Nicole McCullough) and the Award of Merit for Best Supporting Actor (Tom Zalutko), Best Overall Post-Production (Tara Krick / Rexpost), and Most Motivational / Inspirational Film. Indies are a Big Deal!!!
Counting the Triangle Award from the Columbia Gorge Fest, that's 10 awards in three festivals! Not bad for a first-time cast & Crew!!!! I'm so proud of all of you!
On to the Tacoma Film Festival where we'll screen 6:30pm Monday 10 October 2011 at the Grand Cinema! More fun to come, Sandy

So another monster success for a film that no one gave us a chance of making!

Break out your tux!

2011-07-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

Dear friends and fellow "Dancers",

Here's an update on what's happening with our movie "Dancing on the Edge". First, "Dancing..." has been selected for competition in the New York City International Film Festival August 18-26th in Times Square in Manhattan. So far, Tom Zalutko, Alisa Rakoz, Nicole McCullough, Emily Abramson, Victoria and I and my daughter Beth will be there to walk the red carpet and see our film screened in the Tribecca 2 Theater at 6pm Friday, 19 August. But for the rest of you, don't feel left out.
We've also been selected as a headline participant in the Columbia Gorge International Film Festival that will take place right here in Vancouver August 10-14th. "Dancing on the Edge" has been given the premiere spot of the day, 6:30pm Thursday 11 August at the newly restored "Kiggins" theater in downtown Vancouver. This will be our World Premiere and will feature formal red carpet entrance for Investors, Producers, cast & crew only prior to general admission. This will be a major media event with photo sessions with the press and state and local dignitaries. If you are going to walk the red carpet men will need a tux and ladies a formal. NO EXCEPTIONS! This will be followed by a gala party that will be open to minors at a local hotel (TBD). Please RSVP if you plan to attend either of these functions, the World Premiere or the Party so we may plan the logistics of these events. I will find out from the festival organizers if the cast and crew will have comp tickets or not. That's out of my control. The party will be free to Investors, Producers, cast & crew. Others will be admitted for a suggested donation to help defray the cost. Let me know how many friends and family plan to attend the party so we can have enough grub.
There will be a cast and crew screening/ sneak preview, free to all, at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, across the parking lot from "Priority Place", on Wednesday August 3rd at 7pm. At that time, I will let you know our strategy for future marketing plans for "Dancing..." and how we need your help to get the word out! There will be refreshments! This will be a great pep rally for "Dancing..." I expect all cast to attend these events as you are so critical to our public relations efforts. We need every seat in the Kiggins filled with enthusiastic fans. So we need all hands to get on your social network sites and get everyone you know to come out on the 11th. If we can get the BUZZ going here it will carry to New York and Buzz is critical to not only winning awards but landing a distribution deal!
Well, that's all for now. More details as the evolve. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call.
More fun to come,
Sandy

Reflection

2011-06-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

I originally wrote Dancing on the Edge in 1980 to help troubled youngsters find help and hope, only to have it languish in my file cabinet for 31 years. I started to produce it several times, only to have to set it aside to get a real job to support my family while working on other peoples projects. Then in January 2011, I had the chance to produce and direct a $12M feature with an Oscar© winning actor. We had the financing all but in hand when it was revealed that the source of the money was morally unacceptable. I turned it down. Losing that financing was pretty depressing. Finally, my amazing wife Victoria said, “You’re a wonderful writer with a cabinet full of good scripts. Why don’t you do one of your own?” Apparently, my time had come, as it seemed like everything I touched turned to gold. Victoria helped me buy a Canon 5D Mk.II set up and I had much of my own grip. I had to rent a dolly, 2 back up C-stands and a car mount kit. After buying insurance and a city film permit I had $4000. and had no idea how I would feed my crew for 23 days. It was nothing less than the Biblical story of the loaves and fishes in the 21^st Century, as we ate like kings every day. We never actively solicited investment (we had no time) but folks would come up to me that had heard about what we were trying to do and would hand me a check for a thousand dollars expecting nothing in return but were just moved to contribute to what we were trying to do.

Then there was my cast and crew.

None of them had any real experience in feature filmmaking or screen acting. I couldn’t afford even the excellent Ultra-Low Budget contract offered by the Screen Actor’s Guild so I had to use non-union talent that became one of the show’s greatest miracles.

No Director ever had a crew more dedicated or professional in their execution of their many duties as my crew. Most of them wore many hats and functioned with distinction in positions well beyond their experience, notably my DP, a 17 year old with a master’s eye, Daniel Steely. I was also blessed with the most amazing cast I’ve ever worked with. Tom Zalutko, my business partner and best friend, Alyssa Rakoz, Emily Abramson (who walked on hoping for an extra job) all first time actors. Heidi Geil, studying to be a doctor, and the incomparable Victor Morris the only veteran actor and co-producer, all contributed performances that were beyond belief. But leaving us all in awe was the stellar performance of 13 year old Nicole McCullough, of tiny Warren, Oregon. No actor in the 43 years I have worked in this business has been more of a joy to direct or an honor to know than Nicole. This young lady is endowed with as much intelligence, moxie and class as Jodie Foster and is destined to be a mega-star of the future.

To quote Dale Newton & John Gaspard’s book ‘Digital Filmmaking 101’ “In the early stages of the rough cut, you often make a real switch in your thinking. You stop trying to make the movie you set out to make, and you begin to define the movie you have made.”

How true that has been for me. I knew I had written a good story. I had confidence in my ability as a director of actors, yet I had never worked in the digital format before. I had a cast and crew that were virtually first timers, and I prayed that I wouldn’t have a very expensive ‘home movie’ on my hands. I hoped that the top pros at Rexpost in Portland, OR wouldn’t laugh me out the door. Like the above quote, it wasn’t long into the rough cut when I discovered that under the loving care of my Editor Ben Meader and Post Prod Supervisor Tara Krick, what I feared would be a frog started turning into a beautiful princess and a picture that was far and away better than I had anticipated. My wife was right all along.

Yet , the greatest joy is not the destination, but the voyage. My life has been permanently and profoundly changed by this experience. The conquering of personal fears and insecurities, the confidence that comes from victory over difficulty; and the joy and love I have and will continue to share with my fellow teammates will lead me on to our next picture.

Thirty-one years ago I wrote this script in the hope that if I could just influence one life for the better then I would be a success. I never dreamed it would be mine.

“Sandy” MacKenzie

"Dancing On The Edge" is in the can!

2011-03-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

Well Friends, after 21 days of shooting "Dancing on the Edge" is finally in the can and it's GOOD! You can all be very proud of an awesome achievement! Working with a script that called for locations with limited access requirements, Mother Nature giving us fits, long hours and deferred pay, your morale and professionalism during the campaign was above all praise. It was so hard for me to say goodbye to you all at picture wrap and I can't wait until we're back together again shooting "Runaway Hearts" this summer.

As I sit here tonight I can't help but think of how blessed this production has been from start to this moment. Its hard to believe that it was only a few months ago we had our hopes of shooting "Iron Lyncs" this April dashed when we had to turn down the $12M which proved to be from an unacceptable source. It was a knee-jerk reaction to that launched me into producing Dancing... but I knew I had to shoot something or die! So I dove head long into the project and come hell or high water, I was going to put it in the can. I scraped together what little money I had and managed to buy the camera and grip and figured I'd shoot during the day and fund raise at night in the hope that I could find enough to buy you lunch each day. And God did the rest. Each day, the money would appear from mostly unsolicited sources, friends who wanted to help, my partners who pitched in what they could, and another day's shooting went in the can and the lunches and craft services got better and better. Then there's our magnificent cast, who for the most part, being relative if not virtual beginners, delivered performances that were nothing short of brilliant, day in and day out. Then there were the locations themselves. How perfect was "Priority Place" and the grace of all those at Our Lady of Lourdes to allow us to invade their Pastoral Center for the better part of two weeks. How about the day we spent shooting in the Clark County Sheriff's Office where even "COPS" was denied permission to shoot. Or the Sheriff himself taking the time to come out late on day 21 to play a part after driving all day returning from a family tragedy? Or Happy Valley Urgent Care that only came available 24hrs prior to shooting there and just "happened" to have a training facility next door!

But the greatest miracle for me is my awesome crew, many who stuck with this show at great sacrifice! You have all made a permanent place in my heart.

Now we move on to post, the miracles just keep on coming. As I stood in the drizzle on night 21 I was troubled as to where I was going to find the $30K I'd need for post when my phone rang and God provided for that too! Do you suppose He's rewarding us for not taking that tainted $12M? More fun to come, Sandy