Stanton Production Diaries

While in pre-production for "The Stanton Family Grave Robbery," we were talking about how cool it was that many feature films were starting to make production diaries. Cole and I even own the "King Kong" ones on DVD. So we thought, "Why don't we make some for our film?"

Then we realized how dumb that would be. No one knows who we are, so what would be the point of showing us working on the film? So we decided to just make funny videos while making the film. Ironically, they actually turned into real production diaries because the van broke and we documented how we reacted and went about fixing the van.

So here they are for everyone to enjoy. These are done by Brand Rackley.









(This video is more of a joke on a rumor about me. A girl told some people that while shooting the party scene, I was super drunk and hitting on her the entire time. The thing is, I don't drink while handling thousands of dollars worth of equipment and even though I was single at the time we shot the film, I didn't hit on girls because I could only take so much disappointment.)


Take care,
Mark

Trail Dance Film Festival

The Trail Dance Film Festival, which took place in Duncan, Oklahoma, was pretty cool. It's a nice festival with a lot of people who are really into film and have a lot of passion for independent filmmaking. It was a welcoming environment.

So we were screening at 10:00 pm Saturday night, so we went down, had a few drinks, then made our way to the screening. We've decided to not watch the film with the audiences anymore because it's just too nerve wracking. I hate seeing and hearing reactions first hand, but it's a trade-off I'm okay with.














Before we screened, we went into the theatre to just look around and this is where we found ourselves: a theatre with weeks and grass growing in front of a large screen. There were also fake deer and other animals littering the area. It. Was. Awesome.

After the screening, we had a nice Q&A with the crowd (most stayed, which was nice) then went to a hotel to have a little party with some good friends of ours. What did we do? Talked about making a movie. And had some champagne.

The next day, we went back for the award ceremony. But this was no normal award ceremony. It was a magic show/award ceremony. Boy, it was something.

So after about an hour, we get to our category: Best Action/Adventure film. Now, okay. Um, what? I'm not really sure how we got stuck in this category. Don't get me wrong. Being nominated was awesome. But, "The Stanton Family Grave Robbery," an action film?

Here was a film we were up against: Target Practice. This film won Best Action Film at the 2008 Action Film Festival.

But what happens? We win. What? Yeah. Here I am, holding the Golden Drover trophy. It's actually pretty bad ass. Heavy, not easy to break.

Here I am, holding the Golden Drover trophy. It's actually pretty bad ass. Heavy, not easy to break.










It's even engraved! But in all seriousness, we were so happy to get this. We're just happy to get our film in a festival that winning awards isn't even on our mind (because we know we won't win them). So this is just great. We're very thankful.

But I think this photo of the award is more appropriate:Explodaboom!

And here is a new trailer for our film, which displays the action/adventure of our film:

2008 Austin Film Festival

The Austin Film Festival is the cat's ass (which, by the way, I don't understand. How is a cat's ass so awesome? Maybe I'm not quoting the right saying or phrase, but that's how I've always heard it. I've looked at some cats' asses and, since I'm in into bestiality, I don't find them that awesome. But I digress. Let me change my exclamation phrase for the festival and move on.)

The Austin Film Festival is awesome. As with the deadCenter Festival, this was our third year here, first with a feature. And we were nervous. Really, really nervous. Even Cole was slightly nervous, which I excused him for.

Our first order of business: become whores. Super, ultra, slutty whores. We were going to shmooze hard. We were going to go to parties and be confident. Give me a freaking Oscar because I acted so confident you would actually believe I am!

But we took the whoring to a whole new level. Christopher Holland, of Film Festival Secrets, has a great tip in his book, which I recommend to anyone trying to get into festivals (buy it at createspace.)

In chapter 5, The Pre-Festival Push, he starts talking about ways to market your film. He makes some great points but 5 and 6 (p. 116) were what gave us the idea for this:


Carrying the casket on Sixth Street. I'd like to say it was fun to do this, but it's not. What we learned is that a) we are not in shape at all and b) everyone thinks someone is inside. Which I guess is natural.
















Here we are hanging out at the huge line for "W." This was a major chance for us to pass out fliers and attract attention. It was going well until some Ralph Nader people stood by us protesting the war and people began to think we were with them.































Then, thanks to Mr. Holland again, we set the casket up in the fancy Driskill Hotel, the festival's base of operations. Chris said, "Are you guys going to set it up at the Driskill?" I replied, "That'd be cool, but I doubt they let us." And he said, "Go ask. What does that hurt." And boom sucka, they said yes... after about 15 minutes of confusion on many calls forwarded on to others to answer.

















Then the buttons. We're poor filmmakers so we knew we couldn't afford fancy advertising materials. Our fliers were made at Walgreens (100 4x6's for $15!) and our buttons were made by hand. No fancy images. We just thought, "Hey, let's take lines of dialog and paste on them." And if worked. It worked really well actually. We were told the green button there solicited some pretty good debate amongst people.




So it came time for our first screening and I was about to vomit. Were we going to get a good crow? A bad crowd? A crowd?
















This was about 30 minutes before the screening. I was incredibly excited and nervous. Cole and Brand sat in the back in some leather chairs and silently worried while I just sort of paced. My parents sat toward the front of the theater and were worried about taking up seats. They wanted to leave so two other people could come in but I told them no. It was very important they be there for this. They were teary eyed at the end. Aw, shucks.

We were told 30 - 40 people were turned away, which is sad because they didn't get to see it but also great. Our tricks worked!

Thanks also goes to the Austin Festival, especially Kelly Williams, for mentioning the film at numerous press events prior to the start of the festival. Without everyone's help, no one would have showed up.

The second screening was also sold out. About 15 were turned away unfortunately. We all sat out in the coffee shop and chatted while the film played.

And, we were told that we should submit to the Oxford Film Festival and we will be heading there in February to screen!

The rest of the festival was spent schmoozing. We went to parties, talked to people, got drunk, gave DVDs of the film to anyone we could, (why haven't you watched it and called me Jake Kasdan?!)

We also were given the opportunity to talk on a panel about low budget filmmaking, ran by Mr. Holland himself. This was a fun opportunity to talk about making low budget films and how to get the word out. We don't really know what we're doing, but we told people what we were doing and I think it really resonated with the crowd. (On a side note, it took Cole and I about two questions before we got out the nervousness and stopped rambling on like morons for too long. We still apologize.)

The best reaction we got was when someone asked us what we edited on. I replied, "With Final Cut Pro on a Macbook Pro." They followed up by asking what that was like. I told them that we didn't have a lot of money and that's all we had. "I mean," I said, "I didn't even have a mouse. I edited the entire thing with a trackpad." There was this awesome collected moan from the audience, then a laugh. I think we won them over at that point.

I cannot say enough about the people who run the Austin Film Festival. Even though larger films were there, we were still treated like real filmmakers, not just a bunch of kids. It was a great honor to screen there and we hope we get to again.

An outsider's perspective. Sort of.

Heeeey, world.
My name is Hailey, and I have been a first-hand witness to the brilliance/madness/insert-adjective-here of Singletree Productions for two years. I'll post on here every once in awhile about what it's like to watch Mark, Cole and Brand do their thing.
Between the casket outside Mark's house, the pool full of Doritos I helped him and Cole fill and the firecrackers blown up on Brand's body, it's always an adventure.

This, for example, is a normal day in the life of Singletree Productions. Brand there is buttered up with cooking spray. This was a promo-video the boys made for Oklahoma City's deadCenter Film Festival.

The boys' latest adventure, their second feature film "Simmons On Vinyl," is their most impressive, in my humble o-pen-ion. (Inside joke. Watch the movie if you want to understand.) They finished the film this month and did it in less than three months between multiple jobs and full-time college schedules.

But, though the film itself is amazing, I'm always impressed by the funny little behind-the-scenes moments. In one scene, Brand breaks into a house. That house happens to be mine. They're very resourceful, those guys.

I woke up the morning of that shoot at 8 a.m., walked into my living room, and there Brand was, hanging through my window, talking to my cat and playing with an actual dead mouse they bought the night before. I didn't know I'd wake up to this, but I just waved and walked to my coffee pot. You can't be surprised with this bunch.

And you can't help but laugh with them.

Having known these guys for so long, I'm very aware of how much they use every resource they have, including people they know. Other students at OU are so fond of their work, they are thrilled just to be a part of it. Such was the case with "Simmons." I was happy to donate my house, a fake head, my cat and even a terrible close-up of myself when I was sick and gripey just to be involved with this piece.

And, though they are able to make their movies so cheap, you'd never be able to tell. They're amazing.

The first festival for our first feature film

We've been to the deadCenter Film Festival two times before, in 2006 for our first official short film, "Owen's Predicament" and in 2007 for "For the Love of Family" and "Building Imagination." Kevin's short film "Internship" was also in the festival that year.

But to have a feature there was a completely different experience. First, we had to deal with the fact that people had to like our film for longer than 10 minutes. With a short, you think, "Oh God, this is terrible. But it'll be over in a few minutes." With a feature, you think, "Blugh," which is the way I write out the noise for vomiting.

This is Cole before the screening. Very nervous. Or constipated. Or something:


Here is Brand before the screening. Very windswept.


This is Kevin before the screening. He is out in Los Angeles. I don't know if he works in this area though, so this photo might not be accurate.


And here I am before the screening, holding a pug.


Cole and I sort of have a nice relationship when it comes to screenings: I am incredibly nervous and he is calm. It keeps things normal and makes the whole process go smoothly. It sounds weird, but it works. Before one screening, Cole was nervous and it really made me mad because that's my gig, not his.

But the screening went great, minus a few technical glitches (which were apologized for very much by the festival, but come on, it isn't their fault. Stuff happens.)

We even got our first review out of it! Check it out here.

So 2008 was the best deadCenter Film Festival we had ever been to. Our good friend Don Swaynos' film, "Year at Danger" won best documentary too. It's a fun festival to attend with some truly great people involved. Thanks to them for the opportunity to show our film for the first time.

2009 Trail Dance Film Festival

I'm going to update the blog with information about our other festival screenings in time, but I'll start off the "Stanton Family Grave Robbery" film festival adventures with our most recent festival, the 2009 Trail Dance Film Festival.

Named among Movie Maker Magazine's Top 25 festivals worth the fee, the festival takes place in Duncan, Oklahoma and is in its third year. Well third time is a charm because they are blessed with our film. That sounds conceded, I won't lie, but we literally had the film blessed by monks. I by "Monks" I mean Adrien Monk from the hit USA Network show "Monk." And by 'our film was blessed by monks. I by 'Monks' I mean Adrien Monk from the hit USA Network show 'Monk,'" I mean I'm full of crap.

We're excited about attending this festival for the first time. Sadly, the casket will not be making an appearance at the festival, but will be there in spirit.

The film plays at 10:00 pm in the Experience Theatre in Duncan, OK. Here is a Google map of the location!


View Larger Map


Take care,
Mark

So it begins...

Welcome to the official blog for Singletree Productions. You'll find all sorts of neat things here, I promise.

We have a lot to catch up on when it comes to our first feature film, "The Stanton Family Grave Robbery," which I'll be doing for a while. But, we also want to talk about the making of our new feature film, "Simmons on Vinyl." But more on that later.

For our first post, I wanted to announce that "Stanton" was named one of the "Best of the Fests" by filmthreat.com. It's a really great honor that we are very proud of. Just being able to get our little $5000 film seen was great, but actually discovering that people are liking it and connecting with it is just amazing.

Film Threat said that "Mark Potts shot this movie about three brothers spiriting their deceased father to Oklahoma from the hated state of Texas for burial for less than $5,000, and it has more laughs and heart than anything Adam Sandler or Steve Martin has made with 2,000X the funds in the last ten years."

Check out the entire list here.

Take care,
Mark