Cinéfest Sudbury Dispatch #2: The Shout Out

Somebody we know who works for TIFF and travels widely to attend festivals said to us, "Enjoy Cinéfest, it's one of the best festivals in Canada, no BS."

Yesterday afternoon, we found out one more reason why.

We were sitting in the half-dark theatre a couple rows back, waiting for PRIMARY to start, when a suited gentleman came up to us and said,

"Excuse me, are you guys from THE VOLUNTEER?".

Uh. YES. HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?

It was Patrick O'Hearn, Managing Director of Cinéfest!! He had recognized me from our poster and our screener! He thanked us for coming and assured us we would connect over the next couple days to talk about our premiere and Q&A to follow. Seconds later, he was in the spotlight at the front of the theatre, introducing the film and at the end he pointed us out and told everybody to go see our film on Thursday. We got a nice round of applause.

The point is this - how cool is it that the Managing Director of a major film festival would recognize a couple of no-name indie filmmakers in a dark theatre full of people and give them a shout out?

Cinéfest for the win!

THE VOLUNTEER Official Trailer!

As we were about to post this on our facebook page, we had a little moment:

"Holy crap. This is actually the very first time people are actually seeing what we've spent two years crafting. I am scared."

Not scared so much as suddenly nervous! It's all good to show beautiful screen caps and behind the scenes photos, but to show everything put together?? And this is just the trailer!

Anyway, we hope you enjoy this - so many people put so much work into this over the past two years that it's rewarding just to have finished it and to say "WE MADE A REAL MOVIE."

Official THE VOLUNTEER poster!

Post by Rosco Films.

Really excited to unveil the official poster for our feature film, THE VOLUNTEER!
This was literally the first mockup from over a year ago and turns out - it was a winner all along. Huge thanks again to our on-set photographer, Jonathon Bowman, who gave of his time and talents to capture tons of amazing images throughout pre-production and shooting.

CinéFest Sudbury International Film Festival, here we come!

HEYO! THE VOLUNTEER will have it's world premiere at Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival!! We are super excited to have our film premiere at, in the words of one industry veteran, "one of the best festivals in Canada, no BS." 

This is our first time premiering a film at a festival so we've been talking to everybody we can who's had some experience to try and glean some tips. Many of them say similar things:

- Be bold - don't be afraid to put yourself out there!
- Talk to as many people as you can.
- Have some 'next projects' in the back pocket - people are more interested in what you're doing next, than what you've just done.
- Enjoy the festival experience.

There are some fantastic films screening in Sudbury and a few that we are excited about are:

• BOYHOOD,  the latest from one of my favourite writer/directors, Richard Linklater
• CAMP X-RAY, by Jon's fellow NCSA alumnus Peter Sattler,  starring Kristen Stewart
• ALTMAN, a documentary on one of Jon's favourite directors. (It's Robert Altman).

Of course, we want to thank everybody who was a part of getting us this far and we look forward to showing off our long labour of love. THANK YOU!