Not that we read the New York Post (ahem), but we couldn’t help but notice Melissa Leo’s beautiful face smiling back at us in a blurb that describes her as perhaps “the hardest working actress in showbiz,” and namechecks TRUE ADOLESCENTS!

We couldn’t be more excited for Melissa Leo, whose film FROZEN RIVER won the Grand July Prize at Sundance earlier this year.

Not only is she on the cover of this season’s Filmmaker Magazine, but they’ve included a terrific Q&A.  There’s also a great interview with Mark Duplass and his brother Jay about their new film BAGHEAD (acquired by Sony Pictures Classics at Sundance ‘08).  Check it out on newsstands!

This is not to mention a lovely profile in this Sunday’s New York Times. 

There is even a little Oscar buzz about her extraordinary, uncompromising performance.

BAGHEAD has been getting awesome reviews and is now in limited release across the country.  Be sure to check it out!

You can see trailers for FROZEN RIVER and BAGHEAD on the Apple Trailers website.

Tuesday afternoon at about 5pm, we stepped at last over the finish line. We couldn’t believe that after months of a combination of editing, screenings and weather-induced hiatus, we had finally locked picture.

It has been a long road, but a very satisfying one. We have seen the film change shape many times and find a form that is in some ways superficially different from the script we shot, but feels to all of us that it hews very closely to the spirit of the script and Craig’s germinal ideas about the film.

Perhaps the most instructive part of the process for me, at least, has been the screenings themselves and thus the usefulness of screenings in general as a film moves through the editing process. We screened the film five times total, beginning quite early in the process, for audiences ranging in size from just a handful to forty people. Each time, we gave them feedback forms to fill out, which they worked through before we opened the floor for general discussion. We collected the feedback forms and always read through them, though my real reason for continuing to use them was to ensure the audiences had time to digest the film before starting to talk about it.

The audiences went from clear consensus in what they thought we should change (unanimous shows of hands were not uncommon in those early screenings) to what amounted to personal, though sometimes impassioned, opinion by the end, with little commonality about anything except that we had a strong, entertaining, moving film on our hands.

When we first showed the film to an audience, we were looking for fresh input on where to take the film next. That first audience knew what we had to change (boy, did they ever) and the screenings and shows of hands Jenny elicited in moderating the discussions afterwards became our most useful tool in learning about the film we were shaping – both its weaknesses and its strengths.

The most frustrating aspect of the post-production process so far has definitely been the multi-month hiatus we had to take from the point when we were essentially done editing the film to the point where we could shoot and incorporate the final pieces of footage that would allow us to achieve the right rhythm to the ebb and flow of the story. Mother Nature was responsible for this wrinkle: since all of our pick-up shots were exteriors, we literally found ourselves in the position of waiting for grass to grow before we could shoot anything that matched the lush August landscapes captured in principal photography. Early attempts at pick-ups were snowed out not once, but TWICE.

The silver lining to this obstacle was that it allowed us walk away from the film for all that time and to regain a freshness with which to approach it one last time. In an industry where every move costs money, this kind of grace is a rare privilege.

As I type this, the camera negative is moving physically from Seattle to Los Angeles (driven in a car by Laurie and Sean), where it will be scanned, uploaded to an FTP server, and then downloaded for color correcting in NYC. We are working with Peter Bavaro and the stellar, creative and accommodating team at Post Logic NY to achieve what, on our budget, we have no right to hope for: a true, 2K scan of our negative.

Now, we move on to sound design in earnest (with Britt Myers and the terrific team at Great City Productions, as we continue to lock down our music licenses (with the help of Light in the Attic’s Sandy Wilson) and finalize our agreement with our composer.

At any rate, True Believers, we’re getting there. We appreciate your patience through the lengthy process and thank you for your enthusiasm and support. We now know for sure what a beautiful little film we have on our hands and we cannot wait to share it with you.

The star of TRUE ADOLESCENTS, Mark Duplass, has been making waves with his latest filmmaking effort, BAGHEAD. In an earlier blog entry, I noted the sale of the film at Sundance to Sony Pictures Classics. Well now, Sony is making headlines with its unusual distribution strategy for the film, which involves eschewing the traditional premiere venues, New York and LA, in favor of an approach that is both more financially savvy and more attuned to the film’s potential audience: they’re premiering in Austin.

READ ALL ABOUT IT!!

I realize it’s been a while since you’ve heard from us. We’ve been editing, basically, which is a long, intense, exhausting process. And we’re just about at the end of it. I was kinda waiting for a specific event to be able to get back in touch with you all, something I could announce. And that has happened.

We have signed with the incredible Josh Braun of Submarine Entertainment to represent the film for sale.

Those of you who are already familiar with the world of producer’s reps will be doing backflips, but just in case you’re on the outside of indie film, here’s a word by way of explanation.

So, we made this wonderful movie called TRUE ADOLESCENTS, which we’re very proud of and which is almost done. We’ve done five screenings with audiences varying in size from fifteen to forty people, honing and improving and perfecting our movie. We have to do one additional day of shooting in Seattle (without actors, even) when the weather improves, and then we can “lock picture.”

Now once that happens, we’ll go on to finish the movie technically. We have an incredible sound design team over at Great City Productions (Britt Myers and Ian Stynes) and are in the process of locking down our picture finish deal.

But then: we have to take the film to festivals. Now, the average indie film goes to festivals pretty naked - the producer(s) just apply, get in, and hope for the best. But if you’re an extra-special indie film, like us, you are lucky enough to get someone like Josh Braun to help usher you through that process.

Josh is not only a coach and co-strategist through the festival process, but because he sold, oh, seven out of the nine films he was representing at Sundance last year, the fact that he takes a film on bears weight with festival programmers.

Once you get to your target festival, he’s the lead strategist for addressing how the film hits the ground, coordinating with the film’s publicist to make sure it gets noticed in just the right way by just the right people. And then when the right people see the film, he helps me, the producer, negotiate with the bigwigs to get the best deal on the sale.

Basically, the addition of Submarine to our team means that we are legit with one of the most respected tastemakers in independent film. Yeah, it’s, um, pretty cool.

You’ve been über-patient, True Believers, but if everything happens as planned, we’ll keep you posted with more, crazy-exciting announcements as they come.