Had a great time on the Wags & Elliot Show this morning, despite the fact that we were broadcasting live at 0-dark-hundred! This was my first time doing live radio and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect - I asked producer Dan Orr if I needed to do anything ahead of time, and he said, “Nah, just show up and talk.” - so that’s pretty much what happened!

Wags, Elliot and Dan are great guys, funny as hell, so we were able to jump right in to the meat and potatoes of making a film here in Ohio. I didn’t realize until right before we went on air that Jerry (Elliot) is finishing up a film of his own, an hour-ish documentary on a Michigan comedian, so we got to trade trench stories a bit. Before the show, I had mentally bookmarked one of our many ridiculous happenings I thought the crew and their listeners would get a kick out of, but we got on a roll right away and it never even came up, so I’ll save it for anyone who’s interested in hearing it at the post-premiere Q&A session.**

For anyone who missed the show and wants to hear it, I think the show is available as a podcast, so I’ll check with Dan about that. But for the time being I just want to say thanks again to Wags, Elliot and Dan for having me on this morning - it’s pretty cool to have the big dogs of Columbus radio putting our film out there on the airwaves!

** Obvious hint warning…

Today we received confirmation that I’ll be appearing in radio voice form on the Wags & Elliot Show this Thursday morning! The show’s producer has invited me on to talk about the movie at 6:30 am, which should be a lot of fun, so all you early risers can tune in to QFM 96 for a morning dose of cinematic goodness!

The first press mentions of Misdirection are starting to appear, with the Clintonville Booster running a nice piece on the film and even including our teaser for the Studio 35 premiere. Click here to check out the article.

It seems that the All-Ohio aspect of the film is garnering quite a bit of interest among the central Ohio press, and there should be more articles hitting the e-stands in the next couple days.

With just over a week to go before our hometown premiere, I thought I’d give everyone a quick look at the poster for the Studio 35 screening. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out - and a thousand times happier than I was with our original promo stills! - as the broad expanse of field and horizon really nails the tone and timbre of the film. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger version.

These will be posted at businesses here in Columbus that served as locations for the film and will hopefully generate some interest among the general public. Two nice things about not designing and printing a bulk run of the poster are that we can tailor the design and copy specifically to the showing, and we also shorten the turnaround time on printing.

That means that I can be sitting here tweaking the design with less than two weeks to go and still have plenty of time to get it printed. Hopefully.

I’m proud to announce the Columbus premiere of Misdirection at on March 14th at Studio 35 Cinema!  It’s been a long, long road from a handful of scribbles on a legal pad to a bona fide, feature-length film, but finally we’ll get to screen it right here in Columbus for the hometown crowd.

From the start, Misdirection has been an Ohio-centric production, so it’s only fitting that the film open just down the street at the best independent theater in Columbus. Eric, the owner, and the rest of the Studio crew have been great to work with in setting this up, and for those of you who’ve never been to Studio 35, you’re in for a treat - not only do they have a ridiculously good beer selection, but you can order pizzas directly to the theater and eat them on the coffee tables in the last few rows of theater seating. It’s always been one of my favorite places to see a film, and it’ll be a great, relaxed setting to share the film with everyone who helped us bring it to the screen.

The film will start at 2:30 p.m. on the 14th of March with a short introduction by Yours Truly and be followed by an open Q&A session where you can ask me whatever ridiculous questions you want. Tickets are $5.00 at the Studio 35 box office and will go on sale a couple hours before the start of the film.

In the meantime, click on over to the Official Film Site to see a short teaser/trailer of the film. Leading up to the premiere I’ll be adding more info - including a longer trailer and several interviews with Becky and myself about making the film - so start spreading the word and I’ll see you on the 14th!

Just wanted to drop a quick note about the site - we upgraded the blog to the most recent version of WordPress over the weekend, and while the majority of things seem to be in place, there are some minor bugs here and there that I’ll stomp on over the next couple days.

Stay tuned, though, as we have some major happenings to announce in the coming weeks…

After a back-and-forth string of emails, we’re getting closer to locking down a date for the Columbus premiere. It looks like February 28th is out of the running, leaving the 7th and 14th of March as the current frontrunners. The 14th is pushing a bit too far out of the window I hoped to hit - mainly because it’s the Saturday before Ohio State’s finals week - but I’m doubtful that’ll preclude anyone from attending. I know when I was in college, at least, I’d subconsciously look for anything to procrastinate the inevitable braincram.

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Just checking in to let everyone know we’re hard at work in 2009 scheduling the Columbus premiere. I’ve been talking to a couple independent theaters around town about running the film, with an eye to schedule it towards the end of February or beginning of March.

I’m getting really excited about screening the film here in Columbus.  Not only are a lot of the actors from here, but we also were lucky enough to use a fair share of local businesses as locations for the film and receive grant support from the Greater Columbus Arts Council.  To be able to screen the film for most everyone who was involved in making the film will be a treat in itself.  Each actor was familiar with their particular scene, but none of them have any idea what happens in the “big picture”, so to speak, so the film should be quite a surprise.  If our festival premiere last May was any indication, it’ll also be fun to answer questions about making the film - once people have seen it, they were very interested to find out how we were able to pull it all off (e.g. Wait wait… How many banks let you pretend to rob them?!?).

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I’m pleased to announce that after weeks of finalizing designs, the official site for Misdirection is now live at www.MisdirectionTheMovie.com

Over the next two weeks we’ll be expanding it with more features and content - most notably a theatrical trailer or two and the long-awaited interviews with Rebecca and I on what it was like to make the film - as well as working out some minor design bugs. But right now I’m thrilled to finally have a more formal home for the film we’ve spent so much time making.

This production blog will continue to go strong, as well, as I plan to share news updates, war stories and more as we begin the entirely new endeavor of promoting, marketing and distributing the film. But right now it’s 3:30am and I need to grab a couple hours sleep so I can try to stay awake for my own premiere…

It’s official - Misdirection has been named an official selection to the 2008 Cleveland Independent Film Festival and will kick off a day of Ohio-centric films on May 8, 2008.

Since the film has yet to screen outside my editing suite, this will technically be the world/universe/everything premiere of the film, and it seems only fitting that such an Ohio-centric production should open at an Ohio festival. It will be showing at the The Gordon Square Theatre, which was opened in 1912 and is the oldest theatre in Cleveland still on its legs.

For anyone who wants to catch the first screening at 2:00 p.m. on May 8th, you can purchase tickets online at TicketWeb or buy them at the theater a half an hour before the screening. The festival runs for an entire week and has some pretty cool stuff scheduled, so while you’re clicking, you should check out Independent Pictures’ site for a full screening schedule.

I’ll be in attendance along with a growing handful of the cast and crew, so if you’re in the Cleveland area why not do the right thing, take a long lunch hour and hang out with us?