The film is finished, and we’re getting all set for the public premiere this Friday – though there’s a cast/crew/press screening on Wednesday, and the director came round with the master copy last week. Chris + I sat and watched it, and also got to participate in the commentary which was recorded as we saw the film for the second time that evening.

I am, of course, entirely biased, so hardly expect you to believe any comments I have regarding the qualities of the film (we’ll recruit an independent opinion for our actual review next week, don’t worry!). But given the budget was well below what Robert Rodriguez allegedly used for El Mariachi (and even the $7,000 claimed was a fraction of the total spent to get it actually into cinemas), and it was shot over three long weekends, Synthetic Truth punches far above its weight.

It kicks the arse of a lot of direct-to-video product, and has a lot more to say, and says it more effectively, than a number of recent cinema releases. While not exactly a feel-good film, it mixes up emotions effectively, with some great characters and some memorable dialogue. Must confess I’m still uncertain as to whether or not I should send my parents a copy (the language has more in common with Goodfellas than the school pantomime in which they last saw me perform), but it’s certainly something with which I am proud to have been involved.

Recording the commentary track was an interesting experience; we largely just sat in the background, and allowed Zach and Ryan to talk, since unlike us, they were on the set for almost every scene. Still had a blast, interjecting the odd sarcastic aside, though if Denise Richards or the MPAA hear it, we could be in trouble. 🙂 It was amusing to realise how much method acting had gone on – the kid eating a packet of Goldfish snacks, genuinely was eating them, to the extent that after multiple takes, he finally upchucked them off-screen. Now that’s suffering for your art.

Chris’s sterling efforts on the publicity front will be coming to fruition, with a bunch of newspaper articles scheduled for the week ahead, in time to whip the populace into a state of frenzy for Friday’s premiere. That’s our main shot at recouping production costs, between admissions and sales of tapes on the night. We should hopefully have DVDs too, as the film has now gone off for mastering, so special editions (commentary, trailers, music videos, etc.), signed by the director will also be available.

Where it goes from there is hard to say, but will largely be determined by market forces. The current plan is to send it off to various film festivals first, while simultaneously making enquiries with various distributors of independent movies. Ideally, we’d like Miramax to come in and take it off our hands for $3 million dollars, in which case, the film festivals can go whistle. 🙂 Though being honest, we’d probably settle for Troma, and a slightly smaller sum…

Premiere report to follow next week!

So I am now an actor. As I write this, various members of the Ballistic cast and crew are hurling themselves, each other, and anyone else foolish enough to get in the way, into our pool – tonight is the wrap party for Synthetic Truth. Director Zach Yoshioka is among them, but before he went down for the third time, assured me that my scenes have not ended up on the cutting room floor as I had feared.

I had two scenes to shoot, on different days – the first one was by far the hardest, since it was mostly outdoors, in 40C+ temperatures, which meant every take was a test of endurance. It also required a fair bit of co-ordination, since I had to drive “home”, get out of my car, lecture my “son”, see him drive off, then stare at the friend he left behind. I appreciate this is not the sort of thing that would tax Jet Li, but doing all this and remembering my lines? Sheesh.

Even the driving part proved a bit of a problem, since I was parked down the road, around the corner and out of earshot, so couldn’t hear Zach yell “Action!”. Admittedly, this was largely because I had the windows up and the air-conditioning cranked to full. But this film is set in Phoenix, and no-one here drives with their windows down, so I was really just protecting the cinematic illusion. Honest.

Actually, another piece of auto filming nearly caused a horrible accident – when my “son” was screeching out of the driveway, he pulled right out in front of a neighbour, who wisely opted to stop, otherwise the filming of the “car crash scene” would have suddenly been brought forward. The odd thing is, I wanted to shout a warning, but was waiting for Zach to say “Cut!” first. I guess this means I take my acting seriously, if I’m prepared to sacrifice someone’s else life in order to stay in character.

The second day was much less taxing, largely because most of what I had to do was sit at a table and look suitably stern and/or disciplinarian. Still managed to forget completely one of my lines, but it all worked out, since the dialogue in question wouldn’t have made any sense in the way the scene was blocked out – I was supposed to smell alcohol on my “son’s” breath, but since he never came within 10 feet of me, it was kinda questionable.

Probably the trickiest thing over the two days was squeezing myself back into my suit trousers, which have hardly seen any activity since I moved out here, the best part of three years ago. Quite a few steaks have passed under the belt since that time, so chalk up another benefit of self-employment. I bet you Tom Cruise doesn’t have to suck his stomach in while delivering lines.

The next big date is the premiere, on August 29th, which I am kinda looking forward to, though I still claim Zach is being sarcastic when he says I did okay. The prospect of seeing myself 20 foot tall on the cinema screen is distinctly disturbing, but then I’ll just have to sit back and wait for the other offers to roll in. Have they finished The Lord of the Rings yet, do you think? 🙂

Much as we’ve enjoyed the experience, think both Chris and I let out a collective sigh of relief on Friday night – or rather, around 2am Saturday morning – when we finally slumped into bed. Don’t let anyone tell you differently: executive producer is not a title to be taken lightly. Still, seeing a packed theatre for the 8pm screening made it all worthwhile. We’d spent much of the previous week faxing and calling newspapers and radio stations, and were rewarded with a blast of publicity, that translated into 400 bums on seats for the first showing, and an eager queue of people outside waiting for the 10 o’clock show [which, if truth be told, started about 10:30 – it was always a little optimistic to cram introductions, two music videos, a photo montage, a 1:50 movie, and post-showing thanks into a two-hour time slot!]

We were taking tickets at the door and running the merchandise stall, selling copies of the film on VHS for $5, and the DVD, with the commentary mentioned last time plus a bunch of other stuff, for $20. Between sales, we watched the movie twice more, making a total of five times in the past week. Though for the sold-out first show, we were reduced to peering round the corner – it was a bit like watching a pan-and-scan version. When you see a film that often, it takes on a whole, surreal air: you find yourself watching characters in the background as they play chess with packets of sugar, spotting extras from one scene turning up elsewhere, that kind of thing. You see it on a different level, when you no longer need to listen to the dialogue, since you can pretty much recite it verbatim.

Not that the week leading up to the premiere was without its troubling moments, most notably when, during the pre-screening, Zach noticed the sound and picture were out of sync. Some horrible moments ensued before we realised this was not down to the actual DVD – which we’d signed off as perfect, that very afternoon – but a flaw in the projection system. Phew. With the first screening out of the way, we now go full-steam ahead onto the festival circuit. We’re going to submit it to them for the next year, giving us a complete round of possible venues, and once that’s done, we’ll be after some kind of commercial distribution deal. Whether we tie-up with some distribution company, or go straight to a chain (such as Best Buy, Suncoast or Blockbuster) will depend – probably on what offers we get!

It is comforting, on this level, to realise what a huge amount of product is out there – a trawl along the shelves reveals any quantity of DVDs which make our microbudget production look like a Spielberg picture. It’s clear that digital camcorders have made it easy for any idiot to make a picture, albeit one on the level of kindergarten finger-painting. If you film it, they will come. However, our film festival trips have shown us that an enormous number of great movies never see the light of shelves. Just looking over our top tens for the past couple of years – where are Ever Since the World Ended, Boys From Madrid, and Dead Dogs Lie? So, it’s safe to say that our duties as executive producers are not nearly as over as we thought. Sigh… 🙂

Buy Synthetic Truth on VHS or DVD now!