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Finally finished my feature!!!

Hi Everyone,

My romantic comedy, 'The Dinner Date' is now finished along with trailer, website and facebook page. I'm currently seeking distribution and may enter it into a festival or two. Love to get some feedback!

Trailer
http://vimeo.com/34779531

website
www.thedinnerdatemovie.com

facebook
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Dinner-Date/384132611603880

synopsis
Maggie and Charles could be soul mates, but they’re destined to never meet. So Eve covertly sets ‘the dinner date’ into action amidst her boyfriend Steve’s protest. But with this seemingly good intention comes an unforeseen dilemma. Will Eve wish she had never tampered with fate?

The film was shot in 7 days for £700 ($975). I was writer/director/DP/editor. A lot of work, and a LONG time in post production, but finally got there in the end!!
 
Thanks everyone for the encouraging words, and for taking the time.

As for my budget, I didn't include the time I spent. If I had paid myself for my working hours, even at minimum wage, it would have bumped the overall to the 5 digit mark...

Win
 
Love the animation WIN! Really love the budget -> £700 ($975)
Well Done!!! Keep up the great work! Get on plane mate, let's have an LA screening! ;)
 
Thanks so much! I'm actually thinking of entering the L.A. based festival, Dances With Films. Are you familiar with this festival?

Wiin
 
Sweet, like others have said, congrats on finishing!

As far as festivals, the common thing is to enter a mess of them. In my (limited) festival experience and from what I've read of others' here, entering festivals is a bit like playing roulette. You only enter a few, very low chance of acceptance (not to mention winning or getting a good timeslot) but you save the fees. Take the shotgun approach and enter more and you'll have a much higher chance, though more out of pocket. Most making features don't mind spending over a thousand dollars on entry fees, which will cover about 15-20 festivals. Many do a lot more. Considering you're low budget, I could see how that might be a consideration haha.

It's sweet though man. Very eclectic feel, and the british accents make the piece feel a little more expensive to my American ears haha.
 
a LONG time in post production, but finally got there in the end!!

My Q is about the partially animated trailer.

Was that drawn style done specifically for the trailer, or maybe just for character introductions in the film, or for a general style/effect throught the entire film?

Basically , I'm just curious as to where the majority of time was spent in post. :cool:

Looks pretty funny, btw.
 
Hi Paul,

Concerning the animations in the trailier, the character intros were done specifically for the trailer, and don't appear in the film. The animation at the end, showing the actors names, is from the title sequence, which can be seen in it's entirety here

http://vimeo.com/36768556

There's animated wipes throughout the film.

The trailer and title sequence took about 2 or 3 months total.

------

Zensteve,

Thanks for the good advice, you're right, you can't just enter one and expect to get in, I'll play the odds and enter a lot!!

Win
 
Good job on making a feature! That's a massive achievement in our field. The £700 budget gives me a lot of faith, how did you go about location release forms, have to fork out much there?

Not too keen on the repeated footage, that stood out to me.
 
I didn't pay for any of my locations. We used my flat (got permission from the landlord). The few shopfronts we used was the same, just asked nicely and got signed release forms. Basically, we had such a small crew that they knew we weren't going to disturb.

The hardest location to obtain was for a simple scene in front of a barber shop. I had to talk the owner in to it, took over a week. But now I get my haircut there and we're good friends. Of course, if I don't bring him the promised blu ray of the film on my next visit, i'll have hell to pay. :)
 
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