No, no… I’m not going to show you dailies, not when there’s a full film to be seen so soon! I was just being “clever.”

The next thing y’all will see is the poster. And that’s coming very soon…

I called this “dailies,” b/c I’m going to try to write pretty much daily from this point until the Premiere… or maybe semi-daily… tri-daily??? (more…)

Oooh, it was tough sitting on this one…

Lebanon, Pa. will have its World Premiere in March at the SXSW film festival in Austin, TX !!!!

For a long time we felt SX would be an awesome fit for the film, and we were beyond pleased as it all came together in the last few weeks…

We’ll need everyone’s help to get the word out. Much more coming over the next days and weeks (including the debut of our new poster!).

I cannot wait to finally share our film with, well, everyone. – Ben

Check out the official SXSW site – We’re in the “Spotlight Premieres”section…

This is the year you can see this movie. (I think. I hope!).

Welcome to 2010, everyone. I happened to have an especially wonderful holiday season with friends and family this year and I can only hope the same was true for all of you.

I know I said the movie was “done,” and it mostly is… but we actually went into Milkboy Recording yesterday to do some ADR work with Rachel. We were re-recording a little bit of dialogue that upon reflection we thought just wasn’t clear enough (and by that I mean sound quality, not content). We’ll be doing the same with Josh soon… here’s a pic!

Rachel looping at Milkboy

In other news, we are currently waiting to hear back from festivals and sales agents regarding the film. It’s nerve-wracking, but the wait is expected. I can’t wait to show you all this awesome movie! – Ben

More pics below the break! (more…)

Hello hello.

So I don’t really know how to say this, but the movie is *done*.

Crazy, right? (more…)

Over Rob Giglio's Shoulder

Hello people! So last week was essentially the busiest week I’ve had since shooting the movie a year ago… Not only did I have my usual work and pursuits, but was prepping to produce/AD a short for my friend Amy Roy, which we just wrapped yesterday. *And* last Mon-Fri we also happened to be color correcting a little film called “Lebanon, Pa.”

Yes, it is official. We have changed the title. Alert the media.

(More photos and details in the full post!) (more…)

So I stopped by our image post-production house today to take a look at the FX shots for Lebanon…

Will (Josh Hopkins) is a Philadelphia advertising executive, and he’s in charge of a popular campaign for  ”Eagle Valley Ice Cream.” (Can you believe I just googled them *now* to make sure they didn’t exist? Doh! That would have sucked… Ah, I probably did so when I wrote the script… but it’s been years since then!!)

Anyway, billboards for this campaign keep appearing as the film unfolds, and we decided long ago it would be much more cost effective to have those billboards put in digitally than to produce and rent actual billboards. I knew The Dive, our post-house in Philadelphia, was good, but the stuff I saw today looked better than I had imagined. They haven’t even finished the work yet, but already they look real.

It just boggles my mind that I could write these things on a page years ago, and when it came to shoot we just shot an empty field, or building, and now there they are… as if we had shot them in real life.

Credit also goes to Gary E. Irwin who designed a hilarious campaign that I can totally imagine Will guiding with a sh*t-eating grin (he doesn’t always love his job… you’ll see when you see the movie).

Can’t wait to share it with everyone… the day is coming.

Final tidbit: We’ve entered Sundance. Cross your fingers. It’s so hard to get in. But we have a great film, so maybe, just maybe, it can happen.

- Ben

For the first time in a long (long, long, long) time, I feel like we’re close.

I had thought, several weeks back, that we had locked picture. In fact, I told many people we had locked picture, including myself.

But after some feedback from friends in  the industry (and one glorious week off to clear my head – my first since 6 months *before* we shot the movie), I decided to “unlock” the movie and make some tweaks. Nothing huge. In the end, I only cut out another 1.5 minutes. But even something so small (or actually, many tiny, less than a second cuts) can make a huge difference… (more…)

http://superchannel.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/oscar-talk-for-israeli-film-lebanon-has-them-scratching-their-heads-in-pennsylvania/

Hey there Folks:

The movie is so close to done! I’ve been working my tail off, I promise you. I owe you a post filling you in on some juicy tidbits, but first, I got a call from Canada the other day and it resulted in this article… you may have heard a little film called “Lebanon” won a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival… No, it is *not* our film… our film isn’t even finished yet! The article will fill you in a bit

Hey there folks. 

Just wanted to keep you updated…

Finished the third cut of the movie last week. This was the first one where I actually cut some scenes. Nothing major. Just little parts of scenes and a transitional scene or two that didn’t seem necessary… more material for the DVD!!!

On this next and perhaps final cut, that is the one where I’ll need to slaughter some beauties – i.e. cut out a beloved scene or two if it isn’t central to the story. I’m a big believer in pacing. Movies are an emotional art form in my opinion. People often read books to think. They see paintings to see something beautiful. They watch movies, first and foremost, to feel. Whether you’re feeling exhilarated by an action sequence, laughing at Ben Stiller or crying your eyes out at the end of Remains of The Day, people go to the cinema to be moved. That’s my take, anyway. I’m riffing here. This is a blog, not a term paper. So don’t expect documentation. But the pacing is so important to the emotional state of the audience because they are only invested if they’re continually interested…

Anywho, as the scenes of the film are now cut together pretty much to my satisfaction, I’m now looking to the big picture – how the film works as a whole and what I feel the pulse rate will be of the audience as they watch. Got to keep them perked up in those seats, munching popcorn and swept along by the story. Then I’ve done my job. (more…)

Ack! It happened!! I promised I’d be updating more regularly and it’s been two months!! 

(Slaps wrist). What excuse could I possibly have for taking so long??!

How about finishing the assembly cut of the movie? (more…)