For the last two years and some change, I have been working on a movie called Luke and Brie Are on a First Date. It cost hardly any money and was one of the best experiences of my life and I always hoped that one day it could be seen by as many people as possible. That day has arrived people.

The good people at Cinetic Media and Amazon Video on Demand have made the film available to rent or purchase online starting now! What are you waiting for? Go-

Amazon Video On Demand

And here’s the trailer one last time-

A distinct lack of blogging on my end has led to some introspection. What have I been doing with my life lately? I wish the answer was “Plenty!”, but that wouldn’t be entirely accurate. One thing I have done, is join twitter. So if you’re on there and want more updates on my existence, check me out.

As for Luke and Brie Are on a First Date, well, that movie still exists. We signed a deal with Cinetic Rights Management, who found us digital distribution through Amazon Video on Demand, but a glitch in the output has caused a rather lengthy delay in getting that available to the public. It’s been frustrating but hopefully that will be resolved very soon. In the meantime, a DVD of the movie is also for sale on Amazon if you’re into that sort of thing. We have one more festival screening coming up that I know of and I’ll mention that again when the time comes. It’s been a nice ride for that movie.

I’m ready to move on though and I’m working now on making This is Martin Bonner my next film. That’s a working title that made more sense when the film was just an idea but now that it’s a script, something better must be found. I had a meeting with an actor that I wrote a major part for and he’s interested so that’s one hurdle already crossed. Now if we can get some funding, we’ll really be somewhere. I’m aiming for a late March 2010 shoot so the countdown has begun.  Here’s a video with a clue as to what you can expect.

When Luke and Brie Are on a First Date played in Los Angeles back in December as part of the Zero Film Festival, a guy named Stefan came up to me afterward to say he really liked it. He was there from Germany with an experimental short of his and he recommended I get in touch with his buddy Sven who organizes a cool film event in Germany called Film Brunch. I sent him the movie and he liked it enough to make it their May selection.

Fast forward to yesterday and I get an e-mail telling me that the screening happened and it was a success, which is good because I was worried about how much a not totally fluent crowd would lose in a film that’s all dialogue with no subtitles. Basically, a group of people get together, 25 in all, and have brunch and then watch a movie. We should do this in L.A.

Stefan was cool enough to send me a picture of the screening room and some of the brunchers. Looks great. Thanks to those guys for organizing it and including our movie. Check out their website if you speak German.

Tomorrow begins the Indie Grits Film Festival in Columbia, South Carolina and I am very sorry to not be able to attend. Day jobs and broken kidneys are keeping me in Los Angeles for the time being. But the folks that run the show were kind enough to select Luke and Brie Are on a First Date for the program and it will be playing on Friday night at 8pm in the historic Nickelodeon Theater. We played the south once before in Mississippi but I have a feeling those Carolinians are going to be one of our best audiences. Hope to get a report back from someone who goes to check it out. If you’re there and interested, you should also check out Zach Clark’s Modern Love is Automatic on Thursday and Ronnie Gunter’s Solid Country Gold on Saturday. You won’t be disappointed. For good measure, here’s our trailer to remind you what this movie looks like.

We should have some more exciting news concerning this bad boy in the next few weeks. Stay tuned…

On Saturday night, the Zero Film Festival hosted a special screening of Luke and Brie Are on a First Date at the Yost Theater in Santa Ana. I hadn’t been to Orange County in a long time and George and Meg were champions enough to tag along. Matt Boese was going to meet us there and serve as a bit of a guide since he’s an O.C. boy. We left at five and I had scoffed at George’s suggestion that there would be traffic even on a Saturday. I had to eat my scoff as we sat on the 5 puttering along but we got there with enough time to spare to grab a bite at a place called Memphis, which was Boese approved.

We actually thought we had more time than we did because the shorts programmed played after our movie instead of before. As a result, we walked in a few moments after it started to a crowd of maybe 30-40 people. The venue was cool, but set up for music rather than films and the acoustics were doing a number on our sound. The rough parts sounded more rough but the good parts actually sounded the best I’ve heard so you win some you lose some. The crowd seemed to dig it, although towards the end people started filing in in anticipation of the bands playing next and were chatting it up at the back of the theater. I don’t know how distracting it was to someone trying to pay attention who doesn’t know the movie line for line but what are you gonna do? My friend Heather, whom I’ve known since high school drove down from North Hollywood with her boyfriend and another dude and so they are amazing for that. They had kind words to say after when we went back to Memphis for a drink. Seriously, downtown Santa Ana was aesthetically pretty pleasing but would it kill them to have one bar down there?

Haven’t heard how our shows in Illinois went this weekend but hopefully they were sold out and received ten minute standing ovations. Got word this week of another festival coming up in April so I’ll write more about that soon. For now- pictures…

We got things started with a little shot of Jameson.

The dope Yost Theater.

Inadvertently snapped a picture of the movie when it was me on screen. Ego maniac I know.

Vauxhall Broadcast keeps the party moving.

Me, George and Heather.

Heather and her bf.

These two.

Ba-bam!  Luke and Brie Are on a First Date is heading to Orange County for a one night only screening at the historic Yost Theater.  The good folks from the Zero Film Festival are putting it on and they are throwing a huge bash with booze and bands afterwards.  I’ll be there with some members of cast and crew since we never get tired of seeing this thing and we love Santa Ana.  Seriously, lovers capital of California.  I know you probably want to see Watchmen three times this weekend but do yourself a favor and see this instead.

Also, we got a little write-up in the OC Weekly fresh on the newstands today but if you don’t live in the area and want to see what it says, check the link.  Thanks to those guys for taking the time to watch and review the movie.

Also!  Don’t forget that the Lake County Film Festival is going on right now and if you are anywhere near the Chicago area, you should go see Luke and Brie Are on a First Date there.  I couldn’t go but the festival founder is a stand up guy and you should support him putting on this event in tough times.  That’s it for now but I’ll be sure to post some pictures from Saturday’s event once I survive it.

If you live in Portland and have nothing to do tomorrow night, then you should go check out this event. Luke and Brie Are on a First Date is screening and some cool people will be there. Who knows if we’ll ever play Portland again so don’t miss this opportunity. Do it!

With no more screenings and no awards, our time in Oxford was at an end. We had lunch at Waffle House (amazing) and started the long drive back to Nashville. Keegan didn’t want to push the serpentine belt so we drove 60 the whole way on cruise control, much to the chagrin of a lot of dickheads on the road. It took about five hours but we made it back after stopping for souvenirs at Loretta Lynn’s Kitchen. For some reason, there’s a giant plastic buffalo in front of the store overlooking the highway. It also has glowing red eyes.

That night we got pizza and watched the Grammys, which was fun even though most performances were awful. One more trip to the 3 Crows bar and then to bed. The next day we’d hop our flights back to Los Angeles and our day jobs. It’s nice to get away and see some films and share ours with new people. Hopefully there’s one or two more festivals in our future before we lay this puppy to rest.

Saturday. George woke up early and went on a tour of Faulkner’s house with his friends and some other festival-goers. Keegan got up early to take his car to the shop and find out his serpentine belt would most likely break on our drive home and there was nobody in town that could replace it. I slept in. We ate lunch at Applebees since it was walking distance from our hotel and then headed over to the theater for our 2:30pm screening of Luke and Brie Are on a First Date. To my pleasant surprise, we had a good crowd of about 70-80 people. For some reason the movie played with a mono track of sound instead of stereo so it was a bit rough in some patches, but otherwise pretty enjoyable. One older couple right behind us walked out after 45 minutes or so but no mass exodus. The q&a afterward was a little grim but they almost always are. A few people came up to us afterward and said they liked it so that’s all we can hope for.

Afterward, we all went to the town square to get ice cream and hang out. Dinner at Ajax was amazing and then back to the theater for Ballast. Keegan and George opted to see He’s Just Not That Into You instead and they proceeded to spend the entire rest of the trip discussing the best parts. Ballast was really good but not quite as amazing as I had anticipated it to be. My top 10 from 2008 remains unchanged. When that let out, we headed back to the square for the awards ceremony where we picked up zero trophies. There was an official afterparty but we skipped out and went to a dive bar around the corner and played darts and connect 4. Before bed we all said our prayers that Keegan’s car wouldn’t die in the middle of nowhere on the way home tomorrow.

When we got back to the hotel late at night, Sean had the munchies for some Lays potato chips. He put in his dollar but the bag got stuck before coming down. He put in another dollar and the one behind it got stuck too. Two dollars. No chips.

We finally arrived in Oxford at 5:50 a.m. on Friday morning. All five of us piled into a room at the Holiday Inn Express and hit the hay. George, Keegan and I got up at 11 to make it over to Town Square for a filmmakers luncheon. Sean and Tara slept like bums. I’m terrible at meeting people and networking so the luncheon consisted of George, Keegan and I sitting at our own table and waiting for people to come to us. One dude did, Eric Snider and he told us about some drama involving Jeff Wells, who sounds like a douchebag. No point in going into that here. The luncheon was a bit too fancy for our tastes since we were starving so we dipped out and ate at Square Pizza. We were later told this place sucks. And it does. George then went off to hang with his local friends and the rest of us saw School Play. I went because the synopsis sounded eerily similar to a documentary I made in college and was curious to see another filmmaker’s approach to the subject. They weren’t there and attendance was slight but we all thought the movie was great. Really great.

We tried to see Prom Night in Mississippi but it was sold out like crazy so we met up with George and his cool friends Erin and Sean. They took us to Taylor Grocery for dinner, which is some famous catfish joint a few miles outside of Oxford. It took forever to get in and get our food but it was pretty damn good. After that we headed over to the evening’s party at some warehouse. Again, I didn’t really approach anyone for chit chat but did talk to Eric Snider some more and some other fine folks from Cinematical. Tara passed out a few postcards and I did the same but our self-promotion was severly limited and if nobody showed up to our screening it would be our own fault. There was also this official photographer walking around documenting the event but he always passed by us without taking any pictures. Total snubbery. We decided that if he wasn’t going to take our photo then we would take his, and tried to sneak ourselves into them. He caught on.