Hi All, 

It is 4:48 am and we are currently waiting in the Winnipeg airport en route to Sundance.   But while we sit in our odd combination of sleeply nervousness, we thought we'd share a recent interview we did with Wired Magazine - talking about the making of IGTM & heading into Sundance.  

NEW CLIP:

Not only is there a great article (Thanks to Angela Watercutter), but there is also a new exclusive clip for you to watch!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

Hi Everyone,

Nearly one year ago today, we arrived back in Winnipeg after spending 3 months on the road shooting for this film.  It’s been an absolutely crazy, rewarding, stressful, fantastical year.  

When we started this project, we really had no idea it would be doing the things that it’s doing. Like, Co’mon - Sundance...really?  SXSW? ... what?!  Everything that this film achieves is made all the more special by it’s beginnings.

From Day One, this film’s existence, and success, has been the product of a great community of people that saw something they related to in either the Kickstarter, the website or the videos. We’re indeed two people making this.  But we hardly did it alone.  

We’re extremely thankful to everyone who supported this film.  Whether it be putting your name down for a preorder, throwing us up on your Tumblr, making a tweet or just passing a link to a friend - all of those things add up and have made Indie Game: The Movie what it is.

So, going into this holiday season we have a TON to be thankful for.  You’ve help make this one of the most amazing, most fulfilling years ever.  Thank you again.

We wish you a happy, safe holiday season.  We can’t wait to show you the film in 2012!

Until Then,

-James & Lisanne

(Feel free to read the original post over on our site)

Hey Everybody!

We have some pretty amazing news...

Inde Game: The Movie will make its world premiere as an official selection in the World Documentary Competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival!

Sundance is one of the top film festivals in the world and the premiere showcase for independent cinema.  Last year,  3,812 feature films were submitted (796 in the world doc category), likely more this year.  Of those films, only 14 were selected for competition in the World Documentary Category.

We are exceptionally thrilled, humbled and, actually, kind of  numbed by this honor.  It’s surreal to think that Indie Game: The Movie has been invited to the same festival that introduced the world to the likes of:  Super Size Me, Born Into Brothels, Man on Wire, The Cove and Waiting for Superman.

...that’s kind of a heavy club to think about joining.

 
Like many of the video games & designers featured in the film, we’re a tiny team (two people made the film from front to back) aiming to create to something new. Something personal.  Something with meaning.  

Our film looks to be one of the very first film on video game design to be featured at such a high level.  Being able to expose a wider slice of the world to the passion, drives, and dreams that reside behind video games themselves is a mind-blowing privilege.  

Having this film invited to one of the most prestigious festivals in the world certainly wasn’t on the agenda when, 18 months ago, we hopped into our Toyota Yaris and started bouncing around North America.  We were two people with a couple of cameras, a rough script and the crowd-sourced support of a small but fantastic fan base.

From inception to the finished product, so many people have helped and supported this film.  We are extremely thankful to everyone who has ever tweeted, blogged, or even mentioned our film.  And of course, we literally could not have made this film without the generous preorder support people showed during our Kickstarter campaigns.  That early support was crucial in growing this film into what it is now.

We are indebted to so many of you.  This whole experience has been a life changing, dream come true.  Thank You so much.  We can not wait to share the film with you!

"Soooo, when can we see it?"

We’re are working out the details of a preview screening tour that will start after Sundance.

• Our first post-Sundance screening will be in our hometown Winnipeg on Feb. 3, 2012, see details here www.indiegamethemovie.com/igtmscreenings orwww.indiegamethemoviewinnipeg.eventbrite.com.

• After the festival screenings and the tour, we’ll be releasing the digital and DVD versions of the film.

• For updates on the tour and the release, sign-up for the mailing list.

• If want to see Indie Game: The Movie in your town, or if you’re part of an organization that would like to screen the film, please send in a request here. We may not be able to respond to every one, but we do read and consider every submission. These requests help know where to bring the film first. This process has helped find organizations and venues that we’re working with, right now.

So, from the bottom of our hearts, thanks again for all your support over this past year and a half!

Spreading the word, telling your friends about the trailer, tweeting and sharing the Facebook page - all these things have really helped and we deeply appreciate it. 

Take Care,

James & Lisanne

Hey Everybody, we have a new blog post (with video) over at IndieGameTheMovie.com

We've started to show the film, and the new post is all about screening for film for the first time to the characters in the movie.  You can read it here.

Hey Everybody, 

Here's a quick look at the T-Shirt design.  They come in three colors:  Blue, grey and black.  And are available in sizes S - XXL. 

If you've ordered a T-Shirt through the campaign, you'll be receiving a survey to fill out (size, color, address) very soon.  Keep an eye on your email. We're aiming to ship all shirts before the film is officially released.

If you didn't get a shirt through the campaign, but would still like one, you can order one here :)

Indie Game: The Movie t-shirts are available now!

Colours: black, blue and gray

Sizes: Mens S, M, L, XL, XXL (note: these t-shirts fit a tad on the small side)

Price: $24.99 (plus shipping)

Get your t-shirt here.

...

Hey everybody, we're continuing to bring you a glimpse into the Indie Game: The Movie Special Edition.

The Special Edition will include the feature film, as well as stories from many other game developers, including Alec Holowka and Derek Yu, the team behind the Seamus McNally award winner, Aquaria.

In the SE, Alec and Derek speak honestly about the challenges of creating a game and discovering its strengths as you go. It's an inspirational story about the creative process and collaboration.

We also hear from Alec's journey to make his new game, Marian. And, we talk to Derek about his upcoming XBLA title, Spelunky.

At one point, nearly every piece that will be included with the Special Edition was marked as being in the main film.  This piece in particular was really hard not to include.  Basically, it came down to what is the eternal bane of many filmmakers - time and pacing.  This story needed breathing room to do it justice, and the film needed to be markedly shorter and more quickly paced.  It's cuts like this that make us so thankful that we decided to go all out on the S.E.  It'll be a very good piece :)

You can Preorder the Special Edition via PayPal or our (soon-to-be-ending) Kickstarter.

"So...what’s up with the SNES controller?  They know that’s not indie right?"

When videos from the film get posted elsewhere on the Internet, invariably the comment thread gravitates towards the fact that we prominently feature a Super Nintendo Controller, hanging from power lines and twisting in the wind (people also seem enamoured by the display of varying facial hair, but that’s a different post :) 

We thought we take a moment to tell the story of how a dangling SNES controller kinda accidentally became the defacto image for the film.

Back Story

Early in 2010, in our hometown of Winnipeg, we were walking down a backalley shortcut to grab breakfast.  In the alley, we came across a couple of hanging Nintendo controllers, thrown up on power lines in the manner of old sneakers.  We immediately recognized it as a rather unique and striking image.

In our heads we imagined a scenario of bored 11 year old creating a kind of accidental 8-bit (or in this case 16) graffiti/public art.  It could easily been a set of 20 somethings on their way to the beer vendor.  But in our mind, it was something a little more magical.

Around this time, we were strongly considering, but hadn’t made a decision, doing Indie Game: The Movie.  But, we were close enough to almost doing it that James came back later that day and filmed some B-roll of the hanging controllers just in case it might be useful in some way.

Fast forward a couple months, and we're editing together our first ‘proof of concept video’(Edmund’s Aether video).  We needed some nice visuals to open the piece with, and we needed to be able to place a bit of a text-based preamble on.  The hanging SNES controller fit the bill perfectly.

At the time, it was actually doubly appropriate. In an earlier iteration of the video, Edmund discusses how he was a SNES fanboy growing up.  So, the nostalgic imagery of sneaker-like hanging discarded controller was unbelievable spot on.  In the end, that section of the video was cut, but we still enjoyed the imagery and what it could mean in the context of a film about independent games.

More Than a Pretty Face?

And that’s why we left it in.  Of course, it’s a lovely, nicely iconic bit of footage, but the image also has a some rather nice subtexts to it.  The type of stuff that film essays delight in crafting a paragraph or two about.  Without going into too much detail, we rather enjoy the references to nostalgia and childhood inspiration - so it works on that level.  Also, if one were so inclined, one could read into the image a pseudo-statement about discarded technology/discarded gatekeepers and how less reliant independent developers are on the big players than they were previous.

So, the image has those types of fun angles going on with it.  Which is one of the reasons we kept it for so long.  

Accidental Branding

Another reason the hanging controller became the image most associated with our film, and let this be a lesson to anyone considering an open-development like project, is because that’s what we had when the Internet found us.  

The film has been really fortunate to receive a good amount of press coverage over the course of its development, and in each post, the hanging controller was (understandably) popping up again and again.  It wasn’t our ideal image (we hadn’t figured that out yet), but it was the image we had at the time.  And before we knew it, the hanging controller was indeed the icon for Indie Game: The Movie.  A quick google image search kinda confirmed this for us.

Much of the project has been like this - a process of accidents, discovery and going with various flows.  You try something and it sticks, You meet someone by chance, and they become the person you follow for a year.  You stare at 300 hours of footage, and work bits and pieces until the real story emerges.

The hanging controller is a microcosm of our experience with this film.  Taking interest in something beautiful while heading somewhere else....

-James (& Lisanne)

p.s. Fun little aside: Often people say we should have used a NES controller instead, as that is much more indie-centric.  Well, there indeed was a NES controller hanging.  But sadly, it’s wasn’t hanging nearly as artfully.  What can we say, it just didn’t ‘bring it’ to the shoot that day and wasn’t giving the camera good face. See for yourself...

"So...what’s up with the SNES controller?  They know that’s not indie right?"

When videos from the film get posted elsewhere on the Internet, invariably the comment thread gravitates towards the fact that we prominently feature a Super Nintendo Controller, hanging from power lines and twisting in the wind (people also seem enamoured by the display of varying facial hair, but that’s a different post :) 

We thought we take a moment to tell the story of how a dangling SNES controller kinda accidentally became the defacto image for the film.

Back Story

Early in 2010, in our hometown of Winnipeg, we were walking down a backalley shortcut to grab breakfast.  In the alley, we came across a couple of hanging Nintendo controllers, thrown up on power lines in the manner of old sneakers.  We immediately recognized it as a rather unique and striking image.

In our heads we imagined a scenario of bored 11 year old creating a kind of accidental 8-bit (or in this case 16) graffiti/public art.  It could easily been a set of 20 somethings on their way to the beer vendor.  But in our mind, it was something a little more magical.

Around this time, we were strongly considering, but hadn’t made a decision, doing Indie Game: The Movie.  But, we were close enough to almost doing it that James came back later that day and filmed some B-roll of the hanging controllers just in case it might be useful in some way.

Fast forward a couple months, and we're editing together our first ‘proof of concept video’ (Edmund’s Aether video).  We needed some nice visuals to open the piece with, and we needed to be able to place a bit of a text-based preamble on.  The hanging SNES controller fit the bill perfectly.

At the time, it was actually doubly appropriate. In an earlier iteration of the video, Edmund discusses how he was a SNES fanboy growing up.  So, the nostalgic imagery of sneaker-like hanging discarded controller was unbelievable spot on.  In the end, that section of the video was cut, but we still enjoyed the imagery and what it could mean in the context of a film about independent games.

More Than a Pretty Face?

And that’s why we left it in.  Of course, it’s a lovely, nicely iconic bit of footage, but the image also has a some rather nice subtexts to it.  The type of stuff that film essays delight in crafting a paragraph or two about.  Without going into too much detail, we rather enjoy the references to nostalgia and childhood inspiration - so it works on that level.  Also, if one were so inclined, one could read into the image a pseudo-statement about discarded technology/discarded gatekeepers and how less reliant independent developers are on the big players than they were previous.

So, the image has those types of fun angles going on with it.  Which is one of the reasons we kept it for so long.  

Accidental Branding

Another reason the hanging controller became the image most associated with our film, and let this be a lesson to anyone considering an open-development like project, is because that’s what we had when the Internet found us.  

The film has been really fortunate to receive a good amount of press coverage over the course of its development, and in each post, the hanging controller was (understandably) popping up again and again.  It wasn’t our ideal image (we hadn’t figured that out yet), but it was the image we had at the time.  And before we knew it, the hanging controller was indeed the icon for Indie Game: The Movie.  A quick google image search kinda confirmed this for us.

Much of the project has been like this - a process of accidents, discovery and going with various flows.  You try something and it sticks, You meet someone by chance, and they become the person you follow for a year.  You stare at 300 hours of footage, and work bits and pieces until the real story emerges.

The hanging controller is a microcosm of our experience with this film.  Taking interest in something beautiful while heading somewhere else....

-James (& Lisanne)

p.s. Fun little aside: Often people say we should have used a NES controller instead, as that is much more indie-centric.  Well, there indeed was a NES controller hanging.  But sadly, it’s wasn’t hanging nearly as artfully.  What can we say, it just didn’t ‘bring it’ to the shoot that day and wasn’t giving the camera good face. See for yourself...

(Poor show indeed.  No working the angles. No smizing.  If this were ANTM, the Jays would’ve sent her packing after the first week....Reality TV is the shameful indulgence of many doc folks...er...research, yeah, research)