Right now, I'm at Sundance, which has been pretty productive. I've been hanging out a little with Jonny Mars, who's in a short (HELLION) that's playing, and talking to a bunch of people about a bunch of things, all while covering Slamdance for Filmmaker Magazine.

UP COUNTRY is picture locked, and we're chipping away at the color correction and sound mixes, but we also got a little bit of press.

IndieWire named us "Project of the Day" a couple of days ago, which is pretty cool. More importantly, we're in the running now for Project of the Week. The winner gets 

a digital distribution consultation from SnagFilms, which is pretty awesome.

Thing is, we're losing. So VOTE. It cost you nothing but a few seconds. You'll feel good. Also, we're losing, so now's the time to do it.

GO HERE. VOTE FOR US. (please?)

lucas

I know we've been a little light on the updates lately, but rest assured, we're working.

We're pretty close to picture lock (I'm kind of finicky with picture lock), and with it has come the beginnings of all the small things in the film--figuring out the simplest way to streamline the exchange of stuff like audio files for mixing, for example--and music.

We thought we had a composer, but now we don't (long story). Anyway, we figure this gives us an opportunity. 

We're putting the first 1:45 of the film online and asking composers to pitch us on what their score of the film would sound like. And hopefully we can do something cool with that.

Check it out.

And [insert holiday greeting of your choice]!

-Lucas

Yes, you read that correctly.

Here's what's been happening since we last updated you:

Maybe 2 weeks ago, I came to the realization that I was really getting to the point where everything about the edit was all jumbled up in my head and it had stopped making sense. I had no clarity anymore. This is pretty common. At least for me it is, so I called my good friend Josh Thomas in Pittsburgh.

Josh, some of you remember, was in my film BLANC DE BLANC. He played Matt, the character who won't shut up. But, beyond that, he was our Jack-of-all-trades on set, doing a little bit of everything. In his day job, he produces videos every week for a church outside of Pittsburgh. Anyway, I asked if he'd be willing to take a look at it and help me make a pass on the edit. He agreed, and even got his boss to let us use the church's new Final Cut suite after hours. So I loaded up the hard drive and headed for Pittsburgh.

It's amazing how much quicker you can edit when you're working with a fellow editor and not, say, a black lab who constantly wants to go outside to play fetch. We plowed through it, taking my 1:55 edit and trimming it down to a svelte 85 minutes. Then, on a whim, we decided to round up a few people to watch it. Well, Josh rounded them up and I went downtown to drink scotch.

So some people have actually seen a cut of the film. The take-away from it was that it looks beautiful and the acting is fantastic. They had some structure issues (which we knew they would) and some pacing issues (ditto), but there was nothing that jumped out and said, "oh f*ck".

We did a small video of me reacting to their reactions (ignore how terrible I look. turns out when you sit at a computer all day working and no longer walk everywhere, you put on a little weight.)

http://www.lucasmcnelly.com/2011/02/31-january-2011.html

Those of you backers who are at the perk level where you get to see the film early, don't worry. We haven't forgotten about you. It's just a big file that we have to upload to vimeo. We'll try and get it up this week for you.

Lucas

I'm sure you all know this already, but we're in the final hours of the Year Without Rent Kickstarter campaign. It's kind of epic. Go, throw in a buck or 2. Tell your friends.

http://kck.st/dExFQg

We also wanted to tell you that we talked a little UP COUNTRY on Film Snobbery last night. The archive should be up sometime today.

http://live.filmsnobbery.com/archives/

Now...back to pimping.

lucas

Hopefully you all had a good Christmas or Festivus or whatever it is you celebrate.

We have a quick update we thought you might be interested in.

Earlier today Film Threat, one of the leading voices in indie film, published an interview with director Lucas McNelly about his new project, "A Year Without Rent", which is currently crowdfunding here on Kickstarter (only 11 days left).

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lmcnelly/a-year-without-rent

And why are we telling you this, other than the fact that it's a semi-blatant plug of a new project? Well, Lucas managed to spend a chunk of the interview talking about Up Country and got them to run a still (he's crafty like that). It's a nice bit of publicity for a film that's still in editing. Plus, it plants a seed with Film Threat's readers.

So, check it out the interview.

“A YEAR WITHOUT RENT” – A CERTIFIED FILM THREAT IN PROGRESS

Hey everyone,

We have a couple of things for you today.

First up, this kind of snuck out the other day, so you may have kind of seen it already, but not full resolution. So here's the next image we're showing people. As you can see, things are not going well for Mr. Mars in this shot. Pretty, pretty, pretty cool.


We've had a couple of delays, but we're knee-deep in the film's assembly edit, about the point where I really go into full Don Music mode (he's the guy from Sesame Street who would always bang his head on the piano), convinced it'll all be a disaster. Then, slowly it comes into focus. So if you hear me moaning on Twitter, don't fear. It'll probably all work out.

The perks are trickling out. Obviously, most of them will come once the film is done, but a large number of the postcards have been sent out (if you haven't gotten yours, then it's entirely possible you didn't enter your address. *cough* Ben Kennedy *cough*). We're working on getting the other stuff out that doesn't require the film being done before the end of the year. So, we haven't forgotten about you. Honest.

****

Second, you may have seen or heard something about this on the interwebs and I wanted to make sure everyone's on the same page.

I have a new project called "A Year Without Rent" that I'm launching a Kickstarter campaign for. It's a pretty cool project that actually has its genesis in Up Country.

Basically, I just wanted to make sure everyone knows that this shouldn't have any negative impact on Up Country. If anything, it should make the film easier to finish. So don't be alarmed. We aren't abandoning anything. The earliest "A Year Without Rent" would actively launch would be February. We'll have an edit by then, maybe even one to show our $75 and up backers.

Definitely check it out. We're all pretty excited about it. And the perks are super cool.

Any questions, don't hesitate to email me: lmcnelly@gmail.com

-Lucas

Hey everyone,

So we've been a little quiet (but not too quiet, we hope), but mostly because we've been working on stuff.

Farther down in this update, we've got 5 new images for you from the film. More on that in a minute.

In working on Up Country, one of the things we take seriously is the idea that you the backers are partners with us, in a way. Without your support, the film would never have happened, and we appreciate that more than you know. So, when we were working on wardrobe for the film, it occurred to me that our main character would very likely be wearing a t-shirt for most of the film, and what would be better than getting a small t-shirt business to use our film to advertise their wares?

Well, as luck would have it, one of our backers runs a t-shirt company, so I emailed him and rather than just grab a shirt off the rack, he took the initiative and designed a new one (I told you our backers were the best), based on the descriptions we gave him of the character and what sort of shirt he might wear.

So...for the first time anywhere....we give you Pandaphones

Adam gave us a couple of these (helps with continuity) and man they took a beating. But, you know what? They performed beautifully. Kieran went on and on about how comfortable they were. We actually had trouble getting them to stay dirty, which is a good quality to have in a shirt.

Here's the deal, Adam has been kind enough to offer the shirts to his fellow backers at a discount. They'll be $17 for the next 7 days at this backer-only link: http://www.dottedlineshirts.com/products/pandaphones

And then they will be available to everyone at the normal price of...um...I think it's $21. So go, buy a t-shirt! Be the first in your town to have one!

++++

And here's the next 5 images, which will also be available for backers-only for the same 7 day period. So for a whole week, you'll be the only people who have seen this much of the film. And why not? You guys most definitely deserve it. So these are for your eyes only for a whole week. Cool, eh?

**It's harder than you think to pick these. You don't want to give too much away too soon, but you still want to be evocative of the film itself.**

Keep in mind that these are raw images that haven't been color corrected in any way yet.

Right to Left: Kieran Roberts, Jonny Mars, and Tyler Peck

Tyler Peck (unhappy)

Kieran Roberts investigates

Jonny Mars and Kieran Roberts

Kieran Roberts (thirsty)

If you have some sort of media outlet you write for and you want to help us when we release these for everyone else next Tuesday, let me know.

Thanks,

Lucas
lmcnelly@gmail.com

See how tired I am?

Here's that video: http://vimeo.com/15054525

Hey everyone,

So as you may or may not have heard, we have wrapped production on Up Country. For fun, here's an idea of the schedule (roughly)

Sept 9: shoot 1pm-1am
Sept 10: Company move/travel day; shoot 6pm-7pm
Sept 11-14: shoot 5:30am-7pm; production meeting 8pm-9pm; watch dailies 9pm-11pm
Sept 15: shoot 6am-7pm; company move back to midcoast Maine, arrive 1am.

Rather hectic, as you can see.

I spent yesterday getting people to the airport and returning grip equipment and now I'll decompress.

I'm still compiling receipts and doing the math, but I think we stayed under budget, which is pretty amazing when you consider the following:

1. Only 1 person started this production in the state of Maine. Everyone else came in either by car/train/bus/plane

2. We shot a feature, on location, for $4k.

3. We had to do stuff like overnight camera lenses from Tennessee.

We're all kind of exhausted, but we have some stuff we'll start rolling out for you. First, we had a Flip video camera running for much of the production. Here's the first behind-the-scenes video:

One thing we did do, kind of accidentally, is forget to make a $4,000 feature. Our filmmaker backers will understand this, but I think we made something bigger than that. The footage from the 7D is just sick. We can't wait for you to see it. And, again, thanks so much for all your support. We had a great time and we think we made a really strong film. We couldn't have done it without you.

-Lucas

We start filming today.

I thought I was going to have time to write an update today, but...yeah.

I can pretty easily upload stuff to the facebook page and twitter (@lmcnelly), so that's probably the easiest place to watch for updates.

You guys, by the way, are the best. We're going to do our damnedest to make a film you'll like

Lucas

...we'll be filming. Are you getting nervous? Because I am.

It's been a crazy pre-production process. We've gotten people to sign on, lost them, gotten them back, and lost them again. And one of those people might even be back now. Such is life in indie film.

We've got most of our cast & crew spots filled. LA based director and cinematographer Dusting Pearlman (@dustinpearlman) will providing you with images, and Dave Young will be recording and mixing sound. You'll recognize Dave. He's the lone holdover from Blanc de Blanc[1]

We'll have more news for you next week regarding the cast & crew. But for now, we want to tell you about a partnership.

Backer Adam Woods runs Dotted Line Shirts in Camden, NJ, our go-to place for screen printing and tshirts and whatnot. Well Dotted Line is coming out with some new shirts (the fall line?), and one of them will debut in our film. Our lead character (John) will wear the shirt for the duration of the film, providing Dotted Line with 90 minutes of advertising. I don't even want to imagine what that shirt is going to look like after we're done filming. Maybe we'll do something like have the cast & crew sign it.

The shirt was designed specifically for the film after Adam read the existing novella chapters (more are coming, by the way) and had a few discussions with myself and the actor playing John[2] about what the character would wear.

As for the shirt itself. I know you're anxious to see it. But we're not going to show it to you just yet. The shirt will be revealed in conjunction with images from the film, either our first stills or the teaser, we aren't sure just yet. But until then, it's a secret. We will show it to our wonderful backers first (obviously), and then 24 hours later it'll be available for everyone else.

Ok, that should be it for now. As Robert Frost said, I've got miles to go before I sleep. Plus, there's a hurricane coming! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! RUN!!!!!!!!

*************
[1] Not to say that the people from Blanc aren't good. It's just a question of them being far away and/or available. Plus, I figure if I'm going to be bringing people in from out of town, I want to challenge myself by working with different people.

[2] John has been re-cast due to a scheduling conflict. More on that next week.