So naturally this is short notice, because hey, it's me, and many of you have probably already heard about this, but THE WORLD OF MISSING PERSONS will have a preview screening tomorrow night in N. Portland, and if you're in the area I hope you can attend!

A little inside-baseball for you guys:

The truth is, we're screening a rough-cut, which means that although it's 99% of the way there, there are many steps left to take. Some edits need a little fine-tuning, the titles and credits aren't done yet, and it's only got rough versions of McKenzie Stubbert's final score in place (plus a probably-placeholder song in one scene, unless we find out the festival rights to a 1950s blues song are easier to get than we thought [edit: Oh right, plus a Justin Timberlake song is still in there! And as fun as "Sexyback" is, I doubt we can afford the rights to that one...]). Sound design and mixing hasn't happened yet, plus there's some color-timing to be done and, believe it or not, a bit of digital compositing (cleaning up the hole in the wall, and possibly improving a dead-fish visual gag — and of course the laser-beams coming out of everybody's fingertips and the lizard-riding stormtroopers in the background of the scene about the robots lost in the desert).

So long story short, the film is "showable," but it's not professionally polished yet. But when you get a grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council — which we did, which is awesome, and those guys are awesome — you are obligated to publicly display/screen your art somewhere in Portland within the same year the grant was received. Every filmmaker I know who's had one of these (including me once before) has done this: at the end of the year, we screen the work-in-progress and everybody has a nice time.

Actually, it's great because any imperfections you may notice in the film, any awkward angle or fuzzy line of dialogue or mismatched action, I can just wave away with a magic wand — "Oh that? Yeah, it's just a rough cut. That's going to be fixed in post. Don't worry about that."  So as far as screenings go, this will be the least pressured you'll ever see me about the film!

And so: if you're nearby and available, I'd like you all to join my production team and I at tomorrow evening's screening of The World of Missing Persons.

Tomorrow night: Thursday, December 29th, at the Waypost shortly after 7:00pm.

Along with my 21-minute "short" film, we'll be screening a quick program of recent and upcoming projects from my brilliant cast & crew, including a music video for a rap song about flossing and a short doc about bunnies, among others.

AND ALSO, while I have your attention: nobody has received their rewards for donations yet, BUT WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN YOU! Thank you for your patience and rest assured that goodies will be coming your way soon! A digital link of the film will go up sometime in the next couple of weeks, at least of the rough cut for those of you who can't make the screening.

Ever yours in debt and exhaustion,

Travis Ezell,
Director.

A couple of points for people who are looking to donate or not as we come down to the LAST FOUR DAYS:

• We have passed the "all-or-nothing" goal! The $6,000 "new limit" is just a marker out there on the horizon for us to run for, because we can definitely use the money and the project will be better for your generosity -- but we crossed the finish line ($3,500) almost two weeks ago... Again, THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO'S DONATED, you're all my personal heroes!
  
  
• We'd still love your donation! As I've detailed here, there are a lot of places we can spend that money that will make a huge difference in the quality of the finished film -- so you could be the one to help escalate us from GOOD to GREAT. Just because we're over the first goal ($3,500) and we're a long ways from the second goal ($6,000), don't be shy! Please!
  
  
• We know $6,000 is a crazy long shot! The truth is, I knew the odds of getting us to $6,000 are pretty slim, but I figured, since there's no risk in not getting the donations, I didn't see a reason to play it safe. We were on such a roll, I figured I'd shoot for the moon. The closer we get to the goal, the better, but if we don't make it to $6,000 in the next FOUR DAYS we haven't failed to meet our needs and your efforts aren't wasted!

Again, THANKS EVERYONE for helping us out. Check out the incentives and contact me if you have any questions!  In just over a month we start production!

-- Travis Ezell, writer/director.

It's unbelievable what a positive response we're getting already, and now with over three weeks left the goal of $3,500 (the lowest figure we came upon that would allow us to make the film) almost feels too humble for the response we're getting.

The good news is, there's plenty more things to pay for to make this short film, and the less corners we cut the stronger and more polished the finished work will be!  So please, keep spreading the word, tell your friends, give us a bump on Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr. $10 helps a great deal. Even $5 or a single solitary buck adds up incredibly fast. THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE FOR GETTING US SO NEAR OUR GOAL SO QUICKLY!

I've updated the main page to reflect a new optimistic figure of $6,000. (The official Kickstarter goal of $3,500 is locked-in and final, which means once we pass that your pledges are secure and we can make this film. This new goal is simply us taking advantage of the open-ended nature of the pledge system, and the 24 days we have left to raise funds for the project.)  With these extra funds, we'll be able to address post-production (color correction, sound) and pay key crew members for their hard work and talent.

Check out our website for more details if you're curious. THANK YOU ALL AGAIN, you know who you are -- and you're all wonderful human beings -- and keep spreading the word, please!  It's only with your help that any of this will happen!

 -- Travis.