Kickstarter

Grundy Backers,

The past year has seen a whirlwind of change in my own life, and I find myself writing to you from Los Angeles as opposed to New York City.  Forgive this long absence from kickstarter, but I wanted to wait on the next update until there was something substantial to say. Particularly regarding the release of the film.

The feature film, Solomon Grundy, which you have all been patiently awaiting (see the previous update) is on the verge of completion.  Full disclosure- the film has been supported by a team of only four people for the past year.  Myself, Pick Bickmore our composer, Will Whatley our sound designer, and Mike Pappa, our visual effects artist.  The four of us have been squeezing in all of the post-production of Solomon Grundy in between jobs, school, and moving.  It has been difficult but rewarding to be back in the proper head space for the film, and I am finally extremely confident in the final product that I will be delivering to you all in a little less than two months from now.

I appreciate your patience, and I am aware that the wait has been for some frustrating and disheartening.  I promise that it has been worth it, and the final film will be of a higher caliber than that which we thought we could make at the outset.  This is a fact I am very proud of.

Being the holiday season, I would like to share another film I have just completed and released online for the week.  This was my final assignment and served as my senior film at SUNY Purchase.  It is a film very close to me, and one that I am equally as proud of.  It will only be online for two more days, so I ask you to find some time to watch the short film BRUISER. It will not disappoint.

My next update will come directly after the New Year with a final release date of the film.  For day to day updates on the production, as well as screen grabs and hello's from the four of us working steadily on Grundy, tune into the Solomon Grundy Facebook Page.

Thank you all, and happy holidays.  Look for Grundy right around the corner.

Mattson.

Grundy Backers:

It has been an unforgivably long time since our last update, and for that I owe a big apology. Solomon Grundy and I have been in a battle for many months, and it's taken creative meditation and a lot of smart people to figure out the right moves.

When I first set out to make Solomon Grundy, I had just turned 19.  Being undoubtedly, the biggest project of my young career, it has taken a lot to steer things in the right direction.  I'm now over halfway through 21, and have undergone changes in my creative sensibilities.  But Grundy is a film I made when I was 19. 

That being said, there has been a lot of conflict between myself and Grundy.  Some stylistic choices I would make differently now I committed to during shooting.  For a time (and anyone who is an artist can probably relate) Grundy and I hated each other.  In order to gain perspective on the situation, I brought in a few extremely talented and smart filmmakers and friends to go over my material with me and help get the film back on track, and as absolutely strong as it can possibly be.  In essence, I've had to let go of my sensibilities of today, and trust the instincts I had at 19 and 20.

Solomon Grundy is now picture locked.  The team working on it is now a small handful to push it through its final stages of post-production.  Pick Bickmore, our composer, has been having Skype meetings with me from Chicago and is (literally as I am writing this) working on the score as we finish off the visual effects, sound design, and color work. 

Okay, okay- this is all nice and good, but when will Solomon Grundy be released??  

It's a fair question, and I don't want to give the wrong answer.  In all transparency, I hit a big snag in the production which got me off track. I was unsure of what film I wanted to make, and had a rough cut that was nearly three hours long. It took a lot of work, but the final cut is a sharp, wild, and extremely satisfying, albeit unconventional 65 minutes, and I can say in all truthfulness that the time I took to sort out what Solomon Grundy is has paid off, and it is now absolutely the best film it can possibly be.

I made a promise to all of my backers to deliver a quality work that expanded on a short that you all loved, and do it well.  Solomon Grundy is my top priority, and the objective is to have it released in the Spring of 2012.  Many of you went on to back my short film, Dream Lover, and have recently gotten your rewards.  I will be giving Solomon an equally attentive treatment in its delivery.

The updates from here on out will be less frequent that they were during production, but we are on track, and I want to keep everyone in the loop on our next and final steps.  Below are three images- a production still that I have hanged on my office wall from the film, the film's official poster created by D. Yee, and a quick screenshot from my Skype meeting with Pick 20 minutes ago.

Thank you for your patience, understanding, and love.  Though I will be updating with Kickstarter updates monthly and relevantly between now and the films post-production completion, you can always tune into the Official Facebook Page, where the smaller day-to-day activity will be kept up on.   Thank you,

Mattson.

As we hike our way through post-production, I decided to take a bit of time off to cut together another trailer. Not quite a "theatrical" trailer, it serves more as Teaser pt. 2, featuring quite a bit of footage from the second half of shooting, which took place fall and winter 2010.  

http://itsjustmovies.com/10101

Took a few hours off from cutting to hang out with some good people for some good times. Accidentally ended up shooting much more than I intended, and wound up with about ten songs from three extremely talented artists.  Kevin Olken (whose music you will recognize from the original Grundy short, and the subsequent trailers for the feature) playing to a small army of children at play.

http://vimeo.com/23112274

Grundy update in just a few more hours.

Don't blink!  You might miss a Grundy cameo...

http://vimeo.com/15040802

More Grundy updates at the end of this week...  Some big things happening!

M.