Now that we are coming the close of our movie project, I want to take a few minutes to share some of the learnings along the way, because there are many!

To start with, I want to talk about independent film distribution, because of all the various steps of this process, distribution has been the biggest mystery of them all. In all honesty, finding the story, raising the funds, assembling the crew, producing the film, and finalizing the edit were all quite easy compared to distribution.

There are certain steps you can take to increase your chances of having a successful independent feature film. Here are four key areas that you need to focus before you shoot your first shot:

1. Name talent: It’s the number one question I was asked when I told distributors that I had a feature film for sale. “Who’s in it?” Name talent is an essential ingredient for financially successful independent films. Is it always the case? No, not always, but if you want to increase your chances of success, then you can instantly move through the clutter of films by casting name talent. Your investment into a well-networked casting director will pay the highest dividends on your project.

2. Strong Story: Second to name talent comes story. Story is so important, so essential. It’s where every film project must start–with a good story. And not just a good story, but a well-structured, well-thought out, fully developed story. There are so many good books out there today on screenwriting. It’s easy to learn good story structure. Everything they talk about becomes so important in filmmaking–act structure, inciting incident, plot points, character arcs, beats, etc. All of it is needed for a good story.

3. Solid Production Quality: You can have name talent and even a good story, but if the production quality is not there, then you leave your audience with an inability to suspend their disbelief. If your audience keeps getting pulled out of the story, then you’ve lost them.

I remember going to see a movie at a theater in a small Texas town. They had forgotten to put on the projector mask that masks out the 35mm print into it’s correct aspect ratio. With nothing masked, I saw boom mics, camera flags, cables, everything. It was terrible. I can’t even remember what the movie was about.

Anything that pulls the viewer out of the story is detrimental to your film’s success. Some of the key areas to focus on that will increase your production value are lighting, acting, camera framing and movement, editing and color, sound design and music.

4. Distribution Plan: Before your first day of shooting, you should have a solid distribution plan in place. And, it needs to be realistic. If you’re thinking your film will be different, your film will be better, your film will break all the rules and be the next Blair Witch Project, then you are setting yourself up to be one of the thousands upon thousands of indie films that never see the light of day. You’ve got to plan. You’ve got to think ahead of time.

We’re in the process of putting together our next film project. Distribution is the number question to be answered before we get started. It will determine what genre we shoot, what script we select, what actors we cast, what locations we scout. Distribution will be the filter through which every decision will be made.

Obviously, there are others steps that can be taken to increase your chances of success, but in my experience on Fissure, these four areas are the foundation of success.

I really wanted to document my marathon experience from last Sunday.  So, this morning, I spent some time reliving and capturing that experience.  Here’s my journal entry on my marathon experience:

The Whiterock Marathon last Sunday was really an amazing experience. Amazing! Up until the race, I had not run more than a 10K, 6.2 miles. That was at the Tour de Fleurs back a few months prior. I had injured my calf and knee and it was hard to get my mileage up. A few weeks prior to the race, I had gotten a lot of 2- and 3-mile runs in, but nothing long. I had really hoped to get at least one long run in before the marathon, like 8 miles or so. If I had been able to run a good, solid 8 miles before the race, I would have felt much more confident. But, I didn’t.

However, Sunday, a week prior to the race, I had a good, solid 5-mile run. The weather wasn’t that cold, and I felt good. I kept my pace to a minimum. It was a huge confidence builder. For the next few days, I felt very confident that I could run the half marathon. As the race got closer, that confidence started to wane at times. I kept thinking, What am I doing?

I was able to start the race with my wife, Angela, and that was a great experience. She was fighting an injury with her knee, and it was good to stay with her the first couple miles. But, I knew she had to run on her own, and that was hard for me. I didn’t want her running alone. I kept hoping and praying that she’d find her friend, Tracy, or someone to run with, to be an encouragement.

We ran the first two miles together, but she was itching to go faster, and I really wanted to keep a slow pace, because I knew I had a long way to go. So, after two miles, she started moving ahead of me. And thankfully, she met up with a couple of other runners from Luke’s Locker, and they stayed together for the entire marathon, even finishing the race together. Answered prayer.

One of the key memories for me was starting the race and running with Angela the first couple miles. We made it through the starting gates about 11 minutes after the gun sounded. I remember seeing scores and scores of people. It was like a sea of humanity, moving, working, striving for the same goal. As we started running, we moved through the streets of downtown Dallas. It was really incredible. There was one street that was long and straight, and it dipped down where you could see thousands of runners in an array of colors. It was quite a sight.

After Ang moved ahead, I was by myself. 11 miles to go. So, I popped in my iPod, pressed play and listened for about 30 seconds before the iPod died. 30 seconds of music. That’s all I got. The iPod was dead. I was really bummed. I knew the next two hours could get really boring, really fast.

During the first part of the race, about the first 4 miles, I was keeping up with the 2:30 pace group. If I could stay with them, then I would finish my first half marathon in 2 hours and 30 minutes. It was a good goal, and a relatively slow pace. But, I found myself pushing a little bit too hard for that goal. My pace felt forced and I didn’t want to move that fast. So, again, I backed off and got into my slow pace.

At this point in the race, I was now alone, my iPod was dead, and I was running with throngs of strangers. In some ways, I was glad the iPod broke, because there was something about that experience. It was surreal—the people on the side cheering, the bands along the way, the thump thump of running shoes from people with awkward strides. The occasional, “Hang in there Russell. Great job.” Who was that?, I wondered. Then, I remembered that my name was on the front of my bib.

There was a part of our race route where you literally made a U turn and started back towards the American Airlines Center where we started. At this point, I was running as close to the middle as possible, literally high-fiving a few other runners headed back the other way.

I really wanted to see my friend, Shawn. I knew he was ahead of me, and my engineering mind kept calculating his pace and where he’d be in the race. I should see him, I thought, but it’s going to be fast. Two runners moving in opposite directions means I would have to see him quickly, get his attention and then say something. I had about 3 seconds. Eventually, I did see him, and he saw me. We high-fived and quickly asked how each other were doing. Good. A little bit later, I saw Lisa, his wife. She was doing well also.

Now that I passed the only two people I would know, I was back to being alone again. At this point, I was almost cursing Apple for making bad iPods, but the swell of cheers and the whole experience kept me focused and enjoying the run. It was really quite the experience.

After the U turn, I came up on mile 8. This was new for me—uncharted territory. I had never run that far before. I had my Garmin runner’s watch set to show me only two things—my heartrate and my pace. I didn’t want to see how long I had been running, nor how far. In the early stages of the race, my heartrate would be around mid 160’s. That’s pretty low for me when I’m running. In the later part of the race, it creeped up into the 170’s, but that’s still very comfortable for me. I never felt out of breath or strained. Tired and fatigued, but not in a dangerous way.

At mile 9, we left the streets of Dallas, and started running on a new running trail. No more crowds. No more bands. Just runners. It became much more quieter, much more introspective. It was also at 9.5 miles that I really started to feel the run. I felt like I hit a wall physically and emotionally. My pace didn’t changed. I was running about a 12-minute mile, not too fast. But, when I hit 9.5 miles, my body started screaming at me, What are I doing? This is crazy. I’ll never run this far again! It was quite interesting the internal dialogue at this point in the race.

Up to this point, I had run continually–never stopping nor walking, and I was seriously considering walking at this point. I felt all my energy just leave. My heart rate started to peak at 180, and I knew I needed to get it back down, but I was already running a very slow pace. I’m not sure I could run any slower without walking, and I didn’t want to walk. So, I started breathing really deep breaths, and slowed my pace a bit. My heartrate went down, but my body was still saying, We’re done. It’s over.

My wife and given me a couple of Hammer gel packs to give me some energy. So, I pulled out the second one and slammed it about mile 10. I needed the energy. The only thing keeping me going at this point was the realization that I was just 3 miles from finishing. 3 miles. I had been running short little 3-mile runs for the past few weeks prior to the race. This would be easy. It’s just a lap around my subdivision. 3 miles. I can do that.

So, I pressed on. Mile 11 and 12 were a blur. I couldn’t get my heartrate down below 180 at that point. A couple of times, it peaked at 184, and I was getting a bit dizzy, but with some slow breaths and a slowed pace, I kept it around 180, which fought off the dizziness. Physically, I was spent. I didn’t know how I could continue. I grabbed some Gatorade at mile 12.5, and that helped. They had oranges for additional potassium and sugar, but I didn’t see them. I wish I had.<

As I was approaching the end of the race, it started to sink in, I’m going to finish this race, a half marathon. The energy level was coming back. The excitement was coming back. I tried to pick up my pace to finish strong. That lasted about 5 seconds. I couldn’t. At this point, I just wanted to finish.

As I crossed the finish line, I had been running continually for 2 hours and 40 minutes. My legs were so muscle-memoried with running that I couldn’t walk. I kept falling forward, bumping into people. It took me a good 2 or 3 minutes to relearn how to walk again. It was a very bizarre experience. Felt like vertigo.

When I finished, I wasn’t overwhelmed with emotion or beaming with accomplishment. Rather, I was starving! I had just burned through about 2,200 calories, and my body was screaming, Feed me. Thankfully, they had huge food lines for the runners. So, I quickly found some yogurt, granola bars and bananas. And went had a nice post-race lunch.

Angela still had another three hours of running left. I prayed for her. I waited around for three hours, just walking around, seeing all the sights. I did not want to sit down. The lactic acid in legs was flowing now, and I could feel different areas of my legs burning. Thankfully, I didn’t have any problems with my knees or calves. I was a bit concerned about them because they were the injuries I was fighting through the past few months. But, no joint or calf pain. It was amazing! More answered prayer.

After a few hours, Angela crossed the finish line for her first marathon. She was weeping, hurting and extremely happy to be finished. It was a hard for her, but she did it. I’m so proud of her!

The days following were most memorable for me, because the sense of accomplishment and fulfillment didn’t really hit until a few days later. I started to think about what I had done, and it was a great feeling. Great feeling!

I had two goals going into the race. First, I just wanted to finish the race. Even if I had to walk the last few miles, I wanted to finish. My second goal was to try and run the entire race, without stopping. And, I did that. So, my two goals were accomplished.

Woo hoo! I did it. A half marathon, 13.1 miles in 2 hours, 40 minutes. Here’s my run:

The new, revised Fissure trailer is now online at Trailer Addict.  And, it allows you to embed the trailer in your own website or blog.  If you do post it somewhere, please let me know.

I had a great run last night, getting ready for the Whiterock Marathon next Sunday. I’m doing the half marathon, while my wife is doing the full. I’ve done 10K’s, but no half’s. It’ll be fun! Here’s my run from yesterday:

As you may know from my posts, I’ve been training for a half-marathon, while my wife is training for a full marathon.  We even have pictures of our experience.

I came across this video yesterday about a guy who runs Ultra Marathons.  What is an ultra marathon?  Pain!  It’s like a million miles, or something.  Okay, not really, but it’s still way beyond human ability.  There are 40-mile ultras and 100-mile ultras.  This video is about a guy who does 150-mile ultra marathons.  Very inspiring story!

In the video, he says one thing that really stands, one thing that all of us can take to heart, “You have to see yourself doing it. Unless you can see yourself doing it, you’ll never achieve it.”

I don’t really classify myself as a creative.  I’d like it.  It’s something that draws me, woos me, excites me.  But, creating–most of the time–is hard work for me.  And, I like easy work, fun work, stuff that comes natural.

I came across this blog posting about 22 blogs on how to stimulate your creativity.  Looks cool!  I haven’t had time to dig through these links but I’m looking forward to it.

It’s amazing how much we fill our minds with stuff–messages, tv, media, music–stuff.  I’m being more and more driven to just turn off the tv, the computer, the cell phone, the internet, and my iPod.  My brain needs a vacation.

There’s a book called Data Smog, and it’s about this diagnosable condition that doctors now treat with medication and counseling.  Like Blackberry Thumb, data smog can be treated.

This morning, I read an excellent blog about this noise we experience in our culture today.