Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Successful Sneak Preview of Flatland

The audience of Flatland, an all-ages film


We had a great weekend with not one, but two sold-out screenings of the sneak preview of Flatland The Movie, hosted by AFF.

It was a great time to celebrate this milestone. Now that we've had a chance to show our friends, cast and crew this cut of the film (and it was a rough cut, but not too rough to show), we are now working on cleaning up some scenes and doing a new sound mix.

Soon in June we'll be offering a special preview DVD for educators (math teachers, for example), and in the fall we plan to offer a general-release public DVD.

The Flatland creators, left to right: Dano Johnson, Jeffrey Travis, Seth Caplan

Friday, May 18, 2007

Flatland on KXAN-36 Sat. 5/19 8:00 am

I was interviewed on KXAN (NBC Channel 36), about our film Flatland.

We also got a nice blurb in the Austin Chronicle, which calls our film "warm" and "well-written".

A Triumvirate Weekend

This is a really big weekend (May 18-20, 2007). Not only because of the release of my movie FLATLAND, but two of my close artists friends are also having their work released this weekend.

Owen Egerton just released his book How To Best Avoid Dying. It's a wonderful and fantastical collection of off-kilter short stories. I am a big fan of Owen's writing. I optioned his previous book, Marshall Hollenzer is Driving, wrote a screenplay for it, and hope to direct this as a feature film.

Mike Akel made a very good and very funny film named CHALK. It's a mockumentary about first-year public school teachers. The movie begins by telling us that 50% of teachers quit within the first three years, and watching this movie you can see why. The film has a lot of heart-- Mike made this film in Austin three years ago for almost nothing-- and it went on to win awards at all major film festivals, received and Independent Spirit Award nomination, and is now being distributed by Morgan Spurlock. This is the opening weekend in Austin. Go see the movie.

The three of us began our respective projects roughly three years ago: Flatland, Chalk, and How To Best Avoid Dying. By completely strange and wondeful coincidence, our projects all are being released in Austin this same weekend. It feels like a very special time to celebrate our work being shared with a larger public.

But mostly I'm happy to call these two fine gentlemen my friends.

Mike Akel, Owen Egerton, Jeffrey Travis.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

FLATLAND screening SOLD OUT, second screening added

Just an update for anyone coming to our FLATLAND THE MOVIE sneak preview screening this Sunday May 20. The screening at 3:00 pm has SOLD OUT. A second screening has been added at 4:30 pm, same place (Regal Arbor Theaters).

To reserve your FREE tickets, email your RSVP to flatland@austinfilmfestival.com


Hope to see you at the theater!

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Friday, May 11, 2007

FLATLAND Sneak Preview Screening in Austin - May 20!



The movie FLATLAND is finally almost ready! It’s been a longer journey than anticipated—nearly three years ago we wrote our first draft of the film. After much blood, sweat and tears (the blood and sweat mostly from the animation team, the tears mostly mine), we’re about ready to share this movie with audiences.

To kick it off, we are having a sneak preview screening hosted by the Austin Film Festival, on Sunday May 20 at 3:00 pm, at the Regal Arbor Theaters.

You can get FREE tickets to the event by sending the AFF folks an email at flatland@austinfilmfestival.com

Based on the classic cult sci-fi novel written in 1884 by Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland tells the story a square living in a two-dimensional world who one day gets a peek at the third dimension

Starring: Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell, Tony Hale, Joe Estevez, and Michael York. With Danu Uribe, Lee Eddy, Gary Peters, Shannon McCormick, T. Lynn Mikeska, & Robert Murphy.

Screenplay: Seth Caplan, Dano Johnson, & Jeffrey Travis
Producer: Seth Caplan
Sound Design by: David Crumley
Executive Producer: Will Wallace
Original Music: Kazimir Boyle
Directors: Jeffrey Travis & Dano Johnson