Burning Myth - Blog of Jeffrey Travis, Filmmaker

2010-10-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

This blog is old and only exists for archival purposes.

Visit my website at http://burningmyth.com

Flatland to premiere at the Sonoma Valley Film Festival

2008-02-19T13:04:00.000-08:00

Flatland will be having its film festival run premiere at the Sonoma Valley Film Festival in Sonoma Valley, California, April 9-13, 2008.

It purports to be a great festival experience with three screening of Flatland, not to mention the food and wine that are part of this legendary event.

FLATLAND - Official Movie book released!

2008-02-19T12:57:00.000-08:00

Princeton University Press has just a released a companion book to our film FLATLAND, titled FLATLAND - The Movie Edition.

It's really quite a lovely book: hardcover, with the full text of the original 1882 novel, along with color production stills from our film, the screenplay, and introductions written by yours truly and our producer and animator. Best of all, it's only $15 (or less).

You can buy the book at any local Barnes & Noble, on amazon, or at the Flatland Store.

Here's a cool picture of the book in stock at our local bookstore in Austin, Texas:

FLATLAND Special Educational Edition available on DVD

2007-07-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

So we just recently launched a self-distribution system for the educational edition of Flatland: The Movie, at http://store.flatlandthemovie.com. We're updating the movie itself with new scenes, a second edition that we hope to offer sometime in the fall to the general public for home video.

Sales are brisk and encouraging! Lots of schools want this movie to use in the classroom, and the feedback from teachers has been great.

This Friday, Aug. 3, we'll be having a screening of the film at MathFest in San Jose, California.

Successful Sneak Preview of Flatland

2007-05-23T20:36:00.001-07:00

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

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

2007-05-18T14:46:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

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.

FLATLAND screening SOLD OUT, second screening added

2007-05-16T12:32:00.000-07:00

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!

FLATLAND Sneak Preview Screening in Austin - May 20!

2007-05-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

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

Michael York joins cast of ‘Flatland’

2007-03-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

Michael York is our latest stellar addition to the cast of Flatland. He will be the voice of Spherius, a wise being from another dimension who comes to help Arthur Square (Martin Sheen) and his fellow Flatlanders understand the existence of a third dimension.

You might know Michael York from films such as Logan’s Run, Austin Powers, and The Omega Code. You’ve heard his voice on The Simpsons and Family Guy.

I got to direct Michael in St. Paul, Minnesota while he was there on his stage tour of Camelot. He’s such a talented and dedicated actor, and a very gracious person as well. His voice sounds wonderful on the soundtrack and is just the perfect combination of authority, compassion, and other-worldliness for his character.

CAKE Wins Audience Award for Best Feature

2007-03-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

The feature film CAKE which I produced, took home the Audience Award for Best Feature film at the Other Venice Film Festival. This was the first festival for this film.

It’s next playing at the AFI Film Festival in Dallas on March 30, 2007 at the Angelika Film Center.

Working with Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell, Tony Hale, and Joe Estevez on Flatland

2006-06-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

Martin Sheen, the voice of A. Square in Flatland

Last week was a definitely a highlight in my film work. Once upon a time I made a “dream cast” list for the voices of Flatland: The Movie. I thought Martin Sheen would be perfect for the grandfatherly A. Square, Kristen Bell for his ever-curious granddaughter Hex, Joe Estevez for A. Square’s nervous brother, and Tony Hale for the narcisstic King of Pointland.

Tony Hale as the King Of Pointland, the ruler of a universe of zero dimensions.

Tony Hale as the King of Pointland, a Ton

Then one year later, I find myself in an Los Angeles studio directing all four of these actors. They showed up for this project with a passion. It’s doubly gratifying to know that even with our scant budget, they liked our script enough to team up on this bootstrap production. For a director who’s just a small-time guy in Austin, Texas, it’s a dream come true. This will definitely help take the FLATLAND film to the next level.

Kristen Bell and the director can’t help up but crack up at Tony Hale’s performance. Kristen plays Hex, the granddaughter of A. Square

Tony Hale is very difficult to work with, by the way. Why? He kept making all of us laugh so hard that I could barely splurt out "cut" over my laughter between takes. Even the audio engineer had to pick himself off the floor.

Joe Estevez reads lines back in a scene with Martin Sheen. Joe, who is Martin Sheen’s brother in real life, also plays his brother in the film Flatland.

Aside from my initial nervousness at working with such big "stars", I have to say that the experience whole production session was fun-- and not just for me, but clearly Martin, Kristen, Tony, Joe, Will Wallace, and all of us were having a really fun time turning this original concept Flatland into living characters. And that's the way all film productions should be.

Executive Producer and friend Will Wallace, man of many talents

Seth Caplan, Jeffrey Travis, and Dano Johnson, the creators of Flatland The Movie,
at POP Studios in Los Angeles

Big news on Flatland - Martin Sheen to be A Square

2006-05-10T18:54:00.000-07:00

Well I got some fantastic news on Flatland I can officially share now. Martin Sheen has agreed to play the role of A. Square in our film. We also just signed Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) to play his granddaughter Hex, and Joe Estevez to play A. Square's brother. And a talented actor/director/producer friend of mine, Will Wallace, has signed on as our executive producer.

I'm in Los Angeles this week to work with these actors and record their voices as the first major step in the production of FLATLAND. I got to admit, I'm pretty stoked!

Flatland The Movie production

2006-03-12T18:38:00.000-08:00

My current film project is an animated film titled FLATLAND. You might be familiar with the book, a cult sci-fi classic written by Edwin A. Abbott in 1884. It's a unique novella that deals with mathematics, theology, social satire, and our perceptions of reality.

The story is set in a world of only two dimensions, where the protagonist, a humble square, receives a visit from a three-dimensional sphere. To the square, and Flatlanders, the notion of "height" and a third dimension seems as incomprehensible as it is obvious to the sphere.

I've been working with producer Seth Caplan and animator Dano Johnson to write an adaptation of the book for film. The last time someone made a film of Flatland was in 1965, a 10-minute short, starring the voice of Dudley Moore.

The script is nearly done. We've created a very rough concept teaser for the movie on the website http://flatlandthemovie.com, and now begins the casting process. I'd love to get some talented and recognized actors on board to play the voices of our characters. The project is a labor of love that is self-funded, but we plan to at least try and see if the script garners the interest of some Hollywood talent.

Our plan is to create this as movie that will help kids and adults be inspired to think about other dimensions. That I'm just a sucker for original concepts and sci-fi, both of which you wil find in Flatland.

I'm starting a film production blog

2006-02-11T15:52:00.000-08:00

I have never been a big fan of blogs. For a long time they bugged me; they seemed to be another device for ego-casting in our culture of self-worship. I've had friends who'd expect me to have read their blog instead of just communicating directly. I will save my thoughts on the need for dis-intermediation of personal relationships for another time.

In the meantime, I realize a blog is a good way to record events in my film productions as they happen. So, to my friends, I won't be offended if you don't read my blog. I'd much rather share and listen over a cup of coffee. To those of you who read this blog, I hope you enjoy the updates and anecdotes of a gringo filmmaker.

In any case, here we go.