Remake, Remodel

Short Indies - Monday Night!

My first short film, The Wine Bar, will be screening this upcoming Monday night (December 5th) as part of the Short Indies series here in Austin.  They'll usually get 4-5 films together, bring in the filmmakers, set up an open bar and let things go from there.  They show each film and do a Q&A with the filmmaker afterwards.  While I've never been to one, the reports are that they're a raucous good time.

 

If you're in Austin on Monday and have nothing to do that evening, come by and watch me struggle to answer questions about a film I made almost 6 years ago.

The September Film - Layover

Charcuterie - My July Film

Here is the July film from my Twelve Films Project.  It's a short documentary about Charcuterie featuring two rising stars in that world, Lawrence and Lee Ann Kocurek of Kocurek Family Charcuterie here in Austin, TX.

Sketch

The festival run for Sketch is still going on, but with the re-launch of my website coming up and some other cool things that are going to be happening next week, I've decided to put the full version of Sketch up online.

My new website will be up and running by the end of next week and I'll be sure to post it up on here when it's live.  It's a pretty radical departure from what I've done in the past...some of that might be because I'm having someone else to it.  His name is Kendall Witherspoon and his company is ThinkSpoon out of Austin.  He's a great designer and a very cool guy.  Check him out.

San Antonio Film Festival

Just found out that Sketch was accepted into the San Antonio Film Festival which is amazing news.  Not sure if I'm going to be able to make it down for the screening as it's the weekend of the 48-hour Film Challenge here in Austin which I'm doing as part of my 12 Films Project.  Still, I think my DP Michael Morlan and some of the cast were thinking of attending, so maybe they can go in my place to represent the film.

P.O.V. Article for Sketch

The Austin Film Society's journal, P.O.V., covered the Hill Country Film Festival and Sketch got a very nice mention:

"Two of my favorite films of the weekend were both Austin products.  SKETCH, directed by Christian Remde and starring Natalie Monsanto and Frederic Winkler, is a close-up look at the tumultuous first meeting of a painter and her model.  The short film was shot in a condo on East 6^th and looks lovely; I’m giving bonus points to cinematographer Michael Morlan.  I spoke to Christian and Natalie later in the evening.  Christian said that the inspiration for the script came out of the desire to discuss creativity and explore the roots of inspiration.  The film deals with questions about fame and the idea of celebrity—issues that were also addressed in Friday evening’s feature, ECHOTONE.

The festival concluded with an awards party at the Fredericksburg Theater Company.  Natalie Monsanto took home Best Actress for SKETCH, and COOPER won the Audience Choice Award.  Both of the latter films, along with THE CAROLYN JACKSON STORY, were nominated for Best Texas Film, but the award went to ECHOTONE.  Congratulations to the winners and to the festival staff on a successful second year!"

You can read the whole article here.

Hill Country Film Festival

Just got back from the Hill Country Film Festival out in Fredericksburg, TX and we had an amazing time.  Sketch was nominated for Best Texas Film and Best Actress (for Natalie Monsanto).  We lost out to Echotone for Best Texas Film (Echotone is a good documentary about the Austin music scene) but the amazing news was that Natalie won for Best Actress!  Look how happy she is!

The festival was a lot of fun.  Fredericksburg is this small Texas town that was founded by a bunch of German settlers, so there are many beer gardens and a whole lot of sausages and schnitzel...not a bad place to spend a weekend.  Julie and I went out on Friday morning and met up with Natalie and Michael Morlan (Sketch's DP) as well as Michael's girlfriend Carla and Fred Winkler who played Victor in Sketch.  We all hung out, got lunch and watched movies.

The Sketch screening was Friday night and we all got up there and did a Q&A after which was a lot of fun.  The audience was very receptive to the film and we got some good questions.

The rest of the festival was pretty good.  We mostly saw the other short films including a couple that were really amazing.  If you're able to, check out the films "Animal Control" and "Off Season"...two very creepy films with amazing cinematography and a really creepy atmosphere.

My next festival is the Tupelo Film Festival up in Mississippi in a couple weeks.  If you're in the area, stop by and see Sketch!

Hill Country Film Festival

Just found out that Sketch got accepted into the Hill Country Film Festival in Fredericksburg, TX.  I'm psyched that we got into a local TX festival and one that the cast and crew will be able to attend.  The festival is at the end of April and it'll most likely be one of the first that we've got into that I'll actually be able to go to.  I'm going to try and make it up to the Tupelo Film Festival in May as well.

Heading up to Dallas early tomorrow to direct a shoot for Metlife.  I'll be back late Friday and will probably put a post up about it next week.

Have a great weekend!

Beautiful

Tupelo Film Festival

Got a very nice email from Pat Rasberry at the Tupelo Film Festival this morning letting me know that Sketch had been accepted.  The Tupelo Film Festival was one of the first "wins" that we had for The Wine Bar and their award was this beautiful 4-foot tall metal sculpture in the shape of a reel of film, unspooling.

It was an amazing feeling to win a festival (it always is) and I have a real soft spot for them.  Very excited that Sketch got in, it's a great festival and I think I'm actually going to get a chance to go this year.