I'm taking on marketing the premiere of the film, "Halfway Point" for RoomMate Productions. Yesterday, I pitched the idea of having an article in The Reader and they wrote back and wanted more information about myself, RoomMate Productions, and the film.
This is what I wrote back:
I’m a Lincoln native who attended Wayne State College and once I graduated, I moved to Omaha.
Currently I work at Niche Commerce, Inc (a parent company of online retail stores such as hammocks.com). I work in the marketing department.
Eric, (the other “roommate”) went to school in Lincoln as well, we both worked at Burger King and realized one night at closing we were going to the same college and going to be living in the same dorm. He lives in Omaha and works in quality control in the telemarketing industry.
Once at college we hung out and played a lot of pool since we didn’t really know anyone else. We didn’t have a TV so we made up stories and started writing a script, but that never panned out.
We were roommates for three out of the four years in college. Our senior year he made a college 3 part film for class that got a Golden Leaf Award. I was in the first film. He wrote and directed it; I was there to ‘act’. In high school he was involved in cable access show with some friends. My passion is writing, so once I moved to Omaha; I bought a computer to write my novel which will be out shortly next year. Eric will go out to LA and be an actor in the next couple of years.
He ended up dating someone and they got married after college and they moved to South Dakota. After a year or two they moved to Omaha.
We ended up living at the same apartment complex. One day (In August of 2002) he called me up while he was working out and asked if I’d come by the club house, he had a question.
Once I got there he asked, “What do you think about writing and making movie? I know you are writing a book and all, but I think it would be fun.”
I replied, “Yeah, we could do that”.
So it began. I had found a quote in a book that had ideas for book plots. So we based the film off an idea from the book: A character who goes to a place he or she has never been to in order to find something or someone. A quest",
The title (Halfway Point) came to me after talking with a guy who lived far away from his girlfriend. They saw each other when they met up at a halfway point between their towns.
RoomMate Productions was a temporary name until we could find something better, but never did. So it stuck! We started up RoomMateProductions.com so we had a place in the world to talk about what we were doing. Thanks to our friend Adam Koch at Out of the Mold Hosting.
The script for “Halfway Point” took about 3 months to write. The film took 26 days to shoot over 4 months and about a year to edit after some speed bumps.
We combined our life experiences and created a story about a guy from a small town who moves to a new one. Since we both went to Wayne State College, that was the small town. Since we both moved to Omaha, that was the large town. Even though we were both from Lincoln.
We wanted to focus on a story about finding yourself, going out on your own, trying to maintain relationships through the chaos of life, and finding success through various trials life gives you.
We had one actor in mind to play the lead. Since Eric was a client of Reel People Models & Talent, we talked to them about holding auditions and we landed a great cast! We posted a request on slamomaha to get local bands to supply us with their music. We got an overwhelming response. Mr. Hand & Three Day Meat Sale are among some of the bands that have songs in the soundtrack. The film is 90 minutes long. We have a 2 and a half minute trailer and an eight minute blooper reel.
While filming “Halfway Point” we made a short documentary called, “Clay” for the Hot Shops Film Festival.
While filming “Halfway Point” Rich Robbins from Hot Shops Film Festival filmed a promo for the festival while we were filming “Halfway Point”
While filming “Halfway Point” our techie guy, Kevin O’Neill said he had an idea for a short film about two people in a grocery store for the next Hot Shops Film Festival. That film, “Aisle to Aisle” won third place at the festival in the non-academic drama category.
Both “Halfway Point” and “Aisle to Aisle” have been selected to kick off the 1st Central Nebraska Film Festival in late January, in Kearney.
Both films will appear in our premiere along with another short film we made for the Middle of No Where Film Festival that was held in Lincoln through the Nebraska Independent Film Project association. We will also show the “Halfway Point” trailer and blooper reel.
We have three short films we are scripting for production next year. One called, “Laundromat” which takes place in a Laundromat. One called, “Kitty Cats & Exit Signs" about two friends of ours who met during a telemarketing call. The last one called, “Taking Shelter” about apartment residents who finally get to know each other in the midst of a tornado warning.
After the premiere of “Halfway Point” we plan to submit the film to various film festivals around the United States.
Who knows after that…
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