"Humboldt County" Directors' Blog

This video is AMAZING.

2010-04-22T18:11:00.001-07:00

We rarely put up links and such, but we had to pass this along. It's the greatest internet video we've ever seen. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EEjP5xidoY&fmt=22

d&D

I have come so far....or have I?

2009-04-10T19:11:00.000-07:00

So I'm at home in St. Louis for a few days before heading to New York and my mom just brought out a very old piece of writing of mine. It may, in fact, be my first story. And I think it's rather awesome. It's got a Charlie Kaufman-esqueness to it, if I do say so myself. If anyone would like to option it, you can contact me via this blog. Here it is, exactly as I wrote it so many years ago (typos and all):

THE RITEING STORY

Whon day a boy was riteing a story about monsters.
He made a mistake so he went to get a eraser.
When he came back the monsters wher a live
They grabed him under the desk.
And tered his face off.
And then a nother boy made a story about a hero.
And he made a mistake so he went to get a eraser.
When he came back the hero was alive and he cilled the boy.
And the monsters. Then the hero wnt out side.
Then evry body screamed and went to a nother planet.

THE END

BY DANIEL AaRON JACOBS

YEAR 1986

Age 7 ½

Four people in family

"Humboldt County" available on iTunes!!!

2009-04-06T10:55:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

Soon, Darren and I will be heading to NYC to do a little script research on the next project. Exciting. Every time I go to New York, I feel life flow through me. Not only will it be a blast, but it will also be incredibly helpful to be in the city in which our script takes place. I remember every time we would go up to Humboldt while we were writing that script, I would come back filled with hundreds of little ideas to improve the story. Something about being immersed in a place does that to you and in New York, it's easy to get immersed.

And in Humboldt news, the film is finally available for rent and purchase on iTunes!!! Click HERE
So go on, buy or rent and also rate it highly!!!!

Thanks,
d&D

Turning Thirty

2009-03-10T12:36:00.000-07:00

Today I turn 30 years old.

Wow. It's a shocking number for a lot of reasons. My mother was 30 when I was born, for one. And I am nowhere near having a child. So there's that. Darren and I had always said we would make a film before we turned 30 and we achieved that goal. But on the negative side, we were lamenting today that were were on set for "Humboldt County," shooting our first feature, back in October of 2006. Yikes. That's way too long to not be shooting, I think. Though, in looking back, it's not like we've been slacking off. It was simply that releasing an independent film takes a lot of time and it delayed our work on our next feature. And now our next feature script is simply taking time to take shape. Sigh. I would have liked to have made another feature by now to be sure. We've always admired blue-collar filmmakers like Woody Allen and Sydney Lumet more than the current crop of filming superstars like P.T. Anderson or David Fincher because no matter what, Woody and Sydney made film after film after film.

Perhaps Darren and I aren't quick enough writers, I don't know. Maybe we'll get quicker as we gain more experience, I don't know. But a year ago, at this time, we were gearing up to premiere "Humboldt County" to the world at SXSW 2008. It was a heady time. And, looking back, things could hardly have gone better for us from there. We sold the film to Magnolia, released it theatrically and now appear to be building a sizable audience on DVD. Still, sometimes I feel like an aging rockstar reveling in past hits. I feel much more comfortable focusing on what's next. And what's next for me is my thirties, and hopefully, many more films.

Writing and Moving...

2009-03-03T22:47:00.001-08:00

When some of my friends move, they say "I bet it won't be as bad this time." Not me. Every time I move, my inner monologue goes something like this:

"This is going to suck. It's going to suck harder than I can even imagine. Prepare yourself, Darren, for complete suckage. Prepare yourself and maybe it will not suck as hard."

And yet no matter how much I prepare myself for said suckage, I inevitably reach a moment -- where I'm sweaty and my arms are sore and there's still WAY more stuff that needs to be moved than has already been moved -- and the whole escapade has fully exceeded my suck-expectations and made me regret moving. I always end up deciding that I will never move again, and I condemn my idiot self for not adequately preparing for this level of sucky-ness.

And that, my dear LCLs, is the writing process. Or, at least, the writing process as it pertains to Danny and me. You see, we always go into a script (or even a rewrite within a particular script) trying to be fully prepared -- it's going to suck, it's going to be so hard, we're going to plunge into the depths of despair and depression -- and then we inevitably fall DEEPER into depression and reach GREATER depths of despair than we ever imagined.

We've always (so far at least) somehow maneuvered our way through the dark times, but we're constantly overwhelmed with the fear that each new challenge will be the one that finally bests us.

And I think, frankly, that that's how it's always going to be. There might even be some small comfort in that. Because if a script (or a move) was somehow less challenging than I thought it was going to be, it would probably mean that I was coasting, or at least that I'm not trying to get better. And if I'm not trying to get better, then I'm probably just getting worse. So I think I've finally come to a place of being OK with the roller coaster, a place of self-awareness that these dark times are an important (and positive) part of my process.

Unfortunately, being OK and self-aware doesn't mean I forgive myself for not preparing more for these damn dark TIMES.

-darren

p.s. I'm thinking of moving. I bet it won't be as bad this time.

An Open Letter to Mr. Tom Charity of CNN....

2009-02-27T12:05:00.001-08:00

Dear Tom Charity,

My name is Danny Jacobs and I am one of the writer/directors of “Humboldt County” – a film you recently reviewed over at CNN.com. I am writing today because I recently read your article, “Whys some films go straight to DVD” and I felt compelled to make a few things clear.

First of all, “Humboldt County” opened on significantly more than nine screens, as you mention in your article. In fact, the film opened in over fifteen major cities including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and Austin. When I first read that error, I was dismayed that such an estimable publication such as CNN would not have done some simple fact checks, even on a piece written for the entertainment section. The more I read of the article, however, the more I realized that my problem with your work was far more systemic than a simple factual discrepancy.

In order to explain this problem, let me go back a bit. When Darren and I made “Humboldt County,” we knew we were making a film with a 70s sensibility. We knew we were making a film that worked, consciously, against the quick cut, fast paced nature of plots in many modern movies. And we did so with the fervent hope that everything everyone was saying about modern audiences was untrue. We didn’t believe that they were ADD riddled media schizophrenics who couldn't hold their attention on something for longer than thirty seconds. We believed that the content being provided to audiences had changed, but that audiences themselves had not. In the absence of full characters and fleshed out worlds, of course attention wanders. But if the product is good, our hope was that audiences would follow. And the funny thing is, we were right. The audiences that have seen the film have, more or less, really enjoyed it. Of course, for some, the pacing was too slow and narrative wasn't their style, but the vast majority was able to fall into the universe on screen.

What we didn't expect was a fundamental shift that had occurred in the world of the nation's film critics that you, unfortunately, have exemplified in your article of February, 27th 2009. And that is that a growing number of today’s film critics are not the purveyors of the medium they once were. The number of excellent critics that truly contribute, in the vein of Pauline Kael, to the discussion of film in this country is dwindling. Sadly, the true ADD riddled, mass media consuming, attention span deficient movie watchers are critics like you.

I say this after reading your “review.” I put that word in quotations because, in reality, it is nothing more than a plot summary told with a dollop of sarcasm. The only real comment you provide about the film is that you were “underwhelmed” and “nothing much happens -- slowly.” Now, let me be clear, my issue with your review is not at all that you disliked the film. “Humboldt County,” though generally liked by critics across the country, has certainly received its share of bad reviews (some much more critical than yours) and every critic has every right to dislike a film. Your “review,” however, stood out for it’s ironic, detached, sarcastic and ultimately, empty tone. And that is the true tragedy of film criticism today. Your readership doesn’t ask that you like every film. What it asks of critics, however, is that no matter how you felt, explain yourselves. Develop arguments, provide insights and give the regular moviegoer a thesis of some depth and intelligence. Speaking as a moviegoer and not a filmmaker, I can tell you that we are screaming for that, hoping fervently that like our new president, we could be graced with film critics that do not treat us like children and give audiences the respect they deserve.

The real irony of your article, Mr. Charity, is that you chose to review three films on DVD to avoid having to review the new Jonas Brothers film and ended up reviewing the DVD films in the same superficially pithy way one might view a concert picture about three teenyboppers in 3D - with a contempt for the audience and a lack of trust that the audience can handle an actual perspective.

Talk to us like adults, Mr. Charity. We can handle it. I promise.

Yours,
Danny Jacobs
Writer/director “Humboldt County”

P.S. To review Mr. Charity's cnn.com piece, click HERE.

Confessions of a filmaholic.

2009-02-26T17:19:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, I went to the movie theater. I saw "Confessions of a Shopaholic." By myself. And I had a ton of fun - not because the movie was particularly amazing (it wasn't) but because I was in a movie theater. You see, I love going to movies. It almost doesn't matter which one as long as I'm sitting there, Diet Coke in hand, watching pictures dance across the screen. In that space, I'm golden. My "film friends" wonder how it is I am able to sit through the likes of "Friday the 13th" or "Princess Diaries" and they call me disparaging names when I tell them that I actually enjoyed myself. Still, I know the truth - that when I'm sitting there, watching a film, and feeling the emotions of the audience bouncing back against the screen, I feel alive. I feel a part of a community. It's the closest thing I can think of to what I imagine it was like thousands of years ago when our ancestors sat around the campfire and told each other stories. The stories weren't always good and they didn't always move the listeners, but they always brought the community together for a shared experience. And that's why I'll never stop going to the theater, no matter what dreg is put up on the screen before me.

In other news, "Humboldt County" has moved up a notch in the instant movies program on Netflix! Last week, we clocked in at #6. This week, we moved ahead of "Superbad" and stole its spot at #5. Come on, LCLs, let's keep the rise going!

My name is Danny. And I'm a filmaholic.

Top 10 Netflix Movie!

2009-02-20T22:27:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday Night LCLs!!

Yes. I'm at home on a Friday night. Yes, I'm a loser.

But onto more important matters. First of all, Darren and I have been hard at work on our next script, tentatively titled New York Challenge. Yes, we know it's not an amazing title. Yes, we know that we're not very good at creating titles. Still, it seems like the right title for the material. Writing again, as we are, is both amazing and terrible. Though, recently, we've completed the first draft of the script that we don't completely despise - which, for us, is quite the step. Still, there is a great distance between "despise" and "enjoy." Though, in the back of my mind, like a tiny annoying little nat, the fear exists that once we do get this script into fighting shape, there won't be an economy anymore. So there's that.

In "Humboldt County" news, the tide is beginning to crest! I just got the following email from a friend, who uses Netflix. Names have been changed to protect the innocent, but the long and the short of it is that "Humboldt County" was the sixth highest rented Netlflix film on their instant movies program. We're ahead of some big films and it's exciting to hear that people are checking out the picture.

See below and in the meantime, I hope no one is home to read this tonight and that you are all doing far more exciting things than I.

Peace,
Danny

*******************************

Re: Humboldt County in the top 25 instant movies from Netflix

Danny,

Actually, you guys are #6 for last week on Netflix Instant Movies. Netflix has about 20,000 movies and shows available instantly online or on their Roku player which lets you play movies on your TV - Frankensense and I really like to use that since we often don't know what we want to watch until the last minute. We went ahead and got the Roku player for our TV for like $100 - not a bad idea if you all already use Netflix.

Humboldt also has 20,341 ratings and an average rating of 3.2 / 5 stars - not bad!

Anyway, the top 10 for last week was:
1) Penelope
2) 21
3) Heroes Season 3
4) Serenity
5) Superbad
6) Humboldt County
7) Ratatouille
8) 30 Rock Season 1
9) Next
10) The Office Season 1

I would list out the top 50 - there are some other impressive names that you are trouncing right now including Man on Wire and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, but I think you get the idea!

Take care,
Fuddy P. Duddy

A quickie...

2009-01-31T23:00:00.000-08:00

LCLs:

Stay tuned for some photographs of our LA premiere screening coming soon to a blog post near you!

In the meantime, take a gander at the first review of our incredible soundtrack here! We strongly encourage you all to check out the soundtrack, which is available NOW on iTunes via music supervisor Peymon Maskan's new label "Little Mountain".

Just search for Humboldt County on iTunes. We know you will not be disappointed.

Talk soon,
Darren

Harold & Kumar Vs Humboldt County

2009-01-25T15:02:00.000-08:00

A buddy of ours sent this photo to us from a Blockbuster store in Chicago. Notice that HK is fully stocked while HC is all rented out. Nice.

Humboldt County ONE - Harold and Kumar ZERO

Happy MLK, LCLs!

2009-01-19T11:36:00.001-08:00

As we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. day (well, not McCain, but the rest of us), it occurs to me that this is a time of renewal. The 4,731 hours of inauguration coverage are in full effect and the estimated number of attendees in Washington changes by the second. With all that chaos ongoing, I thought it a time to think and ponder....

On January 12th, 2009, we had a screening in LA of "Humboldt County" to commemorate the DVD release the following day. It was a lovely affair (Darren will upload photos as soon as he figures out how to use his wife's spankin' new camera). A lot of friends came out and people we've known in the industry for a long time. Most poignantly, our very Jewey mentor, Mr. Jake Kasdan (director of such notables as "Zero Effect", "Orange County" "TV Set" and "Dewey Cox") moderated the Q&A. Jake recounted the story of how we came to know him and how he became a flagship member in the "Danny & Darren Mentor Program." We got his phone number (how, I will not divulge) and left a message on his answering machine, in no-doubt ridiculous fashion. And the rest, as the ubiquitous "they" say, is history. Every 4-6 months Jake would take us out for a scrumptious meal at The House of Pies in Los Feliz and dispense drops of wisdom from his decidely large fountain of knowledge. So, it was with great pleasure, and a touch of surreality, that Jake moderated our Q&A after the screening.

The Q&A featured cast members Chris Messina and Madison Davenport as well as our composer, Izler (Like Madonna, he has but one name. Deal with it.) Fairuza Balk and Brad Dourif came to the screening beforehand for some press stuff, but sadly, neither of them could stay around after.

It had been a long time since I had seen the film up on the big screen and I stayed around for the first 10 minutes or so to watch. I kind of wanted to stay for the whole thing but instead, joined the cast and a few others for dinner. It occurred to me, though, that this was likely to be the last public screening of the film in the United States for quite some time. Because now, the film exists out in the world - on DVD everywhere. And speaking of, if you want to buy the DVD (which you can literally do anywhere) please buy it from our website. It's a better deal for us (and for you).

Lastly, Magnolia finally got the numbers back from the first 3-month Video on Demand window for "HC" and they were pretty darn good. The reason it takes so long for us to find out how many people watched the film on VOD is a long, sordid and frustrating tale but nonetheless - the numbers did come in and apparently, all across the country, people have been checking out the film. So many people, in fact, that Magnolia is bullish about our DVD prospects and has ordered 25,000 DVDs for the release.

How many of those DVDs get bought/rented remains to be seen. But as we near the final, homestretch of this fantastic run, we wanted to say "thank you" to all of you LCLs that have been there since the beginning. Keep checking this blog because we'll continue to update it (more regularly than we have, we promise) with "Humboldt County" news as well as progress reports on our next project.

Until then, enjoy your endless inauguration coverage and remember: Don't sit idly.
d&D

P.S. Whenever and wherever you rent or buy "Humboldt County" please rate it highly and write a positive review!

News! News! News!

2008-12-23T12:40:00.000-08:00

Hello LCLs,

I hope these few days between holidays is treating you well. So, several things on the agenda for today.

First: The "Humboldt County" DVD is coming out on January 13th, 2009

Not only will the DVD feature the film in all its widescreen glory, but there's gonna be a bunch of extras on the bad boy too: deleted scenes, the promo video Darren and I shot a while back, behind the scenes footage and a whole lot more. You can pre-order the DVD (and by the soundtrack) right now on our website. Or, if you'd rather be cheap you can put it on your Blockbuster and Netflix cues. The more people that put them in their pre-order cues, the more DVDs the companies will buy from us. But most importantly, you can tell everyone you know. Haven't bought that holiday present yet? Now's your chance, LCLs!

Second: to aid us in this endeavor, please go on imdb, rottentomatoes and metacritic and rate "Humboldt County" as high as possible so that people will be more interested in renting the film.

Third: We are pleased to announce that we made a "Top ten movies" list for 2008! Sure, it's the top ten "stoner" movies of the year, but who's counting? Check out the list HERE.

The list is interesting. First, I'm not sure what, exactly, a "stoner movie" is. Apparently, from the list, it's any movie that has marijuana in it. Which I find ridiculous. It's like people who love tomatoes making a "Tomato Movie Top Ten" list that just includes different movies with tomatoes in it. Okay, maybe that's not a bad idea. #1 has got to be "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" followed by...."Fried Green Tomatoes"? Hmmm. Maybe not. Plus how many movies from this year actually included a great deal of marijuana, anyway? My guess is we made the top ten...out of 15 or so possibilities. Look, I'm not poo-pooing the honor. I'm just sayin'....

Also, as you can probably guess, I got back from the film fest Estonia. It was a great time. You're not getting any pictures from me, though, as I forgot to charge my damn camera. Danny = dummy. Nonetheless, it was a grand time. The Estonians rock. They can drink with the best of them and most have a sarcastic, deadpan quality that I dug. Also, they're all blonde. Which was weird. The film played well to a crowd of about 500, though since English was probably the audience's second language, my feeling was that they didn't quite get all the nuances.

Did you like how I snuck "poo-poo" in this post? I did.

Happy New Year everyone,
d

It's been a while. How are you?

2008-11-25T15:53:00.000-08:00

Hello LCLS!

Sorry we've been such....assholes. Don't think we don't care about you. We do. We've just been....busy. I know, I know. Excuses, excuses. And they are excuses. I'll admit that. So. Moving on...

Thanks to everyone who has come out to the theater in Chicago so far! We're playing for the rest of the week so make sure you get all your friends out there in the next few days! And, for those of you wondering about other cities, keep checking the Magnolia website (www.magpictures.com). We're still playing a select few cities here and there. For instance, for one night only (Dec. 5) we'll be playing in Santa Barbara! And Darren will be there to do a Q&A. So if you're near or around the city then, come see the picture.

Also, I will not be attending because "Humboldt County" will be also playing at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia! They're flying me out for a few days in early December. If you know anyone in Estonia, tell them to get their ass over to the film fest. I've never been to Estonia before. I hope I don't get unwittingly involved in some Soviet satellite skirmish. Pray for me.

Finally, we've been getting a bunch of inquiries about when "HC" will be playing in LA. Well, it seems that Magnolia's interest in playing the film in our fair city has sadly wained. However, we're going to do a big, knockout, blowout screening at a theater in LA the week before the DVD drops (Jan. 13). So you will all be invited to that little shindig for suresies.

Peace.
d

Second City No More..

2008-11-19T15:13:00.000-08:00

LCLs:

I write to you now as a married man, but more on that in a later post. First things first, in the world of Humboldt County, for those of you who have not been keeping track, we have some openings in the weeks ahead, and given the incredibly competitive climate out there, we need your help in spreading awareness about these.

We are opening the film for a 1 week run in producer Captain Deadpan's hometown (and my college town) of CHICAGO, IL, at the Wilmette Theater this Friday, 11/21. That's not all. We're also opening in Taos, NM (11/21), Columbia, SC (11/26), and Santa Barbara, CA (12/5). As always, mucho info. is available over on our main page: www.humboldtcountymovie.com. Check it out!

-Darren

P.S. 1.5 weeks in, marriage seems pretty awesome.
P.P.S. Also in an upcoming post, a summary of one of the greatest moments of this entire filmmaking process thus far: the night we played our film in our hometown of St. Louis, MO, at the glorious Tivoli Theater in the Loop.

Coming Home...

2008-10-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

LCLs:

On Thursday, November 13, 2008, at 7 :00 PM, Humboldt County will play ONE NIGHT ONLY at the Tivoli Theater in St. Louis, MO, as we are the opening night film of the St. Louis International Film Festival. Tickets can be purchased here. This is significant for Danny and myself because we are both from the great city of St. Louis. Born and raised in West St. Louis County, we have seen many pictures at the Tivoli (it's in an incredible location on Delmar Blvd. in the Loop).

To return to our hometown (where we'll also be for my wedding) and show Humboldt County to a crowd of St. Louisans is a dream come true, and it is really the perfect way to cap our theatrical run (we will have a DVD release on January 13, more info. to come).

There will be a reception before the film at 5:30, as well as a party after at Mandarin in the Central West End. All info. about the festival can be found at its website: http://www.cinemastlouis.org/fest.html

We hope to see many of you there.

-Darren

Where in the World are Darren and Danny?

2008-10-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

LCLs:

First, we must apologize. We've been away from you for far too long. After we returned from our fantastical trip to NYC to open Humboldt County at the Sunshine theater, we again left town, this time for personal reasons. As you may or may not know, I am getting married to the lovely Renee Schuman this November. A few months back, Danny, who is also my best man, organized an incredible camping adventure for 15 of my closest friends on Catalina Island. Well, he was only getting warmed up. He had also planned (along with fellow groomsman Zack Kinney, and with the financial help of several more of my incredibly generous friends) a trip to Peru. Yes, we were headed to Peru for 9 days in order to hike to, and up, Machu Picchu. It was one of the greatest trips of our lives, and without a doubt the greatest physical challenge we've ever endured.

If/When you get married, I hope you have half the best man/maid of honor that I do. Not in terms of physical size, because Danny is already small, and someone half his size would be really, really tiny. But I mean half the best man in terms of quality of the friend. I only wish that I liked him.

Some photographic evidence of our journey:

We actually slept in these tents on our first night. Well, tried to sleep in the bitter bitter cold is a better way of putting it (although Danny slept fine, and for those of you who know Danny, this is no surprise: his superpower is that he ALWAYS sleeps fine). And yes, the next day we hiked directly for that snowy mountain...

Danny says, "what? This is it? Really?"

A bit more impressed at our highest point, Danny (who suffered from some intense altitude headaches) was convinced for hours after taking this photo that his name is Abra Salkantay.

This is me trying to convince everyone that the Incas used to play mountain baseball.

Digesting....

2008-10-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

Hello all! Sorry we've been MIA for the past few days. There's been a lot to digest. What a journey the past few weeks (let alone the past few years!) have been. We returned from New York after a successful opening weekend. The crowds were great and people really seemed to enjoy the film.

Darren and I have been spending this week hard at work on our next two projects, trying to get them into fighting shape as soon as humanly possible.

But rest assured, the journey of "Humboldt County" is not yet over. The film continues to open in new markets each week. Keep checking Magnolia's website: www.magpictures.com for playdates in your area. And we've still got some big openings in our future: Los Angeles, Chicago....

But we wanted to take yet another opportunity to thank all of you who read this blog and support the film. We could not have done it without you. Your passion and energy has sparked our own.

Keep on spreading the good word.

Yours humbly,
D&D

The Big Apple

2008-10-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

So last year, Darren and I lived in New York for three months while we worked on our next script (set in the city). We got a sublet in the Lower East Side (Norfolk and Rivington to be exact) and would often frequent the Sunshine Theater on Houston street when we needed a break from the awfullness and amazingness that is writing. Tonight, "Humboldt County" opens in that very theater. It really is one of our favorite theaters in the city so we're incredibly psyched.

Overall, it's been great to be back here in the greatest city in the world. It feels like home, though I've barely lived here. Someday. Hopefully someday soon.

In the meantime, Darren and I are doing our best to ignore the reviews (both positive and negative). The New York Times review came out today and was mostly positive, while the New York Post was mostly (okay, totally) negative. Reading these reviews is hard. When they are positive, it feels like someone is complimenting us. When they are negative, it feels like we are being shivved in the side with a knife. I have realized how frighteningly small is the psychic space between my concept of self and that of my film. But I guess when you devote the majority of your 20s to something, such an emotional divide (or lack of one) is inevitable.

In other news:

"Humboldt County" wins its first award! The film played at the Idaho International Film Festival last weekend and won the award for best narrative feature!! We eeked out the prize from another Magnolia film that I saw at the Provincetown Film Fest (and which won the award for best narrative feature at this year's Tribeca Film Festival): "Let The Right One In." It's a really great film and we're honored to have trounced it handily. :)

Finally, our soundtrack is finally available on Itunes!!! We're really proud of it and for everyone that has seen the film, you know what a great job our composer, Izler, and our music supervisor, Peymon, did. Just search for "Humboldt County" on Itunes and it should come up.

My only regret about coming to New York City is that in a few days I'll have to leave.

L,
d

It Ain't Over....Week TWO!

2008-10-02T00:16:00.001-07:00

LCLs:

First, good news:

Our opening week run was successful enough that Humboldt County will play a SECOND week in the following theaters:
Austin, TX: Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar
Portland, OR: Hollywood Theatre
Eureka, CA: Broadway
Arcata, CA: Minor 3
Santa Rosa, CA: Rialto Cinemas Lakeside
San Francisco, CA: Lumiere Theatre
Berkeley, CA: Shattuck Cinemas

That's right, we only lost the Garberville Theater in southern Humboldt (which was apparently always to be a 1 week run only) and the Varsity theater in Seattle, where despite an excellent promotional screening we just did not do very well. Don't worry, Seattle people, you can still see it at the Varsity on Thursday, 10/2, and if you miss it then it's always on VOD and the eventual DVD release in January.

So, for everyone who missed it in the above markets last weekend, you have a chance to see it again this weekend! Or for those of you who loved it, go see it again! Bring your friends! Let's keep it rolling!

AND NOW, ONTO NEW YORK AND EUGENE, OREGON.

Danny and I are leaving in about 8 hours for New York. We'll be at the Sunshine Cinema on 143 E. Houston for Q&As after the Friday and Saturday evening shows this weekend. We'll also be participating in a meet & greet on Friday starting at 5 pm at the B-Bar (4th & Bowery), 40 East 4th Street, hanging out before, during and after the screenings. Stop on by and say hello! Or tell your friends to come say hi! We'll have promotional materials to give away. Should be a good time.

We cannot thank you all enough for your hard work throughout this entire process, but as the title of this blog post indicated, it's not yet over! We still need people to spread the word. The theatrical marketplace is getting really really crowded, and thus our chances of sticking around are very small. The only chance we have is if word of mouth leads people to tell people to go see the movie.

This past week has consisted mainly of: recovering from the 2 week bonanza, working on our upcoming projects, and I even had the chance to catch a flick (check out Tell No One if you haven't already. A great little French thriller).

We'll have plenty of blog updates from NYC, so stay tuned.

-Darren

Exhale....

2008-09-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

What a ride.

The weekend went spectacularly. We saw a lot of old friends in San Francisco, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the film in theaters. More pictures and details from the weekend are forthcoming. For now, we wanted to tell everyone that if they saw the film and liked it, please please please go to the following websites and vote, as well as recommend the film to others!

imdb
Metacritic
Rotten Tomatoes

Next up: NEW YORK CITY!!!!

On The Road XI: A Humboldt Thank You

2008-09-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

On The Road X.5: Our Poster Goes Up!!!

2008-09-25T01:42:00.000-07:00

This is a video of the manager at the Lumiere Theater in SF putting our poster in the thingy outside!!! EXCITING!!!

From the Road X: Portland memories...

2008-09-24T23:41:00.000-07:00

LCLs:
A quick story I forgot to relate. In Portland, Oregon, during our screening, Danny, Captain Deadpan and I ate at an Italian restaurant and were served by the greatest waitress of our lives. Seriously.

Her name is Kelly Thoen, and not only did she take NONE of the sarcastic, obnoxious guff that we three putzes tried to throw at her (she gave it right back to us), but she also gave us a FREE dessert (delicious Tiramisu), and most impressively, she told that she is training for a run.

Not just any run, mind you, but a run to Nicaragua. From Portland. You read it right. She's training right now so that she can run 30 miles a day, and make it there in 3 months! Once she arrives, she will get married. And it's all for charity. She is a better person than Danny, Jason and I put together and squared. Check out her website: www.twodollarsaday.info

That is all,
Darren

On The Road IX.5: More Stanford Pics and Memories!

2008-09-24T22:50:00.000-07:00

Ahoy from my alma-mater, Stanford University!!!!! What a blast it was to screen the film on campus. The memories flooded back. I walked around campus and found myself at Mem Aud (Memorial Auditorium). I stood on the stage, looking out over the huge space, and reminisced about the fact that 11 years earlier I had my first ever stage experience there. Then, I headed up to room 204 where I first discovered my love of improvisation as a freshman. Both spaces were absolutely essential to my discovery of theater and improv.

Then, I watched auditions for a student written musical/sensation called "Gaieties." It's a Stanford tradition and it was the first audition I ever went on in my life. Watching the nervous freshmen sing and perform scenes, I remember my audition so clearly and crisply and I marveled in retrospect at the immense changes in my life that that audition would yield.

It was fantastic to take a visit down memory lane. Thank you, Stanford!!!

This is Cubberly Auditorium where we had our screening on campus. Incidentally, it is also the place where I took "Introduction to International Relations" as a Freshman ELEVEN years ago!

Captain Deadpan and I took Darren to Zotts, a fantastic beer garden and a longstanding Stanford tradition.

More Zotts.

I bought course readers at the Stanford bookstore. I am a huge nerd.

From the Road IX: Stanford

2008-09-24T18:33:00.000-07:00

LCLs:

We want to remind you that we will be doing special Q&As for the Bay Area this weekend:

On Friday night, we will be at San Francisco's Lumiere Theatre, 1572 California St, for Q&As after the 7:15 and 9:30 showtimes.

And on Saturday, we will be doing Q&As after the 4:30 and 7:05 showtimes at Berkeley's Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave.

Last night, we screened in San Francisco, and though the theater was not quite full, it was another fantastic screening. I suppose it's possible that people actually despise the film, and they are simply lying when they come up to me afterwards to say they love it (and the insecure self-loathing part of me believes this to be the case), it really does appear that a great majority of audiences respond favorably to the film.

We're down to 1 last promotional screening, tonight at Danny and Captain Deadpan's alma mater, Stanford University (Cubberly auditorium).

And then that's it. Next stop, theatrical release on 9.26. Pardon my language, but holy shit.

-Darren

On The Road VIII.5 : San Fran and Berkeley photos!

2008-09-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

Hey LCLs!

Here are some photos from our time in San Fran and Berkeley!

Here Darren and I stand in front of the Lumiere theater (where the film premieres in SF).

In this photo, we plaster the walls of Berkeley, one poster at a time.

Here we're on the Berkeley campus and Darren tries to get the campus Democrats to come to our movie. I think it only fair to note that Darren did not approach the campus Republicans. Darren also supports tax cuts for the middle class.

In our attempt to find the film department at Berkeley, we stumbled upon a class in session. Here, Darren longs to return to an academic life.

As the credits roll, Darren and I take questions at our SF sneak preview.

See that paper in Captain Deadpan's hand? See that list? That's medical marijuana distribution centers, coffee houses and video stores in Berkeley. We visited every single one and let posters, postcards and matchbooks. It. Was. Exhausting.

From the Road VIII: The San Francisco Treat

2008-09-23T15:25:00.000-07:00

LCLs:

Our Berkeley screening was a rousing success. We nearly had a packed house, and the film played about as well as it ever has. We're finding these 'word of mouth' screenings to be incredibly valuable as we march toward our theatrical release. People enjoying the film and then being willing to spread the word about the release -- this is what it's going to take to actually have any kind of a successful run. Remember, the more people you tell -- and have those people tell people -- this is how we're trying to make up for our lack of TV ads, billboards, major media exposure, etc.

Today, we're appearing on the radio in Humboldt County on KMUD, the local station in southern Humboldt, with the famous Aunt Laura!

Today is also about papering San Francisco and will be heading to the Embarcadero theater tonight for a promotional screening. Soon, the promotion will end and it will be left to the movie gods to determine how many people go see our movie. We're going to power through to the end, with you, our beloved LCLs, alongside!

viva Humboldt,
Darren

On The Road VII: Buy Tickets!!!!!

2008-09-22T17:02:00.000-07:00

Hey all!

So, we're in Berkeley, CA today passing out match books, posters and postcards as we get ready for our sneak preview screening tonight at Shattuck Cinemas. It's the same theater we'll be opening in on Friday which is exciting because it looks like a really great place to see a movie.

First things first: TICKETS! Over the next 24-48 hours you will be able to go online and buy tickets for this weekends showtimes. In fact, in some theaters where we'll be opening (I'm looking at you, Alamo Drafthouse S. Lamar in Austin!), you can already buy tickets!!! Go to our website (www.humboldtcountymovie.com) and click on the "Buy Tickets" link on the bottom right hand corner. From there you can go to the individual theater websites and start buying those tickets.

Also, some of the interviews we've been doing have begun to come online and in print. Here are a few for your perusal and enjoyment.

1. Here is a link to an interview we did with MovieGeeksUnited. You can move your cursor to the 30 minute mark for the start of our interview.

2. This is a newspaper article written on the front page of the entertainment section in the local paper in Santa Rosa, CA: Interview.

3. This is an itunes podcast for "The Warren Report" - a cinematically based podcast originating in the Northwest region: The Warren Report Podcast (warning: it's looooong and uncut.)

Thanks all! See you soooooooon!
d

From the Road: San Francisco & the home stretch...

2008-09-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

Writing to you from our hotel in San Francisco. We've been here a day and a half, and with some down time from promotion we've been writing up a storm and enjoying some of the good food and spirits that the great city by the bay has to offer. What a trip. One great city after the next.

Tomorrow, it's back to full tme promotion, and we'll be in Berkeley all day Monday, San Francisco Tuesday, and Stanford on Wednesday night. Here's a reminder about our upcoming screenings this week leading up to the opening:

Monday, September 22, 7:30 PM:
Shattuck Cinemas, Berkeley

Tuesday, September 23, 7:30 PM:
Embarcadero Theatre, San Francisco
(NOTE: when we open San Francisco on Friday, 9/26, it will be at the Lumiere Theater)

Wednesday, September 24, 7:30 PM:
Cubberly Auditorium, Stanford University

Then Thursday and Friday will be spent trying to spread the word about the opening Friday. Let's fill those theaters!

Other news: we've found out we're opening New York's Sunshine theater (143 E. Houston) on Friday, October 3! So, all you LCLs in the NYC area will have an opportunity to see the film!

You (and everyone else) can click on the "Help Promote Humboldt County" link on our website, http://www.humboldtcountymovie.com/ for digital posters that you can send to everyone about the openings in each city.

We cannot thank you all enough. So many people have been working hard to promote the film, and we're super excited about the release. Can't believe it's 5 days away.

One last thing: starting tomorrow, Monday, 9/22, tickets will be available for purchase online in all the cities where we're opening this Friday. Again, there is a link on our website to lead you to ticket purchasing opportunities. Buy your tickets early!

And for those of you in SF on Friday night or Berkeley on Saturday, we'll see you there!

-DG

On The Road VI: Video Blogging from Portland!

2008-09-20T14:46:00.000-07:00

On the Road V: Portland Pics

2008-09-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

So today's post is from Portland. Below you will find some pics from our time in Oregon. Overall, it was a blast. Our screening went well (though the theater was only about 1/2 filled) and we plastered the city with promotional items. Though I'm worried that we don't have a great deal of exposure in the city, I am confident that if people do come out to see the film, Portlanders will love it.

A special note about a place in Portland we fell in love with: Powells Books. It's the largest independently owned bookstore in the country. It can boast an entire city block of books (and three stories tall). It's amazing. They have a rare books room with all these super expensive, old copies of classic books. The most expensive one was a book detailing the Lewis and Clark expedition published in 1814. The pricetag? $350,000. So Darren bought it. I think it was a great investment, especially in these troubled times.

That's a tiny Darren standing in front of the Hollywood Theater in Portland where HC will be playing. The theater has been open since 1926. It's pretty sweet looking.

This is the bane of our existence. GPS systems suck mightily.

Darren and I after a couple of hours of canvasing Portland.
Darren and I taking a picture with our producer, Jason Weiss, who decided to dress up for our sneak preview screening.

On The Road IV: Seattle Pics!

2008-09-19T05:24:00.000-07:00

Hey LCLs!! Below are some pics from our whirlwind two days in Seattle. We had some chowder, held an oversold sneak preview screening and lived the lives of traveling salesmen. Good times all around.

Darren as traveling salesman. That box is filled with promotional materials. It has wheels.

Beautiful sunset in Seattle.

Unexpected delays. Danny drops matchbooks all over the sidewalk.

This is the Varsity Theater where the film will be playing in Seattle!

Darren and Captain Deadpan enjoy chowder.

Danny has eaten too much.

Okay, so that bald head belongs to our producer. Then, look at the sign right above him!

The public market has fish. I like fish. I am a fish.

This picture was taken in our hotel room. They have "Humboldt County" available for order!!

A closer screen shot reveals, though, a sad misspelling of Jeremy's last name. Go Mr. Stong!!!

From the Road III: Humboldt County Does Seattle...

2008-09-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

LCL:

Seattle Screening was a smashing success. We showed the film at the Lankmark Guild on 45th Street, and because our publicist was able to connect with members of the Seattle International Film Festival, we filled a 230 seat theater and still turned away about 50 people. That's more like it! Feels like the old SXSW days again. It's more evidence that awareness breeds success for our little picture.

The audience's response was tremendous, and we enjoyed a few beers with some of them afterwards at Murphy's across the street (what town does not have an Irish Pub named Murphy's?).

We spent the day in Seattle walking the streets and papering the town. Seattle neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, Fremont, Queen Anne and the U District (University of Washington) have now been assaulted by Danny & Darren. Press has been very limited since leaving Austin, thus we're having to focus our attention on GRASS ROOTS.

Last night, after arriving in Seattle and beginning the passing out of materials, we got to enjoy an excellent dinner with my sister, brother-in-law and two nieces as well as Danny's freshman year roommate (college) and his wife. Travelling does allow you to connect with people you don't get to see everday. Good times.

We've now successfully left Seattle in our rearview mirror and are about to attack Portland, which at first glance appears to share much in common with Austin. Not a bad set of cities thus far.

Onward and upwards, LCLs. Screening tonight in Portland.

-DG

On The Road II.5: Pics and Video from Austin

2008-09-18T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hello from the road! Here are some pics and videos from our time in Austin. Exciting stuff all around.

Darren is standing outside of the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. We played here at the SXSW festival and now we're going to play here as part of our release. That's our poster outside!!!

Below is my view as we completed an interview on Dudley and Bob or something or other's morning shock jock radio show in Austin.

Above is a picture of me at the KGSR radio interview we did after the shock jock one. Notice what's in the b.g. -- they still use CDs! Isn't that quaint?

Darren and I being dumb on the radio.

The last time I took this picture (above), we didn't have distribution, we didn't know how our film would be received and Darren didn't have intestinal problems.

This is Darren and I at LAX very very very early in the morning.

Our rental car in Austin -- they gave us an old person car.

Way to take financial advantage of a natural disaster!

Our display of promotional materials at the Alamo. Those are our new, snazzy matchbooks!

Above, I am hugging our poster in the lobby of the Alamo Drafthouse.

Below is a video we took in the airport in LAX, heading to Austin to start the trip. We're tired:

A Special Word on SXSW...

2008-09-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

LCLs:
A quick word about someone we spent some time with Tuesday night in Austin (at the Hotel San Jose on Congress --super cool place with a nice patio and great beer selection): Janet Pierson. Janet has long been a supporter of Humboldt County, and earlier this year she took the SXSW reigns from Matt Dentler.

I remember when we first met Janet at the opening night party of this year's SXSW (at Buffalo Billiards on 6th, if memory serves), and she told us how she had loved the film and even had written the copy for it on the SXSW brochure. It was so kind of her to come up to us and let us know how much she enjoyed the film, and that really stayed with me. After getting the chance to spend some time with Janet on Tuesday in Austin, I honestly believe SXSW is in great hands moving forward.

Allow us to take a moment to blog about SXSW. When Matt Dentler decided to program Humboldt County for this year's festival, first opening night at the Alamo Drafthouse downtown and then twice more at the Drafthouse South Lamar (where we'll be opening next Friday, 9.26), we were a film on no one's radar. We had no prospects for any kind of distribution and practically no one had seen the film.

By the end of the fest, we had sold out all three screenings (and, as previously blogged about here, oversold the 2nd and 3rd by so many that they had to fill secondary theaters BOTH times and still turn people away), garnered interest from several distributors AND put our little independent film on the map.

As we've moved forward, along the festival circuit, into our distribution deal with Magnolia Pictures and now toward our theatrical release on 9.26 (and ultimately in 10 markets), we feel like we owe a special thank you to Matt, Janet, SXSW and the entire city of Austin. Without South By, we would not be on this promotional tour.

In the crazy independent film marketplace, where festivals like Sundance and Toronto are trying to live up to the hype of what they've done in the past, SXSW truly provides the filmmaker with an opportunity to stand out and succeed. And, to top it all off, it's one hell of a good time. It's difficult to conceive of our film having had a better outcome had it premiered anywhere else.

More blogs to come from Seattle, Portland, San Fran/Berkeley in the coming days. Take care, LCLs, and please remember to spread the word:

Humboldt County in theaters on 9.26.

www.humboldtcountymovie.com

-Darren

From the Road II: Let's go to Seattle!

2008-09-16T23:26:00.000-07:00

LCLs:

Screening #1 is in the books. It was successful in that people seemed to enjoy the film and were willing to spread our promotional materials. It was less successful in that our film played to its first non-packed audience in its brief history. A sobering reminder of the difficulty of what we're trying to do -- spreading the word on a tiny film like ours with virtually no marketing budget is akin to telling someone where to find a needle in a haystack.

The moral of the story is clear: we need your help now more than ever. Spread the word about 9.26!

As we've arrived in Seattle, I'd like to offer 2 quick photographs of our time in Texas (more to come).

I've titled this photo show "The anatomy of the Television Interview:

1) Darren & Danny are informed that there will only be space for one of us to sit for the KVUE TV Interview.

2) Darren & Danny find a workable solution

From the Road I: Austin, Texas...

2008-09-15T14:51:00.000-07:00

LCLs:
Sorry for the delay. Things have been BUSY.

We arrived in Austin at noon on Sunday, got our rental car and checked into our hotel (the lovely Omni downtown, which is also housing many refugees from the hurricane. I've never seen more dogs in a hotel before).

Sunday afternoon, Danny and I hit the town hard, going to, among other places, Ruta Maya, Pipes Plus, Vulcan Video, the Alamo Ritz and South Lamar, the Gas Pipe, and Amy's ice cream. We dropped off promotional matches and talked to people (some of whom were even already aware of the film!). We covered about 15 locations in 3 hours.

If you recall from our SXSW blogs, we're big fans of food, and our Sunday lunch was worth mentoning. We ate at Stubb's, an amazing BBQ joint downtown. After brisket, pork ribs and turkey (along with yams and some spiced creamed spinach), we did not need to eat much more. Of course we did, meeting up with family and friends and Guero's Tacos (our producer Captain Deadpan joined the promotional roadshow here, as he got to sleep in and fly to Austin much later than us) where we handed out MORE promotional materials and set the wheels in motion for further word-of-mouth spreading!

Today, we were up again at 5 am and on our way to K-VUE, a local Austin television station where we taped an interview (to be played at some point next week, I'd imagine). They only had room for one of us in their makeshift interview setup (the real one is under construction), and so Danny was not allowed to be on camera. Rebelliously, he stepped behind me for an awkward cameo that we think you'll all enjoy.

Next, it was off to two local radio stations: KLBJ (93.7 FM) where we joined Dudley and Bob live and KGSR (107.1 FM) with Brian Beck. Good times, and good interviews (we made certain to note something you ALL should be aware of: our amazing soundtrack will be available on itunes in about a month).

A few print/online interviews and one with the campus TV station were interrupted by two more amazing meals: breakfast at the Magnolia cafe (we ate there because it's GOOD, not because it shares a name with our distribution company) and lunch at Freebirds Burritos. We were told it's better than Chipotle. I can't say I agree that it's better, but it's definitely as good, and quite different. My belly is pleased.

I'm writing to you now from the lobby of the Omni, and we're about to head over to the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar for a 7 pm free screening of the movie, and Q&A. Should hopefully be a good chance to get people excited about Humboldt County!

So that's it for now! We're off to Seattle tomorrow, where the wild rockin' roadshow continues!

-Darren

It Begins...

2008-09-14T01:13:00.000-07:00

LCLs:

In a few short hours (3.5), Danny and I will take a taxi to LAX and head out to Austin, Texas, where we begin our two week journey/countdown to Humboldt County's theatrical release. This has been a long time coming, friends. A long, long time. Probably shouldn't have gone to the 9:50 showing of Burn After Reading the night before a 6:30 AM flight, but oh well. It was worth it. We loved the film.

As we sit here tonight, we have no idea where the theaters on 9.26 will be filled or empty. We're going to do everything we possibly can in the next two weeks to ensure the former, and we're going to be motivated by fear of the latter.

Stick with us at this blog, and we'll take you along for every step of the journey. The good, the bad, and everything in between. It's been a wild ride so far, and I have a feeling it's going to continue.

Next stop, Austin, Texas.

Good night, everybody.

The choices we've made....

2008-09-12T15:32:00.001-07:00

I'm sure my mother is proud. Looking back on my life, who could have guessed that one day, Darren and I could write with the following, truly astounding news:

We have been nominated for a Stony Award for best drama.

Now, up until about two hours ago, I had no idea what the hell a Stony Award was. Let me educate you. Apparently High Times magazine - a publication dedicated to marijuana and those who consume it - has movie awards. Why does such a magazine have movie awards? There is no way any rational person could answer such a question. But hey, when we get nominated for best drama, you won't hear me complaining. But really, how many marijuana themed dramas have come out this year? Frankly, I question both the quality and quantity of our competition.

Anyhoo - for your enjoyment - the letter we received from the vaulted publication (sadly, since it's our opening weekend in theaters and we'll be in the Bay Area, we will not be attending):

************************

Dear Darren & Danny:

It is my pleasure to inform you that “Humboldt County” has been nominated for the 2008 High Times Stony Award for Best Drama.

The awards ceremony will take place at 4:20pm on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 at the Malibu Inn in Malibu, California. This is the second year the event will be held in Los Angeles! It is our hope that you will be able to be on hand to be a part of the celebration and make this night that much more memorable.

The High Times Stony Awards is in its eighth year and celebrates those movies, television shows and video games that respect and build upon the stoner lifestyle and culture. This is not your typical awards show, the awards handed out also appropriately function as working bongs. The Stonys are in a class by themselves!

Complimentary tickets can be arranged for you. There will also be a VIP after-party at the nearby Malibu Motel.

High Times magazine, long held to be the number one counterculture magazine in the world, is in its thirty-fourth year of publication.

We urge you to attend the show, hit the GREEN carpet and enjoy a one-of-a-kind evening.

With Our Highest Regards,

Matt Stang
Editor-in-Chief
HIGH TIMES

Skirballs the Movie!

2008-09-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

We're 16 Days from opening in theaters, and I wanted to pass along a quick update:

Last night, before a crowded theater of Skirball Center members (I'm going to guess the average age of the audience to be 62.75), Humboldt County finally said hello to a Los Angeles audience.

We were joined on stage afterwards for Q&A by actor Chris Messina and composer iZLER. Special thanks go out to Kristy and all the good folks at the Skirball Center, as well as our publicist Marina Bailey (and Angela, who was on site with us).

Overall, and after some pre-show jitters given the nature of the audience, the screening was a rousing success! We were unsure how the rather, well, experienced crowd would take to our little picture, but it appears that they responded terrifically. We did, unfortunately, have to deal with another sound issue (apparently they were having issues with their projector and our 35mm festival print is, at this point, quite dirty), so it was once again difficult to hear some dialogue (special note: Danny and I die a little inside every time the smallest thing goes wrong, and so when people can't either 1) see our movie or 2) hear our movie, it sort of makes our experience akin to being stabbed repeatedly in the heart).

But the crowd responded well to the movie even with the sound issue, so that bodes well. It was a great pleasure to have Chris and iZLER on stage with us, and we hope to have them join us again in future screenings, such as when we open LA in October.

As for the upcoming promotional tour, we're still putting together some events before and after the screenings, so stay tuned here for more info. on dates/times/locations. And also we'll post some pictures from the Skirball soon.

until then, spread the Humboldt County word!

-Darren

Soundtrack and such....

2008-09-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

Hey LCLs,

Hope you are doing well! As Darren previously wrote, we are indeed back from the Bachelor Party and though we have irrevocably changed, I cannot tell you how. Must have been the copious amount of liquor consumed.

Okay, several things on this lovely Monday:

1. SOUNDTRACK - Many of you who have had an opportunity to see "Humboldt County" at film festivals or private screenings have asked about the music in the film. Well, I'm very excited to inform you all that our official soundtrack has recently been completed and will be available for sale in 2-6 weeks on Itunes, Amazon etc. Look out for it! Personally, I love the music Izler (our composer) and Peymon (our music supervisor) put together for the film and I think you will too.

2. AUSTIN THEATER - We are soooo excited to announce that when we open the film in Austin, TX on Sept. 26th, we will be doing so at the same theater we had such success at during the SXSW film festival earlier this year: The Alamo Lamar.

3. SPREADING THE "FACEBOOK" WORD - We have begun to create facebook pages for our premieres in the different cities! If you live in the Bay Area and are on facebook join our Bay Area Premiere Group HERE.

Also, note that there is an event in that group that is a meet and greet with Darren and I prior to the SF premiere on the 26th and a local watering hole. We'll be meeting up there and then caravaning over to the theater. So come on by!!!

Also, for you in Austin, join our Austin premiere event HERE.

Don't worry Seattle and Portland - We'll have pages for you as well.

4. SPREADING THE REAL WORD - And speaking of the cities we're opening in, don't forget to tell everyone you know in SF, Berkeley, Seattle, Portland, Humboldt County, and Austin to come see the film opening weekend!!!!

Peace and Humboldt,
d

Did we Miss Anything?

2008-09-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

LCLs:

We're back from the bachelor party, and it was beyond words. Truly.

13 men arrived on Catalina Island, and thankfully 13 men left with only minor cuts and bruises. Let the world hear me loud and clear: Danny Jacobs successfully planned an adventure! And no one died.

Though I already expressed my sentiments once, I must reiterate how much it meant to spend quality time with such good friends. A better bachelor party I can not imagine.

Now, we move forward toward the release of Humboldt County. It all comes down to two weeks from this Friday, ladies and gentlemen. Words like "excited" and "nervous" were invented for things like this, but they prove to be (to me, at least) frighteningly inadequate. We are reaching crunch time, and thus there is little time to waste. We have GOT to work towards filling those theaters the weekend of 9.26.

Here's a brief look ahead to what is on top for your intrepid writer-directors who man this blog:

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Join us whenever and wherever you can!

Tuesday, September 9, 7:30 PM:
We will be screening at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, after which Danny and I will be available for a Q&A along with actor Chris Messina, who plays Max in our film. Chris is also appearing in the current and terrific Woody Allen film, Vicky Christina Barcelona.

Monday, September 15, 7:00 PM:
We will be in Austin, Texas, screening at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. Danny and I will be available for Q&A after the film, and we will likely make ourselves available at a local bar/restaurant afterwards as well (note we plan to do this in every city, either before or after the screening. Details will come on this blog).

We'd like to meet as many fans of the film as possible in each of these locations to help encourage everyone to spread the word.

Wednesday, September 17, 7:00 PM:
Next stop on the tour is Seattle, Washington, where we'll be screening and doing a Q&A at the Landmark Guild 45th.

Thursday, September 18, 7:00 PM:
We'll be in Portland, Oregon, for a screening and Q&A at the Regal Pioneer Place.

Monday, September 22, 7:30 PM:
We hit the Bay area the week of our release as we screen and do a Q&A at Berkeley's Shattuck Cinemas.

Tuesday, September 23, 7:30 PM:
Humboldt County plays San Francisco! Screening and Q&A as always at the Embarcadero Theatre. .

Wednesday, September 24, Exact time TBA:
Danny Jacobs and Producer Captain Deadpan (Jason Weiss) return to their alma mater as we play Stanford University in Cubberly Auditorium.

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26:
Humboldt County opens in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Humboldt County, Berkeley and Austin!

More to come soon,

--Darren

Strong men also cry...

2008-09-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

Dear LCLs:

The title of this blog post comes directly from one of the wisest men ever to grace the silver screen: Jeffrey Lebowski. No no, not "the Dude." The other Jeffrey Lebowski. The millionaire.

But I find it personally relevant as I sit here trying to write but mostly thinking of the adventure that awaits me this weekend due to the hard work of the man who -- not quite two inches above where I presently type -- is staring creepily at you.

Although I pride myself on a general tendency towards insincerity, on this night I must be completely genuine and pay loving homage -- adorably and sickeningly -- to my friend of 23 years and co-writer/director: Danny Jacobs.

You see, Danny has put together an event so large I hesitate to even call it what it is: a Bachelor Party (note that Danny may just be making amends to us all for his willing and compensated participiation in Bachelor Party 2: The Last Temptation, available here).

Tomorrow morning, I -- along with 14 of my dearest friends in the world -- will embark on a camping adventure on Catalina island that Danny has single handedly organized from top to bottom. Unfortunately, not everyone we invited was able to make it, and they will be sorely missed (and also dropped from the friends list), but those of us who are going will eat more food, drink more alcohol and engage in more general debauchery than any group of men should do in a lifetime. And we aim to do it in 48 hours.

------

So I blog today to tell you, LCLs, that you will not hear from us again until Sunday (and perhaps -- since Danny as organizer makes us unlikely to survive -- never again shall you read our words), but assuming we live, after this weekend expect a DELUGE of Humboldt County-related information on this page.

We plan to blog often as we gear up to and through our two week promotional tour all leading up to September 26. After this brief hiatus, it is time to place nearly 6 years of work out into the world and see what happens, and we will grant YOU, our beloved LCLs, access to every step of the process.

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I blog today to remind you to go download our digital posters from our website: www.humboldtcountymovie.com, and send them to anyone and everyone you know (and tell them to send the posters to everyone they know) so that we can fill those theaters opening weekend.

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But mostly, I blog today to say thank you to Danny Jacobs. A dearer friend I do not know. Everyone should be so lucky to have someone who works so hard to plan (most of it in secret, and I suspect other things are still held from my knowledge) such an epic, grand and appropriate adventure before marriage.

Anyone who looks at Renee can plainly see that I got lucky when she agreed to marry me, but with Danny, it's different. He may not look like much, but as far as friends go, he's at least, 75th percentile or above. But not that much above.

To the whole group of guys who are joining in the celebration, I cannot wait. Many of you are traveling from afar, and I think that's ridiculous. But I appreciate it. And I love you all. Now let's go do some stupid shit.

Viva debauchery, & Humboldt....

-Darren

Website and Grassroots Update...

2008-09-03T11:18:00.001-07:00

LCLs:

A quick post to point you toward our newly updated, trailer-included website:

www.humboldtcountymovie.com

Also, note the link that says "help promote Humboldt County." From this link, you will find digital versions of our poster AND digital versions of flyers we've created for each of the initial markets (Seattle, Portland, Eugene, San Francisco, Berkeley, Humboldt and Seattle) which have the screening locations, the release date and the website all prominently displayed on the website.

After a very successful initial meeting in Humboldt with our first team of Grassroots marketers, we've determined that one of the first steps toward making this happen is for you to send these flyers out to EVERYONE you know in any and all of these cities (as well as other places around the country). This is extremely important in terms of spreading the word about the film, as we are now 3.5 weeks from release.

You will also find on the website that you now have the ability to embed both our trailer and promotional video on any blogs/sites you might have access to.

Much more to come soon on the grassroots marketing front, but for now be sure to check out the new site and spread the word!

-D

Is this heaven?

2008-09-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

Well, if you're from St. Louis like us and are therefore are a lifelong Cardinals fan, then the answer to that question is simple:

YES, this would be heaven.

Pardon us as we divert from Humboldt County for a moment to share with you the single coolest thing that has ever happened to us:

For 2 days in St. Louis, we were the luckiest SOBs on the face of the earth.

A while back, Danny and I blogged about our love for baseball, the Cardinals, and a book called 3 Nights in August. We threw out a plea toward the gods (who in this case take the human form of actor/comedian Kevin Pollak, whose company Red Bird Cinema had secured the rights to the book) to give us the opportunity to take a crack at adapting the book. We believed then (and do now) that we are the best candidates to bring this incredibly compelling yet narratively challenging source material to the screen. And now that we are actually involved with the project, we had the incredible good fortune of trying to sell ourselves to the manager of the Cardinals and the originator of the project in its book form: Tony La Russa.

Here are some highlights from our experience. Fellow Cards fans, please don't hate us. We have enough self-loathing to deal with already. It all started with ridiculous seats behind home plate:

--From there, we watched the Redbirds defeat the Braves 6-3 on Sunday, August 24. Not a bad way to begin the experience.

--It would get more ridiculous from there, however, when we got our first glimpse behind the curtain as producer John Loar escorted us to Tony's postgame press conference (they don't let strange looking Jews in there without escorts).

--We then suddenly found ourselves inside the clubhouse to tour Tony's office, the eating room, locker room, batting cage and dugout. We were shell-shocked into stunned silence as we met several players, coaches and media members (whose material we spend far too much time reading). We also were privy to an incredible moment when Cardinals General Manager John Mozeliak popped his head into Tony's office to discuss some player movement -- Cardinals outfielder Brian Barton had suffered an injury that day, and they had to decide who to call up to replace him. We were allowed to listen in for a minute before Tony and John noticed that Danny was taking copious notes in a moleskin labeled "Cardinals Secrets to be revealed to other teams," and they oddly asked us to leave.

--Later that night, we joined Tony at Albert Pujols' restaurant for an event during which he spoke. The snacks and free drinks were nice, but the insider baseball stories were better. One highlight included Tony reenacting the pep talk given by former Cards shortstop (and World Series MVP) David Eckstein, for which the diminutive shortstop had stood on a chair to speak to his teammates.

--After the event, we had the first of two consecutive dinners (not on the same night, mind you) with Tony as well a few of his friends, including Ed Curtis, who we owe a special thanks for the kindness he showed in taking us under his wing and leading us around Busch Stadium.

We dined at a couple of Tony's favorite spots in St. Louis, including the delightful Brio at Frontenac Plaza and the classy Dominic's in Clayton. We also dined with, among others, Carol Buck, wife of the late (and great) Cards broadcaster Jack Buck and Cardinals trainer Barry Weinberg. Stories were shared, food was eaten, and a better time could not have been had by these two Jews.

(Note that never once did anyone present question why a couple of schmoes like Danny and I would be allowed to join such luminaries).

--Finally, we were granted access to the field:

We watched batting practice before the game and sat in the owners' section of seats right next to the Cardinals dugout for the game Tuesday (a hugely important game against wildcard leading Milwaukee, whom the Cardinals needed to beat. Sadly, they did not, and the 12-0 loss was one of the worst of the season. Needless to say, we didn't see Tony after that game). A few more pictures from the field:

We also enjoyed the buffet dinner and food/drink service throughout the game (also gratis, included in the tickets) that goes along with the "green" seats at fabulous new Busch Stadium. If this is how the other half lives, then it's easy to see how that half gets to stay rich (they don't have to pay for anything).

Returning to our lives in Los Angeles where splurging means paying the extra couple bucks for guacamole on our Chipotle burritos (but only every once in a while, that's a lot of money after all) was a reminder that baseball is a far more lucrative profession than independent filmmaking.

One last anecdote: there were many highlights, but my own personal favorite moment took place during batting practice before the Tuesday night game against Milwaukee. Danny and I were leaning against the batting cage (as we'd seen people do on TV before) and watching the group of Ryan Ludwick, Troy Glaus and Albert Pujols hit. Tony La Russa came to join us and for five minutes he dissected Albert's swing and explained how he follows the hitting philosophy of the late Charlie Lau, a man who changed hitting in baseball.

Listening to a geat baseball man like La Russa talk hitting while a great player like Albert took his cuts was, well, a life memory I will be taking with me for a long, long time.

Here's a shot of Tony La Russa giving 85 year old legendary Cardinals Hall of Famer Red Schoendiest a hard time for not shagging flyballs with him during batting practice.

In the end, it was not all just a lifelong dream come true, but also an incredibly valuable experience in terms of the research we're doing for the writing of this picture.

Oh, who am I kidding? We just wanted to hang with ballplayers. Mission accomplished.Thanks for listening, LCLs.

Well, that happened.

2008-08-29T15:26:00.000-07:00

What a crazy night up in Humboldt. Captain Deadpan, Darren and I got picked up at the Eureka airport by Darren's famous Aunt Laura and Mary, the icon, legend and organizer of the wildrivers101 film festival. After checking into to our lovely hotel room, we had dinner and then headed over to the Eureka theater for the "Humboldt County" Humboldt County premiere. There was a palpable buzz and the line was pretty long. We sold out the 700 seat theater and after a quick intro, the film began.

Then horror struck. The projector at the Eureka theater is from 1950 and the sound system was apparently put together with technology from the 15th century. As a result, there was this weird blue line on the left of the screen and the dialogue was super difficult to hear. It was a shame because the crowd was fascinating. They cheered every Humboldt location that came to the screen and seemed to really enjoy the film in a way wholly different from any of the "outside Humboldt" audiences to see it so far. In fact, we were going to stay for the whole thing, but the technical glitches of the theater proved to heartbreaking so we had to leave. We found a bar and immediately pounded some whiskey.

That took the edge off.

When we came back, Darren and I went down for a Q&A and, to my surprise and delight, no stones or tomatoes were thrown in our direction. Obviously, there were some who didn't appreciate the film, but I'm pretty sure there was no film that could have been made about this region that those people would have been happy with. Thankfully, there seemed to be many people who honestly appreciated and enjoyed the picture. The most rewarding moments would be when people would come up to us and say things like, "Listen, I've lived in this county for 25 years and let me tell you something: You got it." Those comments were really lovely to hear.

Overall, Darren and I were just super appreciative of the kindness and generosity of all the Humboldt residents who came out with an open mind to see the film and, despite the terrible sound quality in the theater, seemed to enjoy what they saw.

Here are some pics:

Captain Deadpan out front before the show.

The line heading in.

And finally...here's a video of our intro for the film:

Darren and Danny get Nervous

2008-08-23T20:35:00.000-07:00

In December of 2002, Darren and I started writing "Humboldt County." Today, it premieres in Humboldt County. We're incredibly excited and nervous. Up until a few weeks ago, it was just excitement. But Mary Cruse, the head of the WildRivers101 Film Festival (and, by the way, the Craft Service Extraordinaire from our shoot), keeps making jokes about how we'll need protection.

Regardless, we head out tomorrow to Humboldt so excited to show the people of the region what came of our inspiration almost six years ago.

Still, the Internet has begun its chatter. So today, on the eve of our Humboldt premiere, we've got a guest blogger. A lady named Kelly M. Phillips, who apparently lives in Humboldt. We were alerted to her blog by our Internet spies (read: Danny and Darren) and thought it only fair to give space on our blog to those that aren't so sure it was a good idea for us to make the movie at all. So below, we've cut and pasted a recent blog entry from her blog. See, we're like Fox News! Fair and balanced!

Oh, one more thing. We've made an exclusive deal with Apple. For the next week, our absolutely NEW trailer, in all its high definition glory will be available on the Apple Trailers website: HERE.

Okay, without further delay, please welcome, our guest blogger, Kelly Phillips:

***********************

Humboldt County: The Movie

Yes, that's right, we've been trapped in celluloid.

Director's Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs have made a film about a young man from L.A. who has a wild fling with some mysterious slut and wakes up to find himself in the middle of the Redwoods at the home of some folksy, kind-hearted pot growers.

Ah yes, the often maligned, friendly drug trafficker who in no way contributes to the habits of the filthy, transient lowlifes who hang out downtown and are constantly asking me if I can spare some change.

I'm so glad somebody with a fair and balanced mind has brought them into the light!

They just want to look after mother earth and help people with legitimate medical needs for their product (about 2% of their actual clientele). The good souls are in no way capitalists who benefit from an unregulated market and a tax-free cash cow. Nooooooo.

In an interview that ran in The North Coast Journal, Robyn Hillman Harrigan wrote, "The filmmakers themselves noted that they were not out to stereotype the region, but that they were drawn to the storytelling benefits of one of its subcultures."

Let's see; the protagonists are a family of pot growers and a jaded city boy who comes to admire them and look on them as a family. The poster has a picture of said city boy perched on a giant joint with redwoods in the background.

Nope, no stereotyping there.

Subculture? Bitch please. I've never seen anything so mainstream. Let's call a spade a spade shall we?

I can't wait until the film comes out locally.

I'll be one of the first to see it, if only to prove my initial, nauseated gut reaction right.

"Humboldt County" Promotional Film!

2008-08-18T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hey LCLs!

So Darren and I have put together a little short film to help promote "Humboldt County" and its upcoming theatrical release. Here it is (below). Send it to your friends, embed it in your blogs and spread the word!!!!

d

P.S. We've got a brief brief mention in this week's Entertainment Weekly magazine. It's the fall movie preview and we're mentioned in the "Also Playing" section of the September preview.

No sleep till Humboldt!

2008-08-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

LCLs,

Okay, I admit it. I've been listening to the Beastie Boys recently and replacing "Brooklyn" with "Humboldt." Yes, I'm a loser. The "HC" train is picking up speed like...well, like a train picking up speed.

1. A MILESTONE: "Humboldt County" on Facebook has reached the vaulted 1,000 fan plateau! Yea! This puts us firmly ahead of Bill Clinton (195), Team China (746), Bono (811) and Hogan Knows Best (945). It feels good. However, there is still more work to be done. We remain behind Ben Franklin (1,753), John Mellencamp (1,906) and, perhaps most importantly, The Big Brother 9 Live Feed (1,386). B.Frank is going DOWN!

Thank you all for joining the movement. Facebook is going to be one of the primary ways we're going to reach out to our network as we get closer to opening weekend, so if you haven't become a fan yet, search "Humboldt County" on facebook and you'll find us. Or just click HERE and become a fan now.

2. A MOVEMENT: Darren and I have been touched by the many, many emails we have received from dedicated LCLs offering up their services to make this a truly grassroots, artistic movement. We're compiling everybody's information now and working out next steps. We'll be contacting all of you who expressed interest VERY SOON.

3. A PREMIERE: Two weeks from today, "Humboldt County" will be premiering in Humboldt County in the WildRivers101 Film Fest. Darren and I are nervous, excited, and jazzed. Yesterday we did an interview with a business reporter/film critic in Eureka and were reminded, once again, about the beautiful passion inherent in the region.

4. A WEBSITE: Our website: www.humboldtcountymovie.com is back up and running. At the moment, it's basically a mirror of what we had before minus images the MPAA deemed unacceptable for America's children. However, within a matter of days, we'll be unveiling a spanky new site, a spanky new trailer and a spanky new spanky (I don't know what that last thing means.)

5. A FESTIVAL: We just received word that "Humboldt County" will be the closing night gala film at the Idaho International Film Festival! The fest will take place right around our theatrical premiere in late Sept. We're honored to close it out with a bang.

Alright, LCLs - continue getting the word out, reminding your friends and neighbors of our impending premiere weekend, and getting those Evites ready to get everyone you know to the theaters! On Sept. 26, WE TAKE BACK CINEMA.

Viva Humboldt,
d

Humboldt County: See it With a Bud

2008-08-11T18:26:00.001-07:00

LCLs--

It's about that time:

Prepare yourselves for an onslaught of Humboldt County in the coming days, weeks and months.

As we move toward theatrical release on September 26, we aim to ensure that this blog is your constant source of information about all things Humboldt County. A summary of upcoming notables:

1) At last, here is our chance to show the film to the people and place most responsible for bringing it to life. We have our Humboldt County premiere (as in, in Humboldt County) at the Eureka theater on August 27 at 7 pm as part of the Wild Rivers 101 Film Festival. The festival's website is here.

2) Danny and I will travel with the film on a mega-promotional roadshow in mid September (we'll be blogging often from the road with updates, pictures and videos chronicling the whole experience), hitting each of the opening weekend cities for press, free screenings and on-the ground promotion. Full schedule of events and opportunities to meet up are forthcoming.

3) This, of course, is all leading to the big weekend: we open in select theaters in Humboldt, San Francisco, Berkeley, Portland, Seattle and Austin, TX, on Friday, September 26. Filling theaters that weekend is about as important for the fate of our film as can be. Once again, we will NEED your help.

4) We can officially announce that New York, Los Angeles and Chicago will be among the remaining cities where we release the film theatrically, at a TBD date in October. We will, of course, keep you posted, but we need to establish grassroots marketing groups in those cities. So, for those of you interested in joining the movement: send an email over to info@humboldtcountymovie.com

Which brings me to the marketing:

For those of you who have emailed us interested in being part of our Obama-style grassroots film marketing campaign, we are compiling lists of people who are interested. Thank you so much to everyone for your interest and willingness to help promote the film.

Prepare yourselves for an introductory email in the next few days explaning exactly how we plan to move forward and involve you in the marketing process. We're very excited about working together with our fans to spread the word to as many people as possible about the film.

So it's all happening now, LCLs. Humboldt County is finally on its way to theaters. Let's work together to make it a memorable run!

all the best and many thanks,
-Darren & Danny

Want to know where HC will play?

2008-08-05T13:45:00.000-07:00

LCLs,

First of all, thanks to everyone who has written us telling us that they are willing to participate in our groundbreaking organizational effort to get people to the theaters on September 26th. The LCL Local City Teams are shaping up nicely. Again, if you have any interest in being on the inside, ground floor of the "Humboldt County" movement, email us at:

info@humboldtcountymovie.com

Now, on to some exciting news. We're starting to get information on the specific theaters that the film will be playing at. So far, this is what we have:

Opening

9/26/2008
Arcata, CA: Minor 3
Berkeley, CA: Shattuck Cinemas
Eureka, CA: Broadway
Garberville, CA: Garberville
San Francisco, CA: Lumiere Theatre
Portland, OR: Hollywood Theatre
Seattle, WA: Varsity Theatre

10/3/2008
Eugene, OR: Bijou Art Cinema

Rest assured, more theaters will be added in the weeks and months to come. For example, we haven't yet pinned down which theater or theaters we'll play in Austin, TX. Also, you may have noticed a change to our previous post. Chicago, Illinois is no longer going to be part of our opening weekend in theaters. Magnolia wants to focus on more of a regional release before getting the film to New York, LA etc. So they're focusing on the Northwest (with Austin being the exception). What that means is that instead of Chicago, we're opening up in Berkeley! Super exciting.

Anyway, if you want to be truly industrious, you can check the Magnolia Pictures website:

www.magpictures.com

They'll continue to update our theaters and release schedule pretty regularly.

Sweeeeeeet. More to come.

A Call To Screens

2008-07-29T13:43:00.000-07:00

Hey LCLs,

So there's a lot going on right now. As you may have noticed, the official "Humboldt County" website has been temporarily been taken down. We're in the midst of retrofitting it to fit MPAA standards and add a host of new features and doohickeys.

Also, Darren mentioned it in the post-script of his previous post but I wanted to write it here. Bigger. And in bold:

"HUMBOLDT COUNTY" OPENS IN THEATERS ON SEPTEMBER 26th

Now that's exciting. The downside is that I now can't figure out how to turn the bold off. Well, the rest of this post is going to seem really important. Or maybe you'll just get used to it. Like melting ice caps.

So, once again, to reiterate (because you will be tested), our first week in theaters will be in the following cities/areas:

Austin, Texas
Berkeley, California
Portland, Oregon
Seattle, Washington
San Francisco, California
...and, of course
Humboldt County, California

Hey! I just figured out how to turn the bold off! Neato!!! Anyhoo -- Darren and I are treating the release like a political campaign. A grassroots campaign, to be more specific.

We're pretty sure that never before in the history of cinema has a film literally turned over its marketing efforts to fans themselves. But that's exactly what we want to do. We're a small, independent film without the millions of dollars the big studios spend to market their pictures. There are many cynical movie-lovers (and industry insiders as well) out there that think independent film is dead. They say there is no marketplace for it anymore, that the audiences don't want them, that the age of movie theaters is coming to a close and that the only thing people will go see are the 200 million dollar blockbusters shilled to us every weekend through nonstop commercials and adverts. Well we think that's hogwash. We think that if you have a compelling story, interesting and complex characters and beautiful cinematography that people will come. Oh yes, Ray, people will most definitely come.

But to pull this off...

WE NEED YOU.

If our current political season has taught us anything, it's that grassroots organization really does work and that people can take back power for themselves. It is US who determines what films we want to see, not some New York advertising company doing it for us.

So here's what we have in mind - we want to create "Lost Coast Local" city teams that work to spread the word from now until the opening of the film - a get out the vote kind of situation. These teams would meet in their respective cities, plan events (maybe even sneak preview screenings!), send out emails, etc. We'll provide all the materials (postcards, rolling papers, posters) that you'll need. Then, as opening night approaches, the LCL City Teams will be coordinating to get everyone they know to the theater.

Now, we wouldn't ask you to become a part of this if you didn't believe in the film. So we'll be making sure that every LCL City Team gets a special, private opportunity to see the film before anyone else. How could we ask you to organize your networks if you haven't even seen the film?
So that will be just one perk, of many, that will come your way when you join this historic movement to take back cinema.

So how do we proceed? Simple. Let us know if you're interested in helping out (especially if you live in Humboldt, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago or Austin). Email us directly at info@humboldtcountymovie.com

Let's take back the multiplex, people. What do you say?

Yours,
d&D

The Danny & Darren Mentor Program...

2008-07-28T20:59:00.000-07:00

LCLs:

Did we ever tell you about The Danny & Darren Mentor Program? When we first arrived in Los Angeles wide eyed and eager to make movies, we knew absolutely no one. All we knew was that we wanted to write and direct films, so we sought out relationships (mentorships really) from several successful filmmakers with whom we shared something in common.

Because we knew that going through agents and managers would be a waste of time, we risked life and limb to obtain the personal contact information of several notable filmmakers (using methods we cannot share here), and we called to ask them to be the flagship members of our "mentor program". We had an initial call and, in some cases, a follow up letter. What we needed from them was simple: their time. We wanted to ask questions, and beyond that our expectations were nil.

THE DANNY & DARREN MENTOR PROGRAM

1) To our surprise and delight, our efforts actually proved fruitful. We were able to get terrific support and guidance from Pete Farrelly, who along with his brother has been one of the more successful co-directors in recent Hollywood.

2) As we've mentioned before, we were also extremely fortunate to lunch several times with famed cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, with whom we (and Peter Bogdanovich) shared a magical evening during which we screened an early cut of Humboldt County, having no idea that just a few nights later Laszlo would pass away.

3) Not long after our arrival in Los Angeles, we had the opportunity to meet the man who would become -- without a doubt -- our closest mentor and eventually a dear friend: Larry Bridges. Larry runs Red Car, a commercial editing company with offices around the world, and to be perfectly honest, he deserves his own post which we'll be sure to include soon.

4) But the first member of the Mentor Program was a filmmaker who had done something we intended to emulate: make a feature film in his 20s.

That first Mentor was buying us lunches to help us avoid starvation in our mid-20s, and so it was pretty spectacular to be there with him again today, as we lunched together for the first time in almost 3 years.

That first mentor was Jake Kasdan.

From his first feature (Zero Effect) a decade ago to last year's The TV Set and Walk Hard, Jake has been an excellent mentor and model. One of our first and greatest on-set experiences was when Jake invited us -- the "Two Jews from St. Louis" as he called us -- onto the set of his TV pilot of Zero Effect, starring Alan Cumming (who was excited to meet the "Two Jews" after Jake had hyped us up).

Today, as we sat there at Fred 62 on Vermont, I thought a lot about how far we've come, and how much it meant (and still means) to have someone whose been through all the wars before offering moral support and advice.

Today, we'd like to acknowledge and thank the first member of The Danny & Darren Mentor Program: Mr. Jake Kasdan.

--DG

P.S. A quick perusal through our blog and I'm not sure we've shared the latest news here (though it was posted over at the producer's blog, linked at right):

Humboldt County is opening in its initial 5 cites on September 26, 2008.

SPREAD THE WORD

Press, Schmess

2008-07-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Darren and I hung with Mark Cuban. Mark, if you are unaware, is one of the richest human beings alive. He owns Magnolia pictures, which is releasing "Humboldt County" this fall. He owns 2929 Entertainment, which is a production company in Hollywood. He owns HDnet movies. He owns Landmark Theaters. He owns the Dallas Mavericks. He probably owns you.

We filmed him a little bit for the ending of the VOD promo we're making for HC. He was really down to Earth and cool. Especially when he offered to buy my colon for 25k. I accepted.

After the shoot, which we did guerrilla style right outside the Beverly Hilton in LA, we joined Mark and Peter Bogdanovich for a press conference at the Television Critics Association (TCA) conference. The TCAs are a big, 8-day conference held every year for all the television press to meet, mingle, drink, go to press conferences and drink some more.

Our particular event was focused on Cuban's HDnet movies and the unique business model Magnolia uses to release films into theaters, VOD, and DVD as well as getting the word out about "Humboldt County." We also focused on the quick changing landscape for independent films and the future of watching a new release on an ipod. But mostly, our event was a chance for Darren and I to look like a couple of dummies.

Pictures below

.

Our producer, Captain Deadpan, in front of the snack table in the green room before the press conference started. He looks scared.

Me pretending like I have something important to say at the podium. Of course, the auditorium is empty at this point.

Look! It's a video feed!!!

Darren and Me and PBogs during the press conference. Can you tell how much Pbogs hates these things? We can.

The money shot. Darren, Me, PBogs, and Mark Cuban. Which two of these are not like the others?

Darren and I trying to answer reporters' questions. I think that here, I'm extolling the virtues of In N' Out over Fatburger.

By for now!
d

Comings and Goings

2008-07-06T17:54:00.000-07:00

I've been catching up on some movies recently. The greatest of which is one you've all heard of: Wall-E. It's superb, not just as an animated movie, but as a film. I'm so glad that a place like Pixar exists, proving over and over again that taking business decisions out of the artistic process is the best business decision you can make.

This week's a big week - we're hopefully going to shoot Mark Cuban for the ending of our Video On Demand piece. The rest of the piece is being edited by our good buddy and filmmaker in his own right, Mr. Sebastian Davis. Tomorrow we're going to sit down with Seabass and take a look at an assembly cut. So that should be great.

Shooting this VOD piece has reminded me how unbelievably talented our cast was/is. We didn't give Brad, Frannie or PBogs much lead time to figure out what they were doing and still, they delivered in spades. It's really incredible how ridiculously amazing they are in front of a camera. Professionals all around.

Finally, this Tuesday, Darren and I will be on a panel with Mark Cuban and Peter Bogdanovich at the Television Critics Association conference in LA. It's an insane notion that we deserve to be on stage with those guys, but hey, that's life.

Happy Fourth everybody,
d

Humboldt Happenings

2008-07-01T10:44:00.000-07:00

Hey LCLs,

Boy. It's been a busy week. First of all, we've been working away on a Video on Demand promo for HC that will be airing on cable leading up to and during the film's release this fall. Magnolia has graciously allowed us to have control over the creation of this promo so Darren and I have reciprocated that foolish overconfidence in our abilities by creating a pretty ridiculous little piece. Yesterday was day one of shooting and it went really smoothly. We went out to Tarzana and shot a little interview with Brad Dourif which was a blast. It was great to see Brad again and revisit a bit about our times on set. We also shot at the Landmark Theater in LA (Pico and Westwood). Because Mark Cuban owns Landmark as well as Magnolia we were able to get pretty much the run of the place without too much trouble. Which, let me tell you, is a great way to shoot. We've got one more day of shooting tomorrow when we're hoping to sit down with PBogs, Fairuza and Frannie. Should be a good time.

In other news, Humboldt the actual county has been getting some attention in recent days. Federal agents have completed a massive raid throughout southern Humboldt (where our film is set) and northern Mendecino counties. Check out some news reports here, here and here. Having spent a great deal of time in Southern Humboldt over the years, getting to know the locals and the area, I know that it must be a very stressful time for everyone up there right now. I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe.

Finally, we're in Time magazine! The issue on local news stands now (dated July 7th) has a brief mention of our little film. It's on page 60. Just in case you live in a place without news stands, I've pasted the article for you all below. Take care LCLs, and let's talk soon....d

Pot: Now Starring in Your Favorite Movie

Thursday, Jun. 26, 2008 By BELINDA LUSCOMBE

Judd Apatow had a problem. The test screenings for his movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin were killing. But the jokes that were really landing were the ones featuring pot. Sophomoric, Cheech-and-Chong-y cheap yuks about weed. But funny ones. He called his old friend Garry Shandling to ask whether he should leave them in. They went with the only responsible choice: comedy comes first.

The film opened, and nobody made a big deal about the pot. Nor did Apatow get called out when the lead character in his next big hit, Knocked Up, was an inveterate stoner. And on Aug. 8, Pineapple Express, which he produced, arrives; it's named after a particularly potent (and fictional) strain of Cannabis sativa.

Time was, pot movies were like Grateful Dead concerts or parent-teacher conferences: you had to be wasted to enjoy them. And the genre had two tones, either apoplectic or apologist. But this summer is bringing us a bumper crop of movies and TV shows--Pineapple Express, The Wackness, Humboldt County and Showtime's Weeds among them--with THC in their DNA. Not stoner stories so much as plots that happen to involve pot, they ask, 37 years after the war on drugs was declared, whether there's a place in the culture for treatments of pot that neither criminalize nor celebrate it.

Marijuana is growing onscreen while use of the drug, which has been widespread for nigh on 40 years, is flattening. About 6% of Americans smoked it regularly in 2002, and about 6% of them lit up in 2006. And no, it's not the same 15 million stoners. Many users tend to pick it up in their teens, then drop it in their 20s. And 50% of them don't use any other drugs. Selling it is still illegal, but the pot dealer is no longer the panic-inducing bogeyman he used to be. In movieland, he's become a stock character, about as threatening as the hot woman's quirky roommate.

But funnier. "I'm always a proponent for the comedy involved in people who are under the influence," says Apatow. "I just think it's fun watching anyone acting like an idiot." Alcohol, the comic intoxicant of choice for generations of filmmakers, is now too strongly associated in people's minds with spousal battery and drunk driving to be truly hilarious.
Gandhi Does Ganja

So ran a recent headline on a story about Sir Ben Kingsley's appearance in The Wackness, a genial coming-of-age film in which Kingsley plays a shrink who trades therapy for dope and eventually joins his young patient Luke in dealing drugs. "For me, the pot was just a device," says Kingsley. "Through it we tell the lovely story of a fatherless child and childless father. And because I become his assistant in dealing with the stuff he's selling, I'm revealed to be the child."

Although their new movies feature drugs, Sir Ben and Apatow rarely use the D word when discussing them, as if willing pot out of delinquency and into mere dysfunction. For The Wackness, weed's a crutch; it takes the edge off loneliness, ennui or the shyness people feel around the opposite sex. Luke, the dealer, lives on Manhattan's Upper East Side and is on his way to college--his safety school, but still. In Weeds, Mary-Louise Parker's a pot dealer who sells to successful, bored, suburban business types. Even the protagonists of Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantánamo Bay, the closest thing we have to a modern Cheech and Chong, are a banker and a med student. Pot smokers aren't outsiders anymore; at worst, they're arrested adolescents.

The cultural disconnect between marijuana (the illegal drug) and pot (that stuff that lots of regular people consume) is the comic fulcrum of Pineapple Express, in which a process server (Seth Rogen) and his pot dealer (James Franco) earn the ire of risibly bloodthirsty marijuana kingpins. Their escape is hampered, of course, by the fact that they're stoned. It's a high action comedy. Literally.

Audiences appear ready for such a thing--even beyond those 15 million people, many of prime moviegoing age, who share the protagonists' appetites. Pot films are making out like criminals. The second of Harold and Kumar's trips, not nearly as critically acclaimed as the first, nevertheless did twice as well at the box office. And while the presence of (legal) tobacco cigarettes in films has become a cause célèbre among public-health advocates, there's not a lot of protest that putting pot in movies, even ones as silly as Pineapple Express, glamorizes it.
Except maybe from the film's cast and crew. "Seth and I always argue whether or not this is an anti-pot movie," says Apatow. "To me, it clearly is. Most of the film is people trying to murder these two guys, them trying not to get murdered, and it's all because they're smoking pot." He pauses. "Seth thinks that's too subtle."

Forget it Jake, It's Provincetown

2008-06-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

Well, on this eve of leaving Ptown, Darren and I wish to give our hearty thanks to the festival goers and organizers who made our stay so much damn fun. I saw a bunch of really great films, many of which will be coming to theaters later this year. Here are a few highlights:

1. American Teen - This is an unbelievable documentary that started out at Sundance this year and continues on its festival journey until it hits theaters via the now defunct Paramount Vantage. It's one of the better docs I've seen in a really long time. See it.

2. The Wackness - there's a lot of buzz about this film, which also started at Sundance this year and is due to hit theaters in July. I did enjoy the film and I particularly loved the performance of Ben Kingsley. However, given all the great word of mouth that came out of Sundance, I was expecting to like it more than I did.

3. Bigger, Faster, Stronger - This is another Magnolia release and is a truly lovely documentary. It surprised me in more ways than one. This one is out in theaters now so go go go out and see it!

4. Let the Right One In - One more Magnolia release for you all (I'm not baised at all, I swear!). This is a great Swedish film about a 12 year old vampire and a sweet romance she develops with another 12 year old. It's a great film.

5. Choke - This is a really good film written by the author of "Fight Club" and it stars Sam Rockwell. It's a darkly comic and superbly acted. Darren and I also had the pleasure of hanging out with the producer, Mike Ryan and one of the film's actors Gillian Jacobs (no relation!).

Fantastic! One more thing - Go out and see our very own Madison Davenport in "Kit Kittridge: An American Girl Story" in theaters now!!!

And finally, I leave you with a little video I took as Darren and I headed out on the train from NYC to Boston a few days ago. It feels like years (for those of you itching to get a peak out our now famous "Humboldt County" rolling papers, the video offers a quick view)....

PTown Pics

2008-06-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

Hellooooo from Provincetown! Fascinating times. Both screenings went really well. We basically sold both of them out. The response was very good and people seemed to dig the film.

In other news, a 50 year old man bought me a drink. First time that's happened, to be sure.

Below some photographs of our journey so far.

Twice, Dgro and I took a pretty strenuous bike ride through the dunes. It's gorgeous. And they gave us the bikes for free. In this picture, I am tired.

Dgro and I moments before our first screening on Friday night.

Darren, Me, Daryl (director of the doc "Sex Positive"), and the ethereal Ashley (PTown resident) pose dramatically at the dunes.

Darren and Josephine (Director of the film "Bi The Way") head to the ocean after our bike ride.

Me looking dumb on the ferry from Boston to Provincetown.

Darren and Georgina (Director of the film "Older than America") on the ferry from Boston.

Welcome to PTown. Nuff said.

Yep.

Come on Down to P-Town...

2008-06-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

LCLs--
Welcome to the Cape.

Danny and I are staying in a guest house in Provincetown, Mass., set for our first screening tonight at 730 PM at the Art House cinema right in the heart of P-Town. The pre-screening nerves are just now setting in. So far, we've had an incredible time on this east coast swing. And we're really just getting warmed up. A summary thus far...

---We arrived in New York Tuesday early evening, had dinner and drinks in the city and had each spent nearly $100 within 6 hours of our planes touching down. New York has a funny way of separating you from your money.

Interesting tidbit from our NYC night? We stumbled upon an open "garden" in the East Village and came across a Wiccan circle in the midst of a service honoring the coming full moon.

---Wednesday at noon it was off to Penn Station for the 12:03 train to Boston. Idiots that we are, we nearly missed that train, but fortunately, the good organizers of the Provincetown Film Festival (PFF) helped us out over the phone and got us on our train.

Interesting tidbit from the train? The train has a first class car, a cafe car and a business class car. Convinced that we must be on a coach car and not a business class car, Danny and I kept walking all the way to the front of the train in search of said coach car before we finally discovered that it does not exist. Little people like us go in the business class car. AND the Cuban sandwich from the cafe car was awesome. AND the Northeast is absolutely gorgeous, and must be seen by train.

---Arriving in Boston at 3:45 the day after the Celtics won the championship, I expected to see a city in ruins, but everything looked pretty normal. We waited around (at the lovely Seaport hotel) for the 5:30 Ferry to Provincetown, and 1.5 hours later, we arrived at this lovely town.

Interesting tidbit about P-Town? Several things. First of all, Provincetown looks like the city of Amity from Jaws. Amity, as you know, means friendship (sorry, couldn't resist quoting a line from the film). Perhaps because that film was set in Cape Cod and I've never been to the Cape, I was pretty taken by a sudden fear of shark attack. And I've been searching for a crotchety old fisherman who bears a striking resemblence to Robert Shaw, but so far I haven't found him.

The other essential fact to know about Provincetown is that it is, without a doubt, the gayest place I have ever seen. And I mean that in the best way!!

When we arrived and got our "swag bags" (the term for the bag of goodies every filmmaker gets at a film fest), the good people of the PFF generously gave Danny and I a gift certificate to a local bar which, we were told, is the ONLY straight bar in town. In this town, straight people are the extreme minority. And there's definitely an awareness and a sense of humor about it all: many of the store names are quite humorous. Favorite example so far: right on the main street is a branch of Seamen's bank. You gotta love Provincetown.

So it's a pretty incredible place, and one that everyone should visit and support if you ever get the chance. I'd recommend coming during the film festival, because the streets are packed and, of course, there are a ton of great movies to see. Come this weekend and see Humboldt County!

---Lastly, our experience of the fest so far. We've actually gotten to see movies here (Bigger, Strong, Faster* and Encounters at the end of the World, two incredible docs, with the former being released by Magnolia), and we've taken a 13 mile bike trail along the beach and through the sand dunes. Some of the hills nearly destroyed us, but it was an incredible ride and workout.

We've also had the good pleasure of reconnecting with some fellow filmmakers from SXSW, including Josephine Decker of the awesome doc Bi the Way, Daryl Wein of the doc I plan to see Sex Positive, and Georgina Lightning from the fascinating Older than America. We've met other great filmmakers in our few days here already. We're learning that the "festival circuit" leads to much bonding among filmmakers.

That's all for now -- we'll try to post more often so we can be less wordy in the coming days.

-Darren&Danny

I'm Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!

2008-06-14T16:36:00.000-07:00

Well, while Dgro is off in The Lou handling some wedding plans, I'm holding down the fort here in LA, handling a few miscellaneous items and trying to get some work done. Also, Captain Deadpan is in the middle of Pennsylvania producing some feature starring only octogenarians. So I'm all by my lonesome here in LA and it kind of feels like the parents are away for the weekend. I'm gonna have a kegger and eat Cocoa Puffs for dinner every night.

Things have started to sink in a bit regarding the Magnolia deal and it feels awesome.

Last week, I went over to Ed the Editor's house and took a look at a few of the scenes we might include in the "deleted scene" section of the DVD. It had been a long time since I had seen some of the scenes and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed them. I stand by our decision to remove them from the finished film, but for the most part they are interesting and well done.

Also, I've been interested in reading about the vast changes currently underway in the independent film arena. A few weeks ago the independent production wings of Warner Brothers were shut down and recently we've learned of the closing of Paramount Vantage, that studio's independent wing. Those developments, coupled with our country's recent economic woes, makes me feel more blessed than ever that "Humboldt County" actually got a deal that will put it in theaters. It's really one of the biggest, most pleasant surprises in recent memory.

Finally, we're hard at work trying to put together some promos for HC that will play on video on demand. You may have seen them for other movies - basically, the star of the film comes on and says "I love this film, this is why I did it and this is why you should click to watch it right now." Most of the promos are pretty boring and worse, they take themselves ridiculously seriously. So, we convinced Magnolia to let us have a little more control over their creation. I don't know why, but they're letting us do it. It kind of feels like they let the inmates have the keys to the asylum, and let me tell you, that's a completely cool philosophy if you're one of the inmates.

So in addition to working out the script for these promos, we reconnected with some of HC's lead actors last week to ask them about their availability. And of course, that meant calling the one and only Peter Bogdanovich (the kids are calling him "PBogs" and we recommend you do the same). Even though we have now spent a great deal of time with Pbogs, gotten to know him, and him us, we're still very nervous every time we contact him. Maybe it's because he's one of the greatest living film directors of all time. But that's just a guess. It could be that ascot he loves to wear. Regardless, we called him up last week and, as always, he was gracious, kind and generous. It was quite remarkable for Darren and I to hear him say "You did it guys. You should be proud." After we hung up the phone, we were just giddy for about ten minutes. He likes us. He really likes us.

I leave on Tuesday for the East Coast where we'll be presenting Humboldt at the Provincetown fest in Mass. I'm really looking forward to it. If any of you are in the hood, come say hi.

Peace,
d

Official Press Release

2008-06-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

Hey LCLs,

The official press release came out yesterday and I thought you all might be interested in seeing it. So I've included it below. FYI, there was also a write-up about the sale in Variety but it got certain elements of the release incorrect. As a reminder, the film is opening in theaters in San Fran, Seattle, Portland, Chicago and Austin. Press Release below. Happy Friday! d

P.S. Check out our lead, Jeremy Strong in theaters TODAY in the blockbuster, "The Happening"!

Magnolia Pictures smokes out HUMBOLDT COUNTY

NEW YORK – June 12, 2008 – Magnolia Pictures announced today the acquisition of U.S. rights to SXSW favorite HUMBOLDT COUNTY, co-written and co-directed by Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs. A classic fish out of (bong) water story, HUMBOLDT COUNTY tracks the progress of Peter (Jeremy Strong), a tightly-wound medical student, whose one-night stand with free-spirited Bogart (Fairuza Balk) leaves him stranded among a community of Northern California pot-growers living a decidedly different way of life. The cast includes Peter Bogdanovich, Frances Conroy, Brad Dourif, and Chris Messina.

“HUMBOLDT COUNTY has the sweet whiff of a populist hit. It’s a comedic, out-of-the-box drama that we think will speak to a large, underserved segment of the audience,” said Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles.

Magnolia plans a September theatrical rollout beginning in several regional markets preceded by exclusive airings via HDNet’s Ultra VOD program. Magnolia Pictures and HDNet are both part of the Wagner/Cuban Companies, a vertically integrated group of media properties co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban.

The deal was negotiated by Magnolia Pictures Senior Vice President, Tom Quinn and Head of Business Affairs, Jason Janego with David Garber of Lantern Lane representing the filmmakers. HUMBOLDT COUNTY was produced by Jason Weiss.

"We are incredibly thrilled that this picture -- a personal project that began with nothing more than two unshowered writers, one second-hand computer and an unhealthy amount of diet cola -- will soon be accessible to film audiences around the country. Working with a company like Magnolia Pictures, whose instincts on both a creative and business level are so impeccable, is a better outcome than we could have ever imagined. Other than living in a castle made of cookies, that is,” added co-writer/directors Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs.

Lantern Lane Entertainment is a full service marketing, distribution and consulting entertainment company. We offer complete solutions for entertainment properties in the United States and throughout the world. The company has been conceived to offer strategic planning, sales, marketing and consulting for all genres of films and television programs. We offer hands-on service and implementation of strategic plans, sales and marketing to production companies and individual producers.

Magnolia Pictures (www.magpictures.com) is the theatrical and home entertainment distribution arm of the Wagner/Cuban Companies, a vertically integrated group of media properties co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban that also include the Landmark Theatres chain, the production company 2929 Productions, and high definition cable networks HDNet and HDNet Movies.

"Humboldt County" to play in Humboldt County

2008-06-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

Hey LCLs,

So we'll be releasing more and more details about the upcoming release of the film in the coming days/weeks/months but I wanted to put something out there that I know many of you have been wondering for some time:

When will "Humboldt County" be available in Humboldt County?

We now have an answer. The film will be playing as part of the WildRivers 101 Film Festival in late August. No more deets are available yet, but rest assured, HC locals, you will get to see the film.

That's it for now.
d

THE STORM HAS ARRIVED

2008-06-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

LCLs, supporters, weird Internet staulkers:

WE SOLD "HUMBOLDT COUNTY."

We've been holding onto the news until it was official and the deal was signed and the contracts were printed - and now it is.

"HUMBOLDT COUNTY" WILL BE COMING TO THEATERS THIS FALL!!!!!!!!!!

We're so excited we can hardly contain ourselves. Magnolia Pictures bought the film and will release it in September.

Sorry we have been so cagey over the last month or so. Remember that blog post about going to New York for a "meeting"? That was to meet the Magnolia people face to face and figure out if it was a company we could see ourselves working with. They bought us lunch, so the answer was "yes" (Us Jews are suckers for a free lunch).

So...tell your family, tell your friends, tell your enemies to go go go to the theater to see the movie opening weekend.

And as far as opening weekend goes we will be opening in:

San Francisco
Seattle
Portland
Chicago
Austin

Where we go from there will depend on how the film does in those five markets. So, let's harness the power of the LCLs and unleash "Humboldt County" upon the world.

We also wanted to take this moment to say thanks to all of you who have supported the film and to let you know that though one journey has just ended, we are about to embark on another one...to fill those theaters!!!!!!!

Peace, love, and Humboldt
Danny & Darren

P.S. For all of you LCLs living in and around the actual Humboldt County: Stay tuned, as there may also be news soon of a screening even closer to you than SF and even sooner than our theatrical release.

The Calm Before the Storm...

2008-06-04T21:08:00.000-07:00

LCLs:

Things have been a bit slow lately over here on the Humboldt County director's blog. Never fear, this bit o' down time has merely been a chance for us to charge our batteries and gear up for what is to come.

Much like the presidential candidates post-primaries, we're regrouping after the spring of SXSW and preparing for what's coming up next -- and believe me, fall 2008 is going to make spring look like an 8th grade mixer.

I'm not totally sure what that analogy means either, LCLs, but I think it means BIG news is coming, and we're dying to share it with you (can't quite do it yet, but do stay tuned...)

In the meantime, a huge and hearty congratulations to our esteemed and brilliant composer iZLER, who just today received word that he is one of six composers to be invited to this year's Film Composer's Lab over at Sundance!

iZLER's work is one of a thousand reasons we can't wait to share our film with all you LCLs on the big screen. Not that I'm saying that's going to happen. Later this year.

-Darren

Ahh Sydney....

2008-05-26T21:44:00.001-07:00

An admission:

When I first arrived in Los Angeles, I interned at a production company that is to remain nameless. One day, I was asked to make a copy of the contact sheet the production company used for the directors of the films it had in production. After perusing the list of names, one stopped me in my tracks: Sydney Pollack.

I made an extra copy and drove fast down the 101 towards my apartment, half afraid that the cops would soon be hot on my trail, shutting down the highway, local television helicopters hovering overhead. I would then proceed on a low-speed chase throughout the city and on local airwaves. Eventually, in an exciting and harrowing conclusion, I would drive over a pre-set spike strip and come screeching to a halt. With unbelievable speed, the police would descend, guns drawn, asking me to get out of the vehicle. One, chiseled looking movie-of-the-week Blue shreiks: "HAND OVER POLLACK'S CONTACT INFORMATION AND GET DOWN. NOW!!!!"

Brushing aside the nightmare, I focused on getting home and sharing with Darren my new, priceless bounty. You see, Sidney had always been on our radar. We're talking about a filmmaker who not only made some amazing films, but he also created a career model that Darren and I had always talked about emulating. Pollack wrote, directed and produced some wonderful films and acted in scores of others. His directorial efforts, most of you probably (read: should) know. One of my favorites of his acting work, however, is his subtle, dark and poignant turn in Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives" (perhaps my favorite Allen movie of all time).

So when I got home, Darren and I took out the contact sheet and dialed the number. We got his answering machine. His voice, unmistakable, told us to leave a message and that he would get back to us. We tried to be funny and gracious but, looking back, I think we most likely were bumbling fools.

Sidney never called us back. But the fact that he didn't did nothing to diminish his standing in our eyes. In fact, his resistance to engage a couple of boobs who stole his phone number probably impressed us even more.

To you, Sydney. You will be missed.
d

HC to play Provincetown Film Festival!

2008-05-16T16:27:00.000-07:00

Hello LCLs!

So for all of you on the East coast, you will have a chance to see "Humboldt County" this summer! We're excited to report that we'll be heading to the Provincetown Film Festival, running June 18th-June 22nd, 2008.

We have some primo screening times. Here they are:

Fri., June 20, Art House 2 @ 7:30pm
Sat., June 21, Art House 1 @ 4:30pm

Here is the film fest's website.

Darren and I will be in attendance for the entire festival, which should be a grand time. Apparently, Quentin Tarantino will be there to be honored. Anyway, everyone on the East coast should definitely come out to see the film! Come introduce yourself as an official LCL and we'll get you into the swanky parties. Promise. As long as you're not a crazy person.

Peace and love,
d&D

Video Fun Part Final: Advice

2008-05-14T18:58:00.001-07:00

Hello LCLs! I know, I know. Darren and I have not been good boys. We have not been updating the blog nearly as much as we should. I assure you, this is not out of a lack of intent. Okay, I suppose it is out of a lack of intent. So scratch that.

Things have been busy. We're hard at work on two separate writing projects and have been doing some traveling to meet potential distributors as well. On that front, I'm desperately hoping to share some news with you all within the next couple of days but no promises.

By the way, everyone go out to see "Maid of Honor" this weekend. It's that romantic comedy starring McBeautiful or whatever his name is on Gray's Anatomy. You should see the film, though, because our own Chris Messina is in it!

Okay, below find the final video in our "Video Fun" series. Maybe, at some point Darren and I will make some more and you will actually see that I no longer have that lovely handle-bar mustache. Which is sad. Anyway, enjoy.

Watching Baseball and Killing Children

2008-05-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Darren and I find ourselves in New York City. It is truly the greatest of all cities. We're hear for a couple of meetings and in the meantime, we're enjoying everything that Manhattan has to offer - fantastic food, amazing energy, and the occasional homeless person with lenseless glasses. It's ideal, really.

Yesterday, we worked throughout the day before seeing Harold and Kumar (eh), watching our beloved St. Louis Cardinals dispatch the lowly Cubs (yeah!), and returning to the movie theater for a late night viewing of Iron Man (Woohoo!). At the Iron screening, which was a midnight show mind you, at least two families brought their young children to the theater and let them wail for two hours. So we killed them. The children that is. We killed the children.

Guess I shouldn't have just admitted it on this blog. Good thing this is a private space just for me and no one reads it.

ahoy,
D

Very Engaging Times...

2008-04-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

Hello LCLs:

My apologies for another extended absence. We're buried in writing, and it's difficult to escape from the self-loathing long enough to post here. That is really just lame excuse-making, however, and you should expect more from your faithful Humboldt County writer-directors. We need to deliver MORE to you, and we will.

So let's get started. The biggest and most important news was already covered by Danny in a previous post: I am, in fact, an engaged human. Someone (an incredibly beautiful woman with excellent taste in men named Renee Schuman) has actually agreed to marry me, and I could not be happier or luckier. As Danny indicated (and as you'll soon no doubt notice), my sudden foray into adulthood has rendered me into an unfunny, uncool, ultra-conservative grouch. Fortunately (for me), Renee has already committed to me, and so she is stuck with my sudden boringness.

Next up, Danny and I are back from Minneapolis and would like to thank the good people from IFP-Minneapolis for putting on a great conference. Reilly Tillman, Jane Minton and the entire staff did an incredible job, and they made the experience a winner for Danny and me. Not only did they put us up at the glorious Grand Hotel downtown, but they also fed us delicious food (a very important step to endearing yourself to Danny and Darren) and generally treated us to a first class experience.

We also need to acknowledge the panels and mentor sessions with some interesting and exciting filmmakers. We also thoroughly enjoyed meeting and getting to know our fellow panelists. Perhaps we'll one day be working with some of those folks, and it was exciting to meet firsthand some memberos of another vibrant young filmmaking community. And as for the weather, we actually enjoyed 48 hours of cold and snow, seeing as we returned to more 90 degree southern California madness.

So thanks to IFP-MN, and thanks to all who have sent well-wishes on my engagement. Sorry if I haven't been able to get back to everyone personally, but I appreciate all the love and support.

More to come soon,

-DG

Links, Links, and more Links!

2008-04-26T11:52:00.000-07:00

Hey LCLs!

So Darren and I had our first panel this morning. And we're on a break before another one this afternoon. Good times all around. They served us lunch and misspelled Hummus as "Homos." So Darren and I both had Homos for lunch. Yummy.

Anyhoo - I also wanted to direct your attention to the right column of this here blog, a little ways down. You will find a new section of links that takes you to a plethora of interviews and articles written about "Humboldt County" so that you can get the fix I know you're all dying for.

It is snowing!!!!!
d

Prognosis: Snowy

2008-04-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well, it's the end of April and apparently, Minneapolis is expecting snow this weekend. Sometimes, don't you just wish our planet wasn't dying?

Anyway, why is the weather in Minneapolis important? Because that's where Darren and I find ourselves for the next couple of days. I write to you, the LCLs, from the Grand Hotel Minneapolis. It's a lovely place filled with lovely people. We're here because we are sitting on a couple of panels for an IFP (Independent Film Producers) convention here. I don't know why we're here and what sort of "expertise" we're supposed to impart to people, but hey, it's a free trip, so how can two Jews turn that down?

In Humboldt County news...well there isn't much at the moment. We're still screening the film for distributors and also deciding on our next move vis a vis film festivals. So, patience would be the key word in that regard.

Meanwhile, we're still at work on our "Three Nights in August" package as well as the script for our next film. Both projects have been going slower than I'd like but you can't rush it. An old, wise Buddhist once said, "Things take shape when they take shape." That same Buddhist, by the way, eventually said so many wise things that he dissolved and was reincarnated as a book of quotations.

Okay LCLs! Let's talk soon. I miss you.
Danny

P.S. By the way, offer a big congrats to Mr. Darren because, as of a few days ago, the man is ENGAGED! Which means, of course, that he is no longer funny, fun or interesting.

We're in Entertainment Weekly!

2008-04-15T17:30:00.000-07:00

Hey LCLs,

A real quick note to let you know that Humboldt County has an incredibly brief mention in this week's Entertainment Weekly, the one with Tina Fey on the cover. There is an article in there about all the new "pot" related movies coming out and we get a super duper brief, blink-and-you-missed-it mention in it. So go buy the magazine (as well as a magnifying glass).

Sweet.
d

I AM STILL ALIVE! Just been resting...

2008-04-08T22:10:00.000-07:00

LCLs:

Every once in a while, your intrepid Humboldt County writer-directors need to take some time for themselves. A little R&R. I wish it weren't so. I wish I could keep at it all the time, never stopping even to sleep. Danny and I tried to go without sleep a couple times last week, but it didn't really work out so well the next day.

So I've been away. I've been in St. Louis since Friday, taking in a Cards game and a great deal of St. Louis style pizza and toasted ravioli (for those of you who do not know of these amazing things, here's a quick primer: St. Louis style pizza is an amazing super thin crust pizza -- literally cracker thin -- that uses a completely made up cheese called provel cheese. It's some combinaiton of provelone and something else. Any LCLs from the STL, please comment and help me out there. And as for toasted ravioli, well...Let's just say, it's fried. It's got meat. It comes with a red sauce. And it's available as an appetizer in nearly every STL restaurant -- much like queso in Austin -- and nowhere else. No idea why. It's a goddamn crime). I've been hanging with family and my lovely girlfriend Renee, who is also from St. Louis, and it's been a delightful time.

But that's it. It's over. R&R time is kaput. It's time for me to return to LA tomorrow, return to you LCLs, return to Danny (who resembles a lost infant without me) and our projects we're quickly trying to assemble, return to Humboldt County, and return to the world of hard work.

I'm fully charged and rarin' to go. So the reason for this blog entry has nothing to do with Humboldt County or even anything film related at all. It's a reminder, really, to take a little time on occasion for yourself. Do some things you enjoy. Rest up a bit. Take a nap. But don't let your leisure time linger on too long. For there is much to do, friends. And little time to do it.

Until next time...

-Darren in St. Lou

Screenings and Such....

2008-04-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

Hey LCLs,

Sorry it's been a little quiet here on the blog front. Things have been busy. We've been passing the film print around to distributors to take a look at on their own time. Haven't heard much about how they've been going (Dgro and I like to stay out of the loop), but we hear vaguely good things. That is, we hear good things in a vague way, not vaguely good things. Hmm.

Anyway, Darren and I are now hard at work on two separate projects. One is the screenplay for our next film and the other is an outline for a film that we're trying to get ourselves attached to. All I'll say now is that it's a project that Darren and I would kill innocent strangers to get involved with. It would be that awesome. Anyway, so we're double fisting, as it were, for the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, we've just received word that we've been invited to speak at the IFP Producers Conference in Minneapolis during the last weekend of April! Though Minneapolis is not the most exciting city in the world, they are paying for our travel, hotel and meals so as jews, we're pretty darned excited.

Okay, guys! If you haven't checked out "Five Easy Pieces" yet, DO IT NOW!!!!!

Peace,
d

P.S. If any of you LCLs are on Facebook, make sure an do a search for "Humboldt County" and become a fan of the movie!

Humboldt DNA Series, Part I: FIVE EASY PIECES

2008-03-30T15:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, today we're starting a new series. We thought we'd do some posts about the films that inspired "Humboldt County." The films we're going to cover in this series of posts all inspired HC in some way - whether in the writing, the visuals, the tone, the acting, the narrative structure.

Here's what would be great. If we ever do a post on a film that you, our beloved LCLs, have not seen, please go and watch it and post a comment about your thoughts on the film. Deal? Great. Nice working with you.

And now, onto the first film in our Humboldt County DNA series: FIVE EASY PIECES.

First a little primer on the film's context:

"Five" was released in 1970 and was directed by Bob Rafelson and starred Mr. Jack Nicholson. At the 1971 Oscars, the film was nominated four times. Karen Black was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Nicholson was nominated for Best Actor, the film was nominated for Best Picture and also Best Screenplay.

The film was the second of three 70s collaborations between Rafelson and Nicholson. They first worked together on Rafelson's first film, "Head" which Nicholson wrote. They would work together one more time in the decade on a film called "The King of Marvin Gardens" which will be another film we discuss in this series.

Many claim that Nicholson had more to do with the end result of "Easy Pieces" than Rafelson but Darren and I have been unable to corroborate that claim.

The film is flat out incredible. First of all, it is beautifully shot by our late friend Laszlo Kovacs (see more info on Laszlo in our post about Peter Bogdanovich). We referenced the visuals of "Five Easy Pieces" quite a bit in our preparation for "HC." The way that Laszlo captured the beautiful Texas vistas in the beginning of the film, as well as the gorgeous greenery of Nicholson's family home directly inspired some of our color palette for HC.

I want to talk about a particular shot, however, that deeply affected the way we decided to tell "HC." That shot is the first shot in the movie. It's only about 10 seconds long. It is a shot of dirt. And then the dirt begins to move, and then you realize that the dirt is actually in a huge construction shovel. It's a simple but engaging first shot because it tells the audience that nothing is as it seems. Dirt isn't merely dirt and Nicholson's character isn't merely a dumb, hard-hat working the oil fields. He, like the film, is much more than that. That first shot summed up the entire film and that's why it is brilliant. Darren and I thought quite a bit about that shot in crafting "Humboldt" - we wanted to do the same thing - let the audience know that everything is not as it seems. Pot farmers are not just pot farmers and stereotypes are often only a starting point to understand our fellow human beings. (If you've seen the film, you know how we achieved this affect with our own first shot. For those of you that haven't, I won't ruin it for you here.) Nonetheless, that one 10 second shot provided, in some ways, the entire approach for our film.

The other major way that "Easy Pieces" affected us was with its subtle blend of drama and comedy. Both elements are rooted in absolute reality. There is very little (except for maybe a scene where Nicholson ends up playing a piano on a truck on a highway) that isn't rooted in a reality that we all know. This comedic/dramatic blend and its deep roots in reality inspired the tone of "Humboldt" more than we even realize, I think.

Over the course of writing and directing "Humboldt" Darren and I probably watched "Easy Pieces" about forty times. There are parts of that movie that I know as well as my own film. There are so many scenes in "Humboldt" that are directly inspired by ones in "Easy Pieces" that to list them here would be to ruin the entire plot of our film for those that have not seen it. So I won't do that now. However, once you guys have had a chance to see both films (hopefully soon!) then we can have a real discussion.

Okay, LCLs, go out and rent "Five Easy Pieces" and let's start a great discussion in the message thread!

Till next time.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Film Professors,
D&d

What if Danny & Darren are Superheroes?

2008-03-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

LCLs:

Darren here, reporting to you live, 3:37 pm, Friday, March 28, 2008. The last time I slept was Wednesday night. For 7 hours. And it's now Friday. And I appear to be fully fuctional.

A bit delirious, yes.

Slap happy? No doubt.

But functional. And for the moment, not even tired (I'm not allowing myself to close my eyes for more than 2.3 seconds, however).

Last night, Danny and I took a little writing retreat to a friend's apartment in Santa Barbara, and we worked on our next script for about 12 consecutive hours. We've probably put in 8-10 hours a day everyday this week, as we've essentially undertaken what they call a "page 1 rewrite" on this baby. And doing it in 5 days is, well, challenging. But as of 10 am this morning, we got through it. CD and a few others are now burrowing through to give us notes before we dive back in to complete the actual draft by Monday morning. Yup, it appears Sunday night could be another all-nighter for your intrepid writer-director-fools, Danny and Darren. Fortunately, we're superheroes and we apparently don't need to sleep.ncpjbnedb

Oops, sorry about that typo. I nodded off for a sec.

I know many of you are eager to know when our picture will make its way to your part of the country/world to be seen on the big screen or on DVD. I assure you, keep reading our blog and you'll be the first to know (well, after us). Right now, we hope to show the film in Humboldt County, where we shot it, and where it was obviously inspired, as well as (cross your fingers) in as many theaters as possible. But we won't know for a few weeks at least, so be patient and keep checking in.

This is your source for any and all news of Humboldt County, as well as the nonsensical ramblings of two apparent insomniacs.

Ishkabibble,

Darren

Summer is in the air....and that means...

2008-03-25T23:50:00.000-07:00

So our private screening was last night in New York and I heard it went well. Neither Darren or I was there but our intrepid Producer's Rep was. A producer's rep basically is given the task of selling a film. He does everything he needs to do to get this baby into theatres or homes.

Anyway, Captain Deadpan got the report from him and the report was that the screening went well. The distributors that came apparently stayed for the entire film, which is a good sign. You have no idea how many times distributors will only go to a film for about 20 minutes before leaving. It happens more often than you'd think. In fact, from what I can gather, it happens way more often than distributors watching an entire movie. It's an entirely nutty practice if you ask me. I don't understand how it's possible that someone could decide whether or not they like a movie after the first twenty minutes but that's just me.

Anyhoo, a couple distributors didn't show up so the next week plus is going to be spent loaning our 35mm print around to those NYC companies so that they can screen the film on their own time. Then next week, we'll do it all again for the companies out here in LA.

Darren and I are trying to stay as aloof as possible. That is made all the more easy by the fact that Dgro and I have something like six days to get our next script, The New York Challenge, into fighting shape. Our intrepid producer has applied to a producer's program thingy with our script and they want to see the next draft by the end of March. Which means we're writing much faster than I'm comfortable with but, hey, that's show business babby!

In other, much much much more important news....THE BASEBALL SEASON HAS BEGUN!!! And once again, I've purchased the Extra Innings cable package so I can watch my beloved Cardinals throughout the season. Many wasted afternoons are in my future, I can smell it already.

Okay, LCLs, take care and for any of you that were at SXSW and saw the film, please go to www.imdb.com and write a user review of the film!

Let's talk soon, guys. This has been fun.

Peace,
d

Video Fun Part VII: Memories!

2008-03-22T14:02:00.001-07:00

Hey LCLs,

Sorry it's been a few days. Darren and I have been decompressing, getting back into the swing of our relatively normal and unexciting life in L.A. That means we're back to tutoring Korean high schoolers and editing undergraduate and graduate school admissions essays. So it goes.

We're also waiting on pins and needles for two upcoming screenings:

1. Our NYC screening next Tuesday
2. Our LA screening the Tuesday after

Both are for potential distributors and we're nervous as all hell about them. Those screenings, perhaps more than the screenings in Austin, will go a long way towards determining whether, and in what capacity, "Humboldt County" reaches its audience.

So on the next couple of Tuesdays, hold your breath and say a little prayer for Humboldt.

Here's another video for you. Enjoy!

Thank You Card

2008-03-16T22:19:00.000-07:00

Darren Grodsky & Danny Jacobs

Humboldt County Writer/Directors

Los Angeles, CA

March 16, 2008

Austin
c/o South by Southwest Film Festival
Austin, Texas

Dear Austin:

We felt compelled to write to express our extreme gratitude to you for helping to create one of the greatest experiences of our lives. We've seen amazing things before: incredible concerts, our beloved Cardinals winning the World Series, proof of the existence of extra-terrestrials, but not until we entered the doors of the Alamo Drafthouse theaters in Austin did we ever see our film lit up on a marquee.

Not until we arrived in Austin did we encounter lines of hundreds of people waiting to see a picture that we first dreamed up in an Inn on the Pacific coast in Shelter Cove, CA, just over 5 years ago.

Looking back on the festival experience now -- with a few days worth of decompression -- it's difficult to imagine a better experience. We showed up with an army of almost 50 friends and family at the first screening, and the volunteers and workers who worked the festival helped us accomodate as many of them as they possibly could. Everyone was so friendly, complimentary and gracious that Danny and I were compelled to be mean to each other just to balance the scales.

The filmmakers we met -- and there were many -- were inspiring and talented, and we hope to have forged a number of connections and friendships that will last. We're excited to see more work from such a talented group.

We don't have years of festivals to compare, but we can honestly say that our South by Southwest experience was smooth and ridiculously positive. As filmmakers, this goes a long way, because it is an incredibly nerve-wracking experience to screen your film for the first time in a packed theater.

So thank you, Austin, and thank you South by Southwest. We owe you a debt of gratitude. You popped our cherries, you were gentle, you exceeded our expectations, and as such you'll always be our first love.

We hope to be with you again, and again, and again, and...

Sincerely,
Darren
&
Danny

......

p.s. LCL's: Expect more SXSW thoughts coming soon, and check out the NEWS page on our main page over at http://www.humboldtcountymovie.com/ for links to reviews and interviews from SXSW!!!

SXSW Premiere Night Pictures

2008-03-15T18:54:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! Just wanted to post some pics from our premiere night at SXSW today. Happy Saturday!

This one is Dgro with his momma at the after party post-premiere.

This one is just after the premiere screening in front of the theater. I have no idea who I'm looking at or what I'm thinking.

This one is me and my moms. She had never seen the film before the premiere. This is just after the movie ended, in front of the theater.

This is during the Q&A after our premiere screening. That lovely lady between us is Madison Davenport, who played "Charity." She was the rockstar of the show. Darren and I just blathered nonsensically.

One more wide-shot of the premiere Q&A.

Ahh Austin. Lovely lovely town.

Casting Part Seven: The Don

2008-03-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

When Darren and I set out to cast the part of Professor Hadley in Humboldt County we had one specific goal in mind: find an actor who could make a potentially completely unlikable character, likable. It was a challenging goal because, on the page, we didn’t do the actor who would play the role any favors. Still, we always knew that the right actor could make the audience feel sympathy for the character even as he sought to crush the spirit of our plucky young protagonist.

What we ended up getting for the role was much much more than simply an amazing actor who could bring the character to life. We got perhaps the most knowledgeable cinephile on the planet and a direct connection to the American 70s cinema that has so influenced us as filmmakers. We got Peter Bogdanovich.

As we were writing and conceiving of HC, Darren and I were watching, repeatedly and endlessly, any number of seventies films including Five Easy Pieces, Harold and Maude, The King of Marvin Gardens and Bogdanovich’s own The Last Picture Show. Bogdanovich not only made some of the seminal films of the 70s, but he also has a foundation of knowledge regarding cinema that is perhaps unmatched. Orson Welles, a good friend of his, stayed in his guest house, he interviewed and befriended Howard Hawkes, John Huston and Alfred Hitchcock among many others, he has won Oscars and his Last Picture Show has been lauded as the second coming of Citizen Kane.

To say that Darren and I were excited to be meeting him would be an understatement. We had sent him the script on a lark. We knew he was an excellent actor – having watched him through the years beginning in his own, superb film Targets all the way up to his psychiatrist role on The Sopranos. So when we heard he was interested and wanted to meet us, we put on our best jeans and headed over to a swanky hotel in Beverly Hills where, apparently, Mr. Bogdanovich lives.

We headed up to his suite to find him, ascot around his neck as always, eating a shrimp salad in front of a grand window overlooking Hollywood some twenty floors below. It was one of the more surreal moments for a couple of dummies from the suburbs of St. Louis, MO. Soon, it would get even more surreal as Pbogs (as we affectionately call him) finished his salad and had his assistant wheel away his tray to reveal that he was, indeed, still in his pajamas. Awesome.

Within a few minutes, Pbogs was fully doing a spot on impression of Hitchock and telling us about the time he visited the set of a Hitchcock film and the plump sized director poked fun at Paul Newman. We were in heaven.

In addition to bringing him on board as an actor, Darren and I also told him to feel comfortable making any suggestions throughout the filmmaking process. We wanted to take advantage of his vast mental resources. And indeed, throughout the filmmaking process, he was a godsend. In addition to his superb acting, he would sometimes call Darren and I over and whisper a particular idea or concern. And 95% of the time, his suggestions were absolutely amazing.

After Darren and I finished editing we had one of the most unbelievable experiences of our entire lives. When we moved to LA we made concerted efforts to procure mentors in the industry, people we could meet with periodically and gleam wisdom for their vaulted perches. One of those people was Laszlo Kovacs. If you don’t know who Laszlo Kovacs is you should 1) Be incredibly ashamed and 2) Be incredibly ashamed. He’s one of the greatest cinematographers who has ever lived and the list of classic films he has shot over the years is too long to mention here. Laszlo also happened to be a common collaborator of PBogs himself. In fact, Laszlo shot most of Pbogs library of films. So when we finished editing, we managed to get Laszlo and Pbogs together and screened Humboldt County for them. They hadn’t seen each other in years and before we started the movie, Darren and I just sat back and listened to them reconnect. They talked about shooting the highway sequence in Pbogs’ first film, Targets and how they didn’t have any permits to shoot on LA’s famed 405 freeway. Laszlo recounted how the cops eventually showed up and he ran. It was amazing to simply be in the room as these two cinematic giants talked craft.

Three days later, Laszlo Kovacs was dead. He wasn’t in very good health and, apparently, his various injuries and illnesses got the best of him. I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. Darren and I had seen him on Wednesday and by Saturday we were listening to Pbogs on NPR talking about what Laszlo meant to him and to filmmaking in general. It was a terrible loss but we felt happy that we were responsible for Laszlo and Pbogs seeing each other one last time. And it is surreal, but probably true to say that the last film Laszlo ever saw was Humboldt County.

Oops, we did it again.

2008-03-13T20:50:00.001-07:00

Well, we had our final screening - a slot very difficult to bring in a good audience for: 1:30 PM on a Thursday. Many people are at work, those that aren't are seeing the likes of Van Morrison, Spoon, REM, and Vampire Weekend in the huge SXSW music fest.

So what happened?

We sold out.

2 theaters.

AGAIN.

And still turned away 50 people.

The SXSW staff members on hand at the theater couldn't believe it. They haven't seen anything like it in their many years at the festival. Seriously, Darren and I figured we'd maybe get to 75 percent capacity in one theater. We could never have imagined that we'd duplicate our success from Tuesday night. But we did.

While most of the other films at the festival were having difficulty selling out their theaters, we were having no trouble. I am so amped, I don't even know what to say. It was amazing. The screenings started late as the amazing SXSW and Alamo Drafthouse staff hustled to get the film print ready and interconnected into two separate projectors. At one point the film print fell off the platter (the thing that holds the film) and we got delayed in starting the film(s). Finally, 25 minutes late and with the audiences beginning to get a little grumpy, the HC played for the final time as part of SXSW 2008. At one point, Darren and I went into one of the theaters to watch one of our favorite scenes and then walked right to the next theater to watch it again (The second theater was running about 2 minutes behind the first). It was thrilling, and humbling, and exciting.

No matter what happens the rest of the way (and we hope much happens), we were absolutely floored by our experiences at SXSW. I'm back in LA now - I have an audition tomorrow that I had to get back for. Darren will be returning tomorrow. What a ride. What. A. Ride.

Thank you all who read this blog and support the film. Let's all cross our fingers now and hope to dear god that this is only the beginning....

Peace and Humboldt love,
d

P.S. This is Darren and I in front of the two theaters. Notice how they say "Humboldt County 1" and "Humboldt County 2". Pretty freakin' great.

Also, here's one more shot. This is the crowd waiting in the theater after we already filled up one theater. The line goes waaay out the door....

Final Screening in 3 Hours...

2008-03-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

Danny's post regarding our second screening said it all. It was truly one of the greatest nights of our lives. So many people wanted to see Humboldt County, and when they announced to the line that they were going to open up another screen, the place erupted in applause. On that night, our film was a great success. And all the hard work, the dark times, the highs and lows, they all came together in a kind of cathartic rush of energy as people filed in to watch our movie. Thanks to all you LCLs and all the people who have come out to support the film thus far. It's not our film anymore, it's yours.

We screen once more, in just 3 hours, and then Danny heads back to LA (I return tomorrow). What a ride it's been. Expect some posts as we decompress and process all that has transpired.

Talk soon, LCLs...

-Darren

Wow.

2008-03-12T16:28:00.000-07:00

So remember in the last post how Darren said that after our next screening the number of people who have seen "Humboldt County" would double?

He lied.

Yesterday, I'm walking around Austin trying to drum up some publicity, and I'm seeing this immense influx of what appears to be rock stars walking everywhere. The music part of SXSW is about to begin and I think to myself, "Jeez. Will anybody be interested in seeing movies anymore?"

Yes.

We got to the theater early to help organize, and by the time we arrived, a good hour and a half before show time, there was already a huge crowd standing in line to see "HC." Apparently, the good buzz spreading about the film and the excellent reviews we've been getting have been paying off. Thirty minutes later, about an hour before show-time, the line was waaaay out the door.

There were so many people there that we were going to be able to fill the theater in a heartbeat but would have to turn away literally hundreds of people. So our fearless producer's rep, Mr. David Garber, got on the phone. He called the head of the festival, Matt Dentler, as well as the head of the theater chain, and convinced them to bump another film and open up a SECOND theater for "Humboldt County." And you know what? We sold out that theater too. In fact, we still turned away about 100 people after filling two theaters.

It was insane. SXSW staff members working the theater said they had never seen anything like it before.

Darren and I split up the film introductions and the Q&As afterwards - I did one theater and Dgro did the other one. It was such a rush. Just knowing that there was such interest in the film and that people seemed to really enjoy it was an amazing feeling. Darren and I were on fire all night.

Today we celebrated with my first bottle of Dom Perignon ever while eating all you can eat ribs at this amazing place outside of Austin called The Salt Lick. I am satisfied. In more ways than one.

One more screening to go. I hope people still want to see movies.

3 Hours 'til Screening #2...

2008-03-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

LCLs:

Just a quickie....

Remarkably, despite all this press and hustling we've been doing, fewer than 200 people have seen Humboldt County. In a matter of hours, that number will double. We hope it goes as well as the first one.

In food news, we ate at the Ironworks BBQ today, downtown. Good stuff. I had the sampler: brisket, pork ribs, and sausage. I am full. Very, very, full.

Austin observation: the mood and vibe and makeup of the people is changing. People are suddenly becoming more attractive. Clearly, the movie dorks are being overrun by the rock stars. Yes, friends, the music festival is about to begin.

-DG

Three Nights in Austin

2008-03-11T10:54:00.000-07:00

Hey LCLs,

So our press schedule is (finally) winding down. We've got a couple more interviews today and tomorrow. As such, I'm hopeful we'll be able to actually check out some movies before we leave on Friday. This is, after all, a film festival. Though I haven't seen anything, I've heard that "Baghead" is quite good as well as a film that Helen Hunt wrote and directed that I can't remember the name of at the moment.

On a separate, and fortuitous note, Darren and I have been angling to meet with actor/writer Kevin Pollak because he has the rights to a book called Three Nights in August that Darren and I want to adapt and direct. The book covers a three game series in 2003 between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs. It's amazing and, as you might have guessed by now, we're both huge Cardinals fans. Anyway, Kevin was at SXSW this year but we didn't get to meet him. Then, when our producer, CD, was on his way back to LA to care for his newborn child, he looked down the aisle and saw who else, but Kevin Pollak! He went up and talked to him, told him about us, and we got his email address. So it looks like the meeting will finally happen when we get back to L.A. I think this is the sort of lucky happenstance that happens at film festivals, when there are so many creative people all stuck in the same place.

Lastly, a shout out to an AMAZING place, called Austin Deep, where Darren and I received complementary deep tissue massages the other day that, to be honest, we couldn't have done without. We're still loose and free flowing because of their mad skills and generosity. Check them out here.

Talk to ya lates,
d

Austin Diary Morning Quickie...

2008-03-11T08:37:00.000-07:00

Good morning, LCLs. Our postings have been few, but prepare for an onslaught after our return to LA, when things have calmed down a bit. The madness is kind of difficult describe while we stand inside it. And we don't have the kind of fancypants phones that enable us to blog from anywhere. We need an old fashioned computer.

Last night, for Danny's birthday, about 15 people gathered at Romeo's on Barton Springs for an Italian Feast. We proceeded to attend 3 parties afterward, chatting with now familiar friends and meeting new ones. The number of creative people to engage with at a festival like this is high, and that's one of the most rewarding aspects of the experience. Also, the love and support continues, as the rest of my dearest friends from college have now arrived.

Finally, the first two images of our madness, many more to come. What happens when you mix two writer-directors, a composer and a producer, and you ask them to look professional?

What if you ask them to look happy?

As you can see, we're very difficult.

-DG

Darren on a panel!

2008-03-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

So today, Darren was on an SXSW panel about drugs in film. It was kind of hilarious because the moderator clearly had an agenda, and that agenda was to give an entire history of drugs in film through the decades. So basically, he'd show a clip of like "Dazed and Confused" and then turn to the panelists and ask, "So wasn't that movie great?"

It was kind of hilarious. That is, until Darren made me come up and join everyone near the end. The things I do for this movie.

What was kind of annoying to me was that the moderator kept presenting movies like "Dazed" and "Big Labowski" as if they were about pot. The reality is they have nothing to do with pot. They are about growing up, and getting your rug back. Pot is just something the characters participate in, but it does not define them, nor the movies they exist in.

So it seemed to me that the underlying premise of the entire panel was kind of weak. Still, Dgro did a standup job and came off well. Anyhoo - festivities continue tonight. We've got a bunch of parties we have to attend to and then we're having a big b-day dinner for me with 18 people. Yikes.

Many of my friends (and my mom) have now left town. I'm beginning to feel the beginnings of a letdown coming....

Pictures are coming SOON. We promise.

Peace OUT,
d

P.S. Hey, wasn't that Cheech and Chong movie awesome?

Movies and Press and meetings, oh my!

2008-03-09T14:52:00.000-07:00

Hey LCLs,

So...where to begin. This feels like a bar mitzvah. So many people in town. So many things to do. Hopefully, at the end of the week, Darren and I will get to read a haftorah portion and be anointed "men."

We've been busting it. Last night we went out with a huge group and celebrated my birthday a little early by doing some bowling, hard core. Then we made our way back to 6th street in downtown Austin for some more drinky drinky. All was fantastic. It was so great to have family and friends down here to celebrate with and, though Darren and I are slowly losing our voices, our spirit remains strong.

Today we did a bunch of interviews and photo shoots with the wonderful actress, Madison Davenport (Charity). They went really well. There are so many reviews and pieces coming out on the film daily at this point that, to be honest, Darren and I really have no idea what's out there and what's not. So if you're diehard, just do a google search and read to your heart's desire. Hopefully, soon, we'll post some links after the insanity of this experience dies down a bit.

Tonight we've got still more interviews and a couple of shmoozing events. At some point, I actually hope to see a MOVIE.

But first, I've got some Hebrew to study.

Shalom,
d

People have actually paid to sit in a movie theater and watch our movie

2008-03-08T13:19:00.000-08:00

Hello Faithful LCLs:

The first ever dual posting....

Not duel.

Dual. Meaning both of us.

So far, all Darren.

Darren continues: it's been a whirlwind. We screened last night to a packed house at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz downtown. We turned away over 100 people, including some friends who wanted to see the movie. That was hard, but we sure do appreciate the support.

Danny: The screening was craaaay-ze. Spelled just like that. I was so nervous I thought I was going to projectile vomit across multiple rows of seating.

Darren: A quick rundown of the leadup to that screening: Danny and I did a morning interview with IFC that will air tonight on IFC:

Saturday, March 8th at 8:15pm EST/ 6:15pm MST/ 5:15pm PST on IFC TV.

We then checked into the festival, got our badges and bags and headed to lunch with friends and early arriving family (Cajun place on 6th street called Roux. Good stuff). From there, we checked into the Hyatt downtown, changed (I wore a suit, Danny did not), and headed to the theater to await the screening.

Danny: During the screening, Darren and I stood in the back and tried not to pass out. With a drama, it's harder to guage the reaction of an audience during a movie compared to comedies. So, we weren't totally sure how people responded to it in the moment...but afterwards, it was pretty clear that the screening went really well.

Darren: Today, we were going to do a couple things in the afternoon but Danny swallowed his girlfriend's contact lenses which screwed up our day. He's an idiot.

Danny: What do you want from me? I was hungover and looking for water. Plus, who puts lenses in a mug?

Darren: Well, to her credit she did tell you that the lenses were in the mug. You just were too drunk to remember. That's pretty retarded.

Danny: Okay, can we just forget about it already and focus here?

Darren: Fine.

Danny: Thank you.

Darren: Idiot.

Danny: Darren!

...

We'll try to keep posting as often as possible, but things are crazy busy! More to come...

-D&d

Humboldt County Screens Later Today...

2008-03-06T22:35:00.000-08:00

LCLs:
Tonight, we BBQed (well, really, Scott and Tanya BBQed, the rest of us were just the lucky eaters), we drove to the airport (3 times today), CD the producer arrived, my amazing lady Renee is finally here, and now we rest a bit before it all happens.

The editing is long over, there's nothing more to add, tweak, color or talk about, it's just going to be our movie, a big screen, and a crowd full of people. As of this moment, I have no idea what's going to happen. I have no idea how people will react. I have no idea if it's going to be a magical evening or a nightmare. I'm proud of the film, and I'm excited. But I'm also terrified.

Might not have a chance to blog again 'til after the screening. Thank you thank you thank you to all the friends & family who have sent support through phone, messages, emails, mental telepathy, etc.

Here we go...

-DG

Austin Diary Vol. 4: Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail

2008-03-06T16:17:00.000-08:00

Ahoy from Austin!

So what a whirlwind. I got in yesterday, as Darren mentioned, and it’s been nonstop since the moment I arrived. Today, after retrieving Darren’s credit card from one of the 10,000 bars we apparently visited last night, we started out into the city giving out rolling paper packs and putting up posters. And of course, we do this on the coldest and rainiest day in the history of the planet. And that’s true, by the way, because we looked it up.

Eventually we wound our way to the UT campus and have been talking up the film a bunch in the communication department. I just spoke in front of an intro to film class and left two boxes of rolling papers for them. We’re definitely doing our part to corrupt the youth of America.

Darren is headed to the airport to pick up El Producer, CD, and then we’ve got a little BBQ tonight before heading back to the UT campus to talk to another film class. The insanity never stops.

Things are not all rosey though. We got word yesterday that Jeremy Strong, our lead, had to cancel his planned trip to be here for the premiere. He’s really bummed about it and so are we but he’s got a good reason. Apparantly, he’s filling in last minute in a major role for a play at the Public Theater in NYC opposite David Straitharn, Aiden Quinn and Brian Dennehy. What can we say? Our actors are just too damn good.

Though Darren and I are bummed about Jeremy’s absence, we’re all rooting for him to knock his new opportunity out of the park, as we’re sure he’ll do.

Okay! Tomorrow morning, when I wake up, I’ll be able to say “Today’s the day Humboldt County premieres.”

Wow.

Peace out cats,
d

P.S. We had a huge story done on the film over at The Hollywood Reporter. It came out yesterday. If you didn’t catch it, you can read it HERE.

P.P.S. Our first review is IN!!!!! It’s in the Austin Chronicle and it came out today. It’s fantastically favorable. Here’s the LINK.

Austin Diary Vol. 3 -- 3.6.08

2008-03-06T10:13:00.000-08:00

How do you put the nail in the coffin of a head cold?

Heavy drinking. Who knew?

Since we last spoke, dear LCLs...

Danny Jacobs arrived in Austin, Texas.
He was wearing new prescription sunglasses, and brandishing a brand new Mac Book Pro or somesuch. Very expensive looking. Very nice. What an ass. We immediately headed for food, because Danny had planned poorly and had only eaten a bagel all day. After a trip through the drive through at P. Terry's, a local burger stand (organic), Danny was satiated and satisfied.

We were off to promote and put up posters: Whole Foods Market, head shops downtown, bars/restaurants around the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz were all attacked by the d&D (Danny got to see the theater where we'll be screening. TOMORROW)

First SXSW Party
At a place called the Belmont downtown, upstairs we hung with other filmmakers and met the famous Matt Dentler, who runs this whole experience, for some drinking and snacks (Dentler, by the way, doubly endeared himself to me by 1) being engaged to a lovely lady named Jarren. Great name, and 2) buying me a Maker's Mark, on the rocks. An unnecessarily nice gesture, but noted for its extreme generosity. Check out Matt's awesome SXSW (and other things) blog here.

First night of Debauchery
What followed the party is difficult to describe. Danny and I were joined by my cousin and our old dear friend Josh Katz, for some preliminary drinking. Josh had to excuse himself to go to sleep (something about waking up early for a job), and the three of us embarked on a bar-hopping excursion that led to me losing my credit card, dancing to the tunes of novelist Larry McMurtry's son, and ending our night at 3 am at Whataburger (unnecessary, but delicious).

The result of all that: a late start to our day, and oddly, the end of my head cold.

Now we're off to promote promote promote.

-DG

How many cool coffee shops/hangouts can one town have?

2008-03-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

Hello from Ruta Maya, on South Congress.

Today, I've walked the shops of South Congress, eaten at Guero's taco stand and had my first Amy's Ice Cream experience (the mini Mexican vanilla, and wow, was it delicious).

I also (completely randomly) ran into one of our crew members from the shoot in Humboldt: Maria Mateolli! Maria, who is a filmmaker herself, has apparently been in Rome for the past year editing her own feature and has recently come to Austin to visit her brother, who plays in a local band. I was walking down SoCo and was yelled at by her from afar. Now, she and anyone else she can recruit will be heading to one of our screenings. Small world. Humboldt karma, all the way.

I'm about to head into downtown for a few before heading to the airport to pick up the little Jew (Danny Jacobs) and continue our trek through Austin. Interestingly, SXSW buzz is far greater downtown than in the suburban areas from what I can tell. Well, I should amend that: SXSW music buzz is all over, and every coffee shop/bar/private residence has a band playing during the music festival. But the movie festival seems to be a bit more under the radar.

We need to change that. Anyone reading this in Austin?! Let's spread the word...the word of Humboldt County.

-D out

Austin Diary Vol. 2 -- 3.5.08

2008-03-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

Greetings LCLs--

Head Cold? 95% wiped out. Feeling good. Ready to rumble.

Since I left you...

Head Shops: Who knew? I've never been more popular. Went to three of them, whipped out the papers and was swarmed by interested parties. We're going to have a very mellow audience for our screenings. I kept mentioning the word "drama" in describing the film, because I don't want people expecting Cheech and Chong. But all in all, hit the jackpot with these places for promotion.

Uncle Billy's: Met up with Tanya, baby Sam, some friends and eventually my Aunt and Uncle for some dinner (BBQ) and beers (delicious). We sat on an amazingly large patio, and dogs are very welcome.

Something about sitting on a patio, listening to everything from Zeppelin to Johnny Cash, drinking beers and eating chips (yes, more queso. And I ate a ton), that just makes you feel like life is pretty good.

Austin Java & Flipnotics: 2 pretty amazing coffee shops right across the street from each other on Lamar Blvd (that reminds me, I drove by our second theater, the Alamo Drafthouse Lamar, much more suburban. Parking should be ample). I find it's easier to strike up conversations with people when I am a customer, and so I buy something at each of these places and speak with the employees and then a few customers. Yesterday, in addition to my two meals, I purchased the following at various restaurants and coffee shops around town while promoting:
1 hot tea.
1 glass, red wine.
1 coffee (I drank none of it. I don't drink coffee).
1 diet coke (I drank it and two refills. I drink lots of diet coke).
1 white chocolate chip cookie (I ate all of it. I eat cookies)
1 sandwich (which I gave to a starving artist on the street after I told him I didn't have time to sit for him to paint my portrait).

All hail per diems.

Election coverage + 9.5 hours sleep:

I got home in time to watch both Democratic victory speeches, the comeback Clinton and the 'no matter what happens tonight we're still ahead in delegates and rhetoric' Obama. For once, I switched from the best political team on TV (CNN) to msNBC with Tim Russert and Keith Olberman (that very well may not be how you spell his name). They went on for a few minutes about the impact SNL had on Clinton's good night, then realized they might be overpromoting their own sister network's influence.

Agenda for the day:

I'm presently holding out leaving the house, hoping a shipment of 8.5 by 10 posters that CD sent will arrive so I can pepper the walls of Austin with them, but I will leave soon regardless. Planning to go downtown and to South Congress Ave, walk and talk and pass out papers and shake hands. Going to pick Danny up at the airport, and then we're going to head to a mixer for other early arriving filmmakers.

More blogs to come.

-D

Austin Diary Vol. 1 -- 3/4/08

2008-03-04T13:43:00.000-08:00

Dear LCLs:

Darren Grodsky here, blogging to you from "Austin's Pizza" on Guadalupe Street. It's 3:45, and I'm drinking a diet coke while a few Europeans nearby scream at the television which is showing a fut-ball match. Every other television is dedicated to the retirement of Brett Favre. Let us all take a moment of silence for the great Brett.

...

Ok, that's better. Here is my Austin experience thus far:

Yesterday afternoon: Flight

Uneventful. 3 hours. Slept a good portion of it. I have a bit of a head cold, and as a result the descent led to popping of the ears and head pressure that felt like diving down to the deep end of a 20 foot deep pool. It was painful. I think my ears finally completely popped back at 11:30 this morning.

Arrival in Austin: Yesterday 5 pm

Got my rental car (a white Chevy. First class all the way) and headed to my cousin Tanya's house. Tanya is married (Scott) and has an adorable 2 year old named Samantha. Last time I was in Austin, Tanya was pregnant, and Scott and I spent much of the weekend frequenting various bars and restaurants throughout Austin. It was incredible. I am excited to be able to party with Tanya and Scott this time. P.S. They like to party. This is going to be a wild week.

Dinner #1

Tanya, Samantha and I went to Chuy's, for some Tex Mex. When I eat Mexican, I eat more tortilla chips than most Superbowl parties. It's sick. When we ordered the queso, I had already consumed two baskets. I kept going. Also had the "Big as your face Burrito," with steak. It was as advertised. Ate it all. And a frozen margarita. Good start.

Today: Alamo Ritz, Whataburger, & UT-Austin

Slept in, trying to knock out this cold. It's almost gone. This morning, I went to check out the Alamo Ritz, where the movie will screen Friday night. Awesome place. Cool neighborhood. It's not just a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse, but it's also a party. I marvelled at how few seats 175 really is. We have a large contingency of friends and family coming down. We are a bit concerned. We shall see...

Ate lunch at the What-a-burger, in honor of a late night stop I made with Scott last time in Austin. Ate a Barbecue Cheddar Burger and fries. It was huge. And delicious.

Headed to Guadalupe street, aka "The Drag" and UT-Austin. Walked around campus. Ate a cookie at the Mellow Mushroom. Passed out some rolling papers (don't worry, LCLs, we'll have more after SXSW), talked to some people about the film.

Now, I'm about to head downtown to some more hotspots that were recommended by my cousin, and I'll be meeting them for dinner and drinks at a BBQ place around 6:30.

Danny arrives tomorrow.

We screen Friday. Excitement builds...

Stay tuned for the next edition of the Austin Diary!

Later,

-Darren

Leavin' on a Jet Plane...

2008-03-02T22:46:00.000-08:00

LCLs:

5 years and 3 months ago, December 2002, Danny and I checked into an Inn on the Lost Coast in Shelter Cove, California, set to work on a script called Welcome to Tomorrow. Inspiration took us elsewhere, and we began work on what would eventually become Humboldt County.

In August of 2004, we met Jason Weiss (Captain Deadpan, for those of you new to the blog) at the Blue Plate Cafe in Santa Monica. CD had the fish. We didn't realize it at the time, but a partnership was born over bagels that day. One that would see us shooting a film DURING his wedding, and now about to premiere our film just TWO WEEKS after the birth of his first child. We hope to continue to put strain on his marriage with additional ill-timed projects.

We wrote. We rewrote. We researched. We wrote some more. We raised money. We attached crew. We attached talent. Lost crew. Found crew again.

In October of 2006, we shot for three weeks in Humboldt County, California, on beautiful 35mm film with Panavision cameras.

Through the end of 2006 and all of 2007 we edited, re-edited, oversaw the placement of songs, music, sound, re-edited again, tweaked, and color corrected.

Tomorrow, on March 3, 2008, I will board a plane for Austin, Texas to watch Humboldt County with some of you this coming Friday night at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz.

Normally, as this is a family blog, I'd refrain from using any sort of profanity, but pardon me for one moment, as the excitement is just too much...

Holy fucking shit! I can't fucking believe this is actually happening!

Apologies again.
Love and Humboldt,

-Darren

Video Fun Part Six: Production

2008-03-01T12:11:00.000-08:00

Wow. Things are getting intense. We are less than a week away from the premiere of HC. It doesn't seem real, yet. I've been thinking a lot recently about the beginning of this project, five years ago, when Darren and I got a little motel room in Humboldt, completely unaware that we were about to embark on something that would take longer than a presidential term to complete. My god.

Lots of comings and goings this week. We've been doing a bunch of publicity stuff - interviews for the Hollywood Reporter, blogs for the Huffington Post etc. When stuff airs, we'll let you know. Also, I've just been trying to get everything together and in order for the week to come.

And what a week it will be. On Tuesday night, I attend the Fox premiere of a film I acted in called Bachelor Party 2: The Last Temptation. Yes, it's a remake of the Tom Hanks comedy from the 80s and yes it's a ridiculous teen sex comedy and yes, my bare ass does make a cameo. Still, I think it came out pretty well and you should all buy a copy when it comes out on DVD on March 11th. Okay, there's my plug. And here's the poster (and yes, I have ridiculous facial expression in it):

So after the premiere on Tuesday night, I fly to Austin to meet Darren on Wednesday. Once there we will begin passing out these:

It might be a little hard to see in the photo, but those are "Humboldt County" rolling papers baby! They have our screening information on them and are really cool. Dgro and I will be handing them out on the streets once we hit Austin to drum up some buzz. Yet another incentive to make your way to SXSW.

Then comes Friday at 6 PM. The premiere of "Humboldt County." Just typing it makes me nervous. Darren and I are hoping to be able to stay in the theater for the duration of the film, but we may have to duck out and head to a bar for a drink if our nerves get the best of us.

Finally, the week culminates with my birthday celebration the next night. What a week it will be. And miles to go before I sleep.

Oh, and here's another video. In this one, we blather about the production.

Efficiency Rating = High.

2008-02-28T21:23:00.000-08:00

LCLs:

Does anyone else find that your efficiency is directly proportional to your busy-ness? Let's consider the present: Danny and I are scurrying around Los Angeles in preparation for our trip to SXSW and the premiere of Humboldt County (which is barely more than a week away)!
We've got to balance our ordinary lives (not very exciting), the development of our next project (more exciting than our ordinary lives), publicity for Humboldt (pretty darn exciting), the helping of friends and family with plans and travel arrangements for Austin (which fills us with aniticipatory excitement), the creation and completion of To-Do lists full of errands (satisfying, but not exciting), and still find time to sleep and occasionally say hello to girlfriends and friends.

What is the result of this manic schedule? Extreme productivity. If I had to assign a rating, from 1 to 10, of my own efficiency at the current moment, I would give myself an 8.3, which is approaching my maximum efficiency capability (I believe I broke into the mid-nines during the production of the film, and that's as high as I go). It feels good. It makes me wonder why I can't be more like this all the time. It also makes me wonder if I'd want to be like this all the time.

Because the reality is when I don't have 57 things on my to do list, I sit around and "try to write," which really means I'm on the couch eating Cheez-Its, judging myself unfavorably against the extreme productivity of those incredibly irriating "other people."

So what's the verdict here? What's the lesson of all this rambling? Is there even a point? Should we always make ourselves busy? None, none, no and no to those 4 questions. As for always being busy, that would be awful. I'd never get to sit on the couch and eat Cheez-Its. I love Cheez-Its.

So it goes, round and round. I complain now that I have no time to relax. When I relax, I complain that I am not getting anything done. How do you spell fickle? D-A-R-R-E-N.

And yet I love every minute of my kvetch-filled existence.

I gotta go now; I'm not getting anything done.

-DG

Oscars, Babies & A New Tradition...

2008-02-25T00:21:00.000-08:00

Dear Locals:

One of the more irritating things about "Hollywood" is when self-important actors, actresses and assorted entertainers take themselves too seriously (read: an actor taking himself even a little bit seriously is usually too seriously), and as such the Academy Awards are often full of irritatingly self-important moments. That said, it's also generally very very compelling television, especially for those of us who love movies. Although I regularly attend an Oscar "party," I generally find myself annoyed at all the banter that goes on: the jokes, the fashion commentary, the loud breathing...I am a loser who likes to watch and listen to the entire telecast. This year's show was most compelling to me in large part because the Academy actually rewarded, in most cases, what I believe to be the finest films released in 2007.

Rare is the year that I find myself in complete agreement on four of the five nominated films for Best Picture (the only one they severely whiffed on was Atonement), and even rarer still, I have no problem with the winner being No Country for Old Men, which was neck and neck for me with There Will Be Blood, both of which were just ahead of Michael Clayton.

The show itself was a bit dull, with the occasional surprise; Jon Stewart provided a few nice moments though generally played it safe. He showed good sense and class when he allowed Marketa Irglova from Once to return to the stage to deliver her speech after she had earlier been cut off. I'm a sucker for Jack Nicholson doing just about anything. Harrison Ford looked like he had been enjoying the fruits of Humboldt County a bit before he came on stage. The Coen brothers demonstrated their unflappability: I believe that they would remain calm and placid even if the room they are in suddenly catches fire. They completely avoided sentimentality, or any emotion for that matter, when they were handed the Best Director Oscar from Martin Scorsese.

In the end, it was a good night for Hollywood after a long 3 months of bad nights, but I fear the ratings that come out tomorrow may demonstrate otherwise.

-------

In other news, Humboldt County producer Captain Deadpan and his lovely wife Julie Deadpan welcomed their first child Saturday night, a healthy baby girl, Sloane Erika Weiss. No photographs are available as of yet, but here is a baby picture of CD, at just a few months old...

Finally, today I'm announcing and launching a new tradition. I believe that people respond to routine, and order. We like that which we can count on. So my aim is to give you, our loyal Lost Coast Locals, something to believe in, and something to count on. Every Monday.

Football has Monday Morning Quarterbacking, the Mamas and the Papas sang about Monday Monday, and we are going to have Darren or Danny's "Monday" Day Celebratory Blog (DODMDCB). This is the first of a regular weekly post every Monday with updates on Humboldt County but also general stuff that I think might be of interest to you. There will continue to be frequent other posts throughout the week, but know that you can begin your work week every week by taking a gander at DODMDCB. I welcome any suggestions for future DODMDCB topics, and I will try to answer questions you might have.

As for this first one, I thank you for the initial feedback regarding the Drugs in Film panel. I'll leave you with some additional fun facts I'll be bringing to the panel that you might like to chew on this morning....

- 25 million Americans smoked pot at least once in 2006 [Time Magazine]

- Marijuana is top cash crop in the U.S. ($3.5B annually, equal to than annual production of corn, wheat, and cotton combined) [Reuters]

- Marijuana production has increased an average of 9.6% annually for the past 25 years [Time Magazine]

- 12 states have legalized medical use of marijuana for medical purposes

Fondly,

--DODMDCB