Hello Peeps,
It is with great joy in my heart and love on my lens that I write to you this month. Looking on from afar I can see that our new Australian family film (AFF) Paper Planes has taken off at the local box office.
With a lot of thrust behind it from Village Roadshow and the new found turbulence of Youtube and Facebook the word of mouth was incredibly strong for the film.
At the time of writing we have made nearly $ 1.9 million with previews in the opening 4 days! Look up the competition we were up against (the Xmas/New Year) listings.
Rotten Tomatoes have a 100% review listing on their site. As usual with all the incredible reviews the really bad one had to come from SBS.com. I am not too sure what film the reviewer was watching but it was not the film we were making. If you have seen the film have a read of her review.
My part in the film’s promotion was to attend the Palm Springs International Film Festival on behalf of the producers and director. What a great festival it is. So well organised and promoted, i will have to go back next year. Over 196 feature films were screened from around the world. Paper Planes screened twice and I attended the Friday night at 5pm screening. I brought 6 loyal fans of mine from LA and as we arrived I saw the longest queue to get into our little film. The screening was sold out!
The screening of the film was an incredibly joyous experience, people were cheering and clapping throughout. Here is the rub, I counted only 4 kids under 15 years of age in the audience the rest were retirees! We make a film for kids to enjoy (7-12) and the reaction from an audience some 4 times that age group was incredible. I couldn’t get to the stage to do my Q & A, I was mobbed by the Californian blue rinse set, and I am no Justin Beiber!
The enthusiasm, joy and respect the audience had for the film I will take with me for the rest of my life!
Off to Berlin Feb 4th for the screening of Paper Planes in 3D at the Berlin International Film Festival. We are opening the Generation Section of the festival.
This is why I make Australian movies!
Stay Cool
Tristan Milani ACS
