Life has moved at the speed of light through February and March. On February 17th, after Sara spent a somewhat precarious few days in the hospital, we welcomed our first child, a baby boy named Ford Wesley DuBose, into the world! Ford is truly a revelation. He’s changed our lives completely, as everyone said he would. He came a bit early, and we’ve been adapting to his schedule ever since! We’ve never been happier and our lives have never been so full.

On the film front, we are a little delayed getting rewards out, so don’t fret if you haven’t received yours yet. You can expect gifts to trickle into your mailbox throughout the month of April! At the beginning of March, we learned we were rejected by Tribeca. Not a huge surprise, as they took very few non-New York/foreign films this year and even fewer works by first-time feature filmmakers. We were bummed, but to quote a close friend of ours (yes you, Amy): “You can have everything, just not all at once.”

The beauty and challenge of this film is that it is unconventional, and as we march onward with lab, sound, score, and soundtrack work, we do so with the knowledge that for the film to achieve a release, we may need to take just as organic a route with sales as we have with the rest of it. This feature has more widespread audience potential than most festival films, but because it doesn’t have a ‘festival feel’, it may need a truly creative approach to help it reach the audiences who will enjoy it most. And so we have begun re-evaluating our sales strategy. In addition to targeting smaller festivals with high film industry attendance, we are brainstorming ideas for a unique online marketing campaign.

We want to involve you in this process! If you have any fun, creative, smart ideas for how we can market this film to widespread audiences with one millionth the marketing budget of a major studio, please share your thoughts. You don’t have to know a ton about movie marketing to have seen a campaign you thought was clever, or to have a bona fide gem of an idea, so please don’t be shy with your brainpower!

Major thanks as always to each and every one of you who contribute to making this film a success.

In gratitude,
Graham & Sara

Things are moving right along with The Last Beyond. We are on track for picture lock* by January 31st!

Immediately following that we will begin work with Ken Johnson and his team on the sound edit. We met with Ken at his new studio near Paramount this past week and are really excited to see him work his magic with sound fx, foley, and dialogue editing.

Around the same time we will also resume work with Gordy Haab and Adam Sanborne on the score. We had a great meeting with Gordy as well and are excited to resume work with him after all these years. With Gordy we are moving in a new direction that focuses on a single fiddle played in the style of a celtic lament. Our goal is to create an iconic sound that captures the essence of Montana and the period. With Adam we will continue to work with him and his uniquely experimental style for the more abstract spiritual sequences in the movie. He has come up with an incredibly peaceful and otherworldly sound through the use of an ebow on an electric guitar.

We are beginning talks with musicians and record labels for rights clearances to source music** and praying they take pity on our budget. While most of the music is from the 1930′s, we are also talking to an up and coming contemporary artist with an amazing sound that fits perfectly with the era. We will elaborate once we know more.

In real life, Sara and the baby are doing well and keeping us busy with lots of doctor’s appointments. Kind of crazy that he’ll be born any day now, well hopefully not for another four weeks, but the doctor seems pretty sure he might pay us a visit sooner than that. Whether sooner or later, we are very excited!

As always, thanks for your support!

~ Graham & Sara

* Picture lock is when the picture edits will no longer change. The final stage of an edit before sound editing and mixing begins.
** Pre-recorded music that comes from a source present on or off screen and is not part of the dramatic underscore.

The fundraiser will continue on until January 1st at 11:11pm Pacific time. Any additional funds we raise past the goal will go towards sound and score, so if anybody is still considering donating, please go ahead. The more the merrier, and the money will be put to very good use as we complete the film and take the next steps toward getting it released!

Thanks again, and have a very Happy New Year!!

~ Graham & Sara

And so begins our film.

In modern Western society, the answer to this question, of course, is yes.

THE LAST BEYOND asks of our audiences, of all of us:  We’ve elevated the value of money to our society.  Is this the way we really want it to be?  Should a man’s life be equated with money? Is money as important as life?  Is it right to transfer a dead man’s debts to his family?

Drawing on American Indian beliefs, we challenge the notions we accept, and push ourselves to question what we truly believe.  A fundamentally American film, THE LAST BEYOND also borrows from the ethos of Montana to help us define an alternative, a more balanced and naturally-inspired philosophy of life.

In modern America, with Occupy Wall Street, the Tea Party, and societal and economic unrest, the existential questions that we asked during the Great Depression, we ask again, as we search for balance, sanity and peace.

We want to hear from you!  What do you think?  Should a man have to keep paying his debts after he’s dead? There are no bad answers to this question, we’d just like to get a conversation started, so share your opinions freely, but please also play nice and respect others and their points of view.

~ Sara & Graham

Here you can follow our mad dash to be ready for the January 6th Tribeca Film Festival deadline!   And participate in our quest via Kickstarter to fund a new transfer of the film to HD!  For those unfamiliar with Kickstarter, it’s a fundraising site for creative projects that leverages the power of online social networks via crowd-sourcing.  The idea is friends, family, and colleagues make small manageable donations, then tell their friends, family, and colleagues… and those collective donations eventually add up to your goal.  If we are fortunate enough to surpass our goal before January 1st, we will use the surplus toward sound and marketing expenses.

Have a look at our updates to the trailer, and if you’re excited about this film and would like to see it out in the world, please comment here or on the trailer page.  By sharing your thoughts you will not only help create a discussion around the film, but also let interested distributors know that we have an audience.

Now, to answer Small Salmon’s question.   No that movie is not done yet! We are experimenting with an edit that utilizes edgier and less conventional approaches, allowing Graham to push stylistic elements further, and tap into the heart of what he seeks to accomplish with this film.  We are very excited to submit this cut to Tribeca.

Our goal is to update about once every two weeks, so please check in, and share your thoughts about the film. Thanks, as always, for your participation, excitement and support!

And soon, Stephen.  Soon.

~ Graham & Sara