Regarding the Cowboy Smoke DVD. To prevent piracy, no copies can be sent
out prior to the release. Once the film has been picked up by a distributor a release date will be set.

Ever since the day I posted we’d entered into a partnership with them, Fantastic Films has been receiving emails and calls from people requesting a Cowboy Smoke DVD. Unfortunately this is not their job. Fantastic Films’ job is to sell the film, not distribute DVDs. I like the enthusiasim and understand that everyone would like a chance to view the film and I appreciate your continued patience. We are almost there.

For over 30 years the Biannual Old Pecan Street Festival has provided Central Texas residents a family friendly venue to collect arts and crafts from local and national artists and artisans, experience live music and take part of a long standing Austin tradition. The Old Pecan Street Festival not only supports local artists and vendors but gives back to many of Austin’s most beloved charities as well as preserving Old Pecan Street (6th Street).

The Cowboy Smoke trailer will be featured in a reel of short films and other trailers by filmmakers and film organizations from Austin and San Antonio at the new Alamo Drafthouse downtown on Saturday May 3rd. The Cowboy Smoke trailer is part of the Film Austin reel which starts at 2:55pm. Stop by to check out the Austin Film reel if you are down at the festival!

Check out the new poster that Fantastic Films had made… they took what Chris had done and expanded on it. I think it looks great!

Cowboy Smoke will have it’s first buyers screening at the Marche De Cannes on May 15th at 8:30pm at PALAIS E (wherever that is). Fantastic Films had to pull a few strings to make this happen as screenings were suppossed to be scheduled three weeks ago.

If you happen to be in the French Rivera next month make sure to add the Cowboy Smoke screening to your travel plans.

I am excited to announce that we have entered into a partnership with LA-Based international sales agency Fantastic Films International, LLC to act as sales agent for Cowboy Smoke. Fantastic Films attends all of the major film markets and this coming May they will be attending the Cannes Market where Cowboy Smoke is planned to screen for buyers for the first time.  I am happy to finally be at this point, once I have delivered all of the materials the movie is essentially out of my hands. I have confidence in the owner of Fantastic Films, Roxanne Barbat and her partner Fred deWysocki, and am ready to relax and possibly start working on another project.

Howdy! Sorry it’s been a few weeks since my last post but I have been out of town. I traveled to Los Angeles to meet with potential sales agents. Film Sales Agents represent filmmakers who are looking for distribution deals for their films – specifically we were looking for an agent who would be capable of taking Cowboy Smoke to the Cannes market in May and screening our film for potential foreign and domestic buyers. We have settled on a sales agent however are currently working on drafting an agreement that is beneficial to both parties involved so I won’t mention their name yet.

I have posted a couple new videos that might be of interest on youtube. Super Fan was the first short film that Mike Lutz (who plays Joe in Cowboy Smoke) and I work on together. It’s a comedy about two best friends who take a road trip to the girls state volleyball tournament. We wrote the script in about six hours, shot the movie in about five and then it took me a couple days to edit. It’s not much on production value but I think it’s hilarious – check it out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfBHZPCFtEw

Finally I have posted a new trailer… it’s not actually new other than the footage has been upgraded from miniDV to HDCam. My DP has been begging me to post a trailer with the new footage so here you go:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhXO9×2STEs

I hope you guys enjoy and as always feel free to vote or share your thoughts.

The Band Restaurant, whose song The Future Strikes back is featured in Cowboy Smoke, will be playing several shows during SXSW. Please see below for details:

Tuesday March 11^th at 9pm
Beauty Bar Austin
617 E 7th St
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 391-1943
www.myspace.com/beautybaraustin

Wednesday March 12^th at 2pm
Red 7
611 E 7th St
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 476-8100
www.myspace.com/redsevenaustin

Wednesday March 12^th at 3pm
Red Eyed Fly
715 Red River
Austin, Tx 78701
recordhigh.net/redeyedfly

Wednesday March 12^th at 8pm
Enchanted Forest
1412 W. Oltorf
Austin, TX 78704
austinenchantedforest.com

Saturday March 15^th at 2pm
Black and Tan
405 East 7th Street
Between Trinity and Neches
myspace.com/blackandtanaustin

THE ABOVE TIMES AND VENUES ARE CONFIRMED.

On Monday the 10th we might have a show at:
Mohawk (time TBA)
912 Red River St
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 482-8404
mohawkaustin.com
or
Club DeVille
900 Red River St
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 457-0900
clubdeville.com

If you have seen Cowboy Smoke and enjoyed it - then please don’t forget to vote for us on IMDB. 

It’s a pretty simple process. All you need to do is click on the following link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0795362/  Then vote for Cowboy Smoke on a scale of 1 to 10. You may need to register for IMDB if you have not already done so but this only takes a few seconds – I believe they require an email address and a password – that’s it! Anyway, by voting for Cowboy Smoke you are letting other filmmakers, distributors, sales reps, agents, managers, and the general public know what you (the audience) thinks. This helps us, especially if you vote that you liked Cowboy Smoke – come on, you know you liked it.

The screening this past weekend was a success!

The response we received from the test audience was overwhelmingly positive. It was really cool to read the questionnaires afterwards - mainly because everyone genuinely loved the film. I even had a woman come up to me in tears after the film gushing over how beautiful and touching she thought the movie was. This meant a lot to me because the majority of the audience had nothing to do with producing the film. The audience had been selected at random by local radio stations. 

One last note – Don’t forget to vote for your favorite poster on our message boards – tomorrow is the last day.  

That’s right, you get to pick your favorite Cowboy Smoke poster. Chris Lambright, our graphics artist who is handling all of the art work (DVD cover, posters, blah, blah, blah) has finished some samples for the Cowboy Smoke poster and I wanted to share them with you. Please take a look and feel free to vote for your favorite poster on the production boards - http://www.cowboysmoke.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?b-pr/  This poll will run through next Friday and whatever poster receives the most votes will be used to help publicize Cowboy Smoke.  If you wish to vote, you must do so on the production boards. Thanks!  

Grassroots baby! We need to work on building an audience for the film - so whenever you get a chance, tell a friend about the Cowboy Smoke website. The postcards on this site are great way to invite a friend to sign up for the newsletter.
We will be holding one more private screening on Saturday February 16^th at 4pm. If you did not get to attend the first screening please email me at will@bandwagonfilms.com and put in the subject line “WANT TO ATTEND SCREENING”. In addition to this please note in the body of the email the number of guests you would like to bring. I will respond with a confirmation and the location of the screening.
This screening should be fun. We are giving out tickets on the local radio station in order to create a test audience. After the screening those in the test audience, along with any others that would like to stay, will answer questions about the movie.
Questions like:
What did you like about the film? Not like about the film? Who was your favorite character? Least favorite character? Would you tell others about this film? Who would you tell?
Answers to these questions will help us gain a better understanding of who our audience is.
In addition to this I have been compiling a list of distributors I think would do a good job distributing Cowboy Smoke. This is due to the fact that there are literally 100’s of distributors out there and by making a list I will be able to focus on the 30-40 distributors that I fell are a good match.
I have also been working on the DVD itself - the DVD menu, DVD artwork, behind-the-scenes segments, and a new trailer. I really wanted to do a commentary track but I think that might have to come later. Right now I just want to get the DVD ready to ship out – I am planning on sending the final packaged DVD to producer’s reps (basically sales reps), agents, and managers.  These are people that will help us sell the film.