Ok… so it’s been a while here, my apologies… there’s been both way too much going on and a lot of nothing. Let me explain, since the film fest at the end of July I’ve been packing up for the move out west and dealing with all the fun details that come with it… including the financial annoyances (ie: cost of moving) and all the details that come with not only moving myself, but also transferring our main production office as well. Basically, due to all the crazy projects I’ve got in the tubes both personally, and through my production company (Star Com Productions LLC) I felt it was time to make the move out west, but not only myself, but for the company’s main office as well. Now, don’t get me wrong, we’re not a huge company, and a lot of what we do can be done from home-offices, but the fact of the matter is, changing everything (and moving everyone) from one coast to the other is a heck of an undertaking and so while I’ve now been living in Los Angeles for about 3 weeks, it’s taken me until now to get things situated to the point of getting back to the fun world of “internetz”.

Before I get into some brief updates on ongoing film/event projects I just want to clear up one important question I’ve been asked rather frequently recently regarding the move and my continuing relationship with the Oxford International Film Festival. Yes, I know live primarily in Los Angeles, but I am continuing to work with the festival on a regular basis. A good friend of mine and a long-time supporter of the festival, Eric Chatterjee, has been very gracious in accepting the reigns as the new “Executive Director” of the festival starting in 2010, and is now handling all the day-to-day operations and planning. I’ve taken on the new position as the festival’s “Producer”. Basically what that means is that I still have the final say in most festival matters, including programming, but I’m no longer the day-to-day person. Due to the crazy amount of work involved in putting on the festival every year I felt it necessary to hand over a considerable amount of the yearly work load to someone new, not only because I’m no longer directly local (you’ll find that I’ll still be in Ohio rather frequently through – we still plan to shoot most of our productions there) but also to allow me to have more time to focus on Star Com, our ever-growing slate of films, tv projects, and concerts (not to mention my own Directing endeavors). So there you have it… no worries about the fest! I’m still a major player in the festival, but I’ve intentionally passed on the “Executive Director” title and daily duties.

That said though, we’re now all setup here in LA and getting right back into the game head-first. So, a brief update on some projects that I’ve got in the works: The “In Dreams” (formerly titled “Slipping Away”) feature is still very much alive and kicking, indie financing in this economy to be honest just plain sucks… I’m actively in talks with a couple different backers and we’re still pushing ahead, though we have not yet set production dates, and yes, we still have some VERY interesting actors in talks.

Ok, on to some NEW stuff… I’ve recently been asked to develop and write a network tv/family drama for a Disney starlet which would basically start as an online “webisode” series and then make the transition to one of 3 networks. I finished the pilot script a few weeks ago, which everyone very much liked, so like everything else, now it’s basically just a waiting game to see what the producer/studio/sponsors decide to do next. I’ve also been asked just last week to write and direct a low-budget SciFi/Thriller aimed as a SyFy channel original movie, which, I’ll be honest, I was a bit hesitant to do originally, but now I’m getting very excited about the more I think about it and continue to develop the story. We’re still very much in negotiations about it (again, like everything in this biz.. you never REALLY know if anything will ever happen until it’s finished) but I’m happy with where it’s going and really starting to get to know and like the producer (which is a good sign).
Hum… I think that’s about it for now… lots of other random things in the works, but not too much far enough along yet to really mention, but I’ll certainly let you all know if/when things start to progress, the great thing about LA (and this industry in general) is that things move SO fast (and, ironically, often SO slow) that predictability and planning is often all but irrelevant, but hey, that’s half the fun of it. 🙂

More soon.

–JC

Tags: Films, Oxford International Film Festival, Randomness by admin
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While somewhat of a transition year for the Oxford International Film Festival, the event went VERY well this year, we made a lot of people and filmmakers very happy, and given so many financial/sponsorship setbacks, managed to have a simply wonderful event! We actually received more local press this year than we EVER have in the past, with morning show segments on 3 local stations, headline/cover stories in local arts publications, 2 of the biggest regional radio stations covering the event for weeks, and more! Not to mention that the Awards Gala was simply gorgeous and people really had a great time despite a tough year… for a festival wrap-up and list of award-winners and more, visit www.oxfordfilms.com, and another big THANK YOU to all who attended and supported the event, you guys are wonderful!

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So, I haven’t written in a while, mainly because I’ve simply been SO ridiculously busy with the film festival coming up here soon (and with so many things up in the air) that I haven’t really had much to post. That said though, this has been a very tough year economically for everyone, and the festival is not magically excluded from that, with such severe cutbacks in sponsorships from across the board (think about it, major corporations are laying off employees, and we’re asking them for money?) we’ve had to make some tough last minute cutbacks and changes to keep the festival alive, at one point we seriously thought we’d have to cancel it altogether, but I think it’s now safe to say that we’ve (for the most part) succeeded in steadying the event to go on for another year, with the help of a great deal of long time (and new) friends, and even though I know it will be a tough year for attendance numbers (simply because of all the last minute changes) I honestly feel that the changes and moves will be better for the event in the long run, this is a transition year of sorts, and knowing that, I’m excited to see where we go from here.

That said, most of the festival’s screenings will now be held at the wonderful indie cinema “The Esquire” in Cincinnati, with special events still held in West Chester at the Savannah Center as previously planned, and now with EXTENDED dates, from July 24-30, 2009! For all those of you who stood by us and helped make this possible, THANK YOU!

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While I may not be producing another film until the feature later this year, I have been and will be writing/directing/producing several promos for the Oxford International Film Festival which will be released online every few weeks from now until the festival in July. We’ll be switching off posting one of mine a few promos by other director friends of mine throughout the coming months. The promos for the 09 fest can be found here: www.youtube.com/oxfordfilmfestival other new promos will also be posted on the festival’s Official Website, MySpace page, Facebook page, and of course on the fest’s YouTube page. You can actually submit your own promo for the fest by going here: www.oxfordfilms.com/promo/

I’ll also be directing a music video for a new band called Above Only here coming up in June. The song is “Hear Me” which is featured on their debut EP. This is a thoroughly impressive band that’s going to be huge here in the next few years, so stay tuned, I’ll let you know when we get the video finished and out to the world.

So, check out all these new vids, rate them, comment, and have some fun. I’ll be doing some other fun little side-projects over the next few months which I’ll cue you in on latter, but will hopefully hold you all over until the feature comes out sometime next year. Peace.

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Ok, so after much deliberation and procrastination, I finally caved and joined “Twitter” yesterday, (as if I didn’t already have enough to do 🙂 that said though, you can follow my spontaneous and somewhat random updates at www.twitter.com/jcschroder. I will still be posting my regular blogs.

Also, another screening to announce: The “final cut” of The End of All Things will have its regional debut this SUNDAY, April 19th at 7:00pm at the KNOW THEATRE (1120 Jackson Street, Cincinnati, OH, 45202) as a part of Underneath Cincinnati, featuring a number of shorts by local filmmakers. Tickets are $7 public/ $5 students for the whole program. I plan to attend, so stop in, say “Hi”, see the FINAL cut of the film, meet some other filmmakers, and have some fun! For questions/times/tickets contact the theater directly at: (513) 300-5669 – See you there!

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Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that I’m featured this month on the PBS/CET show “Viewfinder”. So, if you live in the tri-state region make sure to check your local listings, and tune in to PBS/CET this Thursday, March 24th at 7:30pm EST. I’m honored to be on the show this week as well as with an actress, Meredith Meeks, who worked on “End of All Things” with me, and will join me later on in the show to chat about that (now award-winning) film. For those of you who haven’t seen my recent shorts “Freedomland” or “End of All Things” this is an excellent chance to get a taste of them and hear me blabber on about how many things had to fall into place to get those films made. So check that out.

Also, I want to give a shout-out to the kids at the Cincinnati Country Day School (High School) which I gave a keynote to a few weeks ago. It was great getting to chat with you, and having a chance to meet many of you. Hopefully I’ll be back again before too long to bug you some more. You guys are awesome, keep up the good work, and ignore everything I said about throwing things at people 🙂 .

Tags: Films, Freedomland, Oxford International Film Festival, Randomness, The End of All Things by admin
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The Oxford International Film Festival just had a record week when it comes to submissions. Just in the past 4-days the festival received nearly 100 entries (from around the globe). Not bad for just a few days. A big thanks to all of you who are working so hard to make your films a reality, and your willingness to share them with us. We’re doing our very best to make every entry count. The festival is still accepting entries for our 2009 event (which takes place July 23-26, 2009). You can still submit your films through April 1st by going here: http://www.oxfordfilms.com/oiff/submit.htm

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Just wanted to wish you all a happy new year. I’ve been traveling about the country over the last few months, so it’s nice to finally be back home (at least for a little while) and be able to focus back on the pile of work that never seems to get smaller. Between the festival, my several film projects that are in the works, the film association, my other film’s screening at other festivals, and of course, the production company, I’m never at a loss for twenty thousand more things to do, but hey, it keeps life interesting and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Wishing you all the best in 2009.

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Sorry I haven’t written in a while. So many amazing (and time consuming) things have been going on with the film, the festival, and a number of other projects I’m working on, that I simply haven’t had a chance to write much here. Anyhow… here’s a brief update:

I just got back from L.A. late last night where I was most of last week to meet with a bunch of people about my feature project (before heading off to Vegas for a conference – see below). The script has simply been doing wonders on its own and has been attracting an unheard-of amount of attention for a project of this size (which is totally awesome by the way). That said, we now have a great number of amazing people on-board for the project… and even more amazing actors interested and/or “in talks” for the project! I was just contacted last week and told that several of the actors we’d been chatting with for the lead roles said “yes” to the project, and we’re in talks with a half-dozen others, which is just amazing considering the (economic) timing and size of the project, but no complaints here! Unfortunately, that’s really about all I can say at this point (I know, I know… you want names), but since most of our cast are still “in talks”, I really just can’t announce anything yet as it might have a diverse affect on the process. I assure you, I’ll let you know as soon as I can.

That said, I also had a great time at the International Film Festival Summit (IFFS) in Vegas this past week. I had a wonderful chance to catch up with several other festival director friends of mine, and meet lots of great new people and hear about what they’re all up to. I also had a chance to meet some of the guys behind the Internet Movie DataBase (IMDb.com), who are working on some great new exciting additions to the IMDb for filmmakers and specifically film festivals for next year. I also had a chance to meet (and in some cases eat dinner with) several of the directors/guys behind Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, IndieWire, FilmFestivals.com, IndieFlix, FilmThreat, Variety, and about 200 other great industry folks. It was great to see so many wonderful people working so hard to support the independent industry in one place, working together… despite a few issues which are all but unavoidable, I’ve enjoyed the IFFS every-year, it was well worth the trip, and I’m looking forward to attending again next year.

I’ll try to give you all another quick update on things before the holidays, as there’s WAY too much in the works here for me to mention in one post. So stay tuned, I’ll try to give you more updates as things get a bit more solidified (both with the 2009 Festival and the Feature). Thanks for tuning in guys!

Oh, and just because I know a lot of you like stats… the OIFF (after the first of our 4-deadlines, spread out over 5-months) to date has received 133 entries from 18 countries globally, and we’re well on our way to break our 532-entry record from last year. The OIFF is open for entries through April 1st of 2009, you can submit your film online at www.oxfordfilms.com.

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