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Sundance

The Nines on BitTorrent

January 15, 2008 Projects, Sundance, The Nines

Since well before our Sundance debut last year, I’ve been curious-slash-paranoid about when The Nines would start showing up on the BitTorrent trackers, the online repository of pirated movies and a few legitimate wares.

It was inevitable that the movie would get bootlegged at some point. The timing was the delicate issue. If it showed up before Sundance, some distributors might be frightened off (why spend x dollars when people are already watching it for free?). If it showed up online before our theatrical release, we could anticipate a hit in ticket sales, and a tougher time selling it overseas.

So for a while, I was checking every day. And nothing.

But yesterday, my Google News Alert feed showed the inevitable had come to pass: there was a DVD rip of The Nines online. Given the subtitles attached (Spanish and French), it was almost certainly the North American retail release, which I haven’t even held in my hands yet. ((We’ve had plain DVD screeners available for months, mostly for journalists and folks in the industry. But they don’t have subtitles, which is why I strongly suspect this comes from the official disc.))

I haven’t downloaded or watched the rip, but I have gotten three emails in the last 24 hours which began, “I recently saw The Nines…”

So it’s out there.

And that’s okay. Not “okay” in the sense of “legal” or “right.” But okay in the sense of c’est la vie. People are going to watch the pirated version, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Sony, Interpol and the MPAA will do their best, but as the guy who made the movie, I honestly want people to see the movie. If the only way you’re going to watch The Nines is illegally, so be it.

In fact, for a writer/director, there’s not a meaningful financial difference between someone watching an illegal download and [getting it from Netflix](http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The_Nines/70066350), which distributes a limited number of discs to a large audience. Discuss.

But as the director, there are some good reasons to steer you towards the physical disc once it [comes out on January 29th](http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FNines-Ryan-Reynolds%2Fdp%2FB000YW8RN6%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Ddvd%26qid%3D1198301424%26sr%3D8-1&tag=johnaugustcom-20).

→ It has a ton of the usual special features: two audio commentaries, a making-of, gallery, deleted scenes (with commentary), and a bunch of Easter eggs.

→ It has one thing I’ve never seen before. For the opening sequence, you can see the script scroll by in the upper half of the screen, matched up to the movie and the storyboards for each shot. It’s a lot to process at once — you’ll probably need to watch it a few times — but it’s very cool.

→ You can loan a DVD, without passing along that troubling knowledge that you’ve done something illicit.

→ If you’re seen buying (or renting) The Nines, you’ll immediately identify yourself as someone drawn to challenging, divisive movies. So make sure to put it at the top of the stack as you slide it across the counter.

→ Hidden in five DVD cases are magical golden tickets. ((This is not true.))

But if these reasons and/or your conscience doesn’t persuade you, it’s not hard to find The Nines online. And I won’t think less of you. Probably.

Sundance Advice

October 8, 2007 Sundance

The folks at Sundance asked what advice I’d offer people whose films are chosen for the 2008 festival. In case they don’t use my quote, I thought I’d share:

Remember that the reason you’re in the festival is because you made a terrific movie. Once the lights come up after the first screening, there’s no telling what’s going to happen next. So don’t postpone your celebration. Enjoy it now.

The Nines opens Friday

August 28, 2007 Projects, Sundance, The Nines

I feel like I’ve done [so](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-nines26aug26,1,7639090.story) [much](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/04/movies/04augu.html?ex=1343880000&en=601a154e3e1861a5&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss) [publicity](http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=guy.wisdom&category=life.lessons&conitem=03044e632f144110VgnVCM20000012281eac____) on it that everyone probably sick of me talking about it, but here’s the direct appeal:

My movie THE NINES opens this Friday, August 31st, in Los Angeles and New York.
—
Please come see it. And if you can’t, keep reading to find out how to get it to play near you.

In LA, it’s exclusively at the Nuart (on Santa Monica, just west of the 405). In New York, it’s at Sunshine Cinemas on Houston. You can find maps (and a lot of other information) at the official site: [lookforthenines.com](http://lookforthenines.com).

nines posterFor those who haven’t been paying attention, or who need to convince friends to accompany them: The movie stars Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis and Melissa McCarthy, along with Elle Fanning, David Denman, Octavia Spencer and Dahlia Salem. I wrote and directed. We [premiered at Sundance](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2007/sundance-recap), and will be competing in [Critics’ Week](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2007/nines-at-venice) at the Venice Film Festival next week. I’m really proud of it, and happy that it’s gotten great reviews (we’re 100% on [Rotten Tomatoes](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_nines/) so far).This will change.

All that’s left is to sell tickets.

If you’re friends with filmmakers, you’ll know that they always plead for you to see their movies opening weekend. And you do, to be supportive, though you know in your heart that your $9.00 won’t make the tiniest bit of difference in that film’s multi-million dollar weekend.

But with The Nines, your buying tickets actually matters. A lot.

Because we’re on just two screens, it’s all about the per-screen average this first week. With a great per-screen average, we can plan for a more aggressive expansion. With a less-than-great per-screen average, it will be much more difficult.Anticipating the natural follow-up question: No, I’m not sure what those benchmarks would be — it’s not a single answer. The distributor needs to feel confident in committing new money for prints and advertising; the exhibitors need to want to show it; the entertainment press needs to point out how well the film did on two screens, on Labor Day Weekend, no less.

It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that two tickets can push us over a certain threshold, and convince Landmark, Laemmle’s, or Pacific to give us better screens, be it a week or a month from now. Put it this way: You might prefer to see The Nines at The Arclight. Or in San Francisco. Or Vancouver. But the best chance of that happening is if you buy a ticket for it at The Nuart or The Sunshine, this weekend.

And the very best tickets you can buy are for the special screenings we’re holding on Friday night.

  • LOS ANGELES
  • Nuart Theater on Santa Monica (map)
  • Friday, August 31st
  • 7:30 p.m. After-show Q&A with John August, Melissa McCarthy and other cast/crew
  • 10:00 p.m. Introduction by John and Melissa
  • NEW YORK
  • Sunshine Cinemas on Houston (map)
  • Friday, August 31st
  • 8 p.m. Special guests Ryan Reynolds and producer Bruce Cohen

Tickets for these and all shows are online:

At [Moviefone](http://movies.aol.com/movie/the-nines/28598/showtimes?date=20070831)
At [Movietickets.com](http://www.movietickets.com/house_detail.asp?house_id=464&rdate=8%2F31%2F2007)

(In both cases, you may need to provide dates and zipcodes; the sites seem to overrule URLS with cookies.My kingdom for a true permalink. For LA, try 90046. For NYC, try 10002. August 31st is the opening day.)

If you’re not able to make it — or if you live in one of the 2,000 markets in which it’s not playing — but want to support us anyway, I can tell you off-the-record that a ticket sold is a ticket sold. They don’t count heads. And those under-attended Sunday matinees need love, too.

There will be at least two more bits of Nines-related news this week before the opening. I leave for Venice on Saturday, which should preclude checking back obsessively. But probably won’t.

Permitted filmmaking

August 2, 2007 Film Industry, Rant, Rights and Copyright, Sundance

Writer/director [James Ponsoldt](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1242054/), one of the fellows at this summer’s Sundance Filmmakers Lab, emailed me some information about new regulations on filming in New York City’s five boroughs. Under the proposed rules ([.pdf](http://www.nyclu.org/pdfs/nyc_photo_permits_proposed_rules_052507.pdf)), a city permit would be needed for:

* Two people with any camera, shooting in a public location (defined as any area within 100 feet of where filming begins) for a half hour or longer, even if the camera is hand-held, including set up and breakdown.

* Five people with one tripod, shooting in a public location for over 10 minutes, including set up and breakdown.

I have no doubt that the rules are well-intentioned. Anyone who’s lived in New York or Los Angeles has dealt with the inconvenience of film crews — that’s why there’s a permit process. But there’s a difference between a true film shoot, with its trucks and dollies and light stands, and two guys with a videocamera.

Would these rules really get enforced? It’s hard to say. But even rarely-used laws are a Bad Thing if they criminalize free expression. Videotaping a protest march could be deemed illegal under these rules.

Thanks to sites like YouTube, video has become the new generation’s media of choice. It’s their printing press, their pamphlet, their church-door-upon-which-to-nail-theses. Placing undue restrictions on video creation undermines the spirit of the First Amendment. The Mayor’s office needs to find a way to control the burden of filming (trucks, traffic, noise) without restricting expression.

[Picture New York](http://www.pictureny.org/) has more information about the proposed rules, including a petition.

As for Los Angeles (and other cities), I can’t say exactly what the current rules are. At USC, we had to get LA film permits for our student films. That was a university policy, and made sense given their concerns about liability and guild relations. (We were able to use SAG actors under a waiver.)

This was before the age of tiny, ubiquitous videocameras. You can now shoot a film without anyone realizing you’re shooting a film. If it’s you and a buddy with a tiny camera, should you really have to register with a governmental agency? I say no. And I hope that New York’s proposed rules wouldn’t make that mandatory.

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