By Andy Marken
OWC Storage Solutions Deliver Fun, Action for Production Team
A lot of us have a story, an idea, a movie that has to be told because things get in the way.
But a few of us have no choice but to set the story free and hope it will be favorably received.
Bradley Jackson had the idea for a film that helped a group of University of Texas students bridge the gap between college and the cold, unknown world beyond graduation, marriage, career and debt.
The answer was the independent 98-minute, crowd-funded sports comedy, "Intramural" that has been racking up awards, accolades and satisfied viewers since it was first shown early this year.
Written by Jackson, directed by Andrew Disney and produced by Russell W. Groves, Bradley Jackson, Andrew S. Lee and Red Sanders; "Intramural" had its world premiere at this year's Tribeca Film Festival.
That would be satisfying recognition for most of us, but it was just the beginning for the crew and cast. At Tribeca the hilarious game was:
- Treated to a red carpet event/after party something done for less than a quarter of the feature films
- Selected by ESPN as part of their Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival
- Enjoyed by sold out crowds for all four screenings and had long standby lines
"Sports Illustrated" wrote, "100 minutes of sidesplitting sport-movie bliss."
Producer Andrew Disney explained that a lot of the bliss was due to the creative dedication of the cast and crew because equipment costs today are so affordable.
"Kody Gibson did most of the post production work on the film himself," Disney noted, "and the hardware/software for the project wasn't a major expense. We simply pooled our Apple MacPros and notebooks with Final Cut Pro 7 and a whole lot of Other World Computing storage products/systems."
Bradley added he was surprised at how quickly 5K RAW (uncompressed) ate up storage. One minute of content required 2,867GB of capacity an hour or 1.72TB; and all the film work – RAW, post and final cut – consumed more than 20TB of OWC storage.
Disney said they were using nothing but OWC storage devices because of the quality and reliability of the firm's products. But as every filmmaker knows, you create copies of copies of the work in case something happens and have them in various locations around the country ... just in case.
That could be even more important for "Intramural" because "Film School Rejects" wrote, "Intramural is probably destined to become something of a cult classic, thanks to both its charming cast and a series of highly quotable lines"
Following Tribeca, more than eight unique articles were written about "Intramural" including items in "Huffington Post" and "Sports Illustrated."
Since then, the film has won the Best Film Award, the Hill Country Film Festival Award and Best Guilty Pleasure Audience Award at the Seattle International Film Festival. It also sits at 80 percent on the Rotten Tomatoes chart.
That's probably why movies.com wrote, "Deep, hearty, tear-soaked laughs to be found in Intramural."
Movie Buzzers went even further, "A hilarious, clever and self-aware sports spoof that's officially on its way to the cult comedy status it deserves"
Determined to strike while the iron is hot, Jackson and Disney said they are presently in discussions to broaden the exposure of "Intramural" this year and see if they can keep the cult enthusiasm going.
It just might happen because as "Film Annex" wrote, "Every other line had me laughing my ass off."
Jackson, Disney and the rest of the cast/crew aren't saying if there is a sequel in the offing, if they'll collaborate on another project or move their careers in separate directions.
Whatever they do, the young team turned their ideas into a great fun movie that continues to receive a lot of attention.
www.markencom.com
