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| LATEST NEWS | ||
| December 16, 2004 |
Inheritance Takes Second Place After floating into the Big Apple on a Jet Blue red eye Inheritance representatives Kris Kristensen, Brian McDonald and Jean Landry managed to squeeze in a few hours of sleep before attending a screening of the film later that night at HD Fest. After the screening, director Kristensen and producer McDonald fielded questions from a nearly full house. Although there were a number of tech questions, most of the comments were in regard to film's story and performances. Also in attendance were actor Carter Roy, who plays Neil, and singer/songwriter Celia Chavez who wrote and sang the film's opening melody - Lose Myself In You. After the screening Kristensen took part in a panel discussion on indie film and Hi-Definition. Kristensen saved most of his comments for after the panel, "There was so much tech talk going on between the panelists, I really had no idea what they were talking about. It was like listening to a bunch of fax machines beeping and buzzing to one another." He later commented, "What no one really mentioned is that Hi-Def, like any format, is a tool. We shot on HD because we could afford to. Had our budget been smaller, we'd have shot on DV-Cam or mini-DV if we had too. Had it been higher, we would have shot 35mm. People get so caught up in the technology, but the only thing it boils down to is the script. We're all slaves to the script, and I'm afraid that too often filmmakers get entangled in the technology and forget that every person and piece of gear on the set is there to serve the script." When asked for an example, Kristensen cited the film The Celebration, "Here's a film that I can honestly say looks terrible, but the drama on screen is so gripping, what happens between these characters is so compelling that no one cares that it looks so bad. It's about the story. It always is." Sunday night at the HD Fest awards ceremony Inheritance received second place for Best Picture and Best Cinematography (DP Eric Adkins), meanwhile director Kristensen didn't even place for Best Director. When asked how his film could receive second place without acknowledging his directing Kristensen joked, "I don't know how that works. I guess I'll have to ask Steven Spielberg if I ever meet him." The reference is in regards to the 1998 Academy Awards when Mr. Spielberg won the Oscar for directing Saving Private Ryan. The best picture Oscar went to Shakespeare In Love. According to HD Fest officials, voting was mighty close, in some cases coming down to as little as 2 tenths of a point. |
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| December 1, 2004 |
Inheritance Receives Three Deffie Nominations The nominations for HD Fest have been announced and Inheritance has received three Deffie nods. They are as follows:
"This news made my day," said director Kris Kristensen, "I know everyone says it, but it really is great to just be nominated and recognized for one's work. Win or lose, something like this makes all the hard work seem worthwhile, when you know someone appreciates it." |
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| November 7, 2004 |
Inheritance Release Date Moved Up Inheritance will be haunting the video stores sooner than originally expected. Instead of hitting the shelves in February of 2005, it will be available December 28th, 2004. In fact, you can already preorder your copy from Amazon, and it will also be available at Blockbuster (more stores to come later). The DVD will include a Behind The Scenes featurette, however, as earlier promised, it will not include any commentary tracks, nor will there be an unrated director's cut. Due to a communications breakdown, the film's producers were not told of the dates when Inheritance was going to press. The filmmakers were busy creating the commentary tracks when they were informed by Ardustry Enterainment that it was too late to include them on the DVD. Co-producers Kris Kristensen and Brian McDonald were so disappointed that they decided to finish the tracks and make them downloadable here for free. Shortly after hearing the bad news about the commentary tracks, Ardustry informed the producers that they won't release the unrated director's cut unless there is a strong demand for it. Please contact , the president of Ardustry Entertainment, and encourage them to release the unrated director's cut along with commentary tracks. |
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| November 6, 2004 |
Mrs. Baker - The Anti-Drug They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In that case, the producers of Inheritance are extremely flattered. Before their film has even hit the video store shelves (available Dec. 28th), it seems that the people over at Free-Vibe, have borrowed a sequence from Inheritance as part of their latest anti-drug campaign; Regret. In the sequence from Inheritance, the film's protagonist - Abbey - is haunted by visions of the elderly dead Mrs. Baker. She first spots Mrs. Baker on the street, then struggles to ignore her in a cafe, and finally flees a bus where the sinister Mrs. Baker has cornered her. In the Free-Vibe commercial a young woman is haunted by regret, in the form of her elderly grandmother. It seems that the girl has been stealing money from Grandma so she can buy drugs. Although the commercial begins with a sighting in school, it then follows a simliar template of seeing Granny on street, then in a thrift shop, and finally on a bus. Brian McDonald was the first to see the commercial, "Not only was the sequence very similar, but the shot of the grandmother on the street is almost identical to our film, especially when there's a wipe of a passing object and then the grandmother is gone." Director Kris Kristensen noted that, "Even though our scene at the coffee house has been replaced with a scene at a thrift store, the reveal via the panning camera is very similar, and we have a similar scene involving a clothes rack with a reveal earlier in the film." Production designer Jean Landry saw the commercial and was stunned by the similarities between Mrs. Baker and Grandma's house. "Not only is their layout of the house familiar, but the china cabinet is where ours was in the film, and there's even a painting of flowers on the wall," a prominent design element throughout Inheritance. Naturally, this could all be a coincidence, but as Kristensen points out, "There are dozens of copies of Inheritance floating all over Hollywood. I'm sure someone saw the film and lifted the sequence." There are no plans to request a cease and desist order since it's a public service announcement. Kristensen added, "I'm flattered that they liked the film enough to imitate the sequence, I just wish they asked me to direct it. I could use the gig." To compare the two sequences visit Scotopia Pictures. |
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| October 2, 2004 |
INHERITANCE in Hi-Def (Festival) Just when you thought she was dead, Mrs. Baker is once again showing signs of life. Just as Inheritance is about to be released before New Years Eve, the film has been invited to screen at thefinal leg of the HD-Festival in New York City. "Quite frankly," director Kris Kristensen admitted "I'd presumed that we'd been passed over by the festival. It's so long ago that we submitted, I just figured the festival had already happened without us." HD-Fest will be the festival premiere for Inheritance which already has both domestic and foreign distribution. Kristensen added that he's particularly happy that the film will be projected in its orignal Hi-Def format The film has not been projected in Hi-Def outside of the initial cast and crew screening back in 2002. He also hopes that this will give greater exposure to his cinematographer, Eric Adkins (who recently shot Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). "Eric is the person who hipped me to HD-Fest, and this is a perfect venue to exhibit his fine work," said Kristensen. It should also be a nice coming out party for Inheritance which is scheduled to hit the video store shelves approximately three weeks later on Dec. 28th, 2004. |
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| August 12, 2004 |
INHERITANCE Gets Domestic Distribution On Monday (7/26/04), SOLITAIRE FILMS, LLC signed a domestic distribution deal with ARDUSTRY HOME ENTERTAINMENT. The super-natural thriller Inheritance is scheduled to hit the shelves of video stores throughout the country on February 8, 2005. However, there is a remote chance that the film will be released as early as November 2004. Two versions of the film, which stars Jen Taylor (the voice of Cortana in the popular video game Halo), will be released. An R-rated version, and an Unrated Director's Cut. Director Kris Kristensen was thrilled that ARDUSTRY was willing to deliver an unrated edition of the film, "The scene in question is sexually graphic, but it's not exploitive. I'm very grateful that ARDUSTRY is willing to retain the integrity of the film by releasing a director's cut in addition to the R-Rated version." The film will be released on both VHS and DVD. The DVD will contain 2 commentary tracks; by director Kris Kristensen, and one by co-writers/producers Kristensen and Brian McDonald (the team behind the award winning short film White Face), in addition to a ARDUSTRY film featuring interviews with actors Jen Taylor and Marjorie Nelson. The release of Inheritance (filmed in Seattle, WA) on home video may also be supported by a nationwide tour of the film in micro-cinemas, with some members of the cast and/or crew attending. |
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| June 7, 2003 | Benefit Screening for Lead Actress - Jen Taylor On the morning of May 30, Jen Taylor who plays Abbey in Inheritance was about to embark for Los Angeles, where she and her boyfriend were going to pursue their acting career. At 5 in the morning, they discovered that their rent a truck had been stolen with all of their worldly possessions inside it. They found the truck several days later, completely empty. Coincidentally we were scheduled to have a screening of Inheritance later this month and have decided to donate our proceeds to Ms. Taylor. Here is the info on the upcoming screening. Where: The Little Theatre 610 19th Avenue E. Seattle, WA When: Friday June 20, 2003 Times: 9pm & 11pm Tickets: $7 General Public - $4.50 NWFF Members For more information call 206.675.2055 There will also be a donation box at the screening if you would like to make an additional financial contribution. The Filmmakers are scheduled to be in attendance |
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| April 24, 2003 | Solitaire Films, LLC has signed a sales agreement with Curb Entertainment for foreign distribution for their film Inheritance. "We are very excited about this," said producer Scott Schill. "After speaking with the people over at Curb, we got a very good feeling from them. I felt like we were dealing with humans, not an industry." "The fact that Curb is willing to take on a film that has no 'names' in this weakened economy really speaks volumes about Curb's faith in the film," added director Kris Kristensen. Inheritance is now being prepped for the Cannes Film Festival where Curb will unveil it to the foreign market in May. |
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| February 2, 2003 | Inheritance creators to speak on Script to Screen Co-writers/producers Kris Kristensen and Brian McDonald to speak at the WigglyWorld quarterly networking night. Hosted by Warren Etheredge, the panel will also include Sue Corcoran & Angie Louise (Gory Gory Hallelujah). The panel will speak about the changes that went through their scripts during production and what a low budget feature script can and cannot do. Wednesday, February 5, 7:30 pm $2 WigglyWorld members, $5 General Public. The Little Theatre 610 19th Avenue East Seattle |
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| November 24, 2002 | Inheritance producer/co-writer Brian McDonald is now teaching a story structure class. | |
| October 26, 2002 | Inheritance director Kris Kristensen will be a guest panelist at the Whatcom Film Associations Projections Film Festival. The topic for discussion will be "The Road To Independent Film". The panel will be on Nov. 9 at 1pm. For more info vist the WFA. | |
| October 9, 2002 | You can now rate Inheritance at imdb.com. | |
| September 24, 2002 | Inheritance was completed only hours before the cast and crew screening. The premiere was held at what is considered by many to be the greatest movie theater in the world; Seattle's Cinerama Theater. "I thought I was sick of seeing this film," said Director Kris Kristensen "...until I saw it projected here. It was such a thrill to experience the film that big, with that incredible sound system." He added, "Also, I'm just glad to finally be done." | |
| August 8, 2002 | Inheritance is in the final weeks of post-production, and is expected to be complete by mid-September. The sound design and mix is currently being done by the Emmy award winning at Bad Animals. The title sequence is being created by Flying Spot, who are also conforming the film as well as doing the color correction. | |