Hi Everyone,
Wow. It’s been a really long time. I feel so bad that I haven’t made an update in so long. I know everyone is busy and you all still find the time to check in and email me about the film. Every time I say “I’ve been so busy” when I talk about finishing the film, I just feel so bad. But I have been so much busier than I ever thought I’d be these last 18 months. I was preparing to finish the film summer of 2022, and at the same time I was also being awarded tenure and promotion at my university. Well, in a strange turn of events, I was also made Department Chair which is really awesome, but also really impacted all of my plans and goals for that summer and the upcoming year. I’ve always had an active creative agenda and I had so many things planned including this film. All of that was put on hold as I started serving my university in a new way. So many times I have wished that finishing the film was my only job, but teaching is my career and I wanted to pursue something more in higher education, so I said yes not knowing how intense this new role would be. It has been rewarding but also a struggle. It’s been a year and a half and some days I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing, other days I have little victories that mean so much to me. But no matter how buried I have been with work or how “I’ve been so busy,” one thing has remained a constant – the need to finish this film.
Thus, I’m writing you all this update today with excellent news. In September I did finally finish a refined rough cut of the film! It is 89 minutes long. I got everything done story-wise. I was able to have a small test screening with some colleagues, and a few participants in the project, and the response was overwhelming. I got such good feedback. I made some changes based on that screening and we are now in the process of mixing down the audio, doing the final color correction, and adding the last graphics. All of this will be completed by January 2024. We have already entered it into a few highly regarded film festivals that accept rough cuts as entries, so we will know how the film is received at that level in the next month or two. After that, we will continue to enter the film in festivals in hopes to be accepted. A longer term goal is to possibly self-distribute the film so that all of the general population, as well as all of the vet med industry, can see it. I will be able to share more info on how the film can be seen when we see how it does in the upcoming festivals. I want so many people to see it so they can understand comprehensively why it is so important to support their vets and vet med staff. For those of you who have subscribed to this blog that have participated but have not yet been contacted by me, I am reaching out to everyone personally about updates, it is just taking me some time because of my administrative duties this semester. Please stand by as I make my way to you. And for the general public or others who are still following the project or have supported it in other ways, please know that I have not forgotten about your support, and I am staying true to my word to get this project finished and released for all of us.
It means the world to me that I have been able to make this film and I hold so dear to my heart the fact that I have been supported in so many ways by so many individuals. Please stand by while I get even more done to get it released to you all so you can celebrate it with me. I am so excited and so humbled and so gracious and so many emotions…thank you all for standing by me as I have made something that I am so proud of and I think you will be, too.
With so much appreciation for you all, and more to come soon,
Marie