That’s right. You’re invited. We’re ready to announce the very first screening of Follow Friday the Film.
As some of you may know, we submitted the film to the SXSW Film Festival. We were short on time, and the cut we submitted was rough. Unfortunately, SXSW declined. The good news is, we do what we want. And we want you guys to be able to see the film that week in Austin.

SO WE’RE RENTING A DRIVE-IN THEATER.

I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m really excited. Our first screening will be Sunday, March 10th at 8 pm at the Blue Starlite Drive-In in Austin, Texas. We’re pulling out all the stops. And by that, I mean it’s BYOB. (Seriously though, you can bring your own beer.) It may not be your typical Hollywood film event, but I guess this isn’t much of a typical Hollywood film. The best part? Feel free to livetweet the shit out of it. After our Sunday screening, we’ll head to a bar for an after party. And bonus – we’ll do an encore screening Monday, March 11th.

The screening has limited seating/parking, and will be private. If you’re going to be in Austin, for SXSW or just for kicks, let us know and we’ll put you on the list. The purpose of the screening is to a) celebrate the fact that WE MADE A FREAKING MOVIE b) get some publicity for the film at a major industry event, and most importantly, c) get distributors to come and watch it. A sold film is a happy film – you’re going to be much happier with the final product if a company has really polished the post-production work we’ve done. Plus, Hassan is a starving PhD candidate, and could really use the paycheck we owe him.

Today’s a big Friday for us. We’ve released our official trailer for the film, along with some other outtakes you’ll enjoy. But we’re also kicking off our second, and final, round of fundraising. As I mentioned in the Kickstarter video, we estimated it would take about $30,000 to finish the film. We raised $24,000 the first time around, and we’ve pretty much hit the end of it. Our editor is, swear to god, working for fruit snacks and granola bars.

We’re setting our goal at $10,000, because we really don’t want to ask for money a third time. We need funds to get our team to Austin to promote the film (airline miles work too!), pay for the drive-in rental, buy the equipment and software to create our finished blu-ray that will screened on March 10, etc. Most importantly, we need to pay for color correction and sound mixing. Neither is cheap, but both make a world of difference.

Example of color correction:

A lot of you have already donated generously, and we are exceptionally grateful. This time around, maybe you could tweet about the film? Helping us spread the word is a great way to contribute if you aren’t able to donate at this time. And if you are, this is going to be a bit different than the Kickstarter. Feel free to look at the prize levels we had before; but this time around, you tell me what you think your donation is worth. Me livetweeting a romance novel? Sure. We’ve got some #drunj key chains left, too. If you donate $1500, we’ll happily add you as an Executive Producer in the credits and on IMDB.

Donations will be accepted through the PayPal link here on our site; we don’t have the time run another Kickstarter; this will expedite our travel purchases and make sure we have the film finished for our March 10th screening.

Again, tweet me or shoot me an email if you want to be on the list to see the film; everyone who can’t make it to Austin, hang in there a bit longer. We’re so close. And thanks, you guys – I’m still blown away that you all made this happen.

Erin Faulk is traveling across the country to test social media, specifically Twitter. The L.A.-based film maker traveled more than 8,000 miles with a crew that helped her document life as she experienced it along the way while meeting with people face-to-face who followed her on Twitter. Erin’s goal was to find out if people are who they seem to be based on their on-line posts. In Portland , she chose to meet with Lynsie Lee, who works at a vegan strip club. KOIN local six was there when the two met for the first time and Erin taped material for her upcoming documentary called Follow Friday The Film, due to be released september 24th, 2012.

Crew member Evans knows a lot of things. He often explained these things to us. Now, we’d like to share them with you, in a series of clips called Evans Explains. Up first: Evans Explains Alligators and Crocodiles. This took place on our trip into New Orleans (DAY 7)