The BIG screen…

Our film in lights!

Last night we screened Dark of Winter in it’s newest cut just south of downtown Pittsburgh at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont.  The turnout was good and we got some great feedback from the audience members at the Q&A that followed.

More importantly (for me, anyway), it was the first time that I got to watch the entire film put together since the last cut (I don’t recommend doing this).  The closest I came was a couple of days prior, when I was still making changes and waiting to grab a close up shot of a gun that Executive Producer Andrew C. Schwabe owns.  Just to note: Andrew also suggested a close up shot of a watch that would solve a transition problem that we were having.  I got the shot and cut it into the film somewhere around 12:30 AM the day of the premiere (I don’t recommend doing this, either).

Anyway, despite my nerves (which were in overdrive for some odd reason) I thought the film came together nicely.  It’s an entirely different animal now.  Still ambiguous?  Yes.  Still odd?  Definitely.  Still a mindf–k of a mystery?  Wouldn’t have it any other way.

What we did add was more information hinting at how much further that entire thing can go.  The biggest problem with the earlier, original cut of the film was that it was too easy to dismiss everything that happens as a result of insanity.  Which is fine, if that’s all that you want to bring to the table.  But that’s also boring as shit and too easy.  Dark of Winter can be many things, but it shouldn’t be easy.

It was great, as always, to see the film in a theater.  It was nerve wracking to see it in a theater with a paying audience.  But we had some fantastic comments and theories given to us at the end of the screening, so I know that we did alright with our crazy little psychological horror thriller.