You Are Not Alone #infertility & #indiefilm

If you thought this would be an essay on Michael Jackson's 90s hit, "You Are Not Alone" then you are mistaken. That HIStory album really holds up, though.

This morning I took inventory of the ONE MORE SHOT mailing list, specifically the comments our subscribers left when they signed up for updates. I am amazed, touched, honored, humbled, whatever you want to call it at the responses we've received over the last 15 months. People from all over the globe (seriously, THE WORLD!) seem to be connecting with our project and my choppily edited trailers. They've also shared news about their own trials and challenges to starting their families. It reminds me how much it takes to be willing to share one's personal stories. In some instances people are sharing these stories with us because they haven't told their family or friends. Infertility is such a personal experience and it can be devastating to hold on to and keep as a secret but many people just can't share their pain. It's really special for us to read these stories and we don't take for granted what it takes for these people to disclose them.

So that's that. Just wanted to say thank you to those who have been following along and a big hug to those who have felt a connection to this project. My hope is that you can use this film to help tell others your own story and make it part of a bigger conversation when it comes to discussing a problem that millions of people suffer with, often silently. You're not alone.

Have a good weekend,

n

Vote for Maya's blog, help get our film seen.

Hi. How was your weekend? Good time? The weather was great, wasn't it?

Any who, I wanted to say hello. We're neck deep in post production (some exciting info on this in the coming days) and are full steam ahead on finishing the rough cut of the film. Today, though, I've got some other good news to share with you. For the second year in a row, Maya's blog, Don't Count Your Eggs, has been nominated for Blog of the Year in Resolve's Hope campaign. Resolve is the biggest infertility support community around and has helped connect so many people going through the challenges of infertility and family-building. While this is not strictly news about the film, a victory here would send Maya to New York and get her rubbing shoulders with some important people in the infertility community. These important people can help get our film seen by even more people throughout the world. I'll be the first to admit I always feel uncomfortable soliciting votes or asking for money or generally trying to rally the many people who have supported us for so long to take yet another step in supporting us. But such is the life of financing and producing an independent film. So vote, feel good, and enjoy the rest of the summer. Head here to vote for Don't Count Your Eggs.

See you at the BBQ!

n

Vote ONE MORE SHOT for Indiewire's Project of the MONTH

A couple weeks back you guys did some awesome grassroots stuff and helped us pull out a come from behind victory and claim a spot as Indiewire's Project of the Week. That win is going to help us make a good connection with an online distribution company. It's a great move forward. Now we're in the running for Project of the Month. A first place finish here connects us with the good people at the TriBeCa Film Institute. That would be a huge ally for a small film like ours. So please, hit the link here and vote for our project. We're up against a documentary about a Spielberg movie so, yeah, we're the underdog. But, hey, this whole film is about underdogs and winning when the odds are against you. Let's do it again. Vote, Tell your friends, have your friends vote, then have them tell their friends. Voting is open until Friday at 8am. Here's the link again. Thanks and you're the best. We appreciate it so very much.

- noah

Vote ONE MORE SHOT for Indiewire's Project of the Week

The fine people over at Indiewire recently spotlighted us as their Project of the Day. It was great and got some much needed eyeballs on our film. Today until Monday you can vote for ONE MORE SHOT to be Project of the Week. Aside from bragging rights, a victory here would score us a great meeting regarding digital distribution. It's great because digital distribution is exactly how we'll be able to get this film seen across the world. So head HERE and vote for this project. Thanks. You're so, so cool.

Wow, that really helped.

A big thank you to everybody who contributed to the Indiegogo fundraising campaign over the last month. $37,500 may have been a bit lofty of a goal, but shouldn't all goals be lofty? We ended up with $20,000 and we're so excited. This money will allow us to pay a top notch finishing editor to bring the final edit to life. From there, we'll pull strings and call in our friends to help with the final color correction and sound mix.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Well, first we take a sigh of relief that we no longer have to run a fundraising campaign. It's a lot of work and, honestly, we'll enjoy not asking people for money every day. After that, though, it's right back into the edit. Our post team is going through scenes as quickly as possible, and dropping the choice cuts into the overall assembly. The next step is to get the entire film in a rough cut status and taking a look. For a film like this, with a couple hundred hours of original raw footage, a rough cut will still be several times the length of the final product. From there, we'll trim the rough cut into a tighter package, at which time we'll incorporate more of the interviews we did with other infertility survivors, and begin looking into a graphics package for the film.

TIMELINE

You can't rush art! Lay off! Seriously, though, this stuff takes a while. From the edit point of view, we're looking to have an assembly cut (the super long one) by mid-May. Assuming everything stays on course, the next cuts take less and less time. We'd love to have an internal locked cut (pre-color and mix) by summer. 

From time to time we'll be sending you updates on how we're doing but if you ever have any questions, please just drop us a line here or on Twitter or the Facebook page and we'll be sure to respond.

Thank you again for all your help and interest in the project.

Best,

OMS team

Life & Style shines light on our project

The folks at Life & Style Magazine have spotlighted our film in their latest issue. Check out the article here. And if you haven't checked out our Indiegogo fundraiser, you still have time. We need as much support as we can get in these final two weeks. Help us tell our story and the story of millions of other Americans.

It's on! Help us fund ONE MORE SHOT today.

It's so on! Our Indiegogo campaign has launched and we need your help to finish making our movie. We've been leading up to this for months and the day has finally come. Please head over to our Indiegogo page and give us a little love. And tell your friends. And your family. And the rest of the world. Thanks. We love you.

Click HERE.

Save the Date - @Indiegogo campaign launches March 1

Photo by Elizabeth Walker

It's official. Our Indiegogo campaign to raise post-production funds for our feature doc ONE MORE SHOT will kick off on March 1. That's a week. Get some rest. Do some stretches. Then it's on!

I'd thought about launching tomorrow. I wanted to. But then we had a team meeting today and some special people offered some pretty cool perks for the campaign and we had a couple more ideas for update videos and, well, if we're gonna do it, let's do it right. On the first. 

I'll keep reminding you of the first. March 1st. See, I did it again. I'm going to keep reminding you because I want you to feel like this is your film too. If you know Maya and I or you're going through your own tough times starting a family or you just appreciate independent film, I want you to take ownership of this project. If you contribute $10 or $10,000 I want you to do so because you want to see this film made. You want to see people tell their heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, laugh-out-loud story, a story that many people around the world share but can't always talk about. Or you want to see people take something so private and visceral and turn it into a film. Not just a youtube clip to share among friends but a damn feature film that you can download or see in a theater or at a film festival. Am I the only one jumping out of my seat right now? Let's do this! <<gets up from computer, runs out into rain screaming>>

People Get Ready - Update #22

Whether you're new here or this is your first time checking in (hello!), we've got some news for you:

In approximately one week we will be launching our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. It will go for one month. In that time we will attempt to raise enough money to pay for a professional editor, a graphics package, color correct session, and final audio mix. Every single one of these elements is vital to bringing our story to fruition. These are the stages of production that make a project professional. Maya and I have spent nearly five years of our lives trying to start our family and we've spent nearly three years working on the ONE MORE SHOT doc. Anything less than a professional finished product is, to me, unacceptable. We've come to far, gone through too much, met too many amazing people, to complete this film in an amateur way.

Over the next month I'm going to remind you, bug, ask for your help to get our project funded. This is your chance to contribute what you can, tweet and retweet, forward this site, tell your friends about these people that faced some tough odds but not only refused to give up on their dreams of having a family but they also made a movie about the whole heartbreaking, life affirming process! 

We need your help. I need your help. Let's do this. Let's make this film and get it into festivals, into homes, tablets, sides of buildings. Let's show this in LA and Seattle and Sydney and Singapore and everywhere in between. 

So, you with me? Game on.

- noah

How to relax on Dec 31

While you're picking out what to wear tonight we are getting our edit on down in the One More Shot lab. Working on one of the more emotional scenes right now. You know it's a tough one when you have to take breaks to keep you from going back to one of the lowest points in your life. Hey, have a good day!