Maderfilm Welcomes Back Actor Andrea Lee Davis for ECHOES

Maderfilm welcomes back actor Andrea Lee Davis to play Abby’s Stepmother, Marie, in our latest project ECHOES. Having worked with Andrea on the short film “Intrusion”, as well as other projects including a short piece with young ECHOES actor Cameron Crates a few years back, Director Kenneth Mader knew she would be perfect for the role, one that she’ll really be able to sink her teeth into and have some fun with.

Andrea has appeared in numerous films, her most recent being “A Doggone Hollywood” alongside another longtime friend of Maderfilm’s, Paul Logan, most notable for his film “The Horde”, and various other action features.

Andrea worked with Cuba Gooding Jr. on “What Love Is”,  and Marlee Matlin in the indie award winner “No Ordinary Hero: The Superdeafy Movie”. Also a talented musician and singer, Andrea had a recurring role as the Italian pianist on “The Bold and The Beautiful”, as well as appearing with her vocal trio, The Swing Dolls, on the popular “Gilmore Girls” episode, “We’ve Got Magic to Do”. She wrote the lyrics and vocal arrangement for the Italian song, “La Vita Italiana fa per me (The Italian Life’s For Me)”, in the Fiat 500L commercial, “Wedding”, as well as singing on the recording with her vocal trio. Recently Andrea has been studying at the Second City Conservatory in Hollywood.

We are very excited to be working with Andrea again and look forward to seeing her bring the character of Marie to life.

Meet Echoes’ Stars Cameron and Campbell Crates

Cameron and Campbell Crates

Maderfilm is excited to announce that we are back in production mode. The filming dates are scheduled, location has been locked, and Cameron and Campbell Crates will be starring in our next short film, ECHOES.

The sisters have worked with Maderfilm before in our most recent feature film Displacement and writer-director Kenneth Mader is happy to be working with them again and in a larger capacity.

Stay tuned for more updates on ECHOES.

 

Displacement & Passing Darkness Now Available in the UK!

Maderfilm has landed across the pond with both Displacement and our short film Passing Darkness streaming on Amazon Prime!

Displacement stars the UK’s very own Sarah Douglas (Ursa from the original Superman movies, and most recently Mrs. Averill in A Christmas Prince), along with The Bold and the Beautiful’s Courtney Hope, Academy Award Nominee and Golden Globe Winner Bruce Davison, Golden Globe Winner Susan Blakely, and Christopher Backus (Bosch).

Check out this cool new international poster that just launched the film online in the UK –>

To watch the movie click here:

(Coming to Germany and Japan in early 2018!)

Haven’t seen Displacement in the U.S. yet?
You can watch it here:

Or visit our website for more options.

Our award-winning short film Passing Darkness is also streaming on Amazon in the UK as well as here in the U.S. If you haven’t seen it yet now’s your chance!

Passing Darkness is about a skilled martial artist who must protect her young daughter from dark forces that threaten not just their lives, but her sanity… and learn a shocking truth on her way to redemption.

This film was instrumental in director Kenneth Mader’s journey toward making Displacement and set the bar in terms of production value. Check out the new trailer:

 

MADERFILM’S ‘DEEP FOCUS’ IS NEXT FEATURE; McDOWELL, DAVISON ATTACHED

Hot on the heels of the North American Theatrical and VOD release of its multi-award-winning sci-fi thriller Displacement, Maderfilm Productions has announced that Deep Focus will be the next feature film on its slate to go into production in 2018, with the recent attachment of legendary actor Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) and returning Displacement star Bruce Davison (X-Men).

A sophisticated dystopian supernatural thriller and cautionary tale that explores the dangers of deforestation and emerging diseases, Deep Focus follows the story of a Pulitzer Prize winning photo journalist who begins seeing images of death in her lens, which she believes may be precognitive visions of a coming biological holocaust… the same disease that killed her young daughter. Or did it?  Kenneth Mader will once again helm from his original script that won Best Screenplay honors at the AOF Written Word Awards. McDowell is attached to play enigmatic scientist Dr. Reichfeltz, with Davison to portray the role of an Anglican Priest, Father Oren.

Mader was recently named one of the “Top 100 Indie Filmmakers in the World” in the book by Action On Film’s Del Weston. Displacement took home Best Science Fiction Film honors at both the Downtown L.A. Film Festival and the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival, along with a Best Supporting Actor Award for Bruce Davison, a Chrononaut Award for Outstanding Time Travel Film in the Boston Science Fiction Festival, and was an Official Selection in the Phoenix Film Festival and USA Film Festival. It enjoyed a limited theatrical release this past summer day and date with VOD, is also available on DVD, was acquired by A+E Networks for a World Broadcast Premiere on Lifetime, curated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for their Margaret Herrick Library, and is being hailed by critics as “A clever masterpeice” and “A Brilliant Mind-Bender That Will Keep You Guessing”.

Packaging and financing for Deep Focus is currently underway, with other prominent talent, sales agents and distributors circling. More news coming soon as the project moves forward.

Interview with Kenneth Mader on the making of DISPLACEMENT

Danny Templegod from Dan’s Movie Report just interviewed Kenneth Mader on the making of DISPLACEMENT—trials, successes, stars, and more! Check out the interview below:

Greetings valued readers of Dan’s Movie Report, today we have an epic interview from the creative mind of Kenneth Mader. Mr. Mader chats in depth about Displacement, detailing the trials and triumphs of his lengthy odyssey to complete his opus to his mom. Displacement brings to light a unique creativity as rare as lunar rock, yet as accessible as a new day over the ocean. Displacement was my top pick for the 2016 year. Mader exudes talent, class, and a work ethic, that will no doubt see his status rise over the coming years. Grab a seat, sit back, relax, adjust your watch, bend time and get displaced! Kenneth Mader shall infuse wisdom and quantum theory in your brain, and a textual lashing of inverted reality, coupled with a deep knowledge of the inner workings of independent film making… 3-2-1- GO!

DMR: How long after your mom passed did you write the script for Displacement, or was it started while she was alive?

KM: I had begun noodling with notions for the script while she was alive, but it didn’t really coalesce until she passed and I decided to incorporate what happened when she got sick, which was her desire to see the ocean one last time. Unfortunately she had cancer and it progressed so quickly that my Dad and I weren’t able to fulfill that wish, so that became essentially the heart of the story, and the issue my lead character is dealing with that drives the entire narrative. It still took about three years after that of on-and-off writing to finish the script — especially after I complicated things for myself making it a looping time travel story! Then in early 2013 I jumped off the cliff to start production.

DMR: Chat about some of the limitations of filming over a few years and having only at times some weekends to shoot around scheduling of performers and crew?

KM: Yeah shooting a film piecemeal over the course of two-plus years is extremely challenging on a number of levels, not the least of which is continuity. Little things like: imagine having to keep you hair exactly the same over that extended period of time… and you have Courtney’s hair! (she was great and had an excellent stylist who was able to match it shoot-to-shoot). There was also the fear of losing Courtney to a big movie or tv show. We actually had a couple of scares like that along the way, but thankfully everything worked out. (She didn’t land on The Bold and The Beautiful until just before our release.)

Conversely there were also some benefits to the extended shooting schedule, mainly the ability to shape and improve the film as we went along. Something we captured in one scene would instruct and change things in scenes we had yet to shoot. For example, Courtney’s level of intensity entering the hotel room after experiencing the timeslip on the beach inspired a complete rewrite of that timeslip sequence, which hadn’t been shot yet. In fact in the original script it was a completely different and smaller scene that took place at the hotel vending machines. But her performance felt like we needed a stronger motivation than what was written, and I also wanted to expand the scope a bit and show what was happening in the world around her. So in this case taking so much time to get the film in the can worked to our benefit, and I believe the benefit of the movie.

Continued…

To learn more about shoot challenges, casting, future projects, and the people Ken would love to work with read the rest of the article here.

THE CHANGING FACE OF FILM DISTRIBUTION

As we roll out the final phase of releasing our film DISPLACEMENT, we have learned a lot about the changing landscape of independent film distribution.

Gone are the days of six-figure Minimum Guarantees (hell even low five-figure advances are hard to come by), large DVD rental title sales, and unless you win the lottery at Sundance with a seven-figure deal, or manage a decent broadcast TV sale (we were fortunate in this regard, not the former), it has become difficult in the current marketplace to earn your money back via a standard distribution model. It now appears incumbent upon us filmmakers to think outside the box when selling and distributing our films. And yes that means doing a lot of the work ourselves.

The main challenge we found was breaking through the noise. Even with a significant PR and social media campaign, articles in major industry trades like Variety and Indiewire, and some decent reviews, it is difficult to get eyeballs on your independent film, and even more challenging to get folks to click that ‘watch’ or ‘buy’ button.

The upside to this DIY approach is that you retain your rights, your revenue share, and control the way your film gets released into the world. The challenge is you do not have a distributor and their marketing muscle pushing it out there. That is up to you.

In our case, we ended up releasing DISPLACEMENT in a kind of backwards paradigm; on television first, mainly because we received an offer from A+E Networks at the beginning of our release window that we couldn’t refuse, then fought hard and won the right to do a limited theatrical release after their exclusive broadcast window closed, and put the film in theatres day-and-date with our VOD release, followed by DVD (both available now here). All of this was handled via our sales agent and through our own distribution banner, so we avoided the high cost of a distributor and their fees and expenses. We merely pay a modest commission to the sales agent, and the remaining revenue flows directly to us. As a result, we are now hatching plans to bring our content even more directly to our audience. More on that soon.

Daniel Craig, left, and Dwight Yoakam star in “Logan Lucky,” which is scheduled to open Aug. 18. Credit Fingerprint Releasing/Bleecker Street

This is all similar, albeit on a smaller scale, to what Steven Soderbergh has done with his latest film LOGAN LUCKY. Check out the NY Times article on that here.

If you want to learn more about our distribution experience and how we might be able to help you navigate those shark infested waters, click here.

Happy Birthday, Displacement

We started the journey to Displacement 4 years ago today.  It was a rare, rainy and cold day in the LA area, but that didn’t stop us from moving ahead.  We spent the day inside Wiznu Studio filming some of the most critical scenes of Cassie (Courtney Hope) and Dr. Miles (Sarah Douglas) in The Initiative.

What a journey it’s been since then!  It may have taken over 2 years to film, but it took us no time at all to get Displacement into some film festivals, including the Downtown LA Film Festival, the Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival, the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival, the Phoenix Film Festival, and the USA Film Festival.  We were honored with awards such as Best Science Fiction Film and Best Supporting Actor for Bruce Davison.

We rounded out our luck in 2016 with a deal that put Displacement on the Lifetime Movie Network and in homes across the US.  We also got an international distribution deal so we can be seen all over the world, with more deals to announce very soon.

We want to thank all of our cast and crew and and partners for all their hard work and dedication and support over the last 4 years!  Thank you for making Displacement possible!

And thank you to our fans!  We can’t wait for you to see what is next.

Onward and upward!

Congrats, Courtney!

See a familiar face on TV lately?  Yes, that is Courtney Hope staring as Sally Spectra on the Bold and the Beautiful. Since her start on the show in late January we have seen her have a food fight, her face smashed in cake, and it looks like she filmed a few scenes down under in Sydney. Congratulations, Courtney!  We can’t wait to see more!

 

‘DISPLACEMENT’ TO SCREEN IN THE DOWNTOWN L.A. FILM FEST

Mark your calendars, our award-winning film is in another festival! Back at the Regal Cinemas LA Live in downtown Los Angeles, Displacement will be screening at 10:00pm on Friday, September 23rd. Get your tickets here:  http://dtlaff.chillhound.pro/event/a9a59793-6542-4925-9273-446019187f40

And stay tuned for a really big announcement about to drop very soon…

MADERFILM ANNOUNCES NEXT FEATURE AFTER ‘DISPLACEMENT’

Hot on the heels of the North American theatrical and VOD release of its multi-award-winning sci-fi thriller Displacement, Maderfilm Productions has announced that Deep Focus will be the next feature film on its slate to go into production in 2018, with the recent attachment of legendary actor Malcolm McDowell and returning Displacement star Bruce Davison.

A sophisticated dystopian supernatural thriller and cautionary tale that explores the dangers of deforestation and emerging diseases, Deep Focus follows the story of a Pulitzer Prize winning photo journalist who begins seeing images of death in her lens, which she believes may be precognitive visions of a coming biological holocaust… the same disease that killed her young daughter. Or did it?  Kenneth Mader will once again helm from his original script that won Best Screenplay honors at the AOF Written Word Awards. McDowell is attached to play enigmatic scientist Dr. Reichfeltz, while Davison will take on the role of an Anglican Priest, Father Oren.

Mader was recently named one of the “Top 100 Indie Filmmakers in the World” in the book by Action On Film’s Del Weston. Displacement took home Best Science Fiction Film honors at both the Downtown L.A. Film Festival and the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival, along with a Best Supporting Actor Award for Bruce Davison, a Chrononaut Award for Outstanding Time Travel Film in the Boston Science Fiction Festival, and was an Official Selection in the Phoenix Film Festival and USA Film Festival.  It was acquired by A+E Networks for a World Broadcast Premiere, was curated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for their Margaret Herrick Library, and is being hailed by critics as “A clever masterpeice” and “A Brilliant Mind-Bender That Will Keep You Guessing”.

Packaging and financing for Deep Focus is currently underway, with other prominent talent, sales agents and distributors circling. More news coming soon as the project moves forward.