Recently, I was able to ask
Searching for Sonny's editor extraordinaire, Sam Parnell, a few questions about the status of the film.
Now that it's been submitted to the Sundance Film Festival, I asked him what's next. He told me that in addition to sending it out to other festivals, they still need to get the picture "locked," and then sent out for color grading, scoring, sound mixing. I was surprised to hear that they could submit the film to Sundance in unfinished form, so I asked him about that. He replied that it's perfectly acceptable to submit an unfinished film. They just needed to preface that fact in the notes that accompanied the entry. In this case they specified that it was a rough cut with temp music and no audio mixing or color correction. That gives them the next 2-3 months to finish all that, and then if it's accepted, they can send in the final version at that time.
Looking at the Sundance submission form, it wasn't clear to me how many films are actually accepted for the festival. Sam told me that it's close to two hundred. I was surprised to hear that the number is that high, but that certainly bodes well for our little film.
Since he had mentioned that they were still working with temp music, I took the opportunity to ask about the music selection process. I wondered if it was a matter of securing the licensing to use the music they wanted or if they still have choices to make in that regard. I recalled that during my visit in May, one of the producers told me that the song used in the original trailer couldn't be used any longer because of licensing issues. I asked if there are backup choices in case they hit a snag with securing the rights along the way. Sam responded that they have a music supervisor who is trying to secure rights to certain tracks that they want. Also, it's his job to locate "other random ones" that they
could get rights to if they so chose. These will be presented to Andrew Disney who will make the ultimate decision on what musical selections are used in the final product.
I love those guys...
This is not generally the type of story that I'd post here, or one that would get my attention at all for that matter, but yesterday Minka Kelly was named the "Sexiest Woman Alive" by Esquire Magazine. 
I can't wait to see what this turn of events does for the film's MOVIEmeter rating on IMDb next week. 
