With editing near completion — including closed captioning, color correction and sound — producers of “Tarnished Notes,” a movie filmed in Sampson County and based on a murder that happened here in 1984, say release of trailers for the film are now just days, if not hours, away from launch.
In fact, a short trailer teasing the movie was to go live on the Tarnished Notes Facebook page Tuesday morning, with a longer, full-length trailer to go live with the launch of the film’s website, www.tarnishednotes.net, later this weekend.
“We are so excited about these trailers,” said co-producer Sherry Matthews, publisher of The Sampson Independent and author of the book on which the movie was based. “They look great, and their completion means we are that much closer to a completed project, one we are expecting to take to market in the next few weeks.”
To market means the film’s line producer, Monty Hobbs, also a Sampson County native, will soon be heading to LA and possibly New York to broker the film, showing the trailers and pitching its sale to dozens of companies, all in hopes of landing a deal that will have it on air in the not-so-distant future.
“It’s been a long, magical journey,” Matthews acknowledged. “Being new to the film business, I thought once we wrapped filming last fall, it would be no time before we were ready to go to market. Little did I know.”
The film, she said, went through 15 edits before reaching what is termed in the business as “picture lock,” meaning no more tweaks, or movement of scenes is allowed to the film so that final sound and color correction can then be complete.
“I have to applaud our editor, Ryan Risley who has done an amazing job of putting this film together in a way that tells an interesting story about the human condition and what happens to people when emotions escalate. What we began with, in Version 1 is far different from the completed project in Version 15. I cannot wait for people to see this and judge for themselves,” Matthews noted.
Risley, creative director of Digital Garden Media in Wilmington, has worked diligently with Matthews, director and executive producer Mitchell Maxwell, to take the over 70 scenes in the movie and develop a story that draws viewers in and keeps them hanging.
The movie is based loosely on Matthews’ book, a fiction based on fact novel which follows the life, and eventual death, of a local minister of music, who’s demise was plotted by his wife and their lover. The movie centers more around the minister of music’s wife and the love-triangle that turned deadly.
“It is an intriguing story, and one I honestly believe needed to be told,” Matthews said. Her book, which likely will take the same name as the film, is expected to be released around the same time as the movie.
“I’m finishing the final edits to the book now. The plan is to arrange it such that the movie and book come out about the same time so one promotes the other, attracting an even larger audience.”
Release of the trailers has been long-awaited, both by Matthews and a growing following for the movie.
“I cannot begin to thank people enough for their interest in both the movie and the book,” Matthews stressed. “This all remains unreal to me, but with the release of the trailers, reality is beginning to sink in. I cannot wait for Monty to be able to broker the film in LA. He will do an amazing job. He believes in this project so much and he is chomping at the bit to get out there and sell it.”
Hobbs, as line producer, had the daunting task of pulling the film’s crew together and ensuring that everything went off without a hitch, on time and on budget. All that happened, leading Maxwell and other executive producer Lou Aronica, owners of Story Plant Media, which is presenting the film, to designate Hobbs as the broker for the film.
“Everyone has complete confidence in Monty’s ability to get this movie sold. I wouldn’t want anyone else in charge of doing this,” Matthews attested.
The film, featuring many Sampson County residents and locales, was completed in 18 days and stars Cari Moskow, Elijah Chester and Ryan Joyner.