More on Motivational Growth... and the surreality that is my life.

So... a while back I posted one of my lazy "Hey, here are some movie trailers to movies that look interesting because I can't be bothered to actually post anything today..." posts.

That post included the teaser Trailer for a movie called "Motivational Growth". At the time I wrote this about the preview:

"This just looks insane. I mean, there's a talking pile of foul looking mold... and someone obviously having some sort of existential crisis, and then reality blends with whatever messed up crap is going on here and... well I just want to be a part of whatever this is going to end up being."

Wow.. That's quite the write up.

And I still stand by that. In the same post I mentioned Quentin Dupieux's new film "Wrong" and honestly, watching the trailer for Motivational Growth, I see some of the same weird abstract storytelling at play, with some obvious body horror influences. Movies like "Jon Dies at the End" and "Detention" come to mind, or even Charlie Kaufman films like "Adaptation" or "Being John Malkovich". I'm wondering if the future of horror... or movies in general... are going to be more and more surreal stories that try to take the movie-viewer out of their comfort zone (I know it's horror, which is all about not being comfortable... but traditional horror movies can be a sort of worn-smooth comfy spot for horror fans expecting a certain "kind" of movie) by turning traditional story-telling conceits completely on their ear.

But what about the three-act formaaaaaaaat!!!!!????

Well... yeah. Anyway... I posted those youtube videos without giving them another thought and went on with my life.

That was on February 10th. Since then I've posted some other stuff. I've gone out for Valentine's day to see one of the other movies in that post (Silver Linings Playlist) and I spent my vacation off from work catching up on some other Netflix viewing. I had a payday Friday visit to Goodwill and I've participated in a couple of  League of Extraordinary Blogger posts. My life just sort of... went on.

And then on February 20th I was contacted by e-mail by Don Thacker, founder and director of Imagos Films... and the writer and director of "Motivational Growth".

And I was like: "Huh. I do not believe anyone who has written and directed a film watched by more than 3 people has ever contacted me via hotmail before."

Me. Totally normal, just checking my hotmail.
"Don Thacker? Huh. Cool."

He told me that he'd noticed my sharing the preview on my blog and that he wanted to reach out to me with more promotional information about the film. He showered me with informational links about the film, including one leading to the IMDb page and the one that leads to the Motivational Growth official website. He also mentioned that the film won the Boston Science Fiction Festival's "Gort Award" for Best of Fest.

That's... actually pretty awesome. 

And for good measure he threw in a link to the official poster for the film:

There was also a link for Vimeo containing a different trailer for the movie and an interesting treatise on the subject of "panic". I also learned that the type of mold featured in the film is Aspergillus which according to wikipedia is not known for it's powers of speech... but can cause all kinds of horrific invasions of the human body. 

Don't know who they cast as the mold but he's going full Stanislavski method here.  

Now, with all this being said and shared. I should tell you all that I was extremely flattered by Mr. Thacker's interest in my blog, and the fact that he took the time to contact me and give me the information he did. He's really taking the time to promote his film by hitting the (figurative) bricks and knock on (metaphorical) doors to contact folks showing interest in this venture. 

I was not offered any kind of financial incentive to help Don promote his movie. I was happy to do it because I genuinely think the movie looks great and I cannot wait to see it. I did let him know that there was no guarantee that I would be writing a favorable review for his film after I'd seen it (believe me, this blog has defined the box-office takes of many a film project with only a few deft words so... I can't even finish this ridiculous sentence) but that I was looking forward to seeing it whenever I was able to. He remained unfazed by this information... as he should.

So that was something that happened to me once. I posted a youtube preview of a movie I wanted to see... and the writer and director e-mailed me and contacted me due to my interest in his film. I found it surreal, and less a bit of proof that this blog is anything more than what it is... and more just that the internet is a big, weird place, and full of people doing fun things and working their asses off... and that I should never take that for granted. Also don't tell people you want to be a part of something amazing-looking unless you mean it, because the people responsible may contact you and give you information on how to help promote it. 

Thanks for your e-mail Don! Can't wait to see Motivational Growth at some point! It looks like a total mind-f**k!

That's it for today guys! I'll be back real soon with more Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!