Dry Rain on Vimeo

Dry Rain has made the rounds around the United States and Europe. Finally, it is up on the web to check out. You can find it here on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/23054691

Dry Rain from Matthew J. Clark on Vimeo.

Dry Rain in Spokane!

Dry Rain is headed to Spokane to screen at the Spokane International Film Festival. This is an exciting screening, not only because we have a great time slot, but because we have so many friends in Spokane. We're expecting a good turn out. So hopefully we see you there.

We are planning a get together after the screening to enjoy a drink and catch up with everyone. We'll let you know when that will be ASAP.

See you in Spokane on Friday, Feb. 13th at 6pm at the AMC Theater in River Park Square in Downtown Spokane.

Dry Rain in Missoula

Nathan Gamble & writer Pete Fromm ham it up for the camera on the last day of shooting in Helmville, Montana.

We're in Missoula for the local premier of Dry Rain. We'll be screening at the Wilma Theater tonight. What a cool old theater to screen our film in. It is a place that holds lots of memories for me. I've lived in Missoula on and off over the years, my father grew up here and my Aunts and Uncles and cousins populate the town. Seems like around every corner I run into family or friends. Being in Missoula is special.

One interesting fact (or urban legend) is that famous film director David Lynch use to live in the Wilma when he was a boy. The apartments upstairs above cinema have always been interesting and weird. Seems perfect that Lynch lived there! His family later moved to Spokane and then out to the coast. Clearly living in such interesting places had an influence on the work Lynch would later create. In Twin Peaks, he makes several references to his former home in Montana. Then there is Inland Empire that combines many of his experiences, too.

A big highlight for Dry Rain is that we'll be on Montana Public Radio tonight. Producer William Marcus interviewed me and Pete Fromm last week for the story. If you don't live in Montana, you can check it out on KUFM's website. They'll have it in their library on-line for awhile, too.

The event tonight is apart of the Montana Festival of the Book. We're lucky to land in the prime spot of a Friday night at 7:30. We couldn't ask for a better spot. We're excited. We'll have pictures and thoughts posted here later this weekend.


James Le Gros, as Stil, and Nathan Gamble, as Joey, examine the road tar, pressing it into a little volcano during the 5th day of shooting Dry Rain.

Reviews in the Local Papers

Back on Labor Day weekend, Dry Rain played at the One Reel Festival at Bumbershoot. We owe a big thank you to Beth Barrett at SIFF for taking Dry Rain in as one of the films on the schedule. I was out of town that weekend so wasn't able to attend. Luckily, we did get some nice reviews from a couple of the local papers.

The Seattle Weekly was very kind. They draw comparisons to Dry Rain and the work of Terrance Malick. We certainly looked at Malick's work and adopted a similar asthetic. It is interesting that someone saw that influence. Here's what they said: "Matthew Clark’s sparse, effective Dry Rain suggests Terrence Malick with a sense of humor, as a messy custody battle finds perennial hard-luck case James Le Gros and his (rather smarter) son dithering at the Canadian border. It could be a scene from a longer feature."

The Seattle Times had this to say: "Filmed in Montana, it features character actor James LeGros as a melancholy father who reluctantly returns his son to his mother's legal custody. It's one of the most professional films in the festival, but it begs for feature-length expansion."

One thing that comes from the newspaper comments is they both elude to Dry Rain being a longer film possibly being a feature. I have to admit, I never gave much thought to that option. I always felt that Pete Fromm captured a nice snapshot of the moment with plenty to think about that is never scene or told in the story directly, but, the story in Dry Rain is compelling and it could be an interesting exploration in longer form seeing how the two come to be in their current predicament. I'll have to think about that one!

The First Gig Harbor Film Festival

On September 13th, Dry Rain played at the first Gig Harbor Film Festival. We were honored to be selected to play at the festival in a group of really great shorts. The collection of shorts, curated by Amy Dee and Beth Barrett of the Seattle Film Festival, were created by Seattle filmmakers including Dan Brown (Pierre) , John Hilde (Hello), Sean Pecknold (The Strange Hunger) , Mike Standish and Thom Harp (Fortune Hunters), and Douglas Horn (Full Disclosure).

Interestingly enough, Hello, Pierre and Dry Rain were all past winners of the IFP Spotlight Award and Full Disclosure and Fortune Hunters were finalists that didn't win, but went on to make their picture anyway. Just goes to show you that the award actually helps get things made and motivates people to create their film.

You got to check out Sean Pecknold's work. He has done a few videos for the up and coming band Fleet Foxes. The Strange Hunger is a cool animated short. Hopefully I'll be able to work with Sean one of these days. Sean's company is called Grandchildren.

Pierre was a fun film. Dan Brown asked me to shoot that film for him ages ago, it seems. It got good reviews and won the Golden Space Needle Award at the Seattle International Film Festival last year. You can see the film here on the South By Southwest site. Dan won an award there too.

A big thank you goes to the Gig Harbor Film Festival and especially Paula Lillard for putting so much hard work into getting it off the ground for the first year. Nice job Paula!

Palm Springs Baby

Before leaving L.A. for Palm Springs, we made an out of the way stop to the Getty Museum in the Santa Monica hills. It was a great place to wonder around and take in the beautiful landscape, the interesting architecture and an amazing installation of photography from a turn of the century photographer and a mid-century husband and wife photography team. Both collections were inspiring. For me, when I go to a museum with such a huge offering of art, photography and sculpture, I find that I have to focus in on one collection or installation so I don't get over stimulated or burned out on way too much work. Taking in just the photography was perfect.

From the Getty, we rolled down the 10 to Palm Springs. The smog of L.A. gave way to sunny blue skies and puffy clouds just outside of Palm Springs. With the clear skies came the blistering heat. We didn't even get the brunt of it, but I think it was near 105 degrees F! So hot that even with a convertible, you wanted the top up so you could blast the cool air from the AC.

We immediately got checked into our hotel room and got settled. From there, we went to the festival headquarters and got our pass and got the lay of the land. Immediately, we felt welcomed by the staff. There were so many volunteers running around attending to the details. Clearly, this festival had their act together. We made an early night of it and sacked out early. We had big plans ahead of us: poolside lounging, screening films, seminars and more pool time.

Here's the funny thing, it is so hot in Palm Springs that if you want to hang out at the pool, you almost have to be in the water. The water is refreshing, but even it seems a little warm. And no, it wasn't a kitty pool, so not much peeing in the pool. It is basically super hot in Palm Springs and being there in the summer is kind of crazy.

Regardless of the heat, the hospitality and the organization at the Palm Springs ShortsFest was great. We got a chance to meet the curator of the festival, Kathleen McInnis. She was super supportive and very enthusiastic about having Dry Rain in the festival. Luckily, she was also the person moderating the Q & A after the screening, so we had some very good questions to ponder and try to answer.

Q & A's can be a funny thing. You don't know what kind of questions you'll get and then once you're up there, you just hope that you get some questions. In Palm Springs, we had a doozie. This one lady had nothing but negative things to say about all the films. Of the two of us up for the Q & A, she just bombed on both of us. It was actually a funny thing. Kathleen did a great job wrangling her and steering her away and letting other people chime in, but dang, I thought she was going to go for awhile tearing up our films.

Our time in Palm Springs culminated with a great drive up into the mountains for a nice sunset followed up by a party thrown by local sponsors and the film festival. It was a fun gathering with lots of networking going on of course. If any one ever asks about the Palm Springs ShortsFest, I encourage them to submit their work and attend. It was a great experience.

Oh, and lastly, we got invited to the Rhode Island Film Fest while we were there. I should clarify, we got invited to submit. So, hopefully another festival to screen our Film at and share it with a whole new group.

L.A. Shorts Festival - In Person!

Editor Lee Gardner and me just after the screening.

We made the trek down to L.A. for the Dry Rain screening at the L.A. Shorts Fest. It was a perfect opportunity to see some good friends, take in L.A. and see what the festival was all about. We flew in the same day as the screening. We used our mileage plan miles to get cheap tickets, but less than perfect schedule. We flew out of Seattle at 7am. The early wake up and run to the airport hurt, but it was good to be in town early so we weren't rushed.

from R - L: Brittany, Elisa & Jordan with me on the end.

It seems to always take a little time to get accustom to the L.A. scene. I always notice it first when I get behind the wheel. The traffic moves fast, there is always congestion and then there's the hunt to find the fastest route to your destination. Arterial or Highway? Christine and I had fun with that and it was even more California with our free upgraded car: A convertible! Now we were ready to roll in style.
Elise with the thumbs up!

I think for us, the best thing about the screening in L.A. was to see old friends. We stayed with former Seattlites Jordan & Elisa Parhad. Jordan and I use to work together in Seattle. Last year, he and Elisa bolted for L.A. to take advantage of the booming film production market and nearly infinite opportunity for Elise. They were great hosts, showing us the sights, hosting a BBQ in their backyard and just all around good company. We also got to see Lee Gardner, editor of Dry Rain. It is always good to see Lee. My old friend from film school days, Hilly Hicks was in attendance. He and I haven't seen each other since we were roommates in NYC back in '92. So it was god to see him! Other good friends we hadn't seen in awhile were Doug and Jessica Cheney. Doug and Jessica got to know each other when Doug and I worked together. Doug is an inspiring Director/DP. Brittany Klaus was there as well. She joined us in Montana earlier this year for a fun bike trip.
Brittany & Me after the show.

Good thing we brought as many of our friends as we did. Between the late screening time (9:30pm) and the mid week position in the schedule (Wednesday) we didn't have best turn out. On top of that, the festival didn't really seem to be that supportive either. I'm not sure what was up, but we felt a little detached from the whole experience. The post screening Q & A was pretty weak. Thank goodness we found a good spot to have a beer afterward. Our little group had a good conversation about the group of films we saw and I was able to get some good feedback from everyone. The whole night was made just with the good company.
Hilly HIcks gives Dry Rain two, count 'em two thumbs up!

The remainder of our time in L.A. was spent kicking around at museums and hanging out with Jordan, Elisa, Brittany and Hilly. It was great just hanging out and having a relaxing time.
Jordan after the show with the thumbs up!

Saturday, we rolled out for Palm Springs for the next stop on the Dry Rain Tour.