Our T-Shirts Are Going on Sale!

Jordan Estes, our lead actor, and Lindsey Lee, his real-life leading lady, model our Oh Crappy Day t-shirts.

Of all the incentives we offered as part of our crowdfunding campaign, the most popular is a t-shirt emblazoned with the Oh Crappy Day logo and tagline.

This shirt has proven so popular, in fact, that we’ve decided to make it available for purchase — for a limited time!

The sale begins Thursday, August 20. That evening, during our OCD Live! show on Facebook, we’ll tell you how you can order your very own OCD shirt. The show will start at 8 PM (EDT) on our Oh Crappy Day page.

The t-shirt is 100% cotton, in a soft bella blend. It comes in two styles: black printing on gray fabric and cream-colored printing on navy blue.

We’ll be donating a portion of each sale to the International OCD Foundation, which works to help those affected by obsessive-compulsive disorder. Like this wonderful organization, we want to raise awareness of OCD and fight the stigma associated with it.

Please share the news about our sale with your friends and family. Our t-shirts will be available for purchase until Friday, September 4.

A Most Productive Summer

Although the pandemic has kept us close to home, we've stayed pretty busy this summer. In our efforts to gain a distribution deal for Oh Crappy Day,we've accomplished the following:

• We've completed the trailer for the movie.

• We've created a pitch deck (an illustrated PDF presentation) for potential distributors and sales agents.

• We've created an electronic press kit (EPK) for film festivals.

• We've entered Oh Crappy Day in more than 20 international festivals, ranging from Los Angeles and Calgary to London and Dublin. 

• We've continued hosting the Facebook show that we launched as part of our crowdfunding campaign: OCD Live!

Along with all that, we have one more thing up our sleeves — a piece of news we'll be sharing in a day or so. Stay tuned!

A First for Dagtype Films

We just made our first magazine cover!

The May issue of Hayes Barton Living features Lance, Ruth, and Steve at one of our recent crowdfunding events. The cover story, “Men on a Mission,” details our successful Seed&Spark campaign, as well as our evolving distribution strategy.

We thank Angie Williams, the publisher of Hayes Barton Living, for putting us in the spotlight. As we start the process of seeking distribution, we’re determined to make our Raleigh community proud!

Success!

Our crowdfunding campaign on Seed&Spark ended successfully today! After getting the green light yesterday morning, we raised another $1,000, bringing us to a grand total of $25,181.

This has certainly been an unusual campaign. Since we launched on February 18, we’ve dealt with a snowstorm, a death in the family, and, of course, a pandemic. We had to cancel four of our public events, but we never gave up — and neither did our supporters!

In spite of the global health crisis, they showed how much they believed in our film and our mission: raising OCD awareness by bringing Oh Crappy Day to the widest possible audience. For everyone who contributed to our campaign, or helped us spread the word, we feel a deep sense of gratitude.

Note: For those of you who chose to receive incentives, we'll be getting to work on them as soon as possible. Because of health concerns, you'll receive your digital incentives before any items that need to be mailed physically. We'll keep you updated!

We Got the Green Light!

We are thrilled to announce that we've reached 80% of our crowdfunding goal on Seed&Spark. That means we’ve received the green light, and we get to keep all the funds we’ve raised!

We want to thank everyone who has contributed, or spread the word about our campaign, especially at this troubling time. Despite the global health crisis, our supporters have shown they believe in our mission: raising OCD awareness by bringing our film to the widest possible audience.

Our campaign remains active until 10:19 EDT on Thursday morning, March 19. If you haven’t already, please consider contributing. We appreciate your support!

Events Canceled

Due to health concerns about the transmission of the coronavirus, we have canceled all public events related to our crowdfunding campaign.

The campaign itself will continue — staying live on Seed&Spark until midnight, March 18.

Also, we will continue with our live chats on our “Oh Crappy Day” Facebook page, every evening at 8:30 EDT, from now until the end of the campaign.

We’re disappointed, of course, but the health of our friends and supporters is first and foremost.

Stay healthy!

Lance & Steve

Gaining Momentum

During our cocktail party at Clockwork, Steve gives an interview to Spectrum News.

Over the past week, our crowdfunding campaign has generated an amazing amount of media coverage!

First, an article on Oh Crappy Day appeared in the March issue of Raleigh Magazine. Then, interviews with Lance and Steve aired as episodes of the Slate & Lens podcast, which focuses on indie filmmaking in the South.

Finally, on March 4, Spectrum News North Carolina covered our cocktail party at Clockwork in downtown Raleigh. The report aired several times over the next day, and our repost on Facebook reached more than a thousand people!

Thanks to all this coverage -- as well as the generosity of everyone attending our events -- we've passed the $10,000 mark in our campaign!

Our next event, called "Celebrating Awareness of OCD," is set for Thursday, March 12, from 6 to 8 PM. We'll be at Imurj, an arts space located at 300 S. McDowell Street in downtown Raleigh. OCD experts Dr. Jeffrey Sapyta and Dr. Annette Perot will be on hand, along with singer-songwriter Chris Hendricks, who'll perform original music from the film.

The event is free and open to the public. To register, click here.

As always, we appreciate any contribution you wish to make. Our campaign ends at midnight on March 18.
 

A Big Week... Despite the Snow

At Alamo Drafthouse, Steven P. Neilson, Ned Phillips, and Duane Therriault watch Oh Crappy Day to assess sound levels.

We thought this would be a big week for Oh Crappy Day, and, boy, were we right!

• Tuesday morning, we launched our crowdfunding campaign. By the end of the day, we had already raised $1,400. We thank everyone who made this possible!

• On Wednesday, we completed color balancing at Trailblazer Studios. We're pleased to say that Oh Crappy Day looks gorgeous!

• On Thursday, a snowstorm forced us to postpone our crowdfunding launch party at Imurj in downtown Raleigh, but we still reached 7% of our crowdfunding goal. (We'll announce the new date for the party very soon, so keep an eye on our Events page.)

• Friday morning, we saw Oh Crappy Day on the big screen for the first time. During our final audio session, we watched the feature in one of the theaters at Alamo Drafthouse in Raleigh -- and it sounds amazing!

From this point forward, we'll be preparing Oh Crappy Day for submission to major film festivals. Our crowdfunding campaign will help us navigate the festival circuit and, hopefully, find a distributor!

We're Live!

Jonathan Okafo and Jess Barbour complete her portion of the crowdfunding video.

This morning, we launched our crowdfunding campaign on Seed&Spark! The campaign will run 30 days, and our goal is $30,000.

On our campaign page, we share the story of our journey from film short to feature film, our big plans for the feature, and ways people can help us achieve those plans — along with some fun and exciting perks!

We also have a video created by our still photographer, Jonathan Okafo, featuring Lance, Steve, Jess Barbour, and Jordan Estes. The video includes footage from the movie, so everyone can take a sneak peek!

Building a Baby Bump

One of the characters in Oh Crappy Day is a pregnant waitress named Renee. The actress who played this part, Rachel Marie Howell, wasn’t really pregnant — but people who’ve watched her scene (during post-production) have repeatedly asked whether she was.

That’s a great testament to the skill and creativity of our wardrobe supervisor, Ruth Bryan. She created the pregnancy suit for Rachel, along with a waitress outfit that’s straining at the seams.

Ruth has a lot of experience designing and sewing costumes, having worked for the North Carolina Opera and other theatrical groups. What’s more, she’s extremely meticulous: she wanted to know how many months along Renee was, so she could add or remove the exact right amount of stuffing.

When you design clothing for a film production, you have to do more than make the clothes fit the performers; you have to make them fit the characters. And Ruth did that beautifully!

Join Us in a Toast!

On Wednesday, March 4, we’ll be celebrating Oh Crappy Day at one of the hottest nightspots in Raleigh — and you’re invited!

Clockwork, located at 519 W. North Street, is the perfect place to discuss a romantic comedy like ours — the kind of place where our main character, Jared, might meet a date. Come and have a cocktail, and we’ll tell you the story of his life!

The event, which is free and open to the public, will run from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. To register for tickets, visit our Eventbrite page.

Meet the Filmmakers… At One of Our Key Locations!

During pre-production, Ned Phillips contemplates a camera setup at Third Place Coffee House.

This graphic rendering of Third Place — created by Duane Therriault, our second assistant director — helped us envision the scene and position all the background performers.

On Saturday, February 29, we’ll be hosting a Meet & Greet at Third Place Coffee House, near downtown Raleigh.

Third Place served as one of our filming locations, back in Spring 2019, and we’re thrilled to be returning. From 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, we’ll be discussing the progress we’ve made with Oh Crappy Day and sharing our plans for the future. (Spoiler alert: those plans are pretty big.)

The event is free and open to the public. Several members of our production team will be there, including Jon Lance Bacon, the writer-director; Steven P. Neilson, the executive producer; and Ned Phillips, the director of photography.

Come and join us at Third Place, located at 1811 Glenwood Avenue. Get something to eat and drink, then get the scoop on indie filmmaking!

The "Films" Within Our Film

A while back, we wrote about the “movie star” photos that we created to dress one of our film locations. With the help of our still photographer, Jonathan Okafo, we were able to replicate the look of Hollywood headshots from the silent era to the early 1960s.

Jonathan’s photos weren’t the only graphic elements we created for set dressing. We had another location, a booth in a local antique mall, that needed to be filled with entertainment memorabilia. Unfortunately, we couldn’t use the items already there; as with photos of actual movie stars, the process of gaining permission would have been costly and time-consuming.

So we went ahead and created our own memorabilia — in this case, lobby cards. These were movie posters on a small scale, 11 x 14 inches, displayed in the lobbies of theaters. Though rarely used anymore, they’ve become highly prized collectibles.

During pre-production, we determined that we needed three lobby cards, each advertising a different fictitious movie. One was mentioned specifically in the Oh Crappy Day screenplay: a film noir called Touch of Danger, released in 1947. The other two required some brainstorming, to make sure the cards would jibe with the story and the overall spirit of our film. Eventually, we decided on And So It Spreads, a British horror movie from 1970, and Hands Across Wyoming, a singing-cowboy western from 1942.

In designing the cards, we worked diligently to make them look as authentic as possible. We used historically correct fonts, and we manipulated photos to give them the proper period “feel.” We even created a painting to mimic the artwork on film noir posters.

We’re happy to say that our diligence paid off. Because of all the work that went into set dressing, the world of Oh Crappy Day looks like just the kind of place that our main character would call home. Jared, after all, is a film student and aspiring filmmaker. His world would hardly be complete without some film posters — even imaginary ones!

You're Invited… to Our Crowdfunding Launch Party!

On Thursday, February 20, we’ll be hosting a party to launch our Seed&Spark crowdfunding campaign for the Oh Crappy Day feature.

At this free public event, you’ll get to meet the cast and crew members who brought Oh Crappy Day to life. The party will run from 7 to 9 PM at Imurj, an art space located at 300 South McDowell Street in Raleigh, North Carolina.

You can buy a drink, chat with our production team, discuss North Carolina filmmaking, and ask questions about the crowdfunding campaign. There won’t be any pressure to contribute, although we appreciate every dollar that helps us connect our romantic comedy with our target audience.

For more information, please visit our Eventbrite page. We look forward to seeing you on February 20 — and sharing the Oh Crappy Day experience!

Photo by Jonathan Okafo. Copyright © 2020 Dagtype Films, LLC.

Something to Sing About!

Our music team just completed the score for Oh Crappy Day, taking us into the final stages of post-production!

We couldn’t be more delighted with our team: Trevor Bumgarner, Andre DiMuzio, and Chris Hendricks. Working on a very tight timeline, they created a sophisticated score that enhances both the comic and the dramatic moments in our story. Their music blends a wide range of styles, syncs perfectly with the actions onscreen, and subtly conveys the emotions of our characters.

The score includes an original song, “My Mama Said,” with lyrics by our writer-director, Jon Lance Bacon. Our team recorded two versions of the song: one performed by Chris, the other by Jeremy Jones, a multitalented singer, songwriter, string player, and producer, based in Los Angeles.

With all the music tracks in place, we’re now shifting our focus to sound mixing and color balancing. The first means combining music with audio recorded on set — along with any sound effects. The second means refining the overall “look” of the film, by adjusting color, contrast, and other visual elements. Trailblazer Studios in Raleigh, North Carolina, will help with both.

We’re starting 2020 in a big way, thanks to Trevor, Andre, Chris, Jeremy, and the other musicians who lent their talents to our film!

In the uppermost photo, Jeremy Jones plays violin on one of the tracks for the Oh Crappy Day score. Justin Lepard (above left) performs on the cello, while Jonathan Wiseman (above right) plays the trumpet, and Trevor Bumgarner (below) listens happily to the results.

RIP Buck Henry

We’re saddened to hear about the death of Buck Henry, the amazingly funny actor, director, screenwriter, and 10-time host of Saturday Night Live.

He co-wrote two of the greatest film comedies ever made: The Graduate (1967), in which he also appeared as a hotel clerk, and What’s Up, Doc? (1972), starring Barbra Streisand, Ryan O’Neal, and Madeline Kahn.

Both films influenced me tremendously when I was writing the script for the Oh Crappy Day feature. In the character of Katie, there’s more than a bit of Streisand’s character, Judy Maxwell. Thanks, Buck, for the inspiration and all the decades of laughter!

— Jon Lance Bacon

We're Launching a Crowdfunding Campaign!

We’re excited to share something that’s been in the works for the past few months: we’re launching a crowdfunding campaign in support of our romantic comedy feature, Oh Crappy Day. The campaign will go live next month, mid-February 2020, on Seed&Spark. (We’re doing this, by the way, even as we’re completing post-production on the film.)

Why We’re Crowdfunding 

We’re crowdfunding to raise awareness of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and to build the audience for Oh Crappy Day. Crowdfunding is a strategic way to connect directly with people who will want to see the film, discuss it with their friends, and encourage others to see it. 

We believe that Oh Crappy Day will give a voice to those with firsthand experience of OCD and its challenges. We want to inspire them, letting them know that love and acceptance are always possible. We also hope to reach a broader audience, to help people better understand OCD -- and to remind everyone that it’s okay to be “different.”

Of course, we’d also like to raise money for the next stage of filmmaking: film festivals, marketing, and distribution.

How the Money Will Be Used

Our plans for using the money reflect one very important goal: getting people to watch and care about our independent film.

Here’s where the money will go:

• Crowdfunding platform fees

• Film festival submission fees

• Film festival attendance (travel expenses for our team, as well as technical costs)

• Marketing materials (design, printing, shipping, etc.)

• Distribution deliverables (paperwork, legal fees, artwork, insurance, etc.)

We’ve spent a lot of time developing our budget, so we know exactly where each dollar will go after the campaign wraps. We’ll be sharing loads of information in the coming months, and we encourage you to ask as many questions as you want.

Incentives for Contributing

We’re considering a bunch of cool incentives, including one-of-a-kind experiences, digital downloads, and collectible items related to the film. There’s still time for input, and we’d love to hear from you. What makes you really excited about being a part of the crowdfunding campaign? What do you want to avoid? Do tell!

When the Campaign Goes Live

We’re tentatively set to launch the campaign in the middle of February 2020. It will be live for 31 days, ending in mid-March 2020. Please save the dates!

What You Can Expect

While the crowdfunding campaign is live, you can attend lots of events for free. Please register to attend, come on out, and help us celebrate! Invite your friends to join you, and ask us plenty of questions while you’re there. We’re happy to talk about the film and why we’re running a crowdfunding campaign. Make sure you’re on our email list, so you never miss an update: ohcrappydayfilm.com.

What You Can Do Now

We’d love for you to be a part of the fun! Here are some quick, easy, and free things you can do right now:

1. Make sure you’re on our email list: ohcrappydayfilm.com.

2. Sign up for a Seed&Spark account and have a look around the site.

3. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

4. Tell your friends about the movie!

Thank You!

It takes an army to make a movie. We couldn’t do any of this without you and your support. Thank you for asking about the movie, sharing our story with your friends, and helping us bring Oh Crappy Day to the screen. We’re deeply grateful!

Sincerely,

Lance and Steve

Our Editor Premieres His Documentary

Teddy Leinbach introduces his new documentary feature at the Carolina Theatre, accompanied by (left to right) Hayden Swanson, Colin Wilkins, and Jack Leinbach.

Did you know that our editor, Teddy Leinbach, is also a director? His latest film, a documentary called 50 Over, just had its world premiere at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, North Carolina!

50 Over celebrates golf as a sport for everyone, not just the country club set. The film follows four friends (including Teddy) as they play golf at 50 public courses in all 50 states. Starting in Portland, Maine, and finishing in Honolulu, Hawaii, they made the journey in a mind-boggling 50 days!

By documenting this journey, Teddy says, “we hope to provide not only a new perspective on the sport we love, but also a unique look at the country itself.”

Now that 50 Over has premiered, Teddy is looking ahead to the film festival circuit. He’s also in the process of scheduling community engagement screenings, so be on the lookout for a showing in your area!

The Meaning Behind Our Name

Have you ever wondered what the name “Dagtype” means? It’s short for “daguerreotype,” the earliest form of photograph, introduced in 1839.

A daguerreotype is an image in polished silver, on a thin copper plate. This image can shift from positive to negative, depending on the way the light hits the surface. Because it’s so highly reflective, the daguerreotype came to be known as “the mirror with a memory.”

Steve and I had been collecting daguerreotypes for several years when we formed our film production company. At the time, digital cameras were making independent filmmaking affordable for everyone, and we felt we were part of a pioneering age in technology, akin to the daguerrean era. By naming our company “Dagtype Films,” we also linked the silver surface of the daguerreotype with the “silver screen” of cinema.

With our Oh Crappy Day feature, we’ll be introducing a new company logo that incorporates one of our favorite daguerreotypes. A stereoscopic image from the 1850s, it depicts a beautiful young Frenchwoman who seems to be dreaming. And what is a movie, after all, but a dream you remember well?

— Jon Lance Bacon

For more information about daguerreotypes, check out the Daguerreian Society, a group dedicated to the history, art, and science of early photography.

"Oh Crappy Day" on Display

We’re honored to be part of a major photo exhibit, “Our Strange New Land,” now on display at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

The exhibit features images by Alex Harris, a renowned documentary photographer, focusing on independent film productions throughout the South. Harris visited our set in late February, when we were filming at Caffé Luna in downtown Raleigh.

An educator as well as a photographer, Harris serves as an emeritus professor at Duke University, where he co-founded the Center for Documentary Studies. He has published nearly 20 books, including River of Traps, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in general non-fiction.

The High Museum commissioned Harris to create the photo exhibit as part of its ongoing “Picturing the South” project. “Our Strange New Land” runs through May 3, 2020.

Photos by Alex Harris. Tickets available from the High Museum.