With a Kickstarter goal made, temporary tattoos in the back seat and 1,400 miles in front of him, Bryan Reisberg made the journey down to Austin, Texas, for the World Premiere of his debut feature film, Big Significant Things at the South by Southwest Film Festival.
While it is an uphill battle to get an independent film like “Big Significant Things” distributed, the film made a good start at SXSW. The film won the Audience Award for Excellence in Poster Design and sold out their final screening.
“Big Significant Things” tells the story of 26-year-old Craig Harrison, played by Harry Lloyd, as he takes a spontaneous road trip south, stopping along the way at some of the world’s largest roadside attractions.
“I heard someone once say that you start off looking for something and you don’t find what you’re looking for, but you learn a lot anyway,” said Luca Del Puppo, cinematographer for the film. “I think that is what happens to Craig.”
Before they started filming the movie, Del Puppo and Reisberg decided not to edit much out so that the shots could “live,” and so it would feel like the film was unfolding in real time, Del Puppo said.
While it’s not an easy feat, members from the film tried to gauge the audience’s reactions at the festival.
“When you sit down you’re kind of on pins and needles unexpectedly,” Del Puppo said. “You’re almost listening to the audience more than you’re listening to your own film, and you breathe a sigh of relief when you hear the first laugh from the audience.”
Throughout the week, there was buzz about the great reviews and people’s love for the film, Del Puppo said.
“One thing I heard a lot was ‘beautiful, it’s a beautiful film,’ which I really liked hearing,” Reisberg said. “That idea is still very novel to me, that ideas can become something physical, and they can affect people in some way. To hear somebody talk back to you about words that you wrote, it’s weird.”
Reisberg worked on the film’s poster with Corey Holms, who designed posters for “Watchmen” and
“Where the Wild Things Are.” After Holms watched the film, he and Reisberg decided to use a clean, simple design that would make a bold impression.
“I was really gunning after that award,” Reisberg said. “I was always really particular about our poster.”
After graduating from NYU in 2009, Reisberg worked at Mother New York, an ad agency with a talented design team, he said. One thing he learned in his time there was that packaging can go a long way.
“When you are a smaller film, especially at a festival, you really have to do a lot of work to get your name out there, whether it is on Twitter or Instagram, how to drum up buzz. So even if it’s just a poster winning an Audience Award, it makes people think,” Reisberg said.
While Reisberg is pleased with the recognition that his film has received thus far, his festival tour is just beginning. In the month of April, the film is heading to festivals in Mississippi, Kansas City, South Carolina and Boston.
The film will continue to play the festival circuit for the next year.
“The amount of time you take to revel in something like this is really only when you hear that it was accepted [to it’s first festival]. And then you have to get right to work,” Reisberg said.
