Short answer: Almost definitely. We are looking into good ways to add on individual rewards that weren’t part of your reward package at the time we send out our backer survey. Stay tuned.

And then, most rewards (like the t-shirt, poster, and Blu-Ray) are being made just for the campaign, but if there are some left over from our order, we’ll be selling those via the Factory 25 website after backers’ orders are fulfilled.

Last updated: August 11, 2017 11:06

As can happen with micro-budget indie films released by small distributors, it’s had a tough time with distribution. Consequently, it has been pretty much unavailable since its initial release! Triton, the distribution company that acquired it after its festival screenings (during which it won major awards at Sundance, Venice, Toronto, New York Film Festival and others), went out of business shortly after they acquired the film. So, ‘In the Soup’ made it to a few theaters but went off the radar shortly thereafter, and couldn’t be found anywhere until a DVD release in 2004 which is now out of print. A cult favorite, though, it has screened at cinemas throughout the US over the past 25 years including Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly and others, until its fateful final screening!

Last updated: August 02, 2017 12:01

I’m going to let Alex field that one. He says, “We really wanted a high contrast look with deeply saturated blacks and brilliant whites in the final prints of the film. The only way we could achieve that was by shooting on a fine grain color stock and then printing on black and white stock called Kodak 5369 which was primarily used for making silhouette mattes and travelings mattes. This particular stock had a high silver content. As we hoped, the result was spectacular. Even back then, it was quite an expensive process especially for an independent film; we did it anyway — but only for two prints. After seeing it, the Coen brothers duplicated the effect for The Man Who Wasn’t There. It’s a very critical process but back in those days you had old school masters, like Don Donigi at DuArt Film Labs, who were craftsmen. And you also had Irwin Young, who owned the lab and was one of the godfathers of independent film. We used to call him Uncle Irwin because he would keep the lab open for us on the weekends and he was completely dedicated to finding the look that worked best for the film.”

Last updated: July 31, 2017 17:57

Because it was a low-budget production, they could only make one print on black-and-white stock for projection in theaters. (The other was saved for use as an archival master positive.) Unfortunately, the print was damaged by projection equipment while being shown at a theater. The first and fifth reel were pretty much shredded, so Rockwell and the cinema began to look for ways to repair it. At that point, it became clear how fragile the print was and — because Kodak no longer makes the 5369 stock — how hard it would be to duplicate and save the film for future generations.

Last updated: July 31, 2017 17:57

The damaged print is in a lab in Los Angeles (Fotokem) in the process of being repaired. We need to raise funds to pay for the repair and get the print in hand once their work is complete, and after that, make new 35mm prints for archival purposes.

Last updated: July 31, 2017 17:57

After a lot of research, it became clear that digitizing, color-correcting and then re-printing the torn sections on another film stock is the closest we can come to fixing the damaged sequences. We decided to repair this print because it will be the closest we can get to the original glory of the first version of the film. We will fix that print at great cost because otherwise we would be throwing out 75% of what is a beautiful, pristine, one-of-a-kind print. Fotokem will repair the 25% that had to be duplicated and match it, as best they can, to the other footage. In the meantime, we will scan the archival master positive that had been printed on the same 5369 B&W Kodak stock.

IndieCollect — the non-profit organization run by Sandra Schulberg and her team— will use its 5K Kinetta Archival Scanner to scan the master positive of IN THE SOUP and create a 4K DCP for theatrical release that recreates the original look of the film, and I will be involved in the color grading process. They will also make a digital preservation master, and other versions for online delivery. And all of those digital files will be backed up on LTO cartridges. Because I also want to make some 35mm prints, we will send the 4K motion picture digital files to Labodigital in Mexico City so they can strike release prints on color stock.

Last updated: July 31, 2017 17:57

We’ll be distributing digital downloads of ‘In the Soup’ and other video content for the campaign using Vimeo-On-Demand, so you’ll receive a download link for a DRM-free file.

Last updated: August 11, 2017 11:02

It costs a lot less to save ‘Lenz’ than it did ‘In the Soup’ because in short the process is way simpler and requires far fewer steps. For starters, there is no physical damage to the remaining ‘Lenz’ print we have access to — it only needs to be scanned and preserved digitally. We are not producing any additional film prints.

Last updated: August 11, 2017 11:08