Fifty Shades of Grey

Do you ever watch one of those movies that deals with a person that’s down on their luck and makes bad life decisions? Happy Christmas is one of those.

The story involves Jenny (Anna Kendrick), a no so responsible 27-year-old who has recently broken up with her boyfriend. With many options and lacking direction, she arrives in Chicago to live with her older brother Jeff (Joe Swanberg, who also wrote and directed the film).

Life Choices: Passing out on a stranger's floor — Life Choices: Passing out on a stranger’s floor

Jeff makes and produces films for a living. He lives a relatively happy with his novelist wife, Kelly, and their two-year-old son. Once Jenny arrives, things start to get a bit hectic. Her first night of living at the house, Jenny goes to a party to meet up with her friend Carson (Lena Dunham). Getting a little to festive, she gets smokes pot, drinks and ends up passing out in a bedroom, requiring Jeff to come pick her up.

After the passing out incident, jenny starts to form a bond with Kelly at the house. She notices that Kelly feels overwhelmed and wants time to write her novel. Trying to get her creative juices up and flowing, Jenny suggests an idea for a book that Kelly can write. Throughout the days, free-spirited Jenny and Carson get Kelly to open up, prompting a evolution of relaxation in Kelly.

At a quick glance, many will wonder why the heck a “christmas” movie is being released in June/July. Despite its title, Happy Christmas features very little of actual Christmas. The Christmas theme is meant as an accessible way to bring family together and show their interactions. A quick Christmas day scene is all that is featured in the 78 minute movie.

Director-writer Joe Swanberg is known for having his films center on the ordinary, daily interactions of a group of people. Happy Christmas features fully improvised dialogue. No set script was used for the film. The actors received outlines for each scene.

Life Choices 2: Smoking pot — Life Choices 2: Spending hours mindlessly surfing the internet

Happy Christmas is a “slice-of-life” type film. The film appeals to the viewer that likes movies heavy with improvisation, realism, and the scenes with the interactions of everyday life. Despite its slow pacing and lack of clear resolution, Happy Christmas goes above with witty dialogue, quotable lines and examining the nature of family dynamics. Happy Christmas might even give new meaning to the term “Christmas in July.” A

Happy Christmas is currently on video on demand platforms (Amazon, iTunes and others) and is scheduled for a limited theatrical release on July 25, 2014.

It’s day 2 of SXSW Interactive (#sxswi) and the first event to kick off the rain-drizzled day was DIY App and eBook Publishing. The event discussed and demonstrated the latest in DIY publishing technology. Attendees were able to send in recipes for a crowd sourced cookbook to be made.

The speakers for the event were Babette Pepaj, founder of BakeSpace Inc. and Erik Deutsch, principal at ExcelPR Group in Los Angeles.

The event started off with why traditional publishing isn’t very good. Pepaj brought up how there are so many gatekeepers in traditional publishing. She had friends who had book deals who had to wait two years or more before their books got on the shelves. Publishers would decide what would go into the book, how it was structured, marketed, and when to release it. A humorous example of some of the books published through traditional publishing was brought up.

kardashian — The Kardashian line of books

Self publishing gives a person creative control over their product. It lets a person make sure the product reflects their personal brand, who they are about and what they have to offer. Discussions about the advantages and disadvantages of traditional and self-publishing were discussed.

Although an explosion in self-publishing resources have come to light, it still has a long history.

Erika Mitchell (a.k.a. E.L James) is a great example of the rise in popularity of self-publishing. Mitchell worked as a TV executive prior to writing. In May 2011 James turned a series of fanfiction writings into a novel titled Fifty Shades of Grey. The novel was published as an ebook by The Writer’s Coffee Shop, a virtual publisher based in Australia. Without much of a marketing budget, the book was mainly promoted through niche book blogs and other fanfiction sites.

E.L James' success prompted notice to self-publishing industry — E.L James’ success prompted notice to self-publishing industry

The event ended by discussing the ways to make and market a book and finding an audience for it. Niche sites/blogs, press releases, guest blogging and offering free services things discussed at panels end. eBook pricing was a notable question from the audience. If a person really wants a book, they will pay for it. Panelists discussed buying ebooks ranging from $0.99 cents to $20 bucks. Experiment to see what works best. Try to offer free samples to people so they can get a taste of what an author have to offer.

Colin Ashby

Constantly curious & eclectic

Film Review: Happy Christmas (2014)

SXSW: DIY App & eBook Publishing