The Movie
The Concessionaires Must Die!
Feature Length Heartwarming Comedy
(Total Running Time: 1:29)
Hard times for the gang at the Monarch: a one-screen movie theater bringing the best in vintage and cult cinema to the masses, or more often, four nerds and a couple of kids who ought be in school. With a multiplex about to open just down the street, Gabby (Zakareth Ruben) decides it’s time to smell the coffee, sell up and cut out. But her brave team of dedicated concessionaires, led by uber-geek Scott (David Blue), refuses to give up. Surely there must be some way to keep the dream alive?
The feature directorial debut from actress America Young is an engaging slacker comedy peppered with goofy movie parodies executed with tender, loving care on a shoestring budget (everything from Batman to Casablanca, Star Wars to Conan the Barbarian-and that’s just the first five minutes). On top of that you get celebrity cameos (Stan Lee, Dan Lauria), a treasure trove of pop culture trivia, and a not-entirely-inaccurate elegy for a breed of plucky repertory movie houses dying a slow death through inattention and digital streaming. (credit: Palm Springs International Film Festival)
Groundbreaking Indie Film Making
The production surrounding The Concessionaires Must Die is truly groundbreaking. The entire pre-production and production of the film was live stream across a number of platforms.
The Indie-Go-Go campaign did the first ever Live-A-Thon of streaming for 60 hours straight to encourage people to contribute to the project. 90% of the goal was reached in the first 60 hours of the campaign!
In pre-production, all the auditions, location scouts, production meetings were live-streamed to the audience who got to give feedback and get involved in the process on a deeper level than ever before.
In production, the entire shoot, entire 12 hour days were live streamed (except for the last 20 pages, no spoilers!) from our location in Fresno. This gave the audience a rare, true glimpse into indie filmmaking: raw, un-filtered and un-edited. Plus it allowed them to cheer for the filmmakers and be personally invested in the success of the film. You can see some of the interviews from set on our YouTube page. https://www.youtube.com/user/
How it All Began
Sam McCoy, Zakareth Ruben and April Wade decided they wanted to make a movie. Together they came up with a story. Sam McCoy then wrote a script based on his experiences working in an independent movie theater in Nebraska. They then attached America Young as the director and started focusing on making this project come to life. Many, many calls later, they found the Warnor Theater in Fresno, California, the perfect location for the heart and soul of the film. Not only is the Warnor Theater a work of architectural art, but the management and staff were incredibly supportive and quickly became members of the CMD family. With the seed money raised by the Live-A-Thon, the help of an Angel Investor and the sponsors, they were able to get the ball rolling. Along the way the picked up two more amazing producers, Ron Cohen and Jason Dibler. At long last the team, along with their dream cast, headed up to a welcoming Fresno. The rest is history…in the making.
