As 2014 comes to a close, we wanted to give you a quick recap of all that’s happened for Class Dismissed over the past 3 months.

After more than 4 years of hard work, we finally finished the film and premiered it in Los Angeles in October to a sold out crowd. It was an incredible feeling to be finally sharing the film with so many people, many of them having contributed in various ways to get us to that point. We then embarked on our West Coast tour, making stops in San Francisco, Oakland, Portland, Seattle and Monroe, selling out all the screenings except Monroe. (Monroe has a very small population but we calculated that 1% of the population was actually at our screening that night!)

After a short break to recover, we continued on with screenings in Chicago, New York City, Boston, Charlotte, and Raleigh before circling back and finishing out the year in Santa Cruz, California. It was a crazy couple of months but we had a great time and learned a lot.

Here are some of the highlights:

• We met people from nearly every homeschool and Alt Ed method and it was fascinating to talk to them and hear about their experiences.
• In Charlotte we met several 2^nd and even 3^rd generation homeschoolers! Both new and longtime homeschoolers are enjoying the film and it’s been resonating with viewers on many different levels.
• Almost all of the key experts in the film have now seen it at one or other of the screenings.
• We received hundreds of positive comments and reactions to the film and it makes all the hard work we’ve put in so worth it! You can read some of those comments here.
• We heard from a number of families who pulled their kids out of school after seeing the film.
• We’ve had numerous teachers, educators, parents, homeschoolers and otherwise interested participants in our audiences and the questions and comments during the Q&A sessions have been great.

But getting the film out into the world has not been easy and we’ve had many challenges. Our schedule has been insane since launching the film. When we did our East Coast tour we did 4 screenings in 5 days in 3 states that took us through 7 airports! And to top it off we got rear-ended on the way to Boston during a very long post-thanksgiving drive from New York. (We were fine and so was the car, but it wasn’t fun.)

And being away from our own families has been tough, although getting to meet so many other families who are on this path has been very rewarding.

We’d like to thank everyone who came out to see the film and who have supported us in so many ways. As a special treat we’d like to share these videos highlighting what audiences on the West and East coast tours thought about the film.

We wish you all a Happy Holiday season and we hope to meet more of you in the coming months.

Jeremy & Dustin

The filmmakers with Ana from Class Dismissed plus Cozi & Nathan from Dolphin Tale

We wrapped up our West Coast screenings earlier this month and have been overwhelmed with the response so far. All of the West Coast screenings (LA, Oakland, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle) completely sold out. The only exception was in the small-town of Monroe, WA where we were bumped up to their largest screen due to the crowd. The Actor’s Group Orlando is part responsible of training amazing actors. Even more impressive–at the time of the Monroe screening, we represented over 1% of the city’s entire population.

We put together a little video highlighting some of the activity from the West Coast tour for you to enjoy:

Before we embark on our East Coast Tour, we’d like to thank everyone who made an effort to attend, spread the word, or host their own screening. We’re eager to get the film out to as many cities as possible.

One week until the the first-ever audience gets to see Class Dismissed! We’re pleased to announce Nathan Gamble and family will be in attendance. Last week we announced his Dolphin Tale co-star, Cozi Zuehlsdorff, will also be attending. In addition to the Dolphin Tale movies, you may also recognize him from roles in the Dark Knight and Marley & Me.

Nathan Gamble from Dolphin Tale 1 & 2

Like Cozi, Nathan is a homeschooled kid in real life. Homeschooling has allowed him to pursue an early career in acting. He lives near Seattle (as do I), but will be filming in LA during our premiere and is excited to attend with his family.

Whether you’ve been following along with the production of Class Dismissed film or have been recently pointed here by someone who’s been following us, we’re inviting you to attend one of several private screenings of Class Dismissed.

San Francisco should sell out today, but we still have a handful of tickets available for Los Angeles, plus we kicked off ticket sales of Oakland, Portland, Seattle and Snohomish County. Tickets must be purchased in advanced–you can’t just show up at the ticket booth.

We look forward to meeting many of you on the West Coast tour of Class Dismissed. We are working on setting up screenings in New York, Boston, Chicago, Santa Cruz, Philadelphia and Austin. If you live elsewhere, early next week we’ll put out a guide on how to help us screen the movie in your city.

If you’d like to keep up on the screenings, be sure to follow us on Facebook or Twitter plus subscribe to our newsletter.

We’re only two weeks away from the World Premiere of Class Dismissed. We’ve put an incredible amount of work in over the past four years to make this film, so it’s very exciting to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel–or shall we say the light from the theater projector!

Cozi from Dolphin Tale 1 & 2

What better way to kick off several private screenings of Class Dismissed, then to host the World Premiere in Hollywood? Not only will several families and experts from the film be there, but we’re happy to announce that Cozi Zuehlsdorff will be joining us. You may recognize Cozi from the Dolphin Tale movies. Not only does she play a homeschooler in the movies, but she actually is a homeschool student.

If you live in the LA area and haven’t already reserved your tickets, now’s the time to get them:

We look forward to meeting many of you on the West Coast tour of Class Dismissed. We’re working on setting up screenings in New York, Boston, Chicago, Santa Cruz, Philadelphia and Austin. If you live elsewhere, we’ll also be putting out a guide on how to help us screen the movie in your city. Stay tuned!

Remember how excited you were in school when the final bell rang on the last class of the school year? Remember that feeling of freedom?

Maybe your experience was different, but that bottled-up eager enthusiasm is catching hold of us now because outside of a few final touches, Class Dismissed is ready to be shown to the world!

Our 4-year journey brings us to a magnificent place. Not only is Class Dismissed finished, but it is beautiful.

Okay, it may not be the most visually stunning movie ever made, but it is beautiful in several other ways I took inspiration from Danny Devito. It has heart, it has substance, and it has the potential to change many peoples lives for the better.

Those who have homeschooled will enjoy it. It has many familiar moments and is packed with expert advice and inspiration from both adults and kids. It will give you renewed energy in your journey.

But even more powerful, is the effect Class Dismissed will have on those who are homeschool-curious, those who are homeschool skeptics, and most importantly, those who didn’t even realize they had homeschooling as an option!

Sure, it’s our baby and we are heavily biased, but as part of our editing process we shared rough cuts with test families–ones that we knew we could get an honest opinion from who had little to no exposure to homeschooling. Not only did they enjoy it, but two of the families immediately pulled their children out of school to homeschool them!

If it could have that kind of impact on such a small sample size, we can’t wait to see what it does starting next month. We also shared it with a couple homeschool experts and two homeschooling magazines. Not only did they enjoy it, but they wrote glowing reviews ( we will share them on the site soon).

But now it is your turn to see it. We’ve been working behind-the-scenes to set up a number of private screenings we’d like to invite you to, starting with the West Coast. The premiere will be in LA in the North Hollywood area, but we will also be visiting Orange County, San Francisco, Oakland, Portland and Seattle. Both Jeremy & Dustin will be in attendance  at all the screenings on this tour, plus many of the people in the film will attend the screenings as well.

To keep tabs on where we will be, visit our screenings page on the official movie site: http://classdismissedmovie.com/see-the-film/private-screenings/

HomeschoolFilm.com will remain our production site and primary way to communicate with the homeschool community outside of our social accounts.

If you live in LA or San Francisco, we’ve already lined up the theaters and you can book your ticket now:

We encourage you to bring along someone from outside the homeschooling community who would benefit from an inside look at what homeschooling is really like, whether it be friends, family, or even strangers. Tickets can only be purchased from our website. You cannot buy tickets from the theaters directly and there will be no tickets available at the door.

For those on the East Coast, we plan on being out there in November. For those in other cities across the US or the world, we are working diligently on solutions for getting screenings in your area. Our volunteers are setting up theater screenings and we will eventually develop a screening pack for homeschool groups.

We thank you for your support, and can now say: we’ll see you at the movies!

Jeremy and Dustin

Definition – Picture Lock.  This is when the editor and director of a movie have decided that the movie is visually done.  No more editing.  Once picture lock is declared, you hand off the production to the finishing folks for things like: musical scoring, color correction, and mastering.

Phew…I can finally say those words and it’s official. WE HAVE PICTURE LOCK!

Eight months ago when I really began editing in earnest, I never thought I’d ever reach this point. Editing can be overwhelming at times. You keep going over and over the cut and you keep digging into the footage in search of that little nugget of gold you’re sure is in there, the one that will make the whole film hang together.

You change your mind a lot, you go round in circles, you get lost a lot, and then eventually you find your way.

In the last few weeks since we made the announcement that the film will be releasing in October, I’ve been scrambling to get it to picture lock. Mostly, so I can get it off to our colorist.

No, I’m not dying my hair, the colorist is the guy that’s going to make it all look awesome! The film was shot over 3 years in 6 states and with multiple different cameras, so the colorist’s job is go through it shot by shot and balance all the lighting and color so that it looks as good as it can. It’s an important job and one that I particularly love because (a) I don’t have to do the work and (b) I can’t keep changing my mind and tweaking things. Once we have picture lock I can’t make any more changes.

So that’s it for me, at least as far as the editing goes. There are still the thousand and one things that need to be done to get the film out in the world but now that I can finally put the intense focus of editing aside, I can put my full attention towards those things.

October is right around the corner!

Jeremy

We’re thrilled to announce that after eight long months we are finally done with the editing of the film. There are a few tweaks to make here and there but essentially that part of the process is complete! If you’ve been following us on Facebook you’ll also know that we recorded the narration last week and that music scoring is well under way.

We are currently locking down dates for color-correction and sound mixing which means that we are on track to have the film ready for release in October of this this year!

It’s been a long wait and we’re certainly as relieved as you probably are that we are this close to releasing the film. We don’t have an actual date for the world premiere just yet, but can tell you that it will be in Los Angeles sometime in October. We still have to work out details, but as soon as we have an actual date, we’ll let you know.

After we open in LA we’ll be working our way up the West coast doing screenings in as many independent theaters as we can manage. At this point we’re  planning to screen the film in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. 

After that we’ll try a similar thing on the East Coast and in other parts of the country.

We’ve got a lot to do to get all this organized and we’ll share more details about our plans for distribution and marketing as soon as we have them.

Thank you so much for your patience and support and we look forward to seeing you at the movies soon!

Jeremy, Dustin and the Class Dismissed team.

We’re thrilled to announce that the music scoring process of the film is well underway. We just got some music tracks delivered by our composer Jonas Friedman and they’re awesome! Over the next month, we’ll be working closely with Jonas to fine tune the music and work it into the film. We’re so lucky to have him on board and we feel confident his contributions to the film will take it to a whole new level.

Here’s some background information about Jonas and his work.

Jonas Friedman is an innovative composer, music producer and sound designer of sound tracks for feature films, dramatic television series, video games and national events. He has worked on projects for Academy Award winning directors, multiple Emmy Award winning producers and he has collaborated on productions from all over the world including the United States, Canada and United Kingdom.

Jonas Friedman started his career as a musician and music producer, playing guitar, producing records and co-writing with rock and pop artists both independently and on record labels. He quickly transitioned into producing and writing scores for film and television after being asked to score to the documentary film “Eleven – From WWII To Present Day”.

After composing for a number of other projects, in the summer of 2012, Jonas was brought on by Grammy and four time Emmy winning composer Brian Keane to do the musical sound design for the score to the upcoming television series Copper by Academy Award winner Barry Levinson and Emmy Award winner Tom Fontana. The BBC America series aired in June of 2012 and was the highest rated premiere in the networks history. Jonas continued working on Copper’s second season as an additional music composer and lead ambient sound designer and in the fall of 2013 the show was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.

http://jonasfriedman.com/

June was a whirlwind of a month. We’re just catching our breath!

We did two appearances at homeschooling conferences, the first in Los Angeles at the California Homeschool Network Family Expo (CHN) and the second in Portland at the Oregon Home Education Network Conference (OHEN). Both events, were well attended and we got great reactions to the sample film clips we showed. It was wonderful to put faces to names and meet some of you in person. We really appreciate you coming out to see us and show your support and we look forward to meeting many more of you soon.

Jeremy also was a guest on the Roadschool Mom’s homeschool radio network. If you missed it, you can listen to that interview here. It was great to connect with those of you who choose to learn while on the road. The world really is your classroom!

In the midst of all that, we also put out a homeschooling survey, in the hopes of gathering data and statistics about homeschoolers that we can use in the film as well as in other ways that might be helpful to those interested in homeschooling. We had hoped to get 1,000 responses, but thanks to our diligent group of volunteers and everyone else who filled it out and passed it on, we’ll soon have 5,000 responses!

Not only has the survey given us huge amounts of interesting data to sift through and absorb, but it’s also drawn attention to the film and alerted many people who might not have otherwise known about it. As a result, our page likes on Facebook increased by 8% and the post about the survey was seen by an astonishing 23,904 people! We’ve had a number of new signups to our email newsletter and a marked increase in our YouTube views. So a big thank you to everyone who participated!

We’ll be sharing some of the results of the survey soon, but now that we’re back home, it’s on to the thousand and one things we still have to do to get the film finished. Jeremy is busy with last minute revisions and tweaks on the editing. (We got some great feedback and suggestions from a recent early screening group, so those notes are being addressed now), and Dustin is busy sifting through all the data from the survey and working hard on planning our marketing and distribution strategy. We’ll have more news on that later.

So stay tuned. We have lots of exciting milestones coming up.

Thanks for all your support,

Jeremy & Dustin

P.S – Can you help us across the finish line? Our funds are running low so if you’d like to donate, please click the donate button on the top right of this page. Any amount helps!

We’ve made great progress in the post production phase of creating the Class Dismissed movie, but now it is time to prepare for the third and final phase of the movie: marketing and distribution.

We have great ambitions to share this amazing movie with as many people as possible, but we can’t do it alone. We need your help! If you can spare a little time to help us out over the next few months, please fill out the form below. Some of you filled it out a year ago & should have received an invite from me in May.

Top 5 Reasons to Volunteer for Class Dismissed:

1. Bring Class Dismissed to your hometown! We’d like to host screenings in as many cities as possible, but we can’t do that without at least one volunteer in each city we show it in.
2. Earn credit in the film. It’s not often you get to see your name on the big screen. This is your last chance to “join our crew” by becoming a volunteer.
3. Enjoy the perks. You’ll be in direct communication with the filmmakers. You’ll be an insider who gets to know and see things before they are public. You’ll even help us make important decisions. And best of all, you’ll make new friends from around the world.
4. Change lives. This movie will change some people’s lives! We shared a rough draft with a couple non-homeschooling families. Within a week of seeing the film, they decided to start homeschooling as well.
5. Supporting a good cause. We’ve put in many years of hard work to create the first feature length documentary showing what homeschooling really looks like. We’ll be educating the public about homeschooling, plus the expert advice and family storyline will inspire those who already are.

Thanks for your consideration. Please fill out this form to become a part of our volunteer team.