Main blog for 11/29/23 Facets, Chicago film event Indie Discovery LA In Chicago at https://idlachicago.blogspot.com
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Monday, April 11, 2022
Friday, May 27, 2016
About the Movie & Facebook Page for the Movie
About the movie:
A comedy-drama about a struggling early 30's writer who takes an unusual job one weekend - assisting a secretive, larger than life private detective/philosopher. The two travel throughout New York City attempting to solve several unusual cases. Film is also about attempting to work past personal limitations and trying to become a better individual.
Facebook page for Breakthrough Weekend
A comedy-drama about a struggling early 30's writer who takes an unusual job one weekend - assisting a secretive, larger than life private detective/philosopher. The two travel throughout New York City attempting to solve several unusual cases. Film is also about attempting to work past personal limitations and trying to become a better individual.
Facebook page for Breakthrough Weekend
COMING SOON TO VIDEO ON DEMAND
Coming in June 2016. Will announce exact start date and more details soon.
- Sujewa
- Sujewa
Friday, May 16, 2014
NYC film screenings, June 2014
Get info on:
Where We Started NewFilmmakers NY screening - June 10,
Contact: breakthroughfestnyc@gmail.com
All info at this link - http://diyfilmmaker.blogspot.com/2014/05/upcoming-nyc-indie-film-events-where-we.html
Friday, March 21, 2014
Friday, February 28, 2014
Breakthrough Weekend screening in June in NYC
Get the early info here - http://diyfilmmaker.blogspot.com/2014/02/breakthrough-weekend-will-screen-june.html
More info coming in March!
::
More info coming in March!
::
Friday, January 17, 2014
Sundance 2014 is happening :: Exciting news coming from Breakthrough Weekend next week
The independent film festivities of 2014 have kicked off with Sundance 2014, happening now in Park City, Utah. Get all the info & updates here.
And in other US independent film news, a major announcement re: the film Breakthrough Weekend will happen early next week. Check back then for more!
- Sujewa
::
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Filmmaker/author Rick Schmidt on Breakthrough Weekend
Check out Rick Schmidt's quote re: Breakthrough Weekend here.
The rough cut of the film was completed last weekend. Schmidt viewed the rough cut.
::
The rough cut of the film was completed last weekend. Schmidt viewed the rough cut.
::
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Update
Film is being edited.
I expect to have the film completed before the end of January 2014.
Then we'll be planning for a late spring/early summer 2014 release following festival play.
- Sujewa, BW Director
::
I expect to have the film completed before the end of January 2014.
Then we'll be planning for a late spring/early summer 2014 release following festival play.
- Sujewa, BW Director
::
Thursday, March 7, 2013
6 Breakthrough Weekend related links
A quick, early March '13, round up of 6 BW items on the web.
Check out the links here.
Editing work on BW will be completed this month. After that film fest submissions, & preparing for the release of the movie this summer!
- S
::
Check out the links here.
Editing work on BW will be completed this month. After that film fest submissions, & preparing for the release of the movie this summer!
- S
::
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
Some of the inspirations for look & feel of Breakthrough Weekend: Quiet City, Down By Law, Drugstore Cowboy, Midnight Cowboy, Manhattan - trailers & a clip :: Also some background on the story
Breakthrough Weekend is an upcoming NYC detective comedy that I produced, wrote, filmed, & directed, etc with the help of a very talented team (specially with a lot of contributions from my co-producer & one of the stars of the movie Jennifer Blakemore). I spent a long time planning the look & feel of the movie. In this post I'll share trailers (& a clip) of some of the movies that helped me devise the visual & other strategies for Breakthrough Weekend.
The story in Breakthrough Weekend is an original one that I wrote over the course of a little over a year - starting in 2011. The story was originally inspired by a dream I had regarding meeting Ben Stiller at a psychiatrists office in Brooklyn. That Ben Stiller story produced the basic idea for the lead character of Breakthrough Weekend - Sal Vulpes (played well by Damien Bosco). The decision to make the movie ultimately a detective comedy was inspired in part by the new interest we have seen in the detective story genre in the indie film & related worlds in recent years. Aaron Katz's Cold Weather and HBO's Bored to Death stand out in my mind regarding the decision to take the story in the direction of detective fiction. Then I added a secondary story line for the Yevgeny character (played well by newcomer Sean Bempong). Yevgeny's story was inspired by a self-improvement story line that I had developed for my 1999 feature Wild Diner. Also several ideas popularized by Carl Jung helped me further develop Yevgeny's story - specially Jung's interest & promotion of mythic quests, their significance to human cultures & development, etc. And when Jennifer Blakemore joined the project in the middle of last year I was able to expand one of the stories in Breakthrough Weekend (about a NYC real estate agent) with the help of her responses to that story. Also some of Blakemore's thoughts regarding the self-improvement aspect of the main story helped me develop that aspect further. So, in the end, with inspiration from several sources, we have, in Breakthrough Weekend, primarily a detective story with a secondary self-improvement story. On to some of the movies that helped me develop the look & feel for Breakthrough Weekend.
First, the teaser trailer for Breakthrough Weekend (film is currently in post, I expect to be able to send it out to film festival consideration starting in late February, and then a release to the general public by the middle of this year):
BREAKTHROUGH WEEKEND - Teaser Trailer from Sujewa Ekanayake on Vimeo.
*
In Breakthrough Weekend there are a lot of beautiful shots of New York City. One of the recent indie films that made me want to do this was Aaron Katz's Quiet City. Even though it was filmed for a very low budged (reportedly around $2,000 for production), it did a lot regarding capturing the unusual beauty of the city. Here is the trailer for Quiet City:
Quiet City Trailer from Aaron Katz on Vimeo.
*
Jim Jarmusch's movie Down By Law has long been one of my favorite movies. For Breakthrough Weekend, Down By Law was a source of inspiration for beautiful cinematography, long takes featuring interesting and or funny conversations, the blend of interest in the criminal world with an interest in optimistic or positive outcomes, the neo-noir feel (specially the moods created with the help of the music and the score), and interesting/unusual characters. Here is the trailer for Down By Law:
*
Gus Van Sant's movie Drugstore Cowboy was an inspiration for rich colors, a certain kind of humor, certain editing techniques, certain special effects, and possibly using multiple film/video formats. Here is the trailer for Drugstore Cowboy:
*
I looked at and thought about several New York City movies while planning Breakthrough Weekend. One that I had always thought was very interesting - specially in showing unusual aspects of the city, tackling perhaps taboo subject matter, and also for the relationship between the two main characters of the movie was John Schlesinger's 1969 movie Midnight Cowboy. That movie too was a source of inspiration for Breakthrough Weekend. Here is the trailer for Midnight Cowboy:
*
I've always enjoyed Woody Allen's movies - specially the New York City movies from the late 70's & 80's - Annie Hall, Manhattan, etc. I like long scenes where people talk a lot (as long as there is some humor & or interesting topics being discussed, & or interesting interactions between characters), a regular thing in Allen movies (also in some of Richard Linklater movies, another favorite of mine), and there is quiet a bit of that in Breakthrough Weekend. In thinking about how to photography New York City for Breakthrough Weekend one source of inspiration was the NYC images from the opening title sequence from Allen's Manhattan. Here it is (looks great, & also with a very funny voice over):
Of course, on top of those, there are dozens of other movies, books, ideas that went into the process of developing Breakthrough Weekend. But I believe some audience members will be able to see reflections of the above mentioned movies in Breakthrough Weekend. If you have not seen any of the movies mentioned above yet, check them out - all great movies. It was a joy to be able to make a movie in NYC, capture some beautiful images of the city and bring interesting characters to life. I look forward to sharing Breakthrough Weekend with the world and celebrating New York City and the work of my talented collaborators in a couple of months.
- Sujewa Ekanayake
::
The story in Breakthrough Weekend is an original one that I wrote over the course of a little over a year - starting in 2011. The story was originally inspired by a dream I had regarding meeting Ben Stiller at a psychiatrists office in Brooklyn. That Ben Stiller story produced the basic idea for the lead character of Breakthrough Weekend - Sal Vulpes (played well by Damien Bosco). The decision to make the movie ultimately a detective comedy was inspired in part by the new interest we have seen in the detective story genre in the indie film & related worlds in recent years. Aaron Katz's Cold Weather and HBO's Bored to Death stand out in my mind regarding the decision to take the story in the direction of detective fiction. Then I added a secondary story line for the Yevgeny character (played well by newcomer Sean Bempong). Yevgeny's story was inspired by a self-improvement story line that I had developed for my 1999 feature Wild Diner. Also several ideas popularized by Carl Jung helped me further develop Yevgeny's story - specially Jung's interest & promotion of mythic quests, their significance to human cultures & development, etc. And when Jennifer Blakemore joined the project in the middle of last year I was able to expand one of the stories in Breakthrough Weekend (about a NYC real estate agent) with the help of her responses to that story. Also some of Blakemore's thoughts regarding the self-improvement aspect of the main story helped me develop that aspect further. So, in the end, with inspiration from several sources, we have, in Breakthrough Weekend, primarily a detective story with a secondary self-improvement story. On to some of the movies that helped me develop the look & feel for Breakthrough Weekend.
First, the teaser trailer for Breakthrough Weekend (film is currently in post, I expect to be able to send it out to film festival consideration starting in late February, and then a release to the general public by the middle of this year):
BREAKTHROUGH WEEKEND - Teaser Trailer from Sujewa Ekanayake on Vimeo.
*
In Breakthrough Weekend there are a lot of beautiful shots of New York City. One of the recent indie films that made me want to do this was Aaron Katz's Quiet City. Even though it was filmed for a very low budged (reportedly around $2,000 for production), it did a lot regarding capturing the unusual beauty of the city. Here is the trailer for Quiet City:
Quiet City Trailer from Aaron Katz on Vimeo.
*
Jim Jarmusch's movie Down By Law has long been one of my favorite movies. For Breakthrough Weekend, Down By Law was a source of inspiration for beautiful cinematography, long takes featuring interesting and or funny conversations, the blend of interest in the criminal world with an interest in optimistic or positive outcomes, the neo-noir feel (specially the moods created with the help of the music and the score), and interesting/unusual characters. Here is the trailer for Down By Law:
*
Gus Van Sant's movie Drugstore Cowboy was an inspiration for rich colors, a certain kind of humor, certain editing techniques, certain special effects, and possibly using multiple film/video formats. Here is the trailer for Drugstore Cowboy:
*
I looked at and thought about several New York City movies while planning Breakthrough Weekend. One that I had always thought was very interesting - specially in showing unusual aspects of the city, tackling perhaps taboo subject matter, and also for the relationship between the two main characters of the movie was John Schlesinger's 1969 movie Midnight Cowboy. That movie too was a source of inspiration for Breakthrough Weekend. Here is the trailer for Midnight Cowboy:
*
I've always enjoyed Woody Allen's movies - specially the New York City movies from the late 70's & 80's - Annie Hall, Manhattan, etc. I like long scenes where people talk a lot (as long as there is some humor & or interesting topics being discussed, & or interesting interactions between characters), a regular thing in Allen movies (also in some of Richard Linklater movies, another favorite of mine), and there is quiet a bit of that in Breakthrough Weekend. In thinking about how to photography New York City for Breakthrough Weekend one source of inspiration was the NYC images from the opening title sequence from Allen's Manhattan. Here it is (looks great, & also with a very funny voice over):
Of course, on top of those, there are dozens of other movies, books, ideas that went into the process of developing Breakthrough Weekend. But I believe some audience members will be able to see reflections of the above mentioned movies in Breakthrough Weekend. If you have not seen any of the movies mentioned above yet, check them out - all great movies. It was a joy to be able to make a movie in NYC, capture some beautiful images of the city and bring interesting characters to life. I look forward to sharing Breakthrough Weekend with the world and celebrating New York City and the work of my talented collaborators in a couple of months.
- Sujewa Ekanayake
::
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Monday, December 24, 2012
Several blogs & sites coming on line to promote Breakthrough Weekend in 2013
In the next few days I will complete setting up several sites & blogs for use in 2013 - to promote Breakthrough Weekend and various aspects of the film, various ideas & material related to those ideas. Here's the list thus far, updates soon.
1 - Breakthrough Weekend main blog
2 - Breakthrough Weekend official website - coming soon
3 - Breakthrough Weekend on Facebook
4 - Breakthrough Weekend on IMDb
5 - 30 Days of Awesomeness - A self & world improvement blogging project inspired by Breakthrough Weekend (project begins in late December, in a few days)
6 - DIY Film & Breakthrough Weekend (general DIY film, indie film, & other film info blogging site w/ a special focus on relationship between items discussed and Breakthrough Weekend)
7 - Ultra Low Budget Filmmaking & Distribution + Breakthrough Weekend (blog will focus on ultra low budget filmmaking only, $0 - under $100K for production & distribution, & will use examples from Breakthrough Weekend project to expand on ideas presented whenever possible)
Update 12/25/12 on:
8 - Breakthrough Weekend on Twitter
1 - Breakthrough Weekend main blog
2 - Breakthrough Weekend official website - coming soon
3 - Breakthrough Weekend on Facebook
4 - Breakthrough Weekend on IMDb
5 - 30 Days of Awesomeness - A self & world improvement blogging project inspired by Breakthrough Weekend (project begins in late December, in a few days)
6 - DIY Film & Breakthrough Weekend (general DIY film, indie film, & other film info blogging site w/ a special focus on relationship between items discussed and Breakthrough Weekend)
7 - Ultra Low Budget Filmmaking & Distribution + Breakthrough Weekend (blog will focus on ultra low budget filmmaking only, $0 - under $100K for production & distribution, & will use examples from Breakthrough Weekend project to expand on ideas presented whenever possible)
Update 12/25/12 on:
8 - Breakthrough Weekend on Twitter
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
The 3 Stars of Breakthrough Weekend!
::
Damien Bosco as Sal, Jennifer Blakermore (will play Mirabel), Sean Bempong as Yevgeny.
Photo Copyright 2013 Sujewa Ekanayake/Wild Diner Films NYC
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
New updates at the film's Facebook page
Check out all recent updates re: the project at the film's Facebook page here. Updates & links to awesome BW stuff coming to this blog soon.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Possible title design and promo image
Photo by Sujewa Ekanayake. Breakthrough Weekend Copyright 2012 Sujewa Ekanayake/Wild Diner Films NYC.
*
Saturday, September 8, 2012
The type of awesome NYC images, some of the feel/spirit of the movie
This video shot & edited by James Davis (who will most likely be a crew member on this movie) has some of the types of images that we will see in the movie - beautiful images of NYC. Plus the video has the overall positive vibe that the movie will have. Enjoy:
Here Comes the Sun from James Davis on Vimeo.
- SContact
For any questions or comments about Breakthrough Weekend, please contact Producer/Director/Distributor Sujewa Ekanayake at wilddiner@gmail.com.
Friday, September 7, 2012
coming
SOON
*
What does a private detective, an aspiring writer, NYC, & Jungian psychology have in common? A new independent film - a comedy - called Breakthrough Weekend. Going into production soon, & should be available to view early next year/2013!
- S
::
Breakthrough Weekend Copyright 2012 Sujewa Ekanayake/Wild Diner Films NYC
*
What does a private detective, an aspiring writer, NYC, & Jungian psychology have in common? A new independent film - a comedy - called Breakthrough Weekend. Going into production soon, & should be available to view early next year/2013!
- S
::
Breakthrough Weekend Copyright 2012 Sujewa Ekanayake/Wild Diner Films NYC
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