When I first saw the cast of stars, I fully expected quite a bit of comedy.  I also had some trepidation and fear that birders would catch the brunt of the comedic force of Hollywood.  Thankfully, director David Frankel had told me the truth.  He really loved the book and wanted to represent it well.

When I read the script the first time, I was  a bit surprised.  Firstly, I did not realize it was going to be a fictional representation.  Secondly, it had far less comedy than I expected initially.  It painted birders as real people dealing with real passion in a real world.  I had to read it again and then I realized it was better than the first time around.  My own preconceived ideas had colored my ability to properly evaluate it with the first pass.

I read the script a couple more times before flying out to Vancouver to be on the set.  I watched the filming of the movie for 3 weeks.  I got to meet all 3 stars, Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Owen Wilson.  This team is gifted in comedy and I felt they had a good chemistry together.  I thought that although the script was fictional that it did a reasonable job of  capturing the essence of the book.  I was really quite optimistic that it would do well–or at least could do well.  Some of the actors I talked to really liked the script.  The general sentiment was one of anticipation. Continue reading →

Wow.  Thanks to everyone for an exciting opening weekend.  I had a great time seeing the movie 3 times this weekend with lots of birders, friends, and family.  Everyone helped make this a very special weekend for me.  I’m a little bleary-eyed after driving over 1,000 miles this weekend and going right back to work yesterday.  Ooofah.  But hey!  I did stuff like that during my big year in 1998.  Only now I don’t get around as easily.

You know what?  I’ve seen the movie 4 times now and…I still really enjoy it.  But, I am in the minority.  Yeah, and I’m totally biased, too.  Minority, you say?  Yes.  Most folks have totally ignored the movie.  How do I know?  Have you looked at the box office numbers yet?  Have you seen the news?  Terms like “flop”, “tank”, “fail” are being used with some regularity about The Big Year.  How bad can it be?  Well.  Very, very bad.  In fact, record-setting bad.

Why am I upset?  Am I not making a ton of money on royalties for Jack Black playing my character in a movie?  Nope.  No royalties.  Not a penny.  I don’t make any money on whether or not this movie soars or sucks.  So why am I complaining about low numbers?  Simply put, it’s bad for birding.  Not the end of birding.  It’s just that we are losing this vehicle of promotion for our hobby.  If another movie is made soon about birding, it will not be kind to our hobby.

The Big Year movie brought in just under $3.3 million during opening weekend.  Sure, it came in 9th place, but it was a really bad weekend for movie-going.  How bad is $3.3 million?  Well, it is bad enough to set an ALL TIME BOX OFFICE RECORD–and not the kind that is enviable.  The Big Year comes in 29th on the list of All Time Box Office Worst Wide Openings (opening at more than 2,000 theaters).  Wow.  I read a Canadian paper last year that set the production budget for The Big Year at $85 million.  I’m not sure what their sources were.  But with moving a crew of 175 people to location after location every day, I am sure that this movie was not cheap to make.

I heard a recent quote on TV (about The Big Year) that there are 46 million birders in the U.S.  I think I’ve heard a 20% number from the mid-2000′s from the USFWS about the number of birders.  But I’m just throwing numbers out now.  I don’t have the research to back it up.  So how many people saw the movie in theaters opening weekend?  Using 2010 average nationwide movie price of $7.89, you come up with a little more than 400,000 folks who went to theaters to see The Big Year.  That is incredibly low even for a bad movie.  So where are the other 45 million birders?  Ahh.  Well.  I don’t know.  They certainly were not seeing a movie about their hobby.

So here we have a movie that does NOT paint birders in a bad light.  It actually attempts to make them out to be real people who are passionate about their hobby (or “calling” haha).  If Hollywood really wanted to make a boat load of money, they could have (and probably should have) lampooned us with derisive humor and made merciless fun at how silly we all are.  Now *that* may have performed much better at the box office.  Maybe that is what everyone else was hoping for?  I don’t know.

One thing is for certain now.  It is going to be a VERY long time–if ever again–that Hollywood will attempt to do a movie like this again.  Why?  Because only 400,000 people care (less than 1% of the total population of the U.S.).  So if you want to see this movie on the big screen, you’d better hurry–no RUSH to the nearest theater and see it now because I don’t look for a money-losing movie to stay in theaters for long.

Thanks to everyone who made my opening evening a memorable one!  It was great!  I enjoyed it immensely.  I can’t write much this morning.  I gotta pack up the car and drive from Ohio to Maryland today.  Why?  haha!  I’m glad you asked–so I can go see The Big Year again with all my friends from Maryland (where I lived during my big year in 1998).  Here are the particulars:

Date: Saturday, 15 Oct 2011 Time: 07:20 PM
Location: UA Snowden Square Stadium 14
9141 Commerce Center Dr
Columbia, MD 21046

Here is link to a map and for directions:
http://www.yelp.com/map/united-artist-snowden-square-14-columbia

The movie was enjoyable the second time around, too.  That’s usually a sign a movie has some holding power.  Let’s hope that’s true for other viewers as well.  If you’re a birder and you’re reading this, you should definitely go see the movie yourself, then go see it again with a non birding friend.  The movie does a nice job of painting us birders as real people with passions that lead us down exciting and unique paths.

Gotta run!  See you at the movie!

Hollywood’s not having a Premiere for The Big Year, so we’ll have to have our own!

Join me in North Canton for a viewing of the movie, The Big Year!

North Canton Tinseltown Theater @  7:20pm

See you all there!  Ok, there will not be a red carpet and dress is birding casual!

Finally, we’re getting some publicity for the movie!  For a long time I figured they must be practicing Ninja Marketing–the kind you cannot see or hear. hahaha.  But now we are getting ads on TV, movie clips on the Internet, and Previews in the theaters.  Are you getting excited?  I sure am!

Here are some clips, interviews, and online articles if you haven’t gotten your fill yet:

The Big Year stars (Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, Jack Black) on Good Morning America

Jack Black Interview on The Big Year

Owen Wilson Interview on The Big Year

Steve Martin Interview on The Big Year

Director David Frankel Interview on The Big Year

Rosamund Pike Interview on The Big Year

Daily Herald (Chicago area) article on The Big Year

The Big Year – Stu and Brad Scare Kenny Clip

The Big Year – Stu’s Advice Clip

The Big Year – The Bridge Clip

The Big Year – Sea Sick Stu Clip

Wow!  See what I was talking about?  Lots of stuff out there now.  Pretty cool.  So, now we already have a trailer with a Swainson’s Hawk in the forest in the snow…and <drumroll>…tonight I saw an ad on TV and heard a Common Loon…in a forest.  Umm.  I sure hope there is lake close by.  You know, some sounds were added after the Bird Guy was no longer there.  Those sneaky film people.  Sigh.  Oh, well.  What was I expecting.  Hollywood *LOVES* the sound of the Common Loon.  So do I.  But in its place, of course!  Oh, dear.  What else is gonna be there?  I can only imagine there’s going to be more CRINGE material.  But imagine what it might have looked like without any input from that Bird Guy.

Oh, man I cannot wait.  I think these last few days have been 30-hour days and everything is going in s-l-o-w m-o-t-i-o-n.

Stay tuned to this blog.  I’ve got some commentary coming soon on some of the clips.

Wow!  Time is racing by at an alarming pace.  As you can imagine, I am so excited that it seems like this whole thing is completely unreal.

I had a blast seeing so many of you at Midwest Birding Symposium and a couple nights ago at Columbus Audubon.  The talks were easy to give to such great audiences.  I am optimistic that this is a good time for birding.  We are on the edge of something brand new and exciting.  It will be up to all of us to usher in a new age of birding and increased exposure in the public eye.

So much is happening.  Here are a few things to be looking for:

• Most of you have seen movie trailers on TV on a variety of networks – watch for different versions!
• More interviews with me will be headed your way as we near movie release time; for you local folks, you’ll be happy to know even the Bargain Hunter will be carrying an interview.  Look for some pub in the Columbus Dispatch soon and an interview on NPR (WKSU) nearer the release date of the movie.  There are already a number of interviews on blogs floating around already, too.
• Sadly (for me anyways) there will be no Hollywood Premiere of this movie; but, in its place look for more TV appearances on talk shows of Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Owen Wilson;  here’s one I already know about–all 3 actors will be on Jay Leno on Thursday night, October 6.
• Watch for Making of ‘The Big Year’ on HBOe starting on October 5
• I’ve updated my schedule under the Events tab on my website
• And here are some new movie clips!
• Movie clip #1
• Movie clip #2
• Movie clip #3

And now, I need to have some me time with my pillow.   Good night everyone.  Two weeks from tomorrow the movie comes out.  It’s been such a long wait and now it just seems to be so imaginary.  Sigh.  I hope I can sleep tonight.  The 10-year-old boy inside of me is as excited as can be!  Haha!