Compensation

Hi. I thought I would pass along some relevant articles that I find. The interesting thing about the following AP article is the similarites to John Stoll and the others in our film. John did get compensation from the state (he was the only person in our film to get this kind of compensation.) Some of the others won civil suits and others got nothing. Regardless, there is an amazing commonality among the wrongly convicted that I've met. They are not bitter! Can you imagine? I'd like to think that I'd be that way too...

Check it out...


Georgia set to pay back wrongly imprisoned manThe Associated Press - ATLANTA
A man wrongly imprisoned nearly 25 years for rape is set to get a $1.2 million payback from the state.
On Monday, the Georgia House will consider paying Robert Clark that much in restitution for his time in prison for a 1981 attack before DNA evidence cleared his name two years ago.
The resolution, by Rep. Larry O'Neal, a Republican from Warner Robins, says the Atlanta man's imprisonment "occurred through no fault or negligence on the part of Mr. Clark, and it is only fitting and proper that he be compensated for his loss."
The state Claims Advisory Board, the first panel to hear requests for restitution from the state, heard Clark's case last month and recommended that the Legislature pay him.
Secretary of State Karen Handel, the board's chairwoman, said she was moved by Clark's demeanor when he made his case.
"What I am so struck about you is that you sit there and you're smiling. You are amazing _ really," she said before the board's vote.
After the vote, she hugged Clark and held his hand as she spoke privately with him.
"She was very touched that this man, who should probably be bitter to the world, was not," Handel spokeswoman Vicki Gavalas said Friday.
The board left the amount of restitution up to the Legislature. The $1.2 million is based on the income Clark lost while imprisoned, personal injury, injury to his reputation and other damages.
Clark, now 46, had no prior felony convictions. He was the 197th person nationally and the sixth in Georgia to be cleared by DNA evidence of a criminal conviction, according to The Innocence Project, a New York-based group that works to overturn wrongful convictions.
"Just rebuilding a life is so difficult," said Lisa George, spokeswoman for the Georgia Innocence Project. "It's gratifying to know that the Georgia House of Representatives is seeing the problem, listening to the need and responding."
George said the $1.2 million check may sound like a lot, but that when Clark's losses are considered it's really not.
Clark was a 21-year-old house painter when he was arrested. "If he'd just kept doing that from the day he was arrested to the day he got out of prison, his hard-dollar losses were over $1 million," she said.
Under the restitution plan, Clark will get monthly checks from the state over the next 15 years totaling about $80,000 per year. The checks will still be subject to federal taxes.
Last year, the Legislature agreed to pay $1 million over 20 years to Clarence Harrison, another Georgia man who was freed after a wrongful imprisonment.
O'Neal, who argued Clark's case before the claims board, invited him to attend the House vote Monday. George said Clark _ who told the claims board he's been "struggling a little bit on and off" since his release in December 2005 _ is now working a construction job, but is trying to get time off to attend.
She said Clark has received a couple of job promotions since starting work last year and hopes to become a crane operator.
"His attitude has been great," said George, who said Clark still stops by the Innocence Project office for visits. "He'll be covered in concrete dust from head to toe, as filthy as he can be, and smiling just like the day he walked out of prison."
___

Getting the Word Out

Hello all.
Sorry I haven't been blogging lately. I wrote this really long blog after our screening last month and it got erased right away which annoyed me so I lost my enthusiasm to write after that. But don't worry, I'm back!!! Things have been going well. We've been tweaking away since the screening and now we're really trying to nail down the narration issue. If this can happen in the next 6 weeks or so we are going to try for a Toronto submission... everyone send their good Karma!

Yesterday we sent out our inaugural news letter. We got a ton of response from Witch Hunt fans. We also had a flurry of activity on our website. If you're not on our mailing list please let us know you're out there and we'll send you up to date information on the film and how you can take part of our grassroots effort to tell this important story! Here's our first newsletter for those of you who didn't get it!

Hello Friends.

This is the inaugural monthly "news letter" for our film An American Witch Hunt. Many of you have been following the progress of this movie for the last two years and now we are finally proud to report that we have a feature length cut of the documentary. Thanks to those of you in Northern California who came to the first screening of the film. The feedback was very positive and, more importantly, very useful. When you see the next cut of the film you will probably notice some of your ideas reflected in the changes we made. Since that screening we have been meeting with post production houses coast to coast trying to figure out the best way to put the final touches on both the audio and visuals of the film. Most of our efforts right now are going into finding the perfect narrator for the project. We hope to have an announcement on this soon. Also, we will be starting our fundraising drive any day now... so stay tuned for that.

We are trying to spread the word about this important documentary. If you want to be a part of our grassroots effort we'd love to have you. Please check out our website and write to us to let us know what you think. Let us know your ideas about how to get the word out. We want An American Witch Hunt to have buzz before anyone in the film world even knows much about it. Tell your friends and tell us about your friends so we can add them to our network which is 200 people strong, and growing! The injustice that happened to the wrongly accused in this film and their families needs to come to light. Please be a part of our team to make this happen.

See you soon in the theatres.

Thanks for your support!

Dana Nachman and Don Hardy

First Screening

We had our first screening yesterday at Santa Clara University. It was awesome to see it in a room with 40 people. We passed out response cards and got some GREAT feedback. Peter is going to put some of the comments up on our website. We are going to do some tweaking on the film after we compile the data from the response cards. Go Julie, she's in charge of this task. It seemed like people were pretty struck by the story. You can't really ask for anything more!

We're plowing ahead

We had a meeting with our market research consultant yesterday. We sound so sophisticated don't we! It's just that we have all these really talented friends that are providing their services for us for free. So, Julie... a PhD from Stanford is helping us prepare for our screening. After watching the movie and meeting with us, she is coming up with a questionnaire for the screening.

Speaking of the screening, it's creeping up on us. It's a week from tomorrow. We are holding it at a very relevant locale. It's at the moot court room at Santa Clara University. That's where the law students practice their court room skills. Anyway, Cookie hooked us up there. It's a very cool venue so we're excited about that.

So we've got a lot to do before next Saturday. Today Don received a new CD with four killer tracks of music on it. Joe outdid himself once again. This stuff is GOOD! Don's going to throw some of that music around. Meanwhile Bobee and I are going to work tomorrow at an undisclosed location on the graphics. We are going to start with the title page, and then work on the slates that are throughout the movie. Some of our photos shimmy quite a bit so we're going to see if Bobee can work some magic on them. We're really toying with the title page. If you have any good ideas send us a comment or two. Tonight I'm kinda into the whole red, white and blue theme because of the name change. You know we are now, "An American Witch Hunt" formerly "Witch Hunt."

Does this look cool?

An
American Witch Hunt

or

An
American
Witch Hunt naaaaah

hmmmm..... we'll just have to see.

And lastly, we received a gold mine today of photos from Victor Monge today. Thank the lord. He's one of the boys in the film who testified against John. We've been waiting for these photos for about a year so today is a great day.

That's what we have going on this weekend. Music. Graphics. Editing... (and Peter's going skiing.)

It's definitely all happening. And I think I can say that for the first time neither Don nor I is upset about the status of the film. Usually one of us has some major problem with it. Not this weekend. All's good in our world.

Peace out Friends!

--

www.luckyexitfilms.com

Big Week

Hello friends.
This has been a big week for us. We actually have a completed cut.... it's coming in at an hour and thirty seven minutes. We've showed it to our significant others and my mom - I admit, not an impartial crowed. But, so far so good. They all seem to really like it. My mom even shed a tear at the end. I made my mom cry. Per Don's idea, I think we may be flip/flopping the first two segments. At first it made my brain hurt to watch it that way, but now I think I like it. Strange. Tomorrow morning we are showing it to the Innocence Project attorneys. That should be interesting. I don't think they've seen anything except the first 15 minutes or so.

We should be having a screening/focus group in a few weeks. If anyone reads this and is interested in coming please let us know. We are really getting excited! It's hard to sleep at night!

I want to have a quick shout out to Kim... she's our number one blogging fan! Go Kim!

Saturday Fun

Don and I are at his house having out typical Saturday fun. We are actually working on the last scene! Can you believe it? After all this time???? Very exciting. I'm pretty sure it's going to be right in the ball park of an hour and a half. That's exactly what we want. I'm actually pretty shocked that it is timing out. I'd love it to be an hour and 27 minutes. For those of you who have never been to Vegas with me, I have a minor obsession with the number 27. It's seriously a lucky number. And with this project, and this industry it seems like luck plays a big part in what happens to your 'picture.' I noticed that's what Hollywood insiders call movies. I like it. Old school. I think I'm going to start saying,"I went to see the picture on Saturday night."

Over the next couple of weeks we will have a very nice rough cut of the picture. We will then show it to some respected friends for input. Meanwhile, we will put a serious effort in finding a narrator. We feel now that we have something to show, so the person will know what he's getting himself into. We have a person we're very interested in doing it. We've started a top ten list of some others in case that person falls through. Please keep your fingers crossed on that one... it would be a pretty big deal for us. In terms of our list, we're looking for someone with a solid voice who has star power. Someone who would get "butts in the seats." This will be January's big job for me. This while Don tweaks and tweaks and tweaks.

We're still waiting on pictures from some of our main people in the film. We love them, but gosh it takes them forever to get to the post office!!!!

As always, thanks for your interest! Write with any questions or comments.

Getting Somewhere

Hey Witch Hunt Fans!
So, Don and I watched the whole film minus the last scene the other day. Boy, was that energizing! You see, we have been editing one or two scenes at a time for the last six months or so. We saw the first 20 minutes all together. But since then we haven't really seen a good chunk. I was getting nervous because who knew if all the transitions would work. And honestly they don't. A few need some tweaking. But I have to say most of it really flows. We have some serious work to do an two scenes in the middle and then the last scene. WOW! I think we'll be ready to start our focus groups in January. It's very exciting! I felt really good getting it all together. It's 1:20 minutes.... woah!

If 2q wqqqqqqqqqqqs `Q2 22222222```````````````````````````````````QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQA

Annie just came over that was from her.

Special Guest

We have a special guest with us today, which is Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! Anyway, our friend John Stoll is here with us in Palo Alto on this fine day. It's been very nice to see his face! He arrived last night and will be staying through Saturday. Yay for us. So I thought while I have him here I would ask him a few questions and write his answers for all of you. In case you don't know who John is, he is the main character in our film. His picture is on the Which Hunt page... check it out. Anyway here's John.

Dana: How is your Thanksgiving so far this year? (we haven't eatten yet but plan to when the wee one wakes up.)

John: Well, I'm really pleased to be here with you guys. You make me feel like part of the family.

Dana: We just previewed the second 20 minutes of the film, nice lighthearted Thanksgiving viewing. What did you think?

John: I was really impressed. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Dana: Is it weird to see yourself in a movie?

John: Are you kidding? Of course it is. I'm glad to be part of the project.

Dana: What's it like seeing all the other people?

John: Saddening. You start to think about yourself but when you see how many there were of us. It's sad to see how many lives were ruined.

Dana: What's your favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal.

John: Turkey. We never got real Turkey in prison

Dana: DO you have any fun plans for the near future, you're always going somewhere.

John: This summer I would like to go to Europe. But right now I'm just enjoying living at the beach. I even have a little tan don't I? I'm also going to the Rolling Stones concert in December.

We're going to sign off and go eat! As always, thanks for checking us out!!

Dana

Letters from prison

Hi, y'all.
Things are moving right along. Don and I work religiously every Saturday, and today was no exception. Admittedly, Don did way more work than I. I had to log some extra Saturday hours with the fam because of my trip to LA earlier in the week. That was for my day job at NBC.

Anyway, when I returned home on Wednesday I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me. A huge box from Brenda and Scott Kniffen. They are two of the characters in the film. They're a super nice couple that we've met through all this. I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that they sent me a binder of letters that they wrote to each other while they were in prison. Let me tell you, this is a love story. These are legit love letters. We are going to reveal some of these letters about 40 minutes into the film. They are very very touching. I do believe that their love story is a film in and of itself. Alas, another project for another time. We are so thrilled that Brenda and Scott agreed to be in this film.

More to come soon... by the way, we have about 50 edited minutes. Yes, I'm anxious to finish it... we're getting there!

Let us know if you have any ideas for our website!

Thanks for listening.

Dana

The Innocence Project

So, I don't know if our website really addresses the fact that we are working with the Northern California Innocence Project. I've been working with them for so long that I just assume everyone knows about the Innocence Project... do you? If not, here's a little explainer. The Innocence Project started in New York and has satellite groups all over the country. Our local one is in Santa Clara, it's affiliated with Santa Clara University's law school. They represent people who are the victims of wrongful conviction. Most of them get cleared by DNA evidence. It's this relatively new technology that's brought the concept of wrongful convictions to the forefront of our society. DNA cases are clear; either the perpetrator's DNA matches the DNA evidence from the case, that means he's guilty, or it doesn't, and he's innocent. Now take it even a step farther... if DNA cases show that there are indeed wrongful convictions then we have to assume that even for cases where there is no DNA available, there are people who are mistakenly behind bars. Cookie Ridolfi is the director of the Northern California Innocence Project. She says they believe one percent of people who are in prison are actually innocent. That's a lot of people. And those people are represented in our film. We're really proud to be able to tell their stories. Each one of them is cooler than the next. Even though we've been working on this project for two years, I still can't believe this happened. I can't believe these people spent DECADES behind bars for nothing. It's unbelievable! Please join us in our outrage and support them and the film! Thanks, as always, for listening!!!

Viral Marketing

Hi friends,
It's been so long since I've written (Peter wrote that last one.) We're happy to be back, I think we weathered that last storm with that out of the blue media coverage. Gosh, who knew that a film that's not even done yet, that really no one knows much about would be news. Strange. Anyway, things are going along quite well. We've got about 40 minutes or so edited pretty well and about another 40 roughly edited. We're happy with our progress. People who have gotten a sneak peak say they wanted more and were bummed when the DVD went to black. We take that as a good sign. This weekend we're taking a little break because of the "Bridge School Benefit" which might as well be a national holiday for Don. He's quite the Neil Young fan (I would say freak but he might get mad.) We're all meeting tomorrow, Don may come up and slum for a while on the lawn with my family. He's so high brow. Anyway, about the subject at hand... do any of you know anything about Viral Marketing? We are interested in the little we know about this concept and want to learn more. We have plans to blog everywhere, get some of our stuff out on You Tube and do what ever it is you do on MySpace. If you all have other good ideas please share... either comment here or send us an email.

Other than that, we have established an LLC for the film. We feel pretty good about that. Now, we're doing things like setting up bank accounts, filing with the state and keeping books. This would all be really complicated if we actually had some business transactions, but since we're not making any money and we're not really spending any money right now, it's not the complicated. We did go out to lunch to see if our new Business Card worked, we spent $23.23. It worked.

Glad you all are coming back. Some of you were very diligent, checking the site even when we went dark. Thanks for caring, and don't worry, one of these days we're going to show you a heck of a movie!

Peace Out!

We're back.

We had to go stealth for a few months, but we're back. Not that we don't like attention, but we got a little too much earlier in the summer at a time when we needed to focus on the grunt work of making a movie.

In short, a TV station aired a news story about the documentary (without contacting us) and the story was subsequently picked up by the AP wire and reported on in five California papers. Some key details were misrepresented, and rather than have incorrect info in the public eye, we decided to shut down the site for a few months.