Runaway Pen Productions

In the recent week, the Runaway Pen Productions short film, “Cold October,” directed by Mikel J. Wisler, has gained a quite a bit of film festival attention. “Cold October” will be playing at the 2009 ShockerFestin Riverbank, California on September 26th at 10 AM. In October, the film will be playing at two festivals. The first is the 2009 Terror Film Festival (TFF) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from October 20th to 24th. The second is 2009 Southern Appalachian International Film Festival (SOAPIFF) taking place on the campus of East Tennessee State University from October 22nd to 31st. “Cold October” will be playing at TFF on October 22 at 6:45 PM. SOAPIFF has not yet announced their screening schedule and nominations for awards.

As for award nominations, “Cold October” has garnered a nomination forBest Horror Short Film at the ShockerFest and Best Screenplay at TFF.Wisler and Andrew Gilbert, who also produced, shot, and acted in the film, conceptualized and wrote the script together. These two nominations represent the first nominations for festival awards for aproject by Runaway Pen Productions.

“It’s really surreal to suddenly have our film playing in three places and getting nominations,” says Wisler. “We’re very excited. These things take some time, and it can be really easy to lose the momentum while you spend a year submitting a short film to festivals. Lord knows we’ve piled up the rejection letters as is. But then, suddenly, it’s like the film finally finds its crowd, it’s fit. It’s also a little crazy to think that we wrapped shooting on ‘Cold October’ almost two whole years ago. I love this film; it’s really something special to me. And yet, Ido feel that we’ve really improved as filmmakers since making ‘Cold October.’ So it’s really cool to see it get all this attention at last,and gives me real hope that ‘Always Reaching’—which we are submitting to festivals now—and ‘Evaluating Kaitly,’ which we are currently cutting, will also enjoy some great festival exposure in the next couple of years."

Wisler plans on attending the 2009 Terror Film Festival. "I'd love to make it to all of them" he explains. "But I'm just not able to get out toCalifornia right now, and Terror and Southern Appalachian happen almostat the same time. Due to those factors and a tight indie filmmaker'stravel budget, I'm afraid I have to stick close to home right now.Regardless, we're all paying careful attention to what's going on ateach of these festivals."

Still frame from "Cold October." Matthew Eaton (left) and Brittany Baughman (Fried) (right).