99 Bottles Documentary in Milwaukee and Madison + Q&A with filmmaker Jason Williams! Read It Now!

99 BOTTLES
a documentary about WI and Beer

4 shows on 4 different nights.

Arrive 30 minutes before all show times for FREE Beer Tasting

WHERE: Times Cinema (Milwaukee)
WHEN: November 6-9
Thursday at 7:00pm
Friday at 7:00pm
Saturday at 7:00pm
Sunday at 4:00pm

WHERE Orpheum Theater (Madison)
WHEN: Nov 13-16
Thursday at 7:00pm
Friday at 7:00pm
Saturday at 7:00pm
Sunday at 4:00pm

“99 Bottles Documentary” was created to promote exposure and public awareness of the rich and vibrant craft brewing industry.

Visit the site for more details and the trailer: 99bottlesdocumentary.com

What prompted a doc on beer?

The producers David Oplinger and Glen Popple were interested in developing a project that was home grown. They were discussing ideas while taking down a few brews at Wolski’s Tavern. Glen relayed a story that his co-worker kept bugging him to make a documentary about craft breweries. “That is a great idea,” said Dave. The great part of the story is there was no such documentary made about this subject before. They decided to start asking the different breweries about the project and found out that all of them were thrilled to have their stories of history shared to the world, or at least in Wisconsin.

How long did it take to shoot this doc?

The documentary pre-production planning started in February simultaneously with shooting. The idea was to shoot the general “beer enthusiast” and ask their impression of the industry. One of the questions we asked was, “If you could ask a brewmaster anything, what would it be?” This lead to the list of questions that became the focal point of the interviews with brewmasters and owners. Principal photography lasted from February through May. The logistical issue was scheduling trips to other cities each week to get the necessary footage. We went as far as Sand Creek Brewing Co. in Black River Falls, which is 3.5 hours one way.

War story to share? Crazy day during production?

The biggest war story is the Premiere debacle. The gallant effort we choose was, shoot, edit, and distribute a full feature documentary within 6 months to the Harley Fest lovers. In the final day of editing for the premiere the Compressor failed to output a media file to burn a DVD. After repeated attempts the program crashed at about 20 to 30 minutes through each attempt. The thought was to work solid full time for 1.5 months to cut a feature documentary and deliver a show, but the luck wasn’t there. The lesson is “pick the show date last, not from the start”.

The craziest day during production was obviously the above failed premiere.

What are you working on next?

Currently I’m working on 2 projects. I am in post for a short called “Indefinite”. The premiere of the trailer will be shown during the “99 Bottles Documentary” shows. “Indefinite” is a co-directed project with Christopher Kuiper. He will be penning a comic book series that ties in with the short.

The other project is a feature narrative with R. Michael Gull titled “New Day”. Michael is co-writing with Jon Anne Willow and he will star in the film. We are in the pre-production phase and will start shooting some scenes in November and then pick up the rest in January. The story is about Robert Logan whose wife Alison was on American Airlines Flight 77′ that crashed into the Pentagon during the 911 tragedy. Fast forward to the present day of 2009 and Robert finds his wife in a mental hospital. In his attempt to rescue her he finds she is the beginning of an elaborate cover up behind the 911 tragedy. What is important about “New Day” for me is the local connection. We have the bulk of the story occur in Wisconsin. With our Ultra-low budget funding we hope to contribute to the growth of the local film community by hiring Wisconsin crew and cast.