Okay… so Sunday was as cool as Saturday was. I started the day by participating in a panel discussion called “Low-Budget Filmmaking Secrets,” moderated by my buddy Rob Sucato of Monsoon Films. It was myself and 3 other filmmakers, including fellow Arizona filmmaker Susan Brigham, director of Festival feature Greasewood Flat.
After the panel, me and the team hit the promo thing hard and tried to get rid of the rest of our postcards. We definitely hit saturation sometime on Sunday afternoon and it seemed everyone had heard of us by then.
At 3:10 we had our second screening of The Falls. Once again, a PACKED HOUSE, a near sell-out. Some folks who had seen it on Saturday actually came back for a second viewing - “to catch the clues we missed the first time,” I heard someone say. There was a strong contingent of Buffalo people in the audience too, and they seemed to love the film. I always think Buffalonians are going to hate it. I guess they get what I am saying with the film after all and don’t take any of it personally. Again, a great Q&A session - but this time I gave out a few of our T-shirts to those who asked the best questions. That got things flowing nicely and I answered as many insightful questions as I did on Saturday.
I couldn’t be happier with the turnout for the film on both days. Maybe it was the fact that the Festival directors kept putting me out there in the press (Channel 12, Arizona Republic twice, and on the internet in a couple of places), maybe it was how hard we promoted, maybe it was our website, maybe it was the fact that over 10,000 people (a record) attended this year’s event - or maybe it was more likely the combination of all of the above. Whatever it was, it worked. Now more people have seen my film than in all the previous screenings combined. Even more people came up to us throughout the evening on Sunday, congratulating us on a job well-done and complimenting our efforts. I could not have been happier with the whole experience.
Well… okay, so I could have been happier had I won an award. The Copper Wing Awards Ceremony concluded the Festival on Sunday night. It was pretty much the “Black Cloud show,” as Rick Schroder’s film cleaned up in almost every category. He seemed like he worked hard for it, so more power to him. But still… I can’t help but think that in the final analysis his film doesn’t need the help that those awards would have given another filmmaker that didn’t have a “name.” People came to see his film because it was Rick Schroder’s film. People will do that when it’s distributed, too. A Copper Wing for Best Ensemble Cast really isn’t going to alter that film’s destiny one iota, and it’s unfortunate that the judges couldn’t see that.
Anyway, that was the one sour note in the whole thing. It’s not that I wanted the awards - I never expected them. Considering that a certain very successful producer’s rep told me in 2002 that “this film will never get accepted to a film festival,” the fact that we got into 3 festivals this year is all the reward I need. Not to mention it’s proof of William Goldman’s adage about nobody in this business knowing anything.
One nice thing… Susan Brigham won Best Arizona Filmmaker. That was refreshing. And while Black Cloud won the Audience Award, Break a Leg won Best Feature. So it wasn’t 100% the Rick Schroder show.
So, we all went over to the tent and raised a few glasses and said a few goodbyes. This was such an amazing experience -exhausting, exhilarating, much too intense, glad it’s over but you don’t want it to end. Much like shooting a film.
Since I didn’t get to make a speech, I didn’t get to publicly thank Chris LaMont and Golan Ramras, the directors of the Phoenix Film Festival, for their support and for the terrific event they put together. Their staff of volunteers was nothing short of amazing. I can’t wait for next year’s Festival - whether I have a film in it or not!
