All right… time to get current on the ol’ blog. Surprisingly, Dances With Films has been a relatively low-key film festival. Certainly not party-centric like Phoenix’s fest was. In fact, the only parties DWF throws are the opening filmmaker party (which we missed) and the closing night awards party, which is tonight. But the lack of parties aside, DWF is extremely well-run and the screening venue at the Laemmle’s 4-Plex is one of the best we’ve screened at.
Unfortunately, Steve Briscoe was not able to join us due to work obligations back in Buffalo, but I know he was here with us in spirit, as was my wife Laura who’s back home in AZ. I found out early on Monday that Briscoe wasn’t coming, shortly after Steve Macia and I hit the road. Oh well.
Anyway, we hit L.A. at around 2:30 on Monday and met up with Ken Dapper. We ended up crashing at his place in Santa Monica. This is the 2nd time Ken has put me and one of the Steve’s up at his place, though last time it was at his place in NYC. Ken has turned out to be yet another great friend that I have made through the experience of making the film, and one I am very grateful for. We’re all in this thing together.
So we checked in at DWF on Monday afternoon and of course met up with Uncle Mike there. He’s a real trooper, hustling from one end of the country to the other for his nephew. Again, it’s just been great to have him aboard this project and so involved in this aspect of it. The DWF folks were wonderful and got us up to speed on everything very quickly. Then after a short time, we headed over to Hollywood and a screening venue called Cinespace for the premiere of “Crown Molding,” a short film written and directed by Kristin Goodman, Steve Macia’s cousin. Steve and I helped Kristin and her husband Eli shoot the film in December (I was DP, Macia was gaffer). It was possibly the first time in film history that a film crew and equipment were shipped INTO Los Angeles from Arizona for a film. I also edited the film, and it was great working with another director in both those capacities. Anyway, the screening was great and the film was very well-received. It opened for a feature called Solitude that was shot on DV in the Dogme style, and was coincidentally set in and around Phoenix. Weird. Kristin and company hosted a little gathering afterward, which we attended. Another great group of people.
On Tuesday, we spent most of the day at DWF, doing what little we could to promote the screening. Basically, it was really too late to get a big group of viewers into the theatre. It was not like Phoenix in that the festival only had one screen so there were limited opportunities to promote the film to festival attendees as they left other screenings. Really, I sort of feel like I dropped the ball on promoting the screening in advance and so we were ill-prepared. Well, I was in the middle of moving into a new house, so if that sounds like a crappy excuse I guess it is. Whatever.
At least the producers of our opening short did their homework and got a decent audience in there. The film is called “The Lazy Assassin” and was very funny in a dark sort of way. Another weird coincidence though - the writer-director and the producer were both from Rochester, NY, just 60 miles from Buffalo. Weirder still, the writer-director was born in Arizona before her family moved to Rochester.
Two people who made it to the screening on my invite were Brian Veronica, our 2nd A.D. It was awesome to see him as I have not seen him since the shoot in ‘01. He’s been working as an actor and has done a couple more indies since The Falls. The other guest was Pete Evans, who worked with me at Rainbow Studios back in the “Starship Troopers” days. Pete was one of the guys I bounced the script off of a lot and his input was invaluable back then. Pete left Rainbow before I did and has since been working in visual effects on films like Hulk and Hellboy. Pete’s also an alum of the school where I currently teach.
The screening was great and the audience that was there was very responsive, asked great questions at the end, and had many positive comments about the film. Basically, it was the same as at the previous screenings. Good applause at the end, too. All in all, I can’t complain. Playing in L.A. at all is just an awesome accomplishment, and everyone I have spoken to is just emphatic about that fact. “Cracking the L.A. nut,” as my writer-director pal Seth Landau said. Sounds about right.
My only beef with the screening was the quality of the Digital Betacam transfer we did in Phoenix. It basically SUCKED. No one’s fault but mine, really. Trying to get from DV to DigiBeta and keep the signal digital throughout is actually harder than it should be. But I think we have the problem licked, which we will need to if we’re going to deliver a good master tape to our distributor shortly.
So today we’re just hanging at the festival and then attending the closing night party. Hope to make some more good contacts there. Then it’s back to AZ tomorrow!
The Falls, Films, Film Festivals | No Comments »
