I just remember how loud the bar was--where everyone was trying to network. It was a bit comical. I also am notoriously uninterested in networking. It's an anti-social thing.
----------
Local actor Ken Arnold(who I believe helped organize the fest) and local celebrity/news personality Wendy Reiger, who announced the awards
November 13th, 2005Yeah, been busy attending the Annapolis Film Festival this week(end), so haven't done anything with the blog.
I'll do a blog on the fest when I get back from the "Champagne Awards Ceremony" tonight. And no, I don't expect to win anything.
But getting my ass kissed by all the filmmakers who don't have a distribution deal is kind of an award all by itself, isn't it?
Annapolis Film Festival
So, Friday night my wife and I went to the fest and watched the opening night movie, "Alchemy". It starred the lead actor from that television show "Ed", plus the lead girl from that television show "Scrubs". I could look their names up for you but what fun would that be?
The film was okay. A little slow--and the sound mix was all messed up--but it had some entertaining parts.
After the show we went to the party. Pretty packed, and I'm not sure why they do it but they hire a band that plays incredibly loud. So all these people who want to network and chat end up screaming to be heard over the music.
To my surprise, the festival director brought the director of "Alchemy" over to meet me, and we chatted for five or ten minutes. He got real interested when I mentioned that Lion's Gate picked up the film.
We left early--didn't feel the need to be there.
Saturday we arrived for the showing of "FOC"--met that goofball Stewie out front and gave him one of my free tickets. When we got to the place they were to show FOC, everybody was leaving--some other movie had just ended.
For five minutes there I thought no one would be at my showing. For once, I didn't really mind. Then people started showing up. All told, about forty of them came.
The flick started and I watched where the audience couldn't see me watching THEM. After a couple of minutes I went upstairs to see how many people were watching the movie that had been put in the main auditorium.
Seven. Niiiiice. But I'm glad we weren't there--my film would have blown the speakers out of the water there.
The crowd was weird. Not laughing in places that normally got a laugh, and laughing at other times I'd never heard one. Of course, there's still one line in the film that always gets the big laugh, and it didn't fail here either.
They'll probably inscribe it on my headstone. (Note: Line in question: "That's the biggest fucking clown I've ever seen.")
The movie ended and I got up to answer questions. This New Yorker says "I got 2 questions for you: First, is the rumor true that Lion's Gate picked up your film, and question 2: How do you justify the way you cheated the audience with the fake ending and then the other ending?"
Nice, easy opening question. It was nice to be able to start: "Yes, Lion's Gate picked it up". I think I was pretty gracious with the second part of the answer.
Anyway, got a bunch more questions which I answered in a more or less intelligent fashion. A lot of the questions were easy because I've gotten them in interviews I've already done.
The New Yorker turns out to be the guy who made the only other movie at the festival that I wanted to see. He wouldn't stop asking me questions and talking to me, even though other people wanted to chat and have me sign posters.
Sunday I got up early(for me) and went to see New Yorker's film with my dad(who digs the Creature From The Black Lagoon also). The film was playing at 2:30 in the big auditorium, and New Yorker was terrified no one would show. He got about 30 people in his showing, which honestly isn't bad considering football's on television and the weather was really nice.
His film was pretty interesting too, though it bogged down about an hour in.
I jetted home and got ready to go back for the awards reception. For once they had some nice food. I skipped the champagne and had a water, then took some pics as they gave the awards to movies I've never heard of, and ones you'll probably never hear of.
Someone asked me if it bothered me that I didn't win. I said I'd rather have the money than the awards.
It reminded me of a cartoon I saw shortly after Spielberg once again wasn't nominated for an Academy Award(before he won one). It had ET walking away from the Oscar statue holding two big bags of money. My feeling exactly.
But I'm serious in saying that every filmmaker who heard I had a deal with Lion's Gate was all over me. They wouldn't leave me alone, asking me questions, saying we should get together and do a project.
The New York guys want me to swing by their place if I get to New York. Interesting factoid: They know Keith David very well(he was the producer of and also narrator of their movie), and being a massive John Carpenter fan, I'd love to put him in one of my flicks. If you don't know, he's the black guy in "The Thing", the guy Rowdy Roddy Piper fights over sunglasses in "They Live" and he was one of the guys in "Prince of Darkness".
So, an interesting festival but I'm glad I'm done with them for this movie. On to the rest.
The film was okay. A little slow--and the sound mix was all messed up--but it had some entertaining parts.
After the show we went to the party. Pretty packed, and I'm not sure why they do it but they hire a band that plays incredibly loud. So all these people who want to network and chat end up screaming to be heard over the music.
This pic below is from the awards-show thingee, not the party
(where I didn't have a camera)
(where I didn't have a camera)
To my surprise, the festival director brought the director of "Alchemy" over to meet me, and we chatted for five or ten minutes. He got real interested when I mentioned that Lion's Gate picked up the film.
We left early--didn't feel the need to be there.
Saturday we arrived for the showing of "FOC"--met that goofball Stewie out front and gave him one of my free tickets. When we got to the place they were to show FOC, everybody was leaving--some other movie had just ended.
For five minutes there I thought no one would be at my showing. For once, I didn't really mind. Then people started showing up. All told, about forty of them came.
The flick started and I watched where the audience couldn't see me watching THEM. After a couple of minutes I went upstairs to see how many people were watching the movie that had been put in the main auditorium.
Seven. Niiiiice. But I'm glad we weren't there--my film would have blown the speakers out of the water there.
The crowd was weird. Not laughing in places that normally got a laugh, and laughing at other times I'd never heard one. Of course, there's still one line in the film that always gets the big laugh, and it didn't fail here either.
They'll probably inscribe it on my headstone. (Note: Line in question: "That's the biggest fucking clown I've ever seen.")
The movie ended and I got up to answer questions. This New Yorker says "I got 2 questions for you: First, is the rumor true that Lion's Gate picked up your film, and question 2: How do you justify the way you cheated the audience with the fake ending and then the other ending?"
Nice, easy opening question. It was nice to be able to start: "Yes, Lion's Gate picked it up". I think I was pretty gracious with the second part of the answer.
Anyway, got a bunch more questions which I answered in a more or less intelligent fashion. A lot of the questions were easy because I've gotten them in interviews I've already done.
The New Yorker turns out to be the guy who made the only other movie at the festival that I wanted to see. He wouldn't stop asking me questions and talking to me, even though other people wanted to chat and have me sign posters.
Sunday I got up early(for me) and went to see New Yorker's film with my dad(who digs the Creature From The Black Lagoon also). The film was playing at 2:30 in the big auditorium, and New Yorker was terrified no one would show. He got about 30 people in his showing, which honestly isn't bad considering football's on television and the weather was really nice.
His film was pretty interesting too, though it bogged down about an hour in.
I jetted home and got ready to go back for the awards reception. For once they had some nice food. I skipped the champagne and had a water, then took some pics as they gave the awards to movies I've never heard of, and ones you'll probably never hear of.
Someone asked me if it bothered me that I didn't win. I said I'd rather have the money than the awards.
It reminded me of a cartoon I saw shortly after Spielberg once again wasn't nominated for an Academy Award(before he won one). It had ET walking away from the Oscar statue holding two big bags of money. My feeling exactly.
But I'm serious in saying that every filmmaker who heard I had a deal with Lion's Gate was all over me. They wouldn't leave me alone, asking me questions, saying we should get together and do a project.
The New York guys want me to swing by their place if I get to New York. Interesting factoid: They know Keith David very well(he was the producer of and also narrator of their movie), and being a massive John Carpenter fan, I'd love to put him in one of my flicks. If you don't know, he's the black guy in "The Thing", the guy Rowdy Roddy Piper fights over sunglasses in "They Live" and he was one of the guys in "Prince of Darkness".
So, an interesting festival but I'm glad I'm done with them for this movie. On to the rest.
Wow, look at how fat I was!
(Posing with "New Yorker" Sam Borowski and Matthew Crick)
(Posing with "New Yorker" Sam Borowski and Matthew Crick)
No comments:
Post a Comment