Hallowscreen presents: Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama!

Yes, you read that right! Thanks to the generous folks at Full Moon Features, I have been able to wrangle up Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama to show as a tribute to actress Brinke Stevens, our first Queen of Hallowscreen!

With a title like that, who can refuse seeing it?! Well, to be honest, me, up until a few years ago. I wish I hadn't waited so long! It's freakin' hilarious and fun, everything one would expect from a B-movie with such a title and where the director publicly admits to being sloshed pretty much the entire time.

Ms. Stevens, with whom I've kept contact after I met her at Shockerfest '08, was kind enough to provide me with three titles from her filmography that she's particularly proud of. After the event's over, I'll reveal the other titles and what happened (assuming I can't track them down), but even if this is all we get, I'm still happy with this much! And how awesome of Full Moon to let us show it!!

Sarasota Fringe Hallowscreen Film Festival presents: NOSFERATU (1922)

O hai guyz!

So, going along with my post about being the Program Director for the Fringe Hallowscreen this year, I'm finally able to announce one of the things I've planned for the festival. Feast your eyes upon the poster I made whilst I lay out the details. That way, when you're done feasting, you can read the rest of the post. See? I'm thinking ahead.



That's right! We're hosting a screening of F.W. Murnau's original, classic Nosferatu from 1922 with a new soundtrack performed LIVE by World Collision, my brother's band. Since this is my blog, I can be completely honest. I chose my brother's band for three reasons: (one) They really are freakin' good. I'm not just saying that as a sister, I'm saying that as a person with ears. (two) I don't know the local music scene any more. Once Neurotica hit back in the day, I no longer went to events. (three) Because I don't want to have to worry about the band. I know my brother will get it done, I know where he lives, I know how to track him down. I don't have to rely on a friend of a friend to get me information or anything like that.

I hope that Hallowscreen (or whatever they want to call it next year if I'm not involved - I like my wordplay) is a yearly festival and that they run a silent film every year scored by a local band. If no rock bands step up (right), maybe get the orchestra from a high school or something. Get more community involvement.

I'll have another sidebar-type event to announce soon, too! Something that's wonderfully goofy and that honours one of my favourite Scream Queens. OHNO! I've said too much... :D

Keep an eye on THIS SPACE RIGHT HERE for more announcements. :D

The Sarasota Fringe Hallowscreen Film Festival!

If I thought I was busy before I left for New York, that idea pales in comparison to what's been happening lately. The most important thing I can currently announce is that I was made Program Director for the Sarasota Fringe Film Festival's first weekend-long mini-fest, which just so happens to be taking place over Halloween weekend this year!



I'm working on some exciting side-bar programming, but original content is, of course, of the highest priority so c'mon filmmakers! Give me your horrors! There's no entry fee and all entries are automatically in the Fringe festival's main event which will take place in April of next year!

As for the mini-fest itself, it's being put on in conjunction with the Avenida de Colores street art festival in beautiful, historic Burns Square in Sarasota, Florida. Right now, we're not planning on charging for either our outdoor venue, which will be PG-13 or under, or our indoor venue, for the more adult-oriented horror flicks. We've also partnered up with the New Orleans-based Vampire Film Festival to offer up some frightfully delicious content!

Mark it on your calendar! The film fun starts at 9 am on Saturday, October 30, and runs until midnight, then starts up again on Sunday at 9 am and goes until around 3 when we'll have an awards ceremony and closing party! We'll also have an opening night film on Friday starting around 6 or 6:30. So join us...and just keep telling yourself...it isn't REEL!

Just a couple of things...

I'm really tired and this is my only day off until after the mainstream Sarasota Film Festival is over, but I wanted to post a couple of reviews for the projects I edited for the Sarasota Fringe Film Festival.

This link is to a review of the Circus Sarasota documentary: http://aande.blogs.heraldtribune.com/11657/sarasota-fringe-fest-review-circus-sarasota/

This link is to a review of the Bertha Palmer project. The guy only saw the first version, which was a work in progress. The one that played yesterday was much better and everyone loved it! So much so that I got a Colson Award for my work on the project: http://aande.blogs.heraldtribune.com/11651/sarasota-fringe-fest-review-mrs-palmer/

:D

edited to add: I found out yesterday that I also won for my cut of the Circus Sarasota documentary!

The complete list of winners can be found here: http://www.sarasotafringefilmfestival.com/

A special shout-out must go to Asif Ahmed, the director of the Vampire Film Festival and the man for whose website I write the vampire movie reviews, for winning the award for Best New Feature! Congrats Asif!

Time to breathe, time to sleep...

...of this I have none. I'm writing this while I wait for a scene to finish rendering.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been wonderfully, deliciously, exhaustingly busy editing documentaries to be shown during the Sarasota Fringe Film Festival. I was originally given a piece on Circus Sarasota to edit (one hour from 8) and about halfway through, I was asked to cut together a three minute interview. Four days ago, I was given three books, two scratch tracks (place holders so I could do basic edits until the real sound bed arrived), a DVD, and some raw footage of a historical re-enactor and was asked to start putting together a 10-15 minute documentary on early Sarasota settler Bertha Palmer as well as edit a video set to a song about Ms. Palmer using everything at my disposal and to have them both ready for yesterday's screening. You read that right: yesterday's screening. For those keeping track, that was three days to edit two projects that used techniques and ratios and qualities that I've never used before while also working full time at my day job which is gearing up for the mainstream film festival for which I am head film projectionist. Three days ago, I finished the first cut of Circus Sarasota and it also screened yesterday. I don't know how that went, I was too busy flipping out about Bertha Palmer and going to the screening for Anathema. It must've gone okay, I didn't get any phone calls saying that the DVD screwed up.

Anyway, since I can't just reuse every photo over and over, that would drive me nuts, I scoured the internet looking for photos that would apply to the script. I have to hug the Library of Congress's Flickr stream and Wikimedia Commons for their incredible collections of public domain and Creative Commons photos. Fair Use is a little too gray for me, though, I have to say. I also scanned something like 65 photos for the project at what I thought was the appropriate size.

I finished the first cut of the Palmer project yesterday afternoon at the office (thank you Ampersand, my wonderful, wonderful MacBook Pro, for being AWESOME.) I exported normally and burned a DVD then took the disc downstairs to watch it on their TV and discovered that the render and encode did nothing to alleviate a fantastic moire effect on the photos I scanned, and a couple of the photos I found.

Merde (pardon my French.)

The editor sitting next to me working on another project suggested that I convert and de-interlace. It took something like two hours to encode, but it gave me a useable picture to get us through today's screening and I could go back and fix it for Sunday's. Great. It finishes, it burns, I check, all's well, I start and finish a rough cut of the music video, but it needs way more polishing before I can let it go out so at the Main Man's request, I create a screen wash for while people are seating using the song and the credits and a note that says that the music video will be shown on Sunday. I hand over all of that and, by that time, I have to head to work for my 6 pm shift.

Half an hour after I get there, I get a phone call, remarkably calm, from the Main Man saying that the DVD is screwed up. While he's sending someone to get the back-ups, I check my file and, lo! and behold!, there's a sound glitch 8 minutes into the project. The only other useable copy I have is the crappy moire'd version from earlier in the day, but it's on my computer and I don't have time to burn it. I arrange to leave the booth in my co-worker's hands while I take my computer over to the venue and hook it up to the projectors for the 7 pm screening. Thankfully, I have all of the connections we needed to get picture via the mini-display port and sound via the headphone jack. They have me play the screen wash after every one is seated (which I thought was a bit strange, but I'm also exhausted, so what do I know?) and then the movie. While it wasn't as pretty, it looked a heck of a lot better than I thought it would and if the gasps and laughs are anything to go by, the audience (a packed house) loved it! I received a couple of notes from the Main Man and the Main Woman, the producer and director of this project, things I already knew I had to fix (and one thing I had fixed between encodes, actually...) and then headed off to the screening for my film.

Yeah, A Hammer Fell in Jerusalem: Anathema screened yesterday.

I have to say very quickly that while I love this festival, I think it's wonderful and lively, it's also packed with documentaries. Jam packed. I only know of four or five narrative films in the festival, but I haven't had much time to go over the programme as I've been busy. Anathema was surrounded by documentaries and with a name like "A Hammer Fell in Jerusalem", it's easy to confuse it for something of heady enlightenment and social significance. Whatever messages I have in it, and they're there, they're wrapped up in a 30 minute black and white silent Sci-Fi / Dark Fantasy film. That's a lot of strikes against it, not to mention the few little problems in it that endear it to me, but would annoy most people. I can't WAIT to do the feature version! (Yes, it'll be a talkie...though it's debatable about the colour aspect because man, I love the cinematography on that flick...)

The already small audience walked out fifteen minutes into the flick leaving just myself and Brian's friends in the theatre.

I've had people not show up before, and people have left before, but I've not had such a mass exodus in any of my previous screenings. Though it stings on that personal ego level, I'm really okay with it. I know, realistically, that not everyone, especially in the hometown, is going to dig what I put out there. The idea of an Asian descendant of Christ seems to be as strange to people as the thought that Jesus wasn't white, though I have to say that I didn't hire Eon because she's Asian, though that was a factor. She was well-prepared in the interview stage and her background brought something unique to the story. I don't cast for race, I cast for talent and spark. Eon has both.

I got giggles from Brian's friends in all the places that make me giggle, which is nice. Whether theirs were "haha this is crap" giggles or "teehee!" giggles (like mine) who knows, but they provided the reactions I was looking for.

A year on, though, I can see all the little things that I wish I could go back and fix, and will when I do the feature. With all of the crap that happened before the screening, how little sleep I've been getting, the twenty-hours days I've been putting in between the editing and the theatre, the screening itself, and all of the work still ahead of me on so little time, yesterday was just a really crappy day. On the bright side, however, the Fringe festival's projectionists are wonderful. It was, seriously, one of the best screenings visually that I've ever had. The ratio was displayed correctly and it was crisp and clean. That, right there, is HUGE. Also, it's always wonderful to see Brian again and his friends are awesome! Hopefully, we'll all work together! To quote Wil Wheaton, let's get excited and make things!

All in all, yesterday can go take a long walk off a short pier. Today, I'm back at it. The last screening for Bertha Palmer takes place at 1 pm on Sunday and I promised to have it in their hands at around noon that day. The Sarasota Film Festival starts properly tomorrow, but the opening night film is tonight at the Van Wezel. If anyone sees Kevin Kline, wave to him for me. I won't even get to see the back of his head. :(

Things Fall Apart and Things Fall Together

Things work out the way they're supposed to. About a month ago, maybe just over, my work life kind of blew up when the booth manager, who had been booth manager almost since the place opened (that'd be about 13 years), had to suddenly transfer to another theatre. We're a bit understaffed as it is so this sudden and completely unexpected move knocked all of us projectionists for a loop. And by all of us, I really just mean the two of us who are, for all intents and purposes, full time upstairs.

Wanting to keep the booth in the family, I applied for the booth manager position as was "strongly recommended" to me by the former booth manager and several higher up employees. I was told, though, that they'd probably go with someone who had some experience with the digital projector that was installed a week or two after the booth manager's transfer and, though I'd practically been running the booth for the past few years, I'm inexperienced according to the corporation's standards. Everyone at the theatre thought I'd get it and I wouldn't be lying to you if I were to say that I was disappointed when I didn't, but I was also relieved. I'm a filmmaker, not a career projectionist, and to be the booth manager, I would have to sacrifice the relative freedom of being able to shoot pretty much whenever I want. Just the month or so I spend as the interim booth manager was mentally upsetting.

During that time, I found out that one of my really good friends, whom I don't see very often as it is, is moving away (she actually pushed the date of her moving to today and we still haven't been able to get together), and I got several rejections for Anathema, and if you've read the last blogpost I made, you know about the particular sting that accompanies a hometown rejection.

In that same post, I mentioned that I was sending the film to the Sarasota Fringe Film Festival which occurs around the same time as the Sarasota Film Festival (to differentiate between the two, I'll just call the other one "the Fringe") and that I also donated money to help get the festival off the ground this year (via Kickstarter: click here if you have a desire to donate a little green to the scene and if not, that's okay, too. :D )

I received an email from the director of the Fringe requesting a meeting based on the cover letter I sent with my film. Yes, it did mention that I'm a projectionist for the mainstream festival, but really...I don't know any trade secrets or anything that isn't already in the papers. It's not like I can tell them anything and I'm certainly not about to start off my career as a saboteur by making other filmmakers miserable when the selection process is political and subjective all at the same time. Like the director of the Fringe, I'm a local filmmaker who was rejected (twice now) by the hometown festival and yet both films have played other festivals and won awards.

So, I went to the meeting, not entirely sure of what it was that we were meeting about. After some small talk, he offered me a job as an editor on a short documentary that had been shot locally - so Sarasota Film Festival people, if you're reading this and starting to get worried or something, don't. I'm not working for the Fringe as staff, I'm working for a film sponsored by the Fringe to be played at the Fringe and this freelance editing job will not interfere with my duties as the film projectionist for the Sarasota Film Festival. I just won't be getting a whole lot of sleep over the next couple of months!

This news came down the pike on Wednesday before I had to go to work at the theatre and I thought, "Hey, this is pretty cool! I'm building my professional CV, I'm going to be making more contacts, and I'm going to be making a little dough in the process!" It felt good to be happy while working, which I really haven't been in a while, even with the mixed feelings of not getting the booth manager position and all those rejections. And, yes, I am prepared for it to go tits up because that's the nature of the business I'm in, but we did shake on it and that still holds water with some people like myself.

Last night at work, which is the busiest night for a projectionist because new films open on Friday, I received two emails. One, I can't really go into right now, but I may have some exciting news here toward the end of the year, but the other one was a notification that the music video I made for my brother's band was accepted to the World Music and Independent Film Festival in Washington, D.C.! Once I know more, I'll post more - like usual. Woohoo!

I'm expecting an email from their director closer to when the festival is supposed to take place (which is in August). If I can go, it would be my first trip to the nation's capital and while it's a terribly dangerous place (morally, ethically, and physically), I'd really like to check it out.

In the minus column, I appear to have sprained my middle finger which would be funny had I been giving this last month The Bird; however, I was only threading.