#14 Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes

Luna teeny tiny baby booties need replacin'.
It's time to make some moolah.

So, as I may have mentioned, The Lake Effect is looking for a sales agent. In our hot pursuit, I had to get a screener to a company in Santa Monica on Friday.  With no babysitter and no runner, I loaded Luna up and hit the road.  

I buzzed the office from the street and let Luna press the button for the elevator.  I prepared myself for the confused looks from the people working the front desk.  Babies and work places just don’t go together, it seems. I didn't anticipate that the front office of this company would have glass walls, so that when I walked in with Luna on my hip, we had a nice little audience.  

Now, the term “deer in headlights,” is overused... but I would argue it's for good reason – we shot THE LAKE EFFECT in Michigan, where I witnessed a deer in headlights for the first time and they really do just stand there, staring at your approaching headlights with this wide eyed gaze... anyway, in the spirit of Michigan I think it’s appropriate to use the overused metaphor here.   The office workers just gaped at us like deer in headlights.  (A side note to this side note, when I arrived in South Haven after a three hour car ride from Detroit, I commented on the high number of dead deer on the highway.  Our intern Liz, smiled and said, “Oh, those are our welcome signs.”  How I miss our smart-mouthed Michigan interns.  Especially when I have to be my own runner.)  

Right, so I walk into the office with Luna on my hip and the whole office just stops and stares at us like (all together now) deer in headlights. 

I smile and hand the manila envelope over to the guy at the front desk.  “Hi, I have a drop off for Joe Sales Agent.”

“Thanks.”

I wonder if they think I'm a runner and doing some sort of take the kid to work day.  I check in with Luna, who is returning the office workers’ wide eyed stares. “Say buh-bye.”

“Bah-bye.”

And then the stunned deers’ faces thaw out into awed smiles.  They are still cooing, give cutesy waves as we leave.  

I let Luna walk down the hallway holding my finger and there's just something about how it's all working out that makes me feel so peaceful.  Like whatever this sales agent says or whatever happens with the movie is exactly what should happen.  

After promising Luna that she can press the elevator button, I say, “You know what, Luna?  This right here is one of my very best moments ever.”  

#4 A FILM IS BORN

Cooler than a laser light show... 

Ah, sweet recovery from a weekend of high altitude celebration in Boulder!  What a great town and a cool venue to have our very first public screening in…  If you’ve never had your movie projected in a planetarium, I highly recommend it.

I want to give a big thank you to those of you who rallied to come to our 9:30 pm screening on a Sunday night.  Especially those of you who laughed and cried and whooped and hollered.  The highlights of the weekend included: Paul Larson’s beautiful set at our awesome pre-screening party, Luna clapping happily for all the winners at the awards dinner, and a comment during the Q and A by a mid-wife in the audience who remarked how well she thought the way the birth was represented…  Whew – if someone who has witnessed hundreds of births thinks I got it right, I’m happy.

Hello, Apollo Cinema.

So I’ve got three HOT days in LA to prep before Jennifer and I jet off to London for Raindance. Thank goodness we have a lot of local friends who are drumming up support as well as British Moms (er, Mums) who are championing TLE on their blogs/sites (check out: Babes About Town, London Mums) Now that I think about it, we should really host a party out there…

In between TLE work I am spending quality time with the wee one and prepping a TV movie pitch for ABC Family for Thursday… which is exercising totally different muscles (at least I’m exercising something.  I haven’t been to the gym since July - oye).  

Our little Superhero.

Speaking of ABC – our lovely lead actress, Kay Panabaker’s AWESOME new show NO ORDINARY FAMILY premieres TONIGHT on ABC at 8/7central!  I’ve seen the pilot and I assure you that this is a show worth watching – it’s great and Kay is great in it.  That girl’s gonna be a big star - our little TLE family couldn’t be prouder. 

#3 THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

I should be on pins and needles, counting down the days until our premiere at Moondance (plug: Sunday the 26^th at 9:30 pm – click here for details).  Maybe it hasn’t hit me yet.  Or maybe I’m just too busy!   Yesterday, I was chasing after a very mobile one-year old who was running around the house wielding our newly printed postcards cooing, “Ross! Ross!”

Luna is a big fan of

actor Ross Partridge.

I am actually scribbling all this furiously before naptime ends - the MacGruber-like pressure is on… the seconds ticking down… Luna will wake in 4-3-2… hand me the chewing gum!!!

The week before a fest is like mini-pre-production.  We’re hustling to fill a 250 seat planetarium and to get some reviewers to show up (C’mon reviewers, if you’re reading this: SHOW UP!).  We’ve launched TLE’s website and posted our trailer (hopefully if you’re reading this, you’ve seen it, liked it, and shared it!). We’ve teamed up with Real Baby, a store in Denver and Boulder to do a ticket giveaway.  We’ve emailed newspapers, radio stations, and bloggers and we’re starting to line up interviews… Yesterday, Jennifer unveiled our suh-weet posters – I’m planning on wallpapering my house with all 500 of them (yes, that’s right.  We printed 500 posters– we’re nothing if not ambitious.  PS: anyone wanna buy a poster?).

Truth be told, this is the easy part – festivals are (at their best) celebrations of cinema.  I’m excited to meet the other filmmakers and see their films (especially the controversial POPE JOAN with John Goodman).   We have lots of cast and crew flying out for the screening and the post-awards-ceremony-pre-screening par-te at the Boulder Draft House!  The film’s very talented composer Paul Larson of THE MINOR CANON, will be playing a set of songs from the film and our trailer will be screening on 8 flat screen TVs around the bar.  We’ll have Lake Effect drink specials, CDs of the score and copies of our poster for sale… like I said, festivals are celebrations!  And of course, there’s the screening and the Q & A…

I’m not always a fan of watching my work with an audience – it’s like hearing your own voice recorded – you’re never sure it quite sounds like you.   And then you have to get up and talk about your work – which is a bit redundant, like an addendum to the film.  I’d rather sit behind a two-way mirror and eavesdrop as the audience talks amongst themselves…  that’s assuming that there is, in fact, an audience and that they like it. 

Ah, there they are… the pins and needles... and uhp - there's the baby calling.