Blog #5 Nerves and Things

Tonight's the big night!  

Tonight, we project our nicest HDCam copy of The Lake Effect to the British public… I’m suddenly struck with the few images I’ve seen of British Parliament (Verbal assaults from a flurry of white wigs, or is it whigs?) American indies have a tough time here, so I hear. 

I'm a bit... nervous.  Maybe it’s the bustling metropolis that’s right outside the theatre doors.  Or maybe it’s because the line-up at Raindance has been so impressive or because the programmers and staff are so incredibly cool...  

I shouldn’t be nervous.  We have at least a dozen friends coming to cheer us on (thank you thank you thank you), not to mention an entire fan club for our British actress Tara Summers (who does a flawless American accent as Natalie, btw).  We’re having a pre-party and an after party and it’s going to be all good.  Right?

To keep my mind off of it, let’s change the subject.  Let’s talk about…

Things you might not know about what it’s like to be a filmmaker on the indie festival circuit:

• You get very close to your producer.  For example, Jenn and I are sharing a double bed in a flat in Pimlico. 
• You try to stay under budget.  For breakfast this morning, Jenn and I ate oatmeal packets that I brought from the hotel we stayed at in Colorado.  No joke. 
• You walk a lot.  Cobblestone streets plus boots with heels = sore calves.
• You become a pack mule.  Laptop, umbrella, big posters, small posters, postcards, water, emergency granola bar (chalk that up to the mom in me). 
• You stay up very late.  Our first day in, Jenn and I arrived at 6 AM.  20 hours later, with the Spice Girls pumping at the very divey, very awesome Phoenix Club in Soho, we called it a night.
• You, for a short while, are reminded that you are an artist, that you have a community, and that what you are doing is totally, totally worth it. 

(An addendum:  If you haven’t seen it yet, read the “Mompreneur” article that the popular British parenting site London Mums wrote about me! http://www.londonmums.org.uk/busmums/busmums.html  A big thanks to Monica Costa!)

#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.