Thursday, October 30, 2003
Good news! We won an award.
John called me late Monday night to inform me that we won the Defman Award. Defman is the name of the organization that runs the fest (Deep Ellum Film Music Art and... something. Nachos?). It's one of the top awards, although the name takes a bit of explaining - I guess I can just say "jury prize". They give this one out along with "Best Comedy" and "Best Drama" to a film that they feel defies normal genre categorization. Which, in my eyes, is a compliment in itself. The awards they're giving out are really cool, too, according to John - a drive-in speaker tricked out by a local artist named Artman.
A nice consolation considering the disastrous screening, which lasted almost three hours with the three fire alarm interruptions. I got an email from a friend of mine, and one of my earliest performers, who was there - Allyson (formerly) Treadway. A sweet Maine South cheerleader whom we cast as a prostitute and a gangster's wife and held at gunpoint (this massive, Clint Eastwood style thing; she very politely expressed some apprehension and we were like "it's cool, don't worry, it's just a bee bee gun!" ...being pointed at her nose from five inches.)
So, Allyson emailed me and said that it was actually going very well, the audience was laughing at the right places, etc. and then about forty minutes in there's a scene where some characters are pulled over by the cops. So, in the movie the siren is going and the lights are flashing and suddenly, lights start flashing in the theatre and the fire alarm sounds. She said they were completely confused; it seemed like some sort of interactive version of the movie. Now in SURROUND-O-RAMA! She overheard someone saying "I'm giving them points for creativity, this is amazing!"
But, alas, as the film continued, the interactive elements did not stop or quiet down for, say, dialogue. Finally a festival director entered and told them all to exit the theatre. I'm trying to imagine what it was like as the realization hit: Wow, this is interesting... Well, now it's going on a little too long... They really didn't plan this out very well, if they want to get this ambitious they should coordinate it better... oh, we're all going to die.
John called me late Monday night to inform me that we won the Defman Award. Defman is the name of the organization that runs the fest (Deep Ellum Film Music Art and... something. Nachos?). It's one of the top awards, although the name takes a bit of explaining - I guess I can just say "jury prize". They give this one out along with "Best Comedy" and "Best Drama" to a film that they feel defies normal genre categorization. Which, in my eyes, is a compliment in itself. The awards they're giving out are really cool, too, according to John - a drive-in speaker tricked out by a local artist named Artman.
A nice consolation considering the disastrous screening, which lasted almost three hours with the three fire alarm interruptions. I got an email from a friend of mine, and one of my earliest performers, who was there - Allyson (formerly) Treadway. A sweet Maine South cheerleader whom we cast as a prostitute and a gangster's wife and held at gunpoint (this massive, Clint Eastwood style thing; she very politely expressed some apprehension and we were like "it's cool, don't worry, it's just a bee bee gun!" ...being pointed at her nose from five inches.)
So, Allyson emailed me and said that it was actually going very well, the audience was laughing at the right places, etc. and then about forty minutes in there's a scene where some characters are pulled over by the cops. So, in the movie the siren is going and the lights are flashing and suddenly, lights start flashing in the theatre and the fire alarm sounds. She said they were completely confused; it seemed like some sort of interactive version of the movie. Now in SURROUND-O-RAMA! She overheard someone saying "I'm giving them points for creativity, this is amazing!"
But, alas, as the film continued, the interactive elements did not stop or quiet down for, say, dialogue. Finally a festival director entered and told them all to exit the theatre. I'm trying to imagine what it was like as the realization hit: Wow, this is interesting... Well, now it's going on a little too long... They really didn't plan this out very well, if they want to get this ambitious they should coordinate it better... oh, we're all going to die.
