That's A Wrap!

What a great weekend! The WCFF was everything I expected it to be. Most of it was good, some of it was a tad disappointing. But overall, with family present, good weather overhead and my documentary on the screen at two venues on Saturday...I couldn't ask for anything more. It was a tremendous first time out for me. I am delighted that my first acceptance and screening at a film festival happened in my hometown!

The festival venues were at the Chester County Historical Society and the Masonic Lodge's local chapter headquarters. Movies were screened in "film blocks" of eight and rotated between the two locations over the three day event. Hi8 1/2 first screened at 3 pm at the Masonic Lodge, and then later that evening at 9:30 at CCHS. I was at both screenings, but clearly the most memorable was when ten or so of my family members came to the afternoon screening. It was very special. Not only did they increase the attendance at this particular screening by 3x, but it was the first time any of them saw the doc, so no one knew exactly what to expect! Needless to say, they loved it!

After the screening there was a "meet and greet" the filmmakers event at a local restaurant. We all went back there and I spoke with the event organizers and a couple other filmmakers. Very small affair.

Unfortunately for the festival, most of the events held were lightly attended. The screening blocks I watched had no more than 25 people. The meet and greet was, as mentioned, smallish with less than 20 folks (not including the Hobans who clustered in a self imposed (I think) exile in an adjacent garden area outside).

The movies, themselves, ranged in quality from the very good to the questionably considered. I find it amazing that certain shorts gain acceptance into festivals. In my experience I've seen some real duds make it to the screen. Stories that start off great, that really engage the audience early on...only to fizzle out well before the third act. The weakest part of independent filmmaking, I feel, is the level to which many "makers" cannot tell a good, solid story. It's painful to sit through some of the offerings. And I'm not just talking about this most recent festival, but many others.

Don't get me wrong, there were some very, very good works this weekend. Eye Contact, a simple yet powerful "horror" story was well executed: locations, production, acting, editing and above all the music...all of it made for a very well polished, tense and tight thriller. I liked the style of Magritte Moment, and though it won for best "experimental film" in the festival, the narrative fell to pieces, I think, midway through the story. Flowers of Rwanda got my pick for best documentary, and I believe it won that award during the closing night festivities at The Note--West Chester's latest bar/restaurant, supposedly owned by Bam Margera of MTV/Jackass infamy.

As for Hi8 1/2, t succeeded in doing its job. It was accepted!! That's all I wanted. My first documentary to be accepted, since entering early work some fifteen years ago into area festivals. I was interested in examining the public's reaction to the short, but was not really able to get a large enough sample of reactions due to the overall low attendance numbers at the two venues. My family certainly enjoyed my antics with my students and the expected laughs were experienced, i.e. the Prank kids kissing, my line "...or I'll change your nationality", and best of all Ren Gates's reaction of "you only take three classes" after listening to Robert Livingston's post-production related offer. These and many other laughs were sprinkled throughout, but due to the lack of audience I wasn't able to get a large enough "sample number". Maybe there will be another festival.

But...great, great experience! I'd love to do it again somewhere else!!

Now, I must get back to my "life getting in the way" moments and write up some progress reports for current students.

thanks...

Here Come The Weekend...

Thanks to family and friends for their warm wishes and congratulatory emails! I greatly appreciate the sentiments. Without giving anything away to family members who know me best, but have never seen me in action during classtime, I have one thing to say: "Please accept my apologies for any feelings of embarassment this weekend's screening of Hi8 1/2 may cause!!"

Kidding aside, I look forward to experiencing it again with a new audience.

See you there!

-marty

The Latest...

Readers:

WCFF has sent out information on film scheduling blocks for next weekend's festival. Follow this link to the listing.

Hi8 1/2 will be screened at two different times in the borough on Saturday April 25th at 3:00 pm and 9:30pm.

What to expect, I wonder?

WCFF New Posting On Website

This post at WCFF's web site was added, today Friday April 17th.

That is all.

April 15, 2009 Taxes Are Due...and this just in...

On Monday I received word (email) that Hi8 1/2 has selected for screening at the 5th Annual West Chester Film Festival. Very good news!! One out of eight festival tries was accepted. Not a very good percentage, but it got into one and it will be screened for an audience other than one that I cobble together. That's very encouraging and tremendously uplifting to my sagging, independent-minded spirits!

To be honest, I was going to give up on the thing...or at least take a step back and rethink what to do next: do more re-edits? wait a while then start submitting it to other festivals? I'll probably do both of these, but I am more interested in experiencing the screening next weekend, April 24 - 26th, and documenting that process.

The West Chester Film Festival seems like a small operation (from my dealings with them through phone calls and emails). However I have to hand it to them to communicating to me that my doc was too long for their "shorts" festival and that if I could get it under 30 minutes, then they would have another look at it. I'm glad they were able to offer this choice to me, and doubly glad that I actually followed through. As I said in my last post back in February, even though there are holes in the piece, it is still much stronger than the 48 1/2 minute version.

I think it's poetic that Hi8 1/2's first screening is in my hometown! Perhaps this is just the springboard it needs.

More to follow, in the days ahead...

This Just In...

After four or so weeks of re-tooling the doc, I have whittled the thing down to 28 1/2 minutes...a full 20 minutes sliced away! (I wonder if this is the final version.) I think it's a stronger piece. DAMN! How come I didn't I sculpt it this way before I sent it out to 8 festivals. Hey, I guess that's just part of the process.

So I got it down to under half an hour and I sent the new version to West Chester Film Festival. Here we go again.

(Oh...and no news from the other fests.)

Staring at the Screen

Mid-morning Saturday. Nice to sleep in.

Ice on the outside, nothing brewing in.

I wait for my mind to awaken,

Fingertips poised for the reminder.

What have I done?

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