Hello from...being a nice person doesn't necessarily help you get your blog done on time. Sorry guys, I was helping a friend revise an essay over email, and my inner grammar Nazi lost track of the time. So on that note, let's travel backward in time!
Last night Jill so graciously helped me with the practice shoot for my film, Shadows, which is being produced for my Production Workshop class this semester. (Thanks, Jill)
The practice shoot went pretty well. The big thing we were trying to practice with was the lighting, since I so brilliantly wrote myself into a terrible situation, setting practically the entire film outdoors, at night, with really complicated shadows. I'm just glad I'm not the editor.
If we travel further back in time, we'll arrive at the film festival! The bad thing about blogging on Thursdays is that usually that's when the fun is just beginning. So let me tell you a bit about the rest of the festival that took place after I blogged Thursday night...
***SUSPENSEFUL MOMENT WHILE I POST BEFORE MIDNIGHT AND THEN RETURN TO EDIT***
And I'm back! Anyway, where did I leave off last Thursday? Ah yes, I'd just been to the after-after party in the observatory.
Last night Jill so graciously helped me with the practice shoot for my film, Shadows, which is being produced for my Production Workshop class this semester. (Thanks, Jill)
The practice shoot went pretty well. The big thing we were trying to practice with was the lighting, since I so brilliantly wrote myself into a terrible situation, setting practically the entire film outdoors, at night, with really complicated shadows. I'm just glad I'm not the editor.
If we travel further back in time, we'll arrive at the film festival! The bad thing about blogging on Thursdays is that usually that's when the fun is just beginning. So let me tell you a bit about the rest of the festival that took place after I blogged Thursday night...
***SUSPENSEFUL MOMENT WHILE I POST BEFORE MIDNIGHT AND THEN RETURN TO EDIT***
And I'm back! Anyway, where did I leave off last Thursday? Ah yes, I'd just been to the after-after party in the observatory.
[Above is the observatory, a central location between the two towers of the Galt House Hotel, and the site of the after-after parties.]
Anyway, on Friday, I showed up at 8 am and was assigned to work in the filmmaker room. That means I got to sign in filmmakers and volunteers, and give them their necessary materials. I was able to meet a lot of people this way, obviously. I met a couple who had flown all the way from Tokyo, and they asked me to take their picture in front of the poster for their movie. It was great to see so many people who were so excited to have their work seen, especially internationally.
While I was working in the filmmaker room, one of the head honchos of the festival, L.A. lawyer Brett Bachmann, came in and talked to me for a while. Eventually, the conversation drifted to the short film I'm working on this semester, and he asked me to email him the script. He was actually really interested in reading it...this guy whose father is actor Conrad Bachmann, who has all kinds of connections in Hollywood...this guy was really interested in reading MY script! (Well, I say "my" script...Mostly Kathryn Katz did the writing. We're co-writers, but I the idea came from the short that Jill, Rachael, Sara, and etc. were going to make 2 semesters ago that I had then adapted into a short story...The point is, this idea came from all sorts of different sources and has now been through tons of revisions to become the script that Kathryn and I put together. And yes, of course I let Mr. Bachmann know that she was my co-writer. Just clearing all that up. And confusing you more.)
Anyway, after I nearly peed myself from excitement, I was soon finished with my volunteer shift for that day, and I was free to go watch films. My friend Alycia and I saw one called The Wonderland Express, about a modified garage door opener that transports people inside their own minds. It was pretty good, and I got to meet the filmmakers, so that was cool. Oh, but before all that, we went to find food. We walked down to 4th Street, which was really close to the hotel, and we ate at a restaurant called Potbelly's. They have good sandwiches, but GREAT chips and oreo milkshakes!
Back at the festival, I saw The Lackey, which was a very Guy Ritchie/Quentin Tarantino style action film made by Shaun, the guy I met the first night. He was the star of it and had an...interesting...fake British accent. His cousin, the guy who had been in Thor, was also in The Lackey as "The Russian." Of course, I never remembered the guy's real name, so I just always called him The Russian for the rest of the festival. He wasn't Russian.
After the film, I got ready and went to the Friday night after party. Because ALL the nights have an after party! This one was at the Louisville Slugger Museum again, but there were no cookies. :/
BUT, I did get a chance to talk to Motke and Eric again, and I met Eric's girlfriend, Natalie, who was SUPER pretty and nice. Oh, and at some point earlier in the day, I met Erik (not Eric), a filmmaker who quickly became friends with me and the other volunteers I was hanging out with (Alycia, Donald, Lee, and later Lena from Germany). A lot more people came to this after party, since more filmmakers had arrived Friday morning, along with more WKU professors and student volunteers. It was a blast! And when I was talking to Motke, I found out he had been to Harlaxton! Not as a student, but he had just been there. I think he knew someone who was taking classes or teaching there or something. But dude, MIND BLOWN. It was so cool to be in Louisville talking to a filmmaker from Nashville who had been to Harlaxton in Grantham, England!
I'm pretty sure everyone else at the after party was having a great time as well, because after the Slugger Museum closed down, we moved the after-after party to the observatory. It was there that both Alycia and the volunteer coordinator Annette (who had been talking to Brett) came over to remind me to send Brett that script. I had talked to him that morning, but I didn't realize how eager he was to read it. Apparently, in the film business when someone wants you to email them something, they mean within the hour. So I jumped up and ran to my room. Thank goodness I had packed my laptop! So I did it. I emailed my script to a fancy L.A. lawyer and then danced around my room yelling, "No way! This is not happening! This is not my life!!!"
After my little episode was over, Donald knocked on my door to inform me that the after-after-after party was moving to a suite on the 14th floor. So up I went. I saw Brett and let him know that I'd sent the email. And in the middle of the party, drink in one hand and iPhone in the other, he just sat down at a table and read the script. And it gave him chills!
Sorry, sorry, I'm really not trying to brag. I bet it sounds like bragging. But really, this is just what happened. I don't know how to tell it without sounding like this. I was just super excited that he liked it. Alycia had a script, too, and at the party, he told her to email it to him. He's really nice and he loves to help young, aspiring filmmakers and writers. He even said he'd try to get WKU a new Red camera and some more Avid editing computers!
Eventually, the awesomeness dissipated, and everyone went to bed, but it had been a great night. The next morning I was working in a screening room and got to see part of a film called Charlie's Place. After my shift ended, I went to see Motke's film, The Many Monsters of Sadness. It's about a group of high school friends who find a box that they think grants wishes...but it does so much more. BOM BOM BOM!
It's really good. I loved it Here's a trailer: https://vimeo.com/32878865
After that, I got to see the two films that WKU students entered in the festival: Max Moore's The Red Box and Andrew Yontz's We're Gonna Blow Up the Moon. It was amazing that at an international film festival, not one but two WKU films got shown.
Afterward, I tried to do homework, but to no avail. And we all know what happened next...another after party! The last after party was somewhat of a letdown. The awards ceremony was nice. The awards were engraved, full-size Louisville Slugger baseball bats, and the nice Japanese couple I met won one for their documentary. But this party was at Captain's Quarters, a restaurant 15 minutes out of Louisville. It was outside on a big deck that had a fire pit, which was nice since it was SO COLD. But there was no free food, so we all left pretty quickly after the awards. And, you guessed it, there was an after-after party in the observatory again. I mostly hung out with Donald, Erik, and Lena, but right before I left, I got to meet an Australian filmmaker with a personal grudge against Baz Luhrmann. So that was fun.
Sunday I mostly just took down posters, helped clean up, and went back to the real world. :/
But LIFF 2013...I can't wait!
Stay awksome,*
Anna Beth
*Oh yeah, and awksome or oxsome is the word that me, Donald, and Erik came up with to mean both awkward and awesome at the same time.
Anyway, on Friday, I showed up at 8 am and was assigned to work in the filmmaker room. That means I got to sign in filmmakers and volunteers, and give them their necessary materials. I was able to meet a lot of people this way, obviously. I met a couple who had flown all the way from Tokyo, and they asked me to take their picture in front of the poster for their movie. It was great to see so many people who were so excited to have their work seen, especially internationally.
While I was working in the filmmaker room, one of the head honchos of the festival, L.A. lawyer Brett Bachmann, came in and talked to me for a while. Eventually, the conversation drifted to the short film I'm working on this semester, and he asked me to email him the script. He was actually really interested in reading it...this guy whose father is actor Conrad Bachmann, who has all kinds of connections in Hollywood...this guy was really interested in reading MY script! (Well, I say "my" script...Mostly Kathryn Katz did the writing. We're co-writers, but I the idea came from the short that Jill, Rachael, Sara, and etc. were going to make 2 semesters ago that I had then adapted into a short story...The point is, this idea came from all sorts of different sources and has now been through tons of revisions to become the script that Kathryn and I put together. And yes, of course I let Mr. Bachmann know that she was my co-writer. Just clearing all that up. And confusing you more.)
Anyway, after I nearly peed myself from excitement, I was soon finished with my volunteer shift for that day, and I was free to go watch films. My friend Alycia and I saw one called The Wonderland Express, about a modified garage door opener that transports people inside their own minds. It was pretty good, and I got to meet the filmmakers, so that was cool. Oh, but before all that, we went to find food. We walked down to 4th Street, which was really close to the hotel, and we ate at a restaurant called Potbelly's. They have good sandwiches, but GREAT chips and oreo milkshakes!
Back at the festival, I saw The Lackey, which was a very Guy Ritchie/Quentin Tarantino style action film made by Shaun, the guy I met the first night. He was the star of it and had an...interesting...fake British accent. His cousin, the guy who had been in Thor, was also in The Lackey as "The Russian." Of course, I never remembered the guy's real name, so I just always called him The Russian for the rest of the festival. He wasn't Russian.
After the film, I got ready and went to the Friday night after party. Because ALL the nights have an after party! This one was at the Louisville Slugger Museum again, but there were no cookies. :/
BUT, I did get a chance to talk to Motke and Eric again, and I met Eric's girlfriend, Natalie, who was SUPER pretty and nice. Oh, and at some point earlier in the day, I met Erik (not Eric), a filmmaker who quickly became friends with me and the other volunteers I was hanging out with (Alycia, Donald, Lee, and later Lena from Germany). A lot more people came to this after party, since more filmmakers had arrived Friday morning, along with more WKU professors and student volunteers. It was a blast! And when I was talking to Motke, I found out he had been to Harlaxton! Not as a student, but he had just been there. I think he knew someone who was taking classes or teaching there or something. But dude, MIND BLOWN. It was so cool to be in Louisville talking to a filmmaker from Nashville who had been to Harlaxton in Grantham, England!
I'm pretty sure everyone else at the after party was having a great time as well, because after the Slugger Museum closed down, we moved the after-after party to the observatory. It was there that both Alycia and the volunteer coordinator Annette (who had been talking to Brett) came over to remind me to send Brett that script. I had talked to him that morning, but I didn't realize how eager he was to read it. Apparently, in the film business when someone wants you to email them something, they mean within the hour. So I jumped up and ran to my room. Thank goodness I had packed my laptop! So I did it. I emailed my script to a fancy L.A. lawyer and then danced around my room yelling, "No way! This is not happening! This is not my life!!!"
After my little episode was over, Donald knocked on my door to inform me that the after-after-after party was moving to a suite on the 14th floor. So up I went. I saw Brett and let him know that I'd sent the email. And in the middle of the party, drink in one hand and iPhone in the other, he just sat down at a table and read the script. And it gave him chills!
Sorry, sorry, I'm really not trying to brag. I bet it sounds like bragging. But really, this is just what happened. I don't know how to tell it without sounding like this. I was just super excited that he liked it. Alycia had a script, too, and at the party, he told her to email it to him. He's really nice and he loves to help young, aspiring filmmakers and writers. He even said he'd try to get WKU a new Red camera and some more Avid editing computers!
Eventually, the awesomeness dissipated, and everyone went to bed, but it had been a great night. The next morning I was working in a screening room and got to see part of a film called Charlie's Place. After my shift ended, I went to see Motke's film, The Many Monsters of Sadness. It's about a group of high school friends who find a box that they think grants wishes...but it does so much more. BOM BOM BOM!
It's really good. I loved it Here's a trailer: https://vimeo.com/32878865
After that, I got to see the two films that WKU students entered in the festival: Max Moore's The Red Box and Andrew Yontz's We're Gonna Blow Up the Moon. It was amazing that at an international film festival, not one but two WKU films got shown.
Afterward, I tried to do homework, but to no avail. And we all know what happened next...another after party! The last after party was somewhat of a letdown. The awards ceremony was nice. The awards were engraved, full-size Louisville Slugger baseball bats, and the nice Japanese couple I met won one for their documentary. But this party was at Captain's Quarters, a restaurant 15 minutes out of Louisville. It was outside on a big deck that had a fire pit, which was nice since it was SO COLD. But there was no free food, so we all left pretty quickly after the awards. And, you guessed it, there was an after-after party in the observatory again. I mostly hung out with Donald, Erik, and Lena, but right before I left, I got to meet an Australian filmmaker with a personal grudge against Baz Luhrmann. So that was fun.
Sunday I mostly just took down posters, helped clean up, and went back to the real world. :/
But LIFF 2013...I can't wait!
Stay awksome,*
Anna Beth
*Oh yeah, and awksome or oxsome is the word that me, Donald, and Erik came up with to mean both awkward and awesome at the same time.
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