Marty! We've got to go back! Back to the Freeway!

Well, I may not be zippin' around the open roads in a roadster as slick and door-hinge-impractical as Doc's DeLorean, but the Future certainly caught up with me after an extended holiday absence from the Tour, and I had to go back to work.

Before Zemmeckis CGI'ed over the actors he shot.

Honestly, the second half of the Tour, ambitious as it was initially designed, wound up becoming, well, pretty easy, and not really that demanding.  At least nowhere near as demanding, in terms of preparation, organization and locations visited as the first half of the Tour.  We'll call the second half of the Tour "Quality over Quantity."

Most of the reason for this transition from many-schools-in-very-few-weeks to few-schools-in-many-weeks was purposeful.  Around the time of the ECU screening and my only overnight trip through North and South Carolina, over the phone with my wife I really confessed to and came to terms with the fact that, since I was kinda functioning as a one man band, I needed to make some changes to really get everything I wanted out of the Tour, and each stop along the way.

I think my expectations about what makes the Tour useful to me-- my expectations about its purpose-- have changed as well.  Initially I was hoping to field bigger audiences, and thought that was what mattered most-- but heading into the back stretch, I kinda was able to take a step back and see it as something else-- and probably what I should have seen it as from the get go.  Well... I'm getting ahead of myself-- more on that later.

What is my purpose...?

What I can do, in terms of promoting each screening, is limited.  They say you need money, time and talent in this business, or at least A LOT of one, to succeed-- well, the only resource I have access to is time, and early in the Tour I was squandering most of it by cramming so many venues into such a compact period.  Maybe if I'd been able to line up all of them months before it could have worked, but because of demands from the DVD, my inability to get prompt responses from most locations, and just life in general (the Braves ain't gonna watch themselves!) I wasn't able to, and I eventually had to kinda ride with the current.  So sometimes I wouldn't book a screening until two weeks prior, and I wouldn't get around to actually "promoting" it until a week before, which is risky when you have money and suicidal when you're depending on free grassroot outlets like fliers, PSAs, online calendars, and newspaper feature articles.

My PSAs should be this awesome.

 So, I came to terms with this handicap, and decided that the only way it was gonna get better was to embrace it and to be a bit more picky about where I go, and try to spend the effort I'd spend on, normally, two to three screenings, on just one.

And, of course, some of this "scaling down" was kinda inevitable due to just not being able to secure some venues.  Throughout the length of the Tour I've contacted 75 schools, and generally at least three to four people at each (sometimes more).  Of those 75 schools of three to four people each, I got word back from around 50 people, about 40 schools.  From those 40 schools, I will wind up visiting 16.

So, there were a lot of, in my mind, missed opportunities, I think, but sometimes you just gotta take what you can get.  Probably of those 40 I actually heard back from, I'd say 30 were, at least at some point, accompanied with a "yes" or at least an "I'm interested."

But as I was still having a hard time booking some of these 30 venues as the Tour began last September, I naturally relegated, to the front half, most of the schools I had booked, and scheduled schools that were still question marks for the second half, to obviously give those schools a bit more time to develop and finalize.

Surprisingly or not, most of these venues wound up fizzling out-- either due to scheduling issues or faded enthusiasm or little actual interest to begin with.

Honestly, though, for the most part, I'm glad, both personally and professionally, that this half is so much easier to handle.  Frankly, the Tour did its job-- I feel like I paid the film the distribution service I owed it, and I'm ready to move on.  Not that my experience with A Genesis Found ends with the Tour-- we're still hoping to get a bigger third party distrib. involved-- but I guess I feel like I tried the DIY experiment and learned a lot, and feel like my debt to it, and to the people who helped me create it, has been paid-- at least as far as day to day shepherding it is concerned.

You said it, Spidey

 Anyway, the Tour's not over yet.

When things got moving again in January, I couldn't have gotten back onto the bandwagon much easier than via my first screening of the second half, a February 8th late-afternoon screening at Jefferson Davis Community College in Brewton, AL.

What was so "easy" about the JDCC screening certainly wasn't the drive (didn't realize it was five hours til the morning of because I planned so well....)  What was easy was that it was a private, class-only screening-- my first and only for the Tour.

Though it might sound a little compromising and detrimental to the Tour's purpose, doing a private, non-public screening was actually quite liberating.  Basically, in January I sent my contact some promotional materials, and then a month later showed up-- that was it.  No filling out venue breakdown sheets or hunting e-mails and fax numbers of local radio stations; no expensive flier mailings to local libraries; no worries about not promoting well-enough and therefore being solely responsible for bad attendance.  It kinda gave me an idea of what it would have felt like if I had like a manager on this Tour, making the arrangements and doing all the dull work, while I rolled into town, saw the sights and made a couple of template comments at show's end.

Anyway, the JDCC screening was special for a couple of reasons.  One, I'm apparently in the lineage of Jefferson Davis (one of my mom's grandmothers was a Davis, I think?); two, February 8th was my 25th birthday; and three, I felt like bringing my screening there was a very big deal for the school and the audience.

Jeff Davis

 I've noticed this with most of the Community Colleges I've visited-- well, sort of.  I guess it's kinda a mixed bag.  Sometimes at the small schools people aren't that ambitious, and therefore aren't that interested, and so (relatively) no one shows.  But, sometimes, it can be real special-- similar to the 100+ person screening at Pearl River Community College at the Tour's beginning.

It's special because, at school's like JDCC, there are rarely these types of outreach opportunities.  This might be different for small schools elsewhere, but in the Southeast, it seems like getting actual, non-local artists to bring their work to little schools is a battle typically fought and lost by Humanities and Fine Arts professors across the region.  I suppose, typically, these lack of opportunities stem from the perceived lack of interest, and the lack of useful function to these types of small schools mostly concerned with preparing kids for two years at a University or giving adults a more accessible means of receiving a secondary education.

But, that's been one of the (few) luxuries of designing this Tour myself, and allowing myself and my "focus" to be flexible.

It was actually one of the best audiences I'd gotten a chance to screen for-- I think because most were Humanities students, English students-- interested in story, in ideas only.  It was a really honest, straight forward screening, with people who were interested (even if just in the novelty-- when the Dolby logo ran before the film, one audience member actually exclaimed "This has real trailers on it!"), and seemed to legitimately care about what was happening in front of them. 

It was a talkative audience-- but not in a "I'm not paying attention" way, but more in a "interacting with the content" way.  A very reactive audience, I should say.

Well, not THAT reactive.

 And at the, by contrast, relatively tame and quiet Q&A, I got to field probably the best question of the entire Tour asked about making the movie:  "Was it hard?" 

What's so fantastic about that question was that it was meant so legitimately.  It kinda put everything in perspective for me-- kinda made me better understand my place in this world, and the place of regional and independent film in this world.  You could tell most of these kids, if not all, had NEVER been exposed to this type of work before-- the concept of making films locally for local audiences had never even been optioned in their minds.  We were breaking ground that night.  We were rounding out perspectives and broadening horizons.

I guess it was lesson one in helping me understand the true purpose of this Tour, and why God put me on this earth to be a filmmaker in this region at this time.

... That is my purpose.

 Man.  I guess my approach to the Tour isn't the only thing that's changed since the last half.  What happened to my sense of humor????

Oh, there it is.

Holiday Hiatus!

Just so you all know-- the 2010-11 Southeastern Campus Tour for A Genesis Found is pausing for a month or so, now, to coincide with school closings and the holiday season.  We'll be back up and running by late January.

I know I'm not really the best at keeping this blog updated in a regular fashion, so expect me to be even more sporadic until the tour resumes-- but I'll try and drop a line a few times in the time between, to update you all on where we're heading in our next batch of tour stops, or if anything interesting happens.  Hopefully we'll also have another comic strip up featuring John Patton Jr. by month's end.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Life Day!

Catchin' Up part 6: Georgia... Georgia...

The final screening of the 2010 portion of the tour was supposed to be a cakewalk-- an easy screening, just before Thanksgiving, with the bulldogs over at UGA in Athens, Ga.  Athens is only about a three hour drive from where I'm from, and I'd been through on other trips mere weeks before-- so, naturally, I assumed it'd be a breeze.

Much like Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Oxford, Knoxville and most campuses in the SEC, Athens is the quintessential state-university-in-a-college-town-whose-economy-owes-its-success-and-continual-growth-solely-to-the-school.  In other words, it's a college town and not much else.

The Immortal UGA -- The Ghost Mascot Who Walks

Initially founded on the banks of the Oconee River as a trading camp in the 18th Century, Athens literally owes its existence to UGA-- it was born out of the Georgia General Assembly's establishment of the University in 1785. 

The town wasn't "official" until 1805.  As the University grew, so did, exponentially, the town's industry-- in fact, so many Mills began popping up in the area it became known as the "Manchester of the South" after the famous English mill town.

As with many of the school's on this tour, Athens was a strategic locale in the Civil War, mostly because of UGA, and also because the Confederate New Orleans Armory was relocated there shortly after the war began.

The town continued growing, ever steadily, its government changing considerably after Reconstruction, and by the 20th Century, it was quite larger and quite different from its intial 18th Century form.

Aside from the continued growth, innovation and importance of UGA, Athens is also known, in modern times, for its thriving arts scenes-- especially its music scene.  Band members from such groups as REM, Widespread Panic, and the Drive-by Truckers call the town home.

REM eating BBQ -- They're from the South all right

Since the town does have such a thriving art scene, spreading word about the film was pretty easy to do.  There were a lot of folks to contact, so it took several days-- but, overall, there were plenty of outlets, plenty of interested folks at those outlets, and, theoretically, plenty of interested folks receiving those outlets, in a town known for cherishing regional art and artists.

I'll confess, I usually try not to get my hopes up, or get excited about these screenings.  Part of this is that, since it's a DIY tour, and I don't particularly enjoy touring, there's little "fun" to these things-- it's all business.  And, since no one is hiring me to do them, and I'm having to create my own opportunities, it doesn't really feel, I don't know, I guess, "official", in some way.  But, since I'd been constantly improving at tour promotions for each new screening, and Athens did have such a great scene, I was kinda half-hoping-- and half-expecting-- a pretty big crowd.

A very overused stock photo

The morning of the screening I, as usual, got a bit of a late start.  I have no excuse.  Regardless, even with the three hour drive ahead and the lost hour from the time zone change, I left with enough time to make my 6:30 call no sweat.  After all, I'd made the drive several times before, and I'd taken into account every wild variable I could think of, hadn't I?

Well, no.  Because I didn't take into account freaking Rush Hour.  In freaking Atlanta.

As you folks know, Atlanta is the biggest city in the traditional Southeast (ie not including Florida and Texas); and since most of the roadways in the South are not over wrought with the same kind of painful traffic that exists in most Northern states and Northern metropolitan areas, us country bumpkins always forget to take afternoon-drive-big-city traffic into account when taking a leisurely stroll through predominately rural Georgia.

At the time I was just barely on schedule at my 80+ mph pace, so as I came to a stop in the middle of I-285, I realized giving my contact a heads up that I was probably going to be late was a good idea.

I make it my policy to make sure every host contact has a DVD screener of the film, on file, just in case something like this happens-- it had already come in handy once, when I missed a screening down at Pearl River Community College in Mississippi.

So, I gave my contact, a Grad Student and head of UGA's Anthropology club, a call, explained the situation, and we seemed to be on the same page.

Just a quick note, while we're sitting here in traffic-- Atlanta is pretty notorious for being "poorly" designed (at least its interstate transitions are), and the roads are regularly nightmarish this time of day.  The fact that I didn't count on that just goes to show you why it's generally a bad idea to schedule these things by yourself, folks.

Just had to say it-- Go Bravos!

Anyway, as expected, when I finally rolled into Athens it was about 8pm local time-- with the screening supposed to have started at 7.  Still, when I last spoke to my contact, he assured me that we were good-- that he had the DVD screener and that he'd start it if I wasn't there by 7-- then I'd be there for the Q&A after the fact.

So I was in no real rush when I got into Athens-- which was a good thing, since I missed my turn several times.  Finally I found campus and started looking for the Anthropology building.  One thing that struck me immediately was, for a major state university, the campus sure was deserted.  If only my alma mater had had this kinda parking on a Wednesday night.  It felt like summer on a much smaller campus.

Inane observations would have to wait, though-- cause then I got a call from my contact.  Apparently there had been a miscommunication-- he thought a different disc, that had come with my promotional bundle I'd mailed to him, was the DVD screener-- not the preview screener I'd initially sent him.  Meaning he didn't actually have a copy of the film.  So he-- along with the rest of my "guestimated" huge audience-- had been sitting and waiting for me for over an hour.

Nightmare.

So I immediately picked up the pace, found the room, ran up the stairs-- and was greeted by half a dozen or so students.

So you know what had to have happened, right?   At 7 I had a huge, interested crowd-- who'd bailed because they were told they'd be waiting indefinitely for some no name Bammer filmmaker who had underestimated Atlanta.  Wonderful.

So, with a few brief words to my contact, we got underway.  All eight of us.

Let me say this-- I don't mind playing to small audiences, that's part of it, especially around here.  So if that was all we were going to get, it was all we were going to get.  But I HATE missed opportunities, and the last thing I wanted to hear was that I'd lost what I'd hoped to be one of the biggest audiences of the semester because of poor planning.

I feel ya, Big Al... I feel ya....

So, once it was all said and done, my contact invited me out for a beer to thank me for coming out and bringing the flick.  I don't drink, but I suggested the next best thing-- Jimmy Johns.  So we hit one up downtown.

He was a cool guy-- an anthropologist and working folk musician in the Athens scene-- and we talked a little everything-- movies, music, social anthropology, the economy... football-- hey, even among us intellectuals, it's still the SEC.

I eventually got it out of him-- that was all the audience that showed up.  Whew.  So, now, I guess the more important question was, with the seemingly unending supply of support and interest coming from  promotional outlets in Athens, with the town being home to a major state university, and with the town crawling with folks interested and willing to get involved with independent arts, why were we only able to attract such a small crowd?

"Because it's fall break."

Apparently Thanksgiving's a two week celebration for the Bulldogs.

I guess, ultimately, I didn't really have this screening thought through, when I planned it.  But, that's part of it, I guess.  Next time I'll be sure and check my dates against the academic calendar.

That should also explain the veritable ghost town called campus.  I thought it was just because of their football team.

We made a bowl!!!!

Catchin' Up part 5: Homecoming

Probably the easiest stop on the tour so far has been our "homecoming" screening at the University of Alabama Huntsville.  Not only are Wonder Mill and myself based out of Huntsville, but the film has its own special connection to the school-- Louis Salmon Library, the main library on campus, doubled as Hoole Special Collections library (from the UA campus) in the film.

Hoole Special Collections ala UAH

Frankly, organizing the screening at UAH was way too easy-- not that I mind a few of these screenings just kinda conveniently working themselves out without me hustling folks, but I gotta admit one e-mail request with an immediate "can do!" response doesn't build much character.  Regardless, it was on the schedule following a couple of weeks of excessive traveling, so it was a welcome respite.

Part of the reason booking the campus was so simple was because we were able to host the screening AT Louis Salmon Library, in a room literally feet away from where we shot.  The good folks there were excited about having us back for a screening and got us one of our most fun and, frankly, comfortable venues of the tour.  But more on that later.

First, you know the drill-- the history of Huntsville, AL in three to four sardonic sentences.

Many a Fanning knew the sweat and stank of the Cotton Field.  Just not me.

I have a lot of roots in Huntsville and the outlining area-- it's where my father is from, and where the Fannings sharecropped til his generation.

Established in 1805, the city was first incorporated as Twickenham (and hence the namesake for my Adult League soccer team - the Twickenham Rovers), and first thrived from strong railroad and cotton industries, which would remain thriving into the 20th century.

One interesting note about the town's pre-20th century days is that it was actually, initially, opposed to secession in the Civil War (this is fitting, now, since the town's current culture, due to the many engineers working there from all over the country, is an eclectic mix of traditional southern culture and modern urban/non-regional identity); but the opposition didn't last very long.    

Huntsville, aside from its thriving agricultural industry, remained pretty modest in size and quiet in the national scene for most of its first century of existence, and into its second.  However, all that would change with the onset of World War II, when the city became home of Redstone Arsenal.

Redstone, which still largely influences the town's make-up and culture today, was briefly closed in '49, then re-opened as a missile research facility the following year.  The place finally became a national jewel, though, when, in 1960, Marshall Space Flight Center was opened on the Redstone campus-- and into town came a handful of German Rocket Scientists "refugees", including one Werner Von Braun-- and the city's namesake as 'The Rocket City" was born.

Just don't ask him about V2s.  Or the English.

The Saturn V, the largest rocket ever built and the means by which man reached the moon, was designed in Huntsville, and parts, including the boosters, were tested in the city.  It remains the city's crowning achievement-- the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, located in Huntsville, even has one of three actual Saturn V test rockets still in existence today on display in the heart of the city.

The Mighty Saturn V-- at the USSRC!

The space program ties and the arsenal still heavily dictate the town's culture, known for its progressive atmosphere and heavy saturation of engineering firms, engineers and other notable left-brainers.

One other tidbit worth note about Huntsville-- baseball greats Walt Weiss, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco all played AA ball together, for a time, with the Huntsville Stars-- then a farm team of the Oakland Athletics.  Though I'm not sure there were ever pre-steroid days for Canseco, this was certainly before Big Mac had forearms like Popeye.

Looked more like Olive Oil in his Huntsville Days

Another Cliff Clavin fact I gotta mention here-- Alabama-born comic book writer Mark Waid used the town (or at least the name, though the town's presentation was not entirely congruent with how it really was at the time) in a Batman story, published by DC in Detective Comics Annual #2 in '89.  As a native and a Batman fan, I've gotta admit the story was special to me.  I spent a fair amount of my childhood battling imaginary Klan members (instead of the Joker or Two-Face) because of it.

Get them Shameful Southern Stereotypes, Bats!

Another treat to having a screening in your hometown is having some family and friends in the audience-- well, I say treat, though I couldn't shake the nerves, going into this one.  I don't get nervous at these things anymore, usually-- mostly because there's not much of an audience to get nervous about.  But I guess that was exactly the fear going into this one-- that the only folks who'd show would be folks I invited.


But, apparently, being pretty well saturated in the Huntsville community paid off, and we wound up getting a pretty big, excited, and largely unfamiliar crowd at, again, the most comfortable venue we've yet played.

We were playing in a "Super Classroom"-- and unlike "Super Star Wars", this wasn't just a shameless (though addicting and fantastic) platforming cash in on the then trendy "Super" adjective.  The room was decked out in dozens of executive-style leather computer chairs-- comfortable, executive-style leather computer chairs.  So comfortable I figured most of the crowd would be out by the time the ever-dreaded cave scene rolled around.

Super = Killing Robocop lookin' villains as Luke Skywalker; Not So Super = Seeking Missiles and no lightsaber to defend yourself 

Luckily, the crowd, all young, stayed awake (at least as far as I could tell).  It was actually one of the more excited and expressive crowds we'd played to, laughing at (generally) appropriate times, and reacting to reveals appropriately.

I was suspicious Ben, who as a rare treat got to come out to the screening, had paid 'em, at first.

Also making the screening a true "homecoming" were some friends from the day job, Ben's parents, my ever supporting parents (including the "Arkie" that's the namesake of this blog) and my wife.

A genuinely nice night-- nothing to whine about, really; just a relaxing celebration and a night of story-sharing 

My next stop, however-- the final of the semester-- was another story....

Catchin' Up part 4: Capital City Comics Meet-and-Greet

Little deviation from the tour recaps here to talk about one of the film's more exciting media tie-ins!

As I've mentioned on this blog before, actor/artist Kevin Maggard (see him in The Nocturnal Third) and myself are currently working on a serialized comic strip, Southern Truths featuring John Patton Jr., which details more events in the life of John Patton Jr., the archaeologist whose actions would spark the events of A Genesis Found.

Anyway, as part of a nice, promotional treat for Kevin, and for the strip, Capital City comics in Montgomery, AL, showcased Kevin as one of a few local artists at its recent grand opening, where he was able to set up a table, pass out some comics and DVDs, and get some folks on our mailing list.

Kevin also had a pretty brilliant idea for direct fan interaction, and organized a "contest" of sorts-- folks who joined our mailing list would be, with their permission, translated into comic form and included as extras in our next strip, which features John in his school days at the University of Alabama.  Though this is all well and good and a clever use of resources (after all, we'd need plenty of extras for the campus scenes), we encountered one, unexpected hitch-- the strip, set in the 1940's, takes place at a then non-integrated Alabama, where no student is over the age of 35-- so naturally a majority of our volunteers would be middle-aged African-Americans.   Several with dreads.

These guys look like they're from the 40's, right?

Of course, with so many campus scenes I'm sure we can find a place for everyone that's both non-racially discriminating while still being historically accurate (I told Kevin it was his problem since it was his idea, haha), and we're very thankful for everyone who stopped by.  It's still a great idea, even if it would have worked better for a non-period piece.

Regardless, here are a few more pics Kevin passed on to me from the event (unfortunately I was at a wedding and couldn't make it-- congrats Jackie!).  And keep checking agenesisfound.com for strip number three launching this month!

Hey, Kevin-- Sneak me out some of them DC Showcase volumes behind ya, huh?

Birth of a Salesman

Catchin' Up part 3: Murray State, Busted Brackets, and Grilled Cheese International

All right-- where were we?  Am I still in the Carolinas?

Thankfully-- and nothing against the Carolinas-- but no, though I didn't have much down time in the "ordinary life" before I was swallowing the Carolina Chaser-- a much more modest drive up to Murray, KY.

Now I understand there is still some dispute over including Kentucky in the South, and since the state didn't officially secede (and had, probably, more Union sympathy than Confederate) in the War of Northern Aggression, I suppose an argument can be made that my trip up there makes me a scalawag.  But, I know as Southerners we love to include Texas-- which wasn't even a state in the Civil War-- because it's big, scary, and full of citizens convinced that, if the Feds screw 'em, they'll just go back to being their own damn country.  So, I figure, we can let the "officially" neutral state of Kentucky-- home of bluegrass, Don Rosa, and George Clooney-- in on the joke too.

Plus, Murray State University, dubbed Kentucky's Public Ivy League College (though it's not an Ivy League school, obviously) because of its academic standards, is located about fifteen feet outside the Tennessee state line, so my ancestors can rest easy.

Frankly, prior to organizing the screening and making the trip, all I knew about Murray State University was that they were the "little college that could" that beat Vanderbilt last year in the opening round of the Men's NCAA March Madness basketball tournament.  Not being a basketball fan, and being an alumnus of an SEC institution, I had somewhat recklessly projected that Vandy would make it to the final four-- and with Kansas losing in that big upset in the second round, my bracket was completely busted two days into the blasted tournament (just a side note-- President Obama actually called this unlikely upset by Murray State.  Decide for yourself whether or not our President keeping up this well with College basketball is unsettling).  So I suppose because of this mauling, Murray's name stuck, and eventually found its way on my list of projected tour venues.

Who cares about basketball anyway?  I'm from the SEC!

That might have been all I knew then, but I know a little more now.  Here's a little back story behind Murray State:

As I mentioned earlier, the school is known for its strong academic reputation.  Its nickname/mascot is The Racers (like "Kentucky Derby" kind of racer).  The school was initially founded as a teachers college in 1922, opening the following year.  Throughout the following decades, it slowly grew, changing its name several times until finally settling on Murray State University (to coincide with yet another slew of additional courses and programs) in 1966.

One notable alumnus includes Chris Thile, a member of the fabulous folk group Nickel Creek.

The campus was quite handsome, if a little modest, and reminded me of the layout of USA in Mobile or UWA in Livingston or UAH back home-- kinda like a city college that's not in a major city.

Murray's (the city) history is as equally as modest.  It's the seat of Calloway County (though wasn't always). Despite the aforementioned neutrality of Kentucky in the Civil War, Murray, again, being on the Tennessee line, had its share of Confederate sympathy, and the town did see its share of guerrilla warfare.  It was burned on numerous occasions by both the North and South-- that's what neutrality gets you, folks.

Hey there, hi there, ho there, he's a friend to you and me....

Regardless, the trip to Murray was one of the most pleasant long distance (ie over two hours) trips I've yet had on the tour, and I arrived an hour and a half early to meet with my contact, an English professor, and a friend of hers from the department (also a professor) to grab some food and socialize a bit before the screening.  It was a gracious (and rare) offer, and I was thankful for it.

We met on campus and walked over to a nearby, hometown international restaurant that was literally feet off from the quad (though not technically part of campus, I don't believe).  Really nice set up, though-- a converted house-- that was quite cosy, with books all around, and not just for show.  Definitely an intellectual type of hangout with a down home feel. 

Unfortunately, I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food, nor do I drink, and in hoping to keep from costing the dept much of a burden (they were footing the bill) I got the ever-fancy American Grilled Cheese sandwich with a Coca-Cola-- the only non-imported combo on the menu.

Crazy eyes off sister!

We spent most of the meal talking old films (mostly the work of Orson Welles), film technology and film scores, and I did my best to tread water when the discussion moved to Opera-- La Bohemme and Defladermaus and I'm out, haha-- but I did my best to stay interested.  I hadn't really had a hoyty, non-regional, intelligentsia type convo in a while (and not to bash it, I def enjoyed it) and was glad I could actually get discussions and ideas out of my skull that weren't just about super hero mythologies and how Bama's secondary best be growing up in the off season.  Not that I didn't want to bring it up.

We then ventured back to the venue, and the screening went pretty much as it should've, and the crowd that came out was actually bigger than I expected.  About an hour and a half in, though, about two-thirds of the audience took off (apparently it was some class that had come to see as much as they could before class time).  So as the night ended I fielded some questions from a handful of people-- including a European student who, having a hard time understanding the raw southern accents, asked the horrifying question:

"What happened in the movie?"

Hahaha. 

Thankfully, though, after getting more details from her I found her real question was about the McGuffin, and something we left quite intentionally ambiguous about it-- not about the basic plot structure and what the hell happened in the two hours of jumbled, idiotic mess she just forced herself to watch.

Duh, who says movies gotta make sense, 'dere?

Questions like that keep you humble-- even if it wound up not being what she was really asking.  I'm quite content with the film now, with its flaws and strengths, and don't have a problem when I get grilled by audience members anymore.  You gotta be loose, open, honest, and have a sense of humor, while also keeping a strong conviction that the work you did and the work you're doing is worth a damn.

And trust me, unless your name is Orson Welles, when you show your first feature, sometimes you're gonna get grilled, and it's the best thing that can happen to you. 

All of us can't be "Jacks-of-all-trades" you know.

 

Catchin' up part 2 1/2: "The crazy crap you do for movies"

Benjamin Stark, my business partner at Wonder Mill (also the producer of A Genesis Found and the writer/director of The Nocturnal Third) coined the quote in the above title, and it's about the most straight forward assessment of the bizarre experiences endured in varying phases of filmmaking I've ever heard.

The Indomitable Benjamin Stark

For our first two features, Ben and I have done our fair share of "crazy crap" (often with the help of family/friends/cast/crew), including a straight 23-hour drive to Illinois and back to pick up a $400 piece of junk camper; an out-right bizarre festival award show in Anaheim, CA (Joey Buttafucco was one of the presenters!); towing the production van behind an SUV out of the woods and into civilization at 2:30 in the morning, attached only by rigged tethers of rope; while waiting with our wreck-stranded DP, watching the sun come up after a late night of shooting, with the next day's call about 5 hours away (I missed this one, but Ben, Joey and Markus were there!); dealing with SAG after realizing we had unknowingly used a SAG actor -- etc, etc.

Of course, not every great anecdote of "crazy crap" has to involve loss of sleep and awful, off-pitch urban/techno/indie/europop singers with their dancers they met off Craig's List (thank you, Anaheim).  Sometimes the "crazy crap" is simply how you react to two world's you generally keep separate colliding into one, in scenarios of great potential for physical comedy that almost make you feel like a marionette of Buster Keaton.

You said it Buster

I got to experience one of these bizarre events a few weeks ago, in the week prior to my trip to the Carolinas.  For the tour, I've developed a pretty aggressive and all-encompassing promotional strategy for every school I visit, getting word out about screenings as best I can using what humble means I have at my disposal-- mostly passing on fliers, press releases and PSAs, and doing my best to get blogs, podcasts, newspapers, and radio stations interested and willing to pick up and promote the screening with no cost to me.

Unfortunately since most of my promoting can't involve money (I pay to print up and ship fliers, but that's it), this campaign is a bit more hit and miss than I'd prefer, generally depending on how much of a head start prior to the screening I give myself to get promos rolling, how big the town/school is, and if I contacted the right person.

Anyhow, since Columbia is a pretty big town with a nice art culture, my promotions for the screening went pretty well (even if the turnout wasn't overwhelming-- Beat Auburn in the SEC Title game and you're forgiven).  I got a good amount of coverage from numerous local press sources, including the always welcome opportunity of getting interviewed on a local syndicated-radio "community events" show.

The filmmakers are coming!

I work as a projectionist in my day job, and since I spend a lot of time in the projection booth babysitting the projector, I generally have some free time-- or at least time where my job is simply to be present and not actively work.  When I don't waste that time lamenting Alabama's 9-3 season or updating my Netflix que, I can generally use it to the advantage of my filmmaking alter-ego.  So, assuming I'd simply need to give a 15 - 20 minute interview, on tape, I agreed to call the show in the morning during my 11 o'clock show (show duration: 40 min).

So I made the call, and after a brief introduction, my interviewer prepped me:  "You ready?"
- "Yes"
- "All right.  We'll get started and all I need for you to do is tell me a little bit about the film."

Again, assuming this was just a taped PSA of some kind, I, immediately, started into my memorized spiel that pitches the film and screening--

- "Whoa, whoa, hold on, we're not on air yet."

Now, it hits me.  "Oh, sorry."

Fifteen seconds later, I'm on air live in South Carolina.

Generally, I'm not alone in the booth, and when I have to take important calls (I'm assuming being on air live in another state qualifies as important) I do so in the back, but since I was alone, and the projector can't be left alone when it's running, I was left to field interview questions just a few feet away from a very loud projector.

For the first twenty minutes or so, the interview went great-- outside of the fact that it was twenty minutes when I was expecting five to ten.  Not that I minded the extra publicity, but I wasn't counting on it-- and having called the station some 15 minutes after starting the film, the film's ending, and the need to quickly turn it around for another showing on the hour, was becoming paramount.

To further complicate matters, I had other "supervisory" duties still to deal with.  In a nutshell, where I work, when I'm the only projectionist in the booth, I'm also the supervisor of the theater's ushers.  Typically they rarely need any input from me-- they are largely self-sufficient-- but since I had been the only projectionist in all morning (and wasn't initially supposed to, mind you) we had never decided what ushers would leave to go work our other theater (which had it's first show in the following hour as well).  Also, with the other projectionists (my bosses) still not checked in from some extra work that had kept them all morning, we also didn't know if we had a projectionist available to run the show at the other theater.

You know where this is headed

SO, my lead usher informed me of most of this dilemma on scribbled scrap paper while I was still fielding questions-- generally tough, detailed questions-- about the film.  Luckily, when you eat, sleep and breathe a project for three years, you get pretty good at talking about it with half your attention.

And, to further complicate (and not embellish, I swear) matters, my phone, a cheap $20 go-phone that, ever so humble, has a sweet spot in regards to the placement of its mic, and if I angled it mere centimeters incorrectly away from my mouth, it couldn't pick me up at all-- so, as I ran around with no free hands prepping the transition between films, I had to keep the phone pressed quite awkwardly and quite firmly between my arched shoulder and ear.

So, standing by the projector's control panel mere minutes from the transition, my lead usher and I exchanged numerous hand signals, pointed fingers, nods and other forms of silent communication to sort out the mess, while I continued to try and field questions.

Too bad my name's not Barry Allen....

Despite some awkward pauses, and too many "uhs", I got through most of the motioning pretty smoothly, and we had a gameplan.  Now all I had to do was wrap up the interview while turning around the film myself in a nine-minute window.

And then, with my hands in crucial places on the control panel, retracting the projector down from its up-track position, I shifted my shoulder and the phone dipped under my chin.

"Oh, oh, we've lost you.  Are you there?  Hello?"

Jesus.  So, after a few silent seconds, I was able to pull a hand free and readjust the phone.  Now I had seven minutes to thread, a phone call still to make to ensure there was a projectionist at the other theater, a film to turn around (which needs both hands), and an interview, now nearing 45 minutes, with no end in sight.

Fortunately (though rather unfortunately for my story), that was about it.  Once the film was down, aside from having to thread with a pinched nerve because of my neck glued to my shoulder, and looking kinda ridiculous (and unprofessional) to the guests watching me work from our outer glass wall, everything smoothed out.  Luckily, threading is like riding a bicycle or hitting a baseball-- muscle memory-- so I was able to focus on the questions, wrap up the interview in five minutes, and finally give my full attention to make sure both theaters were covered.

The crazy crap you do for movies.  All in a day's work, right?