Take Out World Premiere, sort of

So, how things have gone lately. On Friday I had auditions with Aaron for a couple of the smaller parts for Move Immovable. Found two people we liked, one of whom was the female lead in Take Out. That was great. When she walked into the audition neither of us was expecting the other. I gave her a big hug and got to tell her that Take Out had a screening this weekend.

Then I went down to Providence for SENE

SENE is a music, art, and film festival with both features and shorts. You can't do everything, so I only did the shorts screenings. As a result I saw probably over three dozen films over the course of the weekend.

I went to the opening party Friday night. Chatted with people, exchanged business cards, was feeling very proud of myself for getting out there. Then I went to the networking brunch Saturday morning. More talking to strangers, more business cards exchanged. It was kind of a relief to then spend the rest of the day watching films in a darkened theater. I went to the awards Saturday night. Take Out didn't win anything, but I didn't think it would, or should. I didn't see the film that won best short short, which is what we were competitive for, but I did see short shorts that knocked my socks off. So if I'd have one, they'd have been robbed. Ghost Tours also didn't win the short screenplay competition. But I'd heard they got about two dozen entries, so to make the top 5 is still very good. I should probably put it on the blog somehow. Finalist in the screenplay competition still sounds good.

I was planning on seeing all the screenings on Sunday as well, but to be honest, I had hit a wall on my stamina for interacting with strangers. So I skipped the 1pm shorts and took a nap instead. I kind of wish I'd gone because there were a few films that played then that I wanted to see. But I just didn't have it in me. So I only showed up for the 5pm screening that Take Out was part of. We were playing second. The first film played. My film started and immediately a box pops up with an error message that the audio was incompatible. I didn't think to ask them to check it because I knew that Phil, the artistic director, had played it on his computer a week ago and everything was fine. So they skipped over it and played the rest. I, of course, then did not stand up for the Q&A. I was torn between not caring (after my thesis committee ripped apart Take Out at the end of last year I'm not very attached to it) and being terribly disappointed. A couple of the filmmakers that I had met over the course of the weekend gave me hugs and said, "Come to the after party, we'll buy you a drink." Drinks were free, but it's the thought that counts. I almost didn't. I kind of wanted to curl up and lick my wounds. But I went, and I'm glad I did. Everyone was very supportive. They ended up showing it there, which was almost all the same people that had been at the theater anyway. And they were probably paying better attention then they would have been at the theater anyway. And I met and exchanged cards with several more people. Ultimately I would call it successful.

Oh, and this was going on outside the theater while I was waiting for my screening. They were doing a 1 mile loop, around and around for about an hour.