Early Casting Notice for an Independent Feature and 2 Short Films.

3 Films (2 shorts, 1 Feature) Written and Directed by Daniel Laabs

The shorts are going into production in January and early February and the feature will have rolling auditions throughout the year until the director and producers are ready to set a date for production. Our hope is to find one or two actors to perform in all three projects.

"Haggle," 5mins, HD (Improvised) (Production: Early/Mid January)

Two white philosophy students, Fred and Nick, are approached by a black teenager, Aaron; who is trying to get his start in underground hip-hop by selling demo CDs on the street. The students lead him on to the point where Aaron is compelled to confront them and their actions.

Fred, (19 – 22), Caucasian or Hispanic, an opinionated and pessimistic, young intellectual, lives off of meager budget but manages to stay stylish. He only watches foreign and art house films and is in the process of growing his first beard. Given the opportunity, Fred will and can rant. He is a stern believer that talking about problems helps to make things better.

Nick, (19 – 22), Caucasian, spirited, optimistic, studious and often inspired by Fred’s rants. By nature Nick is a follower and is prone to following trends. He is less opinionated than he is logical, but will always seek the reasoning behind an idea. He thinks before he speaks, and in situations he doesn’t agree with he will always take a passive role.

"Dirty Faces," 10mins, HD (Production: Late January/Early February)

A couple of drifting petty thieves, Curtis and Jenna, find an opportunity to take their work to the next level by lifting a small time drug dealer who is old friends with Jenna.

Curtis, (19 – 22), a drifter, a thief, quiet and confident, takes care of himself and attempts to live outside the system. Very introverted.

"Brentwood Stair," 90mins, HD (Summer 2010)

Will, a, embittered 19 year old misfit, has been kicked out of his mother’s home and is thrust into the world of becoming an adult. When a friend, Herold, mysteriously disappears he finds himself replacing and fulfilling Herold’s responsibilities with his sick mother.

Will, (19 – 22), Caucasian, an embittered misfit, who withholds his emotions, and desires. Rarely comfortable socially he doesn’t like people in general.

Instructions:

- Please send any and all inquiries with a headshot to our Casting Director, Amy Childress, amy.adrianmakemovie@gmail.com

- She will book you a time to come in and read, after we have received enough responses and the holidays are over. Auditions will be held by appointment only.

Information:

- Compensation: Actors who are cast will receive union level accommodations during production, transportation, food and payment (only for the feature). In addition to that scenes and other promotional materials will be provided for reels, and a DVD of the finished product.

Videofest Recap & Lonestar

I completely dropped the ball, and this blog is about a month late. Seriously! The first dumb thing is that I forgot to announce on here is we were accepted into Lone Star, meaning we somehow managed to screen at 3 hometown festivals. So Thank you Videofest, Lone Star and of course the venerable AFI Dallas/Dallas International. I will try to construct some memories of the two weeks in November.

VIDEOFEST!

This was in many ways a homecoming, the Dallas Videofest has long been a festival I attend annually, and never had a film play. So to have two films play was really exceptional! As always Videofest leaves you feeling inspired create, but this year in particular it left me with a sense of security. Sleet/Snow played to a sold out crowd, and afterwards I fielded lots of questions and it won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short. But the whole thing was just super, I got to hang out with the Prime Eights at a few of the parties and that was great. Those guys made an excellent doc called "Walking Fish and Big Red" which I highly recommend and it can be seen here. It was definitely an honor to hang out with such prolific and passionate folks as they. I got to see Kat Chandler's new film which was pretty cool too. My favorite short though was Drew Xanthopoulos' Western Brothers' Adventure Story and a clip of which can be seen here. The film leaves with the sense that you've experienced a full narrative but the way it is expressed, shot and editing is truly unique. It is story telling at it's most pure. I was more then a little frustrated that I didn't meet the filmmaker afterwards.

Start a Band also won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Comedy Short, a prize that was won last year by Clay Liford for My Mom Smokes Weed, which just got into Sundance. Thanks to all the Jury for the awards and we shall see if anything comes of them. Also to Bart Weiss and Johnny Rutledge, for doing an exceptional job with the festival overall... Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

onto LONE STAR!

It is fantastic to see the community come together to put on a festival, and reinforce it with the city's excellent cultural infrastructure. The convenience of Sundance Square and the Museum District of Fort Worth make this festival really step up. I drank my way through this one, I saw some really nice films including Oren Moverman's triumphantly subtle The Messenger, as well a second viewing of You Won't Miss Me. Which I didn't enjoy as much as I did the first time, but still it was quite an awesome screening at the Kimball Art Museum. The auditorium there has to be seen to be believed, its a very odd venue.

Sleet/Snow played near midnight, and I was able to attend the screening with Gideon who had yet to see the film with a festival audience. The following night I ran into a friend I made at BendFilm! whose film "Haze" also played AFI last year, Pete Schuermann, and we went a very weepy eyed award ceremony for Kris Kristofferson. Not quite feeling that we retreated to the "Disney Party" and which was a blast. (Haze can be seen in full here on snagfilms) I got to meet quite a few really fantastic people at the festival and I am very grateful for the screening. A lot of things are said about Lone Star, but through it all this year was an exceptional one for them. Great Work!

To be continued as far as Sleet/Snow goes, last night was the one year anniversary of its first screening at the SFVO Fall Screening. Which was unfortunately the first of many screenings of the film that I ducked out of.

BENDFILM - 1

Well Bret and I got in yesterday at noon, and much to my surprise Vincent, form the most entertaining documentary Vincent: A Life in Color was on our flight into Redmond along with a few other filmmakers. We get to town and we are staying at a very beautiful house that is straight out of an issue of Better Homes and Gardens. We are about three blocks from Downtown where all the "action" is. There are a about a million local restaurants here, this place feels unreal. I attempted to watch Road to Fallujah but was half asleep the for half the film. Overall from what I saw I liked, and the Q & A was heated so that was fun. Then after like 32hrs of being awake, we called it a night. Today we began with a Filmmaker Breakfast, and got meet some very nice people. Our screening partners from the excellent short "Royalty Free" hung out with us all day making the multiple treks back and forth from screening to screening much easier to procure.

We ate dinner at the Lahianna Gallery, which had several Pop Surrealist renderings of Bears interacting with things, odd and enjoyable. Overall I am just frustrated that I won't be seeing half of the films I want to. I am glad I printed out some new lobby Cards that Andrew made, which are larger and just nicer in general. I am definitely submitting here again, this is an excellent and laid back festival. And it is pretty, will post pictures soon!

VideoFest 22

So this year at the festival formerly known as the Dallas Video Festival, now just Videofest, Adrian Make Movie is taking over residency. With a total of three shorts playing, Gillface, Sleet/Snow, and Start a Band. Very exciting news, hopefully more news is to come! I also saw that the Beaches of Agnes is playing, which is by a very favorite filmmaker of mine, Agnes Varda. It is a film that has been at the top of my list to see since it premiered last year! Sleet/Snow will play in the Texas Show this year, which is a great honor. I've gone to this festival for a few years now and really am happy to finally have a film playing in it, and two films at that.

A few words on Start a Band, it was a film shot mainly to get me out of a 10 month rut of literally making nothing, during which time I produced a few films, but never really directed anything. I am very excited to see it play. That is really nice news since it was shot literally the week of the deadline!

Mark your calendars!

David's film will be playing on Saturday, November 7th, and Daniel's films will screen on the Sunday, November 8th. More screenings to come before the year is out.

BendFilm

It is sort of a tradition here at The Adrian Make Movie Official Blog, to discuss which films I am most excited about at each festival we are attending, and then sort of recap which ones I liked and didn't care to elaborate on. First I will mention that Children of Invention is playing (big surprise!) this film screened at AFI Dallas and I had the chance to meet Tze and I absolutely loved his film. I may even watch it again, but I've seen twice already and there are so many other films I will be trying to catch.

A big hole from South by was 45365. Which I got a chance to see via SnagFilms over the summer, but I knew then when I watched it, that it was an experience best reserved for a theatrical viewing. Thankfully I will get another chance to catch this one. I also really watch to see, while I'm on the subject of Documentaries, The Road to Fallujah, which played Slamdance earlier this year and I just can't pretend I am not curious about it. Vincent also looks like a random bit of fun, which is a film seemingly about a guy who wears colorful suits.

The opening night film, "A Film With Me In It" was particularly amazing at South by, but we did see it at a midnight screening, so I am ready to give it another chance seeing as there isn't really anything else going on other then that! We are screening before the films Fuel and Blue Bus, the latter of which looks very promising. Bomber was also one Adrian and I almost saw at in Austin but missed due mainly to scheduling. I am going to make a concerted attempt to see as many shorts as possible, and also re-watch Jon Bryant's hilarious Overbrook Brothers.

Mostly what excites me about BendFilm is not the cool festival programs (which I have no doubt will be great!) it is a part of the country I have never seen. I only wish I was driving there instead of flying! I hope we can convince our hosts to take us to see some of the beauty that is the northwest part of this country.

All sorts of stuff

Adrian Make Movie is in the

News! (as interviewed by our good friend Alfred, photographed by our moderate acquaintance, ie role model, Adam Donaghey)

and in the

PRESS! (featured with the great James M. Johnston and our buddy Andrew Disney!)

BendFilm Oct 9th, is where "sleet/snow" screens next, which also recently played The Modern in Fort Worth!

Also will be a part of the Texas Show at the Videofest 22 in Dallas in November which will be joined by Gillface and Hurtgenwald.

The Runner will be playing at the Mid Atlantic Black Film Festival in Virginia as well.

In other news Aaron Holloway's new short Big Hands is finishing up its long road of post production, and we just started submitting that out a few weeks ago. And the lastest Adrian Make Movie is "Start a Band" which was made in conjunction with the Backyard Movies collective nearing completion and is my latest film.

Also now this is online, which is arguably more of a backyard film then "Start a Band" on a thematic level alone. I wrote about it in detail here.

North Street Bummer from Daniel Laabs on Vimeo.

news!

sleet/snow has a "real" website now.

More screenings for adrian make movie films coming soon, lots of chances to see one of our films this fall. Lots.

"i thought i saw pete at the gas station"

Last night Aaron and I had our first post semester meeting about "Big Hands" and where we wanted to take the film now that it is in our hands, no pun intended. And for some reason I got the idea stuck in my head that I should start retracing my steps. I began with my most recent film prior to 24hr, which was "sleet/snow," on top of that Frank asked for some footage for his reel, and even though there is only one shot of his face in the film, I dug up the project file and began to watch the different cuts. s/s was the first film I had edited closely with someone else, er... Adrian, where we saved every cut we finished. In final cut it is never a good thing to rely on the auto-save to catch all of the little moments that changed everything. But since we were on such an expedited timeline for finishing the film, we had the aforethought to keep a record of every major step. That is something Adrian is at full credit for doing, was so exhausted when the shoot was over, I didn't have the endurance to marathon edit and to honest I don't think Adrian did either.

This 5 minute clip from "sleet/snow" was one of the first sequences to be cut from the final film. Mainly because it disrupts Robert's character arc. It isn't even the whole sequence, but I thought this worked really well when I watched it. I put some shots at the beginning to kind of add some scope and pace to the sequence. This clip also catalogues my frustration with Marian's character, and the situation I put her in. In the film who she is is very ambiguous, she is both the object of affection for Robert, but at the same time a human being that isn't in the same head space her. The clip is called "i thought i saw pete at the gas station because" that is the conversation had over sandwiches in the following scene (not included here). But that was the idea I had to reference her husband, and that her being there was an act of independence from her daily life. The trip is that for both of them, but ultimately I felt her character's arc distracted us from Robert's. I think cutting Marian arc, was and is still the choice that distances me from the final cut. That was more my failure then the anyone else's, but as shown here, in its roughest state, I can't entirely feel I let myself down. Indeed this is part of the original cut assembled while we were shooting, with just a hint of finessing. Collectively, these are some of my favorite/prettiest shots we got, and then were left on the "cutting room floor." I hope you enjoy.

"i thought i saw pete at the gas station" from Daniel Laabs on Vimeo.

Adrian Make Movie Trailers

Well you've seen the reels here's some completely awesome trailers and more for some of the films we've produced. I hope you enjoy and if you are interested in getting a screener of any of these films please feel free to contact us at adrianmakemovie@gmail.com.

Hürtgenwald Trailer from Noe Medrano Jr. on Vimeo.

Please checkout the rest of Noe's videos on Vimeo, if there is such a thing as a man behind the curtain, well that's Noe, Hurtgenwald was his narrative debut short. If ever get a chance to see it on the big screen it is a truly awesome experience. One of the most cinematically meditative films I seen from a friend and collaborator. I think Noe has shot or lit everyone of my narratives. Become a fan on facebook to find out about upcoming screenings and support this incredible film.

Sleet/Snow Trailer from Daniel Laabs on Vimeo.

What can I say I think this is the third trailer we've posted, more good news will be announced as soon as I can on this project.

Big Hands teaser from aaron holloway on Vimeo.

Aaron Holloway's latest short film was produced in association with Adrian Make Movie, but technically is a Manamal Production, and it won Audience Choice and Best Narrative at the UnderExposed 7 Film Festival. We are still in post on this one, but hopefully we'll be in a place where can start submitting to festivals very soon! Become a fan and find out news about upcoming screenings at the good ol' facebook!

Gillface from David McGinnis on Vimeo.

I guess this is the creme de la creme of embeds, this is the full version of David McGinnis' Award Winning Musical Short Gillface. Join the good fight and become a fan for Aquatic Americans young and old on... facebook.




Indeed this very first short produced by Adrian Make Movie, originally intended to be straight forward narrative short, but ended up becoming a test shoot for the film that ultimately became "sleet/snow." As rare as the screenings are comparatively to films like Gillface and sleet/snow, become a fan and get updated with news, although subscribing to this blog's RSS might be the easiest thing now that I think it, but support it anyways. North Street will be online in full by the end of the month.

Anselm from aaron holloway on Vimeo.

One of the first films I produced, this is another in association with Manamal Productions sort of deals, but I helped write and I produced it, so by my count it is Adrian Make Movie as well. This is also presented in full



Other Great Adrian Make Movie Films
The Runner (in association with INRI Films) - Facebook
The Moving Rows - Facebook
Hot/Cold (in association with Revision Films) - www.myspace.com/hotcoldfilm
That Makes Five (which will be posted online soon)
Catchers (which will be posted online soon)


Lastly I am doing this in part because June is our one year anniversary for Adrian Make Movie and it has been both an exciting and pretty successful first year, with films playing at SXSW, AFI Dallas, Fearless Film Festival, Reality Bites, Texas Black Film Festival, and UnderExposed 7. Does anyone have any ideas on how we can celebrate?

H/C Update

Reel

Daniel here...

This is somewhat inaccurate because all of these films were made before 2009, but two of them were finished this year.

2009 Director Reel from Daniel Laabs on Vimeo.

The song is from "la chinoise" by claude channes.

"HOT/COLD more like HOT DAMN!"

or at least that is a paraphrased quote from director/writer Frank Mosley. I can't say enough nice things about our crew and our Director of Photography Ron Gonzalez. It has been a nice blend of UTA folks and new people for me. Marc Howell won an excellent game of scrabble (with a little help from me), Corrie saved us from near disaster with her boom stick, Jenny our Art Director masterfully designed a beautiful bed room, Nathan took pictures of everything (well not everything) that I look forward to seeing with great anticipation and I hope to be able to speak more about everyone and their amazing deeds after next weekend as well post some stills for everyone see some of the awesome work being done. Crystal and John are two of best actors I've ever gotten to work with, and all in all it has been one of the most comfortable sets I've ever been on. Great work everyone can't wait for next weekend. I don't think I have ever been this happy with a movie I been a Producer for. Thanks and I'll be sure to mention everyone's heroic acts next week. Just thanks to everyone who has been a part of this film from the beginning.

And speaking of Boom sticks... Adrian and I went to see Drag Me To Hell last week before he left for Taos and all of its glory. And I have to say it was one of the most perfect cinematic experiences I've had since Bones with Snoop Dogg. And people were talking and talking, and for once I didn't care. As a known cinematic elitist, I find myself backing away from this more and more with every day that goes by. I'm still picky but damn it, I want to nothing more then to see Drag Me To Hell for a second time. It reminded me of my top films of 2001, Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, and Bones. (I think they were the only films I saw in the theater that year.)

thanks for reading, Daniel

Hot/Cold... is "warming" up...

Daniel is posting...

As per usual, a day working with Frank and Robby was very insightful. We were doing some last minute location scouting, which is always frightening, because things have to go well. But I think things went better than I had expected. We are almost ready to make a movie. As much as I like to just Produce, I am switching into AD mode for the shoot and this week is well the week before the shoot. So my mind is going everywhere trying to make sure I am confident about ever aspect of our two shooting days this weekend. I am very proud of this project and am lucky I get to be such a big part of it.

It is pretty crazy to jump in to straight between two shoots, knowing that swimming through only leads to a larger ocean of work and production. I drove past Caves on the way to one of the locations we were looking at today and I was remembering back when I would've gone for a beer on Memorial Day a few years ago. I would've sat at the bar during happy hour and talked about how I wanted to make movies. I'd talk about crazy ideas involving Werewolves or Aliens, but instead of making that happen I sat there on the barstool enjoying what I thought at the time was a deserved rest. Now I spend almost everyday working toward production or on a production of a friends. It has been a nonstop ride since AFI ended and I think I starting to get back into it. After Post Production on Sleet/Snow I was completely drained, I had directed and finished 8 films in 2008 (Sleet/Snow was the last), and that feeling I can now say is over.

That said there are also a ton of films I want to see this Summer and I have picked up at least one job to fund my getting to see them all so I can report about them here. In no particular order they are; Summer Hours, Lorna's Silence, World's Greatest Dad, Revenche, UP (which will be the first PIXAR film I will have ever seen in a theater), Paper Heart, and all the big uns (which I won't write about instead I will probably talk obsessively about to anyone in my close proximity... sorry in advance).

Also Lemon is moving towards a big step, will update soon. Also Coming soon is an Adrian Make Movie DVD, hopefully featuring all of the shorts made with Adrian Make Movie Productions... more on that soon as well, don't forget to come out and support our sister company Manamal Productions' 24hr Video Race film, which I co-wrote/directed, "Sweet Potatoes" this Tuesday 7pm at the Angelika Dallas.

24hr (continued...)

See "Sweet Potatoes" on the big Screen at the Angelika in Dallas on Tuesday at 7pm! ($5 for non racers)

or

You can watch it here


or


here.

24hr Video Race Done

Daniel here...

If you didn't follow manamal on the tweet hot line, we finished our movie at 10pm. Managed to make a new cut by 11pm and turned in a really nice film. It is called Sweet Potatoes, which was the joke title for a script I was working on last month, and it is about two sisters who are left with their Uncle Steve by their father for the afternoon and he takes them out for some mischief. The film is about responsibility, growing up, etc. I am very happy with the film overall. We technically had an unprecedented 6 writers. (!!!) It was the first film for Adrian and I to work on together creatively since Sleet/Snow, and post our mini-festival run for said film. I don't think it is much fun a Schadenfreude, but we didn't focus on last year. We just focused on making this film. It was very liberating to think of it that way.

I will be posting our final film by tonight for all your viewing pleasure, but even still it is always best to see any film on a big screen so we will be updating here on the Manamal Twit for all screening times. Our first and potentially last will be later this week. Congratulations to everyone who participated, especially to those who finished. I was happy to see so many of friends going through this bull shit on their own terms. 24hr is a fun shitty ride, and I'm glad it is over.

the Reel

ENJOY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwpSzYLm6ic

UnderExposed 7 Wrap Up Blog!

Daniel here,

Adrian Make Movie Productions and their filmmakers sweep UnderExposed Awards. The awards were selected by a jury of three, Chris Simpson, Keith Alcorn, and Melissa Kirkendall, and so here's the results. UnderExposed is a film festival made by students to showcase the work made by students, all the films are selected by the same jury, and Adrian and I were on the committee to put on the show. I had nothing to do with the awards, but it sure was neat to get one. So here's the wins.

Best Cinematography (tie)
Noe Medrano Jr. for Gillface
Bret Curry for Sleet/Snow

Best Writing
Nathan James for Gillface

Best Narrative and Audience Favorite
Aaron Holloway for Big Hands

Best Directing
Daniel Laabs (ME!) for Sleet/Snow

and

Best in Show
David McGinnis for Gillface

Other films that screened at UnderExposed 7 from Adrian Make Movie were Noe Medrano Jr.'s Hurtgenwald and Jayson Mekala's The Moving Rows. Thanks to everyone who came out.

In other news, The Adrian Make Movie team er Myself and Adrian will be joining forces with our Big Handed friend, Aaron Holloway and Manamal Productions (which I proudly have been involved with for a year now) to enter the 24hr Video Race under the Futurevision Catagory. This is our second year doing the race our first year we took home first place for our film "Schadenfreude."



We will post live updates during the 24hr Race, via the manamal twitter.

Alright well that's it for news, more festival updates for "Sleet/Snow" coming soon!

TEAM HURRICANE LOVES YOU

Adrian (the guy who wrote this) and Daniel were recently invited to the greatest podcast ever on Earth, "Team Hurricane Loves You". Our good friends, Shaun and Darrel host an incredible podcast where they talk about important current trendy topics like puppies, laserdiscs, cheese enchiladas, and electric bongos. They have been pugging our film, "sleet/snow" since their first podcast and have been fans of us since the beginning of time, so we thought we would grace them with our robot clones.
I have to say those clones were an amazing investment. We pre-program them to be smart and witty and it takes about 15 minutes for them to warm up, but once they do, they're awesome. So, if the podcast has a slow, rocky start... just stay tuned and it will pick up and by the end, you will love The Darrel and The Shoo-awn Hawm-eel, as well as rekindle your eternal love for The Daniel Rock Laabster and Amazing Adrian Test-o-Leone.
We talked about LOTR, Star Trek, Wolverine, sleet/snow, Gillface, Elvis Saves Christmas, Lou Diamond Phillips, Adrien Brody, Jeffery Tambour, Charelton the Elvis Impersonator, and Evan's Vacuum Cleaner Store and Hulu.
If you are fans of any of these things then you will thoroughly enjoy the "Cowabunga Adrien!", Team Hurricane Loves You podcast.
Other than that being the most awesome thing that has happened to us in the past who knows how long, we ate McDonalds, wrote emails to Bart about what we're going to do with our lives, ate McDonalds again, laughed at our own voices, then ended the night with a high five and said, "Adrian Make Movie's gotta stay high!"

We also plugged the UTA/SFVO Student Short Film Festival that will be on May 12th and 13th, from 7pm to 10pm
It will be at the Studio Movie Grill in Arlington Highlands, 225 Merchants Row, Arlington, TX, on I-20 and Matlock.

The festival is going to be awesome. It's a lot of shorts from a lot of our friends as well as some "Adrian Make Movie" Productions.

Sarah Harris, the senior shorts programmer at AFI Dallas International Film Festival, Melissa Kirkendall, the producer/director of the Fearless Film Festival in Fort Worth, Chris Simpson, local producer and industry professional and former SFVO President, and Keith Alcorn, creator of Jimmy Neutron, local animator, and UTA Alumni will be judging the festival.

It will be great movies, good food, and great fun, so come on out to the UNDEREXPOSED 7 Film Festival!

and don't forget to tip your filmmakers...

ha!


Adrian

The Mopper

Adrian and I acted in a film last year for a friend.

We were great.

Its called The Mopper.

Logline...
A mopey Janitor has a run in with a Co-Worker that lingers... in the mind... and the heart... and the soul... of a man... who is probably going through something pretty significant.

David is great.

So here is the deal, in a couple weeks the Senior Exhibition is coming up at the UTA Gallery. This is a pretty cool deal. You should all go, I am screening a new cut of North Street Bummer, it will be different, if you have seen it before it will be different. I just said that twice. Indeed I am confirming the allegations, Big Hands is moving into post, I am very proud of Aaron and this little film, it really showed up at a good time and I am looking forward to seeing it with audiences. Then I am also doing a bunch of work and other people's stuff just like Adrian always is. I will be Color Correcting Josh Palmer's new stop motion film, I will be playing the toy store owner in Jayson Mekala's film, The Moving Rows, and mostly I'll be ADing on Frank Mosley's new film Hot/Cold. I am also working with Chris this afternoon on his new film. I think I said film 9+ times in this blog. So I will also be flipping burgers this summer to stay a float.
d

OMG... it's started! by Adrian

So the LEMON is rolling! I sent out an official casting notice and so far have received at least 10 responses in the first day for all the positions EXCLUDING Leeroy the Clown. What's wrong with playing a clown?! I would do it! Hmm.... Maybe I WILL do it! Yay for clowns!
"Gillface", another short film I (Adrian) produced just won BEST STUDENT SHORT at the Fearless Film Festival in Ft Worth, which is part of the Main Street Arts Festival. The director, David McGinnis is very happy that festivals have started to recognize it's AWESOMENESS... and so am I! It also won Best Short Film up in Illinois in the Reality Bites Festival, so HOORAY for Gillface! If you wanna check out how awesome Gillface is, and show your friends, just comment on this blog and say, "I WANNA SEE IT!"
Actually... if you want to see anything that I've produced, let me know and I'll send you a copy or I'll upload the film and put a private password on it just for you and you can watch and enjoy anything that has the ADRIAN MAKE MOVIE name on it!
Daniel just wrapped a film he produced called "Big Hands", by Aaron Holloway. It's supposed to be incredible and I have no doubt that it will be. I'll be producing "The Moving Rows", by Jayson Mekala, two weekends from now and I expect big things.
Everyone around these parts know what "Produced by Adrian Testolin" means.... It means it's gonna be GOLD! Hooray for Gold! Yay for movies!
If you want to be a part of an Adrian Make Movie production, comment on our blogs and we'll get in contact with you!! We are ALWAYS looking for crew and cast and love working with new people!
We produce many shorts and soon we will be producing features!
AND while you're at it, buy some of my old DVDs!... and this old tire I found on the side of the road last week!

Sorry... I was re-reading what I wrote and it sounded like I was trying to sell you all something...

"You all"... I'm seriously starting to think that Daniel and I are still the only ones reading these blogs... oh, and Alfred.

Thanks for tuning in Alfred. We'll get you an "Adrian Make Movie's #1 Fan" T-shirt soon.


Keeping my head above water...
Adrian

Adrian's back from the dead...

HEY! Where have I been?
Well... SXSW is way over... it was a great festival and I wish it was more often than once a year because I loved it.
AFI, however, was a different kind of great. It was a film festival as well but held a different caliber of cool and had a more commercial program.
I met Adrien Brody, we high-fived, I meant to say, "Adrian's rule the Earth!", but instead I said, "Adrian's gotta stay high!", and held my hand in up the air for way too long. He looked at me, then up at my hand, then bak at me and said, "Yeah."
I also met Guillermo Arriaga, the writer of "Amores Perros", "21 Grams", "Babel", and writer director "The Burning Plain". I told him I watched his movie twice and I enjoyed it both times and he said, "Really?". I guess he didn't believe me.
I also met other really cool and very interesting people from all over the country. They were all very nice.
So since AFI, I have been job hunting because I realized that this is my last semester and I have no money saved and I have financial aid that I have to start paying back, and I don't want to be that 30yr old guy who still lives with his mom and plays video games everyday... which is what will happen if I DON'T start making some money. I've been working with this photographer to try to set up a wedding video/photo team to make some quick cash on the weekends. I've been slowly talking with some friends to start up a freelance commercial team. I applied at AT&T as a "Cell-Phone Seller", but haven't heard anything back from them yet.
Besides that, I've been helping multiple students try to put together their short shoots and I've been looking for locations for everybody, (including me).
My friend Jayson's car broke down one day on the way to AFI, so I've been picking him up and taking him to school and taking him to car dealerships and taking him home, so that takes up some time, but I don't mind, he's my friend and he often gives me good advice that I choose not to follow.
I've been missing deadlines with my ONE class and I had a deadline 2 weeks ago (during AFI) with the company I'm interning for that I missed, and I actually still work on in my very limited free time, but I'm not sure I still even have a "job" with them, because I haven't called to try to explain why I didn't make my deadline for the task they gave me... I guess I just didn't want to do something "half-assed", so I didn't show anything at all.
RIGHT NOW, I'm acting in Raziq Brown's "Psychopomp". For some crazy reason Raziq thought I would be able to act in a lead roll with emotional scenes and I honestly didn't believe I would be able to pull it off, but I DID! The big scenes were yesterday (Saturday) and I think I did pretty well! I can't wait to see the footage so I can say, "Oh yeah, I was right, I can't act.", but until then, I'm gonna go around and tell everyone that I'm awesome and I'm an actor!

Today is the last day of principal for "Psychopomp", it's Easter, and I slept in until 1pm. I have a headache, but other than that, I feel great! Acting is fun! It's weird to be on the opposite side of the camera. I notice all kinds of mistakes being made with the production and I get to witness how they correct those mistakes, it's fun, and very educating. It is difficult for me NOT to say something when I see something wrong that no one is attending to. I need to work on that. I'm awesome and I'm an actor.
I'm working mostly opposite Nicholas Cormier III, star and director of the "The Runner", we have a good working relationship, and he's helped me out a lot with performance with his professionalism as an actor. I also worked with Krishna Smitha, who is beautiful and has these enormous, gorgeous eyes. She is so sweet and kind and amazing on screen. She's much much better than me and it just comes naturally to her. Raziq is the other character and he's doing just fine because in a lot of ways this script is very personal to him and he can just act out his real life... or something like that.
I'm worried about Lemon.
I haven't had a lot of time to concentrate on it. I need to find more actors, I'm still searching for locations (Pediatrician doctor's office, a big backyard that is just grass and flat, a purple bedroom), and I'm dreading shooting the second weekend of May because I don't feel that I have enough time to get everything together by then.
I'll figure something out, I always do, but until then, I'm leaving the futon, and going back to BUSY.
I've missed you blog... and I hope we see each other again soon.

On a side note: Birra Porettis in Arlington, by I30 has half priced pizza every Tuesday night, and it tastes great. Order a medium, eat half of it Tuesday night, then eat the other half later the next day for lunch... or if you're like me... eat the other half the next Tuesday morning (yes, 7 days later), then go back to Birra Porettis for a refill. Here it is.

Still Truckin'

Adrian

i just can't help it

I have been thinking about this and many, many other people have.
Since most of our readers don't follow the same blogs I do, I will share this with you.





and yes it is the same footage recut in a different order, but it also brings new meaning to the footage.

AFI is almost over...

It has been a pretty crazy week, I've spilt beer in front really cool people. Tripped over a curb, walked out of movies, went to hooters, bombed interviews and Q & As, and hoped and prayed that my film spoke for itself. I forget that only a month ago this person that has been going to these festivals and talking to people who are much cooler than I, didn't really exist. I have never done or experienced these things, not even close. I've done lots of dumb and embarrassing things in my life, lots more like tons, but I think collectively my behavior at these festivals has been something of a mystery to me. I don't get it. I'm just a kid from Mansfield, TX. Prior to two weeks ago I hadn't been to more then 10 bars in my life, for the sole purpose of drinking and talking to people (I am excluding the tours with PFA, because I think I only talked with the people in our crew). I guess what I'm saying is I have never put myself out there like this. I have gotten to meet filmmakers from all over the world who think and take the same risks as me. Some more social then others & some more drunk than myself.

AFI Dallas, was pretty good to my film, the festival staff treated us well, and people enjoyed our film. I will be posting a "new" cut of North Street Bummer sometime next week, with one extended scene and no opening titles. I am doing this to get some feedback from you people as to what you think. I will post it on my website, and there will be a questionnaire below it and I'd like to hear what people think.

d

STAGED READING of "HOT/COLD"

Oh, I'm involved in this, me Daniel, if you are a reader of this blog you are invited to come and check this out. It is going to be very cool. Here's the nitty-gritty or more-so the press release for the event.



HOT/COLD is a short film in development from award-winning filmmaker Frank Mosley, an Arlington, Texas resident whose love for film and theater has collided for this one-night only event. Fresh off his first feature film, HOLD, due out this summer, Mosley has returned to the passion project that has long eluded him. To help jumpstart this production, he hopes this live performance might ignite public interest and provide a whole new perspective into the evolution of a single project.

Four Day Weekend Theater of Fort Worth, located in the heart of Sundance Square, is hosting a staged reading of Mosley’s latest script about disillusionment, loneliness, choice, and responsibility. It will be an entertaining and unique kind of fundraiser that hopes to secure some money for producing the film this summer. Although there is no admission fee, Mosley hopes that even the smallest donation will help produce the vision that this minimalist theater production alludes to.

The reading, narrated by drama instructor Jennifer Mazza-Nguyen, will be acted by cast members Danielle Pickard, Crystal Pate, Morgana Shaw, and John Elliott. The film’s composer, Fort Worth musician Clint Niosi, fresh off his hit album, “The Sound of Dead Horses Beaten Against Cold Shoulders”, will be performing a live “first draft” of the film’s score to accompany the actors. Fort Worth photographer Paul Leicht has also taken a series of portraits and abstracts that will be projected on three background screens as a commanding triptych to round out this aural experience.

Mosley will speak on behalf of himself and his producers Robby Storey and Daniel Laabs to illustrate the potential pinnacle this film will take on once funding is successfully raised. He hopes to submit the finished film to both national and international festivals, and also present an alternate, “one-long-take only” installation version of the tale to galleries and museums across Texas.

Any further inquiries will be contacted with an online, full-color press packet for circulation and interest.
This night will also be taped by filmmaker and writer Shaun Hamill for his latest documentary, both a chronicle on the making of HOT/COLD, as well as a meditative investigation into the creative and collaborative process.

So, join us for a fun night of theater and cinema, of sight and sound, where you, as an audience, can help put the finishing brushstrokes on this canvas, filling in the gaps as both spectator and curator. We hope you enjoy it.

There will be two performances, one at 7:30 pm and the other at 9 pm, on the evening of Tuesday, April 14th. Please join us in the lobby afterwards for drinks and discussion.

the sky looked crazy today before it rained

:)

Looking forward to AFI

So for AFI, I'm going to catch a couple films I missed and support other new exciting films in this festival. I am also one support duty for UTA. My little film school has a huge presence this year at AFI Dallas, there is, the big one, The Other Side of Paradise, which was made by Justin Hilliard and Ryan Harsell, two people I have never met save for facebook and association with one of the stars of their film and mine, Frank Mosley. Also playing is Sai Salvarajan's short The Management of Grief, a met Sai a few years ago during a tour up at Video Post & Transfer, now called & Transfer, but then it wasn't. Then Justin Wilson, who I've never met or heard of, has a film called One Nation. All things considered, I am looking forward to meeting these guys and seeing their films.

I am also looking forward to another chance to see David Lowery's St. Nick, again. It was easily one of the strongest voices in SXSW and his presence was noted on a couple other films there that I really liked. If you are reading this, the film that should be at the top of your list of things to see is St. Nick. Otherside is sold out, so it really will be luck that gets you into that or you were smart unlike myself and bought your tickets to see that the night they went on sale and sold out. I am really amazed and surprised at their success. So I hope I can get into see that (fingers crossed).

So many good films we saw at SXSW are also screening here at AFI and I have to recommend a few if you get a chance to get out to the fest. I Come From the Woods and Treevenge are both screening in the midnight shorts catagory and were also part of the same compilation at SXSW, which was one of the best round of shorts we saw in Austin. As far as features, I would also suggest 500 Days of Summer, now this isn't really a small film at all, it is huge, but it was a really nice film that I would definitely say was worth the watch. I heard nice things about The 2 Bobs, and Big Fan with Patton Oswald looked pretty funny. Sister Wife was really interesting and is playing in the Documentary Shorts Competiton. Naiti Gamez's Love, Sadie is in competition with Sleet/Snow, but I really liked it, it was one of top shorts at SXSW, and if you come out to see my film you'll get to see that one too. I will be going to see Dungeon Masters is playing, I didn't hear much about this, but it looks funny. I will also be checking out Grace, which just looked disturbing but was on my list of films to see at SXSW, so... HUG is also playing in my competition, and we saw that at SXSW and was really cool, wasn't a favorite but I definitely liked it a lot.  Moon is also screening, we saw that, I didn't see all of it so I may catch the rest of that one. Bart said Rip was good. 

Oh well, I post more films I am looking forward to seeing at afi later in the week.

d

Where has Adrian been? ... by Adrian

SXSW is over. I'm back in Arlington, where there is no festival, no 5 films a day, no free pass to all kinds of stuff, and most importantly... no free food.

I'm back at school. Stress, Embarrassment, Anxiety, Confusion... Life.... starts again.

I'm extremely unmotivated and uninspired to do much of anything. Where is the Adrian from last year? That guy who never slept and never stopped moving. Did he die? How did he do so much? Is that why I'm so burned out now? Am I burned out or am I just being lazy? Where are my socks? Am I going to graduate?

I keep telling people that "My Suicide" was my favorite movie at SXSW. Was it? I really enjoyed it and I loved the style, but was there something better that I forgot about? I'm in class right now, or I was when I wrote this, so I can't look up everything I saw and revisit them and decide what I liked about them and weigh them against the other films.

I'll see if I can find some time to do that later... but when do I have time?

Today I'm helping an intro student shoot a documentary, then later I'm climbing.

Tomorrow I'm helping with the documentary again.

Thursday I'm supposed to go to Fort Worth to try to lock a jewelry store, and AFI starts.

Friday through next week is AFI and casting and finding locations... Can I do all of this?

Of course I can. I accomplished more tasks than this in one day last semester, so all this should be cake for me.... but then we're back to the question... "Am I the same Adrian from last year?"

-Who am I?

I think he's a Jack-Ass

The shorthorn published a really nice article about us and Sleet/Snow in today's paper. check it out.

Top Ten of SXSW

Here is Daniel's top ten favorite festures

1. Afterschool

Probably the most important film of this festival. It is a satire, but more then that, it is also perfect. By the end you are practically going nuts, your brain almost can't handle it. You feel tense. But the most important thing is you feel. That feeling is strong, and unique.

2. You Won't Miss Me

We saw this opening night, and it immediately resonated with me. I truly cannot wait to see this film again. It is dark, it is depressing, but above all it is real. Gritty and real. You feel humiliated, betrayed, lost, and ultimately alone, it is hard to like this movie if you can't identify or decode it's harsh language. Very much like Afterschool, this film makes you feel things, it is just that they are both refined and subtle.

3. Winnebago Man

I think you are always affected by a film when at its completion the applause is so loud and heartfelt. I won't attend to the every detail because I have not posted my notes on this profoundly inspired documentary about an angry man. I mean, I predict people will be talking about this film for years and years to come. It is that good.

4. My Suicide

I didn't want to like this film, for a lot of reasons. It is immature, it is an over-the-top-preach-a-lesson type of movie, but it is really great. The editing, the main actors, (Joe Montanga sucked 90% of the time he was on screen), the music (the TV on the Radio cover of Daniel Johnston's "Walking the Cow" is worth a viewing alone), the story, this film was as much as I didn't want it to be one of the best films I've seen this year. Not my favorite of the fest, but definitely one of the best films of the year. 

5. The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle

I wrote about this previously and I really liked this film. It earned every second of your time, it made you love it so much, and the film makes you want to hate it. It is essentially about pooping blue fish,. But it is amazing to witness this film evolve into what ultimately becomes a truly worth while experience. I think technical proficiency would understate how cool this movie is to look at.

6. Alexander the Last

I really liked this movie. I was simple, fun, and contextually fulfilling. I have to say though the thing that impressed me the most about this film was Joe's camera work. It looked really great, the visual aesthetic of each sequence was really neat to watch. It was as cool as St. Nick, but it was a very pretty movie. A lot of improvised elements really stood strong in this film. Really cool.

 

7. St. Nick

Some told me during the festival that it could have been a short, but I'm glad it wasn't. One of the things I liked most about this film is how it lets you think. Like You Won't Miss Me & Afterschool, you really had to look at yourself and pay attention to what you were thinking about during the screening. Each image draws your attention to a thought or a subtext, and like the boy, when you do have the courage to speak it is often so self-centered and introspective, your are curious if in fact you are alone in your thoughts. It sits on this list also for its powerful freaking sound design.

8. We Live In Public/Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo

In both of these films, you could watch two different filmmakers, continue with the work and style they have established for themselves. If you've seen and liked their previous films, I recommend these, they totally do it again, with new subjects.

9. Beeswax

Bujalski's latest film, his third film, does not disappoint. It is about the relationship between two sisters, it is fun and meaningful. Maybe I'm just still so in love with his other two films that it is hard for me to not like this movie. But seeing Beeswax in the theater, let me see an audience react to a subtle comedy like this for the first time. I'd put this on par with Bottle Rocket, but the heart of this one is a bit grander. I shook this guy's hand three times but couldn't sum up the courage to talk to him.

10. Creative NonFiction

I enjoyed this film a lot, funny and insecure. It was one of the most enjoyable films at the festival. Great story, low budget, exactly the kind of thing you hope to see when you are about to embark on a long laborious journey.

Favorite Shorts

1. Sunday Mornings

2. I come from the Woods

3. Isis Avenue

4. A'mare

5. Recieve Bacon/Butthole Lickin'

6. "C.R.U.F.F."

7. Love, Sadie

8. Auto Pilot

9. Warm Fuzzy Feeling

10. Sleet/Snow (because I made it.)

Feels Like the Last Day on Earth... by Adrian

SOO... YESTERDAY - We started out our day with "Breaking Upwards". It was funny in the beginning, then slowly declined to not as funny as the beginning. There were a LOT of focus problems. The lead girl was cute and the mothers of the main couple were great! I was not into it as much as I thought I would be.

After the New York Break Up Movie, we went to see "Winnebago Man". I'm not sure if you have heard of "Winnebago Man", and I'm not sure if you will ever get a chance to see it. "Winnebago Man" started as a secretly circulated video tape that made it's way to underground "funniest home movies" shows. Later it was uploaded onto the "inter-web", and spread like wildfire to all the "funny video" sites. "Winnebago Man" currently has 894,771 hits, and is rapidly rising. "Winnebago Man", the documentary, is amazing. It's about a guy who watched the online clip then set out on an adventure to find what people are calling "the angriest man alive". "Winnebago Man" had a PACKED house at the Paramount (which seats over 800) on its third, and last screening and had THE loudest applause I've heard out of anything we've seen here at SXSW. "Winnebago Man" is an incredible film that will probably get a theatrical release and major distribution. It's that good.... if you haven't noticed by how many times I wrote "Winnebago Man".... "Winnebago Man". www.winnebagoman.com 

Next we saw "Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo". Incredible again. The opening sequence was great and the movie overall was great and I would write a lot about it, but we're heading out to see more movies... I'll be back for more updates later.

Adrian in the morning...

Beep beep went the sheep.

I'm having a "crazy" day. One of those days where I walk around and sing out of tune on purpose and let my voice crack and say things that don't make sense and make up words from some unknown space language...

Another day of back to back movies. You know... this is the true test. Festivals are the deciding factor to see if someone really wants to be a filmmaker. You would think that after a couple of movies I would be burned out and want to wash my hair in a toilet... but no, I'm still "truckin'". i enjoy watching movies, and I've always said, "Dang, I wish I could watch movies all day long and not have to do anything..." Well, now that's happening and I'm realizing that ISN'T what I want. I'm starting to feel useless and extremely unproductive. I like the movies, but sometimes I find myself wandering off (in my brain noodles), and I want to go work on my own movies or my friend's movies.

I've come to the plateau of wanting to work in production. I think I love it. I like pre-production and post, but I think I like production the most. That's weird. I always thought I was a pre-to-post guy, but when I sit down and STOP and think about it, I REALLY like production. I don't mind waking up when the sun does, and I don't mind working for like 20 hours a day. I wish I could be in production all the time. BUT....... Don't read this and think that I want to be in production all the time. Even though I just said that, doesn't mean I want to do it. "What does that mean, you're confusing me...", you might say. Well, this is what it's like aboard the Adrian Train. We ride on our own tracks and they're invisible and sometimes they do loops and U-turns and sometimes they plunge into the ocean or go straight up to the moon. Just try to hang on.... You'll eventually want off this crazy ride. That's what we think. And now I'm referring to myself as plural. I'm crazy.

Here's where I try to reason with myself, that usually ends up with me getting upset and eating.

I like production, but I don't want to do it. It's like having a "thing" for cheesecake. You can't eat cheesecake everyday, because you will explode. So the few times you get the privilege to eat it, it's SOOOO much better. I'd like to steal the phrase "pleasure delay" from Vanilla Sky. There are things on this earth that I enjoy so much... and I purposely avoid them until I almost can't take it anymore, then I give in and the cheesecake is that much sweeter. Pleasure Delay. So if I relate to production, it works the same. I'm sure if I worked on everybody's projects and was on set every weekend or all week, over and over, I might get burned out... I don't know.

I can honestly say I still like watching movies. Good, bad, weird... all of them. I also like to play video games, but I haven't played any for months. I miss it. I also like cheesecake.

So what do I want to do for the rest of life? Do I want to be an actor? I could be on set and enjoy the production from the opposite side of the camera! Do I want to be a PA? I can be on any set anywhere, anytime and have minimal responsibility, and just enjoy being a part of production. But that's a waste of the skills I have acquired! I can do anything and everything! If I'm PA-ing, that's wasting my talent! I guess I could PA to pay bills and work on my own work in between. Is that the norm? I don't want to be normal....

So crap. I have to leave now and watch more movies AFTER we find a parking spot... which is going to be hell on wheels.

Motivation... I have to get to work. 

Lemon is coming.

Soon.

Cheesecake.

Pleasure Delay.

Crazy Day.

Adrian and his thoughts.

"Why do you think that it is possible for men and women to be friends?"

For some reason every time I add up the reasons why I make films, the scale tips one way before I can counter balance those thoughts. So I reach all too often the mentality that this is not worth it. Months of writing to months of pre-production to one week where it all falls apart and you scramble for 18 hours a day catching everything to further reducing your original concept to the ruthlessly essential, to what ultimately becomes hustling you film. I met Laura Longsworth from Arlington, MA, and we laughed and joked about this so of nightmarish reality. We posed for a picture and I later went to see her amazing film "Luckey." 

Three day post.... by Adrian

Hello again.
Tuesday - We went to a panel in the AM for the TFPF grant through AFS. We learned some good stuff. Nothing new really, Bart already told us all about grants and how they worked.
We went to David Lowery's "St. Nick", which didn't have dialogue until 30 minutes in. It was awesome. I love kid movies. I talked to Savannah and her mother Amy after the screening and told them about Lemon. They seemed very interested in the project! Hooray!
Next we went to "We Live in Public"... It was a great documentary! Yipee! It was about this internet genius who was inventing stuff way before his time. Good stuff.
After that was "Trust Us, This is All Made Up". It was good. I felt like it was just a stand up comedy show, not really impressed with it as an indie feature, although the improv by the two main characters was amazing.
After the movies we went to the film after party where Daniel and I networked like cats in heat. Daniel downed a few drinks and loosened up and talked to eveyone he ever wanted to talk to and I took his lead and talked to everyone he was talking to and then... There was this girl... I saw this girl on Friday, the first day, and then everyday after, and every time I saw her, I was like, "Damn Gina!" Well, her name isn't Gina. It's Kristen, and she's a producer/actress in Austin. Love at first sight. She's nice, beautiful, friendly, and has amazing eyes and hair. I gave her my card and told her I'd be moving to Austin soon and that we should work together... She smiled at me. That's all it took for me to splurt out half sentences and broken words. Anyway, she's great. We're in love. Not really, she probably doesn't remember my name.
After the party we went to Kerby Lane with some new friends and made it home at about 3 or 4am. Damn us.

Wednesday - We started out the day with some shorts, then an INCREDIBLE movie called "Afterschool" that all of you will probably never see. There are SO many controversial aspects of this movie that the Church Lady would crap a Volkswagen! It was shot BEAUTIFULLY and had an AMAZING story of REAL LIFE that everyone hides from and tiptoes around. We sat next to a group of high school students who were shocked and offended by the obscenities and absurdities on the screen. They hated it, which made me love it that much more. There were some oddly composed shots that were absolutely amazing and I heard that the director is 23 and I want to kick him in the throat for being so awesome.

We met up with Chris Mangus for a little while. He was in town shooting some transportation legislation at the capitol and had some time to kill so he met up with us at a little mexican restaurant where we talked crap about school and filmmaking and graphic novels that have been converted to movies.

Next we slept through Experimental Shorts, then we went on to watch Texas Shorts which featured "Love, Sadie", our competitor at AFI at the end of this month. I can't lie, it was good... Really good. I liked the story and it was shot nicely. Keep your fingers crossed for "Sleet/Snow"... or just tell everyone you know it's amazing and hopefully it will get around to the judges before they even see it. Go Lobby Go!

After the Texas shorts we watched "Creative Nonfiction". For those of you who went to or or currently attending film school: Do you remember when your instructor said, "If the story is good enough, it doesn't matter how it's shot." Well, my friends, "Creative Nonfiction" is the shining example for that legendary statement. There are SOOO many technical errors in this movie that you would think it was an intro students "in camera edit". The story, however, is stupendous! The main character is incredible and the dialogue is fantastic and the movie in all is grrreat! I liked it a lot, and all the rules that were broken made me like it even more. Now this doesn't mean that you can go out and shoot something that looks like crap on purpose... you HAVE to have the story! I expect great things from this director in the near future.

After that we experienced the one... the only... "LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS"! Hooray! This movie was all hotness and comedy and unexpected really good production value. The story was cheesy and the acting was cheese, and by the end I was feeling constipated. BUT a couple of the lesbian vampires were ULTRA hot and the "fat guy" was pretty funny throughout the movie... it was a "Shaun of the Dead" but switch the characters out with less-well known actors and all supporting actors with hot girls and change the undead to vampires... that's pretty much it... but completely different... figure that one out, geniuses.

I dropped Daniel off at Jeremy's and went to Erik's to go to sleep.

Thursday - The next morning Daniel called me and didn't know where he was. He had been "transported" in the middle of the night to a different location than he fell asleep in. So that was a little adventure in itself.

We started out our day with a Korean movie called "Daytime Drinking". It was funny. It made me miss Korea. I haven't actually been there, but I'm sure if I had been, I would have missed it by watching the pretty countryside pictures of this movie. It was about a guy and his weekend where everything bad that could happen to someone, happened to him. It was funny.

Then we watched some more shorts that were pretty frickin' good! There was one about these two boys in Italy or somewheres that swam around in the water and then went fishing and caught a dead guy. Find it and let me know what it is.

After that we slept through Garbage Dreams.

Then we went to some more shorts (Reel Shorts 3) and watched most of that showcase, there were some humorous shorts in this last package.

THEN we went to see "Sorry, Thanks". It was enjoyable. We had met the director at the closing party a couple of nights ago, her name is Dia Sokol. She is really cool and really nice. The main character was really funny. I liked his dialogue a lot and the main female actress was funny because her eyes were really big and so was her mouth and she made funny faces (not on purpose). So I liked it because I laughed with and at the movie.

DId I mention that we had lunch with Joe Swanberg? No I didn't... No big deal... He's only AWESOME and really down to earth.

That's like Andy Anderson having lunch with Ron Howard. How's that for perspective?

Tomorrow is going to be fun and hopefully I can dedicate one post to it instead of a three day post like this one...

Sorry. We've been staying up late and waking up early and it's hard to find time to keep up with this pooper.

My mom suggested we skip SXSW tomorrow and just go to Fiesta Texas and ride roller coasters all day. It sounds lovely to me, but we're on a mission and we can't take a detour!

PEOPLE & shorts...

Two days left, it is sad. I miss the first days already. I'm listening to Orange Mighty Trio's CD that Mike Vasich gave me Tuesday after the Closing Party, which was fun, and I'm sure I was borderline too drunk... (deal breaker?)

Well, instead of trying to catch up to where I am now, I'm going to jump to ahead to the shorts. Adrian and I caught; Texas Shorts, Experiemntal, Reel Shorts 1, 2, & 3. Wow, there was some really fantastic films in there, my favorite shorts for SXSW past are David Lowery's Catalog of Anticipations, Josh Safdie's We're Going to The Zoo, and I also enjoyed "Death to the Tinman." Well what I'm saying is the shorts stand out, and you remember.

Here's a list of my favorite SXSW Shorts this year in order of my top favorite to bottom. 

1. Sunday Mornings (d. Jannicke Laaker)

2. Isis Avenue (d. Mr. Paul Marchand)

3. A'mare (d. Martina Amati)

4. Love, Sadie (d. Naiti Gamez)

5. Tess and Nana (d. M. Stewart Thorndike)

6. Winter Lilacs (d. Stephen Gurewitz) 

7. Uprush (d. Kim Hall)

8. Countertranceference (d. Madeleine Olnek)

9. Autopilot (d. J. B. Herndon)

10. Before the Sea (d. Charlene Music)

11. The Better Half (d. Rebecca Rodriguez)

But I haven't seen the midnight shorts yet so, I will make a separate list for those...

Tomorrow we are seeing Winnebago Man, Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo, Over the Hills, Breaking Upwards, TRIMPIN' and Midnight Shorts... another long day.

being fun...

For Monday we put our trust into the hands of the programming staff with both a Special Screening and a TBA screening on our schedule. Literally these could've been anything. So Adrian goes to park and I get in a, rapidly growing, line abuzz with stories of the "Drag Me To Hell" Screening the night before. Apparently a bat was trapped in the ceiling and ruined some people's experience... I ask the nice pretty lady in front of me if she knew what we were going to watch. She replied with "Me and Orson Wells" the new Linklater film. I immediately think about "Fast Food Nation," "Scanner Darkly," "Waking LIfe," "Dazed and Confused," and I'm starting to get pumped. I have never seen a Linklater film in a theater before, let alone in a theater with him. Very exciting.

"Me and Orson Wells"

At first this film felt like something I might watch on DVD years after it was theatrically released, and would've been drawn to it because of the subject matter. Well, let's just say the Caesar sequences were the most powerful and successful aspect of the film. For what it is worth seeing that performance recreated with so much faith and love in portraying it as much like it actually was as can be. I'm a film student, and a casual lover of most Shakespeare, so it would be hard for me to criticize the intent or the execution, because it was just so cool to see it in any respect. Unfortunately for me the rest of the film seems forced and unable to achieve the excitement of those scenes. Linklater's biggest achievement here was in the casting of Christian McKay, whose dead-on rendering of a Orson Wells seeks to gain this film most of its attention.

"It was great, but I was ready to come home." Director; Kris Swanberg

I wasn't sure what to make of this until the opening sequence of the film ended and the music had faded. I was sold, and was like many other people an instant fan. I think of all the films I've seen so far this year, I am taking away a lot from this one. It is empowering to see people send such a powerful message to audiences about what narrative filmmaking could be. Simple and yet eloquent the film follows the experiences of two young women as they travel across Costa Rica. During the Q & A I couldn't help but think, had we shot for two more days on either North Street or Sleet/Snow, we could've had a film at about this quality. Adrian and I walked a way from this film more then any other, frustrated with our mistakes and empowered to continue and start new and better projects.

"Luckey"

We met the filmmaker for this film in line for Kris' film and Adrian and I were already planning on attending the screening. I was very satisfied with the film, the ending was a bit hard, the film overall really maintained the complexity of a Father and Son's relationship as they struggle to accommodate for the father's paralysis. Really powerful and fun film.

"TBA" or "Superstar: the Karen Carpenter Story" Director: Todd Haynes

Linklater presented the film, a 16mm print of it too, beautiful film and truly a shock even today. Not a big Todd Haynes fan, but this was a really great film. One of the best I have ever seen. Oh yeah, and it is illegal to screen publically, the film has been banned, so for SXSW to screen it they had to call it TBA and only offer vague descriptions of the film to anyone that asked.