The Bigger Bang

Hey Everyone,

 

So, we screened at the BIGGER BANG FILM FESTIVAL in Philly, so you may ask, well how did it go?

 

Well brace yourself...here we go.

 

Philly was buzzing last night, The Phils were Playing the Brewers  (and won) and the VP debate was in full swing, (and from what I hear, Gov Palin somehow mangaed to not kill any animals during the debate, which was a good thing)

 

We screened at the BSM Building on Broad Street...and it turned out that BSM was "Broad Street Ministries" so yes...this film screening was happening at a church.

 

With those two things going (the Phils and the debates), I wasn't sure what the attendance for LEAF would be, well, we had a great crowd. Actually one of the best crowds to have during a film festival screening...they were laughing, cheering clapping at all the right parts...I got comfortable, this was a crowd who was really going to have a terrific time with this.

 

That was until, the 26th minute.

 

That's when the film projector melted down. Yep, the movie was hot, but I didn' realize it was THAT hot. They fixed it, then it crashed again. While they were fixing it, I decided to get up on stage and talk with the crowd. When the lights went up, I noticed that there was writing on the floor that said "do not sleep beyond this point" I thought that was an odd thing to see on the floor. Until I realized, the Broad Street Ministries was not only hosting the Bigger Bang Film Festival screenings....it was also a homeless shelter. And many of the homeless folks as well as one admitted crack addict, had all come down to join our audience and check the movie out. I was fine with that, hey the more the merrier, right?

 

So they fix the projector...or so I thought, for at least 2 minutes. It really melted down this time, and the entire audience, made up of film festival goers, fans, publicists, agents, producers, press, homeless folks and crack addicts, were all really very patient, no one budged, we had them, they wanted to see how this film turned out. After I did another Q&A and told some stories, I started to feel bad for everyone involved. Everyone just wanted to see a movie, they didn't deserve these delays...so I did the first thing that popped into my head. Donuts. Lots and lots of donuts. I ran down the street as they were replacing the projector....and returned with a few dozen donuts. Free snacks for all. 

 

I returned and the replacement projector started the film again...randomly all in black and white, before it also melted down. They put another film in, just to test it, and that was it, whatever that film was, destroyed the second projector. The film festival people apologized, that this festival night ended pretty badly and promised to set up another screening.

 

Some of our audience thanked me for the show, and then told me that's where they were going to sleep for the night, right there in the film festival screening room. Were they there to check out the movie, or were they just waiting for us to leave so they could get some rest for the evening? Either way, I left all the remaining snacks for them and thanked them for being such a great crowd.

 

Somehow during all the ruckus, all of our dvd's went missing...so there are about 3 or 4 LEAF screeners floating around out there. If any of you see manage to see them, heck, no worries, pop it into your dvd player and enjoy it.

 

Anyway, that's how this screening went, the real bummer, is this was just a perfect audience....loud, cheering...it's everything you could possibly want. I'm coming back to screen the full film for that crowd, because whether you're a fan, festival goer, publicist, agent, actor, homeless or a crack addict, you're always welcome at any of the shows. And if anything goes wrong again, I promise many many more donuts.

 

I wonder if Spike Lee, Michael Moore or Martin Scorcese went through this with their directorial debut?