The Derby City Film Festival in Louisville was a lot of fun. We didn't win any awards, but Sebrina Siegel, one of our stars, was a finalist for Best Actress, and I was thrilled just to see her recognized for her great work.
REMAINDERED cast members Todd Reynolds and Lisa Stewart showed up (that's me with them in the photo), as did our assistant director Rachel Nunn and our graphic artist Brian Bolin (Sebrina was sent on a business trip at the last minute). It was great that they had the opportunity to finally see the film with an audience of about 100 people…and I was really glad we had the chance to get together again.
The audience seemed to really enjoy the screening of our movie. But I didn't. All I saw were the projection and sound problems. Up until that moment, I thought most of the short films that we were up against had terrible sound and strange color composition…but then I discovered it wasn't the films that were at fault, it was the lousy projection and sound system in the theatre.
That said, I saw some really terrific short films…my favorites included the Polish short documentary CHARCOAL BURNERS, Nate Morguelan's nasty little thriller K, Max Rosen's very "Monk"-ish MARBLE RYE, Matthew Maney's incredibly slick METH (which deservedly swept all the short film awards), Pardis Parker's hilarious TWO MEN, TWO COWS, TWO GUNS, and KNIFE, a remarkably accomplished five-minute film written and directed by 14-year-old Matthew Rivera. There were a lot of directors, DPs, and editors at the festival who could learn a lot from Matthew…and you can count me among them.
I only saw one of the feature length movies, and even though the lighting was horrendous (the DP had no clue what he was doing), the camera work was inept, the editing was clumsy, and the sound was awful (I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one), the movie worked despite it all thanks to a clever script and surprisingly good actors…proving that production value, cool camera work and slick editing mean nothing if your script sucks and your actors can't act. But if you have a strong script, and good actors, all the rest doesn't really matter, you'll get caught up in characters anyway.
REMAINDERED was also in competition at the Beaufort International Film Festival in South Carolina this weekend…and although we didn't in any awards there, either, I heard from our contingent there that the film was a big crowd pleaser.
"Had a wildly successful screening of REMAINDERED at the Beaufort Int. Film Fest. Very well received, lots of laughs," tweeted PJ Starks, our DP. "Congrats to Lee, the cast & crew for making such a fun & funny short. REMAINDERED was neck & neck w/ some amazing nominees at the awards ceremony. We may not have walked away with an award, but instead with overwhelming praise and support for the film. Listening to all the kind words validates our hard work. If we can entertain at least one person we've done our job. We definitely left BIFF with a job well done."
Next up for us: The Beverly Hills Shorts Film Festival.