Got back from a second screening this time at 3PM – a couple more VIPs in tow.
First I was excited to see the good turn out – about 30 people showed up of which I only knew 3. So strangers – that’s a good thing.
Then as I sat through the block again, I couldn’t help but notice how oppressively “heavy” some of these dramas were.
And slow….
I began to formulate a rant about how I hate it when directors make their audiences “work”. Long drawn out opening shots – scene interludes with music that exist for no reason. Give me a reason to fucking care. Especially in a short.
It all goes back to the ancient fireside tradition of telling stories – that’s how I see movies and all performing arts.
Who are you going to listen to – the caveman doing a really animated pantomime of the hunt or the mumbling slow talker who occasionally stops his story to look at the sunset?
Anyhow, I kept getting madder and madder at the shorts. I don’t care what anybody says, foreign films suck as bad as Hollywood films – and honestly most of the suck more. Hollywood knows the elements of a good story.
The 2 other good shorts I listed above were still good. But every else just felt worse.
And then… the best part.
The film before mine was a Spanish piece. And it had no subtitles. That’s just great.
A 15 minute talky that takes place almost entirely in one office and no subtitles.
I bled out about 1/4 of my audience with that one.
Then my film… last of the bunch. I guess that’s a compliment.
The pain that was sitting through the first 70 minutes with two bright spots had taken it’s toll on the audience. The first half of the film was slow. The audience just didn’t respond like they did last night. Small chuckles here and there but nothing big. But the first half is sort of the medicine you have to take so the rest of it has emotional weight.
Second half of the film which is, as Blake Snyder would put it “Fun and Games”, was livelier. The punch lines had some weight on them but it seemed obvious that the audience was getting tired. Plus I picked up a bunch of people that were there for the next showing because my showing started 30 minutes and seemed to get further and further behind because the “projectionist” could seem to queue up the films fast enough.
I use the term “projectionist” loosely.
I don’t know… it seems like a festival has one very important job – screen films. And part of screening films is to make sure they look right. For some reason the people of my home town don’t know the difference between normal looking people and squished people.
Yeah, the festival has a lot of entries to sift through. Lot of people send in weird stuff… but that’s you job.
Anyhow… still a decent screening. At least they screened the Blu-Ray version instead of the BetaSP version (and mine wasn’t squished! :))
