After the total debacle at the Boston Intl. Film Festival where they assured us they would promote and we wouldn't have to, which resulted in a screening with only TWELVE PEOPLE in it (8 of whom were involved in either our film or one of the shorts playing ahead of our film), I was determined to make sure we had a good turn out for the Rhode Island Intl. Film Festival. This is not so easy since it was a Wednesday night in August, there are over 200 films at the festival, and Providence isn't that big to begin with. With the help of my long-time Williams pal, fellow singer, and Providence resident Wayne Wilkens, I posted the screening on RISD and Brown "Daily Jolt" boards and on a cappella sites, took out a small ad in the Providence Journal, went on a local radio talk show show, bought some :10 second mentions on NPR, and hired a PA to plaster the poster and put out post-cards announcing the screening all over town. About 250 people showed up which is great. Since every theater is different, I asked the festival folks if I could test the film before the screening to make sure the audio and color were right. This was my first screening in a large theater with the new color correction and mix and I wanted the full glory of it. The film before us was running very late but they let me go in to look at the film for a moment while the crowd, anxious and sweating, waited in the lobby. But when they played the film THERE WAS NO AUDIO. They tried and tried but could not find audio anywhere on the tape. But this was my HD Cam master and I've HEARD it myself in an edit room. They let the audience in and explain there's a technical problem and I try to do a Q&A to keep people amused while the projectionist struggles to find audio. No luck. No meters moving on the machine. Not to worry, I say. I'm a good Boy Scout and I have an HD Cam clone of the film in my backpack that I hand carried out here from LA. So I scramble and get it, we put it in the machine, and it has NO AUDIO EITHER. This can't be happening. We're 40 minutes late, the audience is growing annoyed, and I have no audio. They take another film on HD Cam and put it in the machine and it plays perfectly, seemingly confirming that somehow the audio has been erased from both my tapes. As a last resort, I get a DVD from my bag [Filmmakers: let this be a lessen. Bring MULTIPLE copies and formats of your film with you to all festivals.] and we have to project DVD -- with an on-screen anti-piracy bug, no less -- for the screening. I'm dying inside as the audio and video are so inferior to HD Cam but the audience loved the movie, laughing throughout, cheering at the end. Nearly everyone stayed for Q&A and when we were thrown out for the next screening, people waited to talk to me outside, ask me questions, and even get my autograph which was hilarious. Of course, as with every step of this film, as soon as there's glory it is sure to be followed by pain. I go up to my hotel room grinning from ear-to-ear, check my email, and there's a fresh rejection from the distribution company that I most wanted to release the film. From "grinning big" to "teeth kicked in" in less than 30 seconds. Epilogue: 5 days later we were informed we won the Audience Award/Best Feature as well as a First Place for Score and Music. Second Epilogue: a few days ago I was recounting the 'audio hell' story at a facility that was helping me pull high rez stills off the HD Cam to use for publicity and the editor clicked on the audio and it was THERE PLAIN AS DAY. Somehow, the projector in Rhode Island had been set in some weird way that it didn't read the audio which was plainly on the main channels 1 and 2 all along. Go figure.

Shut Up and Sing Rises from the Ashes

Talk about a rollercoaster. SO... Thursday was just lots of meetings, went to some shows, plastered the town with post-cards, posters and hats. Did a TV interview from a local bar for some cable access thing. Later, there was a big party at the head of my agency Bob Gersh's house. I was told it was an easy walk from town but it was about 3 miles, some of it on highway. Still, no big deal. But when I came in the front door people blanched that I had walked because they had just spotted a LARGE BLACK BEAR before I walked in. I guess that's particularly weird and dangerous as the bears are all still supposed to be hibernating. Would have sucked to have my world premiere and a death by bear mauling in the same weekend.
Friday we had an undergrad a cappella group from UC Boulder drive up and sing on street corners and in hotel lobbies to rally interest in our Saturday screening. They were really great and gung-ho. Saturday was the big day. I did an interview on another local TV show and then waited nervously at the theater to see what kind of crowd we'd get. There are five films playing at the same time so you have to compete for an audience. And some of them are big films like American Dreamz, the new Weitz brothers movie. But word of mouth was great and we packed the house, with people even sitting on the stairs and in folding chairs in the theater. I was a nervous wreck the whole time, sure that they weren't really laughing enough or that they were bored or that it was getting too sentimental or that the sound was bad... But we got a huge ovation after and most people stayed for a Q&A afterwards. Lots of great questions and compliments. Several people again expressed sincere interest in investing (which would be a huge relief as the debt is mostly mine). It was really gratifying.
Then we headed over to the awards ceremony. Robert Wuhl and Jeffrey Tambor handed out jury awards to the live acts and to the short and feature length films (the audience award was to be announced later after they tabulated). I thought we had a good shot at Best Screenplay but it went to Keeping Mum, a British film based on some Pulitzer Prize winning novel and starring Maggie Smith. I'm just gonna say, Pulitzer Prize winners should definitely not be in contention at a comedy festival. But maybe that's just me. Best Director went to the guy who produced Napoleon Dynamite who has a new film called The Dumpling Gang (or something). (whatEVER! me bitter?) Then Best Feature went to Nicole Holofcenter's "Friends With Money" which we were all shocked at. We didn't know it was even in competition and no one from the film was there. I swear Jeffrey Tambor had to tell people to clap. It's a $20 million Sony film starring Jennifer Anniston so it certainly didn't seem like a fair fight. And it had already premiered and been in competition at Sundance (sour grapes, sour grapes). It was a hard comedown from all the accolades I'd gotten at the screening. So I went home empty handed and sulked and bitched and moaned like a baby. It's not so much that I wanted to win an award but that in winning an award I might've had that much better a shot at getting distribution which is really all I care about: getting people to see the film.
A couple hours later I was done mourning and being a cry-baby, got my act together and went out to see some stand-ups (Aziz -- who won the Best Stand Up Award is one funny mofo). While I was sitting there my phone buzzed but I ignored it because I didn't recognize the number. Five minutes later, the head of the film festival came in and spotted me. "Did you get my message?" I hadn't; I was watching the comedians. He whispered in my ear. "You just won the Audience Award." WE WON THE FUCKING AUDIENCE AWARD!!!!!! The one real people vote for! I tried not to scream during someone's performance. What a thrill. What a relief.

Congrats to all of you who contributed in all your various ways, too. This is our film and our victory. Wu-HOOOO!

So that's my saga. Today they play the winning films one more time and
then I head back to LA tomorrow. Submitting to Cannes, Maui, Boston,
Denver, Nantucket, Seattle... on it goes.
Bruce

ASPEN COMEDY FESTIVAL PART 1 March 8th 2006 -- World Premiere Day for "Shut Up and Sing"

After editing and mixing up to 6p on Tuesday, got up at 4:30a Wed, got to Burbank, flew to Phoenix, flew to Aspen. Two hours of turbulence in a prop plane. Couldn't land in Aspen for weather and they didn't have enough fuel to make a second approach (!) so they diverted us to Grand Junction, 90 miles away. Sprinted to get a rental car and burned rubber to Aspen, two hours to the world premiere of our film and the FILM MASTER IN MY BAG. We arrived at the theater with 10 minutes to spare, not having eaten all day, wigged out from altitude, but happy to have made it. We were forewarned that a Weds afternoon screening might only attract 10 people but we had nearly 100 which was great. The film started and was bright red and overblowing the speakers then stopped completely 3 minutes in. At first they thought our new master was bad but apparently they had plugged every projector and appliance into one plug and it blew the circuit. They restarted, the film looked and sounded great, we got big laughs, lots of sniffles at the poignant parts, and even gasps at one point (no spoilers here). It was so rewarding to hear a real audience in a big theater reacting to our hard work. Tons of people stayed afterwards for a Q&A and were extremely complimentary. With the aggregate wealth in ASepn far exceeding many Third World nations, I shamelessly shilled a little for finishing funds and some people took my card making earnest promises.
Every now and then as Eliza (Co-Producer) or I are walking around Aspen in our Shut Up and Sing knit hats (wincing from altitude headaches), someone will tell us how much they loved the movie which is really gratifying. Friday we have an a cappella group from UC Boulder called Extreme Measures coming up to sing on the streets to generate more buzz for the Sat screening (though apparently the screening has been sold out for nearly the entire week).

More soon!