My buddies Eric Espejo, Richard Friend, and Donnie Conty of 19th & Wilson fame had the thrill of a lifetime today when they met film icon Martin Scorsese in the flesh at The 30th annual Kennedy Center Honors rehearsal, which will be broadcast on CBS Wednesday, December 26th 2007 at 9pm.
Mr. Scorsese was most gracious as Eric presented him with a deluxe boxed set of 19th & Wilson DVDs "
The Department" and "
Techfellas," both internet hits in tribute to The Man himself. To everyone's delight Marty said he had already heard about "Techfellas," presumably via a mutual friend of Eric's who works with The Director.
I portray Frank/"Jack Nicholson" in "The Department" -- 19th & Wilson's hysterical short parody of Martin Scorsese's "The Departed" Check out the trailer below:
To get your very own copy of "The Department" or "Techfellas"
click here.
To see more pictures click here. To get your very own copy of "The Department" or "Techfellas" click here.
Also check out Richard Friend's blog and Eric Espejo's blog!
Here is more from Richard Friend:
Eric politely stepped close and said "Mr. Scorsese, can we get a quick picture?" "Yeah, sure!" I quickly snapped one of the two of them. Donnie then pushed me to get in there for a pic, and took over the camera duties.
Eric then said that we had something we wanted to give him, and explained that we were filmmakers and we loved his work -- and that we'd actually made parodies of The Departed and GoodFellas, and that we'd like for him to have these DVDs (which Sarina had beautifully wrapped together with a ribbon). Eric explained that we're computer guys, and that both films are set in the computer industry. Scorsese looked at the TechFellas cover and immediately says, "This is hilarious!"
Scorsese and one of the other guys with him seemed to instantly remember something -- and Scorsese points to him (Donnie captured this moment perfectly in one of the photos) and says "I think he saw this!" And the guy responds, "Yeah, I think I've seen the GoodFellas one!"
The best was when Eric told him how successful they've been on the internet, and what a great response we've gotten. Scorsese says, "They're internet hits!!"
Eric gave him his business card, and I congratulated him again and told him what an inspiration he's been for so many people. He thanked us and shook Eric's hand again before he left, holding his DVDs.
Awesome. :)
relaxing with the 19th and Wilson guys after Martin Scorsese meeting December 1st 2007.