The Orlando Puppet Festival, Orlando Film Festival, and Melbourne Independent Filmmakers Festival were all fantastic! Great screenings, good audiences, and great fun all around. And as an added bonus, GALLERY OF DOOM won the People’s Choice Award at MIFF! We’re very honored that the audience liked the movie enough to actually fill out their ballots and show their love. Thanks to everyone who made this possible!
November is a busy month for the Princess Rescuing Duo, with screenings every weekend until Thanksgiving!
We kicked off the month with a screening at the Backyard Film Festival in Palm Springs, which came about as a direct result of our screening at the Palm Spings Short Fest. However, this information is only useful to you if you read it well before I wrote it.
This weekend is Pupsock-packed, with screenings Friday night and Sunday, plus a parade on Saturday. It’s all part of the Orlando Puppet Festival, which is where the movie premiered (in rough form) last year. Hard to believe it’s been over a year already!
This year, the OPF has teamed with the Orlando Film Festival to have a screening of select Handmade Puppet Dreams films, including The Gallery of Doom. The first screening will be held on Friday, Nov. 7th at 9:00 PM at CityArts Factory located at 11 E. Pine St. in Orlando, FL. The second will be Sunday, Nov. 9th at 11:00 AM at The Gallery at Avalon Island located at 37 S. Magnolia Avenue (the green building at the corner of Pine & Magnolia) in Orlando, FL. Both The Gallery of Doom and John Kennedy’s The Sure Sheep (which I worked on extensively) will be playing at these screenings. John, I, and other filmmakers will be present for Q&A afterwards.
In addition, the OPF has teamed up with the City of Orlando in order to have a puppet section of the city’s Veteran’s Day Parade in Downtown Orlando on Saturday, Nov. 8th starting at 10:00 AM, and going through (I believe) 1:00 PM. I’ve been helping John Kennedy build a huge eagle puppet that will trail behind the main float, and Pupsock will be operating one of the wings. We were assisted in this endeavour by the Drama Club at Bishop Moore High School, and the young thesps. will be operating the eagle and Pupsock during the actual parade.
Next week, The Gallery of Doom will screen at the 10th annual Melbourne Independent Filmmaker’s Festival in Melbourne, FL. Dudley and the Toy Keeper’s Chest played there to a great receptionin 2005, and I’m excited to bring Pupsock there this year. That screening will happen on Saturday, Nov. 15th at 10:00 AM at the Premiere Oaks Stadium 10, located at 1800 Hibiscus Ave. in Melbourne.
Hope to see you at one of the events!
Been very since Palm Springs, and haven’t had much of a chance to blog about it. Hopefully once I can get my pictures organized I’ll be able to tell you more about it. I’ve gotten some emails from people interested in the movie, and in me, and I’m still dealing with that sort of thing. I also need to contact the awesome people I met while over there. Plus, I’ve recently become aware of some people who need to become aware of me.
Most of my time has been spent working on The Sure Sheep for writer/director/Muppeteer John Kennedy, as both Director of Photography and Visual Effects Supervisor. It premieres this Saturday at The Smithsonian Institute’s Discovery Theater in D.C., so I’m packing up the family (my wife & daughter, my wife’s parents, her youngest brother, and his girlfriend whom we haven’t met yet) and we’re driving up tomorrow night. Hopefully the three-year-old will sleep through the duration of the 14-hour journey. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out which of us is the three-year-old.
Of course, Dudley and the Toy Keeper’s Chest is also playing at the Smithsonian, which is reason enough to make the drive. So, all-in-all I’m very excited about the trip! (Well, not so much the 14-hour car trip with 7 people.) Kevin is the smart one, as he’s flying up tomorrow.
Kevin McGuire here, voice of Pupsock Jackson. Patrick and I have been in Palm Springs for almost 3 days now, and this is the first opportunity we’ve had to post updates. First let me say that the screening on Saturday morning was great. The theater was full, although there were not many children in attendance. The audience reaction was overall great even though the copy was a little dark on the big screen. The rest of Saturday included Bill Pullman, Kirsten Dunst, and Jessica Biel…although I did not officially see Jessica. I delve into that a little later. Patrick owes me dinner and the BBQ ribs are calling my name.
Sitting in the lobby of the Palm Springs Hilton, enjoying the free wireless that doesn’t seem to extend into my room. It’s been a blast so far, though I’m surprised at how few films we’ve actually seen. Been having a lot of fun networking, something I’m not usually good at, but there are some great people at this festival. A few of the artsy elitist snobby people that make me uncomfortable, but luckily those are few and far between.
Saturday’s screening went really well, but the print was a little dark. We checked it out at Adam (the editor)’s house before we sent it and it looked fine, so that’s a mystery to me! Great audience reaction, though, and an invite to submit to another festival, so all-in-all I’d say it was a success.
Kevin and I should be meeting up with Tom within the hour. Hopefully Tuesday’s screening will go well for him. It will be good to see him again, as he’s been on the road shooting for a while.
That’s all for now. I probably won’t be able to blog again until after I get home tomorrow night. Then I can tell the tale of the invisible Jessica Biel, the Camera That Couldn’t Photograph Kirsten Dunst, and the Blocking of Bill Pullman’s Path. None of which are remotely as interesting as they sound in title form.