The City of Angel
Just got back from LA where we had a very successful GALLERY OF DOOM screening at the Newport Beach Film Festival. Kevin flew out with me last Thursday and we landed just before midnight. All the cheap rental cars were gone at this point, so we got a Jeep SUV for only $23/day. I’ve never driven a car that tall in LA before, and I must say it was very nice. I was able to see over traffic and drive much better. We lugged the Jeep up into the valley to stay with my friend Orion Martindale, who produced my first puppet film, DUDLEY AND THE TOY KEEPER’S CHEST. We stayed with Orion for two nights, while we did some sightseeing (Kevin had never been to Hollywood before), and then went down to Newport for two more nights in a hotel provided by the festival. We didn’t do too much festival stuff, but the screening was awesome.
Orion drove down with Joey Monasterios, who played Princess Stacie in the movie, and the theatre was packed with kids. Orion’s car broke down on the trip just before the screening and Kevin went to their rescue. Unfortunately they missed the first half of the films, which included THE SURE SHEEP (which Kevin & I also worked on), and came in while I was doing Q&A for that. The kids really responded well to it, and had a lot of applause to share, and actually asked a lot of questions afterward. After the Q&A, puppeteer Alan Cook (of the International Puppetry Museum in Pasadena) put on his wonderful Billy Goats Gruff shadow-puppet show, and followed up with a shadow-puppet workshop. After all this, the tiniest kids were advised to leave and a second set of films started, now aimed at ages 7 and up instead of All Ages. GALLERY OF DOOM closed out this set, and got the biggest applause of the entire show. I came up for another Q&A, and the kids had a lot more questions, and some even came up to me for autographs and personal advice, which I was happy to give. It was a really good feeling getting to speak with some of the kids one-on-one, and I felt like I was getting to inspire the next generation of filmmakers.
The other major high point of the trip was the fact that Heather Henson was still in town when we were there on Friday, and offered to give us a personal tour of The Jim Henson Company lot on La Brea Ave. in Hollywood. It was amazing beyond words. So, I won’t attempt to use them here. I’ll simply say that, at the end of THE MUPPET MOVIE, there is a lyric which says, “Then somebody out there loves you / Stand up and hollers for more (MORE!) / You’ve found a home at the Magic Store.” Now I know where they were singing about. In addition to being the Henson lot, it was originally built by Charlie Chaplin and it is where he made most of his biggest movies. The sense of magic and history was palpable, especially inside the soundstage. It was amazing.