I’m a bit slow in getting word out about this, as it’s happening today, but both my puppet films: Dudley and the Toy Keeper’s Chest and Pupsock & Wendell in The Gallery of Doom are showing tonight at the event mentioned in the title.  Here’s a Green Room Orlando article about it:

http://www.greenroomorlando.com/Article.aspx?ID=1298

I’m very honored, as  my films make up 30 of the 180 minute schedule.  In additon, my puppet stars will be on display in the 1st Thursday gallery.  The whole event runs 6-9pm, with my films showing @ 7:30.  I know it’s short notice, but I hope you can make it!

The reason for my recent lack of updates is the recent birth of my second daughter, Daciana Guinevere Algermissen.  She’s been taking up most of my attention lately, one way or another.  Much to my delight

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!

The last couple of days have been very exciting.  The movie’s festival run got off to a great start, with seven screenings happening in the first few months of finishing the film (and a couple before finishing it!).  Then, inevitably, it experienced a few rounds of rejections.  However, as of this week we’ve started getting more acceptances, including a couple of major ones!

Palm Springs International ShortFest
Palm Springs has been called the “Sundance of Shorts,” and is probably the most important festival for short films.  Screening dates haven’t been announced yet, but the festival runs August 21 - 27, 2008, and I do plan on attending part of that.

The Smithsonian
Yes, the Smithsonian.  Heather Henson’s Handmade Puppet Dreams for Kids is going to be screening as part of the Jim Henson’s Fantastic World exhibit on October 3rd and 4th.  Check out this Press Release from the Smithsonian about the exhibit.  We’re mentioned in the sub-middie-ish region.  To have my film screen at the Smithsonian at all - and especially as part of an exhibit honoring my hero, Jim Henson - is a bigger honor than I can really comprehend.

In addition to those, we’re also screening at the West Hollywood International Film Festival on July 31st, and were invited to submit to another festival that I’m really excited about.  They heard about the movie by word-of-mouth and thought it’d be a good fit.  I’m not sure I can mention who it is yet, though, as I don’t know if we’re in or not.

As scheduled, the final version of Pupsock & Wendell in The Gallery of Doom was hammered out on January 20th, 2008. One year and one day after wrapping principal photography. A year ago today was a Monday. Assistant Director Chris Santora and I went back to our day jobs at Northrop Grumman, trying to remember what real life was like, and not happy about it. We wished we were still on the shoot.

Now it’s time for all that after movie stuff. Tom and I are working on press releases (mostly Tom). I’m trying to get a trailer cut and a website made. A website other than this one, of course. With pictures, video, stuff like that. Trying to keep up with festival submission deadlines, making DVDs, researching having them made in bulk, trying to make a press kit. Scrambling to make one, actually, since Florida Film Festival contacted everyone today and asked for one next week. Don’t get me wrong — it’s an excellent problem to have. However, it is still a problem. All this stuff is cool to make, just not as cool as what I spent the last year doing. Hopefully, though, this year will be the year to reap the rewards for all the work I and my crew did last year.

Oh, and as for the sound mixing on Sunday, it was amazing. David Wallace exceeded my expectations by doing a mind blowing Dolby 5.1 surround mix. I’m sure it will never sound as good as it did on his speakers in the mixing room, but I can’t wait to experience it in a theatre that way!

I met with Patrick 2 nights ago and took a look at the fixes and “plus-ing” that he has done to the film and it looks amazing. Little things that have always bothered us are no longer there (the audience will never know they existed), and he was able to add some really cool extras; for example, when Wendell is creeping up behind Dirk, there is a great digitally created shadow of Wendell that ominously engulfs Dirk, motivating him to spin around in surprise.Anyway, the main reason for this blog was to include a picture of myself, Patrick, and Kevin McGuire (voice of Pupsock) taken in front of the Enzian Theatre during the Brouhaha Film and Video Showcase.