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.

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.

I was gonna call this “Making Headlines,” but they’re not quite headlines. However, I’ve been showing up in the media a little bit more than usual lately. Here are a few links:

Passionate About Puppets - An Orlando Sentinel article about the Beyond Geppetto 1st Thursday Event at the Orlando Museum of Art, where Dudley and a preview of Gallery of Doom were shown. The puppets from both films were also on display.

Orlando Weekly Article - A column about the Beyond Geppetto show in a different publication.

Puppet Uprising - This is an event in Philadelphia that I don’t know too much about, but they’re showing Handmade Puppet Dreams for Kids (among other things), and therefore they’re showing Dudley. That short’s getting a lot of play for being 3 years old! Maybe I should take it to the Film Slam in May… Anyway, I have no idea who wrote the descriptions of each short in this link, but it sure made my head swell.

[Update 7/12/2008]: Corrected Puppet Uprising link to go to their archives]

Greenroom Orlando - This isn’t an article, but its pretty cool. As of right now, 4/9/2008, there’s a picture of 4 members of the Pupsock gang (Eva, me, Kevin, and Joey) cycling on the “PhotoSeen” square on the left. It won’t be there for long probably, but it will be in the archives for a while. Go there, and click on the “Florida Film Festival - Awards & Revel 17 - Winter Park Racquet Club - April 5, 2008″ link to see all the pictures. In addition to the main one of us for, Eva & I are in the background of a picture, and Kevin is in a “Bonus Picture” as well. See if you can spot them all!

That’s all for now. I’ll try to keep posting links on here as more stories come out.

Lots of things have been going on lately, but I haven’t blogged about them, because I wasn’t sure how official any of them were. But, they’ve all become official at around the same time. So, begin massive news dump now:

FLORIDA FILM FESTIVAL
Our FFF screening is being held on Saturday, April 5th @ 4:00 pm at the Regal Cinemas in Winter Park Village. Directions to the theatre are on my official site, above.

Also, I noticed that we are one of the Spotlight Films at this year’s festival. Only 13 of the ~170 are spotlighted, and only 3 of those are shorts! One of the features spotlighted is directed by Helen Hunt. In fact, there are a couple of celebrity-directed short films at this year’s fest (Josh Brolin and Kate Hudson both have shorts there), but neither one is a spotlighted film. But mine is

ORLANDO MUSEUM OF ART
On Thursday, April 3rd, the OMA is having a First Thursday exhibit about puppets. There will be lots of cool things to see, including the puppets from Dudley and the Toy Keeper’s Chest and Pupsock & Wendell in The Gallery of Doom. In addition, there will be a theatre there screening puppet films, including Dudley and a trailer for Pupsock. We’re only showing a trailer, because the show is two days before FFF, and we’d rather have people go to that.

HANDMADE PUPPET DREAMS
Heather Henson has been kind enough to include Pupsock in Handmade Puppet Dreams for Family, like she did with Dudley. It’s debut screening will be at the Newport Beach Film Festival in Los Angeles on April 26th. I will be in attendance.

BERGENFIELD FILM FESTIVAL
Finally, Pupsock will be screening with the Bergenfield Film Festival outside of New York City on May 1st. I will not be in attendance.

I hope to see you at one of these events!