Blaahh!

I'm home......

All I wanna do is eat your brains.

I've been doing a ton of movie watching. I met up with Richard Gale, the Director of "The Horribly slow murder with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon", as well as Jake West, the Director of "Doghouse", a very funny horror comedy feature from the UK. We went to dinner at a restaurant along the street where the Zombie walk was happening. There's nothing like eating carbonara while being serenaded by rotting flesh and chainsaw exhaust.

After dinner we rushed back to the Melia for the premier of Zombieland. We sat down in the filmmakers section. The speaker went to the stage and invited the filmmakers up. Suddenly, four people in front of me stood up. In the row in front of me was Abigail Breslin, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg, and the Director Ruben Fliescher. See the video below.

Zombieland was absolutely hilarious. Without giving anything away, it answers the question everybody wonders when they're watching a zombie movie. What celebrities have turned into zombies?

I also saw "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus", which was Heath Ledger's last film. It's fantastic, and it's very, very Gilliam.

After the last screening, everyone got onto a bus and drove a few miles outside Sitges to the closing party. There I talked to Tim League, the director of Fantastic Fest in Austin Texas, about sending him a copy of my movie.

I have one last day of movie watching. I leave Spain at 10 AM Wed morning.

Until we meet again.

Blood, Guts, and Xato

Well, I'm halfway through my trip, and nowhere near ready to leave. I've met tons of filmmakers, Producers, and agents. Here's a quick list.

-Juan Antonio Bayona, Director of "The Orphanage".
-Christian Alvert, Director of "Pandorum"
-Dave Parker, Director of "The Hills Run Red"
-Rob Burnett, Producer of "The Hills Run Red" and Director of "Free Enterprise".
-Linus De Paoli, Director of "The Boy Who Wouldn't Kill".
-Jeffrey Coghlan, A Producer.
-Calum Wadell, of Fangoria magazine.
-Al Matthews, Sgt. Apone from "Aliens"
-Richard Gale, Director of "The Horribly Slow Murder with an Extremely Inefficient Weapon".
-Davy Sihali, Director of "Cam 2 Cam".

The second screening went well. Dave and Rob said some really great things about our movies.

That day we went into Barcelona and spent the afternoon there. If you take the train there, make sure you know where you're going, otherwise you'll get very lost.

We went swimming in the ocean today. The water is extremely clear.

Since the screening is over, I've been kicking back and enjoying the rest of the festival.

Until we meet again.

keep your camera loaded for crazy.

I have had a very eventful last two days. Saturday morning I was wandering aimlessly around the city when I bumped into Erin Boyes, the actress and producer of Nomansland, the film that is screening with mine. She had come with her brother Brendan, and had only been in the city for a few hours. We hit it off well and traveled around together. We saw many good films that day. Later that evening we wound up at a party being hosted by the festival. We met Dave Parker and Rob Burnette, the Director and the Producer of "The Hills Run Red", a slasher flick released by Warner Brothers. We talked for quite a few hours, and all traveled to another club when that party ended. We convinced them to come to our screening the next day, and they did. They liked both shorts so much, that they convinced the festival Directors to screen them both a second time before their showing. So now I'm preparing for my second, unscheduled, showing taking place monday night. I also met Angel Sala, the festival Director, and Mike Hostench, the deputy festival director, who both had great things to say about my film. Mike came out on stage and introduced my film personally to the audience. The showing went very well. Tomorrow Erin, Brendan and i are going to Barcelona for the day, and will be back that evening to appear at our screening.

I got to see "Pandorum" as well. I sat right behind the Director, Christian Alvert. I met him at the party later that night, and we talked for a good long while about his film. A very nice, down to earth guy.

If you haven't seen "The Orphan" go see it as soon as possible. It's one of the best suspense films I've seen in a long time. I also got to hear the director, Jaume Collet- Serra, speak. With him was Isabelle Fuhrmun, the little girl who played the titular character.

After our screening this evening, we went to the bar in the Hotel Melia and socialized for quite a while. Once that bar closed, Rob dragged us all to the last open bar in the city, where we all talked some more. We left around 6 AM.

If I said things were going well, that would be an understatement.

Until we meet again.

What a day.

I quit the jet lag cold turkey. I'm now running on Spain time. I saw some fantastic films today, most notably, a Korean vampire film called "Thirst". The Director Chan-wook Park, who is held in high honor in Sitges, was there to receive an honorary award. Unfortunately I'm not sure what he said when he gave his speech, because he spoke Korean and the only interpretation was in Spanish. The film is a dark comedy about a priest who accidentally becomes a vampire, and the elaborate, and sometimes hilarious measures he goes through to get blood without killing anyone. A spectacular film. I watched films at the Auditori today. The theater is massive. Every line I stood in was three people wide, and stretched around half of the entire Hotel Melia, which is a very large building. I had a meeting with Salvador today in preparation for my films showing. Judging by the size of the crowd that came to see the films tonight, I can expect a good turnout. I'll see if I can't snag a picture or two when it happens. I'm going to bed now.

Until we meet again.

Whoa!!

I forgot to mention this. When my car arrived to take me to my hotel, I stepped up to the street to meet it. Suddenly, the door opens, and none other than Neil Marshall, the Director of "Dog Soldiers" and "The Descent" steps out. I suddenly felt like I was way over my head.

Had a very eventful day. I got on the plane in Asheville, were I happened to run into Charles Elmer, a recent communication graduate from western whom I'd taken a few film courses with. He was headed to Florida for a few days. And that was the last familiar face I saw. I spent around 9 hours on the flight from Atlanta to Madrid. I made it in to Barcelona around 1:30 PM. There were drivers from the Sitges Festival waiting at the terminals. The drive over took about 20 minutes. They took us to the Hotel Melia, the site of the Auditori, the festivals biggest auditorium. There I met Aram Garriga, the deputy Guest Coordinator, and Salvador Colom, part of the guest hospitality staff. He helped me get my pass and found a car to take me to my hotel, which was a little bit further away than I thought. I unpacked and then found my way back to the Melia. It's about a 25 minute walk from my hotel. My hotel is situated right next to the water and is very easy to find. On the way back to the Melia, I passed the church of Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla, pictured. I got to the Melia and received my film catalog and schedule. I then reserved some tickets for Friday. The rest of the evening I made my way around the city, familiarizing myself with it. I found a nice little street side cafe and had some pasta. At this point I had been awake for over 24 hours and decided to crash.

I'M HERE!!!!!!

Just wanted to say i am in Sitges. I will give more details later this evening. Until then, I leave you with the view from my balcony.

Set in stone

This week has been hectic. I needed to get an HDCAM copy of my movie printed. There's only one HDCAM deck around that's accessible to me without having to drive to Atlanta. That deck is back in Cullowhee, at the college. I returned to my alma mater and encountered extreme difficulty in trying to make the print. After hours of unplugging and replugging miles of cable, I finally got it to work, with the great help of John Wells. I also stopped by the motion picture stage so that I could give a recorded interview about the details of the festival, as well as the benefits given to me by my time in the department. My performance was less than graceful. I can talk casually to large groups of people with ease, but put me in front of a camera, or make me do a stately presentation and I lose my edge.

I would like to stress something to any young filmmakers reading this. When you have your movie finished, immediately make high quality media backups, so as to not have to deal with it at the last minute and encounter huge problems. For a little while, I thought I wouldn't get my film turned in, simply because I couldn't figure out the deck I was using.

Also, take advantage of any equipment your school has. I contacted Crawford Communications in Atlanta to see if they could do the transfer for me. They would have charged me $450 an hour.

The HDCAM tape was sent of through DHL this morning. It should arrive to the festival in a few days. So now I play the waiting game.

Until we meet again.

Strigoii trailer

the Sitges Film Festival

So the other day I got an email. It was an invitation to the Sitges Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic. It is the biggest fantasy film festival in the world. At first, I sat there thinking someone was playing a joke on me. I submitted my senior thesis film to the festival a couple months ago, but almost immediately assumed that there was no chance I would get in. This is a festival that caters to the great of the greats. As my realization slowly surfaced I began to lose my breath. Before doing anything, I got up and paced back and forth around the house for a few hours, not knowing what to do with myself.

The shock has finally settled, and the work has begun. My email inbox has been busier in the last 2 days than its ever been. Last night I booked the cheapest flight and hotel I could find. I am now officially $20,000 in debt, counting this trip and my student loan I'm trying to pay off.

I leave for Barcelona Spain on September 30th. I will be getting back October 14th.

Until we meet again.