BAICFF!

This weekend I was able to attend the Bay Area International Children's Film Festival in Alameda! My short, Mon Monde, had a screening there alongside a lot of really amazing animated and live action films. Some of which included, Franziska Buch's Here Comes Lola, Carlos Baena's Play By Play, Studd and Patterson's tiniest stop-mo heroine, Dot, and of course, Leonardo by Jim Capobianco. (Who also happened to be running the event!)

The theater was so bright, colorful, and filled with children! They were running around and playing between breaks, but let me tell you, once the films started...they were all so quiet and attentive. I was very impressed. That feeling was soon replaced with nervous panic, however, once I realized that children can be some of the bluntest critics out there! As the films played, I sat in petrified silence as the kids around me exclaimed loudly to their respective guardians whether or not they approved of the shorts. I became horrified at the thought of Mon Monde not being received well. Not only that, I was expected to do a short Q&A session afterward! Would anyone even ask questions? Or worse, what if the children couldn't even remember the film amongst the array of fantastical shorts?

Just as I had convinced myself that the knot in my stomach was an overactive ulcer...a miracle happened.

The film did not play. Only music on a black screen.

THANK GOD FOR TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES!

It was just the moment I needed to collect myself and remember that the most important critic is and will always be...yourself. Sure, there is always room for improvement and it is important to be able to expand your horizons by taking critique... but in the very end, I want to make films that will make me happy. And I had an absolute blast working on Mon Monde! If other audiences see what my team and I worked so hard on and enjoy it too, well then, that's wonderful. And if they don't? Then that's fine too. I still have hands to draw with. No negative opinion can crush my artistic voice.

So with that after-school-special-speech out of the way...all of the glitches were resolved and Mon Monde eventually played. The final result? Both children and adults generally liked it! The Q&A session went over well, too. I may have rambled on a little longer than necessary...coupled with a few fits of nervous giggles, but other than that I think I handled it very well! Ha ha ha!

If I had to choose...The most perfect moment of that festival happened when I was waiting in line for the restroom. A little girl and her mother were ahead of me, and the girl kept looking at me and then whispering to her mother. I made funny faces at her in the meantime. (What else can you do in line with a bunch of children?) I didn't really think anything of it, until after we came out, and the mother was ushering her child away.

"I really liked your film!" the girl said as she passed by.

She must have been no more than 5 or 6.

That was the highest compliment I received that day.

WE DID IT!!

Just got back from BORDERS today...and look what I found!!

Rest assured...this IS the right magazine! Ha ha ha!!

Congratulations everyone!! You all worked so hard and now look where we are!! XD There were only two copies of 3D World in our bookstore, but we bought them all anyway! All of the customers in the checkout line gave me strange looks because I was squealing and jumping around like a lunatic. Ha ha ha!



I didn't care of course! Today is a wonderful day, and I will rejoice any way I choose!
[Insert ridiculously happy showtune here.]

A long over due "thanks"!

Words really cannot express how blessed and thankful I am to have had such an amazing team to work on this monster of a project! Without you...none of this would have been possible. So thank you, Lord! Thank you to all of my wonderful producers, compositors, background artists, my composer, my sound effects artist and of course, the ARMY of clean up artists and colorists who helped work on the film! Thank you for taking the time out of your super busy lives to help make my ridiculous dream a possibility! Thank you for all of the late nights. Thank you for all of the encouragement. And most of all, thank you, for putting up with me and my anal ways! All of you have the grace and patience of saints. Seriously.

Thank you.

There were a few moments while working on this film that I just wanted to give up. The amount of work that needed to be completed continued to pile up and up and up and I just could not see over the top. But thanks to everyone's hard work and positivity...not only were we able to finish Ma Monde, but the film will be showing in festivals, featured in this year's SCAD catalog, and have an ad in 3D world magazine!!

This is not that magazine.

In all of my excitement, I ran to the nearest BORDERS and bought the one and only copy. The cover was sealed, so I was unable to look inside until after the purchase. Low and behold...I had the right magazine, just the wrong issue. :/ Luckily, October's launch starts tomorrow, and a Barnes and Noble receptionist said that there would be a new shipment next Monday! You can bet I'll be stalking that store come Sunday night! Ha ha ha!

In the meantime, since this is indeed my self-proclaimed season of thanks-giving... (Har har.) I have prepared a special packet for everyone who helped bring Ma Monde together! So don't forget to e-mail me with your mailing address! Because I absolutely cannot say it enough:

THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH!!!

Each and every one of you were a pleasure to work with! As I'm typing this in my home now, I'm overcome with a sudden case of school-sickness. The only remedy is a big hug, but unfortunately all of you are so far away! I miss you all like the sun misses the moon, and I really hope that all of you succeed in whatever dreams that you are chasing after right now and in the future! For all those still in school: Keep it up! I cannot wait to see the fabulous senior films and personal projects that you all will produce! For all of those out of school: Keep going strong as well! The post grad adventures have only just begun, andI know that in time you will all take this industry by storm! So to everyone: Keep moving! Keep creating! And most importantly, never give up on your vision. For as long as you continue to rally together...nothing is impossible!

As for me...I can only hope to work with another team as absolutely amazing as all of you.