HIFF Film Festival Diary - Day 1

Louis Vuitton Hawaii Intl. Film Festival (LVHIFF) Diary

Day One
Sunday, October 12th

10:12pm
After the last of our sold out shows today, Don and I discuss our cash flow to make the trip out to Hawaii for the int'l. film festival. The flights look open from Guam to Honolulu, but only for tomorrow morning and not any day after - so if we choose to go, it'll have to be tomorrow at 6am. Plus, our return trip doesn't look good. Worst case scenario is that we'd have to fly a full fare back to Guam. On standby status, it costs us about $400 roundtrip. Now, a full fare flight back home? For the BOTH of us?! That's in the friggin' thousands! It's bad enough that $400 is killing us. Although we had a successful opening weekend on Guam, we won't be seeing any immediate moneys - including the encore presentations. I tried calling Continental Airlines earlier this week, but they turned us down FLAT. They said that they already had too much on their plate and that they need at least 90 days in advance to prep sponsorship details, contractual obligations and all that stuff. So we decide not to go.

11:00pm
I keep thinking about HIFF. What if this is it? What if this is the only time that we ever get accepted to a festival at this tier? They've already agreed to accommodate us as delegates with 3 days at the Sheraton in Waikiki and free transportation - all we need to do is get there. What if there's the possibility of meeting someone that wants to distribute Shiro's Head? Shoot, if we don't go, we'll never know. A big question we always get is "Why don't you have a sponsor that'll pay your travel costs?" Good question.

11:10pm
Screw all the thinking, man. I call Don and tell him that there's no way we should miss this opportunity. It could be our only one. He agrees and says to go for it and to "put in on the card". Yep...there's that famous line again. So I double-check the flight load occupancy for standby passengers and it still looks good - except that we'll have to leave in about 6 hours. So I check us in online as standby passengers and print out the receipt and boarding passes. $400. Ouch. I tell the wife that we're going to go for it and she says how proud she is of us and that it's worth a try. She's truly amazing.

11:20pm
I call Don and tell him that the tickets have been paid for (but if we don't make the flight, we're not charged the fee). We agree to pack light, get some rest and leave the house by 4:45am.

12 o'clock hour
Packing my backpack - just clothes, ipod, camera, and a book for the plane ride (if we make the flight).

1:00am hour
Still packing.

2:00am hour
I forgot that I have to draft an email for Naomi to send to the HIFF organizers in case we do make the flight out, only because we won't know if we make the flight or not until the plane has boarded all of its passengers. HIFF won't be expecting us today. I told them weeks ago that if Don and I were lucky enough to make it out, that we'd be arriving on a Monday. And although it's technically Monday morning on Guam, it'll be Sunday morning in Hawaii, so no one will be there to pick us up - not to mention we won't have a place to stay for the night since we'll be arriving a day early.

3:00am hour
Sent the email to Naomi to send to HIFF. Now I have to print out all of the necessary delegate forms, itinerary and transportation stuff.

4:00am hour
Now I don't have any time to sleep. I'll just sleep on the plane. I have to take a shower. We'll be leaving for the airport in half an hour.

5:45pm Sunday, October 12th - Hawaii Time
WHEW! Perfect landing! Needless to say, we made the flight and without any hassle. Thank the Lord. A few customs, TSA agents, passengers and the flight crew would recognize me and Don, congratulate us and stop to talk about Shiro's Head. It was just humbling to know how many people have been following Shiro's Head. One TSA agent even told us how he brought his kids to see the movie and that he was proud his kids were able to experience the Chamorro language preserved onscreen. THAT was just unreal. A comment that one flight attendant shared after learning we were headed for HIFF will stick with me for awhile. As we were deplaning, he turns and says, "Go get 'em boys." That was cool to have so much heartfelt love and support from your people and your home - especially for such a small project like Shiro's. Just fantastic.

6:10pm
We're outside Oahu Int'l. Airport and I'm checking my cell phone to see if HIFF received the email. I found out that not only did they receive the email, they already had a driver on the way and was able to extend our hotel accommodations an extra day since we arrived early! HOW GREAT IS THAT?!?!

6:30pm
Our driver (and co-pilot) happen to be filmmakers with the festival as well. AWESOME! Straight out of the gate and we've already met other filmmakers. Henry is a local boy that does some DP and directing. Dana is an 'all-around' filmmaker who has a short in the festival called 'The Hollow' and is also a production assistant on the ABC TV show "LOST". They were the coolest people. I mean, we could've been stuck with anyone's first impression, but it just so happened that the first people we meet tied to the festival are really cool cats. It's already off to a great start.

7:00pm
We're at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani. It's fantastic here. The nightlife is crazy packed for a Sunday. Waikiki is a trip! It's like a bigger, badder Tumon. I had no idea that so many tourists would be here in mid October. Henry said he'd be offended if I tipped him, so he refused a tip. Don and I went straight to the front desk to check in. We just told them our names, showed some ID, and they directed us to our (upgraded - YAY!) room in the tower. We went up, changed into our usual quickdries and t-shirts and went strolling Waikiki.

9:00 hour
We got lost looking for the main Sheraton Waikiki hotel where the delegate headquarters is located. We thought we were going to get a leg up by looking for it tonight instead of tomorrow, since we need to pick up our badges first thing in the morning in order to make tomorrow's NETPAC luncheon. But instead we ended up walking an hour down the entire strip when a shopkeeper told us it was the opposite way - the way we came from. So we had to backtrack down the strip and a security guard pointed us in the right direction. We finally found it. It was only about a ten minute walk from our hotel! But no complaints. I'm just glad to be here. It's amazing what Shiro's Head has given us. If we haven't made the movie, who knows if we ever would've experienced Waikiki. It's my first time here! Now we can kick back until tomorrow. We got something to eat at a nearby Denny's and talked about the excitement of it all.

10:00 hour
We've gotten some Guinness at one of the hotel bars and took it outside to reflect on what a wild ride this past week was. Heck, just a few hours ago we were deciding not to go to HIFF due to lack of funds. Now here we are, delegates at one of the most respected international film festivals, staying at a fantastic hotel on the Waikiki strip courtesy of HIFF, coming off sell-out crowds at Hagatna Center Stadium Theaters, sipping Guinness after making our last-minute flight out only hours ago.

While outside, Don and I see these two guys carrying some great looking Canon XL2's and some video gear. We ask if they were part of the festival. "What festival?" one of them asks. "HIFF." I respond. "Oh, no - we just came from shooting a wedding." the other guy says. Don and I look at each other and realize how far we've come from our days of shooting wedding videos. If tonight was this great, I wonder what tomorrow will be like. Cheers.