Louis Vuitton Hawaii Intl. Film Festival (LVHIFF) Diary
Day Three (part 2)
Tuesday, October 14th
We get to the delegate box office and I finally meet up face to face with hospitality coordinator Jeff after corresponding with him for weeks. He give us our tickets to Half-Life and Gone Shopping as well as complimentary tickets for Shiro's Head in case we'd like to invite people. I ask him if he can give us a seat count for Shiro's Head tonight just to get a gauge on the crowd that we can expect. He says that out of approx. 280 seats, there are ten left. WHOAH! THAT'S GREAT NEWS! Sold out! I can't believe it! But before I got too happy, he tells me that tomorrow's 3pm showing looks a bit small with about a quarter of the theater sold so far. Oh. He tries to reassure me that most of the crowd almost always gets their tickets at the last minute. Okay, we'll see. I think we just need to get through tonight.
3:00pm hour
We get to the HIFF delegate entrance at the Dole Cannery Theaters and hand the HIFF volunteers our tickets. Without ever meeting any of them, they already knew all of us by name and offered to reserve seats for us in the theater. Whoa! This is high-class treatment. I'm totally not used to this. We thank them and head into the "Half-Life" theater. We're a bit late. It blew me away to finally see an actual Sundance/SXSW flick - I was getting anxious. But, after a few minutes, I was totally feeling the emo vibe of the flick. The acting wasn't as great as I was expecting (Aaron thought so too), the script was really wordy and there were tons of gay references. It really wasn't our scene. Aaron and Bob bail early to catch the Shanghai Shorts. Don and I stay and give Half-Life another chance. After a few more minutes we decide to bail out of the flick early and head across the hall to catch Li Lin and the gang at the 4pm showing of Gone Shopping.
We catch Li Lin coming out of the Half-Life theater also heading for the same place. She thanks us for coming out. She's anxious, you can tell. We all head into the theater to get ready for her film as people start trickling in. Don and I notice that we have seats reserved with our names on them - middle section, center - best seats in the house. Those HIFF volunteers are sharp. I love 'em.
4:15pm
We take our seats and Minette comes out to introduce Li Lin to the crowd. Li Lin addresses the crowd, thanking them for showing up and that it's her first attempt at a feature film and to please forgive her if there are any noticeable 'bumps' along the way. The lights dim, Gone shopping begins.
5:45pm
Whoah. There is no way that Gone Shopping is her first feature. Everything is so high-end and big budget! Great camera movements, a fantastic DP, the casting was on point and the subtitles were done perfectly so nothing was lost in translation. Now Don and I are really sweating bullets for Shiro's Head's debut tonight. Dang, do we feel ghetto. Don and I congratulate Li Lin at the Q&A and talk about her experiences with her movie, like when it played in Rome and recieved a standing ovation. I can't believe that this fantastic writer/director is the same person we were kicking it with just yesterday at a bbq!We pick her brain like crazy and she's too humble about it.
6:00pm
FREE HAPPY HOUR at the HIFF Hospitality Suite! Shiro's Head is on in three hours! We catch up with Bob and Aaron and prepare to take the edge off of our debut tonight by sipping on some free local Hawaii brew. Our favorite: Longboard. Don's still worried about the BetaSP and checks with Minette to confirm with the projectionist to view the tape. Minette makes the call and assures us that everything should be fine. I figure that at this point it's too late. We just have to sit back and enjoy it all.
After plenty of Longboards, talking about Gone Shopping and the Shanghai Shorts, we decide that we need some chow. Aaronn suggests that we walk over to a nearby Kmart and grab a large Little Ceaser's Pizza, so we do. The pizza feeds all of us for only seven bucks! Now that's DIY on a budget! We poor filmmakers can be so resourceful. Free beer and seven dollar pizzas - can't beat it.
8:00pm hour
We walk back to the Dole Cannery Theaters to prepare for the show in less than an hour. The HIFF free happy hour is over, but we head back to the hospitality suite and try our luck at another free round anyway. Aaron works his magic and...success! I see a piano on the side and start playing "Candle In the Wind" by Elton John. The buzzed islanders sing loudly. We wonder if anyone will really show up to watch the flick. It's a nerve-racking feeling.
HIFF Programmer Andersen Le comes up and seems pretty excited. He tells us that there's a long line of people forming for Shiro's Head. I'm pretty sure that it was for another movie like "Chihuahua", but I was wrong. We go downstairs and see a long line for Shiro's Head. Unbelievable! Don and I are so extremely grateful to see all these people, so we begin to greet them, thank them and shake their hands as they give their movie tickets to the ticket-takers. We even see familiar faces from Guam that we've seen just days prior on Guam. How weird is that? There was a great Chamorro turnout inside the theater and a local Hawaiian turnout as well which was surprising.
Some of my old middle school and high school friends who now live in Hawaii came by to see the flick. And I thought they still lived in Guam! Among the familiar faces were middle school/high school classmate Joe Sanchez, RepUrs clothing designer Sean Quinata, MMA fighter Mike Ulloa, TJ Quan and more. It was great. There were also others that I didn't know were there until later, like Stacie Krajchir's family, some of the award winning filmmakers from today's ceremony and other Guam connections.
9:00pm
The pressure started to build up as the crowd filled the seats. Minette opens up the show by introducing me and Don. Butterflies galore. Everyone gives us a warm welcome. I start by asking if there are any Chamorros in the house. The response was greater than I thought. The energy is unexplainable. It's a crazy high, man it really, really is. We continue to talk about Shiro's Head and to thank everyone for coming out. We also make it a point to recognize Guam talents for contributing to Shiro's Head. We keep our opening pretty short, thank them for coming out and cross our fingers.
The lights go down. Don and I are dying to know if the BetaSP works without a hitch. The HIFF trailer plays as it does before all of the festival movies begin. The trailer ends. And then - Shiro's Head begins. The opening image comes off flawlessy! Minette asks us if we'd like to adjust anything and we ask if she can juice up the audio. Minette quickly radios in to the projectionist to crank it up. He does. All is well! Whew! In fact, Don notices that the image is the clearest that we've ever seen projected of Shiro's Head. The HIFF movies are projected on Sony Digital projectors at the theaters, so it made a noticeable difference to what we've seen during our Premiere showings on Guam. We are thanking God again at this point. Don and I leave the theater to get some air and collect our thoughts. We're outside breathing sighs of relief with Minette and we're all happy that everything's gone according to plan. A very big thanks to her, of course!
10:15pm
The movie is just about over, so Don and I sneak back in to catch the ending so we can prepare for the Q&A session afterwards. The movie finally ends and the crowd responds with great applause and the occasional yell and whistle. Whew! That's always good sign. As people leave the theater, they thank me and Don for putting it all together. Thank us? We should be thanking them! But I think that they too were sitting on pins and needles hoping that Guam's first feature length movie wasn't a bust. I think they were just as relieved as we were.
10:30pm
Minette introduces us again for the Q&A session. In addition we point out some of the other filmmakers in the festival that are in the seats; filmmakers such as Vilsoni and Jeanette Hereniko from "The Land Has Eyes", The first Marshallese filmmakers Aaron Condon and Bob Balos from "Morning Comes So Soon" and Li Lin Wee from "Gone Shopping" . It was a great feeling to share our film with other filmmakers. Li Lin stands up in front of everyone and comments on how amazed she is that we were able to create such a powerful and creative story just based on our resources. She kept giving us kudos and we were extremely humbled by all of her positive comments. That meant a lot to me. Others in the crowd were surprised to hear that all the talent featured in the movie was homegrown from Guam and that none were real actors. The Q&A session rocked overall!
10:45pm
We've been talking with people for a while now, that we're told that we have to clear the theater for the cleaning crew. Ha! The same thing happened to us at all of our other showing back home. Outside the theater, we hang out and take pictures with people and friends from the audience. We get a chance to meet tons of new and interesting people as well a few industry trade writers. A writer from Variety requests for a screener because he accidentally made in late - about 10 minutes into Shiro's Head. Apparently there were other film festival programmers in the house as well and were scouting for movies that they'd like to include in their festivals. Minette keeps us posted about these things. It was great to talk with everyone outside on a one-on-one basis and just to connect with everybody. It was a very, very, very fantastic feeling to share our movie with them.
Minette tells us all that the HIFF crew is going to Kompai (a restaurant and bar) and that we should come along for drinks. Sean Quinata from RepUrs clothing and friends let us ride in the back of his truck - Guam style. Minette and I talk about Comicon on the way over to Kompai.
We all get to Kompai and meet up with everyone. Jason Sanders shows up with his wife, the Variety writer was there as well, Andersen, etc. Don and I meet a Sam Jackson look-a-like in the streets. This was actullay his schtick! He would approach people reciting lines from Sam Jackson movies in exchange for some spare change. Don was kind enough to help him out. We talked with him for a few minutes and shared a few laughs.
The night went on for a good while - full of drink, conversation about Hawaii and Guam and just relieving stress coming off a successful first night of Shiro's Head at HIFF. As the night comes to an end, we say our goodbyes and head back into town in the back of Sean's truck.
We get dropped off at the hotel and head up to Bob and Aaron's room and have some drinks, talk about the movie, talk about our next projects, and then we see 'monkey man'.
There is this couple who is having sex on their penthouse-level balcony about three hotels down from us. From what we see, they're really going at it - kind of like monkeys in a cage. So we name the dude 'monkey man'. We cheer him on. At this point, we're drunk, laughing, happy, rapping and celebrating the two films from the Marshall Islands and Guam. Don, myself, Aaron and Bob are bummed that tomorrow's our last full day here. They're here until the end of the fest which I believe is Sunday. We're definitely going to miss it all. And our new Marshallese friends agree.
2:00am
Yes, there's too much of a good thing. On my way back to my room I stop by the internet station in the lobby and check the standby flights for Thursday. It looks like we might be able to get a flight out. For the first time travelling standby, I almost wish it wasn't the case. Anyway, I'm friggin' pooped. Tomorrow we show Shiro to a whole new crowd at 3pm. Even if the crowd is pretty small tomorrow, today's experience was more than enough to keep me happy until we make our next movie. I'm not doing justice to its level of euphoria. It's just way more than I ever thought Shiro's Head would become.
Friday, December 5, 2008
HIFF Film Festival Diary Day 3 (pt.2)
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