THE RED HOURS world premiere at the 2008 SITGES FILM
FESTIVAL
Now I was at this years
Sitges Film
Festival for many reasons (Eric Red’s 100 FEET – to
cover the Fest), one of them being to support my short film
THE RED HOURS
which was premièring there. Actor Deke Richards who stars in RH was also in
the house and we were ready to rock and roll the screenings. It should be
said, that I only had a rough-cut on hand (with temp color correction, temp
sound and a cut I’m 85% sure on) but hey that’s all I had so f*ck it, I ran
with it. The way i saw it, worse comes to worse, Sitges would act as a test
screening for the flick.
Stepping up on the auditorium stage!
So the first screening was a Press Screening at the
Sala Tramuntana, the least of the Sitges screening rooms (in terms of
image and sound) if you ask me. The screening didn’t go too well. One layer
of sound was missing during the projection (which lessened the piece IMO)
and it was obvious that the moderately big Press Crowd was not getting it as
it was rolling on. Like…AT ALL!
At the end they gave up little clapping but put out
lots of whistles (which are Spanish boos – I know, classy shit for press).
They didn’t like it. All good. I actually took the negative reaction much
better than I thought I would. Granted, it took me 4 hours to process just
having been booed (which never happened to me before, in bed aside of
course) but once done working it in my feeble noggin, I was proud of my film
and that’s all that really mattered to me. Hence the less than stellar
screening rolled off my ass.
Myself and actor Deke Richards facing the crowd!
So it was with my guards up that I attended the film’s
real screening 2 days later at the prestigious MELIA AUDITIORIUM.
RH was playing before James Watkins EDEN LAKE, the room was uber packed….
AND I had to present the film in front of the whole audience. So after Lloyd
Kaufman accepted an award, I presented RH (actor Deke Richards came up, to
say a few words too) and James presented Eden Lake. Then they played RH. I
got to say it; the audiovisual quality of the auditorium blew my mind. Damn!
RH never looked or sounded so freaking good! I was floored. And at the end
of the screening, -people clapped and not one fucking boo (or gay whistle)
arose. So that one wound up going well.
After the screening, Deke and I hit the MELIA bar to
celebrate via guzzling well earned beverages. Some filmmakers and AITH
readers stepped up to us throughout the night (and days that followed) to
tell us they dug the film. Even Troma guru Lloyd Kaufman told us that he loved
it! Always nice to hear. So at the end of it all, THE RED HOURS @ Sitges
wound up being a Ying and Yang experience in terms of audience reaction, but
as a whole, it was ACES for me. You got to take the good and the bad in life
and I am definitely a better man for it. Thanks for the opportunity SITGES!
And thanks to Eric Red (who was there for 100 Feet), Gonzalo Lopez and Deko for the moral
support. Back in the editing room i go to finish this sucka!
Troma’s Lloyd Kaufamn, Deke and myself after the
screening!
VISIT
THE OFFICIAL THE RED HOURS SITE HERE
