Fantastic Fest??!!

Fantastic Fest has a special place in my heart for a number of reasons, only one of which is that this year's SXSW experience was so fantastically fun due in part to a bumper that was originally created for SXSW Presents: Fantastic Fest @ Midnight.

You can probably imagine my excitement when the infamous Joe Nicolosi called (seriously, tell me you've seen his work! If not, for the love of God, check out this video.



And no, it's not the one I pimped for a month straight. I'm not even in it, and I'm pimping it! He's that good!) Aaaahhh, I digress.

So, Joe called and asked if I wanted to help him out with a short he's been working on. And I said hell yes. Really. That's what I said. So we did a little shooting this week. And I saw a little sneak preview of the in-progress film. And it's awesome.

Hoping Fantastic Fest feels the same way and that I see you guys there!!!

Fantastic!

So I'm embarrassed to say any more about the SXSW bumper, but these articles are so cool, I can't help it. You don't have to click if you've had enough (which I would TOTALLY understand).

SXSW 2010: What a week!

What do I say? From the energy just standing in line to pick up badges last Thursday, to watching Four Lions tonight, every moment of this festival has been just so much fun.

Thanks to the amazing reception of Joe Nicolosi's Stay Inside bumper, I've met so many great people! From the Texas shorts to documentaries Marwencol and The People v. George Lucas to the hilarious Four Lions, it's been a great week of movie watching. And what a difference watching a movie in a theatre full of true-movie lovers! Not a single cell phone ring, whispered synopsis, etc., just people totally into the experience.

I wish I could capture it in a bottle, uncork it every now and then and breathe the excitement, energy, friendship, good will, etc. in. As it is, I'm just going to make sure I'm there in 2011. Thanks to all who shared this experience with me--thank you SO much!!!

And to the lone wolf whistle before the Midnight viewing of Monsters, you're a sick man. ;)

SXSW bumper is a success!!

So after missing the first few days of SXSW Film, I'm standing in line to see The People v. George Lucas, and a few people come up to me to compliment the bumper! Just standing in line!

So then I go inside, and the director of SX comes out, and she says she wants to introduce a very talented guy, who happened to make a bumper that they love so much they're playing it all the time, and who also made a spectacularly funny short (Star Wars Retold--google it and watch).

And then they played the bumper!




So the first time I saw it, not only was it lauded by the director, and introduced by Joe Nicolosi himself (mwah!), but it was shown in The Paramount, in downtown Austin, in one of the most beautiful theatres I've ever seen, for an audience of 1,000 people.

And I watched it, and still liked it, and then loved the short, and enjoyed the movie, and left, and got stopped three more times on the way out for people to tell me they loved the bumper!

And the whole week has been like that! Really great people liking the bumper, and letting me know they liked it, and more importantly, loving film, and talking film, and greeting complete strangers in line, and striking up conversations like they're all from Texas, and it's just been a completely amazing experience.

So tonight, I'm finally taking the significant other to see it. And I'm giddy!!!

Oh, the glamour

So when I was five, I wanted to be an actress or a princess, which according to a tempera paint self-portrait from that time meant wearing a ballgown and, apparently, a long blonde wig.

Oh delusional five-year-old Aimee. If only you'd known that real acting could mean gallons of fake red-dyed karo and hershey's syrup, 8 hours spent wet in the woods--in February--capped off by a swim in a frigid lake (really)--and that it would be even more fun?

Five-year-old Aimee would have understood instinctively the joy of standing in the sun in a dusty parking lot eating white bread sandwiches and nilla wafers with people she'd only just now meant but already really liked. She would have appreciated how a full-blast heater and a warm blanket would have felt at the end of a long day. She would have marvelled at all the people who just seemed to know when to pick up and move, when to tell a joke, when to hug, and how she seemed to fit seamlessly among them.

She would have. She still does. God, this is so much better than glamour. This is joy.

SXSW Bumper Premieres March 12!

So I got a call from an insanely excited director last week. Turns out he was thrilled with how the SXSW bumper turned out, and so was SXSW! No longer will it be reserved for Midnight and Fantastic Fest Shows--they've decided to play it before certain red carpet premiers as well!!!

Said director, Joe Nicolosi, did a great job. I went over for a sneak peek last week and actually had fun watching it (rare--usually I'm too busy giving it a too critical once-twice-thrice over).

Joe has a short film in the festival as well--Star Wars Retold--so look for it, and look out for Joe. Great guy. Great director.

Work with him if you can--you'll have a blast.

Lazy or busy?

Both? Not only for not blogging in (yikes) more than a month. Sure, February was crazy. But it's a matter of priorities. It occurred to me tonight that I feel rusty--I went to the Austin Actors Studio meeting for the first time in a month last week, heard everyone talking about the latest exercises in our acting class and felt like I was falling behind.

Yeah--I was out of town for at least part of every week last month. Yeah--I finished up the SXSW film project in that time. Yeah--I had a meeting on another short, kept doing stunt training, kept up with my outside-of-stunt-training-training. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I didn't read any acting books. I didn't do any acting exercises. I didn't even write about not doing any of the acting homework (lucky you).

And while waiting on the script for the feature film this summer is a fact, it's equally a fact that I can be--and should be--working on fundamentals in the meantime. It's a matter of priorities. I find the time for the physical workouts--must find the time for the mental ones too.

Starting tomorrow.

SXSW Midnight Bumper

Tonight I began working on my background prep for a SXSW Film Festival bumper. I'm insanely excited about this project--great premise, kind director, free pass to the festival and a day spent shooting in the woods. What more could a girl ask for?

This one did spark a strange round of questions with the husband, though. The "how would you feel ifs" and "what would you do ifs" that inevitably sound a lot more crazy uttered aloud.

But it looks like all the stunt training may come in handy even sooner than I thought...