Cinequest 22: Screening #2

Our second screening was held Sunday, March 4th at 10:30 AM at Camera 12 Cinemas. My fiance Angela and I got up early to meet my producer Andrew Logan and his wife Lauren for breakfast at Flames, a downtown diner with more ways to cook eggs than I have every seen on a single menu. They were busy and I was getting anxious to be at the theater early, so Andrew and I left a few minutes ahead of Angela and Lauren to be at the theater by 10. (It was Andrew's idea to leave early - he could saw I was wavering between waiting it out and just forging ahead, asking our super-supportive significant others to handle the checks. It was a sweet gesture by a collaborative producer who has known me long enough to tell when I am freaking out, whether I have any right to or not.)

Members of Team "Do Over"

When we arrived at the theater, our 17 year old lead actor, Garrett Jester, was there waiting for us with his parents and his little brother Mason. It was so wonderful that they flew all the way up to San Jose for the screening. I wasn't sure if they'd be able to make  screening outside of Austin, but Cinequest was the lucky one chosen to have Garrett grace it with his charm and earnestness.

What was great about having Garrett at the festival, even if for only a little while, was how new and exciting being in a film that was playing at a festival (far away from home) was to him. You could just tell he had no expectations going into the film other than he just wanted to see it. His family has been supportive of him every step of the way and they were glowing with anticipation, too. After the screening their plans were to head east for a spring break college visit. He's a good kid with a great family.

Our second screening went even better than the first, I'd say. There was a slight technical issue at first where they had cued the tape early and you saw a bit of the countdown and 2 pop before the movie started (guess I need to add more black next time after the 00:00:00:00 mark). But from there, the movie played and there were several more laughs than there were on Friday night, and there were even some fresh laughs in places that hadn't quite hit the first audience the same way as the it hit the second one.

"Do Over" is the first film in the Shorts 7 program and I think it helped prime the Sunday audience really well for the rest of the films. I think the program played even better Sunday than it had on Friday. It helped there were no technical issues like there had been previously (we got to finish "Fuck Lance Armstrong"), but this audience also just had a slightly different energy than Friday's (no knock against Friday attendees - there was just something different in the air). I was not expecting this for a Sunday morning, so it was a welcome surprise.

After the screening, nearly every film had a question directed toward it, including ours. A gentleman started off by saying how much he enjoyed the film and then asked how many days we took to shoot. I briefly mentioned I was Garrett's teacher at St. Stephen's Episcopal School and wanted him to answer because of the affect our schedule had on his schooling. Garrett made a crack about how we started shooting Friday night straight through to the following Monday morning, making it sound like we shot day and night all weekend. I think the audience enjoyed his anecdote about how he went to school on Monday having not slept in 40 hours and had to rehearse for a play that week. (I knew if we were fortunate enough to receive a question I'd hand the mike right to Garrett, no matter what we were asked. It's an opportunity I always wanted him to have, to talk to his audience, and plus - he's always gold because he's so damn funny.)

In fact, Garrett was a major hit in the lobby after the screening. He signed an autograph for someone and someone else wanted to take a photo with him. I wish I could take that kid to all the screenings - the Cinequest audience loved him.

We have one more screening at Cinequest 22: Saturday, March 10th - 6:30 PM. Check it out if you're in San Jose!