SABI at the SouthSide Film Festival 2008

Zak Forsman

Zak Forsman

Major Contributor
DAY ONE

f*ck. I'm tired.

The SouthSide Film Festival has the distinct reputation for being one of most filmmaker friendly festivals going. Their heart is definitely in the right place. I made the decision to attend this fest about a month ago and I thought I'd share some stories here, as they happen, with other DVXusers who may or may not have had the opportunity to usher their work through the festival circuit.

www.southsidefilmfestival.com

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it's nearly 6am in Pennsylvania. Jamie and I flew in yesterday to Baltimore and drove north in a rented SUV. Spent the night at my mom's, who lives near Harrisburg. We'll be making our way this afternoon to Lehigh Valley for the opening day of the fest. IFHY is one of half a dozen films screening opening night and apparently the whole thing kicks off with a bagpipe parade at 7pm. i'll definitely get some video of that. i've got my trusty HV20 and a new Nikon D40 with which i'll be documenting the experience and uploading here.

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more to come...
 
Good luck.

I know we have our differences about M. night but I think you're a very interesting filmmaker. I wish you the best. What movie did you bring there btw? I F'ing Hate You?
 
pictures from today...

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driving into Bethlehem, PA

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Festival Headquarters - Deja Brew

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Me getting interviewed by the local news

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postcards advertising the screening of our short. pretty much the first one people picked up when they came to the table.

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reporter for local newspaper. he pretty much said he couldn't do a story on IFHY because of the title. that's okay. i was warned he was weird.
 
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some festival volunteers. couldn't resist the symmetry between them and the mural so i snapped a few of them.

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documentary crew in front of a huge Bollywood inspired Pirates of the Caribbean mural. i don't know.

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This is Jeff. He owns Deja Brew and has been championing IFHY since the day he saw it. great, great guy.

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this is Graham. he runs the show as festival director and looks much more stressed here than he actually was. very cool. let me swap out the copy they played at tonight's screening for a better version right before we started.

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this is the opening day procession from the gallery to the theater. there were cops blocking off the road so the crowd could move freely through the streets.
 
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iw9T8d3IXo

here's a local news story that aired tonight. click "WATCH VIDEO" to see the report. I got interviewed and they used some clips from IFHY. Glimpses of Jamie in there too. pretty cool when a short gets this kind of attention from a festival considering its usually reserved for features and feature filmmakers.
 
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Opening Night screening -

I have never, ever had such a fulfilling experience with an audience. And I think this is why SouthSide is such a great venue... their audience is HUNGRY for this kind of films. As IFHY played down, I was astonished at how engaged the audience was -- this compared to the screening recently in LA where the reception was good, but not overwelmingly so.

Jamie said she got the impression that John T. Woods hooked the women in the audience first. and that the initial laughs came from them when "ron and carol" are on the doorstep. then later, when "ron" sings the song, the guys (probably identifying with him a great deal at this point) really get into it. the song ended to applause. and that is a great feeling, when you get an applause mid-scene, well before the credits roll.

i'll post a snippet of video showing the audience reaction in a bit (jamie videotaped it). it's taking FCP on my laptop forever to crunch thru the HDV codec.
 
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Congrats Zak. They all seemed to love it.

Must be such a good feeling to have people respond well to your film. They laughed at every sentence break.

Did you intend to have that kind of laughter? I remember you saying somewhere that you intended it to be more of a drama.
 
here's my theory. laughter is pretty much the only way an audience really has to communicate a positive reaction back to the screen.

i "think" in terms of drama when i'm working so while i don't necessarily set out intending to get laughs, it's clear that when an audience recognizes something they identify with, and they find something appealing about a uniquely human moment, this is how they'll respond under the right circumstances.

and truthfully, i may have played the "it's a drama" angle out of an insecurity that people wouldn't think it was funny. days like today help me get over that.
 
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Man, I completely forgot that SSFF started yesterday. Got caught up with work and missed it. I think they are showing your film again this week, are they not? I will try to catch it sometime this week.
 
Zak Forsman said:
and truthfully, i may have played the "it's a drama" angle out of an insecurity that people wouldn't think it was funny. days like today help me get over that.
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Well, the film clearly has both. I identified with it more as a drama but it's certainly funny also. I'm glad the audiences have been liking it.
 
mjjason said:
Man, I completely forgot that SSFF started yesterday. Got caught up with work and missed it. I think they are showing your film again this week, are they not? I will try to catch it sometime this week.
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Thursday 19th @7:15pm
Saturday 21st @7:15pm
 
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Picking up my ALL-ACCESS PASS at Deja Brew, the SSFF HQ.

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IFHY has a place of honor on Deja Brew's wall.

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Jamie and I walked around Bethlehem, killing time before today's IFHY screening.

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Another shot of the SSFF banner

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Jeff intros a block of mumblecore short films
 
At the end of the day, we went to see a local band play, sponsored by the fest. Very ambient, shoegazing, Explosions in the Sky style music. for me, the best music inspires cinematic imagery to dance around in your mind, and i could see "scenes" from the script I'm writing for Wanderlust playing out against this sonic landscape.... hmmm... maybe i've found my soundtrack already?

anyway, i bought two copies of their CD.

SPORTS FOR KIN - you can hear some of their tracks on their myspace page...
http://www.myspace.com/sportsforkin

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