Skeeball

Gene and I went to this bar on the lower east side called The Crocodile Lounge, where we hope to shoot the film, and shot some test footage with my little Canon ZR800. The game room is situated nicely in the back of the bar away from the crowds, so it offers a sense of isolation that I think is key for the film. The footage I shot looks grainy, grimy, raw, and dirty. Just the way I like it.

With Running Funny finished I'm itching to make another film, but in a different way than I'm used to. I wrote a 10 page script, but it's going to be more of a blueprint for the actors to improvise with in rehearsal. And through those improvisations, the script will hopefully come to life. It'll be an interesting experiment in filmmaking and I'm pretty excited about it.

Production will hopefully begin in late September or early October. Stay tuned for more info.

-Anthony

Williamstown Film Festival!

I found out this morning that "Running Funny" will be one of only 12 feature films screening at the 2007 Williamstown Film Festival this fall!!! This is big news for our little movie and I couldn't be happier! Running Funny was born at the Williamstown Theater Festival when it was produced as a play and I'm really happy that I'll be able to bring it home to where it all began.

Visit www.williamstownfilmfest.com for more info. Stay tuned for screening dates/times!

-Anthony

Rocket Science and Skeeball

I saw this great new movie called "Rocket Science" this weekend. It's about a kid from New Jersey with a really bad stutter who joins his high school debate team to impress a girl he likes. It's a really funny off-beat little comedy that reminded me of the classic, "Rushmore." Go see it!

I also saw Shane Meadows' new movie, "This is England" at the IFC Center which was also really good. So many good movies to see! I wish I had time to see them all!

In other news, Gene Gallerano and I are making a short film called "Skeeball." It's about two people who accidentally meet in a bar, play skeeball, and hang out for a little while. We're both really excited about this little experiment. Stay tuned for more updates about that in the coming weeks.

"Running Funny" will be screening on September 5th at 8pm at The Anthology Film Archives in New York City. Visit www.newfilmmakers.com for more info.

-Anthony

Emerging Filmmaker Award

I went to the Closing Night party of the Woods Hole Film Festival last night where to my surprise I won the Emerging Filmmaker Award! I didn't even know they were giving out an emerging filmmaker award, so I was totally caught off guard. I'm really happy that the festival chose to recognize me and my film. This festival was a great experience. I met a lot of really cool people, I showed my film publicly for the first time and got a really great response from the audience despite having technical difficulties during the screening, and I came home with an award! I couldn't have asked for a better time!

Thanks to all those who supported the film at the festival, and especially to the festival staff for working so hard all week.

Back to the real world tomorrow morning. Not looking forward to it.

-Anthony

World Premiere

Our world premiere screening was a success last night! I was really surprised at how many people showed up to see the movie. A bunch of people I had met randomly over the last few days, as I went around town talking about the film, actually showed up!

We did have a minor issue with sound though. About half way through the movie the sound started going out of sync with the picture! I couldn't believe it! I quickly made an announcement to the audience that we were going to stop the movie and switch to the DVD, and then it took forever to cue up the DVD! It was so stressful! It really sucked that we had to stop the movie because it totally ruins the cinematic experience for the audience, although people didn't seem to make a big deal out of it. Once we resumed the movie everything was fine.

I did a Q & A afterward and everyone said nice things about the movie. So I guess for our first festival screening it went as well as it could have, and I'm happy about that.

I'm here for a couple more days and then it's back to the real world on Monday.

-Anthony

Showtime!

The screening is in about 4 hours and I can hardly breathe! I'm not sure if I'm nervous or excited, but it's probably both. I can't distinguish between the two anymore. There's been so much anticipation for this event over the last two months and especially over the last few days, as I've been promoting it as much as I can. I have posters and postcards up all over town and I've made friends with a few locals, so hopefully a few people show up tonight.

We pre-screened the film this morning and it looks and sounds good, which is a huge relief. I actually had a bad dream the other night that the sound was not in sync with the picture, and I haven't stopped thinking about that until this morning.

I don't know what else to say. I just want to screen the damn thing already!

-Anthony

One more day!

Tomorrow is the big day. The official "World Premiere" of Running Funny on the festival circuit. I am really really really excited/nervous about the screening. I've spent the last four days trying to get as many people as possible to come to the movie. I put up posters all over Falmouth and Woods Hole, handed out postcards to random people I've met at bars, bookstores, on park benches, and at other screenings at the festival. Promoting a movie is a little exhausting because I'm trying to convince people I don't know to come see this little movie I made, but I hope it pays off tomorrow.

I saw a couple of movies last night and then went to a festival party at a bar/restaurant in Falmouth and hung out with a bunch of the volunteers who are working at the festival. They are all so supportive of independent film. It's pretty amazing that they give up a week of their lives to work their asses off, when they could be on vacation somewhere. I'm definately grateful that they're doing it. Thanks Woods Hole staff!

I did manage to spend some time at the beach yesterday, which was cool, but I got sunburned, which sucked, so I'm spending most of today indoors.

-Anthony