September 2008

Just a quick FYI -- three popular films from Fantastic Fest this year are having encore screenings tonight at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. Anyone can see these films for free; you don't need a Fantastic Fest badge, just get there before the theater fills up. Here's the Sunday-night schedule:

4:05 pm -- Let the Right One In
7:00 pm -- Chocolate
10:00 pm -- Donkey Punch

I saw Let the Right One In last week and would absolutely recommend it -- it wasn't too gory for me. The title seems ill-fitting to this suspenseful and almost sweet horror film from Sweden about pre-teen love and vampirism. The writer/director of Cloverfield was just signed to do an American remake -- it's going to be difficult to capture the delicate relationships in the original film. I didn't get to see Chocolate -- it kept playing at midnight on evenings when I was too tired to stick around -- but hope to catch it at some point, if not tonight.

Matthew Smith over at Austinist notes:

Hurry up! Today is your last chance to get an Austin Film Festival badge at early-bird rates. If you're buying the fanciest badge (the Producers Badge), you can save yourself $65 by purchasing before midnight tonight.

Jette noted the other day that Oliver Stone's W. will be the opening night film.

Read the full article here: Last Chance for Discounted Austin Film Festival Badges

I wasn't planning to take a picture of the Paramount Theatre's marquee last night when I got to the theater for the opening-night Fantastic Fest festivities. But as I walked by, I saw the asterisks and couldn't resist. The historic, venerable Austin theater apparently felt reticent about posting the word "SEX" on its front facade, although "PORNO" was considered okay. What can I say, I was amused.

I'm wondering if the Paramount has previously used asterisks for words on its marquee -- does anyone know? Or were they simply feeling a bit awkward about the whole "air sex" concept? Seeing the Air Sex Championships last night on the stage of the Paramount, I might understand, a little. I've posted an example photo from the event after the jump.

Photos of Matthew McConaughey, even when he's wearing a shirt, never do grow old, do they? Of course not. That's why I knew you wouldn't mind waiting for me to put together this little photo essay from the Surfer, Dude premiere.

The thing to realize about red-carpet events is that they truly can be a circus, but that this is not always a bad thing. Some people go to giant malls on the day after Thanksgiving, some people go to Mardi Gras in the French Quarter, and some of us go to red-carpet events. I have to wonder -- if they get this crowded and chaotic in Austin, how is it in New York or LA? Or perhaps in those big cities they're a lot more blase about it. This event was called a "green carpet" but it was as red-carpet-y as we get in Central Texas.

I arrived at the Paramount and was assigned a spot not far from the door into the theater, next to Cole and Bobby, who write for (natch) Cole and Bobby at the Movies, as well as Study Breaks magazine. We were joined shortly thereafter by Statesman arts and entertainment editor Michael Barnes, who positioned himself right next to the door, so he could do some short interviews for his Out and About column and blog. This was great for me because I could take photos while the guys were interviewing people.

I finally posted a Flickr set for my Fantastic Fest photos from 2006 and 2007. After this year's Fantastic Fest, I'll update the set with more photos, and this time I'll try to be speedier about it.

My favorite photo in the set is probably this one from Fantastic Fest 2007, of Wiley Wiggins and Tim League. I used a compact point-and-shoot digital camera for both years of the fest, and while it fits great in a purse and can take lovely photos in the sunshine, it totally sucks for dark theaters. That's why you see so many dim and poorly focused shots -- Richard Kelly is at least recognizable, but George A. Romero and Paul Thomas Anderson are barely more than blurs.

That's not happening this year, now that I have a digital SLR camera. I'm still learning the basics, but even with everything on automatic settings I can snap a far better photo in low-light than I ever could with my itty-bitty camera. If you don't believe me, check out my set of photos from the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards earlier this year. Morgan Fairchild and ZZ Top are not blurs (Mike Judge comes close, but he barely stood still). If the Fantastic Fest screening of Zack and Miri Make a Porno includes a red-carpet event, hopefully I can snap some photos of Kevin Smith and compare them to my first red-carpet experience. Links to more sets of Fantastic Fest photos after the jump.

I received a very nice email from local filmmaker/instructor Steve Mims last week, letting me know about his upcoming filmmaking classes at Austin FilmWorks and also complimenting Slackerwood. He introduced himself briefly, as though we hadn't met before.

I stopped and laughed aloud, because I am actually in one of Steve Mims' movies. He didn't make the connection ... admittedly, I was using a different first name at the time. And it was a very small role, thankfully for all of us.

My friend Tom Chamberlain was a producer on this film called One Eye Peeled ... this would have been around 2001, maybe? I can't recall the year. He asked me if I wanted to audition for a minor role that he thought was perfect for me. He gave me the relevant section of the script, at which point I found out I was "perfect" to play a character listed as Frumpy Housewife. I auditioned anyway -- it was a two-line role -- and got one night's work on the film.

One Eye Peeled was a series of comedy sketches strung together by a loose narrative, kind of like Kentucky Fried Movie. The sketch I was in was about Death holding a book signing for his autobiography. It was shot in BookPeople. I hadn't ever worked as an actor on a film before, except for a long cold night in grad school when I ran around in a Jimmy Carter mask for a brief appearance in someone's thesis film. (Or was it Richard Nixon? My memory sucks sometimes.)