Tag Archives: screening

3 Movies In 4 Days (or I’m Grateful For Free Screenings)

Posted on December 3, 2013 | Comments Off on 3 Movies In 4 Days (or I’m Grateful For Free Screenings)

Since I had a couple of days off for Thanksgiving from work, I wanted to make sure that I kept my days busy. And since there are a lot of movies coming out that I want to see, I watched my email for screening notifications from SAG Foundation and the SAG-AFTRA Film Society.

And I lucked out! I found a screening and Q&A for “American Hustle” on Saturday and a screening of “The Wolf Of Wall Street” on Sunday. So my weekend was pretty planned out before going to San Diego for Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving in the past, some of us go to a movie after dinner. It doesn’t happen every year, but it’s always fun when it does (the first time we did it we went to see “Jackass The Movie” after dinner, which was a pretty weird choice). This year, my cousin Stephie and her husband Clay wanted to go see “Hunger Games: Catching Fire”. Even though I had already seen it, I was more than happy to go again!

The best part about watching with my cousin and her husband was that neither of them have read the Hunger Games books. They didn’t know the plot of the movie or what to expect. I, on the other hand, re-read the book in preparation for the movie. So whenever something crazy happened on screening, it was fun to see my cousin’s reaction. We’ve already made tentative plans to see the next 2 movies together after Thanksgiving the years that those movies come out (the last book is being turned into 2 movies).

The screening for “American Hustle” was ok. I didn’t really enjoy the movie (the plot wasn’t very interesting for me). And the Q&A was cool because Bradley Cooper was sitting about 20 feet away from me! But the Q&A seemed a bit short.

But I loved the screening for “The Wolf Of Wall Street”. The movie was almost 3 hours long, but it flew by! The movie was very exciting and the fact that it’s based on a true story made it even better. I’m going to get the book it was based on soon so I can read it. I highly recommend seeing this movie.

I know I’m incredibly lucky that I have the opportunity to see free screenings through my union. I wouldn’t see nearly as many movies if I had to pay for each one (when I saw “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” in IMAX it was almost $20!). And with the SAG Award nominations coming out soon, I know there will be more screenings as well as screeners being sent to me for me to view before voting.

Overall, it’s a pretty good movie season right now and hopefully you all can go out and enjoy a couple of them!

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Default ThumbnailA Summer Of Movies (or Grateful For Union Membership) Default ThumbnailA Night At A Screening (or Forgetting What Non-Screenings Are Like) Default ThumbnailWatching Some Inspiration (or A Weekend Of Screenings) Default ThumbnailWrapping Up An Awesome Year Of Movies (or Still Loving SAG-AFTRA Film Society) Default ThumbnailMovies And Christmas Lights (or A Busy Movie Week) Default ThumbnailAwards Season (or I Have No Idea How I Can Watch All The Movies)

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Beverly Hills Shorts Festival (or Remembering To Breathe After Being So Stressed)

Posted on November 26, 2013 | 6 comments

Saturday was the actual screenings for the film festival. In the past, we’ve had screenings the entire weekend, but since this was my first time running the festival, the other co-directors agreed that we should cut it back to one day (I’m very grateful that they made that decision).

The screenings were at 3, 5, and 7 with an awards ceremony at 9. But I wanted to get to Busby’s super early so I could make sure that everything was in order. When I arrived, the ballroom was all set up for the screenings.

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It was only bright in there because the curtains were still open. While the screenings were going on it was nice and dark.

I also tested the DVDs we were using. The biggest fear that I had was that there would be some sort of technical issue during a screenings. It’s happened before and I’m sure it’s happened again. But I’ve never been the person who had to fix it (or who had to listen to an angry filmmaker yelling).

I tried to stay calm while waiting for the volunteers to show up for the first shift. I killed time by making phone calls and playing a couple of rounds of Candy Crush.

And before I knew it, the festival was starting. Since I couldn’t be in 2 places at once, I stayed outside at the check in table while the films were going. But I always had a volunteer inside in charge of making sure there were no technical issues. I also had a volunteer run the Q&A after the screening.

While I didn’t get to see any of the films during the festival, I’ve been told by the volunteers and filmmakers that there were no technical issues during the entire thing. I had no angry filmmakers and nobody demanded a refund of their ticket (yes, that’s happened in the past as well).

I got to host the awards ceremony for the first time (I’m normally just hanging out watching it). It was so much fun getting to pass out awards (not all the winners were present, but those who were were so enthusiastic that they won).

And then it was done.

I’m still in shock that I managed to do it. I’ve been nervous for so long about this and honestly, I think it went smoother this year than any other year (that could be due to the fact that we ran all the screenings off of DVDs and only had one day of screenings). There are a couple of things that I’m hoping to improve on for next year, but I’ll have an entire year to prep for that festival.

I also wanted to just say on here how grateful I am to all my volunteers this year. I know that the festival would have been a disaster without them. Not only were they rockstars in doing their jobs, they also helped to calm me down.

Now I get to relax at Thanksgiving with most of my family.

BTW, if you are a filmmaker and want to submit your film for next year, let me know!

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Default ThumbnailAnother Festival Done! (or My Weekend With The Beverly Hills Shorts Festival) Default ThumbnailOpening Night Party (or Getting To Be A Party Hostess) Default ThumbnailExciting News (or Sometimes It Pays To Wait It Out) Default ThumbnailBusy Work (or It’s All Coming Together) Default ThumbnailTrying To Go With The Flow (or Staying Calm And Remembering To Breathe) Default ThumbnailHoliday Workouts (or Hills, Hills, and More Hills)

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Sharing With The World (or The Screening Finally Happened)!

Posted on November 1, 2012 | 5 comments

Tuesday evening was the screening for “140Characters: A Documentary About Twitter” which I helped to create and produce. I was so happy to be able to share the documentary with the world! We have been working on it for so long, but it was worth it!

We screened at the Autry Screening Room, and the first thing I saw was a couple of our awesome posters.

 

I was pretty busy working at the screening, so I didn’t get a ton of pictures. It seemed like everyone liked the film. There were moments where everyone was laughing, and during the more somber parts it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

After the film, we got a nice loud round of applause. Even though I have seem our film what seems like 100s of times looking things over, it’s so different seeing it on a big screen. As soon as the opening credits came up, tears came to my eyes I because I was just so happy!

After the screening, there was a Q&A with the production team as well as the subjects. Most of the questions were focused on our subjects which included Heather Spohr of The Spohrs Are Multiplying as well as Friends of Maddie and Dave Danhi of The Grilled Cheese Truck.

We did manage to get a group photo after (sorry it’s blurry, I forgot my regular camera).

 

After the Q&A, we gathered outside for some more photos.

Here I am with the wonderful Heather Spohr (who inspired me to start this blog).

 

And here I am with fellow bloggers J and Matt Logelin.

 

There was an outing to a bar after the screening, but because I had an early day at work the next morning, I couldn’t make it.

To my readers who made it to the screening, thank you! I wish I could have chatted more with everyone there, but it was a bit crazy. And if you couldn’t make it but want to see the documentary, we are selling copies of it on our website.

Even though it was fun being behind the camera this time, I can’t wait to be in front of it again soon!

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Default ThumbnailA Screening At The Walt Disney Studios Lot (or “What The F@#- Is Cancer And Why Does Everyone Have It?” Default Thumbnail#140Characters (or How To See The Documentary That I Produced) Default ThumbnailNew Photo (or It Reminds Me of The Old Me) Default ThumbnailBirthday Evening (or What Happened After 4pm) Default ThumbnailHappy Birthday To FMIB! (or 2 Years And Finally Taking Myself Seriously As A Writer) Default ThumbnailSocial Days Off (or Finally Seeing Some Friends)

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#140Characters (or How To See The Documentary That I Produced)

Posted on October 10, 2012 | 4 comments

I love twitter. Honestly love it. Right now, the push notifications for my twitter app on my iPhone isn’t working and I’m getting crazy frustrated about that.

Over a year ago, a few friends and I got together and discussed how much we loved twitter and how it’s done some amazing things for people. And we decided to make a documentary about the positive power of twitter.

We worked really hard on it. We got some amazing people to share their story and we filmed a little bit of all of their lives.

And now, we are ready to share this amazing project with the world!

I’m super excited to share with all of you the first screening of “#140Characters: A Documentary About Twitter”.

(Our fabulous movie poster)

You are all welcome to attend the screening. It will be on October 30th and free tickets are available here.

If you’d like to check out our trailer, you can see that here.

Please feel free to share this information with anyone. We want to share this movie with the world.

I’m so proud of this project. I’m normally not behind the camera, but I feel so strongly about this subject that I had to be part of it.

Check out the trailer, get your free tickets (only free until Oct. 20th), and I hope that I’ll see a bunch of you there on the 30th!

 

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Default ThumbnailPlanning My Next Project (or Meeting A Director) Default Thumbnail“BLUE” (or Supporting A Friend’s Film) Default Thumbnail“Unapologetic” (or Being A Documentary Subject) Default ThumbnailSharing With The World (or The Screening Finally Happened)! Default ThumbnailOnce Upon A Time: The Rock Opera (or An Awesome Giveaway!) Default ThumbnailI Wish I Could Go To Comic Con (or Your Chance To See The Rock Opera)

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