This morning of the premiere, I got up too early and started drinking way too much coffee, which lead to a full-fledged panic attack. Cassie's flatmate Brendan talked me back from the ledge. The film screened at 2:40 p.m. so spent the day pacing and practicing my speech.
This is me doing last minute changes on my speech:
The rental car place had a drop off service, so it was like getting chauffeured to the premiere. The screening was held at the
Imaginasian Center in downtown L.A., which is very nice. I hung out in the lobby with the J-crew eating their onigiri and drinking their tea until Kevin and Dave arrived. I was afraid they were going to be the only ones to show up, but pretty soon people started to arrive, and we went into the cinema.
This is Kevin and Dave and Me after the screening:
The cinema was really nice. Good comfy seats with lots of leg room, nice speakers and a nice sized screen. There were about 20 people there, which I thought was pretty good for a Monday afternoon at 2:40 p.m.
I got up and gave my speech, which went really well mostly because I couldn't see a damn thing with the spot light in my eyes. On the way back to my seat, I was approached by another festival programmer, and we swapped cards.
I stayed for the whole film. Thank god we did the sound mix (which wasn't in time for this screening) because the sound is ropey. Something we hadn't noticed on the home speakers or even on the LFS speakers. But you really notice it on a good set of speakers like at the Imaginasian Center.
People laughed right the way through. Some people came up afterwards and said they really enjoyed it and that they really could relate to the characters...that they felt like they were sharing a part of their lives through the film. I was sad that Patrick wasn't there for the first public screening.
Kevin and Dave drove me back to Cassie's place, and I crashed a bit. Too much excitement for one day.
I have just spent the past 4 hours exporting all of the graphics of the film, one of which you see on your left converted to a jpg so it looks crappy. It was a nightmare, and I hope I never have to do it again but instead can hire someone to do it for me.
Last night I went to the Japan Film Festival Gayla at the Japan American Museum in downtown L.A. Not having Patrick with me, Cassie went as my date. We got all dolled up, and I obsessed about my speech, which, according to Takahashi-san was supposed to go on for 5 minutes.
After the longest day ever (time expands when you travel from London to L.A.), I have arrived. Met Cassie and her canine companion Gordon at Union Station last night. Will be attending the opening Gala tonight. Takahashi-san has asked that I give a speech, but my brain is mush from the jet lag. Haven't heard from P.J. yet, so if you're reading this from London, can you call him and tell him to call his girlfriend, already. The picture is from Cassie's side garden. She has a back garden as well. It's so warm that I can sit out here in a spaghetti strap dress and nothing else. I love southern California.
I thought yesterday was going to be more of the same shit...filling in forms, sending out stuff to festivals, trying to sort out the last clearances hell. Sometimes I feel like Tokyo Cowboys' bitch. But, at 10:30 a.m., I got a call from Alexeij, our illustrious sound mixer. He'd done the first pass on the film, and could we come in at noon to have a listen. Yes, yes, yes.
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