Cut Short
Just got back from what could singularly be a low point in my early career. Had my film Locked show at a local screening called Caught Short along with four other indie shorts. The first four went well, some great music and acting in the others. Was nervous because Locked was screening last. For some reason I always have this pervading fear that something bad will happen everytime I screen a film of mine- audio will drop, picture will pixelize, a frame of someone's penis suddenly appears...
Two out of three for me. At the film's climax, audio and video suddenly crackled and pixelated and the whole film just stopped. A collective groan rose out from the 50+ people who were watching and it was then where I realized the new meaning of the word humiliation. The lights went on and people didn't get to see the ending, which was truly disappointing, because the vibe of the venue was so nice and it looked like people were really paying attention and laughing at all the right places.
I tried to figure out what went wrong and deduced it was one of those one-in-a-million DVD disc - DVD player incompatibilities, because the organizers told me they had watched it twice on another player and nothing went wrong.
It took every bit of my usually buoyant self-esteem to stand up and talk about the film's ending to the crowd and crack a few self-deprecating jokes in between. What made things easy was that the screening's organizers were very nice and supportive (they offered to screen it again next month), and I had a fair share of people coming up and telling me that they liked what they saw and asked for a copy so they could watch the whole thing.
Moral of the story? i'm not really sure. Bring a portable DVD player wherever I go? Bring copies of all possible formats with me (along with the matching players, projectors, sound system, etc)? A shovel to dig a large enough hole to crawl in? I guess the best thing to do just is laugh about it and realize that shit happens. Worse things have happened in my life lately that make moments like this trivial anyways.
Thank you to the two Sarahs from Caught Short who were nice enough to screen my film. Great event guys, will spread the word! Thanks also to the other filmmakers who went up to me and shook my hand in support. Hope what happened to me never happens to you! =)
This has really pumped me up to shoot my next short. Can't wait to shoot and show something redeeming! It all happens in two weeks.
Two out of three for me. At the film's climax, audio and video suddenly crackled and pixelated and the whole film just stopped. A collective groan rose out from the 50+ people who were watching and it was then where I realized the new meaning of the word humiliation. The lights went on and people didn't get to see the ending, which was truly disappointing, because the vibe of the venue was so nice and it looked like people were really paying attention and laughing at all the right places.
I tried to figure out what went wrong and deduced it was one of those one-in-a-million DVD disc - DVD player incompatibilities, because the organizers told me they had watched it twice on another player and nothing went wrong.
It took every bit of my usually buoyant self-esteem to stand up and talk about the film's ending to the crowd and crack a few self-deprecating jokes in between. What made things easy was that the screening's organizers were very nice and supportive (they offered to screen it again next month), and I had a fair share of people coming up and telling me that they liked what they saw and asked for a copy so they could watch the whole thing.
Moral of the story? i'm not really sure. Bring a portable DVD player wherever I go? Bring copies of all possible formats with me (along with the matching players, projectors, sound system, etc)? A shovel to dig a large enough hole to crawl in? I guess the best thing to do just is laugh about it and realize that shit happens. Worse things have happened in my life lately that make moments like this trivial anyways.
Thank you to the two Sarahs from Caught Short who were nice enough to screen my film. Great event guys, will spread the word! Thanks also to the other filmmakers who went up to me and shook my hand in support. Hope what happened to me never happens to you! =)
This has really pumped me up to shoot my next short. Can't wait to shoot and show something redeeming! It all happens in two weeks.
posted by Carlo Ledesma at 12:02 AM
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