Random Photo Blog

So we have some pictures running on Flckr and i decided to just post 1 random pic here on our blog (imagine me shuffling the pictures and presto.) wow the one with me having very little hair is the one i will post.

Rewind how it all started and behind the scenes

Next series of blogs i'm going to go in reverse. Starting with more recent events backwards.

I wont bore you with the story of the BNFF and how we won an award there but what i will do is start with an account of things that happened while shooting. Please allow me to re orginize my thoughts on everything but for now i'll post a pic of the director. This was taken by one of our crew memebers during one of our many night shoots outdoors.

Buffalo Niagara Film Festival

Ah finally posting a new blog sorry for the long absence on this blog. Well picking up where i left off we finally got back for the third or fourth time from the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival! (well that was three days ago on Monday!) I have to say Jong had to put up with alot of crazy comments, corney jokes and my physco Babel on the way up to buffalo and on our way back to NYC. (the actual times i was awake and not driving.) Mainly to keep him up (but i don't think he needed my help!) It was a long drive but worth it i guess.

I have to say that i think I'm a New Yorker. After all the places I've been because of the film festivals I'm finding it hard to imagine life outside of this city! I guess its mainly i feel out of place when I'm in these other cities and somehow i feel like an outcast. (well i guess i am that outcast but at least in NYC we are all that way so it doesn't matter!) We couldn't find much to do in buffalo but Karting (very fun and AJ's is a nice place to go Karting.) So we were racing these Karts and the object of it all is to get the fastest lap for the session. long story short i got my posterior kicked in by the Director (Jong Wook Lee) but i did win the first time around. The only reason this was the highlight was outside of NYC two Asian guys with medium length hair and one of them happening to be fashionable is not a blend in sort of thing. I guess if we both had short hair cuts and dressed more typically we would have had a pleasant experience. Interestingly enough we didn't fit the requirement to go to this empty club called Omega (what a dumb name anyway!) the damn place made me think of the omega moo's from the movie Revenge of the Nerds. Interesting name for a club. They wouldn't let us in because one of us was wearing a hoodie (Couldn't say anything about the Gucci Hat i guess.) if the bouncer knew anything about making money he would of let us in an empty club. At least they would of had been able to sell some drinks.

Nit picking aside the bars were fun and food was good. Enough with the tourism report. Our screenings went well the feedback from the audience renewed my spirits once again! it was refreshing to see that people were getting it. I also started to realize different things in the movie that i didn't see from the first couple of screenings as well as new things every time i view it. (but that's a whole other blog.) It really lifted my spirits to see this. (We drove so long and had many sleepless nights.) What i was hoping for was more of a turnout from the UB crowd; however i was informed (after handing out cards like i was an religious zealot.) that it was finals week for them. I must say though it was worth the shot. Only if the screening was maybe a month or a couple weeks earlier.

I decided to just fill in the voids with this post so on to the conclusion. The final day we were there we checked out of the hotel and headed straight to the theatre. We decided to watch a few more movies that were playing in the festival we saw Saving GOD and A Deal Is A Deal. I really enjoyed A Deal Is A Deal but thought it got too mellow dramatic at the end but it was a fun movie. Saving God was too Mellow Dramatic for me but that's just me. We got some food and then we hung out at Starbucks until the Award ceremony started. Small detour in our story we were contemplating not going to the Award Ceremony but the director had a feeling and through the advice of his wife Terry we decided to go. (So back to the Award Ceremony.) There we are drinking the wine (i decided I was going to drink the bar dry.) and chatting with people. I was trying to be cool drinking my wine and eating cheese haha, and then the ceremony begins. We listened as they announced the winners one by one as each category was going by we were assuming we won that award if they were to give us an award. the last three categories for awards came up and we started packing and getting ready to head out the door cause surely we couldn't have won in those categories (they were regional and location based.) and then it happened. "The award for Best Feature Film Goes to Roses Have thorns." Both the director and i look at each other with the most stupid face imaginable and uttered " No Way" and that's how we found out we won the Best Feature Film Award at the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival. I almost shit my pants when they announced it. (that's how surprised and excited i was not to mention all the cheese i ate.)

Back in New York

Back in new york! Its great to be back I'll add the very few pics i took in KC since they were all taken with my phone. I didn't blog about most of the trip, because frankly it would have been boring so i decided to just wait until i got back to new york and show a couple of pictures. (which i dont have much of. so instead i show a picture of New York that i took on the plane Goofy huh.)

Well actually there aren't that many pictures some parts of the festival was fun but main purpose was to talk to as many people as possible. The funny thing was the judges were a part of a panel for advising us the participants to talk more to the judges and programmers but interestingly enough they kept themselves very distant and started to cringe every time you approached them for some advice. (interesting) well what can i say they had to say that but it was something they didn't care to do. On the flip side we were able to meet some very nice people on our stay. Some of the festival volunteers and a Former police officer in KC. all nice people that showed us a good time. Thank you all KC was interesting because of you.

Our next stop is Buffalo if you are up in the buffalo area and want to see our film please come by and take a look.

Buffalo Niagara Film Festival

May 5th 2009 (Tue) 6:45 pm
-Market Arcade Screen 1

May 8th 2009 (Fri) 1:00 pm
-Market Arcade Screen 1

639 Main Street
Buffalo NY 14203

Kansas City Film Fest Landed and first day of screening beginging day 2

What a trip! Thank goodness for the quick departures and the smoking booth in ATL (thank you Corey for pointing that out.) the travel time would of been longer, but thank goodness for not having a delay and quick departure times. I think the only real waiting we did on this trip so far was in line waiting for our rental car.

After dropping of our luggage we started our "adventure" around Kansas City i have to say its too quiet for this New Yorker, ( But i lived outside of New York until i was 8) but it is quiet and the air is nice out here.

The AMC theatre out here is very nice i envy the folks in Kansas City they have a great theatre to go and watch movies in. We have been able to meet some very nice people out here and some interesting characters as well. The time slot that we got for our film was very disappointing; because it was at a very bad time for most people. 5:30pm on a Wednesday i really thought no one would show up. I was worried we would be the only people in the theatre, but i must say some people were able to make it, and i was grateful to see them there.


My posting will be slow from time to time (I'm catching up on a lot of things.) After our screening we decided to get some necessities for our stay here, (Airports would tell you you cant wear cloths if they could get away with it.) and Jong found a Korean grocery store so now we can have at least rice and Kimchee.

After getting the rice and kimchee and some instant cup noodles we wrapped up the first day at the festival by participating in the reception the Kansas City Film Fest organized the nice thing was it was in the same theatre that was screening our movie. Even better was that the beers were roughly 3 bucks a mega sized glass, and they had a decent spread waiting for all of us. I think having a bar lounge inside the theatre is pretty cool enjoy a movie hang out and have good food and drinks and then move on from there.

KC is an interesting place i kind of like it, (people have manors here!) but i don't think i can live here with out going nuts it is too quiet! i would become quickly bored. We ended day one by passing out exhausted from the the night before, and the early morning flight.

Kansas City Film Fest getting ready to go

First of many blogs to follow. Well its time to go to Kansas City where we have been selected to screen Roses Have Thorns. I'm hoping that people will show up and fill up the theatre! Its going to be an interesting flight we have 30 minutes to transfer to our connecting flight there. ( I'll let you know how that went.) i guess for now that's the only interesting thing i can think about for the flight there. I'm posting a link for the Kansas Film Fest website that way you can have all the info and see the rest of the line up. If your in the area come by and watch Roses have Thorns, and let me know if you hate it, love it, and etc. A link to a teaser for the film is http://www.cinemasia.org/Cinemasia/Roses_Have_Thorns.html it takes some time to load. You can also find it on You Tube. Next up the flight there hmmm i cant wait.