City of the Violent Crown
For over 100 years Austin has been known as the City of the Violent Crown according to wikipedia.org. Apt certainly for what has become one of the most interesting jewels the city has to offer: the Fantastic Film Festival.
Last night we premierd Seventh Moon to a sold out audience packed with press, film distributors, but most importantly cautious fans. I am a big believer in karma and we’ve had to pay a boon for the good will we received for The Blair Witch Project. A boon loaded with self doubt and uncertainty. Basically - we have have been forced to check our instincts repeatedly over the years following Blair wondering if we could ever create a film that others would enjoy again. It is a strange thing to go from words on a page to waiting tensly in a Mexican restraunt, downing Margarittas, while 230 people consider your story and hold your fate fimly in their merciless hands. It is price of the entertainer to live and die at the sword of his audience.
OK - maybe I’m being overly dramatic. The set up went superbly. Festival leader Tim League donned a monks robes and ceremoniously blessed a roasted pig before the film; a ritual borrowed from our Chinese crew who had done the same before our first day of shooting in Hong Kong. The film played - good projection - good sound - noone leaving. And when the lights came up Ed, Tim, and Amy were peppered by various what was China like questions. Ed was quite frank about what an emotional experience this has been. We ended the night with drinks, a dj, and fortune cookies with the films mythology sealed inside.
The report from Jermey our publiscist was good. The report from Matt our sales agent was good. We all went to bed wearily not knowing if it really was a hit or not.
In the morning there was this: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/38419
A review from industry veteran and the King of fandome - Harry Knowles. Here are a few of my favorite parts:
“SEVENTH MOON is a taut education in how to fucking make an intense horror film on a budget.
. . . . a superior independent horror film of wonderful craft. It is genuinely scary. A white knuckler.
I’m saying this is a film that has elements of some of the best horror out there, but never feeling like a ripoff.
And the “CAR” scene, you’ll know it when you see it is amongst the most intense ‘FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK’
sequences I’ve seen in Horror in a very very long time.
A film with no torture, no extremes of gore, just great levels of tension and fear.
. . . Ed really pulled off one helluva good horror film.”
-Harry Knowles, Ain’t It Cool News
So today as we head out to see more movies and witness more violence in the Crown of Austin, we can at least breath a little easier - we won one heart. An important heart no doubt. What an insane business. What a rush. Who knows what this means. Hopefully it means more people will want to see the film. At the end of the day it is these moments of intense fear and anxiety that somehow become the bitter-sweet memories that will make us get up tomorrow and continue our quest to be story tellers - willinginly bareing our necks for the blunt sword of the audience. It was quite a night.
