FANTASTIC FEST!
Well, hell, Rob beat me with his new blog yesterday morning, but I figured I’d add mine to the mix, too. Can never have too many blogs!
Got into Austin on Thursday afternoon and after checking into our rooms we headed out to the ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE CINEMA, the home of FANTASTIC FEST!
We hooked up with Rob’s friend Chris and his friend David, who had graciously donated the sacrificial Volvo that we were about to smash. Also in attendance was Compton, BLAIR WITCH and ALTERED publicist Jeremy Walker, and Nick Pugliese, a friend of mine from Maryland that had luckily just moved out to Austin a month and a half ago and had been helping us putting up posters and stuff for a few weeks now.
So a bit of a crowd gathered in anticipation as the URL was painted to the sides of the car by a local production designer. Now the smashing could officially commence!
David took the first hits since it was his car, but soon, everyone was getting his or her licks on the poor Volvo. It was a nice stress release, let me tell you.
Once that was done and we had a few complaints from the neighbors for the noise, it was time to apply the blood. And apply more blood. Then it was done, a great re-creation of the car from the film.
David wrapped himself in a tarp to avoid the glass inside the car and carefully moved the car to the front of the ALAMO CINEMA, to the car’s resting place for the weekend. A pretty damn good job and impressive bit of marketing for us.
The next day was pretty much a day off for us. Saw Tim at the hotel, who thrilled us with another story about an altercation he had gotten into the night before. Reminded us of his adventures in Hong Kong. The boy has a way of getting into trouble.
We went by the theater (car looked even better in the daytime) and met with our sales rep Matt Dentler. We talked strategy for a while but other than that, Matt, Nick and I just drove around town and visited a few strange places, saw some cool things. Then we saw the bats come out from under the Congress Avenue bridge at dusk, which was really cool, then went and ate at FREDDIE’S, which I highly recommend. This town is so cool.
But today is the DAY! The WORLD PREMIERE of SEVENTH MOON! We’re having a pig roast ceremony like we did in China and then the screening is at 10 pm. Then a party afterwards. Should be fun.
I’m nervous as hell but trying to keep the good feelings flowing. We’re all hoping for good things so keep your fingers crossed for us! Couldn’t have done it without tons of support.
Check out all the FANTASTIC FEST pictures and I’ll blog tomorrow morning if I’m not too hammered!
Peace out and much love to all!
-ed
