Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Blood Bath IV Film Festival

Really happy to announce that Mr. Bubbles will be playing at the Blood Bath IV Film Festival in Dallas Texas on October 13-14th!! I am really excited that it was accepted to this fest! The people that put this one on are really great! They ran the Pretty Scary film fest, which no longer exists, but was a great all female horror film fest that Milton played at.
Along with Mr. Bubbles playing another film "John Johnson's the Jester" will also be playing. This film has been getting great reviews from people watching it at Film Fests and conventions! Really happy to have sent it in for Darkstone to get it out there and played in as many places as possible!

For more info on the festival and the films playing you can go HERE



Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Blood At The Beach 2

 So just got word that Mr. Bubbles. Porkchop 3D and Foodie will be screening at Blood At the Beach on November 9-11 in Va. Beach, Va.

This will be the second convention this group has done (my post HERE talks about the first BOTB convention).

Come on out and see the short film Mr. Bubbles about a cute (yet terrifying) Teddy bear named Mr. Bubbles (who knows he may even make an appearance at the con!).  Also Porkchop 3D the third installment to the Porkchop series, which I come back as the character Meg. I also worked on the makeup Fx for this film! And then Foodie! The wonderful 20 something minute short film that I did Fx makeup on! (crazy proud of all the stuff I did on this one!). 

This con looks like it will be great fun! They have some pretty cool guests (Including Plan 9's lead Brian Krause! Who is a really nice guy!).  And from how much fun everyone had at the last convention back in April, this time it will only be better! The hotel is even on the beach!!!

For more info on all the guests and activities going on check out the Blood At The Beach Web Page


Monday, September 17, 2012

How to Handle Rejection Letters

So this update I decided to move away from my normal pimping of my projects to talk about something that will happen in any persons life, rejection. As a writer and aspiring film maker I have sent off countless stories and movies to editors and film fests. You get in some, and you don't. How do I handle the rejection e-mails? Well;

First I get super excited about the e-mail... then really scared to open it, because yeah what if it is bad?
Then I open it, if my story/film got into whatever the e-mail is from, then I generally jump around or do a happy dance.  If not then I look at it, read it twice, shrug, and move on, you can't win them all, yeah I am sad, I am human (and it seems I really am not the all powerful super awesome queen of the universe). Often the person sending you that letter will offer feedback, I love getting feedback on my work, it helps you for later projects, sometimes that feedback is good, sometimes it is bad, depending on who is giving it, and if you know that the person giving it is a veteran writer, or filmmaker, then, at least, keep it in your mind. Do not hold a grudge against the group that rejected you, they sometimes hate rejecting stuff as much as you hate getting those emails. Move on, make your craft better and send it somewhere else, or send it to them next year in the case of film fests. This can really be the same for any type of rejection. You learn and move on from it. It is how you grow as a person, not everyone will get a participation award in life, so deal with it, and try harder. I know this is hard to hear that your not the best out of everyone on this planet, but you get used to it and move on. It's what creative people have to do, heck, it is what EVERYONE has to do. You can be sad, but after a day, get over it and send it somewhere else. (Just make sure it fits with where you are sending it, read the stuff that they post on their webpage for guidelines)

I see way too many people just get mad at one small bit of criticism and let it hold them back, if you let it get to you or get uppity at one small critique, then you wont grow as an artist. Now you will have those jerks that want to bring you down in life, however editors and most film fest promoters are not those people. They are running a event, or selecting for a book, and they want to choose the best that they have gotten. That doesn't mean what you sent them wasn't good, it just means that the 20 they picked out of 200+ were better, in the editors opinion for that project/film fest..

Some of the best advice I could give would be, don't get your hopes up before you find out if your story/film was accepted. Already thinking you have it in the bag, and that there is no way they could not take your story/film will set you up just to be even more upset when/if you get that rejection letter. However, it also makes the fact you got into that anthology/film fest even more awesome if you did. Don't let your own ego be your downfall. Yes think highly of yourself, but not to the point where if you get rejection you get your feelings hurt. Make sure you keep realistic expectations going into entering your story/film into something that MANY others are also hoping to get into.

I have gotten some amazingly nice rejection letters for film fests and short story anthologies. I know I would hate to have the job of sending 100+ people a letter saying, "sorry we are not going to use your story/film" But I have seen some editors go above and beyond that and say lots of nice things, or even send you little notes saying "we are still reading stories, sorry for the delay, we had 200 and there are only two of us. Please be patient." Those editors are people too, and they have a job to do.  Sorry your story/film wasn't selected, but take it as a time to grow, not as a deep personal attack. This isn't high school, so leave the drama at the door please.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Milton is a Killer Film Fest Selection!!



So I found out today that Milton, the 2 minute short ghost film that Mariah and I directed back in late 2010 was a selection for Killer Film Fest in Somerville Ma. This will be the furthest north in the US that Milton has played so far! It is also Milton's tenth screening!

I am very excited to hear it made it since it was the last film fest I had submitted Milton too, since I have been focusing on Mr. Bubbles and The Gnome Before Christmas.

The Killer Film Fest has a film fest in Ma and an online one, Milton will be in both. So check it out is you are in that area, or want to see it online. The film festival is on November 1-3 2012.  Check out their webpage (linked below) for more details!

http://www.killerfilmfest.com/index.html


Thursday, September 6, 2012

Horrorfind 2012

What: Horrorfind 14
When: Aug 31-Sept 2
Location: Gettysburg, Pa.
http://www.horrorfindweekend.com/

I used to attend Horrorfind back when it was in Huntvalley Maryland.  Sadly they moved the weekend to Labor Day weekend, which meant the con was the same time as Dragon*Con, and Dragon*Con being my absolute favorite con of the year, meant I went there. Well this year I had to attend a wedding, which was very far away from Atlanta (like 14 hours away), but very close to Gettysburg (an hour). So I went to Horrorfind for Sunday. It also helped that I had two films in the film fest (The Gnome Before Christmas, and Mr. Bubbles). So going to see one of my films on a large movie theater screen was pretty cool.

The convention area seemed way smaller than it was when it was in Maryland. I enjoyed the dealers room. The autograph room seemed to be hopping, even though I was not getting any autographs this year. I also checked out a Fx makeup panel, which was interesting to hear another fx artists take on makeup, I also brought home one tidbit that I will have to try out.

The film fest was great, the theater that it is in has great screens and comfy seats. I was really impressed and happy, definitely worth the entry fee into the film fest! We didn't take home any awards, but that's not why I make the films, it was more than worth it to get to see one of my shorts on the big screen.

All in all the day was fun at Horrorfind, I got to see some great friends I have worked with like Ben, Mel and a few others, as well as get two super cute skeleton hand hair clips! So all in all a nice day at the con, not Dragon*Con, but definitely not a complete waist either, if you are in the Gettysburg area next year definitely check out Horrorfind!