so today began the the austin film festival. this year my wonderful friend kayla is joining me. she just recently graduated from film school at columbia in chicago. it's time for her to get her producer feet networked!!
and me, i'm just here to watch some films. this year is the first year i have paid for a badge to any festival. i've always volunteered to gotten a free pass for chris being a volunteer. it's been a nice ride. but this is a good festival, and i'm happy to pay the minimal fee(comparatively speaking) to attend.
i'm really going to try and make an effort to document my film fest experience this go round since i haven't really done that in the past. it all began when i moved to austin in 2007. didn't go to aff the first year, but i went to movies at south by southwest and a whole new world was before me.
Thursday, October 21st
Shorts Program #9 : ANIMATED SHORTS
(and a little bit of Shorts Program #1)
kayla and i went to this at the hideout. we ate dinner and got a coffee pumpkin drink. what better way to begin the festival. we got in line and i noticed there were a ton of people here for this showing, which isn't THAT normal for showings at the hideout. it's the smallest venue during any fest. when the first short began, i couldn't find it in the list of title selections. i was going to take notes about each short. i figured, ah, yeah, they just added one that's not printed in the program. no. the second short came on and then i found them under the shorts program that was supposed to play later that night at the venue. i went and told the volunteers, thinking they may not have noticed, but they said they were on top of it. 6 shorts later, they finally switched over the the actual shorts that were scheduled to play. so basically we saw MOST of Shorts 9 & Shorts 1. so i'm just gonna go over what i saw. also just some notes: "fly on screen, little digital issues, sold out hideout showing WOW"
shorts one -------
WONDER PALMS
pretty great. witty, funny, silly, colorful, and crazy, it was a great fun filled 2 minute ride. good stuff.
NINJA VS. GUILT
cute animation really great comedic writing and visuals. my kind of humor!! ; )
PHILLIP THE SAFETY EGG
this kind of reminded me off the oblongs animation wise, or maybe it was just the way the entire thing played. not great, not horrible, wasn't digging the bacon, as much as bacon is great all the time everyday, forever.
52 TAKES OF THE SAME THING, THEN BOOBS
yeah, that's what it is alright, cheap editing crap, like the kind you can get done at six flags when you make your own music video. but if you like 'em, the titled doesn't lie.
OLLIE KLUBERSHTURF VS. THE NAZIS
really impressive cast for this one. and the younger kid did great. george fucking segal is in this along with samm levine from freaks and geeks, i think that's his name. he's the cute eddie munster looking kid. this one is fun and intelligent, and there is the ever beloved splash of toilet humor. well produced stuff.
PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE ALIEN ATTACK
lower grade animation, possibly flash, not sure, but the wit and charm and sarcasm makes up for it. enjoyable dialogue.
PITCH PERFECT
bad comedy, low brow, but a nice bloody mouth makes the only good beat of this baseball short.
MAKE A WISH
the 2nd bad baseball short in one series. uh. neat situation, could have been executed better.
shorts 9 animated ---------
ALL IN YOUR HEAD
animation reminded me of plimpton a tad. nice B&W work. i'm all about OCD in cartoons.
YULIA
good style reminiscent of this pop up book i had when i was little. the entire scenario turns out to be a lesbian joke, maybe, i dunno, that's what it seemed like.
cute.
SKETCHI
adorable soft colored characters. a tid bit sad perhaps? and maybe a little meta?
THE THOMAS BEALE CIPHER
mixed media too loud, and a ton of wallpaper designs.
THE MOON BIRD
this one was a little long for my taste and if i'm going to watch animation like this, the story needs to be a bit more compelling for me to stay interested. however, toward the end of it, there was an explosion of gorgeous animation, that flowed like rivers of dark passion and silver.
VOICE ON THE LINE
this was not for me, but i can see how certain people would eat it the fuck up, yumm! it was too monotone for me and a bad sort of artsy.
i missed the other two, since having to use the bathroom and make another show, but all in all i did better than what was scheduled, since i got almost another shorts program in.
A Savior Red : Dir. Brian Scott Hunt
this screening was my first screening at the convention center. i though it would have been in the big warehouse type room like sxsw, but it was upstairs in an odd room and i think the projection was coming from the rear of the screen. very odd. we went to see this because we didn't have an interest really in the orlando bloom pic playing at the paramount. we sat behind friends of the producer and they told us the film was shot in mckinney.
this film is not as sick and twisted as the filmmakers think it is. i don't know it could have been the projection, but there were so many things that were so off in this film, i was having a hard time taking it seriously. the color grading was insane. like really neon and everyone looked like they were glowing at point. the sound mixing was also driving my ears nuts. you'd go from a TON of static to none in between lines from people in the same room. the emotions were a bad kind of intense that felt way to forced. it sort of felt like saw 1 vs. hostel after an hour in. the drama and intensity felt too thick for me. overall, i think a decent story could have been salvaged from this idea. it revolved around a group of boys that are about to do some sort of deal with some sort of sketchy mother fuckers. and naturally all hell goes loose and they all end up in an overdrawn mind game that
really just doesn't come to fruition.
check back more tomorrow ...
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