Gearing up for Kent

The 2010 Kent Film Festival officially kicked off yesterday. I wasn't able to make the first night of the fest because my allergies were kicking my butt. I also think my travel for work this week also had me spent. I had a night to recuperate and am ready to go.

Wednesday night, I attended Campbell Scott's screening of his film Company Retreat. Scott wrote, produced, and directed the mockumentary film that looks at the world of reality television. The film is definitely quirky and has a lot of funny parts, but the ending threw me for a loop. After the film there was a great Q&A with Scott. He explained how he came up with the film's ending, which I still sorta don't get, but that's okay. Scott is a veteran actor that has been in a bunch a really good films, he is also a resident of the area. You can currently see him on TNT's hit series Damages. It was interesting for me to learn that he also has a passion for storytelling wearing the screenwriter and director's hat. I mustered up the courage to ask him a question about how he balances taking paying gigs and doing projects he wants to do, regardless of it's successful in the eyes of Hollywood marketers. In short, his answer was that you have to find balance. His acting projects are his bread and butter, but he writes and directs projects because he really wants to do them.

I look forward to the point in my career when I have the opportunity to work like Mr. Scoot. But for now, I'm in the building stage. I take pride in the fact that I made After the Headlines not because I knew it was going to bring me fame and fortune (it hasn't, I'm still in the negative) but because I really wanted to tell this story. Making films is about telling the stories we want to tell as artists.

I'm really looking forward to checking out the other films at Kent and meeting other filmmakers. I feel like this just may be a weekend that changes the rest of my life  Don't forget you still have time to get tickets to the screening of After the Headlines. The film is in block 9 at the Town Hall and starts at 11:15 a.m. I couldn't end this blog without plugging my film. Thanks for reading.