My Last Day at Kent

I'm a little sad about this entry. Today is the final day of the 2010Kent Film Festival and it's a rainy day. The rain puts me in a somber mood.

Despite that, I would like to thank all the folks who trucked it all the way up to Kent to check out the screening of After the Headlines. I'm honored to have your support. It is was a small group of people, but I know the folks who were there really wanted to be there and that means the world to me. Indie screenwriters and filmmakers make the films they want to make, we tell the stories that we know the studio system isn't interested in. For the most part our films aren't high-concept, which just means that have a simple plot set-up and can be mass-marketed to large audiences. Basically, keep it simple stupid.

Yesterday, I had the chance to check out some really good shorts and feature length films. I was really impressed by the other films in my short block. I also attended a workshop that was on the Red camera. That was pretty informative. I can't really rehash all the things I learned in the workshop, but I definitely want to consider using a DP (director of photography) that has experience with the Red. The picture is pretty amazing and it's digital, no tapes! Over the last year I heard production people talk about how great it is, but I saw it first hand. It's a pretty sweet camera if you have the budget for it.

Today, I'm looking forward to checking out the documentary Bakhtari Alphabet, by Bethlehem's Cima Sedigh and Reza Ghadyani. The film chronicles the season migration of the Bakhtiari tribe through Southwestern Iran. The film took eight years to make. I learned that the most documentaries take an average of seven years to make. I wasn't aware of that, which gives me a greater appreciation of documentary films. All directors endure the trials and tribulations of filmmaking, but documentarians really have a heavy weight to carry, because the chances of finding commercial success is even smaller.

I'm also looking forward to seeing another short block of films that includes a film called Outcomes: LGBQT. Outcomes is a documentary that draws from a series of interviews with an array of LGBTQ people who have come out of the closet.

It's time for me to get ready and head back up to Kent.  Next entry, will be my personal highlights for the film festival. Stay tuned....

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