Runnin' round...

So last week (or so) I was in Austin showing my short film DRAG KING at the Austin Film Festival. About 2 weeks before that, I was in Birmingham at the Sidewalk Film Fest doing the same thing. Both trips were excellent and I didn't behave like a sailor on shore leave. I worked it. Met friends, hooked up new projects. Networked. I did drink, but didn't get wasted.

Well, one day in Austin I did. They has $2 beers and it was a football Sunday followed by game 7 of the American League playoffs. I sat at SXSW Film Threat standard "Champions" for 7 hours. And the Jets lost! To the RAIDERS!! Ugh.

Anyway, I was back for a week and in about an hour, I'm driving to L.A. to cover the AFI L.A. Film Fest for Film Threat. That means, my film's not playing and I get to watch all kinds of cool stuff and review it. Plus, I get to go to L.A...a city I adore. It's my #3 fave behind Austin and New Orleans.

Oh, did I mention I'm going to New Orleans in 2 weeks to show DRAG KING? Yeah. I am.

My point is, man...I'm busy. And it's tough stuff! With the baby, school, the band, my wife, my dog, Film Threat, my movie(s) and the kind of existential through point of my life-looking for a career in da movies-I'm getting burnt out. But right now is key for me to push hard and start getting my films out there and securing new film projects. Which, I'm doing and that feels good. I think it does anyway.

Well, gotta feed the kid and finish packing.

You can follow me on Twitter which is basically shorter blog type entries that are easy to fire off on the go. That link is here:
http://twitter.com/petalumaFilms/

Toodles.

More traveling news...

I leave TOMORROW for Birmingham Alabama!! Whee-haw! I actually am really excited. I've never been there and am anxious to check it out. Plus I heard the film festival is outstanding. Here's the scoop...

Around this time last year, my filmmaking partner and Press Democrat A&E guy John Beck finished putting footage together on our newest film called "Drag King." The 8 minute gem is a day at the races in Lakeport, CA but this isn't just any race. Oh no blog readers. John and I (along with intrepid camera folks Cali Knight and Thom Butler) captured the "Fiberglass 500" which is a race unlike any other.

Participants attach old "unusable" boats to the back of their race/demolition derby/sacrificial lamb car and drag their boat around the racetrack in an attempt to smash and destroy other peoples boats. It's truly amazing and ridiculous and I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Since John and I can barely make it through any given film shoot with our minds and cameras in tact, we hired local editing Goddess Wendy Allen to put the beast together. Then I somehow managed to convince local garage rock God Robert Malta of HugeLarge to contribute a song. So impressed was Malta (or, so bribed by yours truly) he even contributed some original music to the film with the help of his pal (and Tom Waits sound guru) Karl Derfler. Heck, I even got one of my favorite bands, Ohio's own Two Cow Garage to throw a song on there. All in all, it was a real community effort and I love the film.

I've heard nothing but outstanding things about Sidewalk and I found out a few friends of mine have films there as well. So, it's going to be amazing I think. They even put together a little webpage for my film which you can see here:

http://sidewalk. bside. com/2008/films/dragking_sidewalk2008

I'll be blogging my trip on Film Threat and you can read along here:

http://www. filmthreat. com/blog/

I also started a twitter account and feel kind of insecure about it (as in, who the heck cares what I'm doing at any given moment) but knowing how busy festivals can be, twitter might be the only way I keep friends and family informed as to what I'm doing. If you're so inclined, you can follow me at:

http://twitter. com/PetalumaFilms

So that's my big news and I'm really excited! There will definitely be more info on the Austin Film Festival soon but right now, I gotta make some flyers for my screening!