December 2010

Some friends and I made a short film. It was our submission to the 1^st Annual Pizza Film Festival in Chicago. Please watch:

It got a great reaction from the crowd of about 90. Or 200. I’m not sure. I’m bad at estimating crowd numbers. Let’s go with 87 and round that up to 90. Anyway, it got decent laughs throughout and a pretty hearty applause at the end. Although my decision to do forty-five seconds of credits on a four minute movie seemed to taint the ending, like a comedian who ends on a huge laugh, says, “Thank you. Goodnight.” and then walks offstage in ultra slow motion taking five minutes to get behind the curtain. But oh well.

The festival was a big success. Pizza didn’t have to be central to any of the films but each had to incorporate it somehow into the film. The creativity and variety of the entries was impressive. Lots of good films. Or shorts. Comic and writer Tia Ayers conceived and organized it and did a great job. She’s moving to LA and is planning to hold a west coast version of the festival.

Pizza Film Fest Website

Also, this kind of comedy is different from stand up in one important way. Well, lots of ways, actually. More than lots. But in one way I found interesting: After the film was finalized and submitted, there is a delay in feedback. You have to wait for it. Wait for it!

See, in stand up comedy, you get instant feedback. Instant. Immediate. Instantaneous. Immediately. Instantopalocalypse.

There’s no delay in finding out if what you’ve written and performed is worthwhile or not, or has a sliver of potential, or needs some mild tuning, or needs to go back in the rock tumbler for a few more months, or should be curbed and kicked into the gutter along with hundreds of other failed jokes to be eaten by a clown-faced Tim Curry with pointy teeth who loves the taste of unrealized humor and leaves and children from the 80s.

This is NOT cool, this waiting business. I’ve been taking the joys and oys of feedback for granted all this time. But when there’s a delay, for someone conditioned to expect an instant response, the waiting period can be excruciating. Not in a botched self-amputation sort of way, but in a when-will-I-get-my-sweet-sweet-validation sort of way.

Making a feature length film or writing a book– that could be months or years of waiting. I can only imagine the torturous ponderances of someone awaiting his rottentomatoes score or an author awaiting his friedgreentomatoes score, which is where I assume authors go to find out what assholes on the internet think about them.

I only had to wait a week and I was crawling out of my skin for people to see it. I showed it to a few friends and to the girlfriend. I even called up movie theaters and explained the plot to whomever answered the phone. Anyway, I learned to be grateful for the instant feedback you get doing stand up, good or bad. Stand ups have their crosses to bear but the instant feedback is something most creative forms of expression don’t receive.

Also, here’s the storyboard. Having never done a film before I didn’t want to be mistaken for an amateur so I sketched this up at the bar while Simmons filled me in on the concept, more as a brainstorm than anything. Looking at it now, I’m kinda surprised how similar it is to the final product. Click for larger a image.

Tossed storyboard - very professional looking.

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