London Premiere

This week I received the wonderful news that my film will be premiering in London next month at the Portobello Film Festival. It took awhile for it to feel real. I kept thinking that at any moment I would get an email saying that they had made a mistake, but instead I received a confirmation email that read it was all real.

The first email I got asked me to send stills from the film to the program designer and nothing about my film being played (but, really, why else would I be sending stills directly to the designer). Then an email requesting an exhibition copy. Irregardless, I did not believe it until I saw that email with the date, time, and location of when the film would play that I could get excited. And breath a huge sigh of relief that my film will an awesome premiere.

How cool is it that Portobello Rd runs through Chelsea District? That makes me pretty happy, too.

 (Picture Sources: Top, Bottom)

Four-Year-Old Dancing DJ

My daughter has become the new DJ in the house and she is always putting music. I am not sure how she picks the CDs she just seems to grab one out of the cabinet, but it is so fun to just listen to whatever. It is all music that I bought at some point so I like everything. The other day when I just something soft and peaceful; she put on the Doors. Not quite what I was thinking and immediately I was thinking of ways to switch the CD without her getting upset. The thing is, by the second song my toe was tapping and my mood was better. So now I just go with it and, beyond simply music, I enjoy many, many dance performances throughout the day. My daughter has an amazing sense of rhythm and each dance is truly inspired by the musician she chooses. It is wonderful to watch.

For Your Listening Enjoyment

CAKE "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" from Grady Sanford on Vimeo.

My daughter was putting music on in the living room and yelled to me that she wanted to listen to Short Skirt/Long Jacket. As I was preparing lunch I yelled back that she would have to wait a minute so I could finish up before finding the proper CD. She walked into the Kitchen holding up Cake's Comfort Eagle and said, "Isn't this it?" Then I think she might have rolled her eyes. Do four year-olds have that ability?

I am not sure if I should point my finger at her saying, "don't you roll your eyes at me," or if I should just pat myself on the back for instilling a good musical base in my daughter. In reality I think I just mumbled, "Yeah, that's the right CD." I mean she is four, how did she do that?

By the way, this video is awesome.

Sunday Mornings

I have decided that getting up early on Sunday morning and heading down to Pearl Street is one of my new favorite things to do. The parking is free and there are spots galore. No line at the coffee shop and barely any kids on the rocks (though on mornings with no kids, my daughter is slightly disappointed). Colorado mornings are nice and cool so I don't get overwhelmed by the heat either.

A few mornings ago as we were leaving we happened upon a  group of bagpipers preparing to march. We hung and watched them warm-up and then head on down the mall. You never know what you are going to get on a Sunday morning. I guess there are still surprises in this town to be had; sans huge tourist crowds.

Wednesday Dance Video

Justin Peck and Janie Taylor, The Block Magazine from Justin Peck on Vimeo.

I watched this video a really long time ago and there is something about it that stays with you. Perhaps, it's her hair or something about her presence. It isn't perfect; the digital color grading bothers me a little or perhaps a lot. The feel that they are going for is interesting - I just miss when people use to do things in camera and I think they could have done this in camera with lights and it would have been better. Unconsciously color grading feels as though it isn't real and couldn't be captured with actual light. Even if something is meant to feel magical and mysterious it needs to be rooted in some type of reality or else it just feels false.

I understand that this is a fashion video and it, perhaps, succeeds in that way, but I have seen fashion videos or commercials that rise above their purpose and I wish this one was able to do that. I feel it is really close. The filmmakers are competent, but it feels as though they don't have a grasp on what they are creating. This is painfully obvious after reading this interview with Janie Taylor where she points out that they just wanted her to "dance around" and she had to bring Justin Peck into the production because she thought if she just danced around she would look stupid. I so love that the ballerina is the one who truly made this piece work and not only by her presence on film, but also her artistic knowledge and valuable insight.

To me the idea that it begins with the man being viewed as if he is merely a sculpture is really intriguing. The woman comes in and begins to interact with this object, she brings him to life, but then the piece just ends with no conclusion or understanding of the power of the choreography. That is the failure of the filmmakers because they had something that they could have really plugged into and created something amazing, but they don't appear to connect with what is going on in front of them. It is really disappointing when something has such great potential and it isn't realized.

Stress Eating

For the past week I have been working on getting the film out of Final Cut Pro (the editing software I use) and creating a Blu-Ray disc. The film has gotten into the White Sands International Film Festival in Las Cruces, NM. It is very exciting because it is very close to El Paso, TX, where Traci Gilchrest, one of the subjects of the film, is from and her friends and family will be able to attend.

The sort of work I have been doing has completely tied up my computer. Some of the compressing that I had to do took 18 hours and if I opened any application other than the one I was using the compressing would stop. It was a difficult week and it is not over yet. I still have not made the Blu-Ray that I want. Sigh.

When I get completely stressed out I tend to resort to eating sweets and to be completely honest drinking slightly too much wine. I made these cupcakes a couple weeks ago, but on Sunday when I wanted to pull my hair out, I took a break and made some more. Sometimes it is the baking process itself that calms me down a little bit.

These cupcakes are just the basic chocolate cupcake from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World with the vanilla butter cream and some pink sprinkles. Yum.

Zach G and Fiona

Zach Galifianakis is popping up all over the place to promote The Hangover III. For some reason I keep thinking about how I was first introduced to him with Fiona Apple's video (included in the specials of Extraordinary Machine). It still cracks me up.