Death's Big Weekend! - Part 1

I don't really know how to start this, so I'll just say that our weekend was amazing and start from the beginning:

Celeste and I got into Vancouver around 2 O'Clock and checked into our hotel. I guess there was a mishap with our room because when I opened the door I saw two pieces of luggage on the bed. I've seen enough movies to know that there was probably somebody behind the door with at least a Samurai Sword so I quickly shut the door and knocked. No answer. I dodged yet another assassination attempt. So we called the front desk and they explained that they were moving the last guy from that room into another room and they weren't done. We took the bags down and called it good. Then over the next hour we felt like we were part of a icky eater-egg hunt as we found the rest of the guy's stuff, the worst of it being a pair of dirty socks and what looked like a tiger-striped pair of little girl glasses, kind of creepy.

Anyway, after we got settled in I called Jon (Theodore) to meet up with him to work on my top secret project (to be revealed shortly, stay tuned er...blogged, whatever). We hung out for an hour or so and had a great time. We thought we were going to see each other again later that night at the screening, so we didn't make it a big event.

After we dropped Jon off at his place, Celeste and I decided to check out the VIFF hospitality suite at the Crown Plaza Hotel, and believe me, it was suite indeed. The Festival spared no expense, free food, free drinks, and free memories. We met with one of the ladies running the place to get our guest kits, but she didn't have them. She told us to go to the lounge and wait while she located our goodies. A few Stella's and Crantinis later, we had our passes, kind of. Celeste and I received guest passes for the festival (these got us into any screening we wanted and as well as the Hospitality Suite) but we were supposed to also get 3 passes for our screening as well. They told us it wouldn't be a problem and that our 3 guests could be placed on a guestlist and that would get them in. Then we found out the show was sold out. Good because we were afraid there wasn't going to be anybody there, bad because this meant that Colin (Death), Jon, and James (the sound mixer from the film who drove up from Marysville, Washington) weren't going to get in. We tried everything we could to figure out a way to get them in, but nothing was working. Then we were off to meet some of the cast and crew for dinner at the greatest Restaurant in the world: Shabusen.

At Shabusen, we met up with Colin, James, Dave (the boom operator), and Greg (the director of photography. Jon couldn't make it because he had a gig the next day on X-Men 3 and had a 4:30 am call time. I'm not sure what his role on X-Men 3 is, I think he's playing Superman. We broke the news to everyone that it didn't look like any of them were going to get into the show for sure, but then Greg told us that he had two tickets, so he passed the ticket on to James (since he travelled the furthest). So we ate loads of all-we-can-eat sushi and steak and it was awesome, then we were off to the show.

The outside of the theatre was packed, and there was a huge line of people waiting for stand-by tickets. Again, this was awesome and horrible at the same time. But it all ended up working out. Emma, the lady running the show, found out that we had actors and crew members who didn't have tickets, and she promised us she'd get them in. So when it came time for the show to start, she pushed her way into the Theatre and brought Colin and Dave in with her. The inside of the theatre was packed too. Celeste and I were both excited because the last time we attended a festival the crowd consisted of us, my parents, McKenzie (the composer for the film), his parents, and the three judges. So if my math is right, this crowd was 400,000% bigger.

(the crowd at the screening. my apologies for the couple who got blasted with Celeste's flash. )

All of the other shorts that TDOTG played with were great. It was an honor, and kind of surprising, that someone felt that our film was at the same level as some of the other films. Particularly, I thought Big Girl, by Renuka Jeyapalan, was great. You should look it up.

It's time for me to go to work now, I'll finish the rest of the weekend either tonight or tomorrow. It get's really exciting. Lots of adventure and danger, as well as an encounter with the man who was moving out of our hotel room. No joke.