Our VERY BIG Little Private Film Premiere!!!

Hey Guys!

WOW!!!! Is all I can say.....WOW....

What a cool freakin experiance. We had quite the week leading up to the Private screening of Geralds Last Day. We were running overdrive every minuet of every day.
We were scheduled in every aspect of our days. We had errands to run...responsabilities to attend too and appointments to make. It was all the necessary road to geting things ready for The Big day.

After all that HARD WORK and pushing....we took a fun saturday Snowboarding and sledding with my sister {Jackie} and brother in law {Ray} and New little nephew {Parker! .... a little bounceing at the house and some fun company to offset the nervousness of the next day.

Well Sunday mornin we had all the Statues and puppets ready for display. We had the Tables , Drawings and Music sheets ready. We had 15 pounds of M&M's. We were ready!!
While we were driveing there...we looked out of the Window and saw Shelley Noble and her husband Paul walking the sidewalks in the neighborhood!http://notesfromhalfland.blogspot.com/ Its like seeing stars for most people......but for me its the stop mo stars of the blogosphere.
We pulled up in front of the Rialto.....and right behind us was another star and friend from the community{ Dick Kaneshiro} http://www.kaneshiro.name/

...how cool it was to see his face. He and a friend helped us unpack the van and set up the tables for the evening. Thanks guys!

We went right to work military style.....
The Little ones.... Aedon and Amelie {Aedons best friend sice 2 years old}ran off to explore the theatre. We had my sister on kid patrol so we could just focus on the event.
Part of my job was to get up to the projector with the film runner and set up the Colors on Dorky Dad since we didnt have it there for the film VIDEO checks of our thursday lunchdate.
After setting the color....We did a quick lighting check to see if they could see us on stage for the intro....
when finished I came up to many people arriveing....or checking out the statues . I greeted some new arrivals and contined to refine our setup. I then saw....John Sumner who I didnt recognize at first. http://blog.miustudios.com/ He introduced Himself and I didnt recognize the name...then he said {Machine in use} and my Face lit up.....I KNOW YOU!!....HA!! After talking for a second and meeting his wife Sarah and New Bueatifull Baby...I knew I'd get along with this guy and cant wait to hang while dorking out on our Mutual love of the medium. He knew I was busy and gave us lots of room to greet all the visitors.

We had LOTS of kids at the show and one of the things I was most excited about was the kids running around such a cool Old theatre. I was totally DORKING out on the place....so I can imagine what a 6 year old brain can imagine of such a Magical Place!! There was a Whole Theatre to explore and it was all ours with no one to say....stop running!!
So at this point Robert Litton came by and lended a hand while I greeted and Shel ran out to get Flowers From My Grandma Opal. She called late the previous night to say she wanted to buy us flowers for the premiere since she couldnt make it. She wanted to make sure She had a physical object present to represent her LOVE and PRIDE for her grandson. THANKS GRANDMA!!

Now that were all set up....People started ROLLING In in waves!!! It was incredible and completely overwhelming. I wanted to connect with everyone but we knew that wasnt going to be possible. We did our best and we were amazed at how many people came to see the show.

It was really an amazeing group of people that came from every facet of our lives. I was so happy to see faces and friends from years past. Shel was handleing a whole side of friends comeing in and the boys were on Picture Duty. As soon as it slowed down and people got there Popcorn and free M&M's. We moved into the theatre.

I dont know if Shel was nervous but....I definately FELT that first step into the theatre....like an invisible line we crossed...and half way down the walk the audiance roared with applause which Im sure If it was brighter would have clearly shown a Blush on my face! It was a Powerfull applause too. There was 200 people there that were excited to see the show.

We went up on stage and I Yelled out...."CAN YOU HEAR ME!!!" . YES!! the audiance Yelled!!.... I then Thanked everyone for coming out and briefly told them this film was 3 years of PASSION and hard work. It is also a new direction for me and Shel as a Filmakeing TEAM!! They seemed to be happy with the intro and Shel announced the films and Film makers for the evening. We had 5 cartoons in total and all the directors present.

Monster Safari -By Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh -
http://screen-novelties.com/news/

Painting Day - by Daesup Chang -
http://www.daesupchang.com/

Frankenbulb - by Craig Harris -
http://frankenbulb.com/

Dorky Dad - Justin Rasch -

Geralds Last Day - Justin and Shel Rasch -

as we took our seats in the front row....I felt like I was boarding a rollercoaster at an amusement park. Im not scared but I was excited! Monster Safari played first and Its an awesome SUPER PRO piece of cartoon stopmotion animation. I was so honered that the guys at Screen Novelties were willing to play it in our mini festival. When I first saw this film I was like " I want to do that in stop mo" CARTOONS for real.
They are a super great group of guys and Im excited to know them now.

It was a great kick off and got lots of deserved applause!

We then Started {Painting Day} by my fellow Animator "Daesup Chang" I have been working with Daesup for 3 + years and He started as a Jr. animator at our Company. Daesup is one of my favorite work mates and his always Positive attitude and Total Passion for Animation is always inspireing! I Hired Daesup after seeing his short film Painting day and thought it would be a great addition to the Fest.

Next Up was {Frankenbulb} this was a 2d film that is a work in progress...and was done by a very close friend and fellow animator of 7 years. It was very cool to see his pencil tests projected So HUGE . I also think its a peek inside of the process for so many people in attendance who dont know much about animation.

Dorky Dad was up next....Now this is a CG film i did a very long time ago. I was nervous to show it due to haveing grown so very much as an animator since its creation.....but as soon as I heard the little kids laughing in the audiance I knew nothing else really mattered. The little monkeys were giggleing and I was smileing wide.

OK....so here we are ....GLD loads up....to a HUGE ROUND OF APPLAUSE!!! Goosebumps!!!!upon Goosebumps Im leaning into shel and shes got a hand on my knee.
Here we go. The film starts and people are watching deep. Ok so this is where your spidey sences kick into HIGH GEAR!!!. As a film maker your ears are attached to every noise, breath and energy particle in the air. You have 3 years of HARD WORK AND PASSION on the screen for others to like or dislike. There is no BULLSHIT in an audiance. They will respond or not to a moment on the screen...the truth is in the reactions.

The film plays and ...........They Liked it...They Really Liked it! It ends with a HUGE APPLAUSE!! and WE WERE THRILLED!!!!

Wow......after a BUEATIFULL score alongside the credits{Thanks again Robert!!} we headed to the doors to greet people as they left. This was a really cool moment as well. I got to see the faces of all the people in attendance and so many of them said they were moved. They said they were brought too tears or they Loved the film. Jeeezzz!! Man o man!!

This was my goal from the very begining of this project guys. I wanted to take this lifeless lump of clay and latex and tell a story that made people believe it was liveing and breatheing. I wanted the story to have HEART and draw the audiance in.
I do believe shel and myself DID IT!! I am very proud of what we did here and I am looking so forward to makeing a life of animation and storytelling with her.

This experiance was really special and I was truly moved By all the people comeing out to attend the premiere. After such a long time in production and expecatations set very high from friends and family ....the successfull showing was an incredible reward.....
We thank you all so much for shareing a DREAM COME TRUE !!!

P.S. My kids all gave me the " thumbs up " on the evening. They were actually i think impressed to see it all come together.

Quotes from my kids -

Nicky - {my oldest son and probably Hardest critic}
"It was good" "Way better than I thought it was gona be" with eyebrows raised and serious face

Shamus - {our other teenage son} "That was good man" "Nice work "

Aedon - {My littlest Monkey} "That was good Daddy"
jriggity