GERALD'S LAST DAY WINS!

Shel here:

Just back from our very first film festival where we had a blast with Justin's little sister Jenna and hubby Chris......watching movies, bowling, riding bikes at midnight in the cold cold cold, hiking in the beautiful mountains, and WINNING the BEST ANIMATION award (!!!) at the Festivus Film Festival.

just being at the festival was so cool, the people were nice, the theaters funky and fun, the movies interesting......incredible to see the variety resulting when different people set out to make an animiated short. our block of shorts ran the range from dark and abstract stop mo to colorful psychodelic computer graffics; stories and points of views animated thru all sorts of mediums (GC, stop mo, 2d, even etch-a-sketch!).....very very cool.
(jenna and us in front of BUG theater)

and of course it was thrilling and scarey to see our film on the big screen with an audience of real peeps (rather than friends who love us). because justin and i are used to performing (me dance, him track & field), we found ourselves at odds with all the energy before the viewing....there was nothing we could DO! we had to just SIT with it and wait.....no stretch, or thought, or amount of "presence" was going to change our performance, no way to adapt to the moment.....what was done was done and we just had to sit there (trembling slightly) and see how it would be taken......

thankfully once the film started playing it felt like the audience was "in there" with gerald and his journey. we could tell by the chuckles and sighs that they were "getting it". they clapped when it was done.....enthusiasticly! such a relief.

then we went up and talked about it, answered some questions. that part was surprisingly more comfortable, now we could DO something at least.

one issue came up: during the end credits we realized that our credits are WAY, {embarrassingly} too long. it's silly that watching it at home it never dawned on us, but in a dark theater with the audience waiting for the next SHORT it's really apparent! it's a HUMBLING problem that we may just have to live with and chalk up to inexperience.....cuz we've already committed to our digibetas....it's bugging us both alot though.

the award is in the shape of a skull and is made out of HEAVY METAL and hangs on a heavy metal chain. very substantial....justin and i took turns wearing it (chilly on the neck in the denver night air!).

so all was well till the security guy x-raying bags at the airport said "who's bag is this?" uh, oh, here we go.....justin says "mine" and the guy's all: "nice necklace man!"
(that's chris back there all happy for us)

whew! nice necklace indeed!