Monday, August 14, 2006

The Premier

Wow. What a day.

I don't even know where to begin.

Nervous energy prevented me from getting much sleep last night, so I'm running on fumes as I type this.





We got to Classic Fairways fairly easily, only making one wrong turn along the way. As soon as I got there, the meeting and greeting began. I said hello to everyone in Larry's group I had met before as well as those I hadn't, which was a bit odd, I've seen their films so many times I wasn't 100% sure whether or not I had met a few of them.




The place itself was really nice. Lots of space, really clean, big couches, a bar, and a bunch of enormous projection screens all around.

Shortly after 6 PM, the show began. Larry said a few words and The Losers Have a Junkyard started playing on all the screens.
The hard work put into Losers wasn't hard to see, Larry and his crew should be proud of themselves. The atmosphere, the music, every bit of it made for a really cool and fun short film.


Next up was Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face. Larry started to introduce it, I could hear him on the microphone, but I couldn't see him. I leaned over and whispered to Mom, "Where is he?"
She responded by pointing, behind me. I spun around and he was right there. Before I knew it, I had the mic and I was rambling off my thoughts on the cartoon. Considering I hate public speaking, I think I did alright on the mic, except I didn't have time to position myself, so I sort of had my back to most of the audience. Ah well, let's just say it was an artist's eccentricity.
After a brief hunt for the remote control, Batman began on the screens.
That was a very surreal moment. The project created entirely on my little 13" laptop was now being projected onto giant screens in every direction in front of over 100 people. And the people were loving it. They were laughing at all the right places, some even had tears in their eyes from laughing. The laughter was followed by applause, which was interrupted by the last joke during the credits, which was followed by more applause.
That was such a rush and absolutely worth all of the work.



The cast of Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face

After that, Larry had all of the other films playing. Zombies in My Neighborhood, Nintendo: OldSchool Revolution, Real Men of the Mat, The Eyeball Papercuts, and Tootsie Blow Pop along with some behind the scenes stuff and deleted clips.



Another surreal moment was watching the Johnny McCocky skit from Eyeball Papercuts with Andy Larsen, Johnny McCocky himself, standing 5 feet away.



In the hour or so following Batman, I said "Thank you" more than I ever have before. People kept congratulating me and saying how much they enjoyed the cartoon. What really caught me off guard was when people would introduce themselves as fans of my work.



I really don't even feel like I've done that much yet. I haven't even been doing this for a full year yet and I have fans? Cool!


Surrounding me from left to right- Allan Derby, Aaron Longstreth, Larry Longstreth, Clint George, and Vince Bruno

What a crazy and awesome day. I want to thank Larry again for bringing me into all of this wonderful madness. I also want to that everyone who came out to support us and see what we've been working on, I hope you all enjoyed myself.

The films should be online sometime tomorrow.

Now I'm gonna go kick back and relax.

PS- Sorry about the dark pictures, I'm looking into getting a new camera.

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