Hey ya’ll!

Well if you read my last post you already know we won the Brown Jenkin award at the HP Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland! It was such an incredible honor for the EBM10 class and I’m glad we got to share it together!

So the day started off normally enough, the boys took off for breakfast while I stayed behind to blog << I’m a super thrilling vacation partner when I have a vested interest in the internet **note to self leave laptop at home when going on my grad trip**

*as you can see, this is a recurring thing for me, this is a trip I was on in Cali last year*

Then Nadeem and I headed out to the mall — Lloyd Centre — where we got our shopping on at some stores we just don’t have in Canada like Ross, Barnes & Noble, Fredericks, Hot Topic… etc. and scored some pretty sweet deals! (I got a Juicy Couture purse for $90 instead of $175, all and all a very very good trip.)

And to finish off our afternoon, we decided to go see the Social Network — my second Facebook related movie in a week :S Gah. but I actually really enjoyed this one!  I thought that the portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg was pretty far off (as a TMZ addict, I’ve seen him in videos several times) but given that it’s a screen play, the way they personified him was spot on and made for a really interesting story.  Not to mention that Justin Timberlake was a pleasant surprise playing uber douchebag Shawn Parker (who apparently has a penchant for underaged girls, creepo).   He played the role very well and shocked both Nadeem and I.  Oh and Brenda Song — as the crazy girlfriend, very very well done! Haha. At least a 4/5*.

Anyhow, enough about my shopping and movie watching, and onto the important stuff! We went back to the hotel to meet the boys who were in the process of eating a 4 meat sandwich(seriously), and then we went back over to the festival!

We got there at 7, checked into the theatre our films were playing in and then stepped out to talk with the festival’s director Andrew Migliore.  He was such pleasure to be around, incredibly dedicated to the festival, and although he is stepping down as director this year, (after an astonishing 15 year run) you know he will be the anchor of the festival for years to come.  He introduced us to several people over the weekend, and we can’t thank him enough for everything he did for us!

We then met a local Portland artist by the name of Lee Moyer.  On top of the free Buffy pin, he delivered some of the best news … ever.  Since our film has been an official selection (and an award winner no less) at a film festival, I’m eligible for Professional Entrance at Comicon next year! He said I should look into it ASAP but it could be a great opportunity for me to go down to Comicon and check everything out! So that’s next on my to-do list!  (If I do get to go, I’m going to need someone to help me fashion a Batman-fangirl type costume! Think Harajuku meets Gotham City.)  He also showed us some of his artwork, and I must tell you, he’s very very talented!  He told us about how he worked at the Smithsonian in Native American anthropology, drawing and painting.  He’s currently working on a pin-up alphabet book, where he plans on featuring pin-ups of different races — which never happens — so look forward to that!

After we finished talking to him, it was time for the Filmmaker Q&A! What a thrill to get to come up on stage and answer audience questions about your film.  They asked us about some of our favorite moments, what (if anything) we wished we could have done, and our biggest challenges.  I loved seeing the fans in the audience, so impassioned by Lovecraft (it totally reminded me of myself attending anything in Disneyland, or Disney related).  Then we headed into the main theatre to watch the awards ceremony…

We took our seats and watched the place fill up, and as Andrew announced the first winner of the Brown Jenkin award, the smiles on our faces grew from ear to ear.  We knew we had won when we heard him talk about the amount of submissions he got from one group alone!  We proudly made our way to the front of the stage where Nadeem accepted the award on our behalf (always the eloquent speaker — much more than I can say about myself!).  We posed for pictures and got a standing ovation … I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging here cause that’s not the point, but it was seriously… moving, humbling, amazing, etc.  To know that you created something that so many people take enjoyment in.. that’s why we all got into this industry in the first place, and I would not trade that experience for the world.

So as the evening rounded off, we said our goodbyes to Andrew, his lovely wife Linda, our festival liaison Greg, and all of the other friends we had made over the course of the weekend.  I can’t stress enough about how nice everyone was in Portland and at the festival, they made us feel really welcome the entire time, and each of them had great stories!  I would honestly love to go back next year, as a filmmaker or as a viewer, let’s be honest, Portland is only 6 hours away, and I still never made my way to VooDoo Donuts!

So then it was back to the hotel, followed by a celebratory dinner of fish n chips before sailing off to slumberland, and back to Vancouver in the morning.

So all and all, it was a seriously amazing time, and I’d like to thank everyone involved for getting us there, everyone there for making it such a great first festival experience, and I hope that this is just the first of many! (and that Sandra will be in attendance for the next one, she’s the best co-producer & friend, and a generally awesome girl!)

Thanks for readin’ ya’ll!

P.♥

Ps. Thanks for getting me to 1,001 hits as I wrote this post.  An incredible feeling and I can’t thank ya’ll enough.  (Stay tuned for posts every day this week! Including the explanation to the MHBobsledder name!)