June 29, 2007
We have just returned from a three-day visit to Seattle, where we didn't get a lot of sleep but had the BEST time, thanks to our amazing hosts Judy and John Schneider and Mindy and Mitch Leflfer. Mindy and Mitch are parents(and Judy and John are grandparents) to Aidan Leffler, the smartest and most adorable almost-four-year old we know. You'll hear more about him later.
On Monday, we arrived in Seattle from Minneapolis/St. Paul. Our flight was way too early in the morning, and we got there feeling exhausted and famished. Mindy met us at the airport and whisked us off to her parents' house where there was a huge spread of cold cuts waiting for us (free lunch!). After getting settled in--the Schneiders also gave all six of us a place to sleep (although, again, we didn't do too much of that)--and really made us feel at home. Before we knew it, it was dinner time, and Judy and John were cooking clams and shrimp kabobs on the girll. Not only that, we also had Copper River Salmon, which is a HUGE deal in the Pacific Northwest..."like fine wine," everybody said. We agree!!!
Tuesday morning, we woke up to a full breakfast and--get this--a $50 bill at each of our plates to go spend at Seattle's famous Pike Place Market! Mindy handed us the keys to her and Mitch's van, and we spent the day having a blast exploring the city. Tuesday evening, we had our first DGW private screening/Charley's Fund benefit. This event took place at the Sammmamish High School Performing Arts Theater in Bellevue Washington. What a lively crowd and a great Q&A!
After a night of celebrating the success of our first screening, we had more fun in store for us on Wednesday. The Schneiders took us out on their boat for a private cruise of Puget Sound. The weather was perfect, and it was awesome!
Throughout our stay, we had been hanging out--and bonding big time--with Aidan, who has DMD. He was such a trip...one night, he begged Jason to sleep in his room with him. Anyway, Wednesday night was the big private screening/Charley's Fund benefit at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. Tickets were $75 per person, and it began with a reception that featured incredible hors d'oeuvres, drinks, and desserts, followed by the movie, followed by a Q&A. We were hoping to raise a lot of money at this event, and the good news was, an anonymous donor had agreed to match any donations we received up to $100,000!
The crowd was huge (almost 200 people), and they were laughing so loud during the movie (we love it when that happens). But the Q&A afterwards may have been our most memorable one to date, and that's because Aidan stole the show!
After the film ended, Mindy began to talk about donations to Charley's Fund before introducing the guys. While she was talking, the audience members began to chuckle. She was puzzled as she wasn't being particularly funny at that time. When she looked behind her, she noticed that Aidan was on the stage, had just pulled the mic off the stand and was putting it into his shirt pocket. (Sam had suggested to Aidan's Uncle David that Aidan should be the one to introduce the guys.)
She asked him what he was doing and he replied, "I want to talk in the mic." Aidan then stood beside Mindy and as each DGW crew member came up, he said their name loudly into the mic. It took some coaxing to get him off the stage so the guys could talk. Playing with legos in the foyer finally did the trick.
From the comments of people as they left the theater, this spontaneous moment made a wonderful finale to the celebratory evening.
Final tallies are not in yet, but we're almost positive that we raised at least $150,000 for Charley's Fund and DMD research!!!
And we think Aidan deserves all the credit!
Know about it!
P.S. We have posted new pictures from Minnesota and hope to have shots from Seattle up soon.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
OUR 20TH LAUREL LEAF!
June 25, 2007
On the road again...that's where we are. At least six of us are: Logan, Ben, Daniel, Sam, Tbarn, and Jason.
We've just spent an amazing weekend in Minneapolis/St. Paul at the Solstice Film Festival. DGW was the closing film (a huge honor) and didn't screen until Sunday, so we spent most of Saturday exploring the city. HUGE DGW fan Justin Bell (a former soccer teammate of Logan's from Atlanta), who has been talking about joining us at a festival since our screening in Atlanta, flew up to be our "13th crew member!" An architect, he was a great tour guide as we explored buildings and museums in the area. We also took a boat ride and had the best ice cream ever at The Grand Ole Creamery (owned by Tbarn's friend, Heather Hoffman). If you're ever in Minneapolis/St. Paul, you gotta go..and be sure to get the Cinnamon Toast ice cream. We did...twice! Yum!
On Friday night, filmmaker Ali Selim and his family hosted an awesome cookout in our honor. He invited a lot of local filmmakers, and we had the best time. Logan even played the piano! Check out Ali's incredible movie, Sweet Land, which many of us saw (and loved!) in London. It will be available on DVD and on NetFlix in early July.
While in Minneapolis/St. Paul, we were treated to top-of-the-line lodging, compliments of Jane Minton of IFP and the Radisson. For the first time ever, we each had our own bed!!!
Our screening last night went extremely well. We had a great audience, and it was one of our best Q&As ever. Also, we won the Best Documentary award---that makes 20 laurel leaves!!!
Other news: our webmaster, Kelly Rodgers married Pat Douglas last weekend. We send her and her awesome daughters (Ashley and Madison) huge congrats!
Finally, SAVE THE DATE! July 22, is our second annual Darius Goes West Day in Athens, and we are making lots of plans. For starters, we will be showing the movie at least twice at Athens' Cine Theatre (downtown Athens) for free (we'll be accepting donations for Charley's Fund, of course). There are other surprises in store as well, so keep checking back.
We are in Seattle now, where there are two private screenings/Charley's Fund benefits on Tuesday and Wednesday night. If you have friends or family in this area, please send them our way!
Know about it!
On the road again...that's where we are. At least six of us are: Logan, Ben, Daniel, Sam, Tbarn, and Jason.
We've just spent an amazing weekend in Minneapolis/St. Paul at the Solstice Film Festival. DGW was the closing film (a huge honor) and didn't screen until Sunday, so we spent most of Saturday exploring the city. HUGE DGW fan Justin Bell (a former soccer teammate of Logan's from Atlanta), who has been talking about joining us at a festival since our screening in Atlanta, flew up to be our "13th crew member!" An architect, he was a great tour guide as we explored buildings and museums in the area. We also took a boat ride and had the best ice cream ever at The Grand Ole Creamery (owned by Tbarn's friend, Heather Hoffman). If you're ever in Minneapolis/St. Paul, you gotta go..and be sure to get the Cinnamon Toast ice cream. We did...twice! Yum!
On Friday night, filmmaker Ali Selim and his family hosted an awesome cookout in our honor. He invited a lot of local filmmakers, and we had the best time. Logan even played the piano! Check out Ali's incredible movie, Sweet Land, which many of us saw (and loved!) in London. It will be available on DVD and on NetFlix in early July.
While in Minneapolis/St. Paul, we were treated to top-of-the-line lodging, compliments of Jane Minton of IFP and the Radisson. For the first time ever, we each had our own bed!!!
Our screening last night went extremely well. We had a great audience, and it was one of our best Q&As ever. Also, we won the Best Documentary award---that makes 20 laurel leaves!!!
Other news: our webmaster, Kelly Rodgers married Pat Douglas last weekend. We send her and her awesome daughters (Ashley and Madison) huge congrats!
Finally, SAVE THE DATE! July 22, is our second annual Darius Goes West Day in Athens, and we are making lots of plans. For starters, we will be showing the movie at least twice at Athens' Cine Theatre (downtown Athens) for free (we'll be accepting donations for Charley's Fund, of course). There are other surprises in store as well, so keep checking back.
We are in Seattle now, where there are two private screenings/Charley's Fund benefits on Tuesday and Wednesday night. If you have friends or family in this area, please send them our way!
Know about it!
Friday, June 15, 2007
WE HAVE THE MOST AWESOME NEWS!
June 15, 2007
KIDS LOVE DARIUS GOES WEST! That fact first became obvious to us during our world premiere at the Santa Barbara Inernational Film Festival. There, we were interviewed by a middle school journalism class. These students not only gave our movie glowing reviews, they also sent us e-mails, and begged for DGW t-shirts. Even after we left Santa Barbara, DGW fever continued. Earlier this month, students at Santa Barbara Middle School took a week and a half bike ride using DGW as their theme. You can read all about it at:
http://web.mac.com/sbmsjourneys/iWeb/SBMS%20Journeys/HOME%20Movie.html
A couple of months after Santa Barbara, DGW screened at FilmSlam, a special program of the Cleveland Inernational Film Festival that is geared to high school students. Again, DGW was a huge hit, with one Q&A session lasting nearly three hours! Fan e-mails poured in from our young Cleveland supporters. DGW was also a hit with general audiences attending the regular festival in Cleveland. In fact, we won two Audience Choice Awards there, including The Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition.
Recognizing that students tend to be our most enthusiastic audiences, the DGW crew (five of whom are majoring in education...then there's Logan, who recently graduated with a degree in special education) began brainstorming ways to target this audience and motivate them to help us raise money to fight DMD. That's when we came up with the idea to create a DGW-in-the-Schools program. Our dream: to have as many middle and high school students as possible, nationwide, see our film, then encourage these students to organize fundraisers for Charley's Fund.
The problem was, we had no money to fund this program, which would require someone to direct it and someone to develop lots of materials to send to schools. NOW WE DO!!!!
After winning the Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition, we sent a copy of Darius Goes West to Greg's mom, Theo Gund. She fell in love with the film (she's now seen it 10 times!), and when she heard that we were trying to get it seen at schools nationwide, she proposed a meeting between "Team Darius," herself, and the multitalented staff of the Cleveland International Film Festival (Marcie Goodman, Patrick Shepherd, Bill Guentzler, Debby Samples, and Beth Radisek). Since the crew was scattered all over the globe (London, Michigan, Wyoming, Los Angeles), Logan's mom, Barbara Smalley, flew to Cleveland for this meeting last week and walked away with seed money from Theo Gund to fund this program! (We have posted pictures of our meeting on this site...check them out).
The program, which Logan has tapped Barbara to run, will officially launch in September of 2007. We already have 57 schools across the country begging to show DGW--and these are totally unsolicited requests (imagine what will happen once the word gets out!). Our intent is to package the DVD with lesson plans (in a variety of subjects) for teachers, as well as provide fundraising ideas for students .
We are incredibly grateful to Theo Gund for her generous gift, which will help us get the word out about DMD to an audience that we know will work as hard as we have at raising awareness of--and finding a cure for--DMD.
Keep in mind, though, that this is just seed money. We need additional donations to keep this program going strong. If you can make a donation, please send it to Charley's Fund (www.charleysfund.org) and ask them to earmark it for the DGW-in-the-Schools program. If you know of grants we could apply for, please contact Barbara at bssmalley@aol.com. And if you know of schools who may want to show our movie, please have them get in touch. We need you to help us spread the word!
We are so pumped about this program and hope you will be, too!
Know about it!
3:06 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
KIDS LOVE DARIUS GOES WEST! That fact first became obvious to us during our world premiere at the Santa Barbara Inernational Film Festival. There, we were interviewed by a middle school journalism class. These students not only gave our movie glowing reviews, they also sent us e-mails, and begged for DGW t-shirts. Even after we left Santa Barbara, DGW fever continued. Earlier this month, students at Santa Barbara Middle School took a week and a half bike ride using DGW as their theme. You can read all about it at:
http://web.mac.com/sbmsjourneys/iWeb/SBMS%20Journeys/HOME%20Movie.html
A couple of months after Santa Barbara, DGW screened at FilmSlam, a special program of the Cleveland Inernational Film Festival that is geared to high school students. Again, DGW was a huge hit, with one Q&A session lasting nearly three hours! Fan e-mails poured in from our young Cleveland supporters. DGW was also a hit with general audiences attending the regular festival in Cleveland. In fact, we won two Audience Choice Awards there, including The Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition.
Recognizing that students tend to be our most enthusiastic audiences, the DGW crew (five of whom are majoring in education...then there's Logan, who recently graduated with a degree in special education) began brainstorming ways to target this audience and motivate them to help us raise money to fight DMD. That's when we came up with the idea to create a DGW-in-the-Schools program. Our dream: to have as many middle and high school students as possible, nationwide, see our film, then encourage these students to organize fundraisers for Charley's Fund.
The problem was, we had no money to fund this program, which would require someone to direct it and someone to develop lots of materials to send to schools. NOW WE DO!!!!
After winning the Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition, we sent a copy of Darius Goes West to Greg's mom, Theo Gund. She fell in love with the film (she's now seen it 10 times!), and when she heard that we were trying to get it seen at schools nationwide, she proposed a meeting between "Team Darius," herself, and the multitalented staff of the Cleveland International Film Festival (Marcie Goodman, Patrick Shepherd, Bill Guentzler, Debby Samples, and Beth Radisek). Since the crew was scattered all over the globe (London, Michigan, Wyoming, Los Angeles), Logan's mom, Barbara Smalley, flew to Cleveland for this meeting last week and walked away with seed money from Theo Gund to fund this program! (We have posted pictures of our meeting on this site...check them out).
The program, which Logan has tapped Barbara to run, will officially launch in September of 2007. We already have 57 schools across the country begging to show DGW--and these are totally unsolicited requests (imagine what will happen once the word gets out!). Our intent is to package the DVD with lesson plans (in a variety of subjects) for teachers, as well as provide fundraising ideas for students .
We are incredibly grateful to Theo Gund for her generous gift, which will help us get the word out about DMD to an audience that we know will work as hard as we have at raising awareness of--and finding a cure for--DMD.
Keep in mind, though, that this is just seed money. We need additional donations to keep this program going strong. If you can make a donation, please send it to Charley's Fund (www.charleysfund.org) and ask them to earmark it for the DGW-in-the-Schools program. If you know of grants we could apply for, please contact Barbara at bssmalley@aol.com. And if you know of schools who may want to show our movie, please have them get in touch. We need you to help us spread the word!
We are so pumped about this program and hope you will be, too!
Know about it!
3:06 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
Friday, June 8, 2007
PINCH US, PLEASE!
June 8, 2007
There is so much great stuff going on with DGW this weekend! Here's the scoop...
Jason and Kevin are in Sagautuck, Michigan, at the Waterfront Film Festival, where DGW has two screenings (one on Saturday and one on Sunday). Collin and John Harmon are at the Jackson Hole Film Festival where DGW will also screen twice this weekend in the Tetons!
But the biggest news of all is that Darius and his mom, Jamie, along with Daniel, Andrew, Tbarn, and DGW friend Richard Hamel are in Hollywood to attend the world premiere of Evan Almighty (a sequel to Bruce Almighty)!!! There, they are expected to receive red carpet treatment before returning to Athens on Monday.
This all came about a couple of weeks ago when DGW screened to a packed house at the Mountainfilm Telluride film festival in, Colorado. In the house was Tom Shadyac, producer of Liar Liar, Ace Ventura, Patch Adams, Nutty Professor II, Bruce Almighty, and more. He liked our movie so much that he stood up at the Q&A and invited Darius, etc. to come to Hollywood on June 10 for the premiere of Evan Almighty. At first, the crew wasn't sure if he was serious about this invitation, plus they had planned to remain in Europe after their London premiere. But when the invite turned out to be for real, almost everyone decided to return home to take advantage of this amazing opportunity.
FYI: Shadyac not only paid for everyone's airline tickets, he is also putting Darius and his entourage up at the Hilton ("That place was so laid out…I mean, Paris Hilton's parents own it." Remember that line from the movie?). Sweet!
Another contact made in Telluride was director Charlie Ebersol, whose movie, Ihuteng (a film about despair in South Africa and a school that offers hope) was "discovered" last year by Tom Shadyac at the same festival. Thanks to Tom's efforts, Ihuteng was featured on Oprah and purchased by HBO. So, we're feeling very good about this connection
We promise to take pictures and post them when we get home.
Know about it!
There is so much great stuff going on with DGW this weekend! Here's the scoop...
Jason and Kevin are in Sagautuck, Michigan, at the Waterfront Film Festival, where DGW has two screenings (one on Saturday and one on Sunday). Collin and John Harmon are at the Jackson Hole Film Festival where DGW will also screen twice this weekend in the Tetons!
But the biggest news of all is that Darius and his mom, Jamie, along with Daniel, Andrew, Tbarn, and DGW friend Richard Hamel are in Hollywood to attend the world premiere of Evan Almighty (a sequel to Bruce Almighty)!!! There, they are expected to receive red carpet treatment before returning to Athens on Monday.
This all came about a couple of weeks ago when DGW screened to a packed house at the Mountainfilm Telluride film festival in, Colorado. In the house was Tom Shadyac, producer of Liar Liar, Ace Ventura, Patch Adams, Nutty Professor II, Bruce Almighty, and more. He liked our movie so much that he stood up at the Q&A and invited Darius, etc. to come to Hollywood on June 10 for the premiere of Evan Almighty. At first, the crew wasn't sure if he was serious about this invitation, plus they had planned to remain in Europe after their London premiere. But when the invite turned out to be for real, almost everyone decided to return home to take advantage of this amazing opportunity.
FYI: Shadyac not only paid for everyone's airline tickets, he is also putting Darius and his entourage up at the Hilton ("That place was so laid out…I mean, Paris Hilton's parents own it." Remember that line from the movie?). Sweet!
Another contact made in Telluride was director Charlie Ebersol, whose movie, Ihuteng (a film about despair in South Africa and a school that offers hope) was "discovered" last year by Tom Shadyac at the same festival. Thanks to Tom's efforts, Ihuteng was featured on Oprah and purchased by HBO. So, we're feeling very good about this connection
We promise to take pictures and post them when we get home.
Know about it!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
WE'VE BEEN BUSY!
June 5, 2007
Before we fill you in on what we've been up to, we need to let you know that "I am the 13th crew member" DGW t-shirts have been awarded to Allison Firor (Logan's co-editor) and Jarrard Cole (Logan's assistant editor). These two amazingly talented folks should have been at the top of our list and were "overlooked" only because they truly already ARE 13th crew members!!! Our film could never have been made without their tireless efforts.
Last weekend, several of us (Daniel, Tbarn, John Harmon, Sam, Ben, Collin, and Kevin) went to Colorado for the Mountainfilm Telluride Film Festival. We flew into Grand Junction late in the evening and had a 2.5 hour drive to Telluride. We weren't sure if we would make it in time for the Q&A of our one and only screening at this festival, but we walked into the theatre just as the closing credits were rolling. The place was packed, and the crowd was amazing! In the house was Tom Shadyac (Bruce Almighty, Patch Adams, Liar Liar, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, etc.) and Charlie Ebersol (Ithuteng), who both stood up and said how much they loved the film. In fact, Tom even announced that he wanted to fly Darius, his mom, and the entire crew out to Los Angeles in mid-June for the premiere of his new movie, Evan Almighty (with Steve Carrell) We are working on making that happen and will let you know if it does.
While in Telluride, we participated in the festival's "Next Step" program, which involved manning a booth and handing out Charley's Fund literature. The crowds were very receptive to our cause. Also, Tbarn and Daniel went extreme mountain biking, and Tbarn wiped out and almost went off the mountain!
This past weekend, Collin, Kevin, and John Harmon (all special education majors) went to Berkeley, California for the SuperFest International Disability Festival, where DGW won a Merit Award. The audiences there were amazing. DGW also screened at the Hoboken International Film Festival last weekend in New Jersey. Unfortunately, we got our acceptance to this festival too late to send any crew members. But we have received fan mail from audiences there who saw the film.
Right now, many of us are at the Declaration of Independence Film Festival in LONDON! Logan, Ben, Sam, Tbarn, Daniel and Andrew flew to the United Kingdom to represent DGW. Thank you Delta Airlines for the flights, and thank you Picadilly Backpackers (the coolest hostel ever) for providing us with free lodging.
The first thing we did when we arrived in London was go out for fish and chips (although Sam ordered barbecue chicken). Our first screening was a fundraising gala with proceeds split bteween Britain's Muscular Dystrophy Campaign (MDC) and Charley's Fund. This event attracted an awesome and enthusiastic crowd. The morning of the gala, we had a live radio interview on BBC Radio with the Breakfast With Joanne Show, which is huge over here. It went really well. After the gala, the MDC arranged to move us to free rooms at the Hilton for the remainder of our stay. Sweet! Today was our festival screening, which also went well.London loves DGW!
Before and in between our screenings, we've been doing a lot of sightseeing--and gotten hopelessly lost. One morning, we set out for Trafalgar Square and ended up at Buckingham Palace. We've also checked out the National Gallery, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey--plus on Sunday morning, we went to mass at St. Paul's Cathedral.
Logan brought his musical saw with him and has been playing it in Trafalgar Square. One morning, we climbed to the roof of our hostel and watched the sunrise. Later that night, we got to know some cool Swedish girls at a bagel shop, and we've been hanging out with them ever since (know about it!).
Oddly enough, while in London, we've seen some familiar faces. Ali Selim from Minnesota (who we met at the Cleveland International Film Festival) was there. His incredible film, Sweet Land, opened the Declaration of Independence Film Festival, and we'll be seeing him later this month at the Solstice Film Festival in Minneapolis. Also there was Max Ruston, who hosted us at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. And one day on the streets of London, we randomly ran into Lindsey Crouch from Oconee County! Go figure!
We're having a blast and promise to post pictures soon. Cheerio for now!
Know about it!
Before we fill you in on what we've been up to, we need to let you know that "I am the 13th crew member" DGW t-shirts have been awarded to Allison Firor (Logan's co-editor) and Jarrard Cole (Logan's assistant editor). These two amazingly talented folks should have been at the top of our list and were "overlooked" only because they truly already ARE 13th crew members!!! Our film could never have been made without their tireless efforts.
Last weekend, several of us (Daniel, Tbarn, John Harmon, Sam, Ben, Collin, and Kevin) went to Colorado for the Mountainfilm Telluride Film Festival. We flew into Grand Junction late in the evening and had a 2.5 hour drive to Telluride. We weren't sure if we would make it in time for the Q&A of our one and only screening at this festival, but we walked into the theatre just as the closing credits were rolling. The place was packed, and the crowd was amazing! In the house was Tom Shadyac (Bruce Almighty, Patch Adams, Liar Liar, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, etc.) and Charlie Ebersol (Ithuteng), who both stood up and said how much they loved the film. In fact, Tom even announced that he wanted to fly Darius, his mom, and the entire crew out to Los Angeles in mid-June for the premiere of his new movie, Evan Almighty (with Steve Carrell) We are working on making that happen and will let you know if it does.
While in Telluride, we participated in the festival's "Next Step" program, which involved manning a booth and handing out Charley's Fund literature. The crowds were very receptive to our cause. Also, Tbarn and Daniel went extreme mountain biking, and Tbarn wiped out and almost went off the mountain!
This past weekend, Collin, Kevin, and John Harmon (all special education majors) went to Berkeley, California for the SuperFest International Disability Festival, where DGW won a Merit Award. The audiences there were amazing. DGW also screened at the Hoboken International Film Festival last weekend in New Jersey. Unfortunately, we got our acceptance to this festival too late to send any crew members. But we have received fan mail from audiences there who saw the film.
Right now, many of us are at the Declaration of Independence Film Festival in LONDON! Logan, Ben, Sam, Tbarn, Daniel and Andrew flew to the United Kingdom to represent DGW. Thank you Delta Airlines for the flights, and thank you Picadilly Backpackers (the coolest hostel ever) for providing us with free lodging.
The first thing we did when we arrived in London was go out for fish and chips (although Sam ordered barbecue chicken). Our first screening was a fundraising gala with proceeds split bteween Britain's Muscular Dystrophy Campaign (MDC) and Charley's Fund. This event attracted an awesome and enthusiastic crowd. The morning of the gala, we had a live radio interview on BBC Radio with the Breakfast With Joanne Show, which is huge over here. It went really well. After the gala, the MDC arranged to move us to free rooms at the Hilton for the remainder of our stay. Sweet! Today was our festival screening, which also went well.London loves DGW!
Before and in between our screenings, we've been doing a lot of sightseeing--and gotten hopelessly lost. One morning, we set out for Trafalgar Square and ended up at Buckingham Palace. We've also checked out the National Gallery, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey--plus on Sunday morning, we went to mass at St. Paul's Cathedral.
Logan brought his musical saw with him and has been playing it in Trafalgar Square. One morning, we climbed to the roof of our hostel and watched the sunrise. Later that night, we got to know some cool Swedish girls at a bagel shop, and we've been hanging out with them ever since (know about it!).
Oddly enough, while in London, we've seen some familiar faces. Ali Selim from Minnesota (who we met at the Cleveland International Film Festival) was there. His incredible film, Sweet Land, opened the Declaration of Independence Film Festival, and we'll be seeing him later this month at the Solstice Film Festival in Minneapolis. Also there was Max Ruston, who hosted us at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. And one day on the streets of London, we randomly ran into Lindsey Crouch from Oconee County! Go figure!
We're having a blast and promise to post pictures soon. Cheerio for now!
Know about it!
Sunday, June 3, 2007
HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD!
June 13, 2007
We had a blast in Hollywood. We flew out on Delta last Friday with Darius and his mom, Jamie (it was her first flight ever). When we arrived in Los Angeles, we took a shuttle to the Hilton. The tab for our flights, hotel, and food were picked up by Tom Shadyac, producer of Evan Almighty. Once we arrived at the Hilton and started to unpack, however, we realized we didn't have Darius' suitcase. In fact, we had grabbed the wrong bag and ended up with a suitcase belonging to Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Roy Halladay (not exactly D's size!).Tbarn took a shuttle back to the airport, only to find that D's luggage was in San Diego. It took us a couple of days to straighten things out and get D's real clothes, but that didn't stop us from having fun.
Our first night there we mostly chilled and tried to catch up on our sleep, since most of us were jetlagged from getting home from London the day before. After a good night's rest, we took Darius to City Walk and hung out at the hotel. We also pigged out at a Bubba Gump's Seafood restaurant (see pictures)
Sunday was the big premiere. We walked the green (not red) carpet and flash bulbs were going off everywhere...we felt like real celebrities! Adam Sandler sat four rows in front of us. We LOVED the movie and highly recommend it. At the after-party, which was so cool, we saw Kevin Nealan and Steve Carrell. Tom Shadyac posed for pictures with us, and Darius gave him a signed copy of our press kit. Tom also introduced us to his agent and also to the producer of Surf's Up. Tom's assistant, Jordan, was awesome during this whole trip and really took care of us.
On Monday, we headed for the Los Angeles airport to return to Athens when the coolest thing happened. Some dude spotted Jamie and the rest of us wearing our DGW t-shirts and started talking to us. He was all excited because he was coming back from the Jackson Hole Film Fesitval where he had seen our movie (the audience there was amazing) and loved it. He also told us that we had just won two awards there: Audience Choice and Best Documentary! We finally pulled into Darius's drvieway at 3:00 AM on Tuesday. What an incredible adventure. Thank you, Tom, for an unforgettable weekend!
Audiences at the Waterfront Film Festival in Sagautuck, Michigan were also amazing. This was a non-competitive film festival, so no awards were given out, but this place was beautiful, and we made some great contacts, like festival cofounder, Rebecca Green of TicTock Studios.. Since arriving home, we have been getting fan e-mail and t-shirt orders from both Wyoming and Michigan.
Check out the pictures of our Hollywood experience and....
Know about it!
We had a blast in Hollywood. We flew out on Delta last Friday with Darius and his mom, Jamie (it was her first flight ever). When we arrived in Los Angeles, we took a shuttle to the Hilton. The tab for our flights, hotel, and food were picked up by Tom Shadyac, producer of Evan Almighty. Once we arrived at the Hilton and started to unpack, however, we realized we didn't have Darius' suitcase. In fact, we had grabbed the wrong bag and ended up with a suitcase belonging to Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Roy Halladay (not exactly D's size!).Tbarn took a shuttle back to the airport, only to find that D's luggage was in San Diego. It took us a couple of days to straighten things out and get D's real clothes, but that didn't stop us from having fun.
Our first night there we mostly chilled and tried to catch up on our sleep, since most of us were jetlagged from getting home from London the day before. After a good night's rest, we took Darius to City Walk and hung out at the hotel. We also pigged out at a Bubba Gump's Seafood restaurant (see pictures)
Sunday was the big premiere. We walked the green (not red) carpet and flash bulbs were going off everywhere...we felt like real celebrities! Adam Sandler sat four rows in front of us. We LOVED the movie and highly recommend it. At the after-party, which was so cool, we saw Kevin Nealan and Steve Carrell. Tom Shadyac posed for pictures with us, and Darius gave him a signed copy of our press kit. Tom also introduced us to his agent and also to the producer of Surf's Up. Tom's assistant, Jordan, was awesome during this whole trip and really took care of us.
On Monday, we headed for the Los Angeles airport to return to Athens when the coolest thing happened. Some dude spotted Jamie and the rest of us wearing our DGW t-shirts and started talking to us. He was all excited because he was coming back from the Jackson Hole Film Fesitval where he had seen our movie (the audience there was amazing) and loved it. He also told us that we had just won two awards there: Audience Choice and Best Documentary! We finally pulled into Darius's drvieway at 3:00 AM on Tuesday. What an incredible adventure. Thank you, Tom, for an unforgettable weekend!
Audiences at the Waterfront Film Festival in Sagautuck, Michigan were also amazing. This was a non-competitive film festival, so no awards were given out, but this place was beautiful, and we made some great contacts, like festival cofounder, Rebecca Green of TicTock Studios.. Since arriving home, we have been getting fan e-mail and t-shirt orders from both Wyoming and Michigan.
Check out the pictures of our Hollywood experience and....
Know about it!
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