As the French say...Incredible' !

A Happy Thanksgiving to any and all reading this. Tonight, long after the feasting was done, my brother Dan, Rob and Cara, and myself, all went to the movies. (After a botched attempt to try and get coffee at Dunkin Donuts...who knew they were closed?)

So, we ended up at the only thing (aside from Walmart) that WAS open, the movies. We saw the Incredibles, and I can't rave about it enough. I LOVED it. So good, so funny, just an all around great flick. Very enjoyable. The voiceover cast was so perfect...the pun, i'm sure is way overused...but it truly was Incredible.

Sleep sounds so good

2:20am.

Just got back home from the Ithaca screening. So very tired. Heard some good things from a few people after the show. Many didn't stick around to chat or ask questions afterwards, though, so a little hard to gauge.

Very much looking forward to some sleep.

Oh what a night

It's done. Came and went. I can't believe November 12th snuck up on me so quickly.

The premiere went fine. All my worries of total chaos...out the window. We got started a few minutes late...with only one small snare at the beginning, which was corrected before the actual film started, so the only thing missed was the CYB logo at the beginning. No biggie. Other than a few frames that dropped from the film in one scene, everything ran smoothly. And I was very very pleased.

We had an extrmely large crowd. I think it was roughly around 250 people. It's definitely the biggest audience we've ever had in one room at one time. I think the crowd was split probably 75 / 25 percent in terms of liking /disliking. Most people really seemed to dig it. Others just didn't get it, or understand any of the symbolims, themes, and representations that the story was preseting. I also think it was a little darker of a story than some were looking for. So, not everyone's cup of tea. That, by no means judges it's success rate. I loved it. I'm still so incredibly proud of it. As Steve Perry (of Journey) would say: "If you like it, great. If not, that's ok too."

It was also wonderful to see so many people from the cast in town for that night. Naturally, Tom, Rob, Melissa, Bill, Alex, Bob, my brother, etc, but Rossi made it into town (with a little longer hair no less), as did Jon, Joe, Missi, and Lexie, among many others. It was just so great to have everyone in a room together again...it felt like a class reunion, so to speak.

Festival season doesn't start til' January, but we'll definitely just keep getting submissions out there, and continuing to do college screenings to keep us busy until the festivals start making announcements.

Fun times. A wonderful night.

This week: Acting in a short film Alex is putting together, a screening at Ithaca, a Q & A session, and recording one (of a few) commentary track for the eventual DVD.

Tomorrow's the day...

Everything goes down tomorrow.

Interviews yesterday went very well. The 97.9 one was great. Linda Rae and Kookenbacher (the hosts) made it feel very comfortable...a good repor' (sp?), fun times. After that, did one for another radio station (that i can't think of) with a guy named Greg McShae. That one was a little shorter than the 97.9 one, but still fun (and he brought up Ed Wood! One of my favorites...go figure!) After that I spent three hours doing the interview for the Syracuse magazine/supplement thing for January. Went really really well. Very in depth. Should be pretty great. Hopefully i'll be able to get those radio interviews up on the site soon.

The Utica Observer-Dispatch ran an article this morning. Some nice stills from the movie, and THANK GOD, they used a photo other than the file photo from Detour. God bless that Jessica Ryen! A great article. So very very thankful.

So much to get ready for tomorrow. Then the world sees "...Whately" for the first time.

So hoping it goes well. We shall see...

"Speak"

I just finished "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson. Absolutely incredible from beginning to end. I definitely need to find out if this woman has written anything else, and get my hands on it. Amazing.

the week ahead and a good book

Well, now that i've gotten over my days long depression of the election results, it'll hopefully be a pretty productive week ahead. The obvious festivities of Friday evening, of course, with the premiere coming around, but everything leading up to it as well.

An interview sometime this week with the Utica Observer-Dispatch. And, hopefully a new photo! (Cuz I really don't want to have to live down the "wacky" photo from the Detour article in 2002. That damn photo will haunt me til' I die. I can see it now..."Tragedy today as a local filmmaker died in a plane crash..."-insert wacky file photo)

Interview wednesday morning with 97.9 Kiss FM in Utica. The 8am morning show with Linda Rae and Kookenbacher (though i probably spelled that so completely wrong.) Should be a lot of fun. Also that morning an interview for a Syracuse paper for sometime in January (just in time for our Rochester screening on Feburary 15th. Not gonna run til' January, but still, awesome nonetheless. I love this stuff!! (Look at me, i'm a mature 5 years old ;) )

Almost done with an incredible book that Melissa recommended to me. "Speak". It's so good. It should be required reading in high schools, as far as I'm concerned. I haven't read anything in a very very long time that so accurately depicted the voice and real feelings of high school. I can't recommend it enough.

Yeah, so that's all i got.

Giving it a try

I never knew what a "blog" was until these past 5 minutes that i set this up. I have not yet decided if it's any different than a message board (which we already have on the site and may prompt people to say "Dellecese, why do you have both?" To Those people i say: "I don't know.")

If this blog-trend continues, I think it will probably lend itself to more personal, inside thoughts, info, etc, on events, projects, and the overall process of things. We'll see how it goes.

We are one week away from the World Premiere of The Death of Daniel Whately. It should be a blast. Very much looking forward to it.

Sadly, there is one person who can not be with us for this celebration. This week we lost someone who not only was a huge supporter of CYB Productions from its very inception, but was a mentor, teacher, and above all else, a friend to me for many years. Bill Parker. Bill was an audio-visual technician who took me under his wing when I was in high school and gave me the foundations of my education in film/tv and editing. He's watched me evolve from some high school kid with a bunch of footage shot on a home video camera to the filmmaker and person I am today. He taught me to never allow myself to be hindered by lack of funding, equipment, technology, or resources, but to use those limitations in a unique and unexpected way...that the only limits were not monetary...but one's imagination. It is a lesson that has and will continue to serve me well over the years. Those of you who did not have the privelage of knowing Bill would recognize him in the few cameos he graciously did as the older man in the bar in Detour, as well as the voice of Kyle's Dad, along with the Strip Club Manager in the upcoming "Whately". He was a wonderful man who had a wicked and sarcastic sense of humor that always made it that much more fun to learn from him or just to chat with him.

Bill was very much looking forward to the premiere, and was so incredibly proud of how far we had come when I showed him a few rough cut scenes from the film. He couldn't wait to see the final product.

He touched many people's lives, and will never be forgotten. He will, however, very much be missed.