John Cassavetes says it all.

We love this clip of John talking about audiences and film. He had such great mannerisms.

Cinequest in pictures...

So Cinequest has come and gone. We had a ton of fun and met a lot of great people. "Billy Was a Deaf Kid" got a lot of great reviews and some not-so-great ones. There were honestly some people who said Billy changed their lives. Even I'll admit that the more times I watch it the more and more I get out of it...and the more I understand things about my own life.

After Cinequest I thought back to when we first screened Billy to test audiences and the mixed reviews we got. What's interesting is some of the people who have hated it, hated it because of how some of the characters acted...and that's interesting because we based a lot of the conversation and characters off of these people who hate it. It's funny that when people see themselves from a 3rd person perspective they don't even realize that they're looking at themselves. They think they're watching someone who is oppressive, mean, and has no likable quality to them....when really they are seeing certain aspects of their real life and they won't accept that, either consciously or subconsciously. It just goes to show that people aren't aware of who they really are. People look at movies like "the Bourne Identity" and think "I'm a lot like Jason Bourne" or they think they're Leo Decaprio in "Titanic" or Keira Nightly in "Pride and Prejudice." When really we're not these always-perfect, never-a-dull-moment, get-along-great, happily-ever-after people...in fact, we're all less than perfect and that is what keeps us human. How many of us snap, for no reason, snap at the people we care about most? Are the majority of our arguments based on things worth arguing about? Or are they usually based on superficial things that if you stopped for a second and breathed in you'd wonder why you started arguing in the first place? I'm willing to bet it's almost always the latter.

There's quote at the end of the flick that I think sums up peoples reaction better than it sums up the movie:

"I used to have a girlfriend that thought I was the funniest man alive.
Whenever I went out with her and thought I was being romantic and
dashing, she simply used to roar with laughter - at everything I said and did.

This taught me a very basic, necessary lesson: that we really aren't
ourselves, and the impression we make on people is often the direct
opposite of the one we intended."

John Cassavetes


So there you go.

Burke.

Here are some of my fave pics we took during the festival:

Microphone Thief.

During shooting one night out on the street, we set Billy's microphone down for a minute as we adjusted some of our lights. A few minutes later we went back to retrieve said microphone and soon realized it was no where to be found. We thought at first we had just misplaced it, but after searching all of our cars, street blocks and houses we realized some poor soul had stolen it.

The economy must be worse than we thought. It's forcing people to steal toy microphones off the street.



Now, it wasn't just your run-of-the-mill microphone. It was a vintage 1984 Fisher Price Karaoke/Microphone. We searched and searched online for one, but had no luck. So, Rhett being the mad artist that he is, set to work on building a replica out of paper mache and foam.





It took him about 2 days, and a ton of patience, but we're confident no one will be able to tell which is which in the film.

Hopefully the dude that stole it in first places rots with guilt. Or at the very least, goes to see the film.

Rib-Tickling.

I don't know why Burke and I are into these weird things we find on the InterWeb.  But, they are funny as crap.  And we all know crap is funny.

This is the Immersion Scarf.  For any of you that have hard time seeing your phone or ipod in the daylight, this little nugget should be yours.  It's essentially a sock that goes on your head, and you put your said phone or ipod in the end of it.  Now, you can enjoy your devices free of that annoying sunshine. 

New T-Shirt protects you from a knife attack. 

You may now never have to worry about getting stabbed in the back as you walk down the street.  Supposedly these shirts are made from "slightly thick fibers that are more than three times the strength of cotton."  Impressive.  They say it's comparable to body armor that your local police task force uses.  

You can even toss it in the wash to get off the blood, after you kicked the trash of your would be attacker.

Bullet Proof Bed and Cinequest 19.

Do you need protection from bio-chemical terrorists attacks? How about natural disasters? Kidnappers and stalkers? Or would you just feel safer sleeping in a bulletproof bed?

If you answered yes to any of the aforementioned questions, you need the oh-so-versatile Quantum Sleeper. Not for the claustrophobic or light of check book, this $160,000 coffin-esque "saferoom" does not include the optional microwave, fridge or entertainment center.  Although it does include a "toiletry system."  I'm not sure how that one would work.

All of you seriously need to check out their website www.qsleeper.com.  It is knee-slapping hilarious.

I'm hoping they give us some kind of endorsement.

In other news, we are really stoked for the Cinequest Film Festival coming up later this month. After talking back and forth with quite a few other festivals, we decided to have our world be premiere at Cinequest 19! Mike Rabehl, the director of the festival, and the rest of the staff have been wonderful to work with. They've gotten behind our film 100%. It's going to be a blast.

So, we're going to buy a couple of Quantum Sleepers so nothing bad happens to us before the fest. We can't take any chances here in Utah.

Rhett