BARE BONES - DAY 6 - WHEN LOVE WALKS IN... CON QUESO
Day 6... Grief may conquer them... Fear may ruin them... But everything changes on Day 6... or does it?!
The final day of screenings began with Brad and I giving our Secrets of No-Budget Filmmaking Seminar. It went well. We had a decent turnout of folks from a variety of production and non-production backgrounds and we had a lot of fun doing it. Matt was able to give some valuable input from his perspective as well.
We then went and had lunch at El Charro with Jim, an attorney from Tulsa, and Richard, an actor from Michigan (one that I'm up against for Best Actor from The Mongol King). It was a good time and good to get to know them a bit.
During the matinee of Venom (a short film about a psychiatrist counseling a killer with some awesome twists) my cel phone rang and Terri Moore told me she had arrived. So Brad and I left the film and went outside to meet her near the red carpet in front of the Roxy. It was great to see her and get caught up a bit.
Speaking of the Roxy... I spoke with a woman from Muskogee who told me that there used to be two theatres in town, the Roxy and the Ritz. The Ritz is long since gone, but she grew up going to the Ritz, because that was the white theatre. The Roxy was the black theatre, but if you were white and wanted to see something at the Roxy you always got the best seat in the house. It didn't work the other way around. Interesting history from a bygone era.
While Terri freshened up her hotel, the guys went and saw Ocean Front Property. Wow! What a great film, definately my favorite of the entire festival. I'm calling it "fantastically beautiful!" I think Joe Scott, the film's lead actor/director is a shoe-in for Best Actor. He did a fabulous job. This is one film I'm glad I traded a copy of When Love Walks In for.
I saw parts of The Mongol King and Echo: Fall of an Empire and some various shorts, before our 10:15 screening at the Civic Center. Speaking of shorts... J.P. Nickel's Grim was funny. The character Death (one of the riders of the apocalypse) decides he wants to settle down and get married.
The When Love Walks In screening was interesting to say the least. We had a very small audience, since most folks had seen it on Thursday, but the real kicker was that in the room next to us at the Civic Center they were having a massive Quinceanera. Now for those who don't know what a Quinceanera is, it's a Mexican girls coming-of-age party. When she turns fifteen every friend, relative, neighbor, acquaintance, etc. within a three-day drive shows up to party the night away... we're talking Fiesta Grande! And they did it last night... in the room right next to ours.
Our wall was literally vibrating from the larger than life open-holed guitars and tex-mex accordions blaring through the stack of speakers they had. To give you an idea as to the size of the event, the Muskogee Police Department had four squad cars out front with officers inside and out trying to stabilize the situation. I'm not joking.
Back in our screening room, our quaint little film is trying desperately to be heard, but every time it gets to a quiet part in the movie you hear Salsa or Tejano music pumping through the wall. I leaned over to Matt and referring to characters in the film I whispered, "I never knew that both John and Anna lived in the Bario!" It did give us a sense of what the film would've been like if we would have set it south of the border. OH MY!!! When Love Walks In Bell Grande!
It finally ended and with even the nightmare-of-all-nightmare screening rooms we seemed to connect with the audience. More strong feedback... and not just the kind blaring from the speakers at the Quinceanera.
The final day of screenings began with Brad and I giving our Secrets of No-Budget Filmmaking Seminar. It went well. We had a decent turnout of folks from a variety of production and non-production backgrounds and we had a lot of fun doing it. Matt was able to give some valuable input from his perspective as well.
We then went and had lunch at El Charro with Jim, an attorney from Tulsa, and Richard, an actor from Michigan (one that I'm up against for Best Actor from The Mongol King). It was a good time and good to get to know them a bit.
During the matinee of Venom (a short film about a psychiatrist counseling a killer with some awesome twists) my cel phone rang and Terri Moore told me she had arrived. So Brad and I left the film and went outside to meet her near the red carpet in front of the Roxy. It was great to see her and get caught up a bit.
Speaking of the Roxy... I spoke with a woman from Muskogee who told me that there used to be two theatres in town, the Roxy and the Ritz. The Ritz is long since gone, but she grew up going to the Ritz, because that was the white theatre. The Roxy was the black theatre, but if you were white and wanted to see something at the Roxy you always got the best seat in the house. It didn't work the other way around. Interesting history from a bygone era.
While Terri freshened up her hotel, the guys went and saw Ocean Front Property. Wow! What a great film, definately my favorite of the entire festival. I'm calling it "fantastically beautiful!" I think Joe Scott, the film's lead actor/director is a shoe-in for Best Actor. He did a fabulous job. This is one film I'm glad I traded a copy of When Love Walks In for.
I saw parts of The Mongol King and Echo: Fall of an Empire and some various shorts, before our 10:15 screening at the Civic Center. Speaking of shorts... J.P. Nickel's Grim was funny. The character Death (one of the riders of the apocalypse) decides he wants to settle down and get married.
The When Love Walks In screening was interesting to say the least. We had a very small audience, since most folks had seen it on Thursday, but the real kicker was that in the room next to us at the Civic Center they were having a massive Quinceanera. Now for those who don't know what a Quinceanera is, it's a Mexican girls coming-of-age party. When she turns fifteen every friend, relative, neighbor, acquaintance, etc. within a three-day drive shows up to party the night away... we're talking Fiesta Grande! And they did it last night... in the room right next to ours.
Our wall was literally vibrating from the larger than life open-holed guitars and tex-mex accordions blaring through the stack of speakers they had. To give you an idea as to the size of the event, the Muskogee Police Department had four squad cars out front with officers inside and out trying to stabilize the situation. I'm not joking.
Back in our screening room, our quaint little film is trying desperately to be heard, but every time it gets to a quiet part in the movie you hear Salsa or Tejano music pumping through the wall. I leaned over to Matt and referring to characters in the film I whispered, "I never knew that both John and Anna lived in the Bario!" It did give us a sense of what the film would've been like if we would have set it south of the border. OH MY!!! When Love Walks In Bell Grande!
It finally ended and with even the nightmare-of-all-nightmare screening rooms we seemed to connect with the audience. More strong feedback... and not just the kind blaring from the speakers at the Quinceanera.
2 Comments:
It is true that Muskogee had a Roxy Cinema for blacks, but it is not the Roxy located at 220 Okmulgee St. A vintage photo of the black ROXY can be viewed on Library of Congress photograph archive pages. Other theatres in Muskogee (Ritz, Broadway, Roxy) can be seen at the Cinema Tour web page.
Harley -
Please post the links to the both the Library of Congress archive photo of the Roxy and the Cinema Tour web page.
Thanks.
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