Well, here we go with the first blog entry for
Loon. With many people asking for updates, I will use this blog site for more casual announcements, reports from Loon Screenings, and other odds and ends for all you "loon-atics" out there!
Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival
Loon screened Saturday April 19th at 2:30 CT! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a reasonable last-minute flight or afford the gas to drive there and back! Seemed like a great festival. There was a lot of publicity for the festival and some cool articles online. Check out our listing on the Twin Cities Daily Planet:
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/film-review/shorts/family-shorts.html
I was excited to see that we screened with another USC thesis film, "Borderline", by my friend Sam Lembeck. He actually did attend the screening, so I hope to hear from him soon regarding the details of how it went. For more information on the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival, check out their site here. Take a look at their impressive catalogue. Loon is listed under "the films" under "family shorts". Considering that the characters of Loon come from Minnesota, I am incredibly honored that our film could premier in Minneapolis!!
Fallbrook Film Festival
Kelly and I had the privilege to attend the Fallbrook Film Festival last weekend where Loon screened Saturday morning April 26 at the historic Mission Theater. Fallbrook is in inland northern San Diego county. We were treated to a cozy opening gala at the Fallbrook Art Center and got to sample wine from two local wineries. You can see pictures from the event here - under "Fallbrook Film Festival April 28". Each filmmaker received a Fallbrook hat, poster and two avocados! (Fallbrook is known as the avocado capital of the world).
Loon screened Saturday morning at 10 AM as part of a children's program. We were the last film to screen and unfortunately a good percentage of the audience left during and immediately following the lengthy animated feature that began the program. For more information on the Fallbrook Film Fesival, click here.
The same weekend as Fallbrook, we also attended the:
Newport Beach Film Festival
This was an incredible film festival! Taking place at the Fashion Island center, Loon screened twice in two separate programs in the comfy, commercial Edwards Island Cinemas.
Sunday April 27th we were in the program "Teen Shorts, Tween Shorts, on the Big Screen Shorts"
We had a great audience! Loon seemed to play very well with the young "tweenagers" - people laughed, gasped and someone even shouted "oh my gosh it's moving!" - when an inanimate object moves by itself -- this, by the way, was a tiny little detail that we included in one scene, that I thought no one would ever notice. I put it in there for the fun of it and I must say I was shocked that someone discovered it on a first viewing! Pretty cool. For those interested in making this discovery yourself, check out the scene when Carson and Amanda walk into the main room in the casa at night after their incident in the hallway. Fun, fun! Overall, I was really impressed with the other films that screened with Loon. We got to partake in a Question and Answer session following the program and discussed our inspirations, etc.
Wednesday April 30th I was back down in Newport for the second screening. This program was titled "Suspension of Disbelief Shorts". Again, we screened with some great films. I love listening to comments made by audience members during the screening. This time I heard someone behind me say, while the credits of Loon rolled on the screen, "All the USC films have been incredible!" Also, a teenage boy behind me was so impressed with the Amanda character (Lourdes Pantin). While the credits rolled he talked on and on about how he would love to meet her and how he hoped she was at the screening. Following the screening we again answered questions from the audience and this time discussed specific locations, budgets, what was the most difficult part of the film, etc. All around good time. Our composer Brandon was there too. For more information on the Newport Beach Film Festival, check out this link.
Our upcoming festivals are:
May 15 - 18. Loon is screening at the Honu Venu on Saturday May 17 at 11:30 Hawaiian Time.
Take a look at their website and see all the fun events that they've got going on. It should be a great time, but unfortunately flights are way too expensive for us to attend.
May 16 - 18. Loon is screening twice in Danville: 10 AM Saturday May 17 at the Village Theater and then again at 10 AM Sunday May 18 at the Town Hall in Danville.
(yes, as in the Emmy's!) and we received the award from Mallory Lewis, daughter of Shari Lewis, who has kept up the tradition of performing with the puppet "Lamb Chop". 
We are set for Thursday, September 18 at 12:45 PM at Tassie Hall and then we screen on Saturday, September 20 at 1 PM at Kitchener City Hall.
