Quick Shop Wins Best Thriller Short Film at the Terror Film Festival

Quick Shop screened at the Terror Film Festival last Friday, and I’m happy to report that it won the Best Thriller Short Film Claw Award!

This win is huge for me, but it also could not have been possible without all the help from every single talented person who donated their time and effort in order to make Quick Shop a reality. This is your award too, and if I receive a physical trophy of some sort, we can take turns keeping it at each other’s houses 🙂

As for the Terror Film Festival itself, I was able to attend the screening on Friday night (luckily before the snowstorm hit us on Saturday). The people at the festival were very nice, and the screening had about 20-25 people in attendance. After watching the block of films, myself and two of the other filmmakers took to the stage and had great Q&A session with the audience. At the end of the Q&A the festival director gave away three Quick Shop posters to audience members, which I signed for them. I had also brought a couple copies of Quick Shop on DVD, which I gave away to a couple of people who expressed interest. I also signed those…the whole autographing experience was a bit surreal 🙂

The cool thing was, I actually had people approach me and tell me they liked my film. That’s a really great feeling, and really validates all the effort that was put into the movie. To top off a great festival experience, I learned that Quick Shop had won the Best Thriller Short Film award. I am humbled and honored that Quick Shop was chosen as the winner, and it certainly motivates me to continue making films.

I have a few pictures from the festival that I will post as soon as power is restored at my house. Until then, I will relish in the win and continue to promote Quick Shop!

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Black Bear and Cape May Film Festivals

Great news…Quick Shop has been accepted into two more film festivals, bringing its total to eight acceptance! The Black Bear Film Festival is in Milford, PA and Quick Shop is screening on Sunday, October 16th at 5:15 PM. The Cape May Film Festival is in Cape May, NJ and Quick Shop is screening on Saturday, October 22nd at 10:00 PM.

It’s great to have a couple of fairly local festivals playing Quick Shop, and certainly makes for a busy October! If you’re in those areas around those times, feel free to check it out. For all of Quick Shop’s festival screenings, check out the Festivals page.

 

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Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival

I recently learned that Quick Shop was accepted into its sixth film festival, the Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival. Based on their schedule it looks like Quick Shop is first to screen in the Friday night block starting at 7:00 PM. This is the second festival where Quick Shop was the first movie shown in the block, and I take that as an honor. I think the blend of suspense and humor breaks the ice and gets the crowd in a good mood.

So if you’re in the Rhode Island area that Friday night, come check it out. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I will be in Philadelphia that same night as Quick Shop is screening at the Terror Film Festival. If anyone is in the Philly area that night (Friday, October 28th), come check us out in the 5:15 PM block of shorts.

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SNOB (Somewhat North Of Boston) Film Festival 2011

I drove a total of 780 miles in 13+ hours over a span of two days in order to attend the SNOB Film Festival in Concord, NH. Was it worth it? Absolutely! The festival was fun, the people running it were great, the movies were fantastic, my screening was amazing, and the Q&A was awesome. Here’s a full account of my time at the festival:

I left my house around 6:00 AM on Friday morning and got to Concord, NH right before 1:00 PM, just in time for the 1:30 PM block of shorts. After checking in and getting my filmmakers pass on a lanyard, I entered the large theater where I immediately met MaryLee Herrmann and Kenneth Wajda, two very nice filmmakers that flew in from Colorado. Both had short films in the festival, and we sat down to watch the block which included MaryLee’s The Necklace, which was very good and ended up winning the Best Short Drama Under 15 Minutes award. Congrats MaryLee!

After that block of shorts, MaryLee, Ken and I headed down to the Barley House bar to catch the next block which included Ken’s The Back Tenant, a nice little short that got picked for the “Best of” screenings earlier today (good job Ken). After that block, I had to leave the Q&A early to get back to the Red River Theatre in order to catch the 5:15 PM shorts block, which included the film Perhaps Tomorrow from Sandy Garfunkel that also picked up the Best Short Drama 15-25 min category. Congrats Sandy!

After the 5:15 block, I had to take a break to get some food and check into my hotel, which was nicely provided to me free of charge from the festival. So I chilled out for a bit, then returned to the Red River Theatre around 7:30 PM. My screening wasn’t until 9:30, so I starting talking to all the SNOB volunteers working the ticket table. Let me tell you…nicest people you’ll ever meet. They weren’t sure if they’d be able to see Quick Shop, so I gave them one of the two spare DVD’s I brought.

So finally 9:30 rolls around and the medium theater starts filling up. All in all I think I counted 35 people, which was a pretty good crowd. The nice thing about the crowd was they were fans of the genre, which SNOB labeled as “Twisted Tales”. Quick Shop was first up, and seemed to go over very well. We got a lot of laughs (thankfully only at the parts that were supposed to be funny), and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. The absolute best part of it had to be the Q&A session after the block. Like I said, the crowd was into the genre, so they had some really good questions for me and the other three filmmakers. For the first time in my life, I actually felt like a filmmaker. People were asking me very insightful questions and they really seemed to care about what I was saying. It was fantastic, euphoric….I didn’t want it to end. Unfortunately it had to, and we wrapped it up around 11:30 PM and headed back over to the Barley House to get a drink.

At the Barley House I hung out a bit with Ken and MaryLee, and I also had a chance to chat with filmmaker Allen Baldwin, who made the feature Up Up Down Down. It was really cool to rub elbows with fellow filmmakers and talk shop…never really did that before. As I had a long drive ahead of me the next morning, I only stayed at the Barley house for like 30 minutes, then headed back to my hotel room for some sleep. I left shortly before 8:00 AM the next morning, and made it home by 2:00 PM.

So that’s what happened. Great time, great people. I also wanted to highlight some things about the SNOB Film Festival itself:

  • I thought the festival was very well run. Jay and his wife Jenn kept things running smoothly, along with the help of all the great volunteers. There were some small technical difficulties (as there always are), but everything was resolved quickly and didn’t cause any huge problems.
  • They were technologically advanced 🙂 Most other festivals I’ve been to pop your DVDs in and out. This festival had a portable hard drive with all the movies on them. So they had some pretty nice SNOB animations between films, and they all ran one right after another with no gaps. Nice.
  • The venues were really nice. The Red River Theatre had three places: the screening room, the medium theater and the large theater. All three were very nice and seated many people. The Barley House was also cool as they had a smaller screen with a projector and good sound system. Lounge chairs and comfy couches made it easy to sit and watch a feature length movie.
  • The festival did a really good job of grouping films together in a meaningful way. Quick Shop screened with other films that were more horror/thriller type films. This made it easier to gauge what to expect from each block.
  • Everyone from the festival was very thankful and appreciative of me as a filmmaker and that I took the time to attend. This made me feel really special and happy that I did make the long drive to be there.
  • There were great opportunities to network with other filmmakers. I met some great people for my short time there, makes me wish I could have stayed longer.
  • Communication with the festival was top-notch. Jay always got back to me promptly, and answered any questions I had. Their web site rocks!
  • Like I said earlier, the Q&A session after my block really rocked. The crowd were definitely fans of the genre and asked some really good questions. One lucky fan even got to take home her very own copy of Quick Shop on DVD.

So all in all I had an awesome time up at the festival. This experience really energized me as a filmmaker, and turned out the be the experience I was hoping for since I started making films. I’m so glad I’m already working on my next project, and look forward to digging into that so I can submit it to SNOB 2012.

So head on over to my Media page and check out some pics from the festival. Thanks again to everyone at SNOB for a wonderful time and great hospitality. With any luck I’ll see you all again in the near future!


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