The Afterglow
I had my first premiere this last Friday. For those of you that don’t keep up with this blog (welcome!) I have been living with a film for about a year and a half if you include the screenwriting process that finally had its premiere this last Friday.
The film, of cousre, is Microcosm. The biggest mama jama in my tag cloud here on Citizen Wausau.
I’ve never premiered any of my fillms before. I relied on Internet screenings and film festivals to get the word out. And the latter is still a big part of my plan with Microcosm. It was amazing to see so many friends, family and even folks I’d never met before that night in the audience. What I thought was going to be an affair of twenty people ballooned out to somewhere around 60 folks or so. It was really, really touching.
But far more amazing was the crowd during the whole thing. There were laughs and guffaws for Chris Leslie in a fish suit all over the place. Dead silence during the dramatic climax of the film. Cheers for Ireland (Arwen Fonzen) when she decked Scott (Alexander Taylor Mace). One member of the audience, middled aged, gave me one of the biggest compliments of the night after it was done: “I’m about forty years removed from those types of feelings and that last scene brought me back in to all of them.” My high school drama teacher actually made it out for the screening, one of the men most responsible for my continued work in fine art. He noted my influence from Ingmar Bergman and told me “all you need know is your big break.”
In the hours upon hours of nitpicking every little blip in the sound, every frame of video to make sure the shot lasts exactly as long as it should, you get disconnected from a film. It feels like its gotten away from you. When not only are you responsible for the aesthetics, but also the technical aspect of the art, the aesthetics fall out of your mind. But Friday night I was able to reconnect with the characters, to feel goosebumps when Mikel (Luke Cieslewicz) puts up his hand for Ireland.
And for that I’m truly appreciative of.
Cheryl Mathis said:
I very much enjoyed myself. Great job, Erik!
September 8th, 2008 at 4:00 pm #
Citizen Wausau » Blog Archive » Your Voice: Sept 9 said:
[…] • With his movie premiere completed, the soon-to-be-Baltimorean Erik takes a moment to consider the work that went into it, and to write a bit about what it feels like to have a chance to step back and watch it as an audience member. […]
September 9th, 2008 at 10:49 pm #
erik said:
Thanks, Cheryl! I so appreciate you making your way out to see it, that really meant a lot to me.
September 10th, 2008 at 8:56 am #