First Screening

Finally, at the end of this long week I am sitting in front of my computer, jar of almond butter mit spoon in one hand, glass of 2-buck-chuck in the other (Cabernet).  Finally, I have time to write about my first screening!

I don't know why this feels like just had a baby.  I've never had one.  I don't really know what that feels like.  But I lost sleep with worry before the screening and now that it is over, I carry a DVD of the documentary around with me in my purse!  It makes my already heavy purse even heavier.  There's no reason to carry it around with me.  But I'm afraid to put it down, like I don't want to be too far away from it, as if it will disappear, as if it's really not real.  I'm its protector.  I'm its guardian.  I'm a weirdo.

So today is Friday and it was last Wednesday at 7pm at CAPS-TV Ventura (our local public access station) that I held my first screening to a group of about 20 friends in the studio.  I was horribly nervous, particularly because of all the 11th hour problems we've had.  Then as I sat there with the DVD player, projector, little sound board, etc., etc., I watched it all the way through on a large screen for the first time.  I did this so I wouldn't have any surprises.  And I'm so glad I did because that's when I found out that there were two clips where the sound dropped to one channel and then jumped back to two.  I then remembered a sound problem I had had the day I taped this particular interview.  So this was something we should have heard and dealt with when we were dealing with sound issues during the final fluff and tickle.  And yet there it was -- silence for two clips. 

I was lucky.  I found out about this an hour before people started arriving.  I had a mixing board in front of me.  So during the screening I pumped up the sound for those two clips and then turned it back down again. 

But I was fuming.  This was something that we should have, or my "pro" editor should have, caught and had the knowledge to trouble shoot and fix.  Yes, I had become far too close to it.

After the screening we had a 3-person panel for a Q&A period.  That was very, very interesting.  The film seemed to touch people.  I was thrilled, though I still find it hard to believe.

After the screening I had wine with friends and the next day at my day job I felt like a super sensitive 5-year-old who'd had no sleep.  I think it's called a hang over.

Tomorrow I am being photographed for an article in the Ventura County Reporter.  On August 26th, I will hold a public screening at the downtown library.  THAT will be very telling because it won't be a safe audience filled with my friends.  And I am submitting it to the Santa Barbara Film Festival, Sundance, and our local Ventura Film Society -- so far.  Submitting to festivals will be another way to really tell what I've got. 

Right now I can't tell a thing.  I am way, way, way too close to it.

I'm a new mom whose carrying her baby around in her purse.

P.S.  Tonight we fixed the sound problem on those two clips -- I hope.