Diary of an aspiring filmmaker
Getting a big break at City Hall: Cinema Arts Festival spotlights buddingHouston filmmakers
Filming the movie is one thing, putting 10 minutes together to show at theCinema Arts Festival is a whole other challenge.
The Cinema Arts Festival is holding a free event Wednesday at noon at CityHall's 48-person theater that will feature a first look at art films inprogress.
Jena Moreno's "Stitched" is another one of the movies featured.
Alex Luster's "Stick Em Up" rounds out the threesome.
Editor's note: Ford Gunter quit his full-time journalism job in Houston to make a movie with his childhood buddy/co-director/business partner Carlton Ahrens. This is part five of his account of chasing the dream with Art Car: The Movie.
The latest installment of my filmmaker's diary is brought to you by Cinema Arts Festival Houston. Sort of.
We were honored about two months ago when we were invited to be a part of First Look: Houston Art Films In Progress, a panel discussion and Q&A with two other Houston filmmakers to screen clips of works in progress and discuss the projects. This, my friends, is a first for del monte films.
The trick is, as usual, we kind of waited until the last minute to work together a 10-minute segment of the film, so we've been underwater the last week or so frantically editing, then deciding that segment is not ready, then editing another one. In truth, I thought we could do the history of art cars in Houston, from the Orange Show's commissioning of the Fruitmobile through the 1986 New Music America parade in 10 minutes.
Roughly laid out on the timeline, the section stretched beyond 50 minutes. In addition to not working at all for the Cinema Arts deal, it also does not bode well for the length of the first rough cut. Not at all.
But we've settled on a segment and we're just about good to go with it, so I'm going to take this chance to do a little plugging. We're sharing the bill with our friend Jena Moreno, who is doing a film called Stitched on competitive quilting, which — like Art Car — calls Houston home in a big way. So big, in fact, that we're willing to forgive her for taking top billing on the event page for the festival. Grudgingly. I mean, she even got a photo.
And it's a good photo. There's also a guy named Alex Luster, who we don't know but we're sure he's pretty cool, and his film is called Stick 'Em Up, so he wins the coolest title contest. (We'll settle for longest title.)
And we get to kick off the whole festival, Wednesday at noon in the City Hall Visitor's Center, which has a 48-person theater (who knew?). Our event is free, which would be the best kind of event if it also included beer. But if you bring your own beer, I won't tell. Not if you bring one for me. After this past week, I'm going to need it.
And finally, as if you couldn't get any more excited, check out this achingly awesome event intro film that our friends Kevin Ryan, Chance McClain and Frank Bullington at Blue Light Magic put together for the whole festival:
