Twisted Nightmare Weekend roundup (revised)
Last one out the door be sure to turn the
lights off.
I'm back in Los Angeles from Twisted Nightmare
Weekend in Cleveland, Ohio. Those of you who read my last TempeTalk rant about
fan conventions may be surprised to learn that I had a blast at the show...but
read on, there's a catch.
Most of the reason I had fun at Twisted was because I sat in the bar or restaurant 75% of the weekend (that probably includes sleeping). I think I probably spent a total of 3 hours behind the Tempe table, and almost all of that time was on Sunday. So, it was more of a social gathering than a business affair...which is probably a good way to look at it since attendance was low and sales were pretty lean, mostly because we were stuck with a table down a hallway few seemed to know existed, near the screening room (I affectionately dubbed our wing "No Man's Land" since nobody seemed to be able to find it).
Not surprisingly, fledging filmmakers were the key attendants of the show, mainly because it's put on by actress Robyn Griggs and filmmaker Keith Kline, both good hosts who have made a lot of friends in this microcosm of a so-called business the last couple of years. I think I probably went home with a record number of VHS and DVD movies looking for distribution or just seeking advice/opinions despite my ravings in the previous TempeTalk column. So, my theories about these cons was pretty much right on.
But that doesn't mean fun wasn't had by all. Despite a bit of grade school-level drama on Friday night and my pathetic attempt to play Dr. Phil on Saturday night with one individual who shall remain nameless, the show was good times. Things kicked off on Thursday night when I picked up BENT director Jason Santo and his lovely wife/graphic designer/sometimes-actress Sheri Carter. We did a bit of B.S.-ing about what we were expecting at the show (OK, we were ranting!), then on Friday morning we hit my favorite local Chinese haunt (Bill Hwang's) before heading to Middleburg Heights for the show proper.
No sooner did we enter the hotel than we cross paths with journalist/filmmaker Mike Watt and his director/actress wife Amy Lynn Best (what's with all these hyphenates, anyway?). B-Independent.com kingpin Allen Richards soon reared his surly head — turns out he wanted to be there even less than I did, which I didn't think was possible. Jason, Sheri and Allen helped me haul Tempe product down to the table and after getting set up, I was off to hit the hotel room to get ready (but not before meeting the ever-friendly Sherry Thurig from THE BONESETTER). And thank God the hotel had free high-speed Internet access!
The lovely Debbie Rochon soon appeared at my door to head downstairs together around 4:30 p.m., where I promptly planted my fat ass in the bar area. I blame this on Sean Breen, my point man at our new Canadian distributor, who had flown in that morning and sidled up to the bar to see who wound up there. Sean and I had met face-to-face at the VSDA show back in July and hit it off. I had told him about Twisted and he was eager to attend just to watch the proceedings.
Four peach margaritas later, I was feeling the effects as the rest of the team filtered in gradually...Jeff Dylan Graham, Lilith Stabs, Brett Kelly, Anne-Marie Frigon, Mark Courneya and finally Jason Paul Collum who arrived fashionably late but just in time for his 7 p.m. screening of SOMETHING TO SCREAM ABOUT. I didn't see Chris Seaver until a bit later that night, but just in time to grab his preview copy of FILTHY McNASTY 3 for the midnight show. Also in attendance were Speed Freak Productions, creators of MIDNIGHT SKATER and DEMON SUMMER, and finally I met George Bonilla of ZOMBIE PLANET fame along with his wife and a small posse of crew. (Thankfully I had a box of ZP discs sent just in the nick of time for the show, which was the biggest seller of the weekend.) Fellow Ohioan VAMPS director Mark Burchett was also present, who will soon go from "adopted Tempe" to "family Tempe" when we release his second feature, SATANIC YUPPIES (aka EVIL AMBITIONS) next year.
Saturday was pretty much more of the same. I eventually stumbled across Brinke Stevens, looking as beautiful and young as ever (she turned 50 on Monday!). The Scream Channel was in attendance and nabbed me for an interview during a brief appearance at the Tempe table. I signed some autographs then headed back to the bar. At the end of the day, I gathered all of the Tempe family in attendance — filmmakers, actors, production personnel, you name it — for an impromptu photo outside the hotel. It dawned on me later that night to use the pic as a Christmas card this year, listing all of the production companies under the Tempe banner (see below). By 1 a.m. I was pretty beat, so it was off to bed for me.
Before I knew it, Sunday was here and the show was over! I grabbed a quick dinner with Debbie Rochon before she headed back to New York, then joined the remaining gang in the bar. Jason Collum and Jeff Dylan Graham soon left for Wisconsin where on Tuesday they began shooting on OCTOBER MOON, which will launch our B+Boy Productions label next year. Then it was pretty much just Jason Santo, Sheri and I. We relaxed in our respective rooms for a couple hours, then grabbed some dinner and called it a night. I had offered to take them back to the Akron-Canton Airport on Monday, then I was on my way back to Cleveland for my own flight this evening.
It's funny how something you dread so much can wind up being so fun, but then again, if I had been trapped behind a table all weekend, I probably wouldn't have felt the same. So big thanks to Mike Edwards (a DEAD & ROTTING crew alumni in Akron) and Tempe convention pimp Henrique Couto for manning the table and allowing me to actually enjoy my convention swan song (at least for awhile). There was some chatter toward the end of the show about all of us maybe reconvening at Twisted 2005...so we shall see. In the meantime, I've got my work cut out for me this week scheduling out next year's DVD releases as well as getting back to THE DEAD NEXT DOOR remastering and the POLYMORPH DVD extras. Gulp!
Stay sick! - JRB
Most of the reason I had fun at Twisted was because I sat in the bar or restaurant 75% of the weekend (that probably includes sleeping). I think I probably spent a total of 3 hours behind the Tempe table, and almost all of that time was on Sunday. So, it was more of a social gathering than a business affair...which is probably a good way to look at it since attendance was low and sales were pretty lean, mostly because we were stuck with a table down a hallway few seemed to know existed, near the screening room (I affectionately dubbed our wing "No Man's Land" since nobody seemed to be able to find it).
Not surprisingly, fledging filmmakers were the key attendants of the show, mainly because it's put on by actress Robyn Griggs and filmmaker Keith Kline, both good hosts who have made a lot of friends in this microcosm of a so-called business the last couple of years. I think I probably went home with a record number of VHS and DVD movies looking for distribution or just seeking advice/opinions despite my ravings in the previous TempeTalk column. So, my theories about these cons was pretty much right on.
But that doesn't mean fun wasn't had by all. Despite a bit of grade school-level drama on Friday night and my pathetic attempt to play Dr. Phil on Saturday night with one individual who shall remain nameless, the show was good times. Things kicked off on Thursday night when I picked up BENT director Jason Santo and his lovely wife/graphic designer/sometimes-actress Sheri Carter. We did a bit of B.S.-ing about what we were expecting at the show (OK, we were ranting!), then on Friday morning we hit my favorite local Chinese haunt (Bill Hwang's) before heading to Middleburg Heights for the show proper.
No sooner did we enter the hotel than we cross paths with journalist/filmmaker Mike Watt and his director/actress wife Amy Lynn Best (what's with all these hyphenates, anyway?). B-Independent.com kingpin Allen Richards soon reared his surly head — turns out he wanted to be there even less than I did, which I didn't think was possible. Jason, Sheri and Allen helped me haul Tempe product down to the table and after getting set up, I was off to hit the hotel room to get ready (but not before meeting the ever-friendly Sherry Thurig from THE BONESETTER). And thank God the hotel had free high-speed Internet access!
The lovely Debbie Rochon soon appeared at my door to head downstairs together around 4:30 p.m., where I promptly planted my fat ass in the bar area. I blame this on Sean Breen, my point man at our new Canadian distributor, who had flown in that morning and sidled up to the bar to see who wound up there. Sean and I had met face-to-face at the VSDA show back in July and hit it off. I had told him about Twisted and he was eager to attend just to watch the proceedings.
Four peach margaritas later, I was feeling the effects as the rest of the team filtered in gradually...Jeff Dylan Graham, Lilith Stabs, Brett Kelly, Anne-Marie Frigon, Mark Courneya and finally Jason Paul Collum who arrived fashionably late but just in time for his 7 p.m. screening of SOMETHING TO SCREAM ABOUT. I didn't see Chris Seaver until a bit later that night, but just in time to grab his preview copy of FILTHY McNASTY 3 for the midnight show. Also in attendance were Speed Freak Productions, creators of MIDNIGHT SKATER and DEMON SUMMER, and finally I met George Bonilla of ZOMBIE PLANET fame along with his wife and a small posse of crew. (Thankfully I had a box of ZP discs sent just in the nick of time for the show, which was the biggest seller of the weekend.) Fellow Ohioan VAMPS director Mark Burchett was also present, who will soon go from "adopted Tempe" to "family Tempe" when we release his second feature, SATANIC YUPPIES (aka EVIL AMBITIONS) next year.
Saturday was pretty much more of the same. I eventually stumbled across Brinke Stevens, looking as beautiful and young as ever (she turned 50 on Monday!). The Scream Channel was in attendance and nabbed me for an interview during a brief appearance at the Tempe table. I signed some autographs then headed back to the bar. At the end of the day, I gathered all of the Tempe family in attendance — filmmakers, actors, production personnel, you name it — for an impromptu photo outside the hotel. It dawned on me later that night to use the pic as a Christmas card this year, listing all of the production companies under the Tempe banner (see below). By 1 a.m. I was pretty beat, so it was off to bed for me.
Before I knew it, Sunday was here and the show was over! I grabbed a quick dinner with Debbie Rochon before she headed back to New York, then joined the remaining gang in the bar. Jason Collum and Jeff Dylan Graham soon left for Wisconsin where on Tuesday they began shooting on OCTOBER MOON, which will launch our B+Boy Productions label next year. Then it was pretty much just Jason Santo, Sheri and I. We relaxed in our respective rooms for a couple hours, then grabbed some dinner and called it a night. I had offered to take them back to the Akron-Canton Airport on Monday, then I was on my way back to Cleveland for my own flight this evening.
It's funny how something you dread so much can wind up being so fun, but then again, if I had been trapped behind a table all weekend, I probably wouldn't have felt the same. So big thanks to Mike Edwards (a DEAD & ROTTING crew alumni in Akron) and Tempe convention pimp Henrique Couto for manning the table and allowing me to actually enjoy my convention swan song (at least for awhile). There was some chatter toward the end of the show about all of us maybe reconvening at Twisted 2005...so we shall see. In the meantime, I've got my work cut out for me this week scheduling out next year's DVD releases as well as getting back to THE DEAD NEXT DOOR remastering and the POLYMORPH DVD extras. Gulp!
Stay sick! - JRB
Posted: Mon - September 20, 2004 at 04:29 PM
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Published On: Nov 14, 2005 05:20 PM
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Published On: Nov 14, 2005 05:20 PM