Well, there were more shorts after that. And amazingly enough, it happened AGAIN in two more programs. It's nuts.
I will say, the OMG WTF movies this year weren't as WTF as I remember, they used to be really nuts. Normally it's the home to really messed up stuff, the sort of films that are like part of a recovery program for people in mental hospitals and it shows and it's awesome, but we didn't have much of that this year. Now we did get to see Michael Cera empty his p*ss bag into a toilet and wipe it off on his hands, Amanda Seyfried feed a dog to a guy, Sammy Davis Jr give an HJ to a dying fat guy hooked up to a life support machine, and Michelle Rodriguez staba guy in neck with a dart, but it was TAME. It was so tame, man. There was one time we had a short film that I think was literally trying to drive you insane and shorts that were so clearly induced by drugs YOU needed to enter a 12-step program. But that's all slowly going away.
The kids shorts, "Grow Up Already," those were good, a little on the... not on the mature side, but it was ABOUT kids, not necessarily FOR kids. Which made it feel a little awkward because this little girl was sitting next to me... literally, THIS little girl was sitting next to me...
...and every time someone would curse (which was often) or a character cut themselves intentionally or anything like that (which there was plenty of), I kept checking to make sure she was okay. And the cutting thing I mentioned before, it was part of this film that had some really f*cking creepy ghost crawlies that pulled out people's eyeballs and stuff and climbed on walls and turned into big clouds of soot, and you KNOW she's never going to remember the film but she will NEVER forget those freaking demons crawling on the ceiling. They'll lie low, lurk somewhere in the back of her memory and chill until she's a teenager and a random passing association will bring it all back and she will see these horrible things and have no idea why.
Anyway, this girl, Amelia, was IN one of the movies, not just IN but the main character, totally silent performance, she was good, but I was just fascinated by HER, I was talking to her from the moment she sat down until the first film started and I just couldn't wrap my head around it, you know? "Oh, so was this made by someone you know, or...?" "No, I'm a professional actress." "How old are you?" "Eleven." Jesus! And her little sister was sitting next to her, I asked "is she an actress too?" and Amelia just goes "no."
This is the trailer for the film she was in, and she was still that tiny today. And I had to see her watch a movie where a beached whale gets cut up.
I spoke to a couple other young actor/actresses today and it's so WEIRD, especially compared to what *I* was like when I was 11 or 16, me, I'd want all evidence of my teenage years erased, like juvenile records they should be sealed, and they're not just letting it all out there, but they're so professional and career minded it's MIND boggling to me. I feel so old AND immature at the same time!
Amelia, the little girl, asked me if I was a filmmaker, as did SO many people that I spoke to, and I just now say "writer," they ask "are we about to watch yours?" "No, I don't have anything this year." And I get this vibe of... you know when you're in a band performing at a show and the audience is just the other bands? I feel like the short film makers are expecting that, and that kinda sucks.
You know, I'm getting cards and I'm making connections, which is awesome, so hopefully when the time is right to do a little project I can be like "hey, what if we did this?" and get a lot of "yeah, let's do that!"
I went to a audition panel and, dude, I'm a decent looking guy and I was rocking the jacket and was looking d a m n fine if I may say so myself, I went into that room and I was the ugliest dude by a MILE. WOW. I've never been amongst more photogenic people in my life. And tall, I was talking to one girl, Ryn, after the show, I thought she was seventeen, eighteen... she was thirteen and she was taller than ME! VERY few girls are taller than me. It was strange.