Day 155: Christopher Nolan

I missed the Producer's Panel today but I heard the Writer's Panel was better anyway so I wasn't too bummed about it. But tonight was the biggest (at least in my mind) night of the festival. Christopher Fucking Nolan was getting the Modern Master's Award. 

Hearing him talk about his career was one of the coolest hour-and-a-halfs of my life. The moderator, Pete Hammond was great with keeping the interview going, but his laugh was un-intentionality contagious. He would laugh like a school girl and then do this like heavy breathing after that could make the pope laugh.

Oh, and Leonardo DiCaprio gave a speech.

Since I had fucked up the night before by not waiting for Franco, Sarah and I waited out back for Chris and Leo. Leonardo came out and it looked like he was going to get straight in his car and leave but then he quickly (and I mean fucking quickly) signed autographs and took pictures. He seemed fearful of the crowd and he usually doesn't stick around to sign autographs especially after this crazy stalker cut his face with a beer bottle, but he sacrificed his time for us. I was too busy trying to get him to sign Sarah's Platinum Pass (which he did Booyah!) that I forgot to get him to sign mine. But whatever, I was waiting for the one that actually counted.

Like Leo, Nolan looked like he was going to get straight into his car. But I yelled, "Your My Modern Master Chris!" and he walked around and signer autographs. After preparing the order with Sarah, Ryan, and myself, Nolan approached us. I told him, "You inspire me... to inspire others." and he kinda laughed and said, "Thank. That means a lot." Then we all got pictures with the Man!!! (It was easy since Sarah was there looking stunningly beautiful)

Profile Pic until I die.

I also got to take a picture of the most stunningly gorgeous girl at the Festival.  

Great fucking night.

All good quality photos provided by Ryan Turner.

Day 154: James Franco

Woke up kinda early today and headed downtown to the Lobero Theatre. It's one of the oldest theatres in Santa Barbara and was holding the Writer's Panel. There were rumors that Aaron Sorkin, one of the best screenwriters around (Social Network) was gonna be there. These Rumors were true.

I was stoked to get one of the best seats in the house.

It was surprising to hear that Sorkin had a very strong Boston accent and sounded a lot like JFK. Pretty much every time he stopped speaking, there was massive applause.

Other writer's on the panel  included Scott Silver (The Fighter), Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3), Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right), Charles Mitchell (Get Low), and the dopest, old Brit you'll ever meet, David Seidler (The King's Speech).

If they were to give an audience award to one of the writer's it would have easily gone to David Seidler. There were two really awesome moments: 1.) He described the first real showing of The King's Speech at the Toronto Film Festival with a theatre filled with over 2,000 people. After the King delivered his speech, the audience erupted and then at the end there was a huge standing ovation. He said, "After having a stutter in my life, it felt like my voice had been heard for the first time". (Everyone in Lobero went "awwwwww"). and 2.) This guy with weird hair asked David about writing about a King who was accused of being a semite (Seidler himself is Jewish). Seidler gave a long, well argued, historical answer that made everyone in the theatre applaud and made the guy who asked the question look like an idiot. It was awesome.

You can watch it all here  http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=79039&srchtrk=index:3%0Alinktypeid:2%0Aq:sbiff%0Apage:1%0As:relevance%0Asa:true%0Aproducttypeid:2

Walked by the SB Museum of Modern art and saw a bunch if homeless people sleeping.

Then I went to the Women's Panel (There wasn't much else going on) and it was surprisingly educational. It was also fun to hear Jasmin embarrass herself in front of five women who had either won an Oscar or were nominated for one this year.

I saw a shorts program and it wasn't very good. But then it was time to see James Franco. This was one of the nights I was looking forward to and it turned out better than expected.

James Franco is fucking awesome. The event was supposed to start at 8:00pm but at 8:20pm, Roger came out and announced he was late because his Academy Award hosting rehearsal went over. Then at like 8:35pm, his car pulls up and he literally posed for pictures and signer autographs for another half hour. People in the Arlington started to boo when Roger announced this but I thought it was awesome and yelled at the snobby elites to shut the fuck up. One person near me agreed.

When the tribute actually started, James was fucking hilarious. And I'm talking unintentionally hilarious; the best kind. He was also sipping from a cup that I'm assuming was alcohol. I learned a lot about him, like that he never smokes weed and that he's gone to like four colleges and is still attending like two.

Then Seth Rogen came out and stole the show. He had a rock solid stand up routine that included him calling The Arlington the only theatre that was built inside a Mexican restaurant, shat on the Golden Globes (like three times), said he had never smoked with with James Franco, and then said he regrets that he didn't play Saul in Pineapple Express because he would be getting The Performance of the Year Award while James Franco would have had to drive up to SB to give a shitty five minute speech. I was crying.

Once it was over, we went out the back and saw a bunch of people waiting for autographs (including Joe) but my group wanted to go to the after party so we left. Franco signed everyones autograph and took pictures. I wish we would have stayed.

But then we got to the after party at Stearns Wharf and had dank ass food and free drinks. It was a good night.

All high quality pictures courtesy of Ryan Turner.

Day 153: Annette Bening

For part of the Film Festival this week, awards are being given to some pretty awesome people. Tonight...Annette Bening.She is one of the best living female actors around (apparently they got rid of the word actress for some stupid fucking reason) and has been in some awesome movies but one of my personal favorites, American Beauty.

I had to leave 54 early (thanks Jackie!) and hop on a bus downtown. It was eerily coincidental that when I look up on the bus, I saw a Don Hertzfeldt cartoon with the famous "My spoon is too big!" and "I am a Banana!" Made me feel warm inside.

So I got downtown kinda early so I could get a good seat... and I did. I was like three rows away from the front and was ready to be amazed at Annette. Basically what happens is the moderator comes out, says a few words about the person being honored, then you watch a montage of their work, then the person comes out, there is an interview with some more clips and then another famous person comes out and gives the honoree an award. I was looking forward to tonight's. But what followed was a disaster.

This guy Roger Durling, who runs the festival, was to be the moderator. I thought to myself, "Oh this is gonna be sick! Roger knows his shit, has really been involved with the festival's resurgence, and seems kinda cool." The guy was a fucking idiot. He has people problems or something. He stuttered like crazy, asked the same question multiple times, and confused certain directors with others. Fucking amateur. But Anette was still fucking awesome.

But it got even better when Kevin Costner came out to give the award. apparently he was hammered but I guess he is a productive drunk 'cause I couldn't tell. He came out, said some awesome shit about Bening (moment of the night was when he gestured toward her and said to the audience ,"This is our Hepburn."), made a joke about Warren Beatty being an "adventurer" (Anette did not like that) and then gave her a well deserved American Riviera Award.

Then when it was all over, there was an after party at a dank steak house for VIP's only. Photo Courtesy of Ryan Turner.

Day 152: Opening Night SBIFF!!!

I haven't updated the blog in about ten days for a couple reasons. 1.) The Santa Barbara Film Festival has been going down and I have barely had time to shower and eat. 2.) DSLR's are not allowed unless you have a press pass so I have mostly been taking shitty pictures with my camera phone. And 3.) Many of the photos that I am using for the festival were provided by Ryan Turner (pretty much every picture that wasn't taken on my phone was taken by Ryan). But I assure you, I have kept my at least one picture a day promise and am ready to unleash the awesomeness that was the 26th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Literally everywhere you walk there are SBIFF posters, staffers working the event, or other filmmakers enjoying beautiful state street. Today Ryan, Kyle, and I went to go get our filmmaker passes from the Santa Barbara Hotel aka Filmmaker central.

Here is the entire schedule for the eleven days of the film festival. The first ones start at 8:00am and the last ones get out past midnight. Some days you can go all day without seeing sunlight.

Our films are playing Saturday at the Lobero Theatre at 4:30pm

There was a "Filmmaker Lounge" all week at the hotel that was strictly VIP. They had free drinks, some dope couches, and computers to kill time on.

We all got a bag full of goodies but it you had to carry it like a purse. So when three young guys are walking down state street with man purses and huge smiles, it might send some mixed signals.

Ahh Samy's sand bags and C stands.

So legit. $1700 round your neck.

Felt like Wayne and Garth at Alice Cooper.

Later in the night they had the opening night ceremony. All the big events are held at the Arlington which is a great, old-school theatre. The opening night film was Sarah's Key which was a holocaust film that was alright. But we were all waiting for the after party.

The after party was held at Paseo Nuevo. They took over the entire shopping center and filled it with DJ's, alcohol, and food from like 25 local food establishments.

This kid, Harry Bossert, made a stop-animation of some legos that play in front of every film at the festival. He is from London. He is 16.

There were three alcohol sponsors: Santa Barbara Wine Collection, Chopin Vodka, and Stella. After finding out the vodka tastes worse than Heritage, I mostly stuck to red wine and Stella. It was fun getting hammered with UCSB Professors. For one night, we were equals.