The SCFG Silverlake Screening

Well, it's been a week since the SoCal Film Group screened 9 new short films at the 2006 Silverlake Film Festival. I was too busy dealing with the Lost Weekend party prep (and then too tired from the party) to write anything down sooner... but I think it was good to sit back and let the thoughts collect.

We had a great, great turnout for the event! Better than I expected. When I went in, I noticed the ushers for the theater were making people sit in assigned seating - when I asked why, they had said it was because the theater was nearly sold out. It was a pretty big room so it really made my heart skip a beat - even with all our actors and their friends and family, we couldn't have filled that room, so there were a lot of people there to check us out. Great feeling... It turns out the Arclight theater also won't let people into a show once it's started, so we may have even had more in the audience that night. I know of one couple that had to sneak in! (thanks, Terry!)

There was the usual worry that there would be some technical problems. And, of course, we were right - they started our shorts, which included a trailer of all the SoCal work (you can see the trailer on our Group Production page), and there was sound but no picture. Finally, about halfway through it, the audience got to see the clips in our trailer.

The rest of the screening was perfect. I could feel the crowd caught up in our stories, from the first few suspenseful moments of QUIET all the way to the full laughter for WHO'S ON FIRST: THE MOVIE. During the short, I heard a few people talking to the screen and not one person left for a bathroom break. Afterwards, I heard things like, "Great stories", "Oh, all of them were so good!", "I felt like we were at a movie" and so much more.

I don't know if any of you have ever had your work shown on the "big screen", but it was a first for me. I had two shorts in this year's festival and it was the first time I've ever had them shown like that. It really was a thrill. It was the first that many had even seen my latest work, ONE FREE HOUR, and I got a lot of really great responses.

Now, it's back to the editing room to fix everything you don't notice on your home television, but look really obvious on the giant silver screen!

Timothy K. Clark
Writer/Director