CIFF: Joe Swanberg's Diary, Chapter 5 - A filmmaker's nightmare

Tuesday night saw KOTM hitting the Chicago screen for the last time as part of the 41st CIFF.  There was another great crowd, which made it that much worse when the film started and the audio kept cutting in and out.  This is a filmmaker's nightmare, and suddenly we were experiencing it.  I tried to keep my cool and find a Festival staffer to figure out what was wrong, but I was freaking out on the inside.  At first I thought maybe the problem would go away, but the film kept playing, and suddenly people were missing dialogue. Eventually they finally got a clue that they should stop the film, rather than let it keep playing while the audience sat there unable to hear what the characters were saying.

 
They switched decks and started the film over from the beginning, meaning the audience had to sit through the first 5 minutes of the film a second time.  It was too late to get them back.  Scenes that made the other two audiences break out in laughter were met by stone cold silence.  The damage had been done.  The energy was gone.  We popped our heads in every once in a while, but it never got much better.  It was a bad way to wrap up our otherwise exceptional screenings. Thankfully the Q&A afterward was interesting, and people seemed to generally like the film, but I felt really bad that they couldn't see it on one of the other nights.

Now that I'm done showing my film, I have time to relax and see some other work.  My plan for this coming weekend is to see about 6 films and do as much hanging out as possible, because next week I have to buckle down and finish LOL.  It's been hanging out there too long, and it's time to rope it in and lock it down.  Screening KOTM got me really excited about the chance to play Festivals with a new film.  I hope it works out and programmers like it.  Either way, KOTM still has some life in it.  I got word today that we will be screening at the Northampton Independent Film Festival next month.