I arrived in LA at 11:35 and Mike Lutz, who plays Joe in CS, picked me up. We immediately headed to his apartment in Santa Monica where I unpacked, grabbed a quick shower and a bite to eat.
From Santa Monica we headed to my folks place in Winnetka, which is in the valley. My brother Cody had printed out a bunch of CS posters for me and I needed to pick them up. While at my parents house I visited with my dad. He works on a TV show called Without a Trace on CBS which is currently on hiatus. Most TV series shoot for about 9 months and then go on a 3 month hiatus for the remainder of the year. It’s kind of like working for a school and getting your summers off. My dad will typically work on a pilot during his break in order to keep busy during this down time.
Around 3:30 we finally headed over to the festival to check in. Once there I panic when I out found out that they have listed the Cowboy Smoke screening time incorrectly in the festival program. I am told by the nice lady who checked me in to hang out for an hour and wait for the festival director to return from lunch – there is nothing she can do.
Mike and I head over to Gordon Biersch for a beer. My brother calls me – he is on his way to Pasadena. I check my watch, it’s been an hour, so I head back over to the check in but the festival programmer is still not there. I grab another beer at Gordon Biersch. My brother arrives, I check my watch, it has now been two and half hours so I head back over to check in. Josh Nuefeld, the festival programmer is there. I explain the situation and he apologizes and we devise a solution. The festival will email blast everyone who has purchased tickets the correction, which actually brings more attention to the movie so I was pretty satisfied with that.
We then head to Echo Park for a BBQ at a DP friend of ours house. I see Damon O’Steen there. Damon is a good friend who recently directed a feature called Deadland that I feel is going to do very well starring Mike and Chad, funny enough. They are finishing up post production and will be on that same indie movie path of trying to get into festivals as well.
After the BBQ we head BACK to Pasadena, for a mixer. We meet many of the other filmmakers there, and there’s a lot of talk about how hard but rewarding independent film can be. I had a chance to talk to Ernie Reyes Jr., who was interested in talking about some future projects, so we exchanged info to meet at his office soon.
All in all, a good first day.
More to come.

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