The 'Other' SIFF

I've thought about it, and figured 'fuck it, let's send this thing to the Seattle International Film Festival'.

My hesitation about sending Ciplak to Seattle was the fact that it is a pretty big festival, and whilst the good thing about that is the exposure Ciplak could get, it's also counter-weighed by the worry of whether or not Ciplak can even make it past the judges for it to be screened there.

One of their awards eases me a bit, which is the 'Independent Spirit' award. I mean, come on, how much more independent can Ciplak get? I always tell people the budget is RM$10,000 because I don't want the movie to seem too cheap but, to be fair, RM$8,000 of that money was on the camera. The rest of the money was spent on tapes, fuel, food, cigarettes and haircuts. In actuality, the budget's more like RM$1,300. Convert that to U.S. Dollars, that's about... USD$347. Shit. That's cheaper than 'El Mariachi'.

(Then again, he did shoot on film...)

Regardless, the submission deadline is 1st February. The only issue now is the costs involved: the entry fee alone is USD$97 (RM$363, about the same as half the catering budget). Then I need to Fed Ex it... sheesh. If any of you guys out there know anything about the Seattle International Film Festival, what kind of movies they 'prefer' to screen and whether or not I've got a fighting chance, let me know, please. I need knowledge.

On top of all this, I have another project lined-up, and it's a rush one (and, if you don't include the camera, has a bigger budget than Ciplak) for a music video for Liang's number one hit single "Show Me Watcha Got". Checked out one of the locations last night and been going through the pre-production with Pietra (who'll be co-directing and producing) but here's the thing: principal photography has to start on next Tuesday for the first location. NEXT TUESDAY! Tony's already freaking out a bit at the short time span. I'm strangely confident. Or mad. Yes, I'm mad. That's what it is.

Then there's some wedding job coming up too at the beginning of February. I'm gonna need more space on my desktop (which, incidentally, I have left on at home whilst I back-up 10GB of porn and other videos onto a portable hard drive. What? You thought I'd delete it? Puh-leeze...). Ciplak alone has probably taken up 75GB on footage alone, with another 2GB on soundtrack, title sequences and animation.

We're gonna need a bigger boat.