Today I set up the booth with very little trouble. I'd say it looks pretty good...some booths are fancier and some are lamer, but we have the best student reel so BLAH.
After guarding the booth for a couple of hours, we loaded up on a double decker bus to the Animators' Picnic, which had pretty good food and lots of people. After getting my food I decided to sit with John Canemaker and introduce myself, since I loved his film and appreciate the other things he's done a great deal. Very nice guy. He had some questions about our Game Art program since they're trying to start one up at NYU. I hope to chat with him more this weekend. The best thing about meeting famous people is realizing how normal they are.
I also introduced myself to Jerry Beck, who I also admire, told him what I do, that I know Steve, etc. What a wacky guy he is...also very nice and funny. The rumour around the campfire is that Steve is here, somewhere, and I hope to run into him tomorrow....really really hope. Jerry says he has a rare Cy Young film print to give to Steve, so if he's here we can all get together.
The only other people I knew there were some folks from EA who had visited VanArts before, so I chatted with them a bit too. After the picnic I headed back to the Animarket, where I got into a conversation with Dave Thomas from Cuppa Coffee, who I met 7 years ago at the World Animation Celebration in LA. He was surprised I still remembered him. Also, yes, a very nice guy who works in stop motion out in Toronto, so we had lots to chat about. I showed him my stop-motion class stuff, and Nigel, which he seemed to like.
The rest of the evening was pretty slow, as most people were attending a feature screening, but when it was over they came out in droves. I'm sure I will run out of DVDs by tomorrow, so people will have to fill out forms to have them mailed out, which is OK too, cuz then we know where they live!!! (insert evil laugh here) Meeka had to work late tonight to meet a Caillou deadline (it's 11:30pm and she's still not home yet), so it was just me. After the market closed I went to the 9:00 competition screening, which I think was the best one yet. Such amazing stuff, particularly a creepy CG short about puppets, a surreal trip done in ink sketches, a masterpiece of experimental film from Germany, and a hilarious episode of Harvery Birdman: Attorney at Law. The theater was beautiful and the crowd was very responsive...had a great community feel to it. I kept imagining my film playing there, and hope very much that will happen when it's ready.
The only damper on my day today is that whatever-it-is-about-the-east-coast-air has brought back my familiar nosebleeds I would always get while growing up out here.
A great day....tomorrow will also be awesome. Time to call my loving wife. Life is good.
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