I'm back at work after another whirlwhind weekend of promotion for Closet Space. From Wednesday, January 3rd up until about 2 hours ago, I was in California for the San Jose installment of the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors.
Last Wednesday, I arrived at LAX, got my rental van, and drove out to Orange County to meet Closet Space screenwriter Jason Stewart. He had procured a "west coast door" that we were using as a prop for the table, so we had to put feet on it and make sure that it would fit in the vehicle. That went much more quickly than I thought it would. Building and rebuilding sets for the past 6 months probably helped hone my construction skills a little bit. That evening we just chilled and prepared for the trip up to the convention.
On Thursday, Jason and I hit the road to San Jose. 5 hours and one In N Out stop later, we found ourselves at the Doubletree (a very nice hotel to have the convention in, I might add...they even gave us warm chocolate chip cookies on check in). We set up our basic table stuff pretty quickly, finding ourselves next to the crazy guys from Moomooch Clothing Co. ...fortunately, they quickly became our homeboys. Thursday evening was uneventful, save for some horror icon spottings in the hotel (Doug Bradley, Sid Haig, Ken Foree). Basically more chilling and preparation.
Friday started off slowly, of course, but we had a few people come by the table, check out the trailer and making-of, and generally show interest. Jason and I also got in the habit of talking up the movie over the course of that day, so it was a nice break-in period before the historically "big" day, Saturday. The highlight definitely had to be the popping of my Fangoria Panel cherry thanks to my work with the cast and crew of The Flesh Keeper. The writer/director, star, producer, and myself talked up the flick and showed some clips...one of which featured me cameo-ing as a black bean farmer. Inside joke. Anyway...the Flesh Keeper guys were also there to promote the recent release of The Quick and The Undead, so it was nice to hang out with them a little bit again.
Friday night involved a lot of running around on my part...I had to pick up Tim "Professor Polanco" Wrobel from the San Jose Amtrak station (he was coming up from LA), and Melanie "Nancy" Donihoo from the airport...in Oakland. The flights were cheaper, what can I say? Overall, it wasn't that bad of a "running around" session, but I did discover that apparently people do not eat in San Jose. Seriously...I had to drive around for half an hour before I even found a Carl's Jr. Where the hell do the people that work at eBay eat lunch? Anyway...there's Friday for you.
Saturday was our big push day. Number one - it's usually the busiest day of the convention. Number two - we had two actors there signing 8 x 10's for FREE. Everybody likes free stuff, right? It took a while to "grease the wheels"...most people are (rightfully) wary of something for nothing, but overall It was a smashing success. Both Melanie and Tim gave out dozens of pics and autographs. Lots of people stopped to chat about the movie. All seemed excited and eager to check out Closet Space when it's finished. We even lined up some interviews and possible screenings. All around a great step forward for Texas indie horror. As far as extra curricular activities go, I got a pic with Doug Bradley, Tim got one with Adrienne Barbeau, Jason hob-nobbed with Jeffrey Combs, and our 2nd unit FX artist Kristi Boul hung out with EVERYONE, apparently.
One weird thing about Saturday was getting called out regarding my last movie. Someone there had seen a screener of it, and had pretty good things to say about the flick, especially in reference to what we did with what we had, resource wise. That actually was kind of nice to hear, after the shit-storm that I went through because of it.
The wife and I took the opportunity to break away Saturday evening and head up to San Francisco for dinner. We ate at the same restaraunt in Fisherman's Wharf that we had dinner at right before I proposed to her - the place is called Cioppino's. That was pretty neat...this time I could actually eat my meal without being weird and nervous. After that, we dropped in on my friend Jonah, who lives in SF. It was nice to visit with him and share convention stories...and we also discussed the first video for his new album, which I'll be directing and co-producing. Trust me, it's going to be pretty insane. In a good way.
We returned to SJ early enough to find most everyone hanging out at the bar, Pinhead included. After a final few bad jokes and innuendo, we crashed and got ready for the long day of travel ahead.
Sunday morning I took Melanie back to the Oakland airport, came back to SJ, picked up Tim and Jason, and then we headed back to the LA/Orange County area. We had a fun (yet intermittent) talk/brainstorming session about several projects-in-the-works. Here's hoping they all reach fruition so that Tim can ride my coattails to success.
We have big plans for the Chicago Fango, Texas Fear Fest, Burbank Fango, and Texas Frightmare Weekend, so you'll be seeing a lot of Closet Space in the near future. Here's to hoping that the positive buzz keeps building.
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