Tampa Film Fan

friday was a good day for tampa bay

“Well, you’re quite the busy bee.”

This is The Husband’s standard response whenever I give him long, detailed descriptions of where I’m going and things I’m doing on any given day. Technically, it’s code for “I’m listening and being supportive because I love you, even though you’re boring me to death” and is a much better line than my standard comment to him of “Is your story very long?”

This busy bee buzzed around to three film-related events this past Friday: A press conference at Eckerd College about the movie Misconceptions that’s currently being filmed in Pinellas County; the Tampa Bay Film Industry and Actors Network Meetup; and the Tampa Film Review. Here are a few things I discovered over the course of the day:

• Academy Award and Emmy-nominated director Ron Satlof (The A-Team, Diagnosis Murder) teaches filmmaking intro classes at Eckerd College. Eckerd College continues to support film in all sorts of ways: the International Cinema Series, the Environmental Film Festival, the film studies program, and now this. Wow.
• I’m a terrible photographer. (You’ll see for yourself when I download my photos.)
• My 10th grade math teacher was right: There’s no escaping math in life, no matter who you are or where you go. The Meetup group watched an instructional DVD on lighting techniques for interviews, which was interesting and informative (and not as tedious as it sounds here). When the narrator mentioned the “inverse square law” that determines light reflection, however, I suddenly developed sweaty palms and a strong craving for a sharpened No. 2 pencil.
• A Major Movie Star has agreed to be the guest of the upcoming Sunscreen Film Festival! Festival co-director Tony Armer “leaked” the news at the Tampa Film Review, but since nothing has been officially released to the media yet, I promised Armer and fellow co-director Derek Miner that I wouldn’t name names here. Keeping this secret is killing me….
• Film fest director, filmmaker and extreme multi-tasker David Audet surfaced from under the mountain of DVDs he’s screening for the Ybor Festival of the Moving Image to present the Bud Lee Cinematography Award at the Tampa Film Review. I was able to chat with him long enough to find out that (1) The YFMI is going to be jam-packed — as always — with an eclectic, unusual assortment of films, art and performance; (2) PIX Fest, the Pinellas County film festival originally scheduled to debut this summer, is still going to occur, but probably in a very different way than previously imagined ; and (3) The literary festival Deep Carnivale:A Celebration of Words, fresh from its successful debut last September, will be bigger and better come September 20. This year’s festival will have more of everything: more activities, more venues, more authors…and hopefully more attendees, more attention, more fun.
• Speaking of book news, I met JimSam, Inc. publishing pro Marcia Freespirit (a busy bee herself) Friday night. Her company has some intriguing book/film collaborations planned for 2008.
• In the spring, the Tampa Theatre is going to launch an outdoor classic film screening series at various parks in the Tampa Bay area. Locally-produced short films will be part of this series as well, playing just prior to the main movie at each screening.
• The Sunscreen Film Festival has finalized the judging panel for short films: Filmmaker and UT film professor Tom Garrett…and me. I’m not sure how I snuck in there, but I’m sure I proved my professionalism by jumping up and down with joy when co-director Derek Miner asked me. (Surprisingly, he didn’t rescind his offer.) Here’s an interesting side note: Sunscreen Film Festival co-director Tony Armer graduated from Eckerd College, which brings us full circle.

I’ll post my photos as soon as possible. Hopefully, The Husband’s stories are all short today.

(cross-posted on www.sticksoffire.com)