SANTA CRUZ FILM FESTIVAL

Santa Cruz is a pretty amazing unique little funky beach town, with bitchin’ beaches, a rad boardwalk, vibrant down town, and an open minded population that looks and acts like no other. Just a cool laid back ‘tripy’ vibe. The perfect place to screen our flick!

Lord and Lady Deal arrive the first day of the fest on a Monday(we screen on Saturday). “You’re here, so early?” Real Deal replies “We’re here to work”. And work they do for the next two days as Lady P and Real Deal promote, promote, PROMOTE... also making nice with the friendly people at the festival. Daily calls come into LA, reporting press articles and radio interviews.

I arrive on Thursday, meet all the fine folks at the festival, and then am immediately put to work... stickers go on cards to be handed out, posters are put up, and people are talked into coming to the show....

We’re pretty excited, but there’s still a downside. Hardly any pre-sale tickets have been sold, making Deal and I wonder ‘will the whole damn audience be standing up for the Q & A?’.  Lady P is extremely confident that is NOT going to happen.

We head to Stazz’s acoustic show at the Ugly Mug in Soquel. Everyone is blown away by her talent and we pimp our screening for the next night.

Friday rolls around and more of the cast and crew roll into Santa Cruz. Chris, Christopher, Sam, Tabetha, Bob, Gint, Gina, Santino, Tony... 

Screening time approaches, the Real Deal and I do a projector test, and then:

People start showing up. Lots of them. Guess people in Santa Cruz don’t usually buy pre-sale tickets for movies. We even see some of the people from Stazz’s show at the Ugly Mug.

The flick plays amazingly well, with the audience positively reacting through out. Q and A lasts about twenty minuets.  Cast and crew then hang out at the Crepe Place across the street, recapping the evening.

Saturday is the last day of the fest and Lord, Lady Deal, and myself have wonderful parting conversations with all the friendly folk we met before heading back on to LA, ready for our next film festival adventure.