8-Ball
a film by
tracy taylor
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8-ball
at ashland 2/4
The way the schedule was set up, different sets of
films screened every two hours in each theater with the start times
staggered on the half-hour beginning at 9am, 10am on Sunday. The screenings
ended about 9pm each night so the filmmakers and organizers could go
to an after-hours lounge at the Mojo
Cafe, a psuedo-New Orleans style bar and eatery with pseudo-New
Orleans style food and jazz just a block away.
On the first day with all the hoopla of getting to
know Ashland and meeting people and being nervous about my own world
premiere screening at 5:30pm, I didn't get to see many films. There
was also so much to choose from (approximately 75 films were shown),
that I had difficulty deciding which set to go see. Finally I chose
a set with several shorts: Big Love, Day by Day, and Ashes
to Ashes which would give me enough time to get upstairs to Theater
2 afterwards to be ready for my big premiere.
This set of shorts, 35mm, color, with budgets of about
$30,000-$40,000, looked great, sounded great and were quirky and unusual.
My favorite for its originality was Ashes to Ashes, which was
about a necrophiliac couple who attend funerals for kicks until one
day their secret is discovered by a dead man. Dark, quirky, and bizarre...three
things I like in a film.
Afterwards, two of the filmmakers were questioned but
it was rushed because the schedule was running behind and the next films
needed to be screened. I left to prepare for my opening in Theater 2.
My friends joined me upstairs and we waited for 8-ball I had only seen my film on a big screen once, and...well,
unfortunately, one of those what-ifs did happen. My film screened with
half the top flowing out onto the ceiling and the bottom down on the
floor and slightly out of focus, and with only one channel of sound
working.
I cringed. A guy in the dark next to me whispered that
they had tried to fix it before the screening. Fortunately, we could
still follow the story. I just hoped people sitting around me didn't
think I shot it like that.
The next film started. Underestimating Jake,
a very slick film that obviously had a budget and crew twenty times
the size of mine. There were airplane shots and crane shots, etc. The
film seemed to run long, and so did its credits.
When the lights finally came up after the credits,
only my friends, my hostess and her friend, the screening's moderator
and the guy who was sitting in the dark stayed to ask me questions.
I hoped this wasn't the reaction to the film. I figured it had to be
that most people needed to rush back outside to stand in line to get
tickets to the next set of films that evening because of the way the
box office was set up.
I knew I had a second chance on the screening Sunday
night to correct the projection problems. I immediately tracked down
one of the festival volunteers who had been really helpful to me, Jeff,
and asked what I could do to make sure my film was screened correctly
on Sunday. He arranged for me to talk to the projectionist, which I
finally managed to do just prior to my second screening on Sunday.
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The
festival was held at The Varsity Theater downtown just a
block from the Shakespeare Festival site. The location couldn't have
been more convenient for everything Ashland has to offer. The theater
is an old-style movie house that had been divided into five screens.
There were three smaller long, deep and narrow theaters downstairs off
the main lobby and snack stand, one wide but squat theater upstairs
(where 8-ball screened), and a theater around the back
with an entrance through the alleyway.
to begin. The theater was only half full but I wasn't disappointed because
there was so much competition in all five theaters at that time, plus
it was the beginning of dinner. I sat back in the dark and my friends
tried to calm my nerves...what if this or that happens....