Sorry to be so late reporting on the Premiere (as if anyone actually reads this), but I just had a really busy weekend and there has been so much stuff floating around in my head the past few days that I wanted to kinda sort out before I sat down and wrote a new post.

The turnout for the Premiere wasn't great. There was maybe 25 people there - opposed to the 30-40 we had for the past two. But several people had to work or were out of town. Some people forgot about it altogether and some people had a hard time distinguishing 11:30 a.m. from 11:30 p.m. Oh well. The crowd that was there was great though.

I didn't go to sleep till around 2:30 a.m. the night before and I pulled my ass out of bed at 9 a.m. to get ready for this thing. I needed a haircut badly and I had to pay my cable bill too, which was already a couple days late as it was. That came back to haunt me later in the day when I was just exausted. I even got to the theatre almost an hour early. It was cool though. I had everything set up from the night before, so I just hung out and talked to Alice (Bill-the theatre owners's wife) for a while untill people started showing up. I was really happy that some of my co-workers from my 'real' job showed up to see the film. And this was the first time one of my parents was able to attend a premiere. Howard was there, late but there.

Sitting through those premieres are gut-wrenching. I'm so afraid people aren't going to get the jokes - or worse that they are going to get the jokes and just not think they're funny. I can always remember who I was sitting next to at the premieres. At "With Friends Like These" I was sitting next to Mikey - the real Mikey, the one Dustin's character is based on. At "Days Like These" I sat next to Dustin. And at "Holidays Like These" I sat next to my friend Jennifer. As nervous as I was, sitting there next to her calmed me down somewhat. I knew how excited and happy for me she was about the whole thing and the fact that she understood so much of what I was going throught really helped a lot. Plus, you always have to feel better when you're sitting next to a beautiful woman.

It's strange how some of the stuff that ends up being so funny when you're watching it is stuff that wasn't even in the original script. The improvised stuff always gets big laughs becuse it's so damn real. The biggest laugh of the entire movie was something I didn't write and didn't even come up with. At one point of the film, I get a beer out of the refrigerator and look around for a bottle opener. Josh grabs the beer out of my hand, opens it on his belt buckle and hands it back to me. Everyone in the theatre must have laughed at that, and laughed the hardest. That just proves that as a director, you should always listen to the ideas of your actors, producers, cameramen or whoever. You never know, they just might have an idea for the best moment in your film. A good director can just distinguish between crap and what really should go into the film. Is that me? Not quite yet, but I'm working on it.

After the film everyone came out and congratulated me and shook my hand and hugged me. I heard someone say that they thought this was the best one I had done so far, and I agree with them. The preview for "The Wild Side" got a very positive reaction and several people told me how much they were looking forward to seeing that one. I look forward to seeing that one too.

Now all that's left is to finish up the DVD to get it to the few people that want copies of it. After that ... write, write, write. I need to finish the script for "The Wild Side" and get to work on another project I'm going to do with Dave. I'm going back to the horror genre, which I'm not as good at as comedy, but I'm going to give it my best shot. If we don't try new things, we'll never grow, will we?

Thank you to everyone who attended the premiere and actually enjoyed yourself. And thank you once again to everyone who helped make this film possible. I look forward to taking it up a notch with my future projects and hopefully you all will come along for the ride.

Peace.