Here’s an in-depth review of the April 20 Portland Animation Now! show at Cinema Pacific. (Originally posted by fest director Sven Bonnichsen on the Scarlet Star Studios blog.)
We’ve just finished showing Portland Animation Now! at the Cinema Pacific festival. It was exciting to take a NW Animation Fest show out to another city for the first time.
As its website says, Cinema Pacific is “an annual film festival based at the University of Oregon in Eugene that is devoted to discovering and fostering the creativity of international films and new media from Pacific-bordering countries, including the U.S.” After seeing the original PAN! show back in January, Cinema Pacific director Richard Herskowitz contacted me with a proposal to screen it at his festival on April 20. How could I refuse?
Our show took place at the much loved Bijou Art Cinemas. The historic building began as a church, then was used as a mortuary for a number of years, before finally becoming a movie theater. Great place!
Since Cinema Pacific was hosting the show, a lot of the advance work I usually do was unnecessary. I didn’t have to do press releases, invitations, and publicity. I didn’t have to organize event staff, coordinate with the theater beforehand, or host an after-party.
Even so, there was still much to do. I needed to get permission from each of the 20 filmmakers involved. One declined, so I scrambled and managed to get master animators Joan Gratz and Jim Blashfield to share two of their films instead. The projection DVD had to be painstakingly remastered. I also put together a batch of fancy new programs for the audience.
There’s a temptation to slack off when doing a repeat show under someone else’s banner. I remind myself: every show is someone’s first impression of the festival — it’s important to present the best possible show every time.
The long-time owner of the Bijou passed away about two years ago. Edward Schiessl has since taken over, and seems to be doing a really great job putting in new equipment and programming films that connect with his audiences. He was warm, down-to-earth, and a pleasure to work with.
As it turned out, we had our pick as to which auditorium PAN! would screen in. Auditorium 1 was very impressive, with high vaulted ceilings, a 27-foot screen and capacity for 105 people.
However, talking it over with Gretchin, we decided that if I was running Q&A after the show then auditorium 2 — which has a more intimate feel — would be the better choice.
So we trundled over from auditorium 1 through the lobby…
Passing through the theater’s beautiful enclosed courtyard…
Auditorium 2 has a slightly subterranean feel to it. In a good way, though! Like the cinematic equivalent of a hobbit hole.
Low ceilings help amplify sound when you’re speaking from the front of the room. There’s more of an incline to the seating than in auditorium 1. Seats, screen and carpets are all in good condition; capacity is 97 people.
Edward obliged a tech check. Everything seemed good: picture was in focus, aspect ratio correct, sound level neither too loud nor too soft, and we got a small portable amp set up with two microphones.
Gulp. Looks like we’re good to go!
Separate from the Bijou’s box office, Cinema Pacific had a table in the lobby for anyone buying tickets on the night of the show. I checked and made sure that the comp tickets promised for my animators were ready and waiting for their arrival.
I had put together a short survey for audience members, which was slipped into the PAN! program. As it turned out, Cinema Pacific was also doing surveys. Oops. After conferring, we all decided to slip the Cinema Pacific surveys into the PAN! programs, so as not to bombard attendees with too many loose papers. Even so, it felt a bit embarrassing to ask the audience to fill out two separate questionnaires. Next time, it would be wise to check with the host organization first.
People didn’t really start arriving until 10 minutes before the film, with a majority showing up in the last 5 minutes. It was a bit nerve-wracking, pacing the courtyard, reviewing my introductory notes, wondering if anyone was going to come. But this is also sort of what happened when we did our Best of the Fest event at the Hollywood Theatre. A lot of people aim to arrive at the last minute — we have to plan for that.
After a brief introduction from one of the Cinema Pacific event coordinators, I gave a little welcome speech. I knew from previous experience: keep it short — get to the films.
The lights went down, and the films began. To my surprise, there was a much different feel in the house from when we’ve done our other events. Previously, I’ve always made a big deal about the makers of the films being in the audience. There’s a sense of excitement in the air. People applaud after each short. This time, though, it felt like the audience wasn’t prepared to be socially engaged; they were simply there to watch a film, just like any other.
After the first short ended, Gretchin and I started to applaud. There was NO similar response from anyone else, so we stopped that immediately.
Despite the general lack of excitement, I was very relieved to hear the audience having audible emotional responses to the film. All the funny shorts got chuckles. There was a little gasp when we briefly see the main character in Ursula 1000 – Rocket topless. And once again, someone exclaimed “YEAH!” when the second Ruby Rocket short comes on.
Everything was going pretty well until Chef Antonio came on. The sound was was distorted due to being too loud. I rushed over to the projection booth…
The projection booths that I’ve encountered so far are universally a bizarre mix of super-new digital technology and old film canisters that have likely been hanging around since the 70s. This one was no different. It has a nice feature, though, which I’d been introduced to earlier: a master volume knob positioned at the door, so you can quickly adjust volume on the fly. Very handy, since folks in the projection booth seldom have an accurate sense of how loud a film is in the auditorium.
I started fussing with the volume when suddenly crisis struck: the sound cut out entirely!
I ran to the lobby as fast as I could and got Edward. He came and quickly fixed the problem, while the film was still in motion. The sound cut out once more during the Chef Antonio— but was then fine for the rest of the program.
What was the problem? It seems that this particular sound system has a “feature” that causes it to cut out if there’s clipping on the film’s audio track — supposedly to protect the speakers from damage. After it cuts out, you have to hit the on/off switch to reboot.
I’ve tried to be very careful about eliminating clipping in the films I receive, adjusting levels during the DVD mastering process to avoid this problem. I never expected, though, that there would be such a horrifying punishment if I missed an overly-loud spot in a soundtrack!
The same film has been fine in the other theaters where it’s played… But now I know that some equipment will bring the entire show to the stop if I make this mistake again. Painful lesson!
A few Portland animators thought that they’d be able to make it down to Eugene for the show. In the end, only Matthew Dan (Chef Antonio) and Cassandra Worthington (Button Song) could be on hand. Not a problem… Taking a suggestion from Gretchin, I shifted the focus of the talk away from interviewing the artists, and made it more of an “art appreciation 101” spiel.
After the film ended, the first thing I did was welcome the animators down to the stage with me. I asked the audience to give Matthew a very special round of applause, since he’d driven all the way from Portland and then had the bad luck of seeing his film suffer technical difficulties.
It was an awkward situation, but I’m pleased with how I spun it. I could have been apologetic about the technical failure — instead, this was an opportunity for the audience to extend some empathy to the filmmaker. Finding a way to bridge the emotional distance between the stage and everyone seated in the audience is a delicate art… This improvised solution seemed to work pretty well.
Something I only learned after the Q&A was over: the PAN! menu screen had been projecting across my face the entire time. It looks pretty strange in a lot of the photographs — and was distracting enough that someone actually mentioned it on their survey. Live and learn…
After it was all over, we emerged into a beautiful warm night in the Bijou’s courtyard. Venus beamed down from her perch in the wide cerulean sky.
Thank you to Richard Herskowitz and Larissa Ennis at Cinema Pacific for setting us up with this screening opportunity; to all of the kind Cinema Pacific volunteers overseeing the event; to Edward Schiessl for his grace under pressure and a good conversation; to all the filmmakers who contributed their fine work to the show; to Matthew Dan and Cassandra Worthington for joining me onstage; and to Gretchin Lair for help preparing the programs, driving us to Eugene, managing lobby matters, and tremendous support in every aspect of the NW Animation Fest..
Next up: The 2012 Northwest Animation Festival — with nearly 60 films from 15 countries — will play on May 18-19 at the Hollywood Theatre here in Portland. Tickets on sale now!