We had two short films, Not Fade Away and A Special Kind of Magic, accepted.
Years ago I attended the Garden State Film Festival with my short You or Me. Then, the festival was in Asbury Park, NJ. The festival had sprouted up as a part of Asbury Park's revitalization. Although the festival was small, shifting basically between the Asbury Park convention hall and the hotel Berkeley along the boardwalk, I really enjoyed the atmosphere, the beach in the Spring, the homegrown movies, and their ambition.
As Fictional Films was making a list of possible festivals, high on my list was the Garden State Film Festival. Since most of the Fictional Films team is based in New Jersey and both shorts were shot in New Jersey, I thought our shorts would fit perfectly into the festival's mission.
Moving from it's original base of Asbury Park, the GSFF was being held in Atlantic City for the first time. The festival had grown exponentially since my first entry five years ago.
The festival had spread out to 3 casinos, using several screening rooms at each venue, as well as having various workshops and out reach programs at cultural venues throughout the city. Rodney Reyes, producer and director at Fictional Films, and I tried our best to attend as many screenings and events as we could, but attending everything was impossible.
GSFF had several events during the week of March 31st, including a screening of a restored print of Douglas Fairbanks' The Black Pirate.
The weekend festivities began with a cocktail reception at the Resorts Casino on Friday night. Rodney, Rebecca, the writer and director of A Special Kind of Magic and I attended. The reception included a live band, cocktails, food and was packed with most of the film makers and VIPs. We quickly met other filmmakers and took some pictures on the red carpet.
After the cocktail party, the event shifted to a screening of Morgan Nichols' How to Make Movies at Home. The screening was at the main stage of Resorts, a throwback to the days of Rat Pack like crooners entertaining the adult crowd in between gambling sessions in the early days of legalized gambling in Atlantic City.
The next morning, Rodney and I attended the Filmmaker's breakfast at the Chelsea Hotel. We met and chatted to several filmmakers, including Morgan Nichols, whose movie had opened the festival the night before.
We had to leave early to attend the screening of Not Fade Away, back at the Resorts. Our short was including in a short film block that was being shown in the private screening room on the 13th floor of the Ocean Tower. The room was a leftover from the original Chalfonte-Haddon hotel, built in the 20s when Atlantic City was still the king of resort towns. On the floor was an impressive dark wood bar/lounge area that was being used as a filmmakers lounge that included the red carpet "step and repeat" banners. The screening room, originally made for silent films, was intimate and atmospheric, one of the best venues I've seen a short film block.
My father made the trip down to the short from near Philadelphia and several other team members attended the screening, including our camera operators, Joe Leech and Lea Burlew.
One of the shorts that screened with us eventually won the award for best student film.
After a break for lunch, we attended the screening of Michael Keller's Red Gold. Rodney, Rebecca and I met Michael at the cocktail reception on Friday night. Michael had self financed a feature film that was shot completely in India, without ever having been in India before and not knowing anyone who lived there.
After the screening we were invited to a private after party at the Landshark Bar and Grill on the boardwalk. One of Fictional Films' best friends, Jason Shanski, had worked on the feature length film Destressed by Gary Pastore. Jason was able to get us passes into the party where there was a live band, drinks and a deck hanging over the beach on a chilly night. We were also able to meet up with Fictional Films producer Enzo Domingo at the after parties.
Sunday morning was a much slower start, but our film A Special Kind of Magic was apart of the noon block at the private screening room on the 13th floor of the Ocean Tower. The turn out was even higher on Sunday afternoon. I had a few friends from High School make the trip to the festival and a few other of FF's friends attended. A documentary that screened with us ended up winning an award as well.
On Sunday night, Rodney and I attended the black tie awards banquet. The beginning of the night was a cocktail reception where we re-connected with people that we had met over the weekend. Attending the awards banquet were Laura Dern and her mother Diane Ladd, Ed Asner and Bebe Neuwirth.
Rodney and I ended up sitting with Morgan Nichols and another filmmaker Paul Pawlowski. The evening was a lot more fun than I was expecting. Both Morgan and Paul won awards for their categories. Our new friends that we met and partied with before from the movie Destressed, also won an award.
I had a great time meeting other filmmakers, sharing ideas, learning and putting our own work out there to be seen.
We have at least one more festival with Not Fade Away in May in Manhattan.
I'll post more information soon.
Years ago I attended the Garden State Film Festival with my short You or Me. Then, the festival was in Asbury Park, NJ. The festival had sprouted up as a part of Asbury Park's revitalization. Although the festival was small, shifting basically between the Asbury Park convention hall and the hotel Berkeley along the boardwalk, I really enjoyed the atmosphere, the beach in the Spring, the homegrown movies, and their ambition.
As Fictional Films was making a list of possible festivals, high on my list was the Garden State Film Festival. Since most of the Fictional Films team is based in New Jersey and both shorts were shot in New Jersey, I thought our shorts would fit perfectly into the festival's mission.
Moving from it's original base of Asbury Park, the GSFF was being held in Atlantic City for the first time. The festival had grown exponentially since my first entry five years ago.
The festival had spread out to 3 casinos, using several screening rooms at each venue, as well as having various workshops and out reach programs at cultural venues throughout the city. Rodney Reyes, producer and director at Fictional Films, and I tried our best to attend as many screenings and events as we could, but attending everything was impossible.
GSFF had several events during the week of March 31st, including a screening of a restored print of Douglas Fairbanks' The Black Pirate.
The weekend festivities began with a cocktail reception at the Resorts Casino on Friday night. Rodney, Rebecca, the writer and director of A Special Kind of Magic and I attended. The reception included a live band, cocktails, food and was packed with most of the film makers and VIPs. We quickly met other filmmakers and took some pictures on the red carpet.
After the cocktail party, the event shifted to a screening of Morgan Nichols' How to Make Movies at Home. The screening was at the main stage of Resorts, a throwback to the days of Rat Pack like crooners entertaining the adult crowd in between gambling sessions in the early days of legalized gambling in Atlantic City.
The next morning, Rodney and I attended the Filmmaker's breakfast at the Chelsea Hotel. We met and chatted to several filmmakers, including Morgan Nichols, whose movie had opened the festival the night before.
We had to leave early to attend the screening of Not Fade Away, back at the Resorts. Our short was including in a short film block that was being shown in the private screening room on the 13th floor of the Ocean Tower. The room was a leftover from the original Chalfonte-Haddon hotel, built in the 20s when Atlantic City was still the king of resort towns. On the floor was an impressive dark wood bar/lounge area that was being used as a filmmakers lounge that included the red carpet "step and repeat" banners. The screening room, originally made for silent films, was intimate and atmospheric, one of the best venues I've seen a short film block.
My father made the trip down to the short from near Philadelphia and several other team members attended the screening, including our camera operators, Joe Leech and Lea Burlew.
One of the shorts that screened with us eventually won the award for best student film.
After a break for lunch, we attended the screening of Michael Keller's Red Gold. Rodney, Rebecca and I met Michael at the cocktail reception on Friday night. Michael had self financed a feature film that was shot completely in India, without ever having been in India before and not knowing anyone who lived there.
After the screening we were invited to a private after party at the Landshark Bar and Grill on the boardwalk. One of Fictional Films' best friends, Jason Shanski, had worked on the feature length film Destressed by Gary Pastore. Jason was able to get us passes into the party where there was a live band, drinks and a deck hanging over the beach on a chilly night. We were also able to meet up with Fictional Films producer Enzo Domingo at the after parties.
Sunday morning was a much slower start, but our film A Special Kind of Magic was apart of the noon block at the private screening room on the 13th floor of the Ocean Tower. The turn out was even higher on Sunday afternoon. I had a few friends from High School make the trip to the festival and a few other of FF's friends attended. A documentary that screened with us ended up winning an award as well.
On Sunday night, Rodney and I attended the black tie awards banquet. The beginning of the night was a cocktail reception where we re-connected with people that we had met over the weekend. Attending the awards banquet were Laura Dern and her mother Diane Ladd, Ed Asner and Bebe Neuwirth.
Rodney and I ended up sitting with Morgan Nichols and another filmmaker Paul Pawlowski. The evening was a lot more fun than I was expecting. Both Morgan and Paul won awards for their categories. Our new friends that we met and partied with before from the movie Destressed, also won an award.
I had a great time meeting other filmmakers, sharing ideas, learning and putting our own work out there to be seen.
We have at least one more festival with Not Fade Away in May in Manhattan.
I'll post more information soon.
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The following photos and captions are combined from various sources over the weekend and taken directly from our page.
Early Friday afternoon drive south to Atlantic City.
Director Rebecca Jean Cortes & Actor Jonathan Weirich.
Taking a picture on the red carpet.
Directors Rodney Reyes & Rebecca Jean Cortes at the opening night reception at the Garden State Film Festival.
Friday Night Gala Cocktail Party & Screening at the Resort Hotel & Casino.
Partaking in the food at the Gala.
Talking with other filmmakers at the Friday Night Cocktail Party.
Our hotel for the weekend: Resorts Hotel & Casino.
At the Filmmaker Breakfast for the Garden State Film Festival. Photo credit: Grace Raver.
Looking South from the Green Room on the 13th floor of the Ocean Tower.
Jonathan Weirich, Enzo Domingo, Rodney Reyes
My Dad and I and Saturday's screening of Not Fade Away
In the Green Room
Joe and Rebeca at Landshark's for the after party.
Before Sunday's screening.
Q&A with the filmmakers about their films including "A Special Kind of Magic"
Cast & Crew of "A Special Kind of Magic." Actor Brendan Naranjo, Director of Photography Joe Leach, Writer/Director Rebecca Jean Cortes, Director of Photography Lea Burlew and Actor Jonathan Weirich.
Lea Burlew, Director of Photography.
Rodney and I before the awards banquet.
On the Red Carpet
Next to Laura Dern on the red carpet.
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