Orlando Film Festival

I had a great time flying in to Orlando for the 19th Annual Orlando Film Festival and the world premiere of The Comic Shop. I stayed from opening night until the final day of the festival, checking out a number of fun movies from other filmmakers from shorts to features. Unfortunately, our lead actor Jesse Metcalfe wasn’t able to attend because he fell ill just before his flight, but our editor Jeremy Brunson came to celebrate and hang out along with one of my close friends from high school. Daniel Springen runs the festival and works hard to ensure every filmmaker has a great time, that their movies are properly honored, and that we can all meet other artists working hard toward the same goals.

Ultimately, I was honored to receive nominations for Best Feature and Best Director, besides a fun win for Best Poster. Our poster artist was the legendary Steven Chorney, who drew the Once Upon A Time in Hollywood poster along with movies like Monster Trucks and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. The Tarantino movie’s poster inspired me because of the way it tells the movie’s story through the poster, full of hidden gems and drawings that make sense after having seen the film, too. We were fortunate Mr. Chorney agreed to create a beautiful poster for the film and his efforts paid off.

I met too many awesome people at the festival to mention them all, but we often hung out at the makeshift bar where sponsors like Stella Artois, Neutrl, and Tito’s Vodka provided free drinks for filmmakers with VIP Elite passes. Though the festival was a lot of fun, the mass shooting in Downtown Orlando on Halloween night (opening night for the festival) was tragic, killing 2 and wounding 7 others. My editor and I had walked through the exact area of the shooting just 45 minutes earlier going back to our hotel, so it provided a bit of a scary reminder how fortunate or unfortunate your timing can be in life. My condolences to everyone affected by the night’s events.