Hey everybody!
What a great week we just had:
Regular visitors here know that we were in two film festivals with Life With Fiona this past weekend - Temecula Valley in California and Estes Park in Colorado - and fun was had by all…
Last night (Sunday the 16th) Greg and Avery (and Blue, Cristofer, Rob and Kate) enjoyed the Temecula Valley gala event (we didn’t win anything there but had what I understand were some excellent screenings - thanks, Temecula audiences!) while I represented our film in Estes Park. After a weekend of making some new friends and seeing lots of cool new films, it was icing on the cake for me to accept not one but TWO Best Feature Film awards!
We won the Jury Award as well as the Audience Award! And while the physical awards themselves are very special - photos coming soon - the recognition for this film - a project that has been in the works for well over three years now - was simply fantastic.
I am in a rush so I will elaborate more later, but for now let me just say a(nother) THANK YOU to everyone who was part of the festival(s), and a special thanks is due to the Estes Park directors Sean and Cliff as well as Temecula director Jo, their staffs, the other filmmakers, and most importantly to everyone: to the AUDIENCES who gave us such love.
This is very meaningful for all of us involved in the life OF Fiona, and on everyone’s behalf I want to sincerely thank you.
In other news - which I will also detail more later - it is now OFFICIAL:
Life With Fiona has been nominated for Best International Feature Film at the International Feature and Shortfilm Festival of Rome (formerly the Il Corto Shortfilm Fest)! Greg Lobb and I “have” to attend a black-tie awards dinner in Rome, Italy on December 3rd of this year to see if we’ve won, but the details of this event that I DO know are blowing my mind, frankly, so we’re very excited.
More later - and thanks again!
September 20th, 2007
This is shaping up to be an AWESOME few weeks around here at Team Fiona! Here’s the short version, ’cause it’s late and I’ve got to rest up before we kick it all off in the morning:
LIFE WITH FIONA is playing in TWO great festivals this week: Estes Park, COlorado and Temecula Valley, California.
Screening times and our individual schedules vary (and Greg and Brendan won’t always be in the same place at the same time; gonna get some real travel in this week, too), but the highlights of the Fiona schedule for us (me and Greg) is:
- WEDNESDAY, Sept. 12th: it’s the Temecula Valley kickoff party (the afternoon though the night)! Greg, Avery Clyde, co-producer Blue Nelson, and me (Brendan) will be there with other friends to get this weekend started right!
And BONUS: see any member of the Fiona posse for a surprise gift (i.e., a giveaway that doesn’t suck)!
- FRIDAY, September 14th: we’re the OPENING NIGHT FILM at Estes Park! 9PM or as soon as we can corral everyone’s (hopefully somewhat drunk, except for the drivers) post-Kickoff Party selves into the actual theater. We’re playing in the historic Park Theater no less, the oldest operating movie theater West of the Mississippi River. History is groovy…
Man, I (Brendan) can not WAIT for this (Greg, too). Don’t disappoint me, Colorado! I’m spending the rest of my weekend with you, dammit! 
(I used to live in Colorado and have visited there several times since, and I love it in general, and Estes Park is a gorgeous resort town - home of the Stanley Hotel of the “inspiration for Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’” Stanley Hotels, among other amazing landmarks - where I’ve also spent a night or two and it is something truly special. It’s “hard to get on the plane home” nice.
Moving on.)
- SATURDAY, September 15th:[ Greg may or may not be able to join me for long on a panel discussion at Estes Park that morning in order to catch his flight back to California, which will whisk him BACK to Temecula Valley and to the good care of many of our cast and crew and friends who will join him at that festival, while I stay behind in Estes Park to enjoy the company of some great people I’ve only just met, but with whom I share that special, “fellow festivalgoer” bond with (he says optimistically).
Anyway, back to Temecula! LIFE WITH FIONA again screens, this time in my adopted home state (California, in case you’re not paying much attention by now) at 7PM at the Movie Experience theaters.. Greg and a whole gang of FoF (Friends of Fiona) will be there for a Q&A afterwards and they WILL be ready for fun, too, so I hope you have it.
(And hey, I will be enjoying some “me” and “me and new friends” time surrounded by mountain air and movies in ways you can’t imagine, so don’t worry about me.)
then, lastly for this bit:
SUNDAY, September 16th.
What a day this should be:
LIFE WITH FIONA again screens at Temecula, this time at 1PM. Greg and the one and only AVERY CLYDE! will be there for a Q&A afterwards with more cast members and producers and whatnot. Tell ‘em I said hello if you’re there, okay?
While this is happening, I will probably be in the middle of a Shorts screening or a plate of eggs or something - but I’ll be happy!
Then, that night, there are [b]awards galas[/b] at both festivals to be attended that will both, in there own ways, be a LOT of fun regardless of who’s where, so if you want specifics PLEASE visit each festival’s webpage or Myspace (I’ll link to them below) for more info.
Please also visit OURS (also below) if you saw the movie and wanted to say hi or anything else, to COMMENT on this post (comments are blocked here - thank you, Spam robots!), or for any other reason you feel like (including “none at all”).
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And on Monday, we’ll have an announcement that - regardless of awards outcome at the festivals (which WOULD be nice, no lie) - will be very cool and make you hate us a little bit - but in a good way.
See you somewhere soon!
Brendan
P.S.
LIFE WITH FIONA MYSPACE:
http://www.myspace.com/lifewithfiona
Temecula Valley International Film and Music Festival WEBSITE (not working as I type this; what up?):
http://www.tviff.com/
Estes Park Film Festival MYSPACE:
http://www.myspace.com/sdientertainment
P.P.S. I think should re-title this post “Return Of The Overused Exclamation Point”. 
September 12th, 2007
DancesWithFilms knows how to rock it. For anyone looking to learn from their success, the winning ingredients are:
- a good location
- some very dedicated and cool staffers and volunteers
- CONSTANT communication with the filmmakers (VERY VERY important and EASY, yet VERY overlooked by many smaller fests - STIFF notwithstanding; everything I’m saying about DWF applies to STIFF as well!)
- a slate of killer, off-beat indie films from sharp, personable filmmakers on the move
Mix it all together and you end up delivering a great experience to filmmakers and film fans alike, and for our part we here at Team Fiona are very grateful for the love shown us and everyone else during this recent great week of indie film fun.
Next up for us: we’re screening in Cleveland, Ohio on August 5th as part of The Indie Gathering - where we have WON a Jury Prize for BEST ROMANTIC COMEDY (1st runner up) - and we’ll also be in Colorado for the Estes Park Film Festival from September 14-16 (our screening date and time is TBD). Catch us at one or the other if you can!
We are also awaiting word on several OTHER fests and will be applying to a few more that should keep us moving the film around the country (and world) throughout the rest of 2007, so hopefully we’ll see you soon.
July 13th, 2007
Or so I hear, so please get yours ASAP if you’re planning to attend.
They are available at the Laemmle box office or via Dances With Films at:
http://www.danceswithfilms.com/schedule.html
Thanks and we look forward to seeing some of you there!
- Brendan, for Team Fiona
July 9th, 2007
We’re pleased to tell you that LIFE WITH FIONA is playing as part of the 2007 DANCES WITH FILMS festival on TUESDAY, July 10th @ 2:45 PM at the LAEMMLE SUNSET 5 Theaters in West Hollywood.
TICKETS will be available soon at the boxoffice or online at the LAEMMLE’s ticketing website.
Many Dances With Films screenings SELL OUT and if one-tenth the people we’re inviting make it ours will, too, so please buy yours in advance if you can.
We hope to see you there!
- Team Fiona
June 13th, 2007
It’s official and we can now announce it.
We are VERY VERY HAPPY about this development for countless reasons, but here are a few:
- DWF’s stated mission is to spotlight EMERGING talent, therefore they ONLY book films that are truly low budget (I think the cut-off is $1 million, which is awesome) and have NO (big name) STARS.
(Of course, we LOVE stars - some of them, anyway - but for movies such as ours that are FILLED with talented actors who have done lots of quality work but who have yet to “break out” and need every chance they can get, this is the rare festival that caters SPECIFICALLY to what we’re all about here.)
- I have attended many DWF screenings over the 5 years I’ve lived in L.A. and their slate of films is always top-notch, so the odds of us being surrounded by lots of really groovy, deserving “small films that could” is very high. Greg and I both plan to wear out our “all access” filmmaker badges and see as many movies and shorts as possible, so if you’re there for anything you’ll probably see us - and please say hi if you do, if you’re not creepy!
- a few years ago I was actually a screener for the festival in the early rounds (alongside my pal Jim and his buddy Dave, two really great DPs), and I got to see firsthand the level of care and thought that went into the selection process. Films undergo so much scrutiny before being accepted that being “in” here feels like we just got a warm hug on behalf of everyone’s hard work - a feeling we hope they will share when we screen the NEW CUT for them and everyone else.
We have an enormous amount of work to do before the festival (we don’t know our screening date yet but trust me, you’ll hear all about it when we do!). Happily, though, it’s almost all promo stuff instead of technical craziness.
(And it’s COOL promo stuff at that, if I do say so myself; details soon.)
As far as the film itself goes, we basically just have to make and proof a Digibeta master of this cut and turn it in. That’s it, I think. But we have a pretty massive amount of new art to design, print, and Web implement in various ways - on posters, postcards, and on websites (such as this one) that we need to do a SERIOUS refresh / update on - plus (hopefully) tons of PR stuff to attend to, several SPECIAL EVENTS to plan (coming soon - these will be really cool and we hope you’ll join us) and much, much more…
Check back soon and we hope we see you at Dances With Films!
- Brendan, for T.F.
June 11th, 2007
And while I think we can announce it, I want to wait until it’s officially cool to do so.
But my friends, this one will be fantastic:
- our local cast and crew and friends can all see the NEW CUT together for the first time
- we can meet other filmmakers and compare notes on tons of stuff
- and we can get it in front of FRESH eyes and see what they think!
So as soon as I hear back in the affirmative and get a few more of the specifics, I will blog away here.
Comment on Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/lifewithfiona), please. Thanks!
- Brendan, for Team Fiona
June 7th, 2007
We’re pleased to announce that Life With Fiona will be playing the Flint Film Festival on Sunday, May 20th and the Seattle True Independent Film Festival on June 2nd.
If you’ll be in the area please let us know so we can look for you, and if you have any questions about either festival you can check our Myspace page or write us here and we will get back to you ASAP.
Thanks for your support and cheers!
May 9th, 2007
You can thank Spammers worldwide for this move, but I got sick and tired of moderating countless “comments” daily to this board and had to take action.
Thanks as always for having a peek at our news here, and if you want to leave us comments and whatnot please visit us on Myspace.
Cheers!
- Brendan, for Team Fiona
April 23rd, 2007
This afternoon we found out that Life With Fiona got accepted into the Seattle True Independent Film Festival (STIFF for short), where my short film Age Inappropriate debuted two years ago. We’re very excited to have received the call from Kevin Gilbert, the festival director, this afternoon to let us know. Kevin said they have expanded to 10 days this year and they are looking forward to a great slate of films, so we’re honored to be included.
More details as we get them.
Cheers!
Brendan
April 10th, 2007
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