From: Elizabeth Harrison- Writer/Director
We are so happy about the support the film received while at SXSW. Austin was amazing and we miss Texas already.
We arrived in Austin the day before the SXSW film festival began. There was an eiry calm about the town, as everyone geared up for what was going to be a long and hectic weekend.
Friday morning Lauren and I woke up at the crack of dawn to do an interview on the local Austin Fox affiliate morning show. By noon the Festival was in full gear. We headed down to the convention center to register and promote the film. The festival has more than 5000 registrants. Most, we were told, register on the first day. So we wanted to make sure that as many as possible knew about the film. Thanks to the help of many volunteers we handed postcards and buttons to everyone waiting in line, and those walking around the convention center. With the thousands of people walking around I realized that we had some serious competition for attention. There were literally hundreds of postcards everywhere. I had to hope ours might stand out.
We spent Friday evening and all day Saturday attending parties and promoting the film. Sunday morning Lauren, Gabe and I interviewed at the local ABC affiliate. We hoped that despite daylight savings happening the night before and the fact that it was like 7am that we might spark some interest in moviegoers.
A few hours later a storm blew in. This was a torrential Texas downpour. I mean flooding and all. It literally had been beautiful up until then. Our Premiere was scheduled for 10pm at the Dobie theater. While driving there with my husband I just started to panic and worried that no one would show up.
Despite it all, though, we had an amazing turnout. When the first theater filled, I looked at my Producers and Coordinator and we collectively decided to open another theater at the same venue and screen a DVD we had with us. This theater filled up as well.
Our second screening was on Thursday, four days later. We were so happy with the turnout of the first screening we did very little to promote the second one. The festival also had started to transition from film to music and it became more difficult to try to figure out who we should promote to. I told my husband I knew of about 20 people who said they were coming and I honestly didn’t expect more than that. But, unbeknownst to us a buzz had been generated about the film since the first screening and people were waiting in line to see the movie when we arrived. We sold out this screening too.
I am so thankful for the support of the film. If you were there…thank you.
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