Shaking Jake’s West hand on stage.

On October 10 2009, OLD NUMBER 7 (which I co wrote, co produced and acted in) was unleashed upon its first audience at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain. The mammoth crowd at hand was a party crowd and they were there to have a good time and a good time they had. So after great man Jake West (Evil Aliens) introduced my sorry ass, I ran up on the Sitges stage winged a speech and the film rolled on.

NOTE: I discovered that night that I am a natural at talking at crowds when sober that is – when drunk I make a fool of myself, so lesson learned – no more drunk speeches.

Addressing the Sitges crowd

From my perspective the screening went well for 4 reasons. 1- Lots of the audience seemed to like it. They were obviously entertained, they clapped and cheered. 2- No booing. 3- I actually liked the film. The intro is KILLER and at least 2 other scenes really work in my opinion. 4- When you work on a film for a long period of time, you don’t see it anymore and it takes a screening like this, with folks totally detached from the production watching it, to TRULY discover what works and what doesn’t work.

So in the case of Old Number 7, a couple of times, the audience laughed at parts that were not supposed to be funny. Now you can take this two ways, get bummed about it and sulk or you can take it MY WAY, be happy that you now know that these bits don’t work and that you can go back and fix them. IMO, 85% of the film worked.

Me and co star Sergio Bernal. Love that dude!

When the screening was done, we had a mini wrap party in Gonzalo Lopez’s (who directed the film) Hotel room. We had a bottle of Jack going (Old Number 7 – get it!) and we basically enjoyed each other’s company and discussed the pros and the cons of the screening. So where we at? After much talk with director Lopez, we’re going in the editing room one last time to fix what didn’t work.

I personally SEE the film again and feel confident that this further trip in the cutting room will make a good short film even better. To be continued on that shite!

Some of the Old Number 7 cast and crew

FINAL NOTE: Man I look like crap in that movie. During the shoot I didn’t sleep much (insomnia) so I got bloated and tired. I swear I look 50 years old in some scenes. The fact that we didn’t have makeup didn’t help either. Yup, another lesson learned – I will NEVER agree to act in a film with no makeup. Never, EVER!

Ah the joys of Indie filmmaking…how I love thee… later yall!

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