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Making a Movie on a Budget — and Onto the Streaming Services
A fairy tale with a happy ending
I was embarrassed.
It was Friday afternoon in September of last year and the Full Bloom Film Festival (in Statesville, North Carolina) was having its opening day. I was the venue host at our largest venue for the afternoon, ready to screen a feature narrative film.
As venue host, it was my job to make sure things were running well and everyone felt welcome. I also get to introduce the film, and if the filmmakers are present I get to lead the Q&A afterward. It’s one of my favorite things.
The film was called Sendero and I absolutely loved it, but it was shown on a Friday afternoon at our film festival and only a hamdful of people showed up. The fact that it was in the auditorium of our largest film festival venue made it seem more empty.
While I was a bit apprehensive that the filmmakers would be disappointed, they weren’t at all. They are optimists. That small audience created a bit of electricity, and they felt it. The Q&A was lively.
They told me at the end they especially loved the audience had a large number of middle-aged women — a demographic whose reaction they were curious about. The audience laughed heartily when they hoped a joke would hit, and was…
