Until next year WFF

I had a great time at the Whistler Film Festival with friends.


"The Trotsky" opened the festival, it was about Leon Trotsky a teen who thinks he's the reincarnation of Lenin Trotsky.


My favorite film was "Chole" directed by Atom Egoyan. A drama about love, starring Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried and Liam Neeson. Which was the screened after the Tribute to Ivan Reitman (he produced it).


We also watched "The Wild Hunt", a live action role playing film and "Suck" a vampire film and some short films.


Can't wait till next year.

Whistler Film Festival

Tucker and In The Key of Evil are both screening at Whistler Film Festival Dec 3-6.


So 8 of us are going up to watch and celebrate!

More Festivals

Last night/ early morning I got a message about 5 more festivals "The Peace Offering" will be in.


They are: Swansea Bay Film Festival, International Film Festival Egypt, International Film Festival Thailand, International Youth Film Festival, and Africa Enterprise International Christian Film Festival.


Now to decide where to go...

LA and AFI Film Festival

We finally arrived in LA! After the longest layover in Seattle and then a mechanical problem in Salt Lake City. We a\made it!


Janessa and I took public transportation from LAX and boy did it suck but it's cheaper. Our hostel is right on Hollywood Blvd, near the Chinese Theatre. Not the best hostel but who needs a hotel when you plan on not being in it. :D


We arrived around 4pm and decided to check in and then see if we could get rush tickets to see the premire of "A Single Man" starrring Colin Firth and directed by Tom Ford. That's fashion designer Tom Ford!! We stood in line for a little over an hour and got in! The film was a romantic tragedy, really well done, something to go see when it comes out in theatres. Apart from that we saw it in the Chinese Theatre which is an iconic place for everything Hollywood. It was pretty sureal sitting in the theatre and seeing actors like Catherine O'Hera and Tom Hanks' wife Rita, who only sat 5 feet away from me.


Now we are just waiting for the rest of our crew to join us. All in all a great start to our LA adventure.

The Journey Begins

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go...

That's right people I'm heading off to Hollywood! The journey begins on the famous Greyhound bus to Seattle. Then Janessa and I get to camp out for 5 hours while we wait for our Delta flight, to Salt Lake City.

Stay tuned for more lovely letters from me. :D

International Hollywood Student Film Festival 2009

Going to Hollywood November 5th to 12th, because three films I worked on this year are screening. Tucker, Level Up and Whole.


Even better news the AFI Film Festival is also running the same week and tickets are free!

The Big Move Part Deux

Oct 17th - day 2 of the move

1. What a great sleep, the storm kept me up! Thanks Mother Nature.
2. 8:30am the movers arrive
3. 11am movers leave, but I've got to wait till 1pm for the new tenants to come measure doors
4. Vacuuming dog hair while I wait.
5. Mom phones, the movers broke a piece of furniture!
6. Tenants arrive and apparently they didn't need to come after all.
7. Get home in time for coffee at Joe's and unpacking.

The saga ends finally.

The Big Move

So my family and I bought a place and today was our move. After 16 years of living in the same dump you would expect things to go well but I've got one word for you disaster!

1. We didn't finish packing till this morning, that's right I live with procrastinators.
2. The movers came at 9am but were supposed to come at 1pm
3. Mom left me behind at 11am because we were supposed to get the keys at 12pm
4. Guess what the old tenants were still moving out!!!
5. Old tenants didn't clean anything, yuck!
6. Telus man came to install our TV, phone and internet, BUT whoever installed the stuff before did it all wrong wires in the wrong way, so the poor Telus guy had to spend way more time.
7. Our movers "Mennonite Movers" arrived at 3pm. 
8. Got the keys to our new place at 4pm, so Mom started cleaning.
9. The elevator we had to book was only until 5pm
10. Apparently you can't move into your place after 6pm or you get fined! *shakes fist*
11. Mom said screw it.
12. 815pm and we are done for tonight, I'll be up at 8am tomorrow to finish the rest. =(
13. I even get to sleep at the old place tonight hurrah

Home

Arrived in Vancouver at 12:20pm.

Went through customs, I mean machines. Get this there were no actual customs officials there to ask you questions you just put your passport in a machine and slip your declaration documents in too. Since airports hate Brandon his machine didn't like him so he had to refill all the info electronically, lame.


Got home and went to bed early. Time to catch up on my sleep zzzzzzz

Last day in London

Slept in. We went to the British Museum, 4hrs later we hoped on the tube to buy tickets to Les Miserables (Brandon's choice).

Ate at the Rainforest Cafe for dunch (dinner/lunch) in Piccadilly Circus.

Went to Trafalgar's Square, where we found the Canadian Embassy and a few other Canadian places.

Walked down to the Thames River, man is it BROWN! Almost got killed J-walking.

Saw Les Miserables. It was good, seats were ok.

First day in London

We did a lot today.

1) Westminster Abbey, soo many dead people.
2) Buckingham Palace, pretty but too big for me.
3) Natural History Museum, we spent almost 4hrs here and we didn't even finish
4) Harrods, my pick of the day! Dani and I even signed up for a Harrods Rewards Card =P
5) Wicked, that's right Elphaba vs. Glinda

My feet hurt.

Tomorrow's the British Museum.

Sad Goodbyes

We were the last ones to leave Knockofty. I didn't know how much I would miss Ireland until we got to Cork Airport, it's become my third home. Had a blast and hope to be back next year.

Flight arrived ok, caught our first train to Clapham Junction. Then another to Sheperd's Bush. The British have weird names for things. While we were waiting we saw a couple make out on the platform. And you know the saying "Mind the Gap" it's true if you don't you will fall to your death.

Well our hostel is right beside a movie theatre so we are going to see "The Picture of Dorian Gray".

Through a rock and into the Atlantic

That's right I climbed through a rock today!

The Wizard took Brandon, Dani, Neive and myself out to the beach where there is a cliff with a slit in it, where if you climb up 12 feet you can just barley fit through and go to the other side. We were the only ones on the other side which made it better, to leave we decided to swim/drift around the cliff back to the other side. That was an awesome thing the current just took you and knew where you wanted to go.

Dani and I stood up Dennis English (50 million euro-aire) to go on our adventure. lol

The last remaining filmmers ordered take away and had one last meal together.

Jazz Trio

Tonight we had The Wizard on the keyboard, a double bass player and drummer playing jazz in the library at Knocklofty. The house was packed!

7am...

Last night the bar at Knocklofty didn't close until 7am. It was Dani, Eddie, Barry and I there till the end.

Dancin'

Last night Fiona and Dec did some ballroom dancing at the Park Hotel. She was just gorgeous. I myself did some dancing (not ballroom) with friends I met. A big wig in Clonmel came out and there were photos and handshaking etc.
We all came back to Knocklofty and just hung out with everyone. I met Fiona's freind Barry, and her brother Brian. I didn't get to bed till 630am.

The Peace Offering

We woke up late after a night of talking about ghosts in Kocklofty.
Today "The Peace Offering" played and we got really good comments from everyone. =)
After that we ate sandwhices in the library. The film fest arranged a bus to take us out to a couple pubs in the country side. The second pub had a little entry way into a piece of forestry which looked pretty in the moonlight.
Everyone came back to Knocklofty and we all stayed up talking till 4am, but by the time we were settled the sun was coming up so we talked and went down to eat breakfast at 730am. Potato cakes are amazing!!!

Tucker and Exploring

Ate breakfast. Watched Tucker and then "The Wizard" took us exploring.
We went to Swiss Cottage, then we went on a walk along the river and to a cemetary towards Cahir Castel.
After that "The Wiz" picked us up and we went to Knockgriffon's Moate, tale has it that fairies took the hump off a hunchback and place it there. It's a look out point were you can see all around. On the way down Dani and our new freind Caleb decided to go down on their bums. LOL.
Then we went to a Handball (Squash)court attached to an old school.
Next was the Ring Fort by Rockwell College. Where we climbed over barbed wire and electirc fence, and got bit by the thistles.
Athassal Abbey which was distroyed by the Vikings, so you can guess how old it is. It was my favourite place on the tour.
The Rock of Cashel, which legend has it, the Devil's Bit was created when the devil bit into the mountian and then spit out the "Rock" of Cashel.
On the way home we wen to St. Patrick's Well. The water was so clean, we basically got baptised from the inside out. LOL.
Instead of going to the pub crawl Brandon and I stayed home and watched some of the short films and met Eddie's mom, who lives in Lanzarote, another late night.

First Day!

It was the first day at the festival and my first Hurley game.

Woke up and had breakfast (scrambled�eggs a lock of salmon) it was delicious.

Watched a few films, "The Other End of the Gun", "Toxic Playground" and "Snap" are my favs so far.

Then we were off to one of the pubs in town to watch a Hurley game, Tipp vs. Killkenny. It was a really tight game all the way through, but sadly Tipp lost =(

After the game, we kind of did our own little pub crawl, the first one was to have a mourning drink and then we went to another to go eat dinner (salmon with crisps).

Home to Knocklofty.�

We had our own sing a long in the library with Alan Cox (son of Brian Cox), Will and Steven Parks.�Meet people from Sweden who came just to see "Toxic Playground". After many hours most heading home or to bed, but we end up in the Knocklofty Bar! Met our chef Leon from�Lithuania�who bought everyone a drink or five. Got a new nickname "Shy Girl" from Leon. With Eddie as our bartender we sat around drinking and having�tons�of laughs until about 3am!

Tomorrow "Tucker" plays.

13 hour sleep

So our first real day in Ireland and we slept 13 hours! Jet-lag.

We walked around the Knocklofty House enjoying the view. Brandon and Dani both got stung by a wasp.

Ate in at the hotel a three course meal. I had baked breaded chooley cheese salad with strawberries for the appetizer. For the main course I had Rainbow trout with potatoes boxy and carrots and peas and for dessert I had Irish cream cheesecake which was to die for.

Tomorrow we are going to watch a hurling game, it's like the hockey of Ireland.

We've arrived in Clonmel!

We are here! It's 1130 Irish time.

Met some people from Cork at the airport there. Took some photos with stuffies. lol.

Met an ex vancouverite as well, who lives in Iceland. Hi Angela!

But I should head off to bed.

The irish are extremely freindly!!!

Waiting at Gatwick Airport

Here waiting at London Gatiwick Airport.
Our journey so far has been good. We got 2 meals on our flight with Thomas Cook Airlines. The meals were better than I've had on planes in the past which is good. Our flight had 3 movies to choose from; 17 Again, Monsters vs. Aliens and Pink Panther 2. Our TV screens were right in front of us, attached to the person's seat infront.
On the flight here we met a nice couple from Cardiff, Wales. They pointed out where we were and gave us some tips for traveling in Ireland.
Next we meet up with Dani and head to Cork.

That's a Wrap

That's a wrap on World War Geek! It's been a month long blast. Thanks to everyone, I'll miss you all.

Aug 31st today and we leave on Sept 3rd to Ireland. Yikes.
I'm so excited, I'm nervous. =P
Well it's 2:20am here I should get to bed so I can finish packing and such.

Night all.

September 26th!

September 26th at 9pm, The Peace Offering will be shown at the YoungCuts Film Festival at Cinema du Parc Theatre in Montreal.
The En Primeur Best Visual Films Screening will feature: La S�ance En Primeur Meilleur Films Visuels, incluant:

Retiring Clean by/par Caillie West, Canada.
Pushing Buttons by/par Quinn Cagney, USA.
A Very Merry Christmas by/par Jonathon Gittus, Australia.
The Peace Offering by/par Brandon Tom, Canada.
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by/par Joe Ciaravino, Canada.
Sasquatch by/par Fahim Kassam, Canada.
Foreign Soil by Mazi Khalighi, Canada.
Macabre Muse by/par Daniel Devine, USA.
The Bridge by/par Sheldon Schwartz, USA.

7 more days left until Ireland and I all I've done is design business cards.

Thank you!

A big thank you to everyone that came and pre-bought tickets to last night's fundraiser.

With the money we received last night, we can use it to pay for our hotel in Clonmel!

http://knockloftyhousehotel.com/

There's only 8 more days left until we leave and there is still so much to do. Yikes!

Things to do:

- Business Cards

- Pack
- Buy dress for gala

- Exchange CND$ or Euros

- Promo flyers for "Peace Offering"
- find second hotel

Ireland here we come!

Tickets are bought!!

On Aug 24th at 7pm we(Brandon, Dani and I) are holding a fundraiser for Ireland.

We will be showing Back to the Future on the big screen. Tickets are $10. There will also be a raffle form some great prizes.

For more info contact either one of us.

Youngcuts Film Festival

"The Peace Offering" has been accepted at the YoungCuts Film Festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This is the second festival to accept "The Peace Offering".

Your film has been chosen one of the top 100 films at the YoungCuts Film Festival. Your film is also on the short list of films being considered for our Best Editing Award and Best Cinematography Award. These films will all be screened together in one screening between September 25th and October 1st at Cinema du Parc in Montreal.

Visit www.youngcuts.com for more details.