Just wanted to say it was a most wonderful weekend at the Film Festival in Topeka! For those of you who were unable to attend, you missed a lot of excitement! Rodney and his orchestra were at their very best!
Rodney, I look forward to seeing you next year!!!!
--Larry S.
To all those who were a part of the hard work at the festival this weekend. I would like to say a very big thank you!!!! This was my first experience at one of these type of festivals. I must say it was truly wonderful. It left me with a better understanding of the silent flim industry. I came away with a new apperication of the silent flim. I will definitely watch more of them. In fact I have volunteered to help with the festival in 2006, in Topeka . Again thank you to all who helped make this festival such a great experience.
"Larry S" <larrys66di...@mywdo.com> writes: >Just wanted to say it was a most wonderful weekend at the Film Festival in >Topeka! For those of you who were unable to attend, you missed a lot of >excitement! Rodney and his orchestra were at their very best!
For the first time since I've attempted to attend the festival in Topeka, I managed to attend without experiencing a major traumatic event. I'm considering this a good sign. (Some of you may remember my previous attempts, which were cut short by things like car wrecks... ;) My sweetie, my mother and I went to the Saturday evening showings only, but it was great. Mom had never seen "Phantom of the Opera" so it was pretty exciting for her. The shorts beforehand were great, and I about lost my socks laughing so hard at Laurel and Hardy's "Wrong Again". "Phantom" is so fun. My only complaint is that I picked the wrong place to sit, but it was entirely my fault. One of the volunteers -- his name is PHIL -- had his three young girls with him, and they all sat next to us, talking and fidgeting and being general jerks. I was really po'ed that Phil the volunteer was even talking during "Phantom". I hope he doesn't volunteer again. Dr Marvin Faulwell was great, of course, better than previous years. The orchestra was AMAZING. It was all just phenomenal but the romantic part where he's taking her to his lair was the best. You guys rock my socks. Mom really loved you guys. I'm going to have to get her a Mont Alto CD for her birthday. I wanted to say hi to Eric Grayson and Rodney and the rest of the orchestra but mom is recovering from a serious illness and was pretty tired and dizzy by 10:00, so we went right home. I did wave at Rodney when he was introduced at the end, but with about 8 million others in the audience, I doubt that he saw me. Maybe next year I'll get to say hi -- I may try to attend more of the festival to see how it goes.
When you spoke of children in the audience, I must add one thing: I noticed that, perhaps, 5% of the audience attendees were children, most of whom behaved very well. (Sorry to hear about YOUR experience!) But, as my wife and I were watching "Wrong Again", I heard children from about 2 rows behind me laughing hysterically at the film. And It did my heart good to hear this laughter, because kids nowadays cannot get away from Nintendo or XBox long enough to watch this type of thing. In addition, children nowadays watching something in BLACK & WHITE?!?! WITHOUT VOICE?!?! I was excited that, in this day & age, children watching these comedians in black & white, without sound, and whom have been deceased for decades could laugh hysterically!
What a beautifull sound!!!!
Thank you to the parents for exposing your children to these films, so that this historic, golden age of Hollywood will never die!!!! These children will come to appreciate something long since forgotten!!!!
--Larry S.
"Glitter Ninja" <sta...@xmission.com> wrote in message
> >Just wanted to say it was a most wonderful weekend at the Film Festival in > >Topeka! For those of you who were unable to attend, you missed a lot of > >excitement! Rodney and his orchestra were at their very best!
> For the first time since I've attempted to attend the festival in > Topeka, I managed to attend without experiencing a major traumatic event. > I'm considering this a good sign. (Some of you may remember my previous > attempts, which were cut short by things like car wrecks... ;) > My sweetie, my mother and I went to the Saturday evening showings only, > but it was great. Mom had never seen "Phantom of the Opera" so it was > pretty exciting for her. > The shorts beforehand were great, and I about lost my socks laughing so > hard at Laurel and Hardy's "Wrong Again". "Phantom" is so fun. My only > complaint is that I picked the wrong place to sit, but it was entirely my > fault. > One of the volunteers -- his name is PHIL -- had his three young girls > with him, and they all sat next to us, talking and fidgeting and being > general jerks. I was really po'ed that Phil the volunteer was even > talking during "Phantom". I hope he doesn't volunteer again. > Dr Marvin Faulwell was great, of course, better than previous years. > The orchestra was AMAZING. It was all just phenomenal but the romantic > part where he's taking her to his lair was the best. You guys rock my > socks. Mom really loved you guys. I'm going to have to get her a Mont > Alto CD for her birthday. > I wanted to say hi to Eric Grayson and Rodney and the rest of the > orchestra but mom is recovering from a serious illness and was pretty > tired and dizzy by 10:00, so we went right home. I did wave at Rodney > when he was introduced at the end, but with about 8 million others in the > audience, I doubt that he saw me. Maybe next year I'll get to say hi -- I > may try to attend more of the festival to see how it goes.
Eric was very busy being rather unhappy that his 35mm lamphouses couldn't muster up enough light in that large auditorium with too much ambient light anyway.
Question to Mr. Shepard: do you have 35mm prints of Phantom that are not so dark? Maybe it's just the color stock... but we ran a print of a Fairbanks 35mm the night before and it looked OK. I had constant troubles keeping Phantom in focus and bright enough so that we could all see it!
Eric (who has not given up a search on getting brighter, yet still portable, lamphouses)
In article <cvu4u3$n7...@news.xmission.com>, Glitter Ninja
> >Just wanted to say it was a most wonderful weekend at the Film Festival in > >Topeka! For those of you who were unable to attend, you missed a lot of > >excitement! Rodney and his orchestra were at their very best!
> For the first time since I've attempted to attend the festival in > Topeka, I managed to attend without experiencing a major traumatic event. > I'm considering this a good sign. (Some of you may remember my previous > attempts, which were cut short by things like car wrecks... ;) > My sweetie, my mother and I went to the Saturday evening showings only, > but it was great. Mom had never seen "Phantom of the Opera" so it was > pretty exciting for her. > The shorts beforehand were great, and I about lost my socks laughing so > hard at Laurel and Hardy's "Wrong Again". "Phantom" is so fun. My only > complaint is that I picked the wrong place to sit, but it was entirely my > fault. > One of the volunteers -- his name is PHIL -- had his three young girls > with him, and they all sat next to us, talking and fidgeting and being > general jerks. I was really po'ed that Phil the volunteer was even > talking during "Phantom". I hope he doesn't volunteer again. > Dr Marvin Faulwell was great, of course, better than previous years. > The orchestra was AMAZING. It was all just phenomenal but the romantic > part where he's taking her to his lair was the best. You guys rock my > socks. Mom really loved you guys. I'm going to have to get her a Mont > Alto CD for her birthday. > I wanted to say hi to Eric Grayson and Rodney and the rest of the > orchestra but mom is recovering from a serious illness and was pretty > tired and dizzy by 10:00, so we went right home. I did wave at Rodney > when he was introduced at the end, but with about 8 million others in the > audience, I doubt that he saw me. Maybe next year I'll get to say hi -- I > may try to attend more of the festival to see how it goes.
Eric Grayson <filmspamawaye...@earthlink.net> writes: >Eric was very busy being rather unhappy that his 35mm lamphouses >couldn't muster up enough light in that large auditorium with too much >ambient light anyway.
For what it's worth, the only "problem" was that the handwritten letters were hard to read. But I was sitting behind the orchestra's stands. Mom was farther to the right and she had no problem seeing. You did good, Eric. Were you in the hat and Phantom shirt?
<sta...@xmission.com> wrote: > Eric Grayson <filmspamawaye...@earthlink.net> writes:
> >Eric was very busy being rather unhappy that his 35mm lamphouses > >couldn't muster up enough light in that large auditorium with too much > >ambient light anyway.
> For what it's worth, the only "problem" was that the handwritten letters > were hard to read. But I was sitting behind the orchestra's stands. Mom > was farther to the right and she had no problem seeing. > You did good, Eric. Were you in the hat and Phantom shirt?
Eric Grayson <filmspamawaye...@earthlink.net> writes: >No, I was the ugly guy standing next to the projectors. The guy in the >hat and Phantom shirt was in front of me.
Feh. I saw no ugly people near the projectors, and I doubt that you fit that description anyways. I think I saw someone waving a reel after the presentation, when Denise Morrison thanked you, but I couldn't see who was attached to the reel. Are you a disembodied hand, maybe? ;) For what it's worth, I was sitting in front of the guy who was wearing a homemade zoot suit. There was a serious lack of boas at the festival.
Stacia, I probably saw you then since I was fairly close to the left front & center, as I remember the gentleman in the zoot suit (of course, that does stand out rather obviously!!).
--Larry S.
"Glitter Ninja" <sta...@xmission.com> wrote in message
> Eric Grayson <filmspamawaye...@earthlink.net> writes:
> >No, I was the ugly guy standing next to the projectors. The guy in the > >hat and Phantom shirt was in front of me.
> Feh. I saw no ugly people near the projectors, and I doubt that you fit > that description anyways. I think I saw someone waving a reel after the > presentation, when Denise Morrison thanked you, but I couldn't see who was > attached to the reel. Are you a disembodied hand, maybe? ;) > For what it's worth, I was sitting in front of the guy who was wearing a > homemade zoot suit. There was a serious lack of boas at the festival.
Well, I've seen PHANTOM a lot brighter, and it was especially hard to follow at the end. But since WHEN THE CLOUDS ROLL BY and POOL SHARKS looked fine, I'd blame the combination of tinted, fairly dark print, with non-arc projectors. The hall is a problem, but unfortunately it's a fairly low-budget event (we're their biggest expense) and they can't turn down a free 1200-seat auditorium with a working pipe organ -- especially when Topeka doesn't currently have a venue with a better projection system at any price. I heard rumors that the Jayhawk renovation has found a new set of volunteers, which is good news, but there's a lot of work required to make that venue usable.
The stand lights are always an issue, which is why we push ourselves as far as possible to one side of the stage. I tried switching to the lowest wattage fluoresent bulbs I could find (since the long-filament incandescents tend to burn out or break in transportation, and make the lights very hot), but I think the fluorescents actually made the problem worse.
I've only played in two theaters that still have their orchestra pits, which is the only real solution. The Washburn U concert hall does have a pit, but it's quite narrow and a ways from the screen and would require removing a row of seats and installing railings, and I haven't had the nerve to ask them to try it since I don't know how well it would work for us.
I thought the weekend went quite well. The plans for next year are to replay some of the biggest hits over the past ten years, so there will be some good films and music.
By the way, Stacia, that piece you admire during the descent to the catacombs is one I'm rather proud of. In a score (and film) that's quite bombastic most of the time, that is a nice passage of introspection. It's an aria from Bizet's THE PEARL FISHERS, published as "Minor Theme #1" by Ernst Luz, and it was beautifully played by Britt and Dawn on Saturday night. I'll see if I can get an mp3 file up.
"Larry S" <larrys66di...@mywdo.com> writes: >Stacia, I probably saw you then since I was fairly close to the left front & >center, as I remember the gentleman in the zoot suit (of course, that does >stand out rather obviously!!).
We were on the 2nd tier, I was on the left, one row behind the railing, sitting on the aisle right in front of Zoot Man. He almost sat in front of me but I apparently didn't pay him enough attention so he sat behind me instead. I only saw 2-3 people dressed up this year. Very disappointing. Of course, I couldn't go as anyone but Marie Dressler, even if I wanted to. Was it me, or did Rodney look like he was going to giggle when Denise Morrison started talking about Snitz Edwards?
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