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Garfeimao writes: The Line Party was a blast. Some people showed up at 6am, and by the time I got there around 1:30pm, there must have already been about 30 people in line, or more. We had some 18 entrants in our Costume contest, and all entrants got a Ringers shirt, with the winners getting Ringers Steins, and the Best in Show got a LOTR boardgame. We had a trivia competition, and everyone was given raffle tickets, until we could get the shirts to pass out to them. We must have handed out an additional 50 Ringers shirts to the crowd. There was a basket of assorted candy, which went over quite well as I passed it around. The theater staff and festival staff seemed rather amused and bemused by us, but I think they had a lot of fun too.
Once inside the theater, and with all the prizes given out, the film finally started. I was happy to note that my street sign, and others in the neighborhood, made the final cut. But when you live on Gondor, how could that not be in there? Much later on, I’m back onscreen, happily crooning about my Wee Scarvie, that I’m a Loon (fan of Billy Boyd) and that I frequent the message board that used to be on his official website. And I must point out here that Billy was sitting just two rows behind me, and I’d been talking to him an hour or two before the film. I gave his girlfriend a Wee Scarvie, for heaven’s sake, and explained it’s history. So, it was quite comical to see how I will be immortalized in the film. But you know, it’s all good, I’ve never made any bones about who my favorite in the film is, and the filmmakers knew that.
So, the rest of the film, it’s very energetic, got some really cool imagery and animation, and some very funny dialogue from Narrator Dom. They sort of span fandom from the halls of the Literati, to pop icon status, the hippie culture to Rock n’ Roll and everything in between. Heck, I’m a third Generation LOTR fan, since my Grandfather was the one that bought the books for my mom when she was in school, which she then gave me when I was in school. The music rocks, no doubt about that, and they interview a vast array of singers, authors, scholars and actors outside of just those currently involved in the films. The funnest part was seeing this with a lot of other Ringers, including many we were to see in the film. We were all encouraged to give a shout out when we saw ourselves or friends of ours.
At the end, the actors from the films give a really beautiful message of how the fandom has affected them, and will continue to affect future generations. The film had technical difficulties at the end, and I had to run to the restroom, but it appears they were able to rewind and run the ending again. So, the bulk of the audience got to see that. And then it was off to the post party at the Hard Rock Cafe.
Wow, what a rager that turned out to be. I have been going to the Newport Beach Film Festival since it first started, 6 years ago. I usually go alone, because no one in my family is interested in art films or foreign language films, like me, and most of my friends are up in LA. So, when the film also includes a post party, I tend to go for awhile, then get bored because I don’t know anyone. I’m not in the industry, so I’m not networking, and so I’ve always been a bit on the outside.
But this year, because Ringers was coming up, I had already talked with some of the Festival staff and was able to continue getting to know them at the screenings and parties I attended (Crash opens in the US soon and is really good, and Layer Cake, from the UK will rock your socks off). I then ended up running into other film buffs and some industry people who were easy to talk to and not just into networking. Go me. And then I got to meet a few actors, Billy Boyd only being one of them. So now I’ve been to three films in three nights, with three very different parties. I’m going to another film tomorrow, and then I may catch the British Short film series on Tuesday, since I now know the director of one of the films quite well. Again, Go me. In short, I really like film festivals, but it was a joy to see a film I had a little something to do with, and one where I knew so many people in it. I think everyone involved in actually making the film really put their hearts up there on the screen, and it shows. I hope everyone gets to see it really soon.
