Thursday, July 27, 2006

O_O
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Jaguar: I've never seen as wide a variety of people as I saw in LA. It was such a shock coming back to England. In comparison, the cultural diversity where I live is so little.

I didn't really go into Anaheim much. I was driven through it, but it might have been nice to walk around a bit... were the roads not so HUGE.

And yeah, I didn't think about that. When I first heard the statistic I assumed it meant there were more cars being driven in LA than there were people. Which wouldn't make sense. So I'm dense :p

Mamma Vash: I'd've enjoyed it more if I weren't so tired and hot. At least I wasn't in a particular need to be somewhere at a specific time, unlike the journey back.

It was a pretty nice meal on the plane, actually ^_^ Chicken and pasta with veg. The broccoli wasn't great, but processed vegetables are often a bit dodgy.

Haha, if I ever play soccer with cars, I'll use an inflatable ball. And a tank.

Mistress Mo: I had a quick glimpse up the stairs when I was on my way out of a plane. If I ever have the money to travel first class I'd quite like to, even if it was only once.

It's annoying that travel's become so expensive now. And as of October, getting into the US is probably going to be difficult if they scrap the Visa Waiver Programme, or whatever it is that's happening to it.

And my birthday and the premiere were amazing... more on that in a second ^_^

Shin: I'm still not sure how afraid of turbulence I am. We experienced a bit and it wasn't too bad, but they're made to withstand a fair buffeting, aren't they?

Yeah, it sounded pretty exensive, but the only other option was to order from Domino's Pizza, and if the one in London is anything to go by I never wish to eat from there again. It was shocking. God knows how they can get away with saying all their ingredients are fresh, because I have never seen a more processed bit of 'steak' (which were rectangular lumps of what looked like packed-down suasage) in my life.

John: The food at the Hilton was incredibly nice, actually, and in rather sizeable portions for the most part. But a burger for $13 (not including a $2 eat-in-room charge and compulsory tip for room service), however nicely it was described, seemed too steep. And I wanted sleep more than food.

The Premiere was at the Earnley Concourse, about half an hour away from me.

Shin: Thanks ^________^

Megan: Starbucks is my favourite coffee entity for the Chai Tea Lattes they do. and they sell Innocent smoothies ^____^ Then is Cafe Nero, because their hot chocolate and Mochas are amazing. Costa's not so good, but their paninis are alright.

Yeah, $13 is around £6. But even in the UK that's a lot for a burger solitary.

---

Aah, so much to talk about!

I guess most importantly I should describe the film premiere and my birthday, then I'll get back to my vacationaries.

I'm 21 now. I don't feel much different at all as a result of the number change. The events that unfolded on my birthday have probably altered me a little, though. Read on...

...if you like :p

What's coming to you
I had to get up pretty early on Sunday, cause I needed to get ready to be at Arundel Castle for 9am; as well as that I needed to pack a set of normal clothes and what I was wearing to the preimere, the rest of my Civil War kit, as much of the screening equipment that would fit in the car, and my massive canvas tent. What with everyone else in the house going in different directions as well, it was pretty stressful.

Anyway, I got there and we set up the tents, and Paul gave me (most of) my birthday present from him. There were loads of different-sized parcels, and I was told to start at the smallest one and work my way up.

First of all was a pack of ball-point pens, so I'd always have something to write with if I needed it.
Next was a pad of paper, so I could always write my ideas down on something if I thought of something.
Then I was given a clothes labelling set, in case I forgot who I was ^_^;
In case I got bored, I was given a K'Nex set
To bring colour into my life, he bought me a set of coloured pens,
And the final gift of that day was a booklet he'd put together himself, featuring a series of about twenty cartoons of me that he'd drawn spanning my four years of reenacting. It was so lovely ^____^

He tells me I have another present coming in about three weeks, and I'm a little apprehensive as to what it can be. I'm getting it the weekend of the next Arundel tournament...

I was due to be executed in the Castle Keep that day, too. I had no idea what to expect, but it was quite a harrowing experience being marched through the castle with people ahead of me clearing the public out of the way yelling 'Execution Detail!'. When we reached the keep, I counted four muskets. Bearing in mind the keep is like a fairly wide, open cylinder, it was going to echo something horrible. I was more worried about the noise than anything else.

I was placed against the wall, then turned around to see... seven muskets. This time I was actually starting to get pretty nervous. And then Derren took my hat away so everyone could see my face (this was all open to the public).

My crime was read out- I'd been drunk on duty, a crime punishable by death. Just before they were due to shoot, one of the ladies of the group rushed to my side (almost slipped up) and demanded that I weren't killed because I was the father of her children.

Needless to say, I was as shocked as everyone else.

She was dragged away and the squad prepared to fire. Once they'd finished the fourteen-command loading drill (which was drawn out to give me ample time to look back on my actions inregret), they took aim, I closed my eyes and they fired.

We'd been given a rundown of what was supposed to happen beforehand- the first volley would miss and I'd be okay, providing an opportunity for much humour for the public.

They loaded again and six of them fired, taking down not me but the two guards either side. I started to panic and run around, whereby I was shot by the other musketeer (much to the crowd's disappointment). Apparently something actually left the gun barrel and hit the wall- people saw something spark off the flintwork o____o;

It was a great crowdpleaser though, and when I returned from the dead and back to the campsite I had a massive cake waiting for me ^_^;

I couldn't believe how much everyone had done for me. I suppose... sometimes it's hard to know how much you're really appreciated by the people around you. That even if they don't say anything they like having you around. It was just... so touching.

Anyway, after the second skirmish in the arena (I've never fought with muskets going off less that six feet around me- it was an incredible experience), I had to bomb off to the Earnley Concourse and help Dan set up.

Moments of Truth
When I arrived Dan guided me off-road between a whole load of trees (possibly the weirdest bit of driving I've ever done) to the back of the conference hall where the screen was to be set up. He'd done a fair bit my himself already, but I helped secure the rest and sort out the bits and pieces that we needed from the Concourse (just a couple of replacement plugs).

By this point I felt hideously sweaty though, and could really have done with a shower. Problem was, the hotel rooms at the Concourse were all booked so the only place I could shower was by the swimming pool. It could not have been made more public, either. But luckily for me I'd pre-emtively packed a spare pair of boxers, so I wore my other ones in the shower. That's the second time I've done that, but I don't remember when the first time was...

Anyway, while I was cleaning myself Dan went off for food. he came back with a weird Beef Salsa sandwich and some gorgeous pork pies ^_^

We were both getting really nervous though, and he didn't want to eat anything much. I ate what I could, but once I looked at my watch I couldn't manage any more.

The feeling of anticipation was incredible. We were due to have about 100 people, all of whom we both or individually care about (or are trying to impress) in this intimate space to show something we've been working on for the last six months and have no concept of what the reaction was going to be. having watched it so many times, you just lose track of what the audience sees and you only focus on technical things- like whether a shot's out of focus or there's a dodgy edit somewhere. And I had to give a speech beforehand. Dan told me it only needed to be a thank you to everyone for coming and to let them know about the DVD Pre-Order forms that they could collect later. But I had something else that I felt needed to be said.

Starting the speech I was pretty nervous- having only written it the night before I hadn't been able to practice or anything, but everyone reacted to it much more than I thought they would. I told them how much we wanted to thank them all for their help and support, and the usual 'It's been a lot of work, but here it is' kind of thing.

The rest of the speech I can't really describe, so I won't try. It'll remain one of my favourite memories, but trying to type it won't do it any justice ^_^

So, once I'd finished being emotional the film started and a massive cheer went up amongst the audience.

The first few minutes were pretty tense. The beginning's probably the weakest bit of the film, but it was still getting some laughs. Gradually, the audience reactions increased and Dan and I both became more confident. When the closing credits rolled up, massive applause continued until well after it had finished, and once we both stood up another round of cheering began. It was such a wonderful, surreal experience. Then people started hugging me and I almost passed out, heh ^_^;

Everyone made their way into the bar and Dan and I did the rounds, talking to all the guests and finding out thier views. And on the whole, everyone really liked it. They said it was funny, original, well-written and that the music was great. Which was just what we wanted to hear ^_^ We even managed to keep two people notorious for falling sleep in movies awake through the whole thing, which is quite an achievement.

I couldn't have asked for more on a birthday. It was easily the best I've had so far, and one of the best days of my life.

A Sail With No Wind
Unfortunately the euphoria of the premiere hasn't continued onto the other screenings, and we've had relatively few people coming to watch them all. So we're operating at rather a loss at the moment. I'm going to try and negotiate with the people we hired the equipment from to try and lower the invoice amount, but it's such a shame that people just haven't turned up. Even people who said they would didn't. We need to find a way of making more money now, just to try and break even.

But all the same, everyone who's seen it has enjoyed it (aside from this stupid old woman who was just... ridiculously inobservant and mentally rather vacant), so it's nice to know that, had we been able to draw more people, it's definitely what they would want to see and could have been something fairly spectacular.

Here's hoping for next time ^_^
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