Dennis' Blog

Avoid The Great Lakes Film Festival

"Avoid The Great Lakes Film Festival"
By Kevin Kölsch & Dennis Widmyer

The Great Lakes International Film Festival is now accepting entries for their 2008 festival and I hope that any filmmakers or screenwriters planning to enter stumble upon this article before spending their hard earned money on the submission fee. Trust me, we wish there had been an article like this last year when we were filling out our entrance form. The whole thing was a waste of money and a big headache to boot…and we were the screenplay competition winners.

That’s right, folks, just last year, the most recent festival they had, The Great Lakes International Film Festival did not grant their screenplay winners their award and prize money, yet Kelly Hecker and Steve Opsanic are still taking $55 from screenwriters for this year’s competition. I know that might not seem like the biggest deal in the world since there are probably more shady film festivals than legit ones. We also think that winning filmmakers probably cut their losses when they realize the fest they’ve gotten into and then hopefully won, is a bit of a half-assed operation and accept that they are never going to see their money. But this is not the case with The Great Lakes Film Festival. This is a festival that we researched and could not find any negative reviews of. A fest that boasts on their home page that they are one of the top 100 film festivals in the world! And we did not just write off our $500 prize money, our award plaque, and most importantly, the networking you get from festivals and industry reads and contacts they promise… after we failed to receive any of it. We spent eight months being stalled with constant excuses as to why they could not mail us the check that was supposedly already cut and that would have been handed to us had we attended the ceremony in person.

You’d think that if you ran a film festival and could not afford to pay your winners that you’d realize your venture was not proving profitable and cease to organize future fests, maybe even feeling concerned about the winners who got shafted by the unsuccessful festival. Those hopeful filmmakers who upheld their end of the bargain by paying the submission fee, but that you never paid their due award, thus breaching your end of the contract as stated by the rules and regulations cited on your own festivals website. Yet not only does The Great Lakes Film Festival continue on, hoping that this year they will get a sufficient amount of entries and festival attendees, but as an added slap in the face, on the page calling for submission, there is a link for past winners, giving the festival a sense of legitimate history.

See potential entrants… you can win. People have won before. Just not all of them have been paid.

This issue of our script being listed as a winner on their webpage brings to mind the first signs of trouble in this long, drawn out affair. For this is how we first learned we had won the script competition. A week after the festival was over, we assumed we had not won and went over to the webpage to see who had. But upon checking the site out, we were shocked to find that we were the winners! It was a little strange that no one had contacted us, yet we were happy anyway. At this point, we still assumed The Great Lakes Film Festival was a legit operation and if they listed us as their winners they had to come through with prize. Right? They couldn’t list us on their webpage and not follow through, could they?

Not only did they not follow through, but they didn’t answer any of our e-mails saying we saw we were the winners and asking them what the next step would be.

In fact it wasn’t until it was known that we were going to be in town attending The Eerie Horror Film Festival (another festival whose script competition we won), that Kelly Hecker, the festival director’s girlfriend and our ‘point of contact’ during this whole mess, wrote us to say our check would go out in the mail in a couple of weeks. Could this conveniently timed e-mail be an attempt to stop us from coming by in person? It sure seemed like it. Did it work? Nah, we decided to stop by anyway… save them the postage. It was then that we met (then) festival director, Steve Opsanic, who seemed very nervous about our surprise visit. He awkwardly double talked an excuse as to why he couldn’t give us our check in person. We gave him the benefit of the doubt and told him we’d be watching the mail for it.

It never came.

The next four months were spent sending e-mails to Kelly and Steve that either never got responded to or that Kelly finally answered, only to spin some crazy yarn about why they couldn’t send the check and that they needed until next week, the end of the month, after the New Year, etc. etc. etc. Through the majority of this, we continued to grant them the time they need, but with each excuse we lost a little patience.

During this phase, we did some research on Steve Opsanic, Kelly Hecker and the Great Lakes Film Festival. We learned that the Roadhouse Theater, where Steve works and runs the festival from, is hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt – a fact that will later be confirmed by Kelly in an e-mail. It’s now that that terrible feeling of being a hopeless victim, scammed out of an entrance fee in order to help the festival director pull himself out of a hefty debt, starts to kick in. Did The Great Lakes Film Festival ever plan on paying their winners or were they just trying to raise money for their own purposes? We asked Kelly this and she assured us all the winners had been paid and that she would provide us with their contact info if we wanted to follow up. We said sure. But just like the notification that we won the contest… just like our award and the prize money… this info never came.

If we gave Kelly the benefit of the doubt and believed that all the other winners were paid, then what was the problem with us? Why was it so hard for us to receive our award? Ms. Hecker’s answer was that things with The Great Lakes Film Festival were not as black and white as we thought, since they had to deal with an ‘organization’ and were/are not authorized to cut checks themselves. I guess when you deal with an organization that deals in film festivals it could take five months to get them to cut a check for a winning contestant. Or was this just more talking in circles?

The bottom line is, it’s been a year now since we gave The Great Lakes Film Festival our $55 and we have not seen dollar one of our prize money and have long ago stopped even receiving excuses as to why it hasn’t come. I guess they are too busy collecting this year’s entrance fees.

Yet this raises an important question: If they have not paid their past winners, will they pay this year’s?

We advise you not to gamble your money and your trust on this question. Save your $55. After all, we’re contest winners who at this point, since the festivals not going to fulfill their end of the bargain, would be happy if they could just get their submission fee refunded.

May 21, 2008 8:24 AM | Link | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Report Content

Crying At The Movies

I'm an sensitive guy. I wouldn't say emotional. Not much makes me cry.

Well, except movies.

Movies make me cry. Too often actually. I could tell you horror stories about a crowded audience. Silent theater. Silent but for the sound of some idiot panting and sucking snot up his nose while he sobs. And that idiot would be me. It's bad. Real bad. Some movies just destroy me. The combination of acting, the cinematography, and mostly the score, just hit me in such a way that I'm suddenly tight in my chest, goosebumpy, and crying like a sissy boy. A crying, goosebumpy, sissy boy.

So with that embarrassing introduction, I give you

10 Movie Moments That Make Me Cry:
(maybe in some random order of order?)

**SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THESE MOVIES**

10. "Ricky, RUN!!!!!!" - Morris Chestnut's death scene in "Boyz In The Hood". As a kid, constantly watching this movie with two of my best friends, on a crappy VHS bootleg we might have stolen from the local flea market, I can remember feeling emotions from movies I had never felt before. Here was a character I had grown to like throughout the course of this film, being gunned down in cold blood by gang warfare... over what? What!? Some gangster ego bullshit a week earlier? Just a waste. And God, it gets so much worse when he's bleeding all over his mother's couch, and his wife and baby are screaming. Just brutal.

9. Hoffa Goes To Jail - Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito in "Hoffa". Hoffa gets indicted by Bobby Kennedy and they send him off to jail. The scene plays out, as the police van drives the two men through the snowy woods. The next scene begins with some truck drivers sipping coffee, then noticing the approaching police van. Inside the van, Hoffa notices them as well, and then we pull back to reveal the entire stretch of road, leading up to the prison, is lined completely with parked tractor trailers. Teamsters all cheering and clapping for their hero Jimmy Hoffa, wishing him off as he is sent to prison.

8. "Oh, Captain, my Captain!" - The final moments of "Dead Poets Society". Robin Williams is being dismissed as a teacher from a prestigious private school, for giving the kids just a little too much enlightenment in an otherwise bleak class year. And as he is exiting the crowded class room with his belongings, one by one, his former students climb a top their desks, and utter the chant of respect he taught them. "Oh, Captain, my Captain." And once nearly every student is standing on top of their desks, Professor Keating replies, "Thank you, boys. Thank you."

I think the first time I fully saw this movie, I walked into the kitchen where my mom was cooking dinner, and in trying to describe the movie, I broke down and soon couldn't talk sensibly. I think I made her so uncomfortable, that she had to edge her way out of the room. Dinner was burned that night.

7. "I wanna be a man again..." - Tom Cruise in one of his best performances, as the real life vet Ron Kovic, shot in Vietnam and paralyzed from the waist down. While this movie is charged with a ton of emotion, there's one moment in particular that just tears me up. Cruise, after a drunken fit at a local bar, returns home wasted and chanting about the war. He begins a religious-fueled argument with his mother, and is soon yelling at the entire neighborhood. When he finally calms down later and seeps into a drunken depression, his father carries him into bed. And tucking him in, the man pleads with his son, "Ronny, tell me what to do? What do you want?" To which Cruise responds, "I wanna be a man again. Who's gonna love me now, Dad? Who's gonna love me?" I can't imagine anguish such as this.

6. Will Smith Gets A Job - Wow, I hate that I have to list this one. And I'm only listing it because I need to fill this list (listy, list, list), and I'm also drawing a brainfart. But yes, "The Pursuit Of Happyness" got me. Goddamn it did. And I knew it would. But watching this poor soul try to get this job the whole movie. And all the shit he goes through. That when it finally happens in the end, and there's that moment of him leaving the interview, walking onto the crowded Manhattan sidewalk, and trying to hold it in, but slowly breaking down into tears of victory, clapping his hands over his head. It's just such a real moment. It's the way people really cry. And it made me cry too. Well played, fresh prince. Well played indeed.

5. Chick Flicks - Okay, let's just get these out of the way. Yes, "Beaches", "Fried Green Tomatoes" and any other movie with Sally Field probably made me cry. I know "Beaches" did. I think it was when Barbara Hershey croaks, and Midler's song cues over the end credits. This might've been my first wussy moment at a movie. Maybe even before "Boyz In The Hood".

4. Clapping For Cuba - Another Cruiser moment enters the list. Yes, "Jerry Maguire". Feel-good-fluffiness at its best. Now, I know you're all thinking you know which moment busts me up in this one. Maybe something with the funny looking kid saying how much he loves Jerry. Or some moment where a moving Bruce Springsteen song plays. But nope. It's that moment at the end. That entire sequence really.

The sequence first begins with Cuba in the locker room after winning the game. He's surrounded by reporters, hollering into the phone to his wife. And he sees Jerry, the agent and friend who helped him get where he is. And they share this quiet moment. I think Jerry points at him, and Cruise just continues to clap for him, fighting back the tears. The sequence continues with Cruise realizing where he's got to be, and fleeing the locker room. Then, the quintessential Cruise moment: He runs. This time in slow-motion. He runs all the way to Renee's house. And this next one's the tearjerker moment: Cruise enters the living room, filled with middle-aged, depressed, man-hating women. And knowing how awkward the moment is, he still decides to just go for it. "You... complete... me". Sure, laugh. It's such a cliche moment by now. But watch the scene again. And notice how good his acting is as he forces the line out, looking so overwhelmed by passion. If I ever have a moment like this with a woman... I'll run for president.

3. Charlize Says Goodbye At A Bus Stop - "Monster". This movie was just filled with so much good debut direction, acting and score. But it all builds to his moment where Charlize is saying goodbye to Ricci. Forcing her to get on a bus, as she knows they have to separate. And no, my tears in this scene have nothing to do with Ricci and her moon-faced mullet. It's all about Charlize's acting. Killed me.

2. A Water Tank Through A Window - "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest". You know the scene. Hell, it's one of the best endings to a movie ever. The Chief puts down McMurphy with a pillow. He then fulfills Jack's own mission and destiny. He fulfills his bet. And he lifts the water tank from the ground, over his shoulders, and throws it through a gated window. Christopher Lloyd is going nuts by now. Cheering and egging him on. And as the Chief flees through that window, we have that great shot of the darkened field surrounding the hospital. And one of my favorite scores by Jack Nietzsche fades up. Haunting tribal drums and wooden air instruments. Then rolling credits. Brilliant.

1. Robert The Bruce's Voice Cracks - Yes, "Braveheart". Another no-brainer. Though the moment in the film you're thinking the tears flow... well, let's just say you'd be wrong to think that. And you are. Wrong, that is. Because it's not 'FREEDOM!!!!'. Yeah, that's good. Damn good. And no, it's not Murron's death scene. Nor even the first big victory at Sterling. For me, it's a slight nuisance. Shit, let's just call it great acting. Here's the scene: Wallace is dead. Executed by the English in sadistic, cowardly fashion. And in the final moments of our movie, the Scottish are lined up on the battlefield once again. Though this time, they're in attendance to kiss ass and accept a patronizing pardon for their former leaders actions. At least... that's what the English think. For moments into the scene, Robert The Bruce, their new king, turns to his people and utters the short speech: "You've bled with Wallace. Now bleed with me." But it's not the speech that gets me. It's the fact that The Bruce's voice cracks on the word 'bleed'.

I know by now you're thinking I'm a freak. And I've analyzed this scene a lot. At first I thought it was maybe the sword sticking in the ground. The 'warrior poets' line. Or just the look on the Scot's faces as they charge the English. But I know now that it's the voice crack.

It was always the voice crack, dammit.

0. "Titanic" - The whole fucking movie.

No, I'm not kidding. Watch it with me someday, and see what happens. If this Blog hasn't already forced you to consider disowning me as a friend... that will. But when this movie begins... shit, the fucking score and voice in the beginning... the old footage of the people waving... then the way the camera dips deep into the ocean, and the titlecard dissolves in. From that point on, I'm a wreck. This movie is an emasculating epidemic for me.

Anyway, I've bared my soul. Now point and laugh. Or, if you're feeling confident enough, post some of your own horrific, tearful moments here.

ps
Notable Mention: Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan - Spock and Kirk have the moment between the glass in the radiation room.

Mar 31, 2008 3:05 PM | Link | Comments (0) | Add Comment | Report Content