film festivals

Carolina Parakeet World Premiere Photos /  by AJ Briones

We're still on a high from our World Premiere at Fester LA, and would like to give a gigantic "THANK YOU!" to everyone who made it out, especially those that drove all the way to Downtown LA from as far as San Diego to be a part of it!  It means so much!

We got to hang out and catch up with so many people that helped make this all happen, as well as meet new folks and share stories with the other filmmakers in the festival.  My only regret is that there was so little time to have a really lengthy chat with anyone.

Seeing our film in a full theater was really a treat: It was great to hear the audience react to certain story beats, and the thunderous applause at the end of the opening sequence when the title card showed up is something I will remember for the rest of my life!

Big thanks to the Fester LA organizers; they really know how to put on a show!  Also, I can't thank Dave Wilkins enough for illustrating an amazing CP poster.  We gave some of these away at the theater and they were a big hit!  Of course, we wouldn't have a film to celebrate if it weren't for the amazing Cast and Crew, you guys are the best!  Photos courtesy of Jettleson Photography, Mary Isaacson, Mari Naomi and Yvonne Love.

Thanks so much for making our evening, and I hope that we get to do this again at another festival.

Go Team Carolina Parakeet!

 

Tickets for Fester LA and our World Premiere available now! /  by AJ Briones

Tickets are now available for our world premiere at Fester: The Mindf*ck Festival on Thursday, May 8, 2014 at the LA Downtown Independent theater in the heart of Los Angeles! Doors open at 8:00pm, screening starts at 8:30pm.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE
Use the coupon code FESTERLOVE for a discount!

You can check out the Fester LA website for more information.

The cast and crew will be present at the screening and there will be a Q&A with the director following the short. We are providing the festival with 5 limited edition prints of the Carolina Parakeet poster illustrated by Dave Wilkins!

There will be plenty of food trucks at the parking lot next door if you get hungry, and the theater serves craft beers and wine. It will be a fantastic time!

We hope to see you there!

Feels good man. /  by AJ Briones

We started on this journey with a dream of telling Wallace's story of the Carolina Parakeet, and now that we are done, it's time to find an audience. I'm not going to lie to you: this is a nervous time for us. The film is done, it's a thing we are proud of, and now comes the time when we have to let it go to see if it can stand on its own legs.

The Film Festival submissions process is something completely new and alien to us, and the anxious feeling that comes with waiting to hear back is inescapable.

So when we do get good news, it's a pretty great feeling.

Thanks to the Asians on Film Festival for the laurels!

We received not only wins for Best Short (action/fantasy/sci-fi/horror) and Best Actor (Myles Cranford), but we also got an honorable mention for Best Director (A.J. Briones). Feels good man!

Check out the other winners here.

We will see you at the Asians on Film Festival in 2015!

Winner: Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror, Best Actor (Winter Quarter 2014), Asians on Film Festival /  by AJ Briones

We are humbled to announce that CAROLINA PARAKEET has won some Winter Quarter 2014 awards and is an Official Selection to the Asians on Film Festival 2015 in Los Angeles!

Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror
Winner: Carolina Parakeet (A.J. Briones)

Best Actor
Winner: Myles Cranford (Carolina Parakeet)

Best Director:
Honorable Mention: A.J. Briones (Carolina Parakeet)

Check out all of the winners of the Asians on Film Festival (Winter Quarter 2014) by clicking here.

You can catch the World Premiere of CAROLINA PARAKEET on May 8, 2014 at the Fester: Mindf*ck Festival at the LA Downtown Independent.

WORLD PREMIERE: MAY 8, 2014 @ FESTER: THE MINDF*CK FILM FESTIVAL /  by AJ Briones

I've been dreaming about this announcement for a long time, and here it is:

It's been a long and emotional journey of over two and a half years, and I am so excited to share the news with all of you that CAROLINA PARAKEET will have its world premiere here where it all started, in Los Angeles on May 8 2014, at the Downtown Independent theater in full 2k DCP 5.1 Dolby surround sound glory at FESTER: The Mindf*ck Film Festival!

Mark your calendars! More details soon.

Big screen dreams /  by AJ Briones

 

Today was a real treat. We got to see CAROLINA PARAKEET on the big screen, in full 2k DCP Scope on a DCI-Compliant projector in a real theater with 5.1 surround sound as a final QC screening before getting handed our final DCP, Bluray and DVD assets.

That's it.  The film is done.

There's something magical about seeing the culmination of over two-and-a-half years' worth of hard work play on the big screen, in all its glory.  This moment has been a dream of mine for a very long, long time.

I'm super proud of everyone's work, and grateful for the experience.

Now, on to the next dream: finding an audience.

Big thanks to Chris, Garrett and Adi at Simple DCP for a fantastic job on the master and Downtown Independent for providing the theater.

Same, but different. /  by AJ Briones

I was at a Kinko's tonight printing out a DVD submission cover to send CAROLINA PARAKEET to a film festival and I had a pretty vivid memory of having been here before... though not exactly this Kinko's, and not  exactly under the same circumstances.

Back in the early 2000's I created a company that only did wedding videos.  I did it with the intention of getting used to shooting a video camera, composing shots, editing them together, telling stories.  I did it with the dream of ultimately making a movie.  If you break the actual labor costs down, we lost a ton of money on that business.  We did some crazy shit man: 4 camera shoots with 3 shooters, fully edited films with a soundtrack and credit roll, I created custom animated interactive DVD menus and I designed custom covers to look just like movie DVDs.  Looking back, I'm proud of the work we did.  We turned a major moment in people's lives into movies.

But at the end of the day, they weren't my movies, they were other people's movies.

Fast-forward a few years and I got to work on a couple of real movies, some pretty humongous ones too, and I got to work with and learn from some of the most gifted directors and artists in the business.  I still do that every day and I think about how lucky I am to do what I love for a living.

All that said, it's still someone else's movie.

So tonight was pretty damn special, chilling at a Kinko's, printing out a DVD cover like I did so many times before, carefully inspecting the printout for defects, cutting it so it fits perfectly in the DVD case.

But this time, it's different. This time, this is my movie.

Wish us luck folks, we're sending off another batch of submissions to Film Festivals and I'm hopeful we get a slot so we can show you what we've done.