The Second Screening at SouthSide

Friday, June 20th, 2008
by Jamie Cobb

IFHY screening 2 of 3 was definitely a different experience than the first screening. There was maybe a forth of the people in the audience, and the short wasn’t playing in a block and didn’t have an opening act. So the title card went up cold and you could feel the shock in the room. I saw the guy in front of me silent chuckle during the patio scene, and one guy did a loud laugh mid patio, but other than that all you could hear were the late comers distractedly walking in to find a seat, and one older couple who came in with a flash light to find seats. Of course by the time John picked up his guitar the 50+ audience was definitely feeling Ron’s pain. Screening 2 got me to thinking, IFHY is not a comedy, so why am I trying to measure the audience reaction to the short by their laughter? Any thoughts on this?

Then we went to watch the Experimental block of short films. I gotta tell you this was rough. Experimental is not for me. And there was one “40 min short” that pushed my patience to the limit. There was a lot of fidgeting, yawns, and glances at the program during this one. And not just from me, but the whole audience. Perhaps that should become my new audience reaction gauge?

And finally we saw the Comedy/Mumblecore block of short films,and it was a much needed source of lighter fare after the experimental experience. And a few a of the filmmakers were there for a Q and A. Perhaps it was just nerves, but it felt to me that apathy is the new cool? So it was hard to get any info from this.

All in all it was an interesting day. I really enjoyed getting to see what other filmmakers are up to, and getting to feel the festival vibe. Screening 3 and Zak’s Q and A are coming up on saturday…