:: T H E S E X Y C H E F ::

10.15.03

2003 Longbaugh Diary
by C.K. Lichenstein

Thursday, March 6th, 2003
Well today the Smith Brothers called me with the good news that Willamette Week is putting on a local film festival called Longbaugh, and we've been selected. Now, our Associate Producer, and buddy, Dave Walker works there so we did have an in, but then they let me know that there was a panel of jurors that selected the movie. Excellent. We've been a few festivals around the nation but hadn't had our Portland Premiere yet, and what a great way to show the movie. The Hollywood Theater is a beautiful, restored movie house with three theaters and a great venue that I wanted SC to show at anyway. I'm excited to see it in front of an audience and on the big screen.

Tuesday, March 18th, 2003
Talked to Walker today and heard the good news. The Sexy Chef is the first opening night movie in the MAIN theater! I couldn't be happier. He's completely swamped with work and organizing the festival so we didn't talk long, but he did mention some of the other films and we're in great company.

Wednesday, March 19th, 2003
Met with the Smith Brothers and began setting up what sort of promoting we're doing for the festival. Emails have already been sent out, but we definitely need to get a lot of people there. Ty also showed me the designs for the DVD covers and credits and they look fantastic. We've got a company printing those and are looking into a company to buy the DVD cases from. I'm a good designer but Ty puts me to shame. We also made plans to meet up this weekend to put out postcards. Ian and Ty also showed me the SC postcards we'd made in the past, but now we're stamping them with the date and times of the screenings. We're getting together this weekend to put those out in local shops.

Saturday, March 22nd, 2003
Ian and Ty showed up at my place this morning and we immediately hit the road. We began putting out postcards at coffee shops, video stores, music stores and, of course the Hollywood theater. I mostly schmoozed with different owners, clerks and managers to let them know what we were doing, the people at Hollywood were the coolest though. The brothers and I stopped at an Indian store just to get some goodies. Ty got some seasoning, but we also got some sodas and then checked out the Bollywood movies. Cool stuff. Ty had to bail early to walk the dog so Ian and I went to a Mexican Diner and scarfed down a couple of burritos that were fantastic!

Friday, March 28th, 2003
Ugh! I worked all day at my lame job and then met up with Ian to put up flyers around town. After a long day of commuting and working a crappy cube job, this is actually fun. We went all over putting up the styling Sexy Chef posters that Ty designed with the dates and times of the SC screenings. Had a blast on stapling all over other crappy band posters, but all in all we were pretty courteous. Drank beer afterwards and so that was a good capper to the day. Told Ian that I truly had a blast working on the SC. Sure, I was working a full time (and better then my current) job and barely slept for almost 2 months of filming, but it was honestly one of my favorite times and projects and I'm completely proud of the work. Also, today's Portland Tribune came out with a piece on the Smith Bros. and the upcoming Longbaugh festival that was pretty nice. I wish it had come out the weekend BEFORE the film festival, but it was still good press. This with the WW pieces about the festival should help make it a success.

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2003
Okay, I've been working my days off (Tues. and Wed.) to have this coming weekend off, but this is going to be 9 days straight of work so I'm starting to feel the pain. Also, today was the first day I actually worried about the turn out. I guess I've been so positive and looking forward to our local premiere, I didn't even think about it until now. "What if we held a film festival and no one showed up?" Not good thoughts. Made plans to have a vehicle for the weekend, to meet up with my buddy Scott Tice for beers ahead of time. That'll cut the edge.

Friday, April 4th, 2003
It is late, very late, so I don't know how coherent this will be, but I couldn't be happier. The turn out and reaction was great and I just sent out an email to Friends of The Sexy Chef letting them know and thanking them for their support. A bit mushy and personal, but it is true. Tice and I had those beers, at the great local pub Moon and Sixpence, and then I booked on over to the Hollywood. I got my passes from the Smith Bros., said hi to Walker for about half a sec and then got the killer staff to help me rope off a few choice rows for SC cast, crew and supporters. My flask of rum was in my back pocket to help cut the edge even more but that didn't stop my pacing, smoking and hitting Ian in the arm whenever the audience got the jokes. Sitting in the back of the mostly filled 469 capacity theater and hearing people enjoy your movie is a huge treat, but still nerve wracking. It did help having Ian and Logan (FM) Creighton nearby. As soon as the first credits rolled and the audience clapped, I hit the doors to chain smoke and talk to people as they exited.

Friends, cast, crew and complete strangers came up to me telling me what they liked. I think comic book artist Paul Guinan paid me the best compliments when he came out visibly excited by the humor and even the look of the movie, especially since he is a HUGE movie fan and has a background in film and television. After that, we hit the Laurelwood for drinks and appetizers, which was a great way to end the night. I feel bad I didn't see some of the other great films, documentaries and shorts, but I was waaay to wired. More drinks helped and it was fun just to kick it and talk to other filmmakers, WW staff, SC cast and crew and complete strangers. Got more good feedback too. I left the evening feeling great.

Saturday, April 5th, 2003
Just barely got up and made coffee today, but I wanted to get the festival early to catch Dan Poole's The Making of Green Goblin's Last Stand, a documentary chronicling Poole's filming of another Spider-Man movie on no-budget and shot on video. Never saw the direct comic book adaptation he made, but the guy is nuts doing crazy stunts that really captured Spider-Man. Very impressive and worth watching.

I wanted to see some of the shorts that SC cast worked on (Life of Death, One Night Hand, Twelve City Blocks) but I was starving, so The Smith Bros. and I got some burritos (again) and I began to wake up. The shorts would be playing later tonight so I'd catch them then (some for the second time); besides, we had another screening of SC coming up.

The 4:45 pm showing of SC was in the Theatre B upstairs; a smaller room with about 175-seat capacity, but screening was standing room only so Ian and I (again) stood in the back along with Greg James (the loudest laugher in the world) and watched SC all over again (God only knows how many times that makes it now… but I still enjoy it!). The crowd was into it again but reacted differently to different parts then the first screening. Interesting. Stayed late that night watching a slew of shorts like the hilarious One Night Hand (with Greg) and Car Ride with Todd (Tank) Robinson. Also hung out with Nick Lyons (Hilda Humphrey and I Love You Baby). Again, out too late.

Sunday, April 6th, 2003
Geez, I didn't realize the time was changing until I got home at 3 am… I mean 4am, so I was almost late for the last showing of SC. We were back down in the main theatre but we were the first show (at noon) so it didn't have that many people… about 30-40, but the reaction was still good considering the time and time change. Heck, I even saw people that didn't go in because SC had already started. Todd sat behind me, Ian and Ty, so I got another actor's view. This was the first time I sat and watched the movie ALL the way through on the big screen. It looked great, the crowd again laughed at different points as well as the usual spots, clapped at the end of the movie and again at the end of the credits. That last bit was important to me because I'd talked the Bros. into putting some jokes in the credits, which the crowds liked. Nice to see it paid off.

I was beat but I stayed for the film Art and Della which was great, very sad, but great. After that I was burnt and just went home to crash. Talked to Walker for a bit too and got the initial feedback that the festival was a success and that we were the "buzz" movie with the biggest turnout. I'm still uncertain how that happened. Sure, we sent out emails and put out flyers and postcards but word of mouth is what did it. Thank God! Now, we have to finish up the DVDs for sale!

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Past News
04.29.04
02.27.04
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10.15.03
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11.27.02
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