Screening @ the Bungalow Club

Broken Hearts Club screened at the Bungalow Club last night. It’s a cool spot where you can drink, eat, chit-chat and watch loops of news and entertainment videos from locals. My wife, Kathy, and I arrived a half hour early so I could get my DVD to them. We ordered mojitos and watched a looping video about complications surrounding the state’s legalization of marijuana while the Feds still say it’s a crime.

It took the time to make notes about the club’s setup. Nice layout. Front projection. The pull-down projection screen high above the canopied tables is about ten or twelve feet across. Not bad. Sound system? Check.

Nicole (from the film) and her friend were the first to arrive. Then came Kikey, Jeff, Kevin. Moments later Sean and Dylan arrived as did Morgan Pearse, a composer who’s scoring the web series for  my friend Jim Rhodimer. Dylan brought the director of Who Shot Mamba, Dustin Pearlman (@dustinpearlman) with him.  Dustin is actually on my Twitter feed. Alan, an actor I met through Jim Rhodimer, came by. Alan has been doing great work on a web series Apocalyptic Playground, which is scored by Morgan.

Michael arrived later as did @MrBarnard1 from Twitter. There was a loud group or women nearby probably on their girls-night-out. One of them had an infant with her. About twenty minutes into the film they left.

An hour into the film I stopped and scanned the crowd. All eyes were fixated on the screen. It was Nino’s scene, featuring the talented work of actor Alan Pietruszewski — not to be confused with the other Alan. Interestingly, Alan (who was present) remarked how quiet the crowd was as they fixed on Alan’s (the actor in the film) performance. He said something to the effect of “That was a goddamn well-written and acted scene. It reminds me of why I chose to be an actor.” Nice.

I looked around and there were people all over who seemed to be glued to the screen. Even the waitresses at times would stop and watch the movie. I told Kathy to look at them and she smiled.

My friend Angie popped in too. I worked with her many years ago and we’ve kept in touch via email. After the film ended Ife of the Ifelicious Thoughts Blog came over. She’d just arrived at LAX an hour earlier and drove up. Although she’d interviewed me months earlier, it was the first time we met in person.

I tried to chat with as many folks as possible. Mr. Barnard was very complimentary about the film, as was Morgan. A lot of folks were surprised at the writing and the performances. Some remarked about how they didn’t have much confidence in good performances in indie films. Morgan complimented my directing  via my ability to get good performances out of the actors. For the second time during a screening someone remarked about how I seem to be able to write good dialog for women.

Alan, without a doubt, has the most praise for the film…and apparently for me. He enjoyed the writing. He enjoyed the performances. He said he wasn’t expecting much when he stopped by but he’d heard good things about Broken Hearts Club from Jim Rhodimer, our mutual friend. He had some amazing things to say. Much of which had me feeling very flattered. He said if he had money he’d pay me to work with me on my next film. Nice compliment.

It was a good screening. I was relaxed. The first mojito was free, then Kikey bought me a second. Everyone was relaxed. It was a good time. But now, I think I am done with screenings. Time to move forward with the next project — Resurrection of Serious Rogers