From Newport Beach

(The Gang: Charis Tobias, Kevin Marron, Elliot Kotek, Victoria Charters, me, Rachel Rath)

Well, I managed to get out to Newport Beach, thanks largely to the efforts of Elliot Kotek and of course the generosity of those who were kind enough to donate money toward my ticket! You people are amazing! Thank you again!

As I type I'm actually sitting in my friend Trampas' apartment in Los Angeles, looking out over an incredible view of the buildings of down town LA. Nice to be able to get down to visit friends. But of course the trip was about the World Premiere of 140, so I should mention a little something about that!

I arrived late on Thursday night and caught the end of the opening party, which was huge. But I was so tired from traveling that kinda just wanted to go back to the hotel and sleep! But then I bumped into Leslie Feibleman, who is one of the programmers and who selected 140. So she introduced me around to a lot of people. I met some of the other filmmakers.

Next day Elliot arrived, I did an interview with Journey Pod and hung out in the hospitality lounge chatting to other filmmakers. I managed to get back to hotel to lie down before the bug night, didn't sleep, but lying down helped! Ugh, jetlag! Then I got dressed and headed out for a meal before the big event! Of course I couldn't eat - a little nervous! Just a beer to calm the nerves slightly!

Afterwards we had a tech-check, everything was fine and then just a wait for people to arrive. It wasn't sold out or anything, but we had a nice crowd. They seemed to respond well to the film and all the right reactions played out as the film ran - looking great on the big screen, something I was slightly concerned about considering the varying quality of clips, but there were no real issues.

(Elliot and I doing the Q&A)

Afterwards there was a Q&A, hosted by Elliot, and we both talked about the film. It's available to see here. Some people came up to me afterwards and talked about how much they enjoyed and all the filmmakers who came were really happy and enthusiastic about it! So overall I think it was a great success and I was thrilled to be able to get out here and attend!

I go back to Newport Beach this evening and spend tomorrow there before heading on to Denver to meet the fam, and of course attend another screening of the film.

So all good and exciting to be on the road with 140! It's going to interesting to see what comes next.