Twisted: A Ballonamentary Blog

Radio Days

2011-03-29T17:31:00.007-04:00

TWISTED was recently featured on WFMU radio’s “Seven Second Delay” , hosted by Andy Breckman and Ken Freedman. As per usual, our segment followed a live on-air nipple-piercing of a 56-year-old man and preceded the music stylings of a folk guitarist. The interview with Sara begins about 36 minutes in.

Balloon twisting, like mime and ventriloquism, is perfect fare for the radio. Sara made a balloon version of the recently pierced host. For at-home listeners, this balloon could have looked like anything. But because we love you, dear readers, we’re including some photos.

All photos by John Dalton.

Strawberries and Sunflowers

2011-03-10T11:34:00.004-05:00

We presume you're picking out a gift for us on this, the fourth anniversary of TWISTED's world premiere at South By Southwest. Fruit and flowers are apparently the gift of choice for year number four (d'uh - as if you didn't know). To celebrate the day, we are unveiling our new facebook page.

In 2007, at this moment, we were leaving a few pre-screening interviews, reveling in the offer of free hair and make-up experts to spruce up our tired selves. We'd been on the go non-stop for too long to remember and after starting the film in 2003, four years later we were beyond excited to finally share our work. Balloon twisters flew in to build us amazing sculptures and our supportive families learned to make balloon dogs and spread the word to people of Austin.

As we drove to The Dobie Theatre (RIP), our nerves filled the car. We remembered a nice moment, a few years earlier, when we filmed Vera in Arizona. We stayed on her couch, the bearers of much good will to us as indie filmmakers, and felt the excitement as we got up, started filming, and saw her family begin to arrive for her college graduation. After years of hoping her goal was achievable, Vera's sense of pride was very moving. While dancing around the living room, someone put on a song from "The Little Mermaid". Suddenly, the whole room was singing "Part Of That World". The silly, pretty song we all knew the words to - about a longing to have something you'd admired for so long. For Vera, it was a chance to learn about medicine. For us, it was a chance to actually call ourselves filmmakers, after years of wondering if we'd ever finish. As we sat in the car four years ago, remembering that moment (which we couldn't include in the film... damn you music rights!) we needed something to calm us down. So, we rolled down the windows, and sang that song at the top of our lungs.

Now, TWISTED has been out in the world for as long as it took us to make it. As many people who have taken on creative projects know, it is a constant learning curve. Though the film itself was done in '07, we spent the next few years learning about distribution, marketing, theatrical runs, DVD releases and international sales. Just last week, someone from Israel told us he'd seen TWISTED on TV - we're big in other countries... the David Hasselhoff of balloon docs. Even now, we are still learning about online opportunities and hope to one day make it to TV in the U.S.

Thank you all for all of your support over the years! We know so many smart, supportive, creative friends - and it was our honor to teach many of you your first balloon dog.

Don't Screw This Up!

2010-12-13T00:11:00.003-05:00

If you want the love of your family and friends to continue, you MUST remember to buy all of them copies of TWISTED: A Balloonamentary this holiday season. You're welcome. And by that we mean, thank you.

City Island!

2010-03-21T02:02:00.005-04:00

Lauren Versel, an Executive Producer on TWISTED: A Balloonamentary, has another movie coming to a theater near you. City Island, which stars Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies and Alan Arkin, won the Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival and is now in limited theatrical release. Lauren produced City Island, and it's a fantastic, hilarious film!

Small films really need support during their opening weekends, to convince distributors to expand the release to more theaters in more cities. City Island is now playing in NY and LA, and it opens soon in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, Toronto, Miami, Philadelphia, Atlanta and San Francisco. So, if you live in one of these cities, join us in showing Lauren appreciation for helping to make TWISTED a reality... grab a bunch of friends and head out to see City Island.

If Tyne Daly and Mr. Show Had A Baby, It Would Be Called...

2009-11-11T00:25:00.005-05:00

Daily Show!

TheDailyShow.com is now featuring TWISTED in a list of staff projects. Check out the link and support the great creative endeavors.

Thanks to The Daily Show for the balloony love!

Boatloads of Fun

2009-11-08T00:16:00.002-05:00

Back in 1968, one year before The Gap even existed, Sara's dad started a business called New Steamship Consultants. Now the world's largest dealer of ocean liner memorabilia, perhaps the company will one day sell an entertainment guide for Royal Caribbean, mentioning TWISTED.

It seems the cruise line, now our favorite, is playing TWISTED on board. Let us know if you see it!

It's a pony!

2009-07-06T01:05:00.004-04:00

Sara recently had a significant birthday. Let's just say she entered a new decade. 10? Sure, we'll go with that.

Due to swine flu, the parade was canceled, but a big birthday celebration was still underway. Good friends made for a great weekend of eating, coney-islanding, and dancing (MJ - though you make us feel conflicted, we will never challenge your command to move our feet).

The birthday presents included a wonderful jar of memories from friends. Each person wrote down tons of memories on little sheets of paper, rolled 'em up, and placed them in the bottle. Some of Naomi's memories are movie-related, some are not (hard to remember - but there was a time we were friends and didn't even know that balloon twisting conventions existed), but we're the only one's who'd get all the inside jokes and stories on the pieces of paper. That's the thing about an experience like this - the only two people who can appreciate all of the up's and downs are the two of us.

This year, the ladies of TWISTED went 9 months without seeing each other. While our film spent several long years in the womb, a less sophisticated, human baby could have been born in this small amount of time. After many weekends schlepping between NY and Boston, and a long stretch on the road for festivals and the theatrical run, this less busy year just kinda passed us by and gave us each the opportunity to have more time at home. In March, it was reunion time. We've had a few nice visits since, and - as much as we love the movie - it's fun to remember how to have balance and be friends outside of the movie.

Ze plane! Ze Plane!

2009-07-04T01:22:00.002-04:00

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a flying octopus made out of balloons! These are all great guesses.

As it turns out, TWISTED is playing on Qantas airlines at the moment. Naomi's friend just watched it and we couldn't be more delighted. We prefer our audiences to be trapped and desperate for entertainment.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "Why didn't Sara and Naomi tell us about the Qantas screenings sooner? We would have booked our flight to Cincinatti to see Uncle Merv by way of Sydney!" That's a really good point you make (and thank you for the support, you've always been our favorite). But, we didn't know! We only get updates on our international sales once in awhile - but we've had great fun hearing about surprise viewings from Thailand to Israel.

We can't wait have our annual Eliot Lives meeting by the Great Barrier Reef. In this case, the flight will be tax-deductible, right?

Meet the Forces!

2009-06-23T00:54:00.007-04:00

Naomi G-Force and Matt B-Force are married! To each other!

They were married in a beautiful ceremony, and everything from the invitations to the programs to the place cards contained a little ballooney love. Much to the disappointment of our fans (read: relief of her mother), Naomi did not wear a balloon dress. But, TWISTED friends Lauren Beigel, Charlie Fogarty and Sara Krakauer did make Matt and Naomi out of balloons. Vera was there, too, and helped make balloon hats for the guests. Sara Taks-Dawg, a.k.a. Naomi's first husband, gave a toast at the rehearsal dinner and it is fun to realize how well we know each other's friends and family after working on the movie together.

It was a day filled with love and joy. And - of course, lots of dancing. The brides dance of choice with her dad? The Twist.

The highlight of the reception was when Matt and Naomi, while raised on chairs (go Jews!), each managed to make a balloon dog with one hand... And the crowd went wild. Matt has officially passed Eliot Lives standards.

Congats buddies!

Pioneer Spirit

2008-12-05T23:29:00.001-05:00

In June, we had a week-long run at The Pioneer Theater in NYC. The people who worked there were great. They loved the movie, the balloons, and each other - making it a happy place.

We'd spent hours, days, months of our lives trying to book a theatrical run without a distributor and with virtually no budget. No one in NY wanted to take a risk on us. Without a distributor, they knew it would be difficult for us to advertise and properly promote the film, and theaters couldn't afford to lose money. Even small "indie" theaters, seemed to book films with distributors. Several theaters gave us the option to 4-wall - a process by which the filmmaker fronts the money to rent the theater for a week (in ny - this can costs tens of thousands of dollars) and keeps 100% of the profit. This was not a realistic option for us and it was starting to look like a NY run might not be in the cards - a big disappointment.

The first place in the country to book us was The Tivoli, a beautiful Landmark Theater in St. Louis (by the way, we were the number one movie at the theater that weekend). But, it was still hard to gain traction. Finally, Lee, the manager at The Pioneer agreed to watch TWISTED. He called to say he loved it and wanted to screen it... for one night... preferably a week night. We made a strong case (read: plea) for a week-long run. He, too, was concerned that we might not be able to get an audience in. But he finally conceded, offering us one showing a night.

We covered the theater (and much of the East Village) in balloons to promote the film and it seemed to be working (even though we did get our very first ticket for putting balloons where they don't belong). By the day of the first screening, our first few shows were sold out and Lee called to tell us they were adding screenings every day. That night, they ran out of bottled water because there were too many people buying concessions.

Suddenly, we were able to book more cities. The Tivoli is a great, well-respected theater. But, the knowledge that a theater in NY was willing to give us a week gave other theaters the confidence to book us. Before we knew it (just kidding - after a lot more hard work) we had 10 cities booked. That is probably twice as many as we'd have gotten with one of the small distributors we'd longed for. In fact, some of the smaller distributors we'd hoped, months earlier, would take us on, booked films at the Pioneer. But we'd somehow managed to get it on our own - and between that and The Tivoli, the wheels were set in motion.

Now, the Pioneer has closed. Money problems. The only place in NYC that would seriously consider our self-distributed movie is gone. If we'd finished TWISTED one year later, it probably wouldn't have ever screened in NYC.

So, if you live in an area with independent theaters, remember to support them and appreciate the unique entertainment they bring to you community.

Dear Pioneer Friends, Filmmakers, & Film Lovers,
Ten years ago, when we began construction on The Pioneer, we were told we were crazy - that no single screen, indie-oriented, 99 seat theater, east of Avenue A, could possible survive. But for nine years, we did - showcasing the best of truly independent cinema, presenting restored classics (from The Last Picture Show to Ace in the Hole), curating special programs (from Luis Guzman Night to the 42nd Street Smut Show), hosting guest filmmakers (from Robert Altman and Robert Downey to Steve Buscemi and Richard Kelly) and partnering with local film organizations including the IFP, Filmmaker’s Co-op, Cinema Tropical, Fangoria, Women in Film and Television, Cinewomen, Third I, Slamdance, Docfest, and many more...

We’ve been blessed that The Earth Mother, Mel Cooley, The Dude, and the other Two Boots pizzas have been able to support our labor of love all these years, but now, with our lease ending and a rent hike looming, it’s no longer economically feasible to keep the theater going. Friday, October 31st at midnight, will be our last regular screening, appropriately: Night of the Living Dead.
We want to thank our amazing staff, past and present, and we want to thank you, our loyal audience, for your patronage over the years. Please, PLEASE, keep supporting independent films and independent theaters.

Finally, on Friday, November 7th, we’ll be having a goodbye party starting at 6pm - free movies, popcorn, and reminiscences. Please come by!

DVDo's And DVDont's

2008-11-24T01:48:00.004-05:00

Here is a picture of our DVD in a lovely Barnes and Noble.
Order your copy now at www.twistedballoondoc.com

DO
- Buy a copy for yourself
- Buy copies for your friends and family for the holidays
- Purchase extra copies as an investment to use for bartering when the economy finally collapses (Our prediction: 4 copies of TWISTED will get you an entire goat)
- Review TWISTED on Amazon and Netflix
- Mention the film on your blog and post a link to www.twistedballoondoc.com
- Let us know if you know of any members of the press who would like to promote the DVD release

DON'T
- Screw this up. Buy a copy now or be saddled with regret.

I Left My Balloon In San Francisco

2008-10-17T14:24:00.001-04:00

SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Sunday, October 19th at 9:30PM at Roxie Cinema
Wednesday, October 22nd at 7:15 pm at Roxie Cinema
Wednesday, November 5th at 9:30 pm at Shattuck Cinema
Part of the San Francisco DocFest
www.sfindie.com

Featuring a How To Make A Balloon Dog Demo with Brian Asman
http://www.balloonsequalfun.com/

Back in Bahston

2008-10-10T13:57:00.000-04:00

BOSTON, MA
Friday, September 26th at 8:15PM
Sunday, October 12th at 2:00PM
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
http://mfa.org/calendar/sub.asp?key=12&subkey=1
Q and A with Naomi and How to Make a Balloon Dog Demo to follow screenings!

Tallgrass Continued

2008-09-29T20:18:00.000-04:00

Kansas continues to show the love, inviting TWISTED back for a 3rd run in Wichita. We can't make it - but we hope someone dances in the parking lot for us!

WICHITA, KS
Saturday, October 4th at 7:30PM
Campus Activities Center Theatre
Wichita State University
http://webs.wichita.edu/?u=activities%20&p=/FamilyWeekend/CalendarofEvents/

The Oregon Trail

2008-07-05T02:07:00.000-04:00

- PORTLAND, OR
July 12-13 & July 19-20
Hollywood Theatre
4122 NE Sandy Blvd.
Q and A with Naomi after screenings

Michigan - Talk to the Hand

2008-07-01T23:27:00.006-04:00

TWISTED screened at The Michigan Theater this weekend. Our biggest venue so far, the theater had 1700 seats, though we kept a few empty (ok - at least a few). As usual, we were really pleased with the response from the audience. Ann Arbor is, as Michiganders would have you know, approximately in the palm of the hand. Of course, Michigan is not a hand, it is a state. But that doesn't stop those meshugenna Michiganders from insisting otherwise.

We were originally supposed to have a screening earlier in the week, but the theater had a problem with our screener and never told us until a few hours before the show. We tried everything, to no avail. We thought we'd finally figured it out when our DVD distributor sent a digital file of the film. But a thunderstorm at the theater knocked out the power and let us know that the universe simply did not want us to play that night. We're sorry to those who showed up on Thursday - especially to the wonderful local twisters who worked hard to create sculptures at the theater. But we were happy to find the sculptures still in good shape for the weekend and we were appreciative to the twisters who came back to support the film.

All was well by Saturday, and Sara made a quick trip to Ann Arbor to do Q and A. Host/ former Eliot resident Lauren put up fliers around town and several people we met that morning had already heard about the screening. We were mentioned in some local papers and a few people heard about us on the radio and on The Today Show. One guy at the theater told us that his friend is a DJ who mentioned the film. A few callers complained that the film was filthy. If only they complained on air, perhaps we could have filled all 1700 seats. We don't know if the callers have seen the movie or just read about it, but we continue to be surprised by the attention given to adult balloons, such a small part of the film.

The rest of the weekend was spent eating (Lauren is a baker at the world-famous Zingermans - which is seen below with a balloon dog by the always busy cash register) and getting a quick tour of Ann Arbor.

On Saturday night, we went to Top Of The Park, an outdoor music fest and twisted all of the remaining balloons from that day's screening. Lauren had never twisted before, but made balloon dogs for kids like a champ. She sported the balloon dog T all weekend, though wisely chose to cover it up at home, so her bird would not decorate it.

Thanks to all those who made it out to the screenings. As has been the case in every city, it was great to see friends from childhood and college, and random people we've met along the way, at the screenings.

NYC!

2008-07-01T22:19:00.013-04:00

Last week was probably the busiest and most exciting week for TWISTED since South By Southwest. Naomi came to town on Wednesday night and on Thursday we went to NPR to do a piece for The Bryant Park Project.

It was the first time we were ever in the same room for a radio interview, since we're usually on a 3-way phone call. It was fun to be in the studio, despite Sara being a bit loopy from cold meds. Naomi made "NPR" out of balloons and we filmed a segment on their 19th floor "balcony" (read: ledge that you must climb out a window to reach), a direct violation of Sara's personal pledge to never be in high, scary places. Since we did not die a free-fall death, Sara considered it a success. As we made our balloon dogs for the camera, Naomi's balloon popped (as balloons sometimes do) and a curse-word slipped out, to the delight of the producers, who chose to keep it in the final piece.

That night we met up with our great street team to place fliers and balloon dogs all over the East Village. This would later come back to bite us, as it turns out the city of NY frowns on public postings, rewarding us with a $75 ticket (TWISTED's first run in with The Man). It was all worth it, to see our sweet balloon lady finally taste the joy of public transportation.

We also continued our tradition of Balloons On Parade, placing sculptures in various locations throughout the city.

On Friday, we did The Today Show where we achieved our life-long goal of teaching Kathie Lee Gifford how to teach a balloon dog (it was as sweet as we dreamed it to be). Kathie and Hoda couldn't have been nicer, and they loved the life-size balloon versions of themselves as well as the balloon peacock Naomi made.

As we sat down for the interview, Kathie Lee and Hoda turned to each other, "I didn't have a chance to see the movie, did you?" "No, I didn't see it." But, despite that glaring omission, the ladies managed to act like they'd seen it and loved it. The magic of TV. Sara still was not feeling well and was afraid she would throw up on Kathie Lee. Despite the fact that it would make a great viral video and do wonders for the movie, Sara selfishly decided to do her best to keep it down. The highlight of the day was when we got hair and makeup done the morning of our NY premiere. Did we mention they gave us make-up? Lots and lots. We're talking inches thick. Eww. Matt, Naomi's fiance (aka our entourage), said he didn't recognize us at first and reminisced for a time when he could see our pores.

The premiere was wonderful and kicked off a fantastic run. Friends and family came out to support us and lots of blogs covered the run. On opening night, there were faces familiar and new, and all of the responses were just great. Sheree Brown-Rosner joined us for the Q and A, with her bird puppet on her arm the whole time. It was a great way to start off NY.

Each day provided a new surprise. One night, a woman named Roberta walked in. Matt, one of the guys who worked at the theater, became excited and told us that she was the star of a documentary called "Cinemania". She travels around the city watching movies full-time, and we were told that it was a big honor if she chose your film, as she considered it to be the best thing playing that day.

Another day, Silly Billy, the most famous children's entertainer in NY showed up.

At another screening, an adult balloon twister we'd never met showed up and delighted audience members with some of her special creations.

One night, we saw two women leaving the theater with balloons and asked if they liked the movie. "No, it sucked." Oh really? "Yeah it was terrible." We were a bit puzzled because we were at all the Q and A's, and were surprised by their harsh response. What movie did you see? "We saw ______" (other movie playing at theater). Phew.

We were lucky to have both of our Executive Producers, Lauren Versel and Nick "The Balloonatic" Rotondo attend screenings in NY. Nick made balloons for everyone, including Isabel, one of the staff members at the theater. Isabel wouldn't take off her balloon outfit all night and vowed to learn balloons. She was especially thrilled to have balloon cigarettes, which she temporarily lost when she put one in her real cigarette box by accident.

Thanks so much to everyone for all of the love and support. We absolutely felt it. And thank you to Lee and the wonderful staff at The Pioneer Theater. If you live in New York, SUPPORT THIS THEATER. It is really one of the last truly indie theaters around in NY. Even though we did not have a distributor, they took a risk on our film, and we are so appreciative and glad that it worked out well for everyone.

(drawing done by subway artist who captured us on the way to a screening)

Opening Night in NYC

2008-07-01T22:12:00.005-04:00

Thanks to Herschel Rosner for the great photos of opening night in NY!

Ann Arbor

2008-06-25T22:11:00.000-04:00

June 26 & 28
Michigan Theater
603 E. Liberty Street

Sara will be at the Saturday 4 PM screening to do Q and A!

The Balloon Twisters That Never Sleep (NYC!!!)

2008-06-17T19:37:00.003-04:00

Sara and Naomi will kick it with Kathie Lee and Hoda on The Today Show on Friday to promote:

June 20-26
Pioneer Theater
155 East 3rd Street, at Avenue A
Q and A with filmmakers all screenings!! Sheree Brown-Rosner, one of the stars of the film will also do Q and A on Friday.

Buy your tickets early!

More Fun than Grunge

2008-06-17T19:34:00.002-04:00

TWISTED is coming to Seattle!

June 18-22
Central Cinema
1411 21st Avenue at E. Union
Twister Craig Dos Santos will lead a balloon dog demo at Wednesday screening!

TWISTED at Key Cinemas in Indianapolis!

2008-06-04T22:50:00.002-04:00

TWISTED is opening in Indianapolis this Friday June 6th at Key Cinemas! The lobby will be full of fun balloon sculptures for the open--come check it out!

Check out a nice review re received in Nuvo, Indianapolis' Independent Voice Paper.

TWISTED in Wichita!

2008-05-29T22:28:00.002-04:00

This past fall, TWISTED was runner up for the Audience Award at the Tallgrass Film Festival in Wichita. We're so excited that the film will return to Kansas this week:

May 30 - June 5
Warren 13th Ave Theatre
11611 E 13th St N

The Friday May 30th 7 PM screening will include a Q and A and How to Make A Balloon Dog Demo with representatives from Qualatex balloons. Qualatex, one of the largest balloon distributors in the world, is based in Wichita and has supported the film with donations of balloons and pumps for every city in our theatrical run.

New York Times!

2008-05-26T20:44:00.005-04:00

TWISTED: A Balloonamentary is profiled in today's New York Times!

Indiana Who?

2008-05-26T19:16:00.005-04:00

We just returned today from a trip to St. Louis for TWISTED's theatrical premiere. While another small indie film called Indiana Jones also opened this weekend, we managed to hold our own as the highest rated movie of the weekend in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. The film will continue to play in St. Louis and in Madison until this Thursday, and we're so appreciate to everyone in both cities who has come out to support the film!

We began bright and early Friday morning after just a few hours of sleep (Naomi's flight got in at 1 AM). Silly Jilly, a St. Louis twister, arranged to have a news crew do 5 spots on their morning show from the theater, where several twisters met us at 6:30 AM. Unfortunately, Sara's alarm clock was no match for her super sleeping powers, so she woke up at 6:02 AM. After a few expletives and a quick trip to the theater, we were cheerfully met by Dale, one of the managers at The Tivoli, who kindly opened the theater early and brought donuts and coffee for everyone. He even put out a cup of quarters so all the twisters would have money to pay their car meters. You have to love the people of St. Louis.

As the twisters made amazing sculptures that will adorn the theater all week, Tim Ezell from Fox 2 News interviewed us.

We then covered The Loop with balloons and posters. Blueberry Hill, a favorite hangout spot, agreed to hang an amazing airplane designed by another local twister, Sammy J.

The twisters of St. Louis are an amazingly kind, talented, and well-organized bunch. They got us press and audience members, and showed us lots of balloony love. We were particularly touched by one twister, who saw the film a few months ago when we played at the St. Louis International Film Festival. He told us that he brought his parents to that screening, and that the film had completely changed their relationship. Until they saw the film, his parents were disappointed that their son had chosen a career in balloons and it had placed a strain on their relationship. He told us that the movie gave them a respect for the impact a little piece of latex can have, and that now they support his choice to be a balloon artist. Now, he says he gets chills when he hears the film's theme song because of the impact it has had on his life. It was an amazing feeling to hear his story.

The screenings and Q and A's were great. We even heard a few new questions, which is always a pleasure. At each screening, we offered a special prize to the first person who could spell "Balloonamentary" correctly. It proved to be a hard task for many people. The coveted award? Two tickets to the following night's screening (which always got a laugh) to give to a friend.

A few people asked for autographs and pictures, which was fun. Audience members included: people with a new-found interest in twisting, people we met randomly throughout the weekend (including a woman who served Naomi coffee earlier in the day), a woman involved with the children's circus at The City Museum (an amazing group we saw this fall), a lawyer offering pro bono help, a man who was offended by a scene in the film he felt was unfair to the gay community (a criticism we had not yet heard and disagree with), and a whole bunch of Wash U friends who were in town for a wedding.

Last night, as we waited to do Q and A, the guy making the popcorn told us he'd just gotten off the phone with his girlfriend in Ko Phi Phi (Thailand - don't feel bad - we had to look it up, too). She asked him what films were playing over the weekend, and told him that she had actually just watched out movie on TV. He said, "Do you know you're on TV in Ko Phi Phi?" We were all, "You down with wha...?" We had no idea! Our international distributor is taking care of deals in various places and this was news to us.

Thanks so much to Dale, Travis, and the whole crew at The Tivoli, and to Sarah at Sundance Cinemas in Madison for all of your support! And thanks to all of the twisters in St. Louis and Madison for your amazing art!

Coming Soon To A Theater Near You!

2008-05-10T00:37:00.008-04:00

In 2003, we decided to make a movie. In 2008, it hits theaters! There were many times we thought that the movie would never screen on anything bigger than a laptop. But, after a fantastic run at festivals, we've been lucky enough to book a run in select cities. For an independent film like ours, without a theatrical distributor, the idea of screening in theaters at one time seemed like it might be an unattainable goal. Luckily, several theater bookers really loved the film and are giving us an incredible opportunity. We need lots of support opening weekend in all of these cities to show these bookers that they were right to take a risk by supporting a small, independent film.

PLEASE COME SEE THE MOVIE! BRING YOUR FRIENDS! BRING YOUR ENEMIES! BRING EVERYONE YOU KNOW! AND HAVE THEM BRING PEOPLE, TOO!

And, don't forget to ORDER THE DVD at www.twistedballoondoc.com
It includes a director's commentary and lots of extras.

- ST. LOUIS, MO
May 23-29
The Tivoli
6350 Delmar in The Loop
Q and A at evening screenings on Fri, Sat, and Sun

- MADISON, WI
May 23-29
Sundance Cinemas
Hilldale Mall
430 N. Midvale Blvd

- WICHITA, KS
May 30 - June 5
Warren 13th Ave Theatre
11611 E 13th St N

- INDIANAPOLIS, IN
June 6-12
Key Cinemas
4044 South Keystone Avenue

- SEATTLE, WA
June 18-22
Central Cinema
1411 21st Avenue at E. Union

- NEW YORK, NY
June 20-26
Pioneer Theater
155 East 3rd Street, at Avenue A
Q and A at all screenings

- ANN ARBOR, MI
June 26 & 28
Michigan Theater
603 E. Liberty Street

- IOWA CITY, IA
July 6-10
Bijou Theater
Iowa Memorial Union
Corner of Madison and Jefferson Streets

- PORTLAND, OR
July 12-13 & July 19-20
Film Action Oregon/
The Hollywood Theatre Project
4122 NE Sandy Blvd.

MORE CITIES TBD... Check the site for updates!

Please contact us if any of the following applies to you:

- You live in one of these cities and would like to be part of our street team - handing out postcards and balloon dogs

- You know a member of the press (print, tv, radio, blogs) who might give us coverage nationally or in one of these cities

- You know of another theater that might want to screen the film

Buy the DVD!!!

2008-05-03T16:41:00.000-04:00

We are pleased to announce that our DVD is now available! Buy 'til it hurts!

Just click on the "Buy DVD!" link on our website:
www.twistedballoondoc.com

The film is being released by WGBH, the flagship station of PBS. It is so exciting to be able to share the film with everyone and we would like to thank our families and friends for listening to us talk about balloons for five years. We'd also like to thank our cast, crew, and our Executive Procucers, Lauren Versel, of Lucky Monkey Pictures, and Nick "The Balloonatic" Rotondo.

Antelope Valley Film Festival

2008-04-28T13:22:00.003-04:00

Come see Vera Stalker, one of the stars of TWISTED: A Balloonamentary, as she does a Q and A at a screening of the film:

Antelope Valley Film Festival
Sunday, May 4, 2:30pm
Cinemark Movies 12
44790 Valley Central Way
Lancaster, CA 93536

The festival programmer has been very enthusiastic about our film and we wish them a great festival!

Lake Forest - Opening Night!

2008-04-17T23:24:00.001-04:00

TWISTED: A Balloonamentary is going to be screening as part of the Lake Forest Film Festival this weekend in Chicago. We're the opening night film!!

Friday, April 18th
McCormick Auditorium
8:00PM

Saturday, April 19th
First Presbyterian Church:
1:00PM

Lake Forest College is located at:
555 N. Sheridan Rd.
Lake Forest, Illinois

More information about the festival is available at: http://www.lakeforest.edu/life/orgs/film/default.asp

Hope some of you can make it!

Wisconsin Film Festival

2008-04-10T15:32:00.000-04:00

We had a great time in Madison for the Wisconsin Film Festival. After what was described to us as the longest winter ever, we were lucky enough to arrive on the first warmer weekend. On Saturday, we hit the town with our great street team of Chris, Emily, and Andrew. As we were walking around, we even spotted a local balloon twister making a purple balloon dog.

While at most film festivals we spend a lot of time on the go, this time we decided to relax and not worry so much about marketing. We sat out by the melting frozen lake, with hundreds of University of Wisconsin students. There we saw a badger pop out of the lake, a marching band perform, and a wedding party go by.

That night, we had a nice dinner with our fantastic hosts, The Timmermans. They live on one of Madison's many lakes, and have a beautiful, relaxing view.

We then headed out to a film festival party downtown. It was a pretty small gathering, but we did meet a few filmmakers. One woman came up to us and said she was excited to see our film, and said it was nice to meet female filmmakers with a "big" film. So, we thanked her for thinking we have a big film. Who knew?

The next afternoon, we had our screening at the Monona Terrace Convention Center. A few balloon twisters came out to show support - along with 250 other people. The turnout was a fantastic surprise, as we barely know anyone in Madison. Almost everyone stayed for the Q and A, including a balloon twister who made hats for the audience, and a woman, who told us she wants to buy the DVD for each of her sons for Christmas.

Anyone else interested in buying the DVD? EXCITING NEWS COMING SOON...

Wiscahhhnsin

2008-04-01T00:07:00.000-04:00

Sara and Naomi are headed out to Madison this weekend for the Wisconsin Film Festival!

Sunday, April 6th 1:30pm
Monona Terrace Convention Center
$7.00
http://filmguide.wifilmfest.org/tixSYS/2008/filmguide/title/detail/

We will have fun until the cows come home, or until Sara's lactose intolerance proves difficult in the land of cheese.

Eliot Lives!

2007-12-09T19:32:00.000-05:00

St. Louis International Film Festival was a great homecoming. STL is always very welcoming - so much so that we even stumbled upon a bar with a familiar name...

Early Friday morning we met a bunch of twisters, organized by a local named Silly Jilly, at Blueberry Hill - a famed hangout on The Loop. Silly Jilly, Thad, and several others twisted balloons for us to use for publicity. The people at Blueberry Hill welcomed us, and all of the vendors on The Loop seemed into it. When we approached one store owner to say we had an odd question (could we put a balloon duck on the front table to promote our film?) he answered, "That's the easiest question I'm going to get all day. Go for it!"

Then, we went to Wash U for a fantastic luncheon organized by Jill Stratton, our former RA boss. We ate Mexican food, showed clips from the film, and answered questions from faculty and students. We both agreed that speaking with students is something we enjoy and hope to do more of.

It was good to walk around Wash U's campus. We checked out Bear's Den, where they serve beautiful fresh fish and steaks - just like when we were there. Of course at the time, such food items were mysteriously disguised as mozzarella sticks and chicken tenders.

While Eliot, as we knew it, is of course no more, we did find a photo on campus of our beloved dorm. For those paying close attention, you will be relieved to know that the spot on the left is the camera flash, not an atomic bomb cloud.

And as part of our series as areas that are not gun-friendly (until now - the series just included Wichita), we can add Wash U:

We spent the afternoon handing out postcards and doing an interview with Wash U magazine. Then, we had a great dinner made by our wonderful hosts, Debby and Chris! That night, we went to a party for filmmakers in the Central West End. We got our badges, some hats, and a bit of other swag - which we showed off with style.

The next day, Debby greeted us with freshly baked muffins (because she is fine, fine human being) and we set off to do some last minute postcard-handing-outing. We met Thad and Silly Jilly at the St. Louis Art Museum (SLAM), where we'd be screening that evening. As they made fantastic balloon decorations for the entrance to the theater, we inflated hundreds of purple balloons.

The screening was another great one. We had 200 people in the audience, including friends, friend's parents, friends who drove in from Chicago, former teachers, and lots and lots of strangers. Every time we screen it - it is just such a good feeling to hear the audience response.

After the Q and A - we invited everyone to join us at Blueberry Hill.

The next day, we got to play. After another morning of baked goodness from Chef Debby, we went to the City Museum. If you ever have a chance to go, it is such a fun, bizarre, over-stimulating wacky museum. We climbed through weird tunnels, ate marshmallows at a bonfire, and, of course, no day out would be complete without a viewing of the world's largest pair of underwear.

We then watched some very young and talented circus performers putting on a show at the museum. If it didn't make us nauseous to think about, we would even mention how great these kids would be in a documentary.

After dinner at Sara's favorite restaurant, The Establishment Formerly Know As Cafe Natasha, we went to the Awards Banquet. We were told that we had the second biggest audience at the festival (the bigger gathering, of course, a silent Japanese film). And - we did not get an audience award - losing to... wait for it... a film about vaginal fistulas.

We actually had nothing but positive feedback that night, which was really nice. We sang karaoke with our new friends from Disney, Brian and Nicole. We sang "Part Of That World" and a little Nelly, because they go together so well.

To The Lou - And We're Proud

2007-11-11T23:02:00.000-05:00

Eliot does indeed Live!

Check out TWISTED: A Balloonamentary in its natural habitat, as Sara and Naomi head back to one of their favorite places - St. Louis...

St. Louis International Film Festival
Saturday, Nov. 17
7 p.m.
Saint Louis Art Museum
1 Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park

PIONEER SPIRIT

2007-11-01T21:56:00.000-04:00

The Tallgrass Film Festival was exactly what a film festival should be. The entire community seemed to rally around the festival, volunteering to make it a very special weekend. Thanks to Lela, Eric, Arietta, Gretchen, Lee, Francine, Teddie, Terry, and Jim for a great time!

We were excited to go to Wichita because it seemed like a random thing to do. Two gals from the Northeast hanging out in Kansas for a few days. Wichita is famous for many things (we assume) - but to be honest, we just didn't know what to expect. On our first evening, we walked over to the Warren Theater, within eyesight of our hotel. We'd been warned that it was too far to walk, which was funny to us, because neither of us even have cars and are used to walking a few blocks. Upon arriving at the theater, we were immediately glad that we'd made the trip to the festival. Everyone on the programming board took time to introduce themselves and tell us how much they enjoyed our film. Wichita was funkier than we'd expected, a bit more progressive and diverse than our assumptions had led us to imagine. The opening night film was Kansas vs Darwin, a documentary by Jeff Tamblyn and Jeff Peak, and it was the perfect thing for us to get to see with a Kansas audience. It investigated the Kansas Board of Ed's temporary ban on teaching evolution in the schools. It was interesting to hear both sides of the argument, and the audience's reaction (yay's and boo's) to certain characters. As we both live in areas of the country that tend to be more liberal, it was interesting to see that there is actually a fairly liberal audience in a state as red as Kansas. Neither of us had grown up in areas that debated evolution, but we had several conversations that night on the controversy. We always say the mark of a good film is people discussing its ideas afterwards. And, perhaps most importantly, we should mention that we watched the film in a theater with seat warmers. That's right, the Warren Theaters have seat warmers and waitress service. Reason enough to go to Wichita.

After the screening, we went over to a Japanese restaurant for the after-party. We handed out some postcards and found community members to be very excited for the festival. A bunch had already made plans to see our film and a few even asked for our autographs!

170 people braved the A.M. start time to come to our screening. Teddie, the woman introducing the film, had already won us over with her enthusiasm. She told us she was on the festival's screening committee and was unsure when she heard she'd be watching a film about balloon twisting conventions. But, she loved it and watched it several times before the festival, inviting all of her friends to the screening. As we met them, they told us that Teddie is now an avid twister and has even tried to encourage her parents to twist. When she introduced the film, Teddie explained that, after watching the movie for the first time, she was inspired by the way people had changed their lives. She decided she would order balloons and begin twisting. She knew she wanted the best balloons in the world to get her started and began researching on the internet. She ordered a package of balloons and a pump from a company in Australia that promised it had the best quality product. A week later, the package arrived and Teddie was surprised to see that the balloons had been produced in Wichita, several blocks from her home.

We knew that the Pioneer Balloon Company, one of the biggest in the world, was headquartered in Wichita. Cam Woody, an awesome woman who works there, encouraged us to apply and made sure that we would be given a warm welcome. She and her team from Pioneer created amazing balloon columns at the theater, got volunteers to help us blow up balloons and hand out postcards, and made sure that everyone at the festival got their own pump and bag of balloons. Cam also gave us a personalized tour of their headquarters. Which, in case you were wondering, is not filled with guns.

Thanks so much to the many Pioneer/ Qualatex employees and balloon twisters who came to the screening! We had such a great time. Each screening has been special in different ways. This one was important because it reminded us how nice it is to be able to share the film with others. This summer, we spent countless hours working on a yet-to-be-announced development. Since we live in different cities, when we meet to work, it often involves ridiculously long days and a lack of sleep and sanity. Sometimes, when we're knee-deep in work - it can be hard to remember why this is fun. When we were sitting in Wichita, watching waitresses serve the daily specials to film-goers (chicken noodle soup - and boston cream pie - an odd combo - but undeniably NYC and Boston friendly), it was just such a treat. The audience response was amazing - laughers and criers - just like we like it. After the film, many people told us how much they'd enjoyed it. Dan Flynn, the COO of Pioneer gave us each a hug and told us he thought we'd captured the spirit and essence of the balloon twisters - which is a big compliment from a man who knows so many of them.

We were kind of floating afterwards. We walked over to the filmmakers lounge to get food (we didn't have to buy a single meal while we were there) and to relax a bit. Oddly enough, a TV crew from Austin was there and we told them we premiered at South By Southwest and did a quick interview. Then, we just got to hang out. Even though it sounds really simple, we've haven't really done that at too many festivals. Usually, we're busy trying to promote our next screening. It was really special to be able to sit and talk to other filmmakers and find out what other people in similar situations are doing. We talked about production, post, distribution, festivals - and it was so frickin' nice.

Then - because Eliot Lives Productions never seems to have too much downtime, we went back to the hotel and did a bit of work. We answered a few emails about festivals and even checked some dvd's to make sure some dubs we'd made were in working order.

Then, we headed out to a party at a loft apartment downtown. The party was held in honor of Don LaFontaine - the guy whose voice you hear in almost every movie trailer. Great view of the theater where we’d screened earlier in the day and Don quickly got into the balloon spirit.

That night we went to two more theaters, this time – instead of being cutting-edge – they well well-preserved, beautiful, old buildings. It showed Wichita’s heart that there is such an appreciation for the arts. They are preserving these buildings, while other cities are tearing them down. They announced the audience award and TWISTED: A Balloonamentary won runner-up! Many people came up to us tell us again how much they enjoyed the film – so nice. After a Q & A with Don La Fontaine, we attempted to get a dance party going. The DJ finally agreed to play one dance song and we had a quick but spirited crowd.

We then boarded the party bus. The Party Bus is a big, neon, loud bus that should come with disclaimer that it could cause seizures. As the festival provided all of the filmmakers’ transportation, the party bus provided an effective way to schlep us all over town. We ended up at another theater, but we were kind of movie’d out. A few filmmakers debated going out and we wandered over to the parking lot where a festival van was parked. As we waited for Gretchen, volunteer extraordinaire and our driver for the rest for the night, we chatted to Douglas and Arne, two other filmmakers. Arne started playing with the radio, and our dance party finally came to fruition – right in the middle of the parking lot. From midnight until 2:30 AM – we danced, sang and were generally merry. We occasionally had visitors briefly join the party until we called it a night. Gretchen even created an ad for The Parking Lot – the new place to be in Wichita. We then continued to sing our hearts out as poor Gretchen had to make a late-night drive to drop each of us filmmakers off at our respective hotels.

After a few hours sleep and a filmmaker’s brunch, we went to our second screening – added because of the audience’s response to the film. We had a nice Q and A – and – as a special treat, were able to meet Mr. And Mrs. Gruver. Their son, Tim started the festival five years earlier. Tim suddenly passed away a few years ago, and his friends Lela and Eric vowed to return to Wichita to carry on his legacy with the festival each year. The entire community clearly cared for Tim, as they were so passionate in their support of the festival and the feeling of importance that it would carry on. It was very nice to meet the Gruver’s and have a chance to tell them how much fun we’d had in Wichita.

From there, we headed to the airport, where Naomi carried out her tradition (addiction?) of playing every game she can find where you use the little grabby thing to try to catch toys in a machine. She is undeniably good. The day before she won another toy in a machine at the movie theater.

And – it should be noted that, after hearing about it all weekend, we passed the Friends University of Central Kansas on the way to the airport (aka F.U.C.K.). Locals didn’t like the name and had it changed to Friends University, which is clearly much, much better.

The Tallgrass Is Always Greener

2007-10-14T20:06:00.000-04:00

GOOOOOOD MORRRRRRRNING WICHITA!

We will be in Wichita, Kanas this coming weekend for the Tallgrass Film Festival!

Our screening, sponsored by Pioneer Balloon Company, will be:

Saturday 10/20
11:30 AM
The Warren Old Town Theatre
353 N. Mead

I Left My Heart In Indianapolis

2007-10-05T14:24:00.001-04:00

For our TWISTED friends in Indianapolis, we will be screening not once, not twice, but six times as an Official Selection in the Heartland Film Festival.

Tickest are available at:
http://heartland.bside.com/?_view=_filmdetails&filmId=32296357

Sat, Oct 20, 10:00 AM | AMC Theatres Greenwood Park 14

Sat, Oct 20, 1:30 PM | AMC Theatres Greenwood Park 14

Sun, Oct 21, 4:30 PM | AMC Theatres Greenwood Park 14

Mon, Oct 22, 1:30 PM | AMC Theatres Clearwater Crossing 12

Wed, Oct 24, 9:00 PM | AMC Theatres Clearwater Crossing 12

Thu, Oct 25, 9:30 PM | Regal Entertainment Group UA Circle Center 9

New Morning In America

2007-07-21T21:14:00.000-04:00

For those one or two of you who don't already have your tivo set for "New Morning" (7 AM Eastern Time on The Hallmark Channel) be sure to tune in on Tuesday, July 24th. Naomi and Sara and a few balloon friends will be making an appearance.

Make-up and hair? If you insist.

Caroline, the New Morning producer, can now, apparently, do anything.

The ladies of TWISTED with Timberly and her balloon likeness.

We Are Two Of Life's Winners

2007-06-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

TWISTED: A Balloonamentary received "Best Documentary - Honorable Mention" at the New Jersey International Film Festival. Just another reason why NJ is the finest state in all the union.

Newport News

2007-06-13T01:01:00.000-04:00

This weekend was the Newport International Film Festival. Naomi kicked things off with a quick trip to RI during the week to put up flyers and balloons. Friday night, Naomi lived it up at a party at one of Newport's famed mansions while Sara sat on a much delayed train (it being her turn for transportation difficulties). At one point Sara received a prank call from Naomi. But, it turns out, it was not Naomi, but rather festival programmer David Nugent who called. Naomi lost her phone during the party and David found it and began calling all of her recent calls, eventually making friends with Naomi's mom. When Naomi and David finally met and David returned the phone, he explained, "I talked to your mom and tried calling some other person. Takhog?" Who's never heard of the name TaksDawg?!

The next day we attended a lovely brunch at another mansion (another day, another mansion... that's just how we roll).

Then, we set out to make our balloon-selves known. But first, a side note, former SNL star Rachel Dratch was a festival jury member and Sara and Naomi spotted her walking into a parking lot. Being the stalker/ aggressive marketer that she is, Sara chased her through the parking lot, handed her a postcard and invited her to the screening.

Balloon twister extraordinaire Sara Krakauer came down from Boston to help out. Naomi and Sara K. started to twist a balloon person while they were standing in the park. Sara T. walked by and thought it looked hysterical sitting on the park bench. So, they decided to finish the balloon girl, tie her to the bench, tape a poster to her belly, and hope for no rain. It turned out to be a great discussion piece and tons of people walked by, took pictures, and asked questions.

We also made a balloon girl for the movie theater and got some prime poster real estate in the theater's front window.

Everyone in Newport was incredibly friendly. People at bars and restaurants asked for balloon hats and even some men who lived in the park asked us for balloons. It should be noted, however, that they also made many comments about how attractive our balloon girl was. She went missing a few hours later and we can only hope that this was not the night that our balloon girl became a balloon woman.

We made a very quick trip to the filmmakers' lounge, where we sat for a few minutes and ate some of the free gourmet chocolate. This is a good time to mention - Newport Intl Film Festival has great free stuff. As filmmakers, there are many things that are special about festivals. Free stuff is way up on the list. Here, we got sunglasses, fancy bags, hand-crafted rings, dvd's, cd's, a T-shirt, and some other stuff that was less exciting but equally free.

Soon, the premiere of the film "Evening" was about to begin. We worked the lines handing out postcards and Sara made a dash for the red carpet, where Claire Danes was walking in. Sara quickly handed Angela Chase, ehem... Claire Danes a postcard and explained that she was a filmmaker. But Claire-Bear said that she was leaving in the morning before the screening - and handed the postcard back saying she didn't want to waste it. And so went Newport celebrity invite number 2.

We were starving at this point and decided to grab some dinner. The hostess informed us that the wait was 1 hour -- uggghhh! Then, she noticed our balloon bracelets and balloon dog T-shirts and asked if we were the same people who'd dropped off balloons during the week (good work, Naomi). She said she'd see what she could do. Right then, Rachel Dratch and co. walked by on their way to a table. The hostess asked, "Why don't you know them? Aren't they with the festival?" We told her that they were kind of big wigs and didn't know us. She gave us a nice pep talk, about how we would one day be the "people to know" and it was only a matter of time. Then, after consulting with a waitress for a moment, she asked, "How would you like to be seated at the table next to them, right now?" And so - the perks of being nice, young filmmakers continued.

When we got to our table, our new neighbors were very friendly. They asked us for balloons, and even though we were tired and intended to take a break - it was kind of exciting to make friends with the big kids.

We then got cleaned up for the night's big party (common folk paid $150 for entry, but we got tickets in the free stuff bag!). The party was fancy schmancy. There were strobe lights outside and a traffic jam to get into the huge tent (adjacent, of course, to another mansion). The crowd seemed to be mostly well-dressed local supporters of the arts. The house was huge and gorgeous and the party was fancy, if a little slow. We ran into our new friends from dinner and started hanging out with them. At midnight, we couldn't stand looking at that empty dance floor and decided we would either make the party fun, or go home. Within three minutes, the dance floor was full. Then, Sara Krakauer decided that what these high-class people really needed were some balloon hats. She started making them by the bunches, as people in fancy dresses, suits, and tuxedos lined up. It was awesome! Even the band wanted in. We danced our little balloon hearts out, and even broke out the air guitars and harmonica.

When the band called it a night, everyone adjourned to the beautiful pool out back. And, then, something we'd only seen in movies happened. People started jumping in the pool. Some in their dresses, some in not much at all. But everyone had at least one piece of attire in common... balloon hats filled the pool!

The next day, we met with our sales rep, Roger. Figuring out distribution has been exciting, pleasing, challenging, and frustrating. It is nice when people like your work. And it is hard to know when you're doing the right thing at the right time.

The day didn't have much breathing time, as we left our meeting and headed straight for the theater. Bruce Kalver, another awesome twister, met us there and did some line work.

We did a quick and very strange interview before the screening with a man who kept apologizing for his bad hangover. He had a mighty fine yellow sports coat, which we can only assume came in the free stuff bag.

The screening was another great one. One woman in the audience saw Naomi putting up balloon sculptures during the week and rescheduled a trip to NY so she could be in town for the screening! Festival volunteer/ college student Eric was able to sneak in to the screening and was kind enough to invite us to a dinner he was having at his place. We already had dinner plans with some friends who came in for the screening - but that just shows how nice people have been!

Also, many family and friends made it out and we thank all of you for coming!

Unfortunately, despite wearing a balloon hat the night before, one person who did not make it to the screening was Rachel Dratch...

With the addition of Rachel Dratch and Claire Danes, we bring you today's installment of celebrities** we've invited to our screening vs. celebrities who've attended:

Number of celebrities invited to screenings: 6
Number of celebrities who've attended screenings: 0

** Please note, for the purposes of this blog, the definition of "celebrities" will be loose enough to include everyone from Adam Sandler and Paul Rudd to Randy Spelling and Jennifer Wayne.

MI and RI Sitting In A Tree...

2007-06-07T23:39:00.000-04:00

NEWPORT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Sunday 6/10
2PM
Opera House 3 Cinema
Washington Square
19 Touro St
Newport, RI
$10 - tickets now available online:
http://www.newportfilmfestival.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=203&catid=24

WATERFRONT FILM FESTIVAL
Saugatuck, MI
Friday 6/8 11:30 AM $8
Saturday 6/9 9 AM $8
Sunday 6/10 7 PM $10
All screenings at:
Venue 2
Saugatuck Center for the Arts
400 Culver Stree
http://www.waterfrontfilm.org/

News Jersey

2007-06-05T00:17:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the NJ premiere of TWISTED! We had a very warm welcome at the NJ Intl Film Festival - which was attended by lots of friends and family. Special guest Grandma Shel got to see the completed film for the very first time!

Like every other city we've been to, the people of New Brunswick took to the balloons. Sara and her dad, Steve, spent the day Thursday handing out balloons and putting up posters. Everyone was so friendly... One guy shook Sara's hand for completing the film and wouldn't leave until he got a balloon dog and a hat.

After a great dinner, team TWISTED headed over to the theater. NJ marked the first time TWISTED shared the bill with a short film. The film was - hmm - how do we say it? Quite dark. After 20 minutes of watching the short and Naomi and Sara praying, "Please don't let that man attack that girl right before our movie", it was time to segue into a movie about balloon twisting conventions.

But - the audience was up for it and was just as great as all the audiences have been. Thanks to everyone who came and congrats to those who made their first balloon dogs!

NJ and Balloons - Perfect Together

2007-05-30T00:28:00.000-04:00

NEW JERSEY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Sunday 6/3
7PM
Scott Hall #123, 43 College Avenue (Near the corner of
College Avenue and Hamilton Street)
College Avenue Campus
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ
$10 - tickets only available at the door
http://www.njfilmfest.com/

Hollywood Reporter

2007-05-05T20:55:00.000-04:00

Check out this review in the Hollywood Reporter that calls TWISTED: A Balloonamentary, “one of those wide-grin quirkster documentaries one hopes to discover every festival season”. The review says the film is a “thoroughly winning feature” with “tons of charm” that “could hold its own theatrically in the feel-good docu niche.”

Link to Hollywood Reporter Review

How ‘Bout A Hand For Michigan!

2007-05-04T18:30:00.000-04:00

We were just informed that we will be screening at the Waterfront Film Festival in Saugatuck, Michigan. The festival is June 7-10th and we will let you know our screening date as soon as we do!

Grandma Time

2007-05-02T00:18:00.000-04:00

The Independent Film Festival of Boston was, as they say, wicked ahhhsome. Naomi prepped for the weekend by working with Rob Balchunas, Sara Krakauer, Charlie Fogarty, and others to create “Balloons On Parade”. Eight stores in the greater Boston area agreed to allow balloon sculptures advertising the film. The sculptures, each designed to look like a different character in the movie, were a huge hit! Much thanks to the Somerville Theatre, Wainright Bank in Davis Square, Mr. Crepes in Somerville, Sherman Café in Somerville, JP Licks in Brookline, Herrels Ice Cream in Allston, and the Coolidge Corner Theatre.

Boston turned out to be great for press. We had big spreads in the Boston Herald, The Boston Globe, The Metro, on NPR, and a few others! We also did an on camera interview with a new site called Our Stage, and we taught all of the correspondents how to twist their first dogs. Check out TWISTED in the Ourstage IFFB wrap-up here (search for "OurStage a@ IFFBoston).

One great thing about Boston was that we were able to see a lot of people we’d met at SXSW, including SXSW festival programmer Matt Dentler and other documentary filmmakers. It’s nice to start seeing familiar faces along the festival circuit! We hung out with Aaron Matthews (“The Paper”), Adam Zucker (“Greensboro: Closer To The Truth”), and Jason Orans (“Year of the Fish” producer) --- we even managed to score a fee ride home from Jason – who, for some reason, thought it best not to wear this balloon hat while driving.

The next day we recruited Gowri Krishna, Anuj Shah, Debby Levine, Randy Levine, and Chirs Timmerman to hand out postcards and balloons. It is safe to say that there were balloons EVERYWHERE in Boston.

Funny as it sounds, it’s hard to see movies at festivals because we’re often promoting our film. But, we did manage to make it to a screening of “King Corn” a documentary about corn production in the U.S. that was beautifully shot. It is funny to watch a movie about the evils of corn and corn syrup in a theater with buttery popcorn and soda everywhere. When we left the film, we found Rob Balchunas, still hard at work.

That night, we managed to get our crew invites to the festival’s party. We got both our sushi and our grooves on in, what turned out to be, quite a dance party. As we were leaving, a van from Foxwoods casino pulled up to the hotel where the party was held. Instead of taking a few cabs, we negotiated a deal with the driver, who agreed to shuffle all seven of us back to Somerville.

Everyone returned home exhausted. But, it has now become an accepted fact that Sara does not sleep the night before screenings. While the screenings have become more predictable, it is still exciting/ nerve wracking to have a group of strangers view the movie. It was a sleepy morning, but Sarah Grafman, Erica Naiztat, and Sara Krakauer helped us by filling up hundred of balloons. A week earlier, we’d learned that our pre-sales were going very well, leading the festival to move us to the biggest theater at the Coolidge Corner. This meant, we’d need many more balloons to complete our now regular promise of “Everyone who comes to the screening will learn how to make a balloon dog.”

We got to the theater and saw Dan, who would be introducing our film. Dan was great to us! In fact, the whole IFF Boston team – including Nancy, Adam, and Jason really made us feel very welcome! We also saw some of our favorite people we’ve met while filming. It was VERY difficult to cut the stories of Charlie Fogarty and the Beigel family during editing. They’re both fantastic stories that just didn’t work in terms of timing and flow with the rest of the film (but we hope they will one day make great DVD extras!). It is so nice to get such support from all of them!

We also got to see the best colorist we know, Sandy Patch (aka Sugar Patch) from Final Frame. Sandy came up from NY for the screening!

Another New Yorker in attendance was Sarah Orenstein. Sarah was one of our animators, but we’d never met! All of our work with her was done via phone and internet (the wonders of modern day technology), so it was exciting to finally meet her. Including ours, Sarah actually had animation in two films screening at IFFB!

Then, the guests of honor arrived. We were very excited to have our families come to the Boston screening. But, we were especially excited to have two people there who had never seen the final cut or watched the movie in a theater – Grandma Millie and Grandma Sylvia! We are both very close with our families and we have waited for a Grandma screening for a very long time. For weeks, we’d been talking about how excited we were that the time had come. And – there is no question that the most exciting and important part of the Boston experience was that two of our grandmas were there (Naomi’s Grandma Shel will get to see the film in a few weeks!). The theater filled with 350 people, and it was very emotional to look out and see Grandma Millie and Grandma Sylvia cheering us on! In honor of Grandma Sylvia’s 91st birthday, the entire theater even sang “Happy Birthday”.

The screening was great! It was exciting to hear so many people laughing and crying together. After the credits, we even got a standing ovation! After the film, we got to talk to friends from home and Wash U, family, and many strangers who enjoyed the film. One man told Sara he enjoyed the movie and was a twister himself. He turned out to be Aaron Hsu-Flanders, who wrote the very first balloon book Sara ever saw, when she was just a kid!

We then went to Naomi’s grandma’s building for a lovely party!

After a well-needed nap, we geared up for the closing IFF Boston party. The awards ceremony began and the crowd was informed that the next prize would be an ipod. Sara jokingly told Naomi that they would win this because she always wins ipods (at SXSW Sara entered a drawing sponsored by Apple at the last second and won a nano). Well, wouldn’t ya know it… Two minutes later we were surprised to win IFFB’s first award for best marketing! We each got… a snazzy new ipod nano! The festival organizers said they loved our marketing!

Number of Sara's mentioned in this post: 2
Number of Sarah's mentioned in this post: 2

Stop the Ignorance: The Beauty That Is New Jersey

2007-04-26T15:28:00.000-04:00

Sara is nothing if not a New Jersey lover. Which is why our acceptance to the New Jersey International Film Festival is so exciting! In college, Sara made her midwestern roomates temper their criticism of the greatest state in the union by making a home movie/ guided tour of her home state called, "Stop the Ignorance: The Beauty That Is New Jersey".

We will be screening at Rutgers University on June 3rd. More details to come!

The OC

2007-04-24T22:50:00.000-04:00

In our fastest trip to the west coast ever, we just spent the weekend in California for the Newport Beach Film Festival. Our hotel was on Fashion Island, an unusual name for a piece of land surrounded by more land. Everything was very upscale, which played in perfectly for our hopes for a typical Orange County weekend.

We handed out postcards at Edwards Island, where our movie was playing, and met Jack - a local twister who offered to help. These women were traveling to countries affected by the Tsunami and wanted to learn how to do balloons for the kids.

We also got a lot of help from a newbie twister and Naomi's cousin, Lee!

Later, after accidentally trespassing on a private golf course, we decided to do something novel at a film festival - watch a movie. We went to see Parker Posey's "Broken English" - but that's not important. What is important is that one of the festival organizers saw us, complimented us on all of our marketing, and offered us two tickets to the John Wayne Centennial Gala. We'd heard about the gala earlier, but had no intentions of going because it was $100 a pop. However, those of you who know Sara are aware that there are few things in life that make her happier than scoring an entrance to exclusive affairs where she really has no reason being. We put on our fancy duds and headed over to the party, which celebrated what would have been John Wayne's 100 birthday.

When we walked in the door, Naomi was very excited to see that there was free John Wayne swag (despite the fact that neither of us have ever seen a John Wayne movie). The giveaway was a giant mug, with a photo, quote and tiny sticker on the bottom, “WARNING: The materials used as colored decorations on the exterior of this product contain lead, a chemical known to the State of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm. This warning applies to the State of California only.” Luckily, we both live on the east coast, so the mugs should be 100% safe.

While Naomi admired the scene, Sara immediately made a beeline for someone to hand him a postcard with screening times. Naomi had no idea was Sara had picked this person to aggressively invite to the screening. But this mystery man was none other than relative extraordinaire Randy Spelling. He said he would try to check out the screening, and Sara was excited that the event was already paying off in C-list spades.

We got some food and admired the music of Jennifer Wayne. “God Bless John Wayne” was the song of choice, and we later also invited her to the screening. We thought we made another star spotting, Jason Bateman, but after further inspection (including staring at him and have a full-on conversation) we still weren’t sure. His brothers confirmed that he was not a Bateman, but we decided to not hold that against them.
While we were eating, a woman noticed our balloon bracelets and came over to talk to us. “You’re not from here? Let me show you the real Orange County. Those over there are fake.” She begins pointing around the room, “Those are fake, fake, fake, fake-fake-fake!” She also told us that 10 years of marriage is cause for a big celebration in Orange County, because it means, “Alimony forever!”

We spent the rest of the evening at an after party at the art museum, which included a live art component. One man volunteered to have his leg tattooed, with anything of the artists’ choosing, in front of the crowd

The next day, Larry came out from Arizona to twist for us! We met Larry a few years ago in Las Vegas, when he was working for Michele. We hadn't really kept in touch, but he heard about the film and made a huge road trip so he could see it!

We also made a VERY quick stop at the beach and met a few local teenagers who informed us that our balloons were, "really tight."

While handing out postcards, people seemed to be gathering around one person. He was some sort of local actor - some guy named Adam Sandler.

We gave him a balloon invited and him and his wife to the movie. They said they had to get home to their baby, but Adam seemed to get a kick out of the premise of our film.

A bunch of local friends, family, and even a few Wash U alums who we didn't know showed up and we got ready to screen. We had a nice turn out considering we didn't have much time in CA to get the word out, and the movie was followed by a good Q and A session. After the screening, one woman told us that she loved the film but was upset by the adult balloon twisting because her young son was in the audience. We always tell people there is some subject matter not intended for young audiences, so we were surprised to hear from her that we were listed in the program as a children's film! We apologized to her, as did the festival programmer - and it was very nice to hear that despite being upset by one section - she still really loved the film.
We also met Richard Kraft, a director who loved the film. He was extremely kind in his words about our film and we can't wait to see his documentary, "Kraftland"!

The rest of the day was spent hanging out with friends before Sara jumped on a red-eye home. Naomi had an extra day to enjoy before her flight which, despite previous trends for Naomi, was NOT cancelled!

The inaugual edition of celebrities** we've invited to our screening vs. celebrities who've attended:

Number of celebrities invited to screenings: 4
Number of celebrities who've attended screenings: 0

** Please note, for the purposes of this blog, the definition of "celebrities" will be loose enough to include everyone from Adam Sandler and Paul Rudd to Randy Spelling and Jennifer Wayne.

More Festival Fun!!

2007-03-20T07:37:00.000-04:00

We just got accepted to two more festivals!! Newport Beach Film Festival in Newport Beach, CA invited us to screen and we will be making our East Coast Premiere at the Independent Film Festival in Boston!! If you can make either screening, please come! We promise you will NOT be disappointed.

Newport Beach Film Festival--Screening on Sunday, April 22nd at 2:30PM
Independent Film Festival in Boston--Screening on Sunday, April 29th at 12:00PM

It Was the Talk of the Shiva!

2007-03-15T22:18:00.000-04:00

It's amazing how much you can do in a week. We are back after an amazing adventure! In the course of the week - we probably each slept about 14 hours - so, it's all kind of a blur. But it's a really, really good blur. We did about 10 interviews, had a fantastic second screening, and got lots of great feedback. Everyone in Austin was covered in balloons and our T-shirts became a hot commodity. We also met a lot of cool filmmakers from "The Job", "Frownland", "Confessions of A Superhero", "Big Rig", "Crazy Sexy Cancer" and many others. It was nice to meet other people in similar situations. And (name dropping alert) - we even chatted a little with Morgan Spurlock and Paul Rudd.

At the closing night party we talked to a couple from NY who came to our Saturday screening. When we asked how they heard about the film, they informed us, “It was the talk of the shiva!” For those of you who do not know, a shiva is a period of mourning following the death of a Jewish person. Makes perfect sense, eh? Seems, these nice folks were at a shiva in North Carolina when they met a friend of Naomi’s. They said they were going to SXSW and she told them about our film. Within minutes, everyone at the shiva was discussing a movie about balloon twisting conventions. Perhaps, the best shiva ever. We can only hope there comes a day when our movie is discussed at inappropriate venues everywhere!

We spent a good portion of the day on Thursday packing up boxes. We seemed to have over-ordered a bit. We made a $290 donation to the U.S. Postal service to send all of our marketing goods back home. More for next time.

And just to be consistent - Naomi's flight got cancelled again. This time she got as far as lovely Newark, and was able to spend some extra time to take in the sites (it's common knowledge that Newark is at its most beautiful in March, when the factories begin to bloom). Readers are hereby advised not to book the same flights as Naomi when traveling in winter.

All in all - a really wonderful week. We both feel a huge relief to have screened and to have had such a positive reaction from the crowds. We've been putting off sleep for oh - I don't know - about 3 1/2 years. So, now seems like a good time to catch up on that. We'd love to chat more - but we're actually already sleeping.

Hint: The real Sara and Naomi are the one's wearing the black T-shirts.

One of our first interviews, with G4 TV.

Vera signs an autograph.

In our hotel room: All of the boxes of marketing goodies we brought with us.

At the post office: A cart full of marketing goodies to ship home.

All in a day's work.

Time to Make the Popcorn

2007-03-11T18:27:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the WORLD PREMIERE of our film. YAY! People, who are not related us, watched our movie! How about that?! It was perfect. We had a 2:30PM screening and sold out, which we were told was unprecedented for a SXSW daytime screening at The Dobie. Don't know if that's true - but it made us feel pretty frickin' good. We were a bit nervous before the screening - but mostly just excited. That morning, we did an interview for the local NBC affiliate (left the hotel at 7AM, or as Sara affectionately calls it, "the middle of the night") and another interview for a cable access show called Austin Movie Show. As luck would have it, Austin Movie Show offered hair and make-up experts - so we had nice little makeovers right before the screening. While we are relieved that the movie screening went well - truth be told - if it had not - we are just vain enough to have found some solace in knowing that, at the very least - we looked our hottest.

Before the film, Matt Dentler, head of SXSW, gave a very nice intro to the film! He spoke about how the selection panel immediately "got" the film and wanted to have us there. It couldn't have been a warmer welcome. We spoke for a minute - thanking our families for coming. As we walked to the back of the theater, a film came on... it was not ours! The speakers weren't working properly before the screening - so they put in another film to test the sound and we figured they'd forgotten to put our movie back in. We panicked and ran to the projectionist waving our hands, "This isn't our film!" Matt Dentler ran over to us and tapped us on the shoulders, "This is a trailer! Guess you haven't been to any other movies here yet." It was a funny and perfect way to initiate the newbies. We were so green!

We stood at the back and watched and, for 79 minutes, everyone laughed and cried in all of the right places. At the end - we got a round of applause and Vera joined us for the Q and A. It was really special to have her there with us! She also helped us teach everyone in the audience to twist their first balloon dogs. After the screening, we got so many nice compliments and even signed our first autographs!

Afterwards - we went and celebrated with our families and friends who have been INCREDIBLY supportive. They have worn balloon dog t-shirts all over town, handing out postcards, hanging flyers, and covering the entire town with balloons. For a small independent film like ours, marketing is extremely important - and we couldn't be prouder of how fast word has spread about the film here in Austin. The absolute highlight of our marketing has been...

A gigantic balloon sculpture in the atrium of the Omni Hotel. On Friday, from 8 AM until 6 PM, we had a team of twisters build a 15 ft x 15 ft sculpture of a movie theater with an audience, and a camera person and sound person (as played by Balloon Naomi and Balloon Sara). It was truly incredible. Everyone in the hotel stopped to take pictures from their windows and we have received so many comments from people who are completely amazed by the sculpture. Thanks to the Omni for hosting us and HUGE thanks to Johnna and John Perry for flying out from Kansas City to manage the project. We want to thank our twisters: Gerry Whittemore, Darren Peterson, Jack Byrd, Brook Savage, Rex Voland, Nate Culpepper, Vera Stalker, Sara Krakauer, Brenda Shelton, and Beverly/ Apples the Clown - you all did an amazing job twisting for us! We also would like to thank Betallic for donating balloons, Qualatex for donating balloons and pumps, and T Meyers, who not only started the first balloon twisting convention ever - but also supported us with lots of great balloon supplies.

Team Twisted at the premiere.

Happy Birthday Vera!

A shot of the audience as it filled before the screening.

Q and A after the screening.

The sculpture at the Omni completely blew our minds.

Our twisters look up...

As everyone in the offices above the atrium took photos.

Off to SXSW We Go

2007-03-07T16:09:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow, to celebrate Naomi's birthday, we fly to SXSW! Not a bad way to ring in a new year, eh? We've done a few interviews - one for e-film critic and one for The Daily Texan. Both articles were great. The Daily Texan article included quotes from someone named Sara Taskler. We don't know who she is - but Sara Taksler found her to be very well-spoken (and she sounded quite good looking). Lesson learned - between early press and the SXSW film directory, we have been everything from Namoi Greenfield to TWISTED: A Balonamentary (seems to be a surprisingly common one - our next doc will be about "balons" - whatever they may be). From now on - we're speling evurything out fore the jernulists.

More to come!

Twist and Shout '07

2007-02-26T23:00:00.000-05:00

We just got back from a great weekend in Franklin, Tennessee. We went to Twist and Shout and gave the twisters a special sneak preview of the film. It was so nice to see so many of the cast members and everyone really seemed to love the film. It was nerve wracking to finally screen the film for them - because our lives for the last three years have been so focused on telling their stories. We wanted them to be proud of it! Sara didn't sleep at all the night before the screening (luckily, Naomi retained her ability to sleep any time, anywhere).

As it turned out, the screening couldn't have gone any better. Since many of our main characters don't know each other that well, it was fun to see them sit and talk before the film. When we saw Michele introduce herself to Vera, it was exciting to think of the special bond they share by being a part of the film. Lots of laughter and tears - and a standing ovation! We actually also did a by-request midnight screening for those who missed the film when we showed it during the day.

One of the highlights of the weekend was when we met a woman named Johnna Perry. After the first screening, Johnna introduced herself and offered to fly to Austin for SXSW. She said she and her husband, John, wanted to build a balloon sculpture for us! We couldn't believe it. A few hours later, Johnna returned to tell us she already got all of the balloons for the sculpture donated by Betallic Balloons!

Naomi loved Nashville. So much so that she decided to spend an extra night -when her flight was cancelled!

This is one fine looking cast.

Our balloon angels, John and Johnna Perry.

Super Marketing

2007-02-22T23:23:00.000-05:00

This week has been packed with work as we've been going non-stop to get ready for SXSW. Sara came to Boston for the week to contact every single press person going to SXSW. Sleep has definitely become a rarity. Fun news - we got a great publicist for SXSW, David Magdael! He has worked on everything from SPELLBOUND to MAD HOT BALLROOM to WORDPLAY. We also just brought on a sales rep named Roger Kass to help us sell the film. Roger is a smart and funny guy and we've only heard good things about him, so we're excited to have a really strong team!

Our marketing campaign is in full swing now. We made posters, flyers, balloon kits, and really great postcards with balloons slapped to the back. HUGE thanks to all of the people who taped literally thousands of balloons to postcards for us. We even got a class of 4th graders to tape 1,000 balloons for us. Unless, of course, that violates some sort of child labor law. In which case, we were just kidding.

David's first dog.

Roger sporting the always classic balloon T and hat.

POST Traumatic Stress

2007-02-20T23:21:00.000-05:00

TWISTED is FINALLLLLLLLLY done with post! (I really hope we didn't just jinx that). Our post production could best be described as a comedy of errors and worst be described as really bad for our physical and emotional health. Last time - when we said we were done? We were wrong. We had some sync issues - but Sandy from Final Frame was great and helped us fix everything

We Likes To Party

2007-02-10T20:02:00.000-05:00

TWISTED was in party mode last night to celebrate... finishing post production! Much thanks to everyone who came out to support us. A highlight of the night was when Naomi finally got to meet Todd Rutt, our fantastic graphics guy.

This last two weeks were pretty rough. Very long and stressful days as we did a sound mix and color correction. It was very interesting to see how much can be fixed in post! But - things didn't go too smoothly at first. When we go to color correction - we heard a lot of bad popping noises on our sound mix. We still don't know what happened - but we had to go into crisis mode if we were going to get it fixed in time to lay to HD (which we did Thursday night). If we do say so ourselves, we did a rockin' job of staying calm and finding the right people to help us fix our sound mix. For reasons probably not bloggable - our original sound place didn't step in --- but we found a sound savior - Matt Gill - who stepped in and helped us. It should also be noted, we had a phenomenal colorist - Sandy Patch. Sandy knew what a time crunch we were in and worked to make sure we would be happy with our final product (including helping us with the sound glitches). Part of why we stayed calm was because we knew we were in good hands with Sandy.

It should also be noted that Sandy became quite the little balloon twister while we were there. Everyone loves the latex. As soon as we finished on Thursday night - Sandy announced a dance break. We put on "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang and danced around Sandy's studio as we kissed our tabe dubs. Then, Naomi accidentally kicked over a glass of water (you should see this girl dance!) and it was so funny and somehow appropriate that even our celebratory dance had a minor glitch.

Matt and Sandy can now do anything!

Naomi busts a move.

Sara holds the pride and joy.

Our TWISTED party. Apologies to Sandra, who our resident photographer accidentally cut off. Sandra, your hand makes a lovely, albeit brief, appearance on Sara's shoulder.

SXSW Here we come!

2007-02-03T11:53:00.000-05:00

Yay!!

TWISTED: A Balloonamentary will be making its World Premiere at the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas this March!! We're ridiculously excited. Spellbound, our favorite documentary, also premiered at SXSW and we are very proud to follow in their footsteps.

Stay tuned for screening dates and times.

October 2006-January 2007

2007-02-03T11:39:00.000-05:00

Gimme some Graphics!
ELP welcomed Todd Rutt as the new graphics designer for TWISTED. After some back and forth trying to decide a creative way to smooth out transitions and link all our characters together, Todd came up with a great balloony motif. He's worked incredibly hard for us and we are so happy with the outcome! You rock, Todd.

Applying to Festivals
We've continued applying to festivals around the country...hoping to hear back some good news soon!...

Naomi in The Boston Globe
Check it out--our first press article! Naomi and her balloon twisting and filmmaking talents were featured in a full page spread in The Boston Globe, complete with 5 photos and links to TWISTED and her Red Balloon Company.

July-September 2006

2006-09-03T01:03:00.000-04:00

It's been a VERY exciting few months for the balloon ladies of Eliot Lives Productions! We're exhausted from it all but TOTALLY pumped!

Mayfair Recording to Compose Original Score
After debating music options for several weeks, ELP decides to follow up on a connection that we made at a balloon convention and hires Mayfair Recording out of Chicago to create an original score for TWISTED! We are very excited to get started adding some tunes to the film.

Jon Stewart to Narrate Animation (Yes, THAT Jon Stewart!)
Um...we kinda still don't believe this one is real. But it totally is! Sara asked very nicely and Jon Stewart of The Daily Show fame has agreed to narrate the animation section of our film. We promised him to make balloon animals at his kids' birthday parties until they were eighteen. He said as long as there were no anti-semitic balloons in the film, he would do it. Hooray!

Naomi promotes TWISTED on The Today Show
Naomi was invited to make a giant eight-foot-tall sculpture of weatherman Al Roker for the State Fair/Summer Carnival event on NBC's The Today Show. TWISTED got a nice little shout out and Naomi was a big hit with the crowd.

ELP in Long Island and LALALand
And amidst all that excitement, would you believe we went on two follow up shoots?! Sara and Naomi went to Long Island, New York to check in on Sheree Brown-Rosner, the Great Wandini, and to see her in action at the Baldwin Block Party.

We also trekked all the way to Los Angeles, California, where Sara made a pit stop at the Emmy Awards to celebrate with fellow Daily Show award winners. We made a trip out to visit both Don and Laura and see what balloon twisting fun they were up to. Thanks to Stacey and Robin for being such terrific hosts!

Someday, someday...

Damn you, vending machine!

G-force does some heavy lifting post-interview

Naomi and Sara in ELP's Studio West

Sara with hosts Stacey and Robin

Focus Groups Galore
Oh, and we've also been editing til 3AM every night and focus grouping the film every week...

April-June 2006

2006-06-03T01:04:00.000-04:00

Eliot Lives Productions is now proud to announce that TWISTED: A Balloonamentary is (almost) HERE!!

We have 100 minutes edited and currently have a composer composing an original score for the film. We will be screening the film to small focus groups in the next month and then trimming down the final piece in time to submit to the Sundance Film Festival in September 2006. We are officially in THE FINAL PUSH.

Check us out hard at work!

This final push is the most expensive part of the
process as it involves professional technical work
such as sound sweetening and color correction that can
get pretty expensive. We are currently trying to
raise $10,000 to complete the film. Please go to SUPPORT and make a small (or large) donation!

January-March 2006

2006-03-09T01:07:00.000-05:00

ELP's editing facilities expanded with the addition of a shiny new Powerbook G4 and Big Momma, our 500GB harddrive. Sara and Naomi spent another intensive stretch of editing and completed a rough cut of Michele, our favorite Vegas balloon twister and businesswoman.

ELP is now moving forward trying to find interested contributors who will help us hire a professional and talented editor who will help polish up our rough cuts and make the movie shine. Any and all assistance will help and will really make the difference in the end product! If you are interested in helping us out financially in any way, please email.

Oh, and check out our new PA, hard at work. She's the best!

Taksler and our new PA

Hard at work at the new editing station

ELP and friends...after a long week of work

September-December 2005

2005-12-16T01:08:00.000-05:00

ELP moves full speed ahead with the editing process and finishes out 2005 with rough cuts for 5 sections of the film, approximately 55 minutes. Wow! So much work...and still plenty to come.

Highlight of this fall was undoubtedly our amazing trip to Atlanta, GA, where we spent three days following James around--watching him in action on a gig, seeing his home and meeting his family. We shot 5 hours of footage and already edited it down to a great 11 minute piece on Atlanta's best balloon twister.

ELP had great hosts in Hotlanta who helped us keep down expenses and showed us around town. We repaid them with swag and free balloon twisting lessons. Thanks Jason, Michael (and co.), Stacy and Beth!

Our Terrific Hosts in Hotlanta

Jason Thomas showing his Wash U pride

Michael Bergman shows off his balloon likeness

The classic balloon dog

Gaspar supports Eliot Lives with his new swag

Stacy Braukman and balloon Sandra Bernhardt

Filming "The Magic of Mr. Me: Featuring One Cool Clown"

At the Atlanta Boys and Girls Club

A happy balloon recipient

Meeting the Family

James Sister-In-Law

Nephew and Niece

James Passing the baton to Leron

May-August 2005

2005-08-09T01:08:00.000-04:00

The editing process continued this summer with the help of our assistant editing team. Two new Boston-based editors (Ann and Ann) helped us string together new sections of the film. After much tweaking and late night editing, we completed a 20 minute rough assembly of the film, which we hope will attract potential investors.

Laura, our New York-based editor, helped us finish editing one of our main stories. We celebrated with a trip to the Brooklyn Cyclones game. Cyclones won.

A sweet Power G4 Macintosh with Final Cut Pro is the latest addition to Eliot Lives. It helped us complete the open of our film, which features a quick look at how novice balloon twisters do when handed a balloon and a pump.

March-April 2005

2005-04-01T09:22:00.000-05:00

Welcome to ELP's Assistant Editing Team!
Sara and Naomi meet for an intensive work weekend of editing with Assistant Editor Laura as well to do pre-production work for our three new Assistant Editors. Paper edits for two new sections of the film are handed off to the new editing team! We are still aiming to complete the film in time to submit to the Sundance Film Festival in September 2005.

Music and Animation!
Jason DeWaard begins composing music for Section #1 of film. Animator Eric Rosenbaum starts preliminary work on creating an animated open for the film.

$$$$
ELP does serious brainstorming about how to raise the necessary $40K to complete the film. Aside from small fundraising parties this summer, we are hoping to find a investor who would really like to see this film achieve its potential...if you know of anyone who may be interested (or if you are interested yourself!) please email us. And remember, you can always check out our SUPPORT THE FILM section of this website.

January-February 2005

2005-02-03T09:22:00.000-05:00

TWISTED Does Dallas
ELP completes its 7th major shoot with a trip to Texas. First stop was in Dallas where Sara and Naomi followed up with John the Balloon Man, a reknown twister and gospel balloon minister.

David, John the Balloon Man's grandson, gives ELP a hand with audio.

John the Balloon Man

Dallas Twisters Jam

Twist and Shout 2005
ELP brings a team of five, including new crew members Kendra Dorty, Lacy Pischke and Raj Daftry, to the internationally known balloon twisting convention, Twist and Shout. Some amazing balloon twisting, fascinating interviews and 37 more hours of fantastic footage! Many twisters were excited and anxious to see the final product--we are well on our way!

ELP Austin crew

Brian tests out the balloon throne

Charlie outside ELP's hotel studio

Interviewing in Studio 535

James shows off some new creations

Vera's competition piece

1st Place winner--Large sculpture

Raj takes a sip from a giant balloon beer mug

Lacy gets close with balloon Brad Pitt

ELP's Austin crew learns the three-twist dog

November-December 2004

2004-12-16T09:23:00.000-05:00

Keep on Logging...
Sara and Naomi continue to log and transcribe footage preparing to hand off the next section to an editor. Pre-production work for ELP next big shoot in Texas begins...

September-October 2004

2004-10-18T09:24:00.000-04:00

Let the Editing Begin!
Sara and Naomi complete organizing the first section of TWISTED to be edited. Notes are handed off to preliminary editor Laura Madden who begins pulling footage from thriteen select hours of footage.

July-August 2004

2004-08-07T09:24:00.000-04:00

Boston/New York Follow-Up Trips
ELP takes a five day road trip to conduct follow-up interviews with key people to be featured in TWISTED. No pictures to show, but LOTS more footage!...

June 2004

2004-06-10T09:25:00.000-04:00

Fundraising Parties!!

June 12th
The Parlour
250 W. 86th St
New York, NY
8:00 PM
$10

The New York party was a lot of fun (and not a bad fundraiser too!). We had a great time bringing together seasoned twisters and people who've never touched a balloon in their life. Special thanks to everyone who attended and donated and especially to The Parlour for being such a gracious host and to our twister friends, Lanna Lee Maheux, Sheree Brown-Rosner, Mike Gold, Juggles, Glitter and Lil Twister for all their help.

Balloon Naomi and Sara pass out their business cards

Parlour bartender with a beer mug hat

Some newbie twisters have fun with their new skill

Catherine models her balloon hat creation

Mike Gold performs his balloon comedy routine

Sara and Naomi introduce the new trailer

ELP and our balloon twisting friends

Squiggles (our door prize winner!) and sister Martha

The cousin clan--Great Aunt Mimi's first twisted balloon

June 19th
The Asgard
350 Mass Ave
Cambridge, MA
8:00 PM
$10

Boston was a blast! Bob the Balloon Swallower was a huge hit as was the new trailer. Special thanks to the Asgard, Bob Nixon, Royal Sorrell, Mark Donahue, Charlie Fogarty, Glenna Thompson, Bruce Lawson, Joe Vechionne and all the twisters who came to the event. EXTRA special thanks to Jonathan Beller who's beautiful photo we used on our invitations (and who we totally forgot to thank at the party...).

Bob the Balloon Swallower wows the crowd

The crowd watches in awe

Showing off some balloon hat creations

Instructing in the Jame Area

Dori, our waitress, proudly serves the twisters

Royal and his sculpture of the Greek God of Balloon Twisting

Glenna and Benjamin relax and twist the night away

Sara and Naomi celebrate with their balloon likenesses

THANK YOU!

May 2004

2004-05-05T09:26:00.000-04:00

TWISTED Goes West!
Sara and Naomi travel to Arizona, Nevada and Utah to conduct follow-up interviews with balloon twisters--10 days, 8 cities, 32 hours of footage. We were both inspired by breathtaking views and awe-inspiring personal stories.

Part I: ARIZONA (Phoenix, Flagstaff, Sedona, Mesa)

ELP and Vera, The Balloon Lady of Flagstaff

Karaoke girls at the American Legioin party

Aaron shows off his new 'do

Tape 12 and the car keys--lost but not gone forever

Part II: NEVADA (Las Vegas)

"S" shows off his Eliot Lives spirit

Adam shows off his balloon belt

Young twisters at a balloon jam

Taks films against the New York skyline

G-Force and Mr. P (our Grand Jeep Cherokee)

Marvin Hardy poses with a classic balloon creation

Naomi gives a fancy moose lady a kiss

Sara gets romantic with a balloon dragon fly

Fundraising Parties!!

June 12th
The Parlour
250 W. 86th St
New York, NY
8:00 PM
$10

June 19th
The Asgard
350 Mass Ave
Cambridge, MA
8:00 PM
$10

Come party with the twisters, watch the new trailer and bring your checkbooks! Spread the word!

April 2004

2004-04-30T09:27:00.000-04:00

The Balloon Proposal Naomi provides some balloon assistance to her brother as he proposes to Chavi with a balloon diamond ring (the real one came afterwards...)

Welcome to our Summer Interns!
Eliot Lives Productions welcomes Tamar and Jonathan to our TWISTED team! Our interns will be helping with all aspects of production such as logging and transcribing footage, going on follow-up shoots, and helping with funding research. We are SO excited to have them on board!

March 2004

2004-03-08T09:27:00.000-05:00

Documentary Educational Resources (DER)
Naomi meets Cynthia Close, Executive Director of Documentary Educational Resources at a funding workshop at Boston Neighborhood Networks. Cynthia is very impressed and excited about TWISTED and accepts our application to serve as our Fiscal Agent! You can now make a tax deductible donation to TWISTED through the DER website (scroll down film list to get to TWISTED).

TWISTED's Letter of Commitment from DER.

Summit Meeting #5: Networking and Logging
Sara and Naomi meet in New York for some serious footage review and serious networking. Partying with the folks at the Comedy Central Bar Mitzvah Bash, Sara and Naomi stop to make the first ever Eliot Lives Productions chocolate lollipop. Naomi and Sara also go out for dinner and drinks with Jeff Marx, writer of hit Broadway Musical, Avenue Q.

ELP at Comedy Central Bar Mitzvah Bash

February 2004

2004-02-03T09:28:00.000-05:00

A crazy busy month...Sara and Naomi work every weekend to prepare for Twist and Shout 2004. The weekend (3 days, 32 hours of footage, 5 hours of sleep) is a great success and a heck of a lot of fun.

Twist and Shout 2004

Eliot Lives Productions setting up our interview studio

..don't worry: we have actual real cameras.

ELP crew

Charlie with balloon skydiver

Don with the drunken balloon pirate

Cheech and Chong

Balloon sushi!

Congratulations Debbie, Top Twister!

January 2004

2004-01-18T09:29:00.000-05:00

Grant Applications
Sara and Naomi start applying for grants (LEF Foundation, Independent Film Project) to help fund TWISTED.

December 2003

2003-12-27T09:29:00.000-05:00

Still watching footage...

Summit Meeting #4
Sara and Naomi meet in New York City to begin planning for upcoming filming at Twist and Shout 2004 and the International Balloon Artists Convention.

November 2003

2003-11-03T09:30:00.000-05:00

The Fundraising Push
Sara and Naomi finalize pitch packages about the film and mail them out. Checks start coming! Special Thanks to Washington University in St. Louis Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton for his donation and nice note!

Chancellor's letter

October 2003

2003-10-08T09:31:00.000-04:00

N.A.A. R Charity Event at Giant Stadium
Eliot Lives Productions has a jammed packed weekend full of filming, interviewing, writing, and, of course, lots of ballooning fun. Sara and Naomi stayed at the home of Mr. Juggles and Glitter and followed them to the N.A.A.R. charity walk held at Giant Stadium the following day. Juggles and Glitter's daughter Lauren showed Sara and Naomi how to make the balloon arches that decorated the Stadium.

Mr. Juggles under the balloon arch

Sara is a supa-sta!

Marcie, Mr. Juggles, Glitter and Lauren

Summit Meeting #3: The Pitch Package
ELP spent a large part of the weekend putting together a pitch package about Twisted: A Balloonamentary to send out to potential supporters and funders. Please email us if you would like to receive a pitch package.

Donger
Sara and Naomi also caught up with newbie to the balloon twisting world, Donger. Donger shared his origins as a balloon twister and is looking forward to attending Twist and Shout 2004, his first balloon twisting conventions.

Balloons Around the World Day
Eliot Lives Productions celebrates Balloons Around the World Day 2003 by catching up with and filming balloon twisting friends Charlie Fogarty and JuJuBee the Clown. Check out some of Charlie's latest creations. JuJuBee added lots of color and liveliness to Foss Motors in Exeter, NH.

Charlie's biker dude

Juju Bee and the kids at Foss Motors

Online Store
You can still purchase T-shirts by emailing, but check out all the other cool stuff you can get at the BRAND NEW "Twisted: A Balloonamentary" Online Store!

September 2003

2003-09-03T09:32:00.000-04:00

Twisted Trailer #1
The trailer is here! Go watch it before you do anything else!!

Wash U on Today Show
Sara recently appeared with fellow Washington University students in the crowd of the Today Show on NBC. The group represented their alma mater with a festive "W" and "U" made out of balloons.

August 2003

2003-08-09T09:32:00.000-04:00

Street Performing
Naomi begins balloon twisting in Harvard Square to raise money for TWISTED: A Balloonamentary.

"Help Fund My Documentary" sign

SCAT
Naomi begins certification process to become a Community Producer through Somerville Cable Access Television (SCAT).

Summit Meeting #2: Twisted Trailer
Sara and Naomi begin the process of watching over 20 hours of footage from MCATU, logging and making rundowns of each tape. They create a plan for the trailer, which will be edited on Pinnacle Studio 8.

July 2003

2003-07-02T09:33:00.000-04:00

MCATU
Eliot Lives Productions attends Magicians, Clowns and Twisters University in Burlington, MA and films throughout the weekend.

A pair of young twisters

Celebrity visit from Bozo the Clown

Clown sculpture by Royal Sorell

Magician Sculpture

Summit Meeting #1: ELP is Born
Sara and Naomi retreat to Grantham, NH to plan, brainstorm, relax and laugh. The name "Eliot Lives Productions" is chosen to replace "G-Force/TaksDawg Productions" or was it "TaksDawg/G-Force Productions"?...Aboard a paddleboat on Eastman Lake, ideas for "Twisted" and "No Pants Job™" are discussed and audio recorded.

G-force and Eastman Lake

TaksDawg and the Schimmfugel

Eliot Lives Productions hard at work

Back in Boston and out out on the town