TWISTED:A Balloonamentary

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.