Grandma Time

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

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

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!!

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!

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

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

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!