Hard Rock Cafe

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In pre-pandemic times, Several instructors from Savannah College of Art and Design were in Orlando and invited me to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe.

I looked up online that parking was free for Florida residents. The parking attendant however thought my somewhat old drivers license looked suspicious, or maybe he just thought I looked suspicious and he insisted I pay for parking. Instead, I backed out and drive around the block. I approached a second parking attendant and he let me in with no hassle.

The instructors were doing the Universal theme parks and even had sketched from inside one of the Harry Potter rides. It would have been fun to join them on those sketch outings but this was the last day of their trip. In the Hard Rock there was a car hanging from the ceiling. That would have been a fun sketch but the food arrived before I had time to sketch. The sketch above was done before everyone arrived. I sent them a photo of the sketch so they would know where to meet me.

 

Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving is the time that all the Christmas decorations come out. I visited my sister in Port Charlotte for Thanksgiving and she took me to Fisherman’s village in Punta Gorda.

Fisherman’s Village is a small shopping center set out on the docks. It is a Quaint riverfront complex of specialty shops and casual restaurants, plus a marina and lodging on the second level. I never imagined what it might be like to live in a small shopping mall. These deer are made of stiff wire wrapped with fabric. I’m sure there are Christmas light inside of them that make them glow at night. In Florida the richest colors can be seen in the day light with rich green foliage and bright flowers. Winter is the best season to be sketching outside in Florida.

Reiter Park

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I went on a sketch outing with the Orlando Urban Sketchers to Reiter Park, (311 West Warren Ave, Longwood, FL). One of the sketchers Greg Bryla through Dix.Hite + Partners, was involved with the design of the architectural landscaping of the park. I rather liked the sweeping circular motifs. On the top of a stair stepped hill stood a sculpture which features cut out pattern of a flock of birds. Since that patters has hardly visible from the distance I drew it as well across the sky.

The gazebos have barn like roofs which give the childhood drawing impressions of the standard home. Actually a home I am looking at in Upstate New York has a similar roof along with a small widow’s tower.

On October 122, 2020 from 4pm to 9pm there will be a Food Truck Battle and Concert in the Park with Hypersonica. On November 23, 2024 the 48the Annual Longwood Arts and Crafts Festival will be held in the park. That is a two day event starting at 9am each day. March 1, 2025 will be the Longwood Pirate Days Festival from 10am to 6pm.

Pulse: Pablo Quinones

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The director of the Orange County Regional History Center was about to leave her position. She asked me to come to the History Center to do one last sketch for a Pulse related oral history. As she said, this would be the “swan song” that ended the series.

The directors office had a HEPA air filter so this was a rare instance where I sat indoors and did a sketch without a mask. If more venues had HEPA filters I might indeed return to sketching indoors mask less.

Pablo Quinones was a first responder that the Pulse Nightclub shooting. After the shooting he went on to become the personal driver and security officer for Mayor Buddy Dyer. Being the mayor’s security office has to be an adventure since the mayor attends all the best events in Orlando. After the Pulse shooting I remember seeing the mayor arrive at many of the fundraisers and artistic memorials with a large entourage.

Pablo has been a law enforcement officer and civil servant since 2000. He attended Western Illinois University and the College of  Lake County.

Since the City of Orlando purchased the the Pulse Nightclub site for 2 million dollars from the One Pulse Foundation there was no security at the site. A sign in front of the Pulse nightclub was vandalized in February of 2024 with bold graffiti. Sayings on the sign, like “Love is Love”, “Love never Dies, it Transforms” and “Love will always Win” are now obscured under giant spray painted bubble letters. Efforts are being made to scrub away the graffiti, but of course the messages of hope and love will also be scrubbed away in the process.

One Pulse had a gorgeous plan for the site that had a brightly colored fountain and an enclosed seating area. I liked this design and feel it is a shame that it will not be created. The cost for the memorial and a museum skyrocketed beyond the fundraising abilities of the One Pulse Foundation. The city is planning a far scaled back memorial which they hope to complete by 2028, which is 12 years since the tragedy occurred. The club is on an incredibly noisy intersection so the thought that a peaceful site of remembrance might be created with a few coats of paint seems insane. What it attracts so far is urban spray paint.

 

 

COVID Dystopia: Honorable Mention

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I am very pleased that COVID Dystopia won an Honorable Mention at the Charlotte Film Festival in North Carolina. COVID Dystopia screened on the morning after Hurricane Helene ripped through North Carolina.

Charlotte is further east than Asheville, North Carolina which was absolutely demolished by the storms flooding. Charlotte on the other hand only saw a solid day of rain and no power outages. By the end of the film festival the sun had come out.

I was trying desperately to find a connecting flight to Charlotte but my film had screened at 10:30PM on the night before in Reno Nevada. There was no flight that could get me to Charlotte by 10 AM the next morning.

The animated film that did win for Best Animated Film was called, Have You Eaten. The jury liked the narrative, and the nostalgia of the story. For COVID Dystopia, the jury considered the film quite different and very vivid, being relatable with great technique and good pacing. Indeed COVID Dystopia challenges the audience to try and keep up with the insane fever dream.

Cordillera International Film Festival: Salt Lake City Airport

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On the flight back from Reno, Nevada where I had attended the Cordillera International Film Festival, there was a three hour lay over in Salt Lake City. I of course used the time to sketch. I would not be getting back to Orlando until 5:30AM. So my hope was that I might get some sleep on the flight. In the man time I had travelers to sketch. The guy with his feet up on his luggage suspected I was up to something nefarious and kept glancing over at me. I made sure to be looking and sketching some other part of the scene when he looked my way. Eventually he settled in and watched a movie on his iPhone in his lap.

Of course sketching the airport in Salt Lake City is really no different than any other airport sketch. Had I taken a full day, I could have explored the huge family history archives in the city. Some people took to lying on the floors to sleep. A little 10 year old boy got impatient and kept walking around with hill rolling luggage. The bag was too large for him to maneuver so he kept bumping into people. As always I was the only person masked, although I did see several people rush by to their flights. Perhaps only Floridians are clueless that we are still in the 9th wave of the pandemic.

On the flight I ended up watching the first Dune movie, so I didn’t actually get any sleep on the flight. They wear such awesome masks and goggles in Dune. I might have nodded off in the last hour when the movie was over. I do think I am still jet lagged.

COVID Dystopia: Screening Times at Orlando Film Festival

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COVID Dystopia was placed in Animated Film Block 1 at the Orlando Film Festival which starts October 31, 2024 and runs through November 7, 2024.

The Orlando Film Festival takes place at the CMX PLAZA CINEMA CAFE (155 S. Orange Avenue downtown Orlando FL).

COVID Dystopia will be shown twice. The first showing is on Friday November 1, 2024 at 4:15 PM in theater 9. The second showing is on November 6 at 2 PM also in theater 9.

This film shouts into the void that wishful thinking does not stop an airborne virus, the effects of which are hard to ignore if you are paying attention. I honestly thought this film would never be shown in Florida since so many scenes mock Florida governor DeathSantis’ handling of the pandemic. We might be done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us.

Passes are now available for the Orlando Film Festival. One day passes are $20, seven day passes are $100, VIP passes are $150 and VIP Elite passes are $350. You can experience independent films for a day of a solid week.

The Orlando Film Festival is now in its 16th year of showcasing incredible cinema from around the world. The CMX Plaza Cinema Café is the Festivals home. The Cinema has twelve beautiful theaters with high-end digital projection located right in the heart of Orlando. All of the Film Festival events take place in or around the theater. Audiences do not just watch quality cinema but also get an immersive experience full of spirited Q & A’s, panel discussions, script reads and fantastic parties. This is the perfect opportunity for filmmakers and screenwriters to directly interact with their audience, as well as others in the industry.

Cordillera International Film Festival: Reno Airport

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The Cordillera International Film Festival was a whirlwind of independent film screenings and meeting filmmakers.

It was a bit strange having COVID Dystopia reclassified as a music video. I never know if it is a documentary, horror, or animation. It is certainly not for kids. None of my young animation students has seen the film.

It seems the main point of the festival for filmmakers  is the face time, but my face was always masked when I was indoors. It seems funny to me now how people insist on packing into tight rooms to shout at one another, usually over loud music. After my screening and question and answer session, I had several pleasant conversations outside and no one had to shout. My only goal was to get more eyeballs to see the film and that goal was accomplished. The applause was gratifying and I could relax.

In the airport digital devices and slot machines shouted for people’s attention. On slot machine kept shouting “Wheel of Fortune!” with the roar of an audience. It was quite annoying. I never touched a slot machine, but I am glad I got to sketch one before I left.

 

Cordillera Industry Insiders Panel Discussion

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At 9 AM there was an Industry Insider’s Panel Discussion at the Cordillera International Film Festival. I thought I gave myself plenty of time to get there but my first Lyft driver got lost and never picked me up. I then needed to wolf down some complimentary breakfast to last the through the day.

I got into the theater a bit late and slipped into the font row. I knew I didn’t have much time to sketch. Bill Farmer is seated 4th from the left. He is the voice talent behind Goofy and several other Disney Characters. Exiting a theater I was mistaken for Bill since I had on my John Henry Disney jacket and maybe since I have grey hair. As I was explaining that I was not Bill, he walked out and I introduced him to the adoring fan. Later I shook his hand thanking him for getting me out of the sticky situation.

The question from the audience that really got the panel fired up was a question about AI and the industry. The tech on the panel said it would be foolish to ignore AI. It would be like ignoring sound after the silent film era. How AI will creep its way into films has yet to be seem. The fact is that anything that is online is already available to the AI bots. Protecting intellectual property will be the ongoing battle going forward. Across the board the panelist flt that the human touch is needed to create meaningful heart felt stories.

Sandrene Faucher Cassidy seated on the left spoke about how she helps aspiring filmmakers who feel like they have run up against a brick wall with their films and might consider any other profession. I laughed since I am very much in that boat having produced a short film that few are willing to show, since it does not embrace the notion that life has returned to “normal”. Sandrine sat next to me in a screening after this panel and I introduced myself and thanked her for her feedback on the panel. There wasn’t much time to talk since the theater went black and the films started up. As a jury member she dutifully marked her ballot after each short film was shown. She left before the question and answer session with the filmmakers. She seems to be in charge of Festivals and Distribution Licensing, which is something I know nothing about.

Cordillera International Film Festival: COVID Dystopia screening

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COVID Dystopia screened at the Cordillera International Film Festival in Reno Nevada, on September 27, 2024 in the 10:30 PM, Music Video Party Film Block at the Greater Nevada Baseball Field (250 Evans Avenue). For me this was a solid day of watching independent films. By the time the music video party started my butt hurt. There were a few booth seating tables around the edge of the room and I snagged one of those to rest by butt to watch COVID Dystopia.

There were a lot of short films in this film block. When it came time for the question and answer session there were about 10 film makers standing in  front of the screen. There was still an image projected on the screen when we got up there so we were blinded by the light. I remember the woman standing next to me had a blue bar projected across her face which looked a bit menacing. I had my baseball hat on to block the light.

When asked about how my film came to be, I gave my usual answer of how I started doing a painting a day starting the day the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. I pointed out that we are coming down off the 9th wave of the pandemic which peaked in August 2024 and was twice a severe as the early waves in 2020.The very idea that the pandemic is not over drew blank stares. It isn’t my job to preach but to entertain.

Paul Sloop the shorts programmer asked us all what our favorite music video of all time was. Most of the other filmmakers were kids and I had no idea what they were talking about when they answered. When my turn rolled around, I blurted out that I was from the MTV generation and loved Thriller with Michael Jackson. The room erupted with laughter. Then the woman next to me followed up with the fact that she saw Thriller as a child and it inspired her to start creating. I wish I had caught her name, the introductions slipped by so fast.

Cordillera really is a spectacular film festival. I learned so much from each question and answer session after each film block. So much time, energy, and money, is invested to bring these films to life. I wasn’t great at networking since I had no desire to stand in a tight enclosed room shouting into peoples faces. That is pre-pandemic behavior that makes no sense to me today. After the screening I went outside and sat in the cool open air and took my mask off for a bit. One woman approached and we had a lovely conversation. I also spoke with another animator outside and learned about a new animation software called MOJO that I have to look into. Since I am so starved for conversation, every encounter was a delight. I spent an entire year in isolation working on the film. It felt good to be among other who may have been similarly laser beam focused for so long.

There was a stage set up outside and flashing lights, but it was last call at the bar when the films stopped screening. I did have a white wine outside to wind down after the screenings. Any notion of a dance party was a myth. There was some canned music, and I swayed my hips and stretched my legs since I had been sitting all day long in dark movie theaters. My stretching calisthenics may have been the only dancing that happened that night at the dance party.