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.

COVID Dystopia is an Official Selection for the Orlando Film Festival

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I really didn’t think COVID Dystopia would ever be screened in Florida. There are so many scenes that feature Florida Governor Ron DeathSantis that I assumed any juror who is conservative would guarantee the film is never seen.

The Orlando Film Festival runs from October 28 to November 4, 2024. That means COVID Dystopia will be screened right before the November presidential election. The film also features many scenes of Trump’s failed COVID policies. This is, I am assuming, another reason many film festivals consider the short to be poison for the big screen.

A Rhode Island film festival organizer e-mailed to let me know that she contracted COVID-19 at the the in person screenings at the film festival. This meant that approvals for the festival had to be delayed while she recovered. I thought, that might mean that COVID Dystopia might have a better shot at approval, but the film was still side lined. People prefer to pretend that life has returned to normal even as they get repeatedly infected. Every film festival is a super spreader. One in 35 people are infected right now. We are just now starting to come down from a COVID wave that peaked in late August 2024. I think I am still a COVID virgin. Even though I take every precaution, I will likely become infected at one of these Film Festivals as I promote COVID Dystopia.

I am finishing up the design work on a 200 plus page book with over 600 COVID themed illustrations. If the copy editing is done by late October, I could publish the book in November of 2024. The COVID Dystopia book gives a more sweeping overview of everything that has happened in the ongoing pandemic. The short animated film would become a teaser to promote the book.

Iowa Independent Film Festival

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COVID Dystopia screened of the first day of the Iowa Independent Film Festival. That evening there was a party for filmmakers at The Boulevard (1311 Bayou Road Clear Lake Iowa).

After COVID Dystopia screened I was approached by a crew of 5 filmmakers who had a music video in the festival. Their music video Infinite Battleground was about two men struggling to balance work with their passion for music. The production is as dark and sinister as my own film, so we hit it off. Director Kristopher J. Gathercoal is in my sketch holding a beer. He wasn’t actually playing pool but I put him in as the second player to fill out the scene. The drummer hooked me up to the groups Through the Darkness youtube page. One of their music videos featured a sketch of a classroom and he wanted me to check it out.

Most of the filmmakers crowded into a back room consuming flat bread and drinks while chatting. The seating arrangement made it so that you would stay with on click the whole time. Since I had to plan to eat indoors, I decided instead to sketch the music video filmmakers as they played pool. The pool table I drew had a definite slant to is so that the balls always rolled to one corner. After two games at that table they switched to the table to my right. I had to get up a couple of times to allow for clean shots. One played became unbeatable once he had a few drinks. He explained that the buzz made him focus extra hard. It was a fascinating use of beer to promote zen.

The bar owner came up to me while I was sketching to talk. He was also a graphic designer and had designed the blue and gold mural on the wall. He was quite pleased that I was sketching it. He took a few pictures as I sketched.

At the awards ceremony, the filmmakers from Infinite Battleground sat next to me in the back row. Their film was nominated for best music video and my film COVID Dystopia was nominated for best animated film. I had no expectations, but they had been at this festival multiple times before and were looking forward to their first win. I was pleased that a good chunk of the intro to my film was played. That was the most eyeballs to view my film in Iowa. I think there were about 22 people in the theater when the film first screened, but this theater was packed for the awards ceremony, so there were hundreds of eyeballs. I paused my sketching when the winner for best animated film award was about to be announced. My fountain pen snapped in half and a big blob of ink splashed on to the sketch. I got distracted and tried to clean up the mess.

COVID Dystopia: Reno Plans

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I update the laurels and re-post the poster each time COVID Dystopia is accepted into a new film festival.

I booked plane tickets and the hotel in Reno. The full cost of the hotel will be reimbursed by the festival but the airfare is on me. The hotel room has a king size bed which is such a waste. I couldn’t find a smaller room in the Silver Legacy casino hotel which is where all the film makers will be staying.

Booking decent round trip flights is a challenge I haven’t yet mastered. Only after the tickets were booked did I discover that I have a 3 hour layover in Minneapolis. Well if I go out or sketch in the airport that will take carer of two hours. I have a similar 3 hour layover in Salt Lake City on the way back but that one goes until 1am. I might be less enthusiastic about sketching Salt Lake City that late at night but we will see. Hopefully I have learned from my mistakes. Actually the layovers are intentional. Had I paid several hundred more dollars for the tickets I could have flown much faster. In Iowa I am driving 6 hours to avoid a similar layover. I would rather watch the road flow by than sit inside an airport. No matter how challenging, this is all an adventure and I need to embrace that.

COVID Dystopia is an Official Selection at the Charlotte Film Festival

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COVID Dystopia is an official selection of the Charlotte Film Festival. The festival which runs September 24th to September 29, 2024.

I will likely drive up to the festival and spend some time exploring Charlotte, North Carolina with my sketchbook.

I am discovering that once I resign myself to repeat rejections, that is when I am surprised by an acceptance. Since my expectations are low, I can be infinitely delighted when the film finds an audience. I assume that few will accept a film that disrupts the new normal. The message that, “we might be done with COVID but COVID is not done with us”, is one that few want to hear. Yet there are some realizing that the pandemic is indeed far from over. I keep throwing it out there, in the hope that a few will pull their heads out of the sand.

The COVID Dystopia book is now 2/3 complete but it will not be done before the Charlotte Film Festival. September is going to be a crazy month of Film Festival hopping.

Maitland Art Center Demo

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This sketch was done as a demo for one of my students. It was a nice day, cool and sunny. We did several sketched on the property.

I am always stressing the importance of perspective when doing a sketch on location. The sign in the foreground and the building inn the background have the same vanishing point. The fact that the vanishing point is off the pace often throws a beginning sketcher.

There is also a vanishing point off the page to the right which defines that sidewalk triangle shape in the lower right corner and the angles in the roadway.

Now that I am on my own, I am feeling the need to get out and sketch on location more often. The trouble is that most days I teach until 8pm and most events start earlier.

I might just start doing nocturnal digital paintings after 8pm. I am thinking I can go to event venues and sketch from outside. A COVID cautious artist doing outsider views of crowded venues might be interesting. I used to document each hellish superspreader event, but those are happening every day now.

Yesterday I started designing the COVID Dystopia book. The format I am considering is a hardbound book 10 1/4 by 13 1/4 inches. Learning InDesign is proving problematic. I have the cover set up but there are many technical issues I need to address. I made a mistake downsizing cover art, and now it is pixelated. Well. if I can teach myself Premiere and After Effects, I should be able to tackle InDesign.

COVID Dystopia: Jesus Dropped a Cluster Bomb

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In this shot from COVID Dystopia of a stillborn Jesus, there is no animation, just a depth map and camera pan downward towards the child. It is interesting that a new born is the first to experience zip ties.

I am about to wrap up a series of theater posters for the Shakes and when that is done I will dig back into several scenes to add more animation.

Yesterday was the notification date for the Tampa Film Festival, but they bumped the notification date out to June 30. I always have 20 film festival submissions in the works. This keeps me from spending an insane amount on submission fees for rejections.

I do a small amount of research every day on which film festivals might screen COVID Dystopia. It is a difficult process since the film will easily annoy any COVID minimizer. Any film festival jury will likely have COVID minimizers judging what should be seen.

COVID Dystopia is fast paced, has curses in the lyrics and expects a lot of an audience to keep up with the carnage.

If there is one thing the ongoing pandemic has taught me is that people are slow to react and quick to deflect and deny what is happening.

One audience member at the Cleveland Film Festival asked if I could expand on COVID Dystopia and flesh out a longer story line. It is a fine idea but it means another year of animation at least. I also am aware that everyone but a few are over COVID. The virus is however not done with us. The next story I might animate will be slower paced and hopefully tug at heart strings. That for now is just in the daydreaming stages.

COVID Dystopia: Vote

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This scene from COVID Dystopia was created the week before the former president lost the presidential election. Ignorance in the face of a deadly pandemic was my only issue I considered in that election. Joe Biden promised change but one happened after he was elected. Now in the upcoming election I face a choice between the same tow numskulls, namely Dumb and Dumber. It is a hard choice.

At the time Omicron was ripping through society and it was the worst spike of deaths since the start of the pandemic. Everyone compares the COVID Death toll today to that huge spike during the election. Today there are about 600 reported deaths a week due to COVID. That is about the same weekly death toll as people who die in automobile accidents. So, granted I have to drive my car to get supplies and survive, but I wear a seat belt which increases my chance of surviving if I am side swiped by a lunatic. That is that same reason I wear a mask indoors and in crowds outdoors. If there is one thing the pandemic taught me is that everyone is a lunatic.

Lunatics prefer to blame lock downs and vaccines for their constant illnesses from  some “Mystery” virus. They come back from cruises sick and then go to crowded graduations to spread the virus to others. Hospitals have dropped making requirements for doctors to they are now cesspools of infection. Masking in N-95s to protect others is a step too far. I visited a new doctor a week ago and she was mask less. At least one of her receptionists wore a baggy blue. People are desperate to conform to the social norm and since most people do not mask the only way to fit in is to be constantly sick with a virus that destroys the immune system and causes vascular and brain damage. The numbers of young people dying from heart problems is staggering but COVID is never mentioned on the death certificates.

 

COVID Dystopia: The Rally

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In this shot from COVID Dystopia, the former president tosses a skull out to the crowd at a rally. He was hosting packed rallies at the height of the pandemic. Each rally was its own unique superspreader event.

People still love the guy even after he was impeached twice and now is convicted on 34 counts in a New York court.

It is impossible to separate politics and the ongoing pandemic. Joe Biden won the election in part because he promised to follow the science in handling COVID. One in office however he proclaimed freedom from the virus on July 4th and accomplished what the former president wanted to do which was make the virus seem to disappear by dismantling all testing. More Americans have died under Biden’s presidency from COVID that during the former presidents reign.

Inn this shot people will know to look at the skull since it is the fastest thing moving. Also the previous shot of Sturgis had a bike rider with a skull and that skull is in the same location on the screen as this skull. Which keeps the audience from having to look around to find the action.

COVID Dystopia: Space X Flames

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I added animated flames to this scene from COVID Dystopia and I am glad that I did. I see a couple of gaps so i will add a few more flames today. I will also add masks to calm down the motion at the base of each fire. I also slowed down the burst of exhaust flame that transected the scene from right to left. I may refine the timing of that a bit more today.

Was all the extra work worth it? I think it was, and that is what matters.

I might get to the other scene I have been wanting to animate, namely the Norway Superspreader scene. That should go fairly quickly once I separate out each demon. I will make them all seem like they are walking my moving them forward and bobbing them up and down. Since there are no legs visible things should progress quickly. The trick will be to keep them all from moving in sync. Each will be animated separately at different stages of the walk to start. What seems simple is still pretty complex when it comes to animation.

Today I will find out if COVID Dystopia is accepted or rejected by the Portland Film Festival. I liked Portland when I rode my bike trough when I bikes across the country. I know that people don’t want to see these images since they want to believe life has returned to “Normal.” It hasn’t. We might be done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us.