I almost didn't want to post these pictures since I think I look so awful, but it was such a cool experience that I have to share the pictures.
I was fortunate enough to go see How To Be at the Nashville Film Festival this past weekend.
I've wanted to see this film for a long time. Heard so many great things about it and read all about the film on the How to Be official website. When I heard that tickets were on sale to see it somewhat close to me I bought tickets as soon as they were available. The first day the tickets went on sale they sold out. I was beyond bummed but figured I would check the next day just in case. Well as luck would have it I was able to score the last two tickets to the movie. I even called to verify that I did indeed have tickets since I was in shock. When I called the ticketmaster she said that I just bought me tickets that someone was getting a refund on and that I had indeed bought the last two tickets for that showing. SCORE!! In fact the demand was so high to see the movie that a few days after I got my tickets they added a second screening.
Colleen and I drove down to Nashville to see it on Sunday. We had a wonderful drive down and even did a little unintentional exploring of Nashville trying to find the theater. When we finally arrived we weren't sure where we were suppose to enter the theater as they had a red carpet laid out and we didn't think we were suppose to be there. We stopped a woman and asked for the best way to get in since it was a multilevel theater. She told us to go to the fourth floor and go in that way. So we walked up 4 flights of stairs only to find a sign on the door there that said for us to go back to the place we had just come for.
We had time so we decided that we would go and grab some dinner before the movie. We walked over to the Cheesecake Factory and had a wonderful dinner (I had a CA cheese steak sandwich and asparagus. It was yummy!) and headed back to the theater. After finally getting to the right floor we walked in to find that the line for the movie was already wrapping around. We got in line and figured as long as we had seats it didn't matter if we had to sit right in front of the screen. We were fortunate enough not to have to do that and actually got really good seats in the middle of the theater towards the end of the row (so Colleen could get up and use the potty if she needed to...she is pregnant after all).
The movie was just as good as I had heard it was. It was very funny and did a fabulous job exploring all the characters. Though the film was only 85 minutes it felt a lot faster to me since the story moved so well. I wont give any of the plot away in case you all want to see it, but it was hilarious. The best part though was experiencing it with a group of people who were just as excited to see it. There is a special kinda thing that happens when everyone gasps, or laughs at the same time that makes the movie experience more fun.
After the film ended there was a brief Q & A with the Director/Writer Oliver Irving and the Two of the main actors Johnny White who plays Ronnie and Mike Pierce who plays Nikki in the film.(Rob couldn't be there due to filming New Moon but I don't think he was scheduled to be there anyways) and Joe Hastings who wrote and composed the soundtrack/score. There were some good questions about filming and stuff and a few questions asked by the Rob fans what it was like to work with him which the the guys were joking that it was awful to work with him because he's such a diva and all that. lol.
When the Q & A was over they told us that we needed to exit and wait in the lobby if we had more questions or wanted pictures with the guys since the next film was suppose to have started 2 minutes before. Oops. Anyways Colleen and I decided to hang out in the lobby and talk to the guys. We did have questions for them unlike the other girls who just wanted quick pictures and autographs. We had a really good time chatting with them and they seemed to be at ease with us since we were trying to find out more about what they did and how things work and all. You could tell that the whole celebrity aspect of it was weird to them and they were enjoying being treated like the normal guys that they are.
Joe Hastings and I had a really good conversation about music and about how he came up with the songs and stuff. He was a fascinating guy and I would have loved to picked his brain and find out more about things. Johnny was friendly but you could tell he was a little distracted. I think his girlfriend was there and he was trying to keep tabs on her so she wouldn't feel left out. Oliver was great too. He said his next project is a 'kinda sci-fi but not really sci-fi movie'. Hmm...I wonder what that means. I was really impressed with Oliver and thought he was handling the success of his movie very well considering this was his first film out of film school and that he had been on the film festival circuit since 2003. You could tell he was relieved that his movie was finally getting some recognition and getting an audience. Mike Pierce who played Nikki though was by far the funniest of the guys. We got him laughing and were having a good time chatting with us. He spilled some filming secrets that we heard Oliver telling him that he shouldn't share. lol and we got Mike to do his little jig that he does in the movie. He was hilarious!
The interesting thing about the guys though was that none of them consider themselves actors. Mike likes doing behind the scene stuff, Joe wants to do music and soundtracks/scores (he had a bit part in the movie too as Dave), and Johnny wants to do music full time. The reason that these guys were actors in this movie was because they were friends with Oliver in film school and wanted to help him out. The whole lot of them are super talented and I can't wait to see what they do in the future and hopefully we will see more of these talented British guys again soon.
