Post by victoriao on Nov 14, 2009 23:50:32 GMT
So, on Tuesday night after work I headed over to Liverpool to catch the hometown premiere of DWAM (to the bemusement of my colleagues: 'You're going all the way to Liverpool just to go to the cinema?' 
) The screening and Q&A was a fundraising event for www.clapperboarduk.com/]Clapperboard UK, a not-for-profit organisation based in the north west that gives young people the opportunity to script, storyboard, shoot and edit their own short films. Not being from the region I wasn't aware of them before, but it sounds as though they do really valuable work, and I was impressed by the quality of a short film made as part of a Clapperboard project that was screened before the main feature.
Although I was there primarily for the Q&A (and had a good seat - a few rows back so as not to feel conspicuous or look like a stalker, but bang in the middle) I did enjoy seeing DWAM a second time. Curiously the comedy bits got fewer laughs in Liverpool than in London, but the reception from the full house was very warm.
Afterwards the director, producer and two leads came up front and took questions from the audience. The good news is that the session was filmed and will be on Clapperboard's website here in a couple of weeks, so I won't give away the content, but it was very enjoyable. The session was very warm and relaxed - it was a hometown crowd welcoming back a local boy done good, there were clearly lots of friends and old colleagues of Mr M. there, and the bloke chairing the session was a waggish type who'd obviously known Mr M. for years and was familiar enough with him for a little gentle teasing. Mr. M was, well, himself - entertaining, good-humoured, smiling... you can imagine
Once again, as I tweeted to Lilly and Kitty, I failed to come up with a suitable question to ask him - though infuriatingly the exact question I should have asked struck me three days afterwards (three days! That's my quicksilver mind for you 
). At the end of the session the director of Clapperboard thanked everyone for coming and invited the audience to come out to a neighbouring bar for a postscreening drink. I was on my own and felt too self-conscious to go alone (you might imagine how much I wished I'd talked a friend into accompanying me), plus the screening had finished later than billed and I knew my train home was due. As it was I fatally delayed in the (vain) hope of a final glimpse of the great man, with the result I missed the last train back (by one minute!): who knew you can't travel between two of the UK's largest cities later than 9.35 at night? 
Anyhow, luckily I was saved from having to wander the streets in search of a hotel/kip on the station concourse by a friend's boyfriend letting me have his spare room for the night so all was well - and the evening was worth all that, as well as having to get up at six the next morning to make it back in time for work 
) The screening and Q&A was a fundraising event for www.clapperboarduk.com/]Clapperboard UK, a not-for-profit organisation based in the north west that gives young people the opportunity to script, storyboard, shoot and edit their own short films. Not being from the region I wasn't aware of them before, but it sounds as though they do really valuable work, and I was impressed by the quality of a short film made as part of a Clapperboard project that was screened before the main feature. Although I was there primarily for the Q&A (and had a good seat - a few rows back so as not to feel conspicuous or look like a stalker, but bang in the middle) I did enjoy seeing DWAM a second time. Curiously the comedy bits got fewer laughs in Liverpool than in London, but the reception from the full house was very warm.
Afterwards the director, producer and two leads came up front and took questions from the audience. The good news is that the session was filmed and will be on Clapperboard's website here in a couple of weeks, so I won't give away the content, but it was very enjoyable. The session was very warm and relaxed - it was a hometown crowd welcoming back a local boy done good, there were clearly lots of friends and old colleagues of Mr M. there, and the bloke chairing the session was a waggish type who'd obviously known Mr M. for years and was familiar enough with him for a little gentle teasing. Mr. M was, well, himself - entertaining, good-humoured, smiling... you can imagine
Once again, as I tweeted to Lilly and Kitty, I failed to come up with a suitable question to ask him - though infuriatingly the exact question I should have asked struck me three days afterwards (three days! That's my quicksilver mind for you ). At the end of the session the director of Clapperboard thanked everyone for coming and invited the audience to come out to a neighbouring bar for a postscreening drink. I was on my own and felt too self-conscious to go alone (you might imagine how much I wished I'd talked a friend into accompanying me), plus the screening had finished later than billed and I knew my train home was due. As it was I fatally delayed in the (vain) hope of a final glimpse of the great man, with the result I missed the last train back (by one minute!): who knew you can't travel between two of the UK's largest cities later than 9.35 at night? 
Anyhow, luckily I was saved from having to wander the streets in search of a hotel/kip on the station concourse by a friend's boyfriend letting me have his spare room for the night so all was well - and the evening was worth all that, as well as having to get up at six the next morning to make it back in time for work 
It's very strong visually throughout, and the film as a whole is also much more pacey than that sequence on the beach might suggest. 
