Ottawa Here We Are
Greetings from Ottawa! Home of the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and apparently the most attractive people in the world (no joke.) Eric Homan and I are here through Sunday watching films, meeting and greeting, and doing our best not to win any stupid American awards. It should be a blast!
The trip got off to an exciting start at LAX when I unwittingly sent my concealed laptop computer sailing through the X-Ray machine. “BAG CHECK!!!” screamed the X-Ray Machine Lady. Apparently silly American me didn’t take the computer out of the bag first like the sign said. The Bag Checker Man was peeved. My laptop received a thorough bomb inspection, while Eric (always the model citizen) waited for me at the gate.
Attempting to milk my recent “American-ness”, Eric offered me $5 in Toronto if I would pretend to surf the baggage claim belt. I declined, stating I’d only do it for $6, so the deal was off. Waiting in the Customs line in Toronto, I was asked if I had any firearms, booze, or cigarettes that I was attempting to smuggle into the fine city of Ottawa, to which I replied, “No.” Whew. Then, the Customs Checker Lady squinted her eyes and looked at me. “What are you doing here in Canada?” “I’m attending an animation festival in Ottawa.” “Really. Ottawa has a film festival? Fortunately, she was convinced, and I didn’t spend the night being questioned in a smoke filled room cuffed to a table with one light.
After a full day of travel, Eric Homan and I screeched into our hotel around 8:15 PM–just enough time to get ourselves lost searching for our Festival Pass in the fine city of Ottawa. After finding our passes, we high tailed it to Screening 1, which started at 9PM. Seeing that my only two meals of the day were something that vaguely resembled eggs on the plane to Toronto, and a pack of airplane crackers on the plane to Ottawa, I was ravenous. Fortunately, there was a supermarket, so we dined on pretzels, chips, and bananas. Dinner of champions!
I enjoyed the screening. Some of my favorites among this round were the Comedy Central IDs done by Luis Blanco and Michael Uman (who we met after the show. Turns out the designed the IDs for the Nextoons: The Nicktoons Film Festival.) Others I liked included The Back Brace by Andy and Carolyn London (who we chatted with at the after party), and Fish Heads Fuge and Other Tales for Twilight by Lauren Indovina and Lindsey Mayer-Beug.
No opening night is complete without an after party. Tapping into our shmoozing reserves, we headed to Suite 34 for the Cuppa Coffee party at 11:30PM. It was like a mini Nicktoons Film Festival reunion! We met Signe Baumane of “Five Infomercials For Dentists”, Tom Weiser of “Un-Doo”, and Patrick Smith of “Handshake”. After all this time reading his blog on Cartoon Brew, I finally met Amid Amidi. We also saw Jerry Beck, Rita Street, Heather Kenyon, and John Andrews.
Yesterday was a long day! Today should prove to be just as intense, yet no less exciting. I’ll keep you posted!
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On September 22nd, 2005 at 12:00 am
Wow, sounds like a blast….keep that Eric Homan out of trouble Melissa, you know how HE is! haaha..just kidding ofcourse..see ya when you get back, don’t miss me too much
On September 22nd, 2005 at 12:00 am
I’m trying to keep Eric focused on animation, but it’s tough with all of the super models running around trying to corrupt him. I’m bummed I missed your record! I wanna hear all about it.
On September 23rd, 2005 at 12:00 am
You guys have a great time and come back in one piece. I need you healthy and happy for my pitch on the 7th.
On September 23rd, 2005 at 12:00 am
Hi Fred. I was at the TAC in Ottawa at last year’s OIAF.
Your keynote address was one of the hilites for me at the conference.
Enjoy this years fest - I wish I could have made it this year!
Speaking of your speech…can I take you to lunch sometime?
Art
On September 25th, 2005 at 12:00 am
Hey Art,
Lunch? Anytime. Seriously. Thanks for the kind words.
On September 27th, 2005 at 12:00 am
Hey it was so awesome to meet you guys. If you couldn’t tell, I was extatic to meet you and Eric. If Oh Yeah! is still accepting entries around May 2006, expect a couple pitches/entries into both Nextoons and Oh Yeah! from me.
Once again, a pleasure to meet both of you, and I hope to work with you soon!
On September 28th, 2005 at 12:00 am
It was our pleasure, Tom. Grab a couple of cheesesteaks for me.