zaterdag 20 september 2014

In The Spotlight

Did you know? In some Romanian villages it's forbidden to blow trumpets.


Since I ALWAYS carry around a trumpet (you never know when they come in handy), you can understand my dissapointement.
The pic was taken on a recent roadtrip to Transylvania, but more on that soon.

Something else now, I ended up second place in the video contest in Rotterdam. In case you don't remember, I talked about it here. Me and nine other nominees were selected as the finalists and the ceremony was held inside museum Booijmans. I arrived ten minutes before the show officially was supposed to start and hardly anybody was there. Besides me there were only two other people present looking just as insecure as me, "This IS the right place, right?" A girl who worked there luckily told me that the ceremony was delayed a bit because the video maker course (to which I was invited to but declined because I wanted to check out Rotterdam instead) was running overtime. The other part of the audience was just checking out the museum in the meantime so I did too, it was free after all. After about half an hour the whole happening was ready to start and we were asked to take a seat in a sort of theater room. In the end, about three hundred people were present (a guess).
When the room was filled some woman began talking about the strong response to the competition and the variety in amateur and professional participants and some more bla bla bla. Then the lights dimmed and the ten nominated shorts were shown back to back. When that was over, the jury was presented and they started talking about what video had earned third place without telling who it was. When the name and video was revealed I was a bit suprised because I found it to be amoung the worst of the 10 nominees, but ok, he was the only other Belgian amoung the finalists so I kinda rooted for him too......

After a few minutes, the jury began discussing the second spot. They talked about a video that showed the creation process in a cristal clear way and where the joy of making the movie, for the film maker as well as the "actors", could be seen. While listening to their comments I started thinking "Could they be talking about.......me??"
Then the words followed: "And the second place goes to ... (my name) and Uit Een Droom!" I had to come on stage to shake the jury's hand, recieved a bouquet of flowers and a package with an Ipad. There was a bit embarrassment going down (for me) when the women presenting the show gave me a hand as well and I thought I was supposed to give her three kisses so I moved my head forward towards her face and she just looked at me like "Uhm, what are you doing?!". She then spoke through the microphone "Ooh, you want a kiss from me huh?" all I could say was "uuhh......yes?" and then finally the whole three kisses thing took place......facepalm....

They showed some clips of my movie while I was on stage and asked me some questions about why I chose the subject and such. I was a bit nervous so I tried to make a joke to ease myself and said that I also wanted to thank my father for falling asleep and to start snorring spontaneously in front of the camera. I'm so glad the audience laughed because a dead silence would have sunk me under the stage floor out of shame. When the winner was announced it was picture time and a few photographers started a flash attack, clickclickclickclickclickckclick......I'm not sure where they all are supposed to end up but one of them was kind enough to email his to me.

That's me on the right


When the show was over a reception took place, you know, free wine and snacks and such. Everyone was standing in the usual circles and I was kinda sad I couldn't share the moment since I was there alone. After a while I found some nice persons to talk to though so it was alright. And the vegan bitterballen were quite good. A couple of people came to congratulate me and then the thing was over. 

I have zero interest in gadgets like Ipads, so I gifted it to my mother, love ya mom! She now gets lessons from one of her friends how to use the thing properly.

And there you have it, my five minutes of fame!

On the creation side it has been a bit calm lately and don't really have much to show. Of course, I was on a vacation so that's part of it, but we'll see, when it come it comes.

And don't forget!!! The drawing contest regarding the 50th youtube subscriber (€50 prize) is still running!!! All you have to do is make a drawing about anything regarding Dropping Gems and send it to yannickv@hotmail.be to make a chance! I already recieved a massive amount of drawings so far from all over the world  (especially from Ravensburger employees somehow, thanks guys!) but it's not too late since the competition runs till the 30th of september!!

There's a good chance you haven't heard of Pastor TL Barret and there's no shame in that cause I don't think he's that well known. He was a Pastor and activist in Chicago and made top notch gospel records with choirs from the ghetto. The piece "Blessed Quietness" is pure instrumental though, but it's a pure jazz gem (no pun intended) if you ask me.

And now just shut up and enjoy.

                                               Pastor T.L. Barret - Blessed Quietness










Geen opmerkingen:

Een reactie posten